Webinars

Spurring Latino Students to Higher Achievement

Underwriting for the content of this webinar has been provided by The Carnegie Corporation of New York.

This webinar takes place on June 12, 2012 @ 2 p.m. ET
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Latino students are the fastest-growing population in America’s public schools; by 2020, fully a quarter of public school students are expected to be Latino. But currently, Latino students lag behind white students in some key measures of educational attainment, such as high school graduation, enrollment in two- or four-year colleges, and college completion rates. However, Miami-Dade is among school districts that have bucked that trend, achieving higher-than-average graduation rates among its Latino students and seeing large numbers of them scoring well on Advanced Placement tests. This webinar will examine what Miami-Dade has done to support its Latino students, including immigrant students and those whose families have been part of the community for generations.

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Improving Student Engagement Through Early Career Mapping

Underwriting for the content of this webinar has been provided by The Lumina Foundation.

This webinar took place on May 22, 2012 @ 2 p.m. ET
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When students discover their career interests, they often get more excited about school and can see the relevance of what they are learning. Middle and high schools are increasingly requiring that counselors and teachers work with students to map out their college and career paths. To engage today’s tech-savvy student, many districts offer individual learning plan programs online. Students are given online accounts with passwords to track classes; create an electronic portfolio of grades, test scores, and work; research careers; and organize their college search. Those exercises take an investment in technology, training, and personnel. Join Education Week for this webinar that examines the challenges and benefits of mapping student learning plans.

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Implementing the Common Core Math Standards

This webinar has been sponsored by Wireless Generation.

Underwriting for the content of this webinar has been provided by The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation.

This webinar took place on May 16, 2012 @ 2 p.m. ET
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Across the nation, big shifts are afoot as 45 states and thousands of school districts gear up to implement the Common Core State Standards in mathematics. The new standards introduce some concepts earlier for students, push aside other topics altogether to achieve greater depth, and ask students to engage in a set of eight “mathematics practices” to show their understanding, from making sense of problems to reasoning abstractly and constructing viable arguments. We’re joined by math experts in two school districts, one urban and one suburban, to share their strategies and early experiences in preparing schools for the new standards.

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Should Out-of-School Staff Be Trained Like Teachers?

Underwriting for the content of this webinar has been provided by The Wallace Foundation.

This webinar took place on May 14, 2012 @ 3 p.m. ET
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Since many out-of-school programs face limited funding and their staff members tend to be young, part-time workers who rarely commit to the job for long, providing high-quality, cost-effective professional development can be a challenge. While emerging research points to the positive effects after-school programs have on students' academic performance, debate is stirring over what core competencies these workers should possess. Some members of the after-school community believe staff need to be seen by others, and themselves, as professionals who require defined skills—with some competencies overlapping those of classroom teachers and others unique to after-school workers. Yet increasing numbers of professional-development efforts in the out-of-school realm resemble those used to improve the quality of classroom teachers. How can professional development for staff members be provided that increases their effectiveness while maintaining their distinctiveness from the traditional teacher? Join two experts on the out-of-school community as they discuss the latest ideas on providing professional development for staff members.

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Using Technology to Drive Innovation and Improve Student Learning

Content provided by Apex Learning.

This webinar took place on May 8, 2012 @ 3 p.m. ET
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Digital learning has the power to connect high school students with individualized learning experiences in unique and exceptionally engaging ways. Schools are exploring and tapping into that power at a time when the nation’s education system is facing three major challenges: teacher shortages, tight budgets, and boosting student achievement. In this webinar, you’ll gain insights into how digital technology can help improve student achievement as Gov. Bob Wise, the president of the Alliance for Excellent Education, discusses this topic with Cheryl Vedoe, the CEO of Apex Learning.

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From Paper to Practice: Implementing the Common Core State Standards in English/Language Arts

Underwriting for the content of this webinar has been provided by The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation.

This webinar took place on May 1, 2012 @ 2 p.m. ET
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The Common Core State Standards in English/language arts make new demands on both students and teachers. They ask that students become masters at “close reading” of text, build their argumentation skills, and be able to marshal evidence to defend their positions. Teachers learn how to lead students in that work, with new kinds of questions, new types of readings, and new ways of thinking about literacy. Teachers in two districts in Kentucky are on the leading edge of working with new instructional tools designed for the standards. Join us for a compelling discussion with two educators overseeing the implementation in these districts.

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What Can Be Done To Improve Teacher Satisfaction?

Underwriting for the content of this webinar has been provided by The MetLife Foundation.

This webinar took place on April 19, 2012 @ 2 p.m. ET
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With schools throughout the country facing leaner budgets, the threat of layoffs, and increasingly demanding accountability measures, teachers are experiencing new and varied workplace pressures. And according to the 28th annual MetLife Survey of the American Teacher, released in March, these pressures may be taking a toll. The percentage of teachers who are "very satisfied" with their jobs has dropped from 59 percent in 2009 to 44 percent, bringing teacher job satisfaction to its lowest point in more than two decades. And in another indication of declining morale, 29 percent of teachers say they are likely to leave the teaching profession within the next five years—up from 17 percent in 2009. In this webinar, Dana Markow, vice president of youth and education research for Harris Interactive, will outline the survey's findings, with particular focus on those related to teacher morale. Susan Moore Johnson, professor at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, will discuss the many factors that influence teacher satisfaction and offer suggestions for supporting and retaining effective teachers.

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Lessons from New York City’s Small High Schools

Underwriting for the content of this webinar has been provided by The Carnegie Corporation of New York.

This webinar took place on April 17, 2012 @ 2 p.m. ET
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Between 2002 and 2008, more than 200 small public schools opened in New York City, replacing 23 large, low-performing high schools. The schools vary in structure, focus, and admissions process, but 123 of the schools are nonselective and serve a largely disadvantaged population. While national attention has shifted away from creating small schools, recent research indicates that students who choose to attend these 123 nonselective small schools graduate at higher rates and achieve higher scores on state standardized tests than their peers at larger traditional public schools. Join Shael Polakow-Suransky, New York City Public Schools’ chief accountability officer, and Rebecca Unterman, a research associate at MDRC, for a discussion about New York City’s small schools, what the research says about their performance, and what makes them an effective option for NYC’s disadvantaged students.

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How Districts Can Use Data to Drive Proactive Decisions

Content provided by SAS.

This webinar took place on April 11, 2012 @ 3 p.m. ET
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Are you able to integrate data from across your district, track information over time, undercover trends, and equip decision makers with self-service reporting? Join the discussion with the Consortium of School Networking, Rock Hill School District, and SAS on how to accomplish all this in order to give districts the ability to analyze student data quickly, predict outcomes, and intervene to help students reach their potential. You will learn to evolve from a manual process to a data-driven decision proactive process by giving users secure self-service access to the information they need, in the format they need, at the time they need it in order to allocate the proper resources to affect student outcomes in a timely manner.

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Beyond Seat-Time Requirements

Underwriting for the content of this webinar has been provided by The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

This webinar took place on March 29, 2012 @ 2 p.m. ET
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In recent years, states have enacted policies allowing students to receive academic credit based on what they know, instead of how much time they spend in class. Long-standing “seat-time” requirements are giving way to competency-based credits, awarded based on students’ proficiency. The changes are, in large part, a response to emerging alternative learning models, including virtual schooling and blended learning, that give students the chance to learn outside the classroom and at their own pace. However, that’s sparked concern about the credibility and rigor of these alternative forms of education, and the private companies often offering them. In 2005, New Hampshire became the first state to eliminate seat-time requirements. Michigan allows waivers for seat-time requirements on a district-by-district basis. Our guests will discuss various approaches to seat-time requirements and the challenges of making such policy changes.

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Bringing the Community to Schools

Underwriting for the content of this webinar has been provided by The Carnegie Corporation of New York.

This webinar took place on March 27, 2012 @ 2 p.m. ET
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The “community school” model is turning school buildings into vibrant neighborhood hubs of activity. In addition to the academic program offered to students during the day, community schools provide a wide range of services to children in partnership with local organizations. The services include breakfast and dinner for low-income children; early-childhood programs; after-school recreation; academic enrichment; and adult education. One thriving program with a long track record in this field is the 13-year-old SUN Community Schools network in Portland, Ore., which stands for “Schools Uniting Communities.” The network now includes 64 schools in six districts serving high numbers of poor and minority students across Portland and Multnomah County, and it says it has improved student academic growth while providing other neighborhood needs. Join us for a discussion about the SUN Community School model and how it interacts with students and their families.

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The District Goes Digital: Leveraging Online Learning for Broader Student Achievement

Content provided by K¹².

This webinar took place on March 20, 2012 @ 2 p.m. ET
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In this special webinar, brought to you by K12 Inc., Kim McClelland, Assistant Superintendent of Falcon School District 49 in Colorado Springs, will discuss how her district leveraged lessons learned from the implementation of a full-time, online virtual school to address a much broader spectrum of student needs. Opening the district’s Falcon Virtual Academy in 2010 helped tackle the challenges of a crowded district and improve student performance. Based on the success of that experience, McClelland and her team took online learning to the next level. Now, as Innovation Leader for the district’s iConnect Innovation Zone, McClelland and her team have developed nine additional part-time and blended learning schools and programs, meeting more individualized learning needs of more students. Next up for the district is the addition of online credit recovery, RTI interventions, gifted-and-talented enhancement, and foreign-language programs.

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Differentiation: Moving Away from One Size Fits All

This webinar has been sponsored by Dymo/Mimio.

This webinar took place on March 15, 2012 @ 2 p.m. ET
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Giving students a personalized learning experience can be crucial to improving education, and the use of technology can make it easier and less time-consuming for teachers to accomplish this. Students learn best in different ways and technology can give them an opportunity to access information in the way that best suits them—through text, video, or hands-on learning, for example. Automated data collection can also help teachers gather information about how students learn and then they can adjust their teaching based on that data to address students’ strengths and weaknesses.

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Creating Effective Classroom Assessments

Content provided by Measured Progress.

This webinar took place on March 7, 2012 @ 2 p.m. ET
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K-12 education abounds with discussion of "data-driven decisionmaking." Successfully using data to inform instruction starts with creating effective assessments, especially as states and districts begin to transition to the Common Core State Standards. Discover that—whether teachers are practicing formative assessment, creating quizzes or end-of-unit tests, or selecting vendor-based items and tests—addressing three key areas can make a real difference in producing actionable results.

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Forging the Technology-Curriculum Link

This webinar was sponsored by Atomic Learning.

This webinar took place on March 1, 2012 @ 2 p.m. ET
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School leaders are accustomed to working hard to make curricula challenging and engaging and to make sure it meets state standards. And many educators are now becoming more skilled at using technology in their classrooms, whether it’s laptops, digital whiteboards, or smartphones. But experts say that to get the best results for students, it’s important to be deliberate and thoughtful in the way technology is incorporated into curricula. Just layering technology on top of an already existing curriculum is often not the best way to enhance the learning process and maximize the effectiveness of the technology tools available. School and district technology leaders and curriculum experts must work together to find the best way to integrate technology into teaching and learning in order to develop the most innovative and successful methods for delivering curricula to students.

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When Cyberbullying Spills Into School

This webinar was sponsored by Talk About It Anonymous Communication Service.

This webinar took place on Feb. 23, 2012 @ 2 p.m. ET
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Much of students’ social lives outside of school these days takes place online, through social networking sites. And even though this form of bullying may happen most often after school hours, the impact from online conflicts and negative comments in cyberspace can directly affect a student’s in-school life, including the ability to learn. While cyberbullying is receiving more attention and media coverage these days, school leaders and educators still have few clear-cut guidelines on how to handle it. Should they be monitoring sites like Facebook to police student behavior? Can principals and administrators take disciplinary action against students who misbehave online? When does a cyberbullying situation require school intervention? And how can school leaders create a school culture where bullying is unacceptable among students both in school and online? During this webinar, two nationally-recognized experts on bullying will help educators address these questions and develop strategies for combating bullying and its impact both in schools and online.

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Making Time for Learning: How School Administration Managers Enable Principals to Focus on Instruction

Underwriting for the content of this webinar has been provided by The Wallace Foundation.

This webinar took place on Feb. 21, 2012 @ 2 p.m. ET
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Today, being a principal involves far more than managing teachers and students. Principals are also expected to improve teaching and boost student achievement in their buildings. But to do this work, leaders must spend more focused time in the classroom, and less time on managerial tasks that aren’t directly linked to teaching and learning. That’s where school administration managers come in. Now in place in hundreds of schools nationwide, these managers take over day-to-day management tasks while allowing principals to focus on becoming better instructional leaders. The process is more complex than simply delegating tasks to another professional. With the help of their SAMs, principals track their time to ensure they’re focused on the school’s most important instructional needs. This webinar will feature advice and insights on how it all works from a principal/SAM team from Minneapolis. The two school administrators discuss their respective jobs, and how their partnership has improved performance in their school.

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E-Learning Goes Global

This webinar took place on Jan. 24, 2012 @ 2 p.m. ET
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From professional development for teachers in China to the use of open-source resources for students in foreign countries, e-learning is bringing new techniques, expert teachers, and an awareness of life in other countries to students around the globe. Online learning is helping a variety of countries overcome a lack of infrastructure, rural isolation, and a shortage of qualified teachers. This webinar will examine the state of online learning internationally and highlight various countries moving ahead in this arena. It will also take a close look at the use of mobile technologies for education in Africa, where mobile phones, iPads, and laptops are helping to bring new learning opportunities to students living in remote villages or in dangerous areas.

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The New Wave of STEM-Focused Schools

Underwriting for the content of this webinar has been provided by the GE Foundation.

This webinar took place on Jan. 17, 2012 @ 2 p.m. ET
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At a time of heightened national attention to improving education in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, the development of STEM-focused schools has rapidly gained momentum across the country as a strategy to boost knowledge and interest in the subjects. While STEM schools historically have tended to target the top math and science students in a state or district, the new wave appears to have a broader reach, with many of the schools aimed especially at serving populations underrepresented in the STEM fields, such as African-American, Hispanic, female, and low-income students. This webinar, featuring a national researcher and the principal of a STEM-focused high school in Texas, will explore the rationale for STEM schools, what they are, and what they look like in practice. It also will examine the promise they hold for improved learning, as well as some of the challenges of finding success.

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Making Principal Evaluations Count

Underwriting for the content of this webinar has been provided by The Wallace Foundation.

This webinar took place on Dec. 13, 2011 @ 2 p.m. ET
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Highly effective principals are an essential factor for good schools, but it has been challenging for districts to craft tools that accurately gauge a leader’s skill at promoting academic growth, safe schools, and teacher satisfaction. Several organizations are leading efforts to improve principal evaluations, including a venture led jointly by the National Association of Elementary School Principals and the National Association of Secondary School Principals. The groups are working on a plan to help schools and districts create evaluation instruments that focus on promoting the qualities they believe strong principals should have. This webinar will talk about on the research on the current state of principal evaluations and how experts believe they should be changed for the better.

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Deepening and Strengthening Teacher Education

Underwriting for the content of this webinar has been provided by The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation.

This webinar took place on Dec. 8, 2011 @ 12 p.m. ET
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University-based teacher education remains the engine of teacher preparation in the United States. Long criticized, it has come under increasing scrutiny in recent months—from outside reviewers, from the U.S. Department of Education, and even from accreditation bodies—all of whom are pushing for changes. This webinar will introduce participants to the approaches taken by two teacher education schools to make the student-teaching experience more relevant and to emphasize the specific teaching skills the teachers they produce are expected to acquire and demonstrate.

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Hybrid Learning Pushes Personalization Forward

This webinar took place on Dec. 7, 2011 @ 2 p.m. ET
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Schools are moving beyond a one-size-fits-all approach to education toward greater efforts to differentiate learning for each student. To truly personalize the learning process in more meaningful ways, many educators are turning to technology. They’re blending face-to-face instruction with electronic resources, which can be everything from online courses complete with online teachers to digital curricula that enhances or reinforces classroom learning. However, experts caution that this approach must be planned very carefully in ways that maximize the benefits of digital content and online courses. Our experts will discuss how to use technology, especially blended learning, to personalize education and raise student achievement.

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Common Assessments: What You Need to Know

Underwriting for the content of this webinar has been provided by The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation.

This webinar took place on Nov. 29, 2011 @ 2 p.m. ET
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Using $360 million in Race to the Top money, two large groups of states are designing assessment systems for the common standards that have been adopted by 44 states and the District of Columbia. The new tests aim to move past the current one-shot, multiple-choice-only approach by requiring essays, projects, and other tasks designed to gauge deeper, more complex learning. The groups are also working on a variety of resources for teachers, such as model instructional units and formative assessments. This webinar will provide a briefing on the two groups’ distinctively different test designs and the range of instructional tools they’re planning.

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Blended Learning Strategies for K-12 Leaders

Content provided by Blackboard.

This webinar took place on Nov. 17, 2011 @ 2 p.m. ET
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According to a recent study by Ambient Insight, the growth of blended learning will be immense in the next four years. Schools and districts across the country are incorporating blended learning across a continuum of models: from having fully online components of courses such as labs or help sessions to posting online resources that support the instruction that occurs entirely in a face-to-face setting. Hear from three district leaders who have successfully implemented blended-learning programs about how they set up an online-learning program that worked for their administration and teachers and helped their students achieve results.

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Powerful Partnerships: Creating Community Coalitions for District Reform

Underwriting for the content of this webinar has been provided by The Carnegie Corporation of New York.

This webinar took place on Nov. 15, 2011 @ 2 p.m. ET
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In 2007, Say Yes to Education and Syracuse University gathered a group of public and private partners to create a demonstration program in Syracuse, N.Y., aimed at college attendance among students from the Syracuse City School District. The initiative has two core components: a comprehensive support program designed to address the key barriers to college, and the promise of free tuition for graduates from the 19,000-student district. Early steps have included a series of comprehensive reviews of district management and teaching practices. According to Say Yes, the goal is to link public, private, and nonprofit organizations to “rejuvenate an older industrial city by building a sustainable model for developing its most precious asset—its people.”

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Key Methods to Improve Reading Testing Success

Content provided by Headsprout.

This webinar took place on Nov. 3, 2011 @ 2 p.m. ET
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Too often, students "know" the material, yet seem unable to apply that knowledge when taking tests. This webinar will focus on key strategies that districts and educators can use to help students better apply the knowledge and skills they have in a testing environment. Some of the issues approached include strategies for reading test preparation, as well as strategies derived from the learning sciences.

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Administrators 'Speak Up' About Leveraging Technology to Drive Student Outcomes

Content provided by K¹².

This webinar took place on Nov. 1, 2011 @ 2 p.m. ET
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In this special webinar sponsored by K¹², Inc., Julie Evans, CEO of Project Tomorrow, will share an exciting new set of Speak Up data that directly answers this critical question: How are today's administrators leveraging technology to close the achievement gap? The webinar will include key national research data on how online learning directly addresses several of the critical challenges that are waking up our nation's administrators in the middle of the night. Additionally, Ms. Evans will facilitate an interactive panel discussion with three of the nation's most innovative administrators, who will share their first-hand experiences tapping into technology solutions to drive enhanced student outcomes.

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Tapping the Power of Online PD

This webinar took place on Oct. 27, 2011 @ 2 p.m. ET
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Social networking and other online tools now provide a full menu of professional development opportunities that range from discussions on Twitter to personal learning networks on Ning and sharing of useful classroom resources on Google+. The online offerings are also spawning new types of professional development opportunities, dubbed Edcamps, which provide face-to-face interaction. Supporters say social networking provides vast resources of knowledge, is instantaneous, and targeted. But some educators caution that navigating through those networks can be confusing and time-consuming. Our guests will discuss what works best in this fast-evolving area of online PD.

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Unlocking the Secrets of College Retention

Underwriting for the content of this webinar has been provided by The Lumina Foundation.

This webinar took place on Oct. 18, 2011 @ 2 p.m. ET
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Record numbers of students flooded to college campuses this fall with high hopes of obtaining what many say is the new prerequisite for middle-class life: a college degree. But the harsh reality is that little more than half of those bright-eyed college freshmen, on average, will actually finish. This gap between access and completion has put a new focus on ramping up retention, the percentage of freshmen who return to the same institution for a second year of college. When students fail to graduate, they are out tuition money, time spent pursuing a degree, and often are in student-loan debt that can set them back years. And college dropouts cost society in potential tax contributions and unrealized creativity. Learn what nonprofits and colleges are doing to help students get the financial assistance, academic support, and counseling needed to make the transition to college and, ultimately, to getting a degree.

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The Economic Stimulus and American K-12 Education

Underwriting for the content of this webinar has been provided by The Charles Stewart Mott Foundation and The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation.

This webinar took place on September 27, 2011 @ 2:00 p.m. ET
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The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, which pumped an unprecedented $100 billion into K-12 education, had two goals. It was intended to help schools weather the economic downturn and avert layoffs around the country. But policymakers also envisioned that the one-time infusion would help spur lasting reforms at the state and local level. Now, more than two years after passage of the economic stimulus, it’s time to take stock. Did the ARRA work as policymakers hoped? Where did it hit the mark, and where did it fall short? A representative from the U.S. Department of Education and a local schools superintendent will examine the impact of the stimulus on the nation’s economy and school reform.

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Reaching Students With Special Needs Through E-Learning

This webinar took place on September 20, 2011 @ 2:00 p.m. ET
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Students with special learning needs often benefit from different and more personalized ways of mastering classroom material. More virtual education opportunities are now available to help meet the academic needs of children with cognitive or physical disabilities, those learning English, gifted and talented students, and those at risk of academic failure. Educators are trying to balance the potential of virtual learning with the need for face-to-face instruction for these groups of students. They are finding that assistive technologies, social-networking tools, and multimedia curricula are helping to build e-learning programs for students from special populations that can help improve academic achievement.

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The Power of Mobile Broadband to Enhance Teaching and Learning

Content provided by AT&T.

This webinar took place on September 15, 2011 @ 2:00 p.m. ET
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Teaching and learning are no longer confined to the classroom but can take place virtually anywhere. Mobile broadband offers students and teachers a new level of access to information, such as Advanced Placement classes, unique coursework, or professional development classes previously unavailable. Hear from experts and practitioners on how mobile broadband is transforming education and driving learning outcomes, especially for rural and low-income communities.

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Bringing Common Standards Into the Classroom

Underwriting for the content of this webinar has been provided by The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation.

This webinar took place on August 30, 2011 @ 2:00 p.m. ET
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Nearly every state in the country has adopted a new set of common academic standards in mathematics and English/language arts. The new guidelines lay out fundamental changes in the skills students are expected to have. But there is a long road from understanding the standards to putting them into practice in the classroom. This webinar will let participants in on the approaches that two districts—Hillsborough County, Fla. and Cleveland—are taking as they work to educate teachers about the standards and turn them into new types of teaching and learning.

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Closing the Academic Achievement Gap for African-American Boys

Underwriting for the content of this webinar has been provided by The Joyce Foundation.

This webinar took place on August 23, 2011 @ 2:00 p.m. ET
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Join two leading experts, Oscar A. Barbarin III of Tulane University and Aisha Ray of the Erikson Institute, for an in-depth look at preparing teachers to foster social and emotional development in children, with a focus on supporting African-American boys to do well in the early years of school.

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Clearing the Hurdles: Helping Low-Income Students Get Into College

Underwriting for the content of this webinar has been provided by The Lumina Foundation.

This webinar took place on August 17, 2011 @ 2:00 p.m. ET
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To help more low-income students get into college, new mentoring programs are being offered and changes are being proposed to financial-aid policies. Hear about the latest innovations to improve access to higher education for the country’s increasingly diverse population of students.

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Narrowing the Achievement Gap by Expanding Time in School: What Educators Need to Consider

Underwriting for the content of this webinar has been provided by The Wallace Foundation.

This webinar took place on August 10, 2011 @ 1:30 p.m. ET
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While there has been an increasing push at the state and federal levels in getting schools to adopt expanded learning time models, inconsistencies abound in the practices used. What are the ingredients of effective models to lengthen the school day or year?

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Integrating the Arts Across the Curriculum

Underwriting for the content of this webinar has been provided by The Wallace Foundation.

This webinar took place on July 19, 2011 @ 2 p.m. ET
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Many arts advocates suggest integrating dance, music, theater, and visual arts across the curriculum holds great promise to enhance student learning—and revitalize the arts in public schools. This webinar will explore the potential of bringing together the arts with other subjects in a mutual learning experience, point to promising examples across the country, as well as the challenges to ensure that such efforts achieve their academic goals.

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The Economic Stimulus: Investing in Innovation

Underwriting for the content of this webinar has been provided by The Charles Stewart Mott Foundation and The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation.

This webinar took place on June 28, 2011 @ 2 p.m. ET
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In August of 2010, the U.S. Department of Education distributed i3 grants to 49 organizations around the county that had submitted proposals for a variety of innovative plans to improve schools. In total nearly 1,700 proposals were submitted for the $650 million that the Department of Education awarded to the winning organizations. Winners were split into three categories based on the size of the award and how much evidence the proposal had of past success. Join guests from each of the three categories as they discuss what their organizations have accomplished, how effective their plans have been, and the challenges that are ahead.

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Boosting Literacy with Effective Reading Comprehension

Content provided by Headsprout.

This webinar took place on June 15, 2011 @ 3 p.m. ET
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Teaching students how to comprehend text remains a challenge in our nation’s school system. Many of the efforts directed toward teaching reading comprehension focus on providing practice at answering questions, while neglecting to teach learners how to reliably answer those questions. In this presentation, we will describe a program that systematically teaches the fundamental strategies for reading success: inferential comprehension, literal comprehension, main idea comprehension, and derived meaning comprehension. These fundamental strategies comprise the core of reading comprehension as it is assessed in standardized tests. More importantly, they provide learners with flexible tools that can be used to comprehend any text regardless of subject matter or reading level.

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Models of Blended Learning: What Works for Your District

Content provided by Blackboard.

This webinar took place on June 9, 2011 @ 2 p.m. ET
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Blended learning, the teaching practice that combines both face-to-face and online learning, offers several models of instruction to engage students in and out of the classroom. Join us for an in-depth discussion on blended learning led by three experienced practitioners from Volusia County Schools and Kamehameha Schools.

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The Economic Stimulus: School Improvement Grants

Underwriting for the content of this webinar has been provided by The Charles Stewart Mott Foundation and The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation.

This webinar took place on June 7, 2011 @ 2 p.m. ET
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The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act supercharged the tiny School Improvement Grant program, which is meant to help struggling schools. The program received an unprecedented boost in resources—$3 billion to be spent over three years—but added a menu of new, highly prescriptive turnaround models, some of which require dramatic actions, such as closing a school. This webinar will explore lessons learned for states, districts, and schools one year into the program’s implementation.

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The Economic Stimulus: Race to the Top

Underwriting for the content of this webinar has been provided by The Charles Stewart Mott Foundation and The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation.

This webinar took place on May 26, 2011 @ 2 p.m. ET
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Nearly a year ago, the U.S. Department of Education started awarding $4 billion in Race to the Top grants to help states and the District of Columbia implement bold education-reform plans. Financed by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, the competition became the high-profile centerpiece of the Obama administration's education agenda.

Now, the 12 winners are starting to spend their prize money, focusing on four areas: teacher effectiveness, data systems, low-performing schools, and standards and assessments. Join guests from two winning states as they discuss the program's accomplishments so far, and the challenges that are ahead.

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Recalibrating Professional Development for Teacher Success

Underwriting for the content of this webinar has been provided by The Joyce Foundation.

This webinar has been sponsored by Atomic Learning.

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With school systems under pressure to boost achievement and improve human capital management, today's education leaders recognize that effective teacher staff development is more important than ever. Yet teacher learning programs in many schools and districts remain disjointed and unfocused. In this webinar, we will explore how schools can create greater coherence in professional development programs—and in turn make teachers more successful—by aligning learning activities with clear objectives for teacher growth and by leveraging available research on instructional effectiveness. The presentation will also highlight ways in which interactive technology can be used to deliver and manage professional development.

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Addressing Diverse Student Learning Needs

On account of both demographic changes and evolving school instructional policies, many teachers today face an increasingly wide range of student learning differences―be they academic, behavioral, physical, or cultural―in their classrooms. Even experienced teachers often do not feel fully prepared to meet the challenge of addressing such varied needs. The 2010 MetLife Survey of the American Teacher, released this month, finds that 60 percent of K-12 educators say strengthening resources and programs to help students with diverse learning needs become college- and career-ready should be a top priority in education. The survey finds that math teachers, in particular, struggle with differentiating instruction to reach all learners. In this webinar, our guests will discuss the MetLife survey findings on student learning differences and explore how schools and individual teachers can better accommodate diverse learning needs.

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