Top Education Commentaries of 2016: Education Week's Most-Viewed

To give a sense of which opinion essays our readers found most compelling in 2016, the editors at Education Week have compiled a list of our 10 most-viewed Commentaries. Below, they are ordered by the number of online visits they generated. Revisit these Commentaries and examine perspectives you may have missed in 2016.

1. Charlotte Danielson on Rethinking Teacher Evaluation

Charlotte Danielson, educator and author, offers a number of remedies she believes can strengthen the teaching practice and its flawed evaluation structure. (April 20, 2016) | Filed Under: Teacher Quality, Professional Development

2. Teachers at Low-Income Schools Deserve Respect

To stem disruptive staff turnover in low-income schools, we must first shift public perception, writes educator Bruce Hansen. (February 10, 2016) | Filed Under: Teacher Quality, Teaching Profession, Achievement Gap

3. Why Students Can't Google Their Way to the Truth

Students would be wise to learn the strategies fact-checkers use to evaluate online information, write Sam Wineburg and Sarah McGrew. (November 2, 2016) | Filed Under: Elections

4. Why I'm Tired of 'Grit'

The K-12 infatuation with "grit" offers an impractical and unfair model for education, writes educator James R. Delisle.(February 10, 2016) | Filed Under: Curriculum and Instruction

5. Why Punishment Won't Stop a Bully

When addressing bullying in schools, punitive discipline can itself be a type of bullying, argues author Alfie Kohn. (September 7, 2016) | Filed Under: Bullying, Discipline

6. Four Steps to Implement RTI Correctly

Eight researchers weigh in on how RTI can be implemented successfully. (January 6, 2016) | Filed Under: Response to Intervention, Special Education, Assessment and Testing, Research

7. Good Teachers Don't Have to Like Teaching

Teaching doesn't have to be fun to be gratifying, writes high school English teacher Patrick O'Connor. (March 30, 2016) | Filed Under: Teaching Profession, Health

8. What Defines a Good School?

To create school environments that reflect our humanity, the words we use matter, writes Superintendent David Gamberg. (March 30, 2016) | Filed Under: Leadership and Management

9. Nonacademic Skills Are the Necessary Foundation for Learning

Before K-12 leaders measure social-emotional learning in the classroom, educators must prepare to help students develop those skills, writes K. Brooke Stafford-Brizard. (July 22, 2016) | Filed Under: Early Childhood, Growth Mindset

10. Why 10th Grade Should Be the New Senior Year

Allowing students to graduate after their sophomore year and providing two years of alternative options could curb dropout rates, proposes Blair E. Lybbert. (May 18, 2016) | Filed Under: Standards, High Schools