Commit to Lead Ideas

My large urban school district has several levels of tracking. Students are divided into neighborhood, select enrollment, charter, and magnet schools. Within schools, students are further divided into regular, honors, AP, and IB classes. Tracking creates classrooms of engaged high-achieving students. However, it also creates classes of low achieving students. This system widens the achievement gap. All classrooms need ...more »

As a Title One, English Language Learner (ELL) magnet school, we have always been challenged to raise the expectations for our students in an effort to decrease the achievement gap. Our staff accepted the challenge enthusiastically as we implemented a newly aligned English Language Arts curriculum to the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) that had been written solely by a team of in-district teachers. The new curriculum ...more »

Our urban middle school implements a co-teach model for our students in grades 6, 7, & 8. Our 6th grade team utilizes a modified version of both RTI and "More and Better Learning Time" to reach struggling learners in math, reading in the content areas, and written expression. We would like to share how we incorporate a variety of teaching techniques, scaffolded lessons, activities, and projects. In addition we will share ...more »