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New year, new opportunities!
Last year, McREL celebrated 50 years of serving educators around the world. We're grateful for every opportunity we've had to work with educators around the world, and we're looking forward to the next 50 years of helping teachers, leaders, and students flourish. All the best to you in 2017!
Free 30-minute consultation
Need help planning a new project or ideas for recharging an important initiative? Wondering how to make sense of data or how to better connect action plans to goals? Contact us today for a 30-minute strategic session with one of our expert consultants. No fee, no obligations, just good ideas and inspiration for "quick wins" and "game changers" in your school, district, agency, or system.
Let us know how we can help!
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Executive Function: Implications for education
U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences (IES)
A new paper published by the National Center for Education Research (NCER) and the National Center for Special Education Research (NCSER) gives an overview of research on how executive function skills relate to learning. The authors conclude that executive functioning is integral to the academic and social development of students, but that better measurement tools are needed to fully understand the effects of school interventions intended to improve executive function skills.
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Teacher Stress and Health: Effects on teachers, students, and schools
The Pennsylvania State University and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
This research brief identifies four major causes of teacher stress: school organization (leadership, climate, and culture); job demands; work resources, including support and autonomy in decision-making; and teachers' personal resources and social-emotional competence. These stressors, according to the report, rival levels experienced by doctors and nurses, and can lead to poor performance by teachers and their students, as well as higher rates of teacher turnover.
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School leadership Interventions Under the Every Student Succeeds Act: Evidence review
Rand Corporation
This report from Rand Corporation delves into the evidence base on effective school leadership ---- outlining seven specific findings that demonstrate its effect on student achievement ---- and presents opportunities provided by the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) to develop strong, evidence-based, strategic school leadership interventions. Note: In the report, Rand includes McREL's Balanced Leadership® professional development as an activity that may meet ESSA Tier I evidence standards.
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Success Story | Reducing variability leads to achievement gains in large Nebraska district
Lincoln Public Schools, a large and rapidly growing district in Nebraska, was looking to increase the quality and consistency of effective instruction across its schools. Using the research-based instructional strategies of McREL's Classroom Instruction That Works provided the consistency the district needed and led to better teaching practices and improved student achievement.
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Quality questioning is a process that begins with preparing questions to engage all students in thinking and ends in the facilitation of dialogue that deepens learning. This new edition organizes questioning practices around the "6 Ps" framework ---- Prepare and Present the Question, Prompt Student Thinking, Process Student Responses, Polish Questioning Practices, and Partner with Students ---- and contains significant new research-based practices and insights.
Learn more
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 Research Matters | What skills do students really need for a global economy?
In the December issue of ASCD's Educational Leadership, McREL CEO Bryan Goodwin weighs in with the research on how much students can affect their own destinies. "We might wonder how we can help students living with constant reminders of adverse external forces flip the script, so to speak, and see themselves as subjects who can act-not simply be acted upon," he writes. Read his column.
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Blog Post | Higher-order questioning inspires higher-level thinking
Cheryl Abla and Lisa Maxfield offer ideas to inspire higher-level questioning in the classroom, which, they say "can greatly extend classroom conversations and learning." Read their blog post.
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Blog Post | Teachable Life Lessons: Hula hoops® and fishy handshakes
Cheryl Abla shares some powerful, quick classroom exercises that can help students become responsible, respectful, caring adults. Read her blog post.
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 We are hosting a weekly series of slow chats on Twitter and we'd love your participation. Follow us on Twitter and use the hashtag #McRELchat to share your thoughts and ideas on each week's theme with other educators:
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Jan 16-22 | Accepting and celebrating differences
Our discussion will center around school climate and culture, and ways to build trust in the classroom. How do you promote risk-taking and questioning in your school?
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Jan 23-29 | Parent communication and engagement
We'll discuss ways to help parents and guardians support their students at home. How do you engage with parents and guardians and help them support their students?
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Jan 30-Feb 5 | Learning from mistakes
We want to know what you think about effort, perseverance, grit, and mindsets. What mistakes have you learned from and changed? How do you teach and promote effort and grit?
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McREL Summer PD Institutes
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Registration is now open for our summer professional learning workshops and institutes. Join us in Denver for high-impact sessions that will expand your knowledge and ability to make significant changes in teaching, leading, and learning. You'll leave each session with research-based, best-practice strategies strategies you can use immediately to help you ---- and your students ---- flourish.
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Classroom Instruction That Works PD Workshop
Denver, Colo., June 19-21, 2017
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Classroom Instruction That Works Authorized Facilitator Training
Denver, Colo., June 19-23, 2017
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Balanced Leadership® for School-Level Leaders
Denver, Colo., July 11-14, 2017
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District Leadership That Works
Denver, Colo., July 17-18, 2017
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Classroom Instruction That Works with English Language Learners
Denver, Colo., July 19-20, 2017
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AASA National Conference on Education
New Orleans, Louis., March 2-4
Stop by the AASA exhibit hall at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center and visit with McREL at booth #537. Our chief program officer, Dr. Robin Jarvis, will be on hand to share information about school and system improvement services, leadership development, teacher training and coaching, and research and program evaluation services. To set up a specific time to visit with Dr. Jarvis or other McREL staff during the conference, contact Madonna Shafer at [email protected] or 303.459.5043.
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Life sciences have critical importance to Guam
One of GreenSTEM's greatest strengths is its relevancy to local issues and students' lives. Students in Guam are learning that life sciences have critical importance to their local challenges. Read about our work in this story from KUAM News.
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McREL: Helping educators flourish
"With more consistency across classrooms,
the quality of instruction and achievement have gone up."
Sarah Salem, Director, Continuous Improvement and Professional Learning,
Lincoln Public Schools, Nebraska
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