I am an international educator currently based in Taiwan, but I’ve had many roles in the education space throughout the years—from an examiner to the chair of a local teacher network. It was during my time as a program coordinator that I learned an important lesson that has stuck with me ever since: school values don’t collapse in one dramatic moment, but rather erode one decision at a time.

In that role I watched subtle, well-intentioned choices slowly normalize inconsistency, and saw the impact this had on the students who were watching. They quickly learned whether or not adults would hold the line when it was inconvenient, and whether voice and values were treated as liabilities or lifelines.

The post When Plagiarism Meets Policy: How an Academic Dishonesty Case Taught Me an Important Lesson appeared first on TEACH Magazine.

The effect of heat waves on schools has become an urgent issue, with news stories on schools closing due to extreme heat becoming more common all over the United States. Schools now have “high temp” days similar to “snow days,” because their ability to deal with hot weather is limited. 

A 2020 report found that about half of U.S. schools’ HVAC systems needed updates or significant repairs to appropriately deal with rising temperatures and keep school buildings at a comfortable level. These disruptions have impacts on both teaching and learning, and for math in particular, the impact is noteworthy.

In our recent research brief, my colleagues and I at NWEA investigated whether these increasingly common hot school days negatively impacted test scores. Specifically, we analyzed the effect of the maximum outdoor temperature on math and reading using MAP Growth test scores in grades 3–8, while controlling for background characteristics that may also influence outcomes, such as student’s prior achievement, their race and gender, the state they attended school, and the time of day the test was taken.

We found that higher test-day temperatures, specifically above 80°F, detrimentally impacted math scores, while reading scores didn’t meaningfully change. Although the reasons are unclear, other research has found similar differences in results between math and reading scores.

Our study also analyzed whether there are differences in how lower poverty vs. higher poverty schools experienced the effects of high test-day temperatures on math scores. We found that higher poverty schools experienced up to double the impact of test-day heat than low-poverty schools.

Recommendations for School Leaders

Given the findings, testing on hotter days can have meaningful impacts on student scores. With these results in mind, we recommend the following:

• The ability to mitigate outdoor heat inside schools can be unpredictable. If scheduled testing overlaps with a heat wave, prioritize creating more comfortable testing conditions whenever possible. This can include moving testing locations from warmer to cooler areas within a school.
• Testing students in the morning, before afternoon heat is highest, can also help mitigate these effects.
• Investing in resilient facilities for the long term is critical, ensuring infrastructure planning looks at resource allocations, structural improvements, and upgrades that take educational equity into account.

Our findings show that as temperatures continue to rise, disparities in school facilities—such as having appropriate HVAC systems—can deepen existing inequities and make school infrastructure and building conditions significant issues. While funding sources for building improvements and upgrades are often limited and vary by region, prioritizing temperature controls inside schools is a clear must so students can focus on learning and educators on teaching.

The post As Temperatures Rise, Math Scores Drop appeared first on TEACH Magazine.

Last semester, I watched one of my students flip over her test, glance at the grade, and drop it straight into the trash. No hesitation. No pause to read the comments or reflect on her mistakes. She had already decided: the grade was the only thing that mattered.

This wasn’t a one-off. I saw it happen again and again—students treating assessments like verdicts instead of opportunities to grow. It got me thinking: What if the problem isn’t just how students respond to feedback, but how we deliver it?

The post Beyond Grades: Empowering Student Learning Through Self-Assessment appeared first on TEACH Magazine.

In 2024, Pew Research Center released a report titled “What’s It Like to Be a Teacher in America Today?” While reading through the data contained within the report, three main points stuck out to me:

1. Around half of teachers are recording that students are not meeting their academic goals;
2. Teachers are identifying that parent involvement is not as impactful as in previous years;
3. Students are not finding value in their educational experiences.

I believe all three of these data points have a common connection: a lack of hope.

The post Paths to Success: Practicing Hope Theory in the Classroom appeared first on TEACH Magazine.

In the words of psychologist Carol Dweck, who has conducted extensive research on growth mindsets, “Becoming is better than being.” Building off this idea, as sixth grade math and English teachers we’ve learned to approach our mid-year benchmark assessments not as final judgments, but as tools for reflection and growth.

Many of our students entered the school year below grade level, and while achieving grade-level mastery is challenging, a growth mindset allows us to see their potential, celebrate progress, and plan for further successes. This perspective transforms data analysis into an empowering process; data becomes a tool for improvement amongst our students rather than a measure of failure.

The post Reframing Student Data for Growth appeared first on TEACH Magazine.

By Adam Stone

At KIPP BOLD Academy, a school for Grades 5–8 in Newark, NJ, educator Winston Roberts teaches financial literacy. Lately he’s been using a new tool to get the job done—Artificial Intelligence (AI).

“I wanted [students] to research a bunch of different businesses that have made questionable business-ethics decisions,” he says. “I had ChatGPT generate a list of some of the most infamous business scandals that were instigated by profit motives, and also had it suggest Google search terms so kids could look up more information.”

In about 15 minutes he had generated a list of examples that would have taken him many hours to compile by hand. That was enough to get the kids off and running on their research.

The post Revolutionizing Education: How AI Can Empower Teachers in the Classroom appeared first on TEACH Magazine.

By Dr. Sunaina Sharma

What makes a good question? We ask students questions all day long, but how do we know they are actually helping students learn and, more importantly, getting them to think? Being able to think for themselves, and especially to think critically, is one of the most important skills students will ever use—both in the classroom and beyond.

Critical thinking is the process of objectively analyzing information to form a judgment. It requires students to read, consider, observe, interpret, evaluate, reason, and conclude, but then it also requires them to articulate their position and justify it, meaning students must be able to effectively communicate their thoughts and ideas. Critical thinking is a skill that is expected of today’s 21st century learners and is a pillar of many province and state curriculum documents.

The post The Power of a Good Question: Prompting Critical Thinking in Students appeared first on TEACH Magazine.

By Adam Stone

We won’t be going back to “normal,” post-pandemic. A year of profound disruption promises to reshape K–12 education, bringing new advances to the fore while also prompting teachers and administrators to rethink the fundamentals of how education works.

Here, a range of experts weigh in some of the key changes likely to emerge with the return to in-person schooling in the fall.

The post Bouncing Back: Predictions for a Post-Pandemic Return to School appeared first on TEACH Magazine.

There’s no time like the present to reconsider the future of education. But when thinking about what schools of the future will look like, it’s hard to imagine them without grades, exams, or even subjects. Yet that’s just what the School of Humanity has done.

This recently-launched online high school has reshaped the idea of what it means to learn, as well as how, why, and where learning happens. The school’s mission is to “reinvent high schools in order to better serve humanity.”

The post Reinventing Education, Serving Humanity appeared first on TEACH Magazine.

By Adam Stone

There are indications that student math scores are slipping. Although the picture isn’t entirely clear, and while the situation is far from calamitous, it’s evident that at least some students are having a hard time making the numbers add up when it comes to standardized math assessments.

Educators point to a number of reasons why the trend lines may be pointing downward. The issue may lie at least in part with the tests themselves: perhaps classroom work hasn’t caught up to changing assessments and evolving expectations.

The post Why Are Math Scores Falling? Unpacking the Problem appeared first on TEACH Magazine.