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A rural Montana district goes all in on makerspaces

Tara Garcia Mathewson

October 11, 2018 |

The Hechinger Report |

Text |

Under 800 Words

Response Location: United States, Havre, Montana

A coalition of philanthropic and professional development organizations are partnering with a rural Montana school district to provide donated hardware and software and professional development training. By developing "makerspaces," the initiative aims to ensure students and teachers learn tech literacy, a skillset many of their urban and suburban counterparts take for granted.

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A little-known program has lifted 9th grade performance in virtually every type of school

Tara Garcia Mathewson

August 30, 2018 |

The Hechinger Report |

Text |

1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Minneapolis, Minnesota

The Building Assets, Reducing Risks (BARR) program sticks to a simple motto: “Same Students. Same Teachers. Better Results." With this low-key saying, BARR has transformed the performance of students at a wide range of schools - from low-income, low-performing schools to affluent institutions. The key to its success? To start, teachers gather periodically to share notes, concerns and plans about each individual ninth grader.

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In a mastery-based classroom, students understand where they need to focus

Tara Garcia Mathewson

August 23, 2018 |

The Hechinger Report |

Text |

Under 800 Words

Response Location: United States, North Carolina

A North Carolina teacher has had marked success using mastery-based learning techniques, which emphasize skill acquisition over classroom time, in her classroom. She says of the self-directed approach to instruction: "“The mindset is ‘Give students their own data and let them choose what to work on themselves.’" With this setup, the teacher also has extra time to work in smaller groups with struggling students.

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Online learning can open doors for kids in juvenile jails

Tara Garcia Mathewson

August 02, 2018 |

The Hechinger Report |

Text |

1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Chicago, Illinois

The Illinois Department of Juvenile Justice sets itself apart by offering a blended learning curriculum to students. The district's superintendent sees immense benefits to the split schedule and online learning component - “The self-paced schedule has made a huge difference in the number of kids obtaining credits." Other players are more skeptical.

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A summer school program uses the arts to combat the achievement gap

Tara Garcia Mathewson

July 19, 2018 |

The Hechinger Report |

Text |

Under 800 Words

Response Location: United States, Baltimore, Maryland

A Baltimore nonprofit uses arts programming to engage students in educational activities over the summer to combat learning loss. The director of differentiated learning for the district explains, "They don't even realize we're doing math and literacy instruction because we're having so much fun." Program administrators believe models like this are important in decreasing the persistent achievement gap.

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Can This Game-Like App Help Students Do Better in School?

Tara Garcia Mathewson

November 29, 2017 |

Wired |

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1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Fresno, California

The Fresno school district is getting surprising results following the rollout of Strides, a student portal app that gamefies the learning experience and in doing so incentivizes students to stay engaged. Like with other social media apps, students earn points and maintain streaks, but in this case they rack up awards for attendance, academic performance, and extracurricular participation. Still digesting the success of the technology, schools are working to strike the right balance between intrinsic and extrinsic motivation to ensure students remain interested in the app and their school work.

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How Poverty Changes the Brain

Tara Garcia Mathewson

April 19, 2017 |

The Atlantic |

Text |

800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, Boston, Massachusetts

Living in poverty can impact brain functioning due to the consistent stress and can lead to difficulty with problem solving, decision making, and goal setting. A Boston-based project, EMPath, addresses this issue by assisting families with identifying goals and taking the steps to accomplish these goals.

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