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(Part one of a two-part series) After his 13-year-old son, Ryan, committed suicide, John Halligan became an advocate for suicide prevention in schools. And the first time he was asked to speak to students at a school near his home in Vermont, he agonized over what to say that would...

As the academic year begins, students and their families may find themselves concerned about the safety of their schools. After 22 school shootings in the first half of 2018 alone, their worry is reasonable. The National School Boards Association believes that the federal government has a role to play in...

Sometimes it makes all the difference if you use the right definition and process. After decades of half-hearted federal support for professional development, there is now data to support the investment in teachers and administrators. The new analysis was presented during a Congressional briefing late last month by Learning Forward...

Successful schools should engage families and communities in support of students, according to the Learning First Alliance’s Elements of Success: 10 Million Speak on Schools That Work. A solid body of research shows that involving families and community members in important roles improves student learning and development, as well as...

This article was originally published by Hobson's. For years, lack of detailed data correlating high school skills and experiences with workforce outcomes left policy advisors claiming the generic label ‘college and career readiness skills’ applied equally well to students’ readiness for university and workplace opportunities, often leaving students, families, and...

On a recent August day, members of the Learning First Alliance visited the Apprentice School at Newport News Shipbuilding (NNS) to see firsthand how this institution trains its students for high-tech, high-skilled jobs in its vast manufacturing facility. It was enlightening. The apprenticeship program has been in place since 1919...

We should be worried. While report after report has declared that school improvement is hinged on the teacher, we now have proof that we need to do more to focus on the teachers we have, and the future pipeline of teachers. But we also see that our public school teachers...

The African Americans’ fight for equality in education is often associated with the 1954 landmark case of Brown vs. the Board of Education of Topeka, KS. It has been considered one of the most compelling cases of the Supreme Court of the 20th century. The court unanimously decided that racial...

In the Elements of Success, the members of the Learning First Alliance present an integrated, profession-wide view that educating the total child includes social-emotional learning (SEL). The challenge is, how to integrate the SEL into an already full program? It’s important to note that a wide range of educators support...

In Elements of Success, a wide range of educators agree that social-emotional learning (SEL) strategies should be integrated into any curriculum to educate the total child. The challenge is, how to integrate SEL into an already full school day. The members of the Learning First Alliance support having the teachers...