Cursive is dead. Long live cursive. Just over a year ago, we published an article asking if cursive handwriting is still relevant in today’s educational system. In it, one of the rationales cited was so that students could read historical documents and, as our company’s resident expert in history, that got me thinking about what…
The maker movement is a relatively recent development in the world. It is a unique combination of DIY building, traditional crafting hobbies, device hacking, and other digital skills. It focuses on the creation of novel items instead of buying what is commercially available. There is also an emphasis on creativity, modification, and applied cutting-edge science.…
STEAM is the latest push to create students who are scientifically and technologically literate and able to solve real-world problems. This is a fantastic goal that we here at DataWORKS wholeheartedly endorse. Unfortunately, the jargon that underlies many STEAM lessons and programs suggests that projects, programs, and methods boil down to very little teaching. STEAMing…
Acronym Alphabet Soup Education is littered with a variety of acronyms. “EOCs MSL,” and “Good PD fosters a solid PLC,” are actual sentences. For anyone who isn’t shoulder deep in educational acronyms, these sentences translates to “End of Course tests Measure Student Learning” and “Good Professional Development fosters a solid Professional Learning Community.” STEM…
The Common Core State Standards include literacy standards that are to be used in history, science, and other technical subjects. These standards focus on developing literacy outside of the English classroom beginning in the 6th grade. There are three major components to these: Reading in History; Reading in Science and Technical Subjects; and Writing…
Every spring, kids in the U.S. take a bevy of standardized tests. Teachers and administrators fret over the results. A great deal of time and energy is invested in preparing students for the tests. Unfortunately, the only real official material of any direct use is often a set of released sample test questions and a…
Welcome to our weekly Ask DataWORKS blog where we focus on questions from our readers. We are regularly asked about Explicit Direct Instruction and the research behind it. So today, we are going to focus on Explicit Direct Instruction (EDI). There are many preconceptions out there about what EDI is and isn’t and we’d like…
Redefining Student Success When Rachel Tomlinson, headteacher of a primary school in Lancashire, England, sent out a letter  with her Year 6 students’ test results, she never expected all the attention it would generate. In it, she tells her students that they are far more than just a score on an exam.  Her powerful words…
A chicken in every pot and an iPad in every hand Like Hoover’s promise of prosperity in the 1920s, education officials are promising students and teachers a major upgrade in technology over the next few years. This is excellent news because being technologically literate is one of the most important skill sets that students can…
The Next Generation Science Standards Welcome to our weekly Ask DataWORKS blog where we focus on questions from our readers. We recently started this blog, so we don’t have many questions from you yet! What we do have is a list of questions that we receive regularly as we provide training and materials…