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A community-driven blog supporting educators, building lifelong learners, and shaping the future of education.* 

 

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Getting Formative Assessment to Work

Thought leader Sheila Valencia continues our popular Lead the Way to Literacy series with some insight on formative assessment. Can it help close the achievement gap? Find out here.

Dr. Sheila W. Valencia
Professor, Language, Literacy, and Culture, University of Washington; Journeys Program Consultant

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Navigating the Every Student Succeeds Act: With ESSA, More Equitable Assessment Brings Hope for Parity

Wondering about ESSA’s effect on assessments? Dr. Malbert Smith weighs in on three areas where he sees hope for improvement.

Dr. Malbert Smith
CEO, President, and Co-Founder of MetaMetrics

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Claims, Evidence, and Reasoning: What You’re Already Doing in Science Class—and in Everyday Life

New education standards can bring new language to describe teaching strategies that are already in place. Here, author Marjorie Frank illustrates the Claims-Evidence-Reasoning language of NGSS with some everyday examples.

Marjorie Frank
Author, ELD Specialist

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Use Reading Data to Encourage Students’ Independent Reading

As you assess students’ reading levels at the start of the school year, here are some strategies for supporting students in taking risks, expanding their reading choices, building skills—and becoming engaged independent readers.

Shaped Staff

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Do All Reading Comprehension Tests Assess Equally?

Dr. Laurie Cutting, a leading expert in cognitive neuroscience, explains the importance of using a multiple assessment formats to get a complete picture of a student’s reading comprehension level.

Dr. Laurie E. Cutting
Professor, Vanderbilt University

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Navigating the Every Student Succeeds Act: The Platform—A New Definition of Professional Development for Teachers

What’s the best way to comply with ESSA’s requirements for Professional Development? Thought leader Sue Gendron offers valuable strategies for implementing sustainable job-embedded coaching in your schools.

Sue Gendron
Former President, International Center for Leadership in Education (ICLE)

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Will you be at the APA Convention in D.C.? Find out what’s going on with #HMHatAPA!

HMH will be in booth # 305 at the APA Convention, sharing our expertise in the area of cognitive assessment and proudly sponsoring the APA’s School Psychology Division.

Shaped Staff

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Navigating the Every Student Succeeds Act: The Engagement Factor and a Renewed Emphasis on Social Emotional Learning

This week in our ESSA series, HMH Chief Academic Officer Francie Alexander discusses the importance of SEL for student engagement and ways to support SEL efforts with research, measurement, and developing critical behaviors for success.

Francie Alexander
Senior Vice President, Efficacy & Consulting Research

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Top Takeaways from Our Literacy Experts

HMH’s spring Lead the Way to Literacy Leadership Talks have wrapped up, and we’d like to leave you with some collected wisdom from our experts.

Shaped Staff

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Assessment: Can You Have It All?

Does your district debate when and how often to assess? Hear from HMH assessment expert, Dr. Douglas Becker, on the goals of purposeful testing.

Dr. Douglas Becker
Advisor - Test Development, Research and Psychometric Activities. Association of Test Publishers (ATP)

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The Spark News Roundup: Ideas Worth Sharing

In this edition of The Spark News Roundup, we highlight a California early learning campaign to shrink language disparities by installing conversation prompts into playgrounds, an innovative scaffolding technique for teaching English-language learners, how America’s academic approaches differ from the rest of the world, and more.

HMHCo

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The Teacher-Sage Remains... But Reinvented for NGSS

Former teacher and current HMH program author Michael DiSpezio explains how a “sage on a stage” teaching the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) can inspire student enthusiasm and engagement in the classroom.

Michael DiSpezio
Author, ScienceFusion and HMH Science Dimensions Programs

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Narrowing the Opportunity Gap in Mathematics Teaching and Learning

In a Q&A with Dr. Matt Larson, a former math teacher and current President Elect of The National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, HMH takes a closer look at the opportunity gap in mathematics and how effective tracking and assessments are.

HMHCo

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The Amazing Reading Brain: Why Emotion Plays a Large Part in Reading Comprehension

HMH program advisor Dr. David Dockterman explains the role of emotions in reading comprehension.

Dr. David Dockterman
Lecturer, Harvard Graduate School of Education

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How Problem-Based Learning in the Classroom Can be a Real World Tool for 21st Century Learning

HMH science curriculum author Michael DiSpezio explains what problem-based learning is and why educators should incorporate it into their lesson plans.

Michael DiSpezio
Author, ScienceFusion and HMH Science Dimensions Programs

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Making Engineering Accessible: A Brief Overview of Engineering in NGSS

HMH science curriculum author, Michael DiSpezio, explains how and why engineering is incorporated into the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS).

Michael DiSpezio
Author, ScienceFusion and HMH Science Dimensions Programs

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What Does Brain Science Research Say Students Should be Reading?

Dr. Laurie E. Cutting
Professor, Vanderbilt University

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Next Generation Science Standards: The Times, They are a-Changing

HMH Program Author Michael DiSpezio explains the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) and how they help guide effective science instruction.

Michael DiSpezio
Author, ScienceFusion and HMH Science Dimensions Programs

*The views expressed in our blog are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of HMH.