By: Tara Brown. Connecting with kids takes on many forms but all can have a huge impact on a child’s feeling of emotional safety, level of engagement and, ultimately, academic achievement.

A group of teachers recently set out on an adventure to conduct classroom observations and to seek out answers to some of their key questions about formative assessment. Here's what they learned.

In this episode of the Getting Smart podcast, Tom interviews two of the authors of Education Reimagined "Schools Out" paper, Amy Anderson and Scott Van Beck. Listen in as they about family participation in learner advocate networks, flexibility within the learner’s day, the expanded role the community could play in offering learning opportunities for students, how teachers and community members could shift into the role of learning designers, and much more.

We believe school visits are the best form of professional learning. Based on a couple thousand school visits, and with help from colleagues and readers, we’ve compiled this list of elementary and middle schools that can give educators a better sense of what’s possible.

Santa Ana Unified School District has been rethinking teaching and learning to better serve their families and students. Tom and Emily share how SAUSD is creating Next-Gen pathways and improving education in their community.

At Katherine Smith School, high quality project-based learning experiences are the norm. Learn more about their successes in our latest HQPBL case study.

In this post, Tom Vander Ark explores the coming social economy and explains how it will be built on the traits that make us uniquely human—care, consideration, creativity, and critical thinking.

By: Kristi Robinson. A principal’s approach to social-emotional learning starts with going on a walk with her students.