We know we can’t cover it all, but we hope you have found the articles in this edition thought provoking and informative.  If we have whet your appetite for more articles on topics covered in this edition, check out these resources and articles that you may find of interest.


1. The Role of School Librarians in OER Curation: A Framework to Guide Practice. This first-of-its-kind guide provides the missing roadmap to the Open Education Resources curation and implementation process, as well as resources to help librarians and other upgrade their skills as curators and as leaders of collaborative networks that identify, rate, adapt, localize, and share OER across learning communities.

2. How STEM Education Must Evolve, by Mitchell Baker.  Scientific American provides a look into how tomorrow’s STEM curriculum will not only incorporate scientific and technological principles into classroom lessons but also encourage students to consider the societal, political, ethical, and other implications of their work.

3. Focus on Student Engagement for Better Academic Outcomes With the emergent popularity of social emotional learning in the classroom, the Gallup Student Poll investigates how student engagement and hope relate to student academic achievement and progress.

4. How Tech Can Help Students with Disabilities Thrive in STEM Education. As technology evolves to meet students’ needs, new tools are enabling students with disabilities to access science, technology, engineering, and math content in the same way as their peers.

5. Why It’s Crucial–And Really Hard–To Talk About More Equitable Grading, by MindShift. This is the first in a two-part series about equitable grading practices. This article sets up some of the challenges. In part two learn about How Teachers Are Changing Grading Practices With an Eye on Equity by Katrina Schwarts for MindShift.

6. What Makes a Good School Culture? by Lead Shafer, Usable Knowledge. Most principals have an instinctive awareness that organizational culture is a key element of school success. They might say their school has a “good culture” when teachers are expressing a shared vision and students are succeeding — or that they need to “work on school culture” when several teachers resign or student discipline rates rise. But like many organizational leaders, principals may get stymied when they actually try to describe the elements that create a positive culture.