Differentiating the Flipped Classroom

Eric Carbaugh and Kristina Doubet, associate professors in the Department of Middle, Secondary, and Math Education at James Madison University, lead the webinar Differentiating the Flipped Classroom. The professors and ASCD faculty

members work closely with practicing teachers to help them meet the needs of diverse learners. Carbaugh and Doubet

conduct extensive training related to educational best practices throughout the United States and internationally.

Combined, they have worked with over 150 schools, districts, and organizations on the topics of differentiation,

classroom assessment, flipped instruction, and curriculum design. The webinar discusses their practical, standards-aligned solutions to designing and implementing at-home and at-school learning experiences that check for individual student understanding.

Webinars are free for Learning Forward members. Members also get access to the on-demand library of webinars.

Sign Up For Summer Institutes

If you’re looking to get tools, strategies, and skills you need to boost educator performance and student success, Learning Forward’s Institutes offer intensive learning that digs deeper into a wide variety of topics.

This year’s Summer Institutes run July 21-24 in Chicago. The two-day sessions include:

• Becoming Learning Principals;
• Collaborative Inquiry: Putting Learning Back in Professional Learning;
• Do As I Do: Modeling Differentiation in Professional Development;
• Transforming Professional Learning: Applying Proven Strategies and Tools toElevate Practice;
• Common Core Literacy: Teaching Writing Using and Analyzing Sources; and
• Leveraging Coaching Partnerships for Continuous Improvement.

Improving Systemwide Learning

In her Learning Forward blog, Lisa Castro writes about the difficulties in navigating the wealth of options to choose from when planning for and participating in professional learning.

“There seem to be two distinct strategies,” Castro writes, “each with its own champion: those who advocate for just-in-time, adult self-select learning, such as edcamps and Twitter chats, and those in organizations with comprehensive, systemic, required professional learning plans.”

Castro explores what this dichotomy looks like in practice and
suggests six ways districts and organizations can ensure instructional capacity and better meet the needs of educators.

Redesigning Principal Preparation Programs

In his Learning Forward blog, deputy executive director Frederick Brown writes about new efforts to strengthen leadership at the school and system levels by The Wallace Foundation. Brown notes that, in its most recent work, Wallace has been engaged in two initiatives to strengthen leaders.

First, its Principal Pipeline Initiative is helping districts get clear about the job leaders are expected to do, the training they need to perform their work, the kind of hiring practices
that will get the right person in the appropriate position, and the kind of induction and ongoing support that will help them be effective.

A second Wallace initiative seeks to strengthen the practices of district principal supervisors — those key individuals who support building principals in their work. In both of these initiatives, the goal is to link the practice of system and building leaders to improvements in teaching and learning in schools across the district.