School of Practice

Have you ever been shocked when your students bomb a unit test after weeks of seemingly locked-in learning? 

Veteran educator Jay McTighe has the ultimate research-backed solution: formative assessment. In the best-case scenario, it’s frequent, quick, and highly attuned to the content and your students. 

“You don’t want to wait till the end to find out, ‘Gosh, I didn’t realize the kids never understood this concept or had this continued skill error,’” says McTighe, an author and assessment expert. “Whatever you’re teaching, you should always be doing very quick checks to see how it’s working.”

Frequent pulse checks midstream are “potentially one of a classroom educator’s most powerful tools to enhance student learning,” according to David Marzano, a leading researcher. They’re also important tools for students to gauge their own progress. The key to getting the best outcomes is *how* you deploy them.

In this episode of School of Practice, we chat with McTighe about how to get the most out of formative assessments, how to choose the right technique for your content and students, how to insert them seamlessly into the flow of instruction, and whether or not they should be graded. Plus, Jay shares his “Vagoo Rule,” a mysterious yet very important tip that you won’t want to miss.

Related resources:

8 Quick Checks for Understanding 

Building SEL Skills Through Formative Assessment

7 Smart, Fast Ways to Do Formative Assessment

13 Super-Quick Formative Assessments 

Research: The Impact of Formative Assessment on K-12 Learning: A Meta-Analysis 

Assessing Student Learning by Design: Principles and Practices for Teachers and School Leaders 

Research: The Effectiveness and Features of Formative Assessment in US K-12 Education: A Systematic Review 

Seven Keys to Effective Feedback

Research: Formative Assessment Is an Essential Component of Classroom Work and Can Raise Student Achievement 

Hacking Student Motivation 

The 10 Minute Teacher Podcast

Did you know there’s a strong connection between the hand and the neural circuitry of the brain? 

As students learn to write letters by hand, they also learn to recognize them more fluently. This letter recognition leads to greater letter-writing fluency, which leads to stronger overall reading development. Handwriting, the research reveals, is in fact a foundational tool for literacy. And as kids get older, the benefits continue, deepening how they process new material and encode learning.

Meanwhile, good handwriting instruction doesn’t require a huge time investment: Brief instructional lessons followed by frequent modeling and feedback for students can slip into all areas of the curriculum throughout the school day, says Brooke MacKenzie, a former elementary teacher and certified reading specialist. “Handwriting practice can and should be quick and dirty,” she says. “It’s not like you need a 20-minute lesson on how to hold your pencil.”

In this episode of School of Practice, MacKenzie chats with us about four fundamental handwriting skills. Plus, she shares her top instructional secrets—from using cursive to help students struggling with print to why Kindergarteners should “talk to their pencils.”

Related resources:

How to Teach Handwriting—and Why It Matters 

The Power of Multimodal Learning (in 5 Charts)

Neuroscientists Say Don’t Write Off Handwriting

The 10 Most Significant Education Studies of 2025

Research: The Impact of Handwriting and Typing Practice in Children’s Letter and Word Learning: Implications for Literacy Development (2025)

Research: Handwriting But Not Typewriting Leads to Widespread Brain Connectivity: A High-Density EEG Study with Implications for the Classroom (2024)

Research: The Importance of Cursive Handwriting Over Typewriting for Learning in the Classroom: A High-Density EEG Study of 12-Year-Old Children and Young Adults (2020)

Research: The Effects of Handwriting Experience on Functional Brain Development in Pre-literate Children (2012)

Ghost Games (2022)

It’s a tricky (but very common) classroom dilemma: How do you talk about—and normalize—learning accommodations in class without singling anyone out in front of peers? 

Unfortunately, many teachers aren’t trained to have these sensitive conversations, so they’re figuring it out on the fly.

But we’re here to help! In this episode of School of Practice, we chat with Daniel Vollrath, a veteran high school special education teacher, and elementary teacher Jeremiah Kim. They’ll share excellent, teacher-tested tips for talking with individual students (and your whole class) about learning supports in age-appropriate ways, establishing classroom norms that make space for different learning needs, and managing privacy without making disability a taboo topic.

Related resources:

It’s Important to Talk About Learning Accommodations With Your Students—Here’s How to Do It

A One-Page Chart to Support Every Student Every Day 

Equity vs. Equality. What Does Fair Look Like in the Classroom 2024?

Talking to Students About Their Learning Differences: A Guide for Teachers

Neurodiversity-Affirming Schools: Transforming Practices So All Students Feel Accepted & Supported (2025)

The Purpose-Driven Classroom (2024)

Stigma Consciousness Among Adolescents With Learning Disabilities: Considering Individual Experiences of Being Stereotyped (2018)

Stigma and Stratification Limiting the Math Course Progression of Adolescents Labeled with a Learning Disability (2016)

Empowering Students with Hidden Disabilities (2016)

Redefining Disability, Re-imagining the Self: Disability Identification Predicts Self-esteem and Strategic Responses to Stigma (2012)

Are you curious what the latest research reveals about everything from brain breaks to groundbreaking research on AI, cell phones, and handwriting in the classroom? Then you won’t want to miss this special year-end bonus episode based on one of our most popular feature articles of the year. 

In the latest episode of School of Practice, Edutopia’s research editor Youki Terada and editor-in-chief Stephen Merrill walk us through the latest research on the impact of cell phone bans on classroom learning, why more recess time is critical for learning, how adept problem solvers tackle thorny math word problems, and how microbreaks powerfully impact focus and attention. Plus, we’ll share practical tips for bringing these findings right into classrooms today. 

Related resources:

The 10 Most Significant Education Studies of 2025

Sustaining Student Concentration: The Effectiveness of Micro-Breaks in a Classroom Setting (2025) 

Highlight, Write, Elaborate: Note-Taking Strategies to Master Reality-Based Mathematical Tasks (2025) 

The Impact of Cellphone Bans in Schools on Student Outcomes: Evidence from Florida (2025) 

Removing Phones from Classrooms Improves Academic Performance (2025) 

Ill Communication: Technology, distraction & student performance (2016)

The Impact of Recess on Chronic Stress Levels in Elementary School Children (2025) 

The Impact of Handwriting and Typing Practice in Children’s Letter and Word Learning: Implications for Literacy Development (2025) 

Your Brain on ChatGPT: Accumulation of Cognitive Debt when Using an AI Assistant for Essay Writing Task (2025) 

Generative AI Can Harm Learning (2024)

IEPs in the Age of AI: Examining IEP Goals Written with and Without ChatGPT (2025)

When students take notes during a lesson, research shows they get just about 30 to 45 percent of the important information right on the first try. 

High school teacher Benjamin Barbour discovered this disturbing problem after taking a quick peek at his students’ notes midway through whole-group instruction. What he saw stopped him in his tracks. 

“While some students had terrific notes, others had a big list of facts from the lecture or from the book,” Barbour says. “There was no rhyme or reason. Maybe there was a date but no information attached. And I realized: My students can’t even use these notes.”

In this episode of School of Practice, we take a look at Barbour’s three-step process for teaching better note-taking and substantially improving study skills. Just a few minutes of practice each day, Barbour says, can yield big gains for student learning. Plus, he explains the brilliant strategy he uses to incentivize better note-taking and study habits in his classroom.

Related resources:

Teaching Students What to Do With the Notes They Take 

How Testing Students Twice Can Improve Note-Taking Skills 

Neuroscientists Say Don’t Write Off Handwriting 

Research: Typed Versus Handwritten Lecture Notes and College Student Achievement: A Meta-Analysis 

Research: The Importance of Cursive Handwriting Over Typewriting for Learning in the Classroom: A High-Density EEG Study of 12-Year-Old Children and Young Adults

Research: Revising lecture notes: how revision, pauses, and partners affect note taking and achievement 

Research: The Pen Is Mightier Than the Keyboard: Advantages of Longhand Over Laptop Note Taking