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Closing Advanced Coursework Equity Gaps for All Students

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Closing Advanced Coursework Equity Gaps for All Students

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The article discusses advanced coursework opportunities for high school students, such as Advanced Placement (AP) courses, dual enrollment, and International Baccalaureate (IB) courses. These programs aim to provide students with college-level coursework and the opportunity to earn college credit. However, the article highlights the existence of opportunity gaps in access and success rates for these courses, particularly for Black, Indigenous, and other non-Black people of color (BIPOC) students. Strategies to address these gaps include removing biases and barriers in enrollment, providing professional development for educators, and improving the overall rigor of high school curricula. The article also examines the correlation between participation in advanced coursework and positive academic outcomes in college, including higher test scores, college attendance, and degree completion. However, the role of standardized tests in college admissions is changing, potentially influencing the importance of advanced coursework in the future.

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Tenth-grade students make programming adjustments to a robot that they are testing in a Computer Science Principles course at a Maryland high school, December 2017. (Getty/Marvin Joseph/The Washington Post)

To view this report's interactive data tool, see "The Funnel To Passing AP Exams."

Introduction and summary

The value of advanced coursework opportunities, however, is not only tied to their ability to provide potential college credit. Due to the increased rigor and high expectations of these courses, advanced coursework offers high schoolers valuable opportunities to gain skills and demonstrate competencies in the kinds of learning they can expect to see in postsecondary education. However, the opportunity gaps in the advanced coursework system-the inequitable distribution of funding, supports, and pathways for student participation and success-have a profound impact on which students are enrolling and succeeding in advanced coursework opportunities.

However, no national data set exists to show how all students are doing in different types of advanced coursework. Due to that limitation, this report examines the patterns of which high school students are enrolling and succeeding in AP classes based on the availability of AP courses offered at their schools. National data from the Civil Rights Data Collection show that students who are Black, Indigenous, and other non-Black people of color (BIPOC) are not enrolled in AP courses at rates comparable to their white and Asian peers and experience less success when they are-and the analysis for this report finds this to be true even when they attend schools with similar levels of AP course availability. Additionally, the enrollment and success gaps in AP courses for these students either persist or become even more pronounced in schools that are offering high numbers of AP courses.

This report's analysis also highlights a variety of strategies and layers of support that states and districts across the country are employing to improve equity gaps for high school students in AP participation and performance. Strategies include removing biases and barriers in the identification of students for and the enrollment of them in AP classes, providing professional development for educators to expand AP offerings, coordinating vertically across grade levels to better prepare students for advanced coursework before they get to high school, waiving test fees for students to take AP exams, and creating peer learning communities for teachers and students during the school year to support their teaching and learning. These strategies are by no means exclusive to AP coursework and should be applied across the board to improve the overall rigor of high school curricula and coursework. This is important because high schools should not rely on simply getting more students into courses designated as advanced, as this can often function as a tracking mechanism. Rather, high schools should aspire to improve the rigor of all coursework to the level of AP and IB classes to ensure that all students are learning relevant and engaging material that prepares them for college and their careers.

In examining how students are participating and performing in AP coursework, one way to illustrate the student path to success is with a funnel that has different phases. While this funnel concept could be applied to other forms of advanced coursework, the illustration in Figure 1 can be broken down into the following stages of AP coursework: the level of AP course availability for a high school student; the likelihood of a student's enrollment in an AP course; the likelihood of a student taking an AP test; and the likelihood of a student earning a passing score on an AP exam.

It is worth noting that the size and shape of this funnel will differ across states, school districts, schools, and for different subgroups of students. Using nationwide data from the U.S. Department of Education's 2015-16 Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC), the most recent year in which the information was collected, Table 1 illustrates the outcome of 1,000 public high school students in grades 9 through 12 if they were to progress through the AP funnel. Successive rows show how many students overall and in specific racial and ethnic subgroups would end up enrolling in an AP class, taking an AP test, and then passing an AP test. For example, for every 1,000 high school students in grades 9 through 12, 174 students would enroll in an AP course, 130 would take an AP test, and 75 would pass an AP exam. Both the funnel and the authors' analysis focus on AP because it is the largest mechanism across the country for high school students to take advanced coursework. In addition, analyzing AP data allows for easier comparisons across states because the rules for test scoring are more consistent across the country.
Table 1 Note: An interactive visualization of this funnel that enables comparison of two student groups in two geographies can be found in the body of the report.
As Table 1 illustrates, there are significant opportunity gaps at each stage of the funnel that permeate the ecosystem of AP coursework. In part, these opportunity gaps stem from gaps in access to AP courses-and the authors' analysis of CRDC data illustrated that Black and Indigenous students, as well as students attending schools in rural areas, had significantly less access to AP coursework than their peers. The authors grouped high schools across the country into four categories based on the number of AP courses they offered and the size of the student body. The resulting groups represent the varying degrees of access to AP coursework for high school students. (see the Methodology text box below and the Appendix for more details) The opportunity gaps existed even among students who had similar levels of access to advanced coursework, and in some cases, they grew even more pronounced. For instance, even in high schools that offered 18 or more AP courses, there were significant gaps in the rates at which Black, Latinx, and Indigenous students were enrolled in AP courses, took AP tests, and received passing scores on the exams compared with students overall and their white and Asian peers. However, there are actions that schools, districts, and state policymakers can leverage to affect different "leaky points" in their respective funnels-in other words, to help close opportunity gaps.

The value of advanced coursework

The challenging material and rigor of advanced coursework is linked to a number of benefits for high school students. In one quasi-experimental study, enrollment in advanced coursework was shown to improve student self-esteem, and other studies have shown that students enrolled in advanced courses tend to be more engaged in their studies and have fewer absences and suspensions. While all students should have engaging courses, narrowing opportunity gaps in rigorous advanced coursework could benefit more students. The ability to earn college credit in high school can also offer students more flexibility and potential cost savings in their studies beyond high school. One study found a linkage between AP credits and a shorter time to a college degree, as well as increased likelihood of college students double majoring and taking advanced math and laboratory science college coursework. It even found students who entered college with approximately 10 hours of AP credit had $1,000 less debt on average-in many cases because their accumulated credits allowed them to start college at a higher standing-which can be important given the higher student loan debt burdens Black students face.

Research also suggests that high school students who enroll in advanced coursework opportunities are more likely to graduate, go on to college, and earn a degree. The benefits of advanced coursework opportunities are not limited to one particular model: Students enrolled in these classes have shown significant measures of postsecondary success compared with students who do not take these kinds of courses, regardless of whether they are AP classes, IB classes, or dual enrollment programs. This holds true for a variety of student subgroups as well.

Research on Advanced Placement

While there are a number of ways that high school students can participate in advanced coursework, the authors' analysis in this report focused on participation and performance in AP coursework because it is the largest mechanism across the country for high school students to take advanced coursework and because there are data available on student outcomes. Analyzing AP data also allows for easier comparisons across states, as the rules for test scoring are more consistent across the country.

There is a large body of research on the correlations between student participation in AP classes in high school and their academic outcomes both during and after high school. Comparison studies examining the academic performance of AP vs. non-AP students show a positive correlation between participation in AP coursework and higher standardized test scores, higher college attendance rates, higher college grades, reduction in college dropout rates, higher likelihood of majoring in a field related to their AP coursework, and higher college graduation rates. Students also have more favorable attitudes toward the academic material covered in their AP courses.

A research study from 2010 tried to account for some of these factors and used specific criteria, including high school rank and SAT scores, to categorize students into groups so that students with similar abilities could be compared. The results showed that regardless of ethnicity, gender, class rank, or SAT score, students with AP credits earned higher first-semester college grade point averages (GPAs) than their counterparts with similar high school academic characteristics but no AP credit. A number of independent and external research studies have also been published in recent years with findings about AP student outcomes that are similar to the findings promulgated by the College Board. One study found that AP students outperform their non-AP peers on college entrance exams such as the ACT. Another study indicated that increasing numbers of AP-based course credits for students was associated with higher GPAs beyond their first year of college and a substantially higher graduation rate. Additionally, research found that participation in AP English courses was associated with stronger writing ability in college and that there was a positive association between AP participation and higher rates of obtaining advanced degrees and future income. It is also worth noting that various research studies have shown that while the correlation between AP participation and college outcomes exists after controlling for demographic variables, the association is much stronger across all demographic groups for students who pass an AP test.

Dynamics surrounding AP and advanced coursework

The AP program and corresponding examinations are part of a broader landscape, and there are competing dynamics around how college institutions award college credit. On one side are universities that have engaged in efforts to diminish the role of a student's AP scores in awarding college credit; a 2016 study found that 86 percent of the nation's top 153 universities restrict the awarding of AP credit in some form or fashion. Some schools do not give course credit for any AP courses and scores, while others restrict the number of subject areas that are eligible for course credit, increase the minimum score needed to earn credit, or cap the total amount of credit a student can receive. In addition to those tensions, pandemic-related changes to AP exams are having an impact on what some colleges and universities will recognize for credit. Credit recognition can also be a challenge for students who complete dual enrollment courses, in large part due to the fact that there are no national standards of quality for dual enrollment classes like there are for AP courses. This is even more challenging when students are seeking credit at an institution other than the initial one that awarded the credit.

At the same time, there are states with policies to make it easier for students to receive credit for successful completion of advanced coursework during high school. In the case of AP exams-which are graded on a point scale ranging from 1 to 5-students who receive a score of 3 or higher often become eligible to receive college credit or place out of certain college courses. A 2015 Texas law requires the state's public colleges and universities to give credit for scores of 3 or higher on AP exams, with very limited exceptions. Likewise, Illinois passed legislation in 2015 requiring the state's higher education institutions to award credit for scores of 3 or higher on AP exams. Tennessee has also developed a set of dual credit classes that are recognized statewide for high school students, and if a student meets or exceeds the cut score on the corresponding examination, they receive college credit that can be applied to any Tennessee public postsecondary institution.

Looking beyond access: The Advanced Placement funnel

There are significant opportunity gaps among students in access to advanced coursework, and those gaps widen when examining which high school students are enrolling and succeeding in advanced coursework. A longitudinal study from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) also shows that the gaps among which students are earning college credit are not limited to AP courses but also include International Baccalaureate and dual enrollment classes.

The authors sought to better understand these gaps using disaggregated school-level data from the 2015-16 Civil Rights Data Collection on AP course offerings, AP course enrollment, and test passage rates of high school students in AP coursework. AP courses are not the only model of advanced coursework available to students, but they are the largest mechanism by which students earn college credit while in high school. In addition to the large scale of the program, the common nationwide scoring of AP tests allows for comparisons across all 50 states and Washington, D.C.

The successful endpoint for high school students taking AP courses comes when they pass AP exams. One way to illustrate that path is a funnel with four different stages-the level of AP course availability a high school student has, the likelihood of a student's enrollment in an AP course, the likelihood of a student taking an AP test, and the likelihood of a student earning a passing score on an AP exam.

These funnels will look different-some will be skinnier and some will be wider-across states and districts depending on whether and where students fall out of the funnel on the path to earning a qualifying score for potential college credit. This analysis seeks to understand what these funnels look like across the country and for high school students across racial and ethnic subgroups. Additionally, for states and districts looking to address different points of the funnel for different student subgroups, there may be different strategies and methods to target each stage of the funnel.

Methodology

In order to understand these funnels for students across the country, the authors relied on data from the U.S. Department of Education's 2015-16 Civil Rights Data Collection. This survey of nearly all public schools and school districts in the country included information for each public high school (grades 9 to 12) on school enrollment demographics; the number of AP courses offered; and counts of how many students enrolled in an AP course, took an AP test, and passed an AP test, disaggregated by racial and ethnic subgroups. Disaggregated data on student subgroups related to socioeconomic status were not captured in the data set.

The authors linked school locale data to the CRDC from the Education Demographics and Geographic Estimates (EDGE)-a program under the Institute of Education Sciences' NCES. These data allowed the authors to categorize schools based on the communities in which they are located and examine student enrollment data based on school location, whether in a rural area, town, suburban area, or city. These designations are based on population thresholds, which are further explained in the Appendix.

Using the reported data from all public high schools in the country, the authors grouped high schools into four categories based on the number of AP courses they offered, forming groups that included similar numbers of students. The resulting groups represent the varying degrees of access that high school students have to AP coursework. This level of detail and depth on AP data, including student outcomes, was not collected in the 2017-18 CRDC. Additionally, the CRDC data from 2015 to 2016 only capture what AP courses were physically offered at schools and not students who may have enrolled in virtual AP courses even if their school did not offer any.

Access is the first potential barrier to advanced coursework

The fact that all students do not have similar levels of access to AP courses illustrates that the first gap in the student pathway to enrolling and succeeding in AP courses is one of access. In order to understand the level of access to AP courses that students encounter nationwide, the authors created four groups of high schools based on how many AP courses each school offered. These groups enrolled from 23.3 percent to 26.1 percent of the nation's high school students. There is a clear relationship between school size and AP course offerings, as schools in the first group offering 0 to 3 AP courses averaged an enrollment of 273 students, while schools in the fourth group offering more than 18 AP courses averaged 1,854 students. (see Table 2)
Table 2
While each group includes roughly 25 percent of the nation's high school students, the distribution of student enrollment across these groups varies widely across states. In Virginia, for example, 73 percent of students attended schools offering 11 or more AP courses, while 86 percent of students in Mississippi attended high schools offering 10 or fewer courses.

In addition to differences across states, the CRDC data enabled the authors to analyze disaggregated data to understand the distribution of enrollment in each of the four groups of high schools created for students across racial and ethnic subgroups, as well as the urbanicity of the high school they attended.

Significant gaps exist in access to AP across racial and ethnic subgroups and geographies

The AP coursework access gap was most glaring for the nearly 2.4 million students-nearly 15 percent of high school students-who attended schools that did not offer any AP coursework. These students represented more than 60 percent of the enrollment in the group of schools offering 0 to 3 AP courses.

Indigenous students and those attending rural high schools were most likely to attend schools offering no AP courses

While Figure 2 shows that white students (15.8 percent) and Black students (16.3 percent) were slightly more likely than the overall national average (14.8 percent) to be enrolled in high schools that did not offer any AP classes, Indigenous students (35.3 percent) across the country were more than twice as likely as any other racial or ethnic group to attend high schools not offering any AP classes.
Figure 2
Students attending high schools in areas categorized as "rural" or "town" were substantially more likely to attend high schools offering zero AP courses, while comparatively few suburban students attended schools not offering AP courses. (see Figure 3)

Students attending rural and town high schools were overrepresented in schools offering fewest AP courses

The geographic breakdown of student enrollment across the four groups shows that students attending school in rural areas and towns were less likely to attend a school with a high degree of access to AP coursework. (see Figure 4) While 20.7 percent of high school students nationwide attended a school in a rural area, 37.6 percent of students enrolled in schools offering 0 to 3 AP courses attended schools in a rural area. Students from high schools in towns were also significantly overrepresented as a share of enrollment in schools offering 0 to 10 AP courses.
Figure 4
Student enrollment in schools with more access to AP coursework-schools offering 11 to 37 AP courses-was skewed dramatically toward suburban areas, while students attending urban high schools were distributed relatively evenly across all four groups of schools.

The average distribution of students enrolled in schools with access to fewer AP courses masked meaningful differences across states. While students attending rural high schools across the country were concentrated in schools with less access to AP coursework, that was not the case in Maryland. (see Figure 5) Students attending Maryland's urban high schools represented nearly 76 percent of all students attending high schools offering 0 to 3 AP courses, while students attending Maryland's rural high schools were underrepresented in high schools offering 0 to 3 AP courses (6.8 percent compared with 16.8 percent overall). It is likely that inequitable resource distribution and lack of investment in urban schools in Maryland-which are predominantly attended by BIPOC students and concentrated in Baltimore City Public Schools and Prince George's County Public Schools-is contributing to this phenomenon.
Figure 5
Black and Indigenous students are underrepresented in schools with more access to AP coursework

The national distribution of student enrollment across these school groups by student racial and ethnic subgroups illustrates a number of access gaps. Black and Indigenous high school students are overrepresented in schools with less access to AP courses and underrepresented in schools with higher levels of access to AP coursework. This is particularly true for Indigenous high school students-more than 49 percent of all Indigenous high school students in the country attended a school with three or fewer AP courses, compared with 23 percent of students overall. (see Figure 6)
Figure 6
The distribution of enrollment of white students is fairly consistent across the four groups of high schools created, but they are slightly overrepresented in schools offering 0 to 10 AP courses and slightly underrepresented in schools offering 11 to 37 AP courses. At the national level, Asian and Latinx students are overrepresented in schools with high levels of AP course offerings. Nearly 73 percent of Asian students, versus 52 percent overall, attended schools offering 11 to 37 AP courses, with almost 46 percent of Asian students attending schools offering 18 to 37 AP courses. Latinx students were also more likely to be enrolled in schools offering 11 to 37 AP courses-59 percent compared with 52 percent overall-but the distribution was not similarly skewed toward schools offering 18 to 37 AP courses, as was the case for Asian students. It is not the case in all states, but on a national level, Latinx students are not experiencing the same level of gaps in access to AP coursework as Black and Indigenous students.

Equitable access to AP courses varies across states

Despite these national trends in high school students' access to AP coursework, there are some states where Indigenous and Black students did not experience similar gaps in AP course offerings.
Figure 7
As shown in Figure 7, Black (70.6 percent) and Latinx (72.0 percent) students in Texas were overrepresented as a share of enrollment in schools offering 11 to 37 AP courses (68.7 percent of students overall). Indigenous students (57.4 percent) are modestly underrepresented in Texas schools offering 11 to 37 AP courses. However, Indigenous students in Texas have much greater AP course access in schools offering 11 to 37 AP courses compared with nationwide numbers: Only 25.7 percent of Indigenous students are enrolled in such schools nationwide.

Still, attending a school offering AP coursework is only the first step in creating equitable access to opportunities. Further down the funnel, there are chances for inequity to creep in through AP course enrollment, test taking, and test passage rates.

Gaps in AP course enrollment for Black, Latinx, and Indigenous students grow as level of access to AP coursework grows

The next step in this analysis was to examine participation rates for high school students in AP coursework. By examining AP course enrollment rates across the four groups of high schools and across racial and ethnic subgroups in those groups, it is clear that the gaps in access for Black and Indigenous students are amplified by gaps in the rates at which these students are enrolled in AP courses. For example, while high schools offering 4 to 10 AP courses enrolled 13.7 percent of students overall in at least one AP course, only 9.9 percent of Black students in high schools offering 4 to 10 AP courses were enrolled in at least one AP course. (see Table 3)

While there were not gaps in AP course offerings for Latinx students, Latinx students in each group of schools were less likely to enroll in at least one AP course than their white and Asian peers.
Table 3
These gaps in AP course enrollment for Black, Latinx, and Indigenous students get progressively larger in the high schools offering the highest number of AP courses. The gap in AP course enrollment rates between all students and Black students attending schools offering 4 to 10 AP courses was 3.8 percentage points, but it was 11.6 percentage points for students attending schools offering 18 to 37 AP courses. For Latinx students, there was a minimal gap in AP course enrollment rates for students attending schools offering 4 to 10 AP courses, but the gap in AP course enrollment between all students and Latinx students rose to 6.8 percentage points in schools offering 18 to 37 AP courses.

Gaps in AP test taking were less pronounced than gaps in other parts of the funnel

Across the board, students who enrolled in at least one AP course were fairly likely to end up taking at least one AP exam. Across the groups of schools overall and in overall averages for each racial and ethnic subgroup, more than 60 percent of students who took an AP course ended up taking an AP exam.
Table 4
But there were still notable differences in the rates at which Black, Latinx, and Indigenous students took AP exams compared with their white and Asian peers. (see Table 4) For Black and Latinx students, those differences were driven by gaps in AP test taking rates at schools offering 11 to 37 AP courses. For students attending schools offering 11 to 37 AP courses, the AP test taking rates for Black, Latinx, and Indigenous high school students who enrolled in an AP course were notably lower than those for other student subgroups. The gaps, however, were not as pronounced here as in other parts of the funnel.

Gaps in AP exam passage rates for Black, Latinx, and Indigenous test-takers persist
Table 5
Even for high school students enrolled in schools offering 18 to 37 AP courses, the percentage of Black students taking an AP test who received a passing score was 30 points lower than the rate for white students. The gap in receiving a passing score was more than 50 percentage points between white and Indigenous students who took an AP test and nearly 20 percentage points between white and Latinx students who took an AP test.

It is worth highlighting that the data in Table 5 only examine the final stage of the funnel-students enrolled in an AP course who took an AP test-not the total universe of high school students. The fact that there were still such wide gaps at this level-in addition to the gaps in access to AP coursework, the gaps in AP course enrollment rates, and the gaps in AP test taking rates-demonstrates that the inequities were compounded through each stage of the funnel.

AP opportunity gaps differ across states and racial and ethnic subgroups

The funnels for high school students passing Advanced Placement tests showed consistent opportunity gaps between racial and ethnic subgroups across the country. But the authors' analysis of 2015-16 Civil Rights Data Collection data also highlights that the funnels from AP course offerings to AP test passage can take dramatically different shapes. This suggests that state and local policymakers can use different strategies to prioritize different points of the funnel within their purview. For example, these funnels could highlight that Black students in one state experienced significant differences in access to AP courses, while another state might recognize more substantial differences in the likelihood of students enrolling in AP courses. The first step, however, would be to understand where dramatic "leaky points" existed in a particular funnel.

In order to illustrate how the funnel played out for particular groups of students, the authors calculated how 1,000 high school students, overall and within racial and ethnic subgroups, would have progressed through these AP funnels. Based on the average national likelihood of enrolling in at least one AP course, the average national likelihood of taking at least one AP test, and the average national likelihood of passing at least one AP test, approximately 74 out of every 1,000 high school students-grades 9 to 12-passed an AP test in the 2015-16 school year. The same simulation in Ohio-based on average statewide course enrollment, test taking, and test passage rates-showed that approximately 50 out of every 1,000 high school students passed an AP test in 2015-16. However, for Black high school students in Ohio, only 10 out of every 1,000 students passed an AP test in 2015-16. In Washington, D.C., approximately 58 out of every 1,000 high school students passed an AP test in 2015-16, but only 25 out of every 1,000 Black high school students passed an AP test that school year.

Black students in both Washington, D.C., and Ohio were less likely to pass-or earn a qualifying score on-at least one AP test compared with the overall passage averages in those respective states. However, the shapes of the funnels in Ohio (see Table 6) and Washington, D.C. (see Table 17), illustrate significant differences in how those gaps emerged and could suggest different strategies to achieve more equitable outcomes regarding advanced coursework.
Table 6
The majority of Black students in Ohio, 51.3 percent, attended high schools offering three or fewer AP courses compared with just 22.5 percent of Black students in Washington, D.C. Even when looking solely at Black students enrolled in schools offering 11 to 37 AP courses, only 4.5 percent of the 156 Black students in Ohio passed an AP test, compared with 8.3 percent of the 277 Black students enrolled in similar schools in Washington, D.C.

To further explore how the AP funnel would look across the country, the interactive data tool below illustrates and allows comparison of what the progression through the AP funnel would look like for 1,000 students, both overall and within racial and ethnic subgroups, at a national level and also for all 50 states and Washington, D.C. Click this link to view the full interactive.
* Schools are divided into four groups based on number of AP courses they offer, to show that even with increased access there are still significant disparities in enrollment and success. The authors found that the most even division of groups was 0 to 3 AP courses, 4 to 10, 11 to 17, and 18 to 37, which best approximate 25 percent of the national student population per group.
Recommendations

This analysis makes it clear that consistent opportunity gaps existed across the country in 2015 and 2016 at every level of the Advanced Placement funnel-in which high school students had more access to AP coursework, in which students were enrolling in AP coursework, in which students were taking AP tests, and ultimately in which high school students were passing AP tests. These gaps existed across racial and ethnic student subgroups in this analysis, and other research has shown gaps along socioeconomic lines. That is why it is important for state and local policymakers to "look under the hood" to understand what factors are driving these gaps across geography and among subgroups. The different shapes of the funnels for high school students earning college credit in a particular state or district-as well as school size, organizational capacity, and available resources-may imply different investments and strategies to close opportunity gaps. To effectively expand and improve equitable advanced coursework opportunities, the Center for American Progress recommends the following actions.

Collect and track accurate and reliable data on advanced coursework

The federal government should resume collecting disaggregated school-level data on advanced coursework in the Civil Rights Data Collection.

States should include detailed disaggregated data on advanced coursework on school report cards.

State policymakers should also include this kind of information on their school report cards-for all forms of advanced coursework. Kentucky provides a good example of a state publishing significant data on how its high school students are accessing, enrolling, and performing in advanced coursework. Kentucky publicly shares extensive data related to advanced coursework, including disaggregated data on course offerings, course enrollment, course completion, number of students tested, and the number of students earning qualifying scores for AP, International Baccalaureate, and Cambridge Advanced International (CAI) coursework. The state also shares disaggregated data on dual enrollment opportunities, including course offerings, course completion, and number of students earning a qualifying grade in a dual enrollment course.

Data beyond just what kind of advanced coursework offerings are available to students are a necessary first step to ensuring that equitable and effective investments are made in ways that grow participation and success in advanced coursework and reduce opportunity gaps among high school students.

Leverage federal and state support throughout the stages of the funnel

States should develop and invest in partnership organizations that can support schools to expand offerings, provide professional development to teachers, and help students prepare for and succeed in advanced courses, not just AP courses.

States and districts should leverage available federal funding, including Title I, Title II, Title III, and Title IV of the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) and funding from the American Rescue Plan Act, to expand and improve advanced coursework offerings.

States should invest in strategies to address and elevate the rigor of all of their high school courses.

As states consider how to build and target their investments in helping more students enroll and succeed in advanced coursework, it should be noted that these investments do not need to be sequential or affect only one stage of the funnel at a time. States can and should consider a range of investments that would help simultaneously move the needle in several areas, including:

Readying students for advanced coursework in earlier grades

Expanding access to advanced coursework opportunities for all students

Removing barriers to the identification and enrollment of students in advanced coursework

Supporting students and families in signing up for and taking advanced coursework exams

Providing supports and scaffolds to teachers and students to grow the number of students earning college credit

Launching comprehensive state-level partnerships

As states are crafting policies around advanced coursework, they can look to a number of existing models and dedicated partnerships already operating around the country to expand equity in access and success for students in advanced coursework.

Investing new and existing federal funding

Under the recently authorized American Rescue Plan Act, the flexibility and size of funding will allow states to invest robustly in evidence-based programs that address learning recovery, extended summer learning and enrichment programs, and supports around the educator pipeline. As states begin to develop plans for using these funds, they should consider investing in strategies and programs that help students enroll and succeed in advanced coursework.

Prepare future high schoolers for success in advanced coursework

States and districts should work to vertically align standards critical for student success at the high school level with earlier grades to prepare students for advanced coursework.

Districts should invest in ongoing collaboration between elementary, middle, and high school staff to continually improve alignment and coordination of instructional concepts and vocabulary.

A key investment that states and school districts should pursue to reduce opportunity gaps in advanced coursework is cultivating a pipeline of students who are ready and prepared for rigorous coursework in the years leading up to their high school experience.

One strategy that districts have been investing in is vertical alignment-essentially, mapping out the skills and competencies students in higher grade levels should know and using that as the foundation for developing curricula priorities and standards all the way down to the kindergarten level. Beyond districts engaging in backward planning of priority standards or creating a profile of a graduate, vertical alignment investments can be particularly impactful in the establishment of regular communication and consistent conversations between school leaders and teachers across high schools and middle schools.

For other districts looking to stand up similar kinds of vertical collaboration efforts, Murphy said that "principal leadership and identifying teacher champions from each content area is key to getting this work off the ground." Beyond that, Murphy outlined that the other planks that support this work include "a commitment to core values of data, intentionality, and school culture-one where we regularly use common assessments and are honest and transparent about where students are and what skills need reinforcement is paramount."

Expand access to advanced coursework

States and school districts can expand access to advanced coursework by:

Making investments in statewide partnerships focused on equitably expanding advanced coursework

Working to optimize schoolwide master schedules to reduce conflicts and open up more slots for students in advanced coursework

Remaining open to leveraging technology to expand offerings, which could entail virtual offerings across schools within a district, in regional partnerships, or through high-quality state virtual schools

As schools and districts invest in getting their students ready for advanced coursework, that work is more likely to bear fruit when it is aligned with teachers' readiness to lead advanced courses and scheduling that maximizes students' availability.

Preparing teachers for success offering advanced coursework

Optimizing school scheduling to increase access to advanced coursework

Offering access to high-quality virtual advanced courses

In instances where expanding advanced coursework opportunities is particularly challenging due to low potential enrollment or staffing limitations such as no teachers being certified to teach a physics course, one approach that districts can explore is to provide access to virtual courses. This could take the form of synchronous classes across high schools, partnerships with other school districts to aggregate demand for advanced courses, or a high-quality state virtual school.

It is worth noting that there is a distinction between full-time virtual school for students and having students use a virtual model for one or two classes in their schedule. Moreover, full-time virtual schools underperform compared with blended models or traditional brick-and-mortar schools on a variety of academic outcomes.

Accessing advanced coursework opportunities through virtual models should not be the only option that students have-particularly in core subject areas-but it can expand the options available to students in certain settings. Therefore, if schools and districts are considering leveraging virtual options for students in advanced coursework, it is critical that they provide students with the necessary supports and tools, including regular interactions with their instructor and an adult facilitator physically present at their school.

Reduce barriers to enrollment in advanced coursework

States and districts should analyze data to reduce opportunities for bias in systems used to identify students for advanced courses from elementary through high school.

States and districts should implement automatic enrollment or academic acceleration policies that automatically place students with demonstrated proficiency in the subsequent highest available course.

Districts should recruit and mentor students early in their high school careers to prepare them for enrollment and success in advanced coursework.

As state policymakers and school district leaders work to prepare students for advanced coursework opportunities and expand access, another systematic policy to focus on is removing potential barriers to identifying students for and enrolling them in advanced coursework-including the role bias may play.

Enrollment gaps in academically rigorous coursework exist across the K-12 system

The enrollment gaps across racial and ethnic subgroups for students in academically advanced coursework are not limited to the high school level. Rigorous academic programs that prepare students for success in high school-level advanced coursework-such as gifted and talented programs-are known to underrepresent Black, Latinx, and Indigenous students. For example, Black and Latinx eighth-graders across the country are underrepresented in Algebra I, a known on-ramp to prepare for success in advanced courses in high school.

Subjective systems contribute to identification and enrollment gaps

Identification and enrollment of students for academically advanced coursework-at all grade levels-often relies on referrals or recommendations by a teacher or school counselor. Since these are subjective in nature, research has shown both conscious and unconscious bias can affect enrollment decisions for advanced courses. One recent study showed that school counselors were less likely to recommend Black female students for AP calculus, even in cases where they were just as prepared as other students.

Universal screening can reduce enrollment gaps

These biases can create compounding systematic and institutional barriers that keep Black, Latinx, and Indigenous students locked out of opportunities for rigorous academic instruction throughout their educational careers. Some school districts have tried to address these problems head on. For example, Broward County Public Schools in Florida began a universal screening in 2005 of all their second grade students for gifted and talented programs and ended up raising the percentage of Black students receiving gifted services by 80 percent and the percentage of Latinx students by 130 percent. Likewise, Denver Public Schools began universal screening in 2016 for gifted and talented students in kindergarten, second grade, and sixth grade and was able to double the percentage of Latinx students in gifted programs. States and districts are also exploring how to remove some of these biases and barriers at the middle and high school levels.

Josh Garcia, who is currently transitioning from his role as deputy superintendent at Washington's Tacoma Public Schools (TPS) to the superintendent role, was one of the first champions of this policy a decade ago. In 2011, when Garcia was the chief academic officer at Federal Way Public Schools (FWPS) district in Washington, he helped design an automatic enrollment policy for the district after having a number of conversations with staff and community members about biases and gatekeeping practices that were keeping BIPOC students out of advanced coursework.

Garcia noted that while FWPS served a very diverse student population, the seats in the advanced coursework classes across the district, particularly the AP classes, were disproportionately filled with white and Asian students. Proficiency data on statewide exams and course grades, however, made it clear that many BIPOC students were not enrolling in these advanced academic opportunities despite being prepared to succeed in and having access to them.

Garcia realized that a policy such as automatic enrollment could not happen in isolation and that just closing gaps in access to and even enrollment in advanced coursework was not sufficient to get students to succeed in advanced courses. He advocates that districts need to adopt a data-driven, continuous improvement approach to this work that ensures teachers and students alike receive multiple supports and tools to be set up for success.

Some of the focus areas for TPS include optimizing the professional development cycle for teachers in order to build a pipeline of prepared teachers who are able to meet student demand for advanced coursework and effectively support those students in advanced classes. Garcia also stresses the importance of preparing students to be successful in advanced coursework well before they get to high school by expanding feeder programs, which is why TPS uses universal screening for gifted and talented programs in early grades and makes sure that these programs are accessible and located near where students and their families live. Likewise, Garcia coordinates with his middle and elementary school leadership to make sure the priority standards being used at the high school level that are most critical to student success are aligned all the way back to the kindergarten level to ensure that students are getting consistent vocabulary and concept instruction throughout their educational careers. Garcia also notes that one way to make sure that more high school students take advanced coursework tests is to reduce the financial barriers for students and families, which is why TPS pays exam fees for all its students.

According to Garcia, the sum of all these efforts has been a culture change: "Students in Tacoma know about AP early on, they know they're going to have it in their high school, they know lots of students who have taken it, and they know it's going to be paid for-so that takes away some of the fear and creates the expectation that it's something for them." As Garcia notes, this work toward equitable outcomes in advanced coursework is a continuous process with much work remaining. Future priorities include making advanced coursework more accessible for students with disabilities and making sure that TPS is getting information about advanced coursework programs to families in multiple languages.

Support students and families in test taking for advanced coursework

States and districts should invest to eliminate subscription or examination fees for advanced coursework.

Districts should initiate regular conversations with families in their home languages about advanced coursework registration timelines, program availability, and cost reductions.

Create pathways for students to succeed in advanced coursework

State-level partnerships and districts should invest in professional development and communities of practice for advanced coursework instructors.

State-level partnerships and districts should create supplemental opportunities for advanced coursework students to connect with and learn from peers and experts.

As schools and districts invest in strategies to enroll more high school students in advanced coursework opportunities and support student test taking in advanced courses, they will also want to focus on the next step of the process-helping students pass advanced coursework tests. This means giving teachers and students alike the resources, supports, and scaffolds that they need to be successful.

One worthwhile investment for districts and school leaders to explore is targeted and ongoing professional development for teachers. In particular, establishing regional and statewide communities of practice and professional learning networks among advanced coursework instructors can be particularly effective in not only helping these teachers master their content and craft but also in cultivating a cadre of teacher leaders who are able to become coaches to other teachers in their local area.

Tsoutsis noted that the participating schools in a region get together at the end of school year to develop a calendar of three different Saturdays throughout the fall, winter, and spring to offer these sessions to students. The sessions are designed so as not to conflict with SAT or ACT testing dates. In a typical school year, they are held at centrally located areas in the region near public transportation to improve access, and students are offered raffle prizes as an incentive to attend. During the pandemic, these sessions were held virtually, and in some cases, students were able to have Zoom-based sessions with exam readers to get a better feel for the kinds of rubrics and evaluative methods that would be used to score their exams.

Conclusion

This data analysis-which focused on Advanced Placement courses because of the availability, scale, and comparability of the data available from across the country-highlights the scale of advanced coursework opportunity gaps for Black, Latinx, and Indigenous students that extend beyond access. Black and Indigenous students are more likely to enroll in schools offering fewer AP courses, and no matter the level of AP course offerings in a school, Black, Latinx, and Indigenous students are less likely to enroll in an AP course, take an AP test, and receive a passing score on an AP exam. These gaps extend beyond AP courses and are persistent throughout advanced coursework opportunities.

There are, however, strategies and investments at the federal, state, and local levels that can target different levels of the advanced coursework funnel or make the rigor and quality of coursework available to all students. Transparent and accessible data, creative strategies to offer more advanced courses, partnerships to build educators' capacity to successfully lead advanced courses, the fostering of a school culture with high expectations to prepare students for success, and the creation of strong connections with students and families to make the case that advanced courses are for them are all actions that can make advanced coursework more accessible and equitable for all students.

The primary data set used in this analysis was obtained from the 2015-16 survey results that were collected as part of the U.S Department of Education's biennial Civil Rights Data Collection. The 2015-16 survey sample included approximately 17,370 public school districts and 96,440 public schools across the country.

For each of the 50 states as well as Washington, D.C, the authors filtered schools to select only those that include grades 10, 11, and 12 to limit the data set to high schools and exclude middle schools that went through 9th grade. With those filters in place, the authors downloaded the full CRDC reports for all included schools on "Advanced Course Taking by Subject" (which provided overall and disaggregated enrollment counts of students in AP courses) and "Advanced Placement Course and Test Taking" (which provided overall and disaggregated enrollment counts of student test taking and test passing in an AP course).

For the states of California and Texas, a single download of the state file was not possible due to limitations in the number of schools the CRDC system can display at a time. As a result, the authors manually pulled batches of schools from both states. The authors then used SPSS, a statistical analysis program, to aggregate and restructure these batches, along with the single files from the other 48 states and Washington, D.C, into a single file with one row for each school. The final data set included 23,755 schools.

Using the combined data, the authors created weighted quartiles in which all schools in the data set were split into four groups of roughly equal student enrollments. The groups were divided by number of AP courses available at the school. The authors found that groups of 0 to 3 AP courses, 4 to 10, 11 to 17, and 18 to 37 best approximated 25 percent of the national student population per group.

To view student enrollment distribution data by the number of AP courses offered-across all 50 states and by student racial and ethnic subgroup and school locale-please click here.

About the authors

Roby Chatterji is a senior policy analyst for K-12 Education at the Center for American Progress. He previously worked at Whiteboard Advisors; Washington Partners; and as an education policy fellow for the U.S. House Committee on Education and Labor, where he worked on school infrastructure and teacher preparation policies. Chatterji received his bachelor's degree in political science and history from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill as a Morehead-Cain scholar, a master's degree in elementary education from Arizona State University, and a J.D. from the University of North Carolina.

Neil Campbell was the director of innovation for K-12 Education at the Center. He has also served as a special assistant and, later, as a chief of staff in the Office of Planning, Evaluation and Policy Development at the U.S. Department of Education. Campbell has also worked at Education Elements and the Boston Consulting Group. He earned a bachelor's degree in economics and political science from Case Western Reserve University and a master's degree in business administration from Vanderbilt University.

Abby Quirk is a policy analyst for K-12 Education at the Center. She previously worked as a research coordinator at the University of Pennsylvania and helped connect innovative schools with leading scientists through the Character Lab Research Network. Quirk received her bachelor's degree in psychology with minors in education and religious studies from Hamilton College. She also holds a master's degree in education policy from the University of Pennsylvania.

Acknowledgments

The authors of this report would like to thank several individuals and organizations for their insights, feedback, and review of this report. Khalilah Harris, acting vice president of the K-12 Education Policy team at the Center, and Scott Sargrad, deputy chief of staff for Policy and Programs at the U.S Department of Education (and former vice president of the K-12 Education Policy team at the Center), provided valuable feedback throughout the entire process.

Jessica Yin, a policy analyst for K-12 Education; Megan Ferren, a research assistant for K-12 Education; and Rasheed Malik, a senior policy analyst for Early Childhood Policy at the Center, reviewed the data analysis. Bill Rapp, art director, and Mat Brady, senior data visualization developer at the Center, helped develop the visual representations of the data analysis and interactive tools allowing for comparative analysis in student participation and performance in AP courses across states and student subgroups. Additionally, the K-12 Policy and Practice team at The Education Trust provided thoughtful feedback and review of this report as well as its ongoing research on advanced coursework that helped provide much of the background context for this report.

The authors would also like to thank the teams at Mass Insight and AdvanceKentucky who graciously shared their efforts and models to increase equitable access, participation, and performance in advanced coursework. Additionally, the authors would like to thank Virginia Barry, policy and government affairs manager at Stand for Children Washington for helping explain the history and context around the evolution of the automatic enrollment policy in the state of Washington. A special thanks to Josh Garcia, deputy superintendent at Tacoma Public Schools in the state of Washington; Nora Tsoutsis, assistant head of school at the John D. O'Bryant School in Roxbury, Massachusetts; and Regina Murphy, principal of Glasgow Middle School in Glasgow, Kentucky, for their time and willingness to talk with the authors about their work and its connection to equitably broadening participation and performance in advanced coursework.

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Closing Advanced Coursework Equity Gaps for All Students

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Even in high schools with similar levels of access to advanced coursework, Black, Latinx, and Indigenous students are less likely to be enrolled in advanced courses-and even when they are enrolled, they experience less success in these courses than their peers.

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High School Classroom Management Strategies

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High School Classroom Management Strategies

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This article provides various strategies for effective classroom management in high schools, emphasizing the importance of building strong relationships with students. It advises teachers to prioritize getting to know students personally, involving them in developing a class social contract, and using positive language when establishing rules. The article also suggests considering students' developmental phase and avoiding power struggles. Strategies such as proximity, nonverbal signals, the four questions, personal plans for improvement, call-and-response, turning behaviors around, badge/level systems, and positive notes home are discussed in detail, highlighting their advantages and clarifications for implementation. Additionally, the article mentions additional strategies like positive presuppositions, ignoring misbehavior, exchanging perspectives, working backward from student strengths, and focusing on the effect rather than the student or rules when addressing classroom management issues. Overall, the article promotes a student-centered approach that values relationships, empowerment, and positive reinforcement for effective classroom management in high school settings.

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Teacher engagement in professional learning: what makes the difference to teacher practice?

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Teacher engagement in professional learning: what makes the difference to teacher practice?

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The article examines the factors that contribute to teacher engagement in professional learning. The authors conducted a qualitative study with nine teachers who had participated in professional learning opportunities that led to changes in their teaching practices.
The authors found that teacher engagement in professional learning is influenced by a number of factors, including the following:

The perceived credibility and authenticity of the content and the person delivering the content.

The opportunity to collaborate with other teachers.

The opportunity to reflect on and apply new learning to practice.

The opportunity to receive feedback on practice.

The authors conclude that teacher engagement in professional learning is essential for improving teacher practice and student learning. They recommend that professional learning opportunities be designed to address the factors that are known to promote teacher engagement.

Additional details:

The authors found that the most important factor for teacher engagement was the perceived credibility and authenticity of the content and the person delivering the content.

The authors also found that opportunities for collaboration with other teachers and for reflection on and application of new learning to practice were also important factors for teacher engagement.

The authors conclude that professional learning opportunities should be designed to be relevant to teachers' needs, to be delivered in a way that is engaging and interactive, and to provide opportunities for teachers to reflect on and apply new learning to practice.

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Facilitative Talk: Shaping a Culture of Professional Learning Over Time

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Facilitative Talk: Shaping a Culture of Professional Learning Over Time

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The article emphasizes the significant impact that language and communication have on shaping societies, communities, and educational environments. It explains that language is not only a tool for communication but also a reflection of our beliefs, values, and identities. Language shapes our thinking, influences the culture of schools and classrooms, and impacts how teachers and students interact and learn together.

The text focuses on the importance of facilitative talk in educational settings. It highlights the role of school leaders, coaches, and teachers in using language effectively to support professional growth and create a culture of collaboration and inclusiveness. The way educators communicate with one another and with students influences the development of agency, self-efficacy, and a sense of belonging within the learning community. By using precise, supportive, and facilitative language, school leaders empower teachers to share their perspectives, develop expertise, and contribute to the overall learning environment.

The article also emphasizes the collaborative nature of facilitative talk, where the goal is to engage in genuine inquiry and work together towards common objectives. It stresses the importance of active listening, empathy, transparency, and putting aside personal agendas or biases. Creating a trusting relationship and nurturing teachers' voices are crucial for promoting their professional growth and fostering a shared commitment to improving student outcomes. Overall, the article suggests that intentional and skilled facilitation of professional conversations by school leaders is vital for sustaining teachers' learning and expertise.

In summary, the article underscores the power of language in shaping social and educational environments. It emphasizes the significance of facilitative talk in fostering collaboration, supporting professional growth, and creating inclusive learning communities. By using language effectively, educators can influence the culture of schools, promote teacher self-efficacy, and ultimately enhance student outcomes.

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The article examines the use of Facebook by teachers for professional development. The authors conducted a qualitative study of six Facebook groups for teachers of mathematics or Swedish language education. They analyzed the posts in these groups to see how teachers used Facebook to share and develop their pedagogical content knowledge (PCK).
The authors found that teachers used Facebook in a variety of ways to develop their PCK. They used Facebook to:

Ask questions about teaching practices.

Share resources and lesson plans.

Collaborate with other teachers on projects.

Reflect on their own teaching practices.

The authors also found that teachers' use of Facebook was influenced by their PCK. Teachers with more PCK were more likely to use Facebook to ask questions, share resources, and collaborate with other teachers.
The authors conclude that Facebook can be a valuable tool for teachers' professional development. They argue that Facebook can help teachers to share and develop their PCK, to connect with other teachers, and to reflect on their own teaching practices.

Additional details:

The authors found that the most common type of post in the Facebook groups was questions about teaching practices.

The authors also found that teachers were more likely to share resources and collaborate with other teachers if they knew each other offline.

The authors conclude that Facebook can be a valuable tool for teachers' professional development, but it is important to use it in a way that is supportive and collaborative.

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Edutopia has curated several effective technology resources for teachers. These resources are vetted by other educators and have proven to improve student engagement and positively impact student outcomes. These are relevant and engaging resources that will help you present your curriculum in new, fun ways for students.

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Teachers and administrators from pre-K through 12th grade named these tools their top picks for this year and beyond.

If there was ever a year for teachers to beg, borrow, and steal good ideas, this is it. All good teachers know this is how we get better, and this is a curated list of tech tools that I have begged and borrowed from others-and I didn't have to steal any of these as there has never been a year when teachers were more generous.

Based on my own teaching of college students as well as the responses of 1,461 virtual learning academy participants-pre-K to 12 teachers and administrators-to survey questions on impactful tools that I conducted from May to December 2020, and over 70 webinars and virtual learning sessions I've conducted in that time, these are the top teacher-tested tech tools I have identified. My learning has happened with my own students and through my own mistakes, and I received great ideas from educators across the U.S. and around the world.

I will continue to use these tools and recommend their use regardless of student level or how we deliver education moving forward.

Top Tech Tools for Educators

10. Parlay: For those of us who like to discuss rich texts with students, Parlay lets us connect with students remotely, facilitate discussion, and track how the dialogue builds. As students respond, Parlay shows who is contributing and where the conversation is moving as the software visually tracks student responses in a discussion web. Teachers can use built-in tools to assess the frequency of students' answers in real time even when students are not in the same room. Teachers can then spend their time on deeper level assessment of the depth of student responses, which can also be recorded.

9. Flip: One of the most popular tech tools in schools, Flip won praise from teachers across the country because of the flexibility it gives students to submit digital projects and how it effectively supports peer and teacher feedback.

8. Edpuzzle: I've used Edpuzzle for a while, but it became much more vital as more of my content shifted online. Teachers use Edpuzzle to make video clips interactive by requiring student responses, which are easy to collect and assess.

7. Pear Deck: Pear Deck does to Google Slides what Edpuzzle does to videos. Slides become interactive, and teachers are able to collect feedback immediately.

6. Prezi: I've used the virtual presentation software Prezi for years, and I appreciate a recent update that allows me to be on the same screen with the graphics, creating a more engaging presentation. Prezi offers teachers another tool to capture short lectures, explanations, or other content in a more visually appealing and personal way than as a disembodied voice or thumbnail in the bottom corner of a screen.

5. Screencastify: Every student can be Sal Khan working out problems with explanations. This tool was first recommended to me by a teacher in Kenya, who explained how Screencastify transformed her math assessments by allowing students to show what they're thinking from wherever they happen to be working. Screencastify is also valuable for reducing cheating as teachers can observe students working and explaining problems instead of just recording answers.

This has been a lifesaver for virtual collaboration. Mural allows teachers, students, and other contributors to write on virtual sticky notes and then organize and reorganize them in real time. The best in-person meetings are always the ones where the collective expertise of the room can be captured visually, and if we can't be in the same room with students-or colleagues-Mural is the next best thing. Even better, there's no need to go back and summarize or clean up evidence from the meeting. The Mural is the artifact. Many teachers are now using Jamboard in a similar way.

Created by a high school student who thought he could improve upon Kahoot!, Gimkit allows teachers to create question sets that students can answer over and over again while competing against each other, which is great for surface learning and review. Because Gimkit allows for repetition of answers and has a variety of ways for students to earn points, students remain engaged as they work at their own pace.

2. Mentimeter and Slido: These are both excellent for collecting feedback from groups, so I've ranked them together. I use these almost weekly for professional learning and in my classes. Slido allows participants to ask questions and then upvote others. There are many similar tools, but Slido is easy and free. Mentimeter allows students and teachers to collect real-time data on questions they have, in the form of word clouds, rankings, and various scales. These are great discussion starters that allow everyone to contribute to the collective wisdom of the group.

1. Learning management system: A good LMS is key to reducing stress for teachers, students, and parents. A list like this one would be counterproductive if it left your educational delivery fragmented among disparate tools, and a good LMS helps you organize everything into a one-stop shop.

I personally love Canvas and Schoology, but I know many teachers have worked miracles with Google Classroom, which is "free." I use those quotes for a reason: Google Classroom is only truly free if it is not requiring significantly more human capital in the form of time and energy than a fee-for-service platform like Canvas or Schoology. The most significant asset for managing learning in the chaos of this school year has been staying organized, and Canvas has been a lifesaver for me.

I have taught virtually, led professional learning across many time zones, delivered content asynchronously, and taught students in masks with others Zooming in due to quarantine, Covid, or personal preference. For me, nothing will ever replace in-person teaching and learning, but like many other teachers and administrators, I now know how to effectively facilitate learning in a previously unimaginable set of circumstances. This school year's desperation has driven us to explore a wide range of tools, and we can be better because of the firehose learning we have done this year. We just need a few tools to create some space for us to breathe.

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Teachers and administrators from pre-K through 12th grade named these tools their top picks for this year and beyond.

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The 20 Best Educational Apps for Students [2023]

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The 20 Best Educational Apps for Students [2023]

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This is another list of curated tech tools for teachers. Like the Edutopia list, these are apps for students that will improve student outcomes and increase student engagement.

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The 20 Best Educational Apps for Students [2023]

Try Movavi Screen Recorder:

Record high-quality educational videos

Draw while recording to create the best tutorials

Capture your screen and webcam simultaneously

How can educators best prepare themselves to effectively teach their students - both in-person and virtually? Let's explore must-have technology for teachers to help you succeed in 2023 and beyond!

Movavi Screen Recorder offers a range of opportunities for teachers and students. Educators can use it to record dynamic, engaging lessons with lots of visual aids and an inlaid video of the teacher presenting the materials in the video. Along with enhancing presentation capabilities for teachers, it can also empower students to create digital video projects that they can be proud of. The program includes basic video-editing capabilities, and it allows users to export high-resolution 4K videos, making it a prime choice for students and teachers.

At Movavi, we're committed to providing you with verified information only. Here's what we do to ensure this:

When selecting products to include in our reviews, we research both demand and popularity.

All products mentioned in this article have been tested by Movavi Content Team.

When testing, we aim to highlight the best features of a product and what it's best suited for.

We study user reviews from popular review platforms and make use of this information when writing our product reviews.

We collect feedback from our users and analyze their opinions of Movavi software as well as products from other companies.

Technology for teachers: The best tools to help students succeed

Best for: creating virtual learning experiences on a mobile device

OS: iOS, Android

Price: free account, varying license costs and one-time $10 cost per student

App Store rating: 1.3 out of 5, 118.8K reviews

Google Play rating: 1.9 out of 5, 43.6K reviews

Schoology is a mobile app with a suite of classroom technology tools for educators. The platform gives teachers the liberty to develop and manage lessons and courses, participate in interactive video chats, collaborate with other educators and students, create activities, and accept assignments - all on a mobile device. It includes multiple technology tools in a single app to help students learn from anywhere - even if they don't have a laptop or desktop.
Download Schoology for iOS Download Schoology for Android

Tips for choosing technology tools for the classroom

With so many options available to enhance online and in-person classrooms, how do you choose the best one(s) for you? Here are a few questions to ask yourself to help you make the best decision for your needs.

What are your goals for the class? What are you hoping to achieve in this course, semester, or school year? Think about specific lessons you want to teach and skills you want students to gain. As you think of these, make a list of the technological tools and programs that will directly contribute to those goals.

Which features does the program include? If you're looking at screen-recording software, for example, which one will allow your students to record themselves and their screens to turn in polished video projects? Will they need to learn a totally separate program to edit their projects later?

What is your budget? Free tools are great, but not all of them are truly free. Look at the features included in the free versions of each program, as opposed to the premium versions. And, as you consider pricing, remember that a lifetime license may cost a little bit more now, but could save you a lot in the long run.

How intuitive is the tool to learn? Finally, you want to ensure that the tool you choose is easy to use. You'll need to be able to use it well and help your students learn to use it, too. And, when something goes wrong, you'll want to know that you have a lot of resources and support available to help you get things back on track.

You should hopefully now have all the info you need to choose the best technology to build a better learning environment for your students. Try out a few of these tools and see how they can enhance your virtual and in-person lessons. And, if you haven't decided which one to start with, why not check out Movavi Screen Recorder today?

Frequently asked questions

What technology do teachers use?

Some of the most popular technology tools for teachers are video-sharing and screen-recording programs, screencasting programs, virtual classrooms, chat programs, and project management software.

How can technology help teachers?

Technology helps teachers in multiple ways, including:

Streamlining lesson planning and development

Improving student engagement

Tracking and assessing student progress

Improving social and emotional skills

What technology tools do teachers use?

The top technology tools for teachers are:

We've covered the top 20 technology tools in this article, so check out the full guide if you want to learn more.

Have questions?

If you can't find the answer to your question, please feel free to contact our Support Team.

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20 Best Technology Tools for Teachers [2023] – Movavi

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Looking for technology tools for educators? In this article, we cover the best tech tools for teachers to help effectively teach their students.

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20 judgments a teacher makes in 1 minute and 28 seconds

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20 judgments a teacher makes in 1 minute and 28 seconds

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Deborah Loewenberg Ball, an expert in elementary school math instruction, conducted research on the judgment calls teachers make throughout the day, particularly regarding student behavior. She highlighted a specific moment in her classroom where racism and sexism unintentionally surfaced. The incident involved two black girls, Aniyah and Toni, discussing a math problem. Toni's reaction seemed taunting, causing potential disciplinary actions. Loewenberg Ball presented three common teacher responses, all of which excluded Toni from the discussion. She emphasized the connection between these small judgments and the disproportionate suspension rates of black girls. However, in this instance, the teacher recognized the importance of Toni's question and fostered a positive classroom environment where students learned from their mistakes. Loewenberg Ball argued for teacher training that addresses such judgment calls directly and promotes teaching practices to counteract implicit biases.

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Deborah Loewenberg Ball, an expert in elementary school math instruction and professor of education at the University of Michigan, still teaches in the classroom, in part for research purposes. She recently counted the frequent judgment calls a teacher is asked to make during the course of the day. Some are about instruction. Many more concern student behavior.

In a one-minute 28-second period that was filmed in her classroom, Loewenberg Ball counted 20 separate micro moments when she had to decide how to react. She calls them "discretionary spaces," and in a lecture at the American Educational Research Association annual meeting in April 2018, Loewenberg Ball put a scientist's microscope on discretionary space #19 to give us all a lesson in how racism and sexism unintentionally creep into the classroom.

"Teaching can have very powerful amazing effects," said Loewenberg Ball. "It can also do incredible damage. Even in a moment."

Moment #19 begins with one of her students standing where a teacher usually does, at the front of the classroom with a dry-erase marker at the board. Aniyah, round-faced and earnest, perhaps diffident, starts to explain how she solved a problem about fractions. "I put one-seventh -."

Click on the video to see the short classroom scene, which begins at 1:23:05.

Her classmate Toni interrupts, "Did she say one-seventh?" Toni's voice climbs upwards as if to emphasize her disbelief. Someone off camera whispers, "Shhh." Toni appears muscular, tall, lean and confident. Both girls are black, as are 22 of the class's 30 students.

Aniyah addresses Toni with a calm "yeah," and turns back to the board to finish her explanation. "Because there's seven equal parts like one, two, three, four, five, six and then seven," she said, positioning her thumb and forefinger like pincers as she counts up the number line from zero past two. It's a magnificent, clear explanation. Only the answer is wrong.
Related: This program is proven to help moms and babies-so why aren't we investing in it more?
The students haven't been told yet that the correct answer is 1/3. Loewenberg Ball can see from their worksheets that 23 of the students, like Aniyah, haven't solved it right.

Toni's hand shoots up and the teacher calls upon her. Toni smiles and plays with her hair. "Why did...," Toni hesitates.

"Go ahead, it's your turn," Loewenberg Ball says.

Toni repeats, "Why did you pick one-seventh?" To my white, middle-aged ears, the pitch of Toni's voice sounds like she's taunting Aniyah. "You did not," says another student across the room. Toni starts laughing, plays with her hair more, and joyfully points at the off-camera student as if they're in on some joke together. More laughter and hair fiddling ensue.

What would you do in that moment?

Three options teachers commonly choose in the classroom are these, according to Loewenberg Ball:

1. "Toni, when you're ready to participate appropriately by not playing with your hair and laughing and have a question to ask, I will come back to you."

2. "You need to be a better listener, Toni. Aniyah already explained why she picked one-seventh. Who else has a real question for Aniyah?"

3. Or the ubiquitous, "What do others think?"
Related: How much would it cost to get all students up to average?
Loewenberg Ball maps out the consequences to each of these options like a chess game. The first accuses Toni of being off-task. The second accuses Toni of not listening and asking a bad question. All three exclude Toni from the discussion.

"She is seen as being a distraction, maybe mocking Aniyah and playing with her hair," said Loewenberg Ball.

Loewenberg Ball draws a connection between teacher judgments in small moments like this and why black girls are disproportionately suspended. One of six students in public schools is black, but they account for more than half of girls who are suspended multiple times.

"It is not hard to imagine how Toni could easily be asked to be sent away from the group, or not talk, or be sent out in the hall. And if she's out in the hall, she's not learning," said Loewenberg Ball.

Toni was actually one of the few students in the class to arrive at the right answer of 1/3 on her worksheet.

Loewenberg Ball points out that Toni's question - why 1/7? - is the key question to ask because it gets to the heart of the lesson, learning how to count the intervals on a number line between whole numbers and not every tick mark on the line. But it can take a veteran math educator who is familiar with students' common misunderstandings to interpret Toni's mathematical question. "Toni's actually listening very closely to a classmate's presentation," said Loewenberg Ball. "There is no other question that would have been a better question to ask at that moment."

The actual classroom played out like a fairy tale. Loewenberg Ball publicly acknowledged the importance of Toni's question. Aniyah explained her faulty reasoning a second time and it prompted a group discussion that clarified the interval confusion for most students. Toni was one of two students who went back up to the board to model how to locate a fraction on the number line and explain it. On the students' exit tickets at the end of class, 25 out of 30 were able to answer correctly and explain their reasoning.

Aniyah reflected in her notebook: "I did well on my goal today because my goal was to share my ideas with the class and I did. I went up to the board and shared my idea with the class on fractions."
Related: First-gen students at elite colleges go from lonely and overwhelmed to empowered and provoking change
I was worried that Toni was teasing Aniyah and I wanted to defend the classroom's underdog but it seems like the experience of going up to the board and sharing her mistake actually make Aniyah feel more self-confident.

Classmates benefited in two ways from Lowenberg Ball's praise of Toni. They got the opportunity to see black girls as brilliant. Given the sexist and racist society we live in, those opportunities are rare. And the class had a great math discussion that they might not have otherwise had.

Loewenberg Ball makes the argument that teacher training ought to address these constant judgment calls directly. "We need to scrutinize habits that we've come to assume are just neutral practices that aren't neutral at all," she said.

Even more, she said, it's not enough to see when teachers' implicit biases are creeping into the classroom. She called upon education researchers to develop a "repertoire" of teaching practices that could help counter racist habits.

"The challenge for us," she told the researchers, "is not to leave to chance that teachers will exercise good discretion."

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20 judgments a teacher makes in 1 minute and 28 seconds

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Get important education news and analysis delivered straight to your inbox Deborah Loewenberg Ball, an expert in elementary school math instruction and professor of education at the University of Michigan, still teaches in the classroom, in part for research purposes. She recently counted the frequent judgment calls a teacher is asked to make during the course of the day.

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STEM by Choice: Embedding Career Challenges in Classrooms and Communities

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STEM by Choice: Embedding Career Challenges in Classrooms and Communities

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According to a recent report by the 114th Partnership, it is projected that around 20 million students will graduate by 2020, but a majority of them will lack experience in tackling real-world problems. Despite 77 percent of high school students expressing a desire to simulate real-world scenarios, only 12 percent have had the opportunity to do so. Additionally, there has been a steady decline in the number of publicly offered internships, with a 10 percent decrease since 2014. To address this issue, the ASCD's STEM by Choice program offers a Universal Guide that aims to support STEM integration in grades 6-12 classrooms and schools. The program includes Spark 101 STEM Skills Videos, which provide students with authentic problem-solving experiences based on real professional challenges. To participate in this hands-on experience, educators are encouraged to learn more about the STEM by Choice program and download the ASCD STEM by Choice Universal Guide.

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Douglas Hodum is a biology and environmental science teacher at Mt. Blue Campus in Farmington, Maine. He has been teaching for 16 years and served as the science department head from 2008 to 2016. In 2010, he was named to the third cohort of the Maine Governor's Academy for Teacher Leadership in Mathematics and Science, and in 2013, he was named a Hope Street Group National Teacher Fellow. Hodum has also served as the vice president and president of the Maine Science Teachers Association. In 2016, Hodum was named as an Albert Einstein Distinguished Educator Fellow, where he served in a personal legislative office and a committee office on Capitol Hill. He is currently the District II Director for the National Science Teachers Association.

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STEM by Choice: Embedding Career Challenges in Classrooms and Communities

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According to a recent report published by the 114th Partnership, Some 20 million students will graduate by 2020. Most will never have tackled a real-world problem. Although 77 percent of high school s

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Rise to the Challenge: Designing Rigorous Learning That Maximizes Student Success

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Rise to the Challenge: Designing Rigorous Learning That Maximizes Student Success

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This webinar addresses the issue of students disengaging from the classroom due to finding the lessons unchallenging and uninteresting. Drawing from current research and extensive classroom experience, Jeff C. Marshall, author of the book "Rise to the Challenge: Designing Rigorous Learning That Maximizes Student Success," provides practical strategies, replicable examples, and reflective exercises for educators to help students embrace the importance of challenge, complexity, and the potential it holds.

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Rise to the Challenge: Designing Rigorous Learning That Maximizes Student Success

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Do you sense that some students have mentally “checked out” of your classroom? Look closely and you’ll probably find that these students are bored by lessons that they view as unchallenging and uninte

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Your Students, My Students, Our Students: Rethinking Equitable and Inclusive Classrooms

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Your Students, My Students, Our Students: Rethinking Equitable and Inclusive Classrooms

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This webinar, presented by authors Lee Ann Jung and Nancy Frey, addresses the need for authentic and equitable inclusion in education. The webinar is intended for all educators, not just those specializing in special education or general education. Drawing from their own experiences, the presenters highlight examples of empowerment and success in creating inclusive classrooms. The webinar is based on their book "Your Students, My Students, Our Students: Rethinking Equitable and Inclusive Classrooms" and explores five essential disruptions to the current special education practices, including establishing a culture of equity and inclusion, rethinking service delivery and the least restrictive environment, leveraging the strengths of all educators, promoting collaboration in instruction and intervention, and honoring the aspirations of each student in planning.

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Lee Ann Jung is clinical professor at San Diego State University, and an international consultant providing support to schools in the areas of universal design, inclusion, intervention, and mastery-based assessment and grading. She leads the International Inclusive Leadership Program, a professional learning and graduate program for educators, in partnership with San Diego State University. Having worked in the special education field since 1994, Jung has served in the roles of teacher, administrator, consultant, and professor and director of international school partnerships at the University of Kentucky. She has authored 6 books and more than 50 journal articles and book chapters on the topics of inclusion, assessment and grading, and educating students with disabilities.

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Your Students, My Students, Our Students: Rethinking Equitable and Inclusive Classrooms

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To realize authentic and equitable inclusion, we must relentlessly and collectively pursue change. This webinar isn't for "special educators" or "general educators," but rather for all educators. Auth

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Disrupting Poverty: Five Powerful Classroom Practices

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Disrupting Poverty: Five Powerful Classroom Practices

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An informative webinar by Kathleen Budge and William Parrett, based on their book "Disrupting Poverty: Five Powerful Classroom Practices." Drawing on extensive research and real classroom experiences, the authors debunk harmful myths about poverty and emphasize the importance of educators taking action to counter its detrimental effects on students. The webinar explores the five classroom practices found in successful high-poverty schools, including fostering caring relationships, setting high expectations with support, promoting equity, ensuring professional accountability for learning, and demonstrating the courage to take action. Participants will gain practical tools and strategies to help students overcome the cycle of poverty, fostering personal reflection and collaboration with colleagues.

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Disrupting Poverty: Five Powerful Classroom Practices

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Drawing on decades of research and myriad authentic classroom experiences, Kathleen Budge and William Parrett dispel harmful myths, explain the facts, and urge educators to act against the debilitatin

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Dispelling Misconceptions About English Language Learners: Research-Based Ways to Improve Instruction

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Dispelling Misconceptions About English Language Learners: Research-Based Ways to Improve Instruction

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The 2015 Every Student Succeeds Act has increased the focus on English Language Learners (ELLs) as their achievement and progress in English proficiency are now part of accountability measures. This means that teachers across subjects and grade levels must be equipped with strategies to help ELLs attain academic English proficiency efficiently while also learning important content. Barbara Gottschalk, author of the ASCD book "Dispelling Misconceptions About English Language Learners: Research-Based Ways to Improve Instruction," will draw on research and classroom observations to provide educators with the knowledge to enhance their existing experience working with ELLs.

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Barbara Gottschalk, as a full-time, in-the-trenches educator, taught English language learners from first graders to graduate students in five states in three very different parts of the United States. After teaching English in Japan early in her career, she earned an M.A. in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) as well as an MBA.

She was an invited speaker on ELL issues for the 30th Annual High Schools That Work Development Conference and has presented numerous times at the International TESOL conference and at conferences for state affiliates MITESOL, Ohio TESOL, and Kansas TESOL. A two-year stint representing English language learner interests as one of 160 fellows in America Achieves, a national educator organization, elevated her voice further. Gottschalk wrote and implemented many successful grants for her school and has served as a grant reviewer for TESOL, her professional organization, as well as for the U.S. Department of Education's Office of English Language Acquisition. Her first book, Get Money for Your Classroom: Easy Grant Writing Ideas that Work, was published by Routledge in 2017.

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Dispelling Misconceptions About English Language Learners: Research-Based Ways to Improve Instruction

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The 2015 Every Student Succeeds Act puts an even greater focus on ELLs because both their achievement and their progress toward English proficiency are included in accountability measures. That means

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The New Science of Learning: Effective Approaches for Older Students with Autism and Attention Disorders

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The New Science of Learning: Effective Approaches for Older Students with Autism and Attention Disorders

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Innovative leaders in special education are revolutionizing approaches to support older students dealing with ASD, attention deficits, and related behavioral challenges that hinder learning. By considering the latest findings in brain research, we can explore ways to personalize services and assist these students in improving their focus on verbal instructions, developing self-regulation abilities, meeting deadlines, and achieving their educational objectives. Gain valuable insights and actionable guidance on implementing effective practices for educating middle and high school students diagnosed with these disorders, with a strong emphasis on achieving positive outcomes.

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Martha S. Burns Ph.D.

Scientific Learning Corp & Northwestern University

Change agents - leaders in special education- are transforming ways to help older students cope with ASD, attention deficits and related problem behavior that interferes with learning. What does the latest brain research suggest about how we can individualize services, help these students pay closer attention to oral instruction, develop self-regulation skills, complete assignments on time and meet their educational goals? Get insights and practical advice about results-oriented practices for educating middle and high school students who have been diagnosed with these disorders.
Please note: Certificates of attendance and/or continuing education opportunities are not available for on-demand webinars. Any references in the videos only apply to the live webinars attendees.

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The New Science of Learning: Effective Approaches for Older Students with Autism and Attention Disorders

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Change agents - leaders in special education- are transforming ways to help older students cope with ASD, attention deficits and related problem behavior that interferes with learning. What does the latest brain research suggest about how we can individualize services, help these students pay closer attention to oral instruction, develop self-regulation skills, complete assignments on [...]

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Navigating Social and Emotional Learning from the Inside Out

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The field of social and emotional learning (SEL) is expanding, with educators focusing on helping students develop skills beyond academics. Stephanie Jones, a professor at Harvard Graduate School of Education, presented a webinar discussing the concept of "kernels of practice" drawn from leading SEL programs in elementary schools. She highlighted a comprehensive guide to 25 evidence-based programs, offering insights into curricular content and program features. The webinar explored how educators can compare and adapt SEL programs for various settings, including out-of-school-time programs. Concrete examples of skills and instructional methods applicable to K-6 settings were provided.

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Navigating Social and Emotional Learning from the Inside Out

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The field of social and emotional learning (SEL) is rapidly expanding as educators bring a sharper focus to helping children build skills beyond academic knowledge. School climate initiatives, antibul

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All Learning Is Social and Emotional: Helping Students Develop Essential Skills for the Classroom and Beyond

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All Learning Is Social and Emotional: Helping Students Develop Essential Skills for the Classroom and Beyond

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The webinar discusses how social and emotional learning (SEL) is not limited to separate programs but is intertwined with all aspects of education. Nancy Frey, coauthor of the book "All Learning Is Social and Emotional: Helping Students Develop Essential Skills for the Classroom and Beyond," presented a webinar introducing a new model for achieving equity through SEL. The model emphasizes the importance of both structural and interpersonal elements in creating a positive learning experience.

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Although social and emotional learning (SEL) is most familiar as compartmentalized programs separate from academics, the truth is, all learning is social and emotional. What teachers say, the values we express, the materials and activities we choose, and the skills we prioritize all influence how students think, see themselves, and interact with content and with others.

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All Learning Is Social and Emotional: Helping Students Develop Essential Skills for the Classroom and Beyond

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Although social and emotional learning (SEL) is most familiar as compartmentalized programs separate from academics, the truth is, all learning is social and emotional. What teachers say, the values w

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Motivating and Managing Difficult Students: A Discipline with Dignity Approach

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Motivating and Managing Difficult Students: A Discipline with Dignity Approach

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This engaging webinar presented by Allen Mendler explores effective strategies for motivating and managing difficult students. Traditional disciplinary methods often worsen their behavior, so it's crucial to change our attitude and perception towards these students. By addressing their unfulfilled needs for attention, connection, competence, or control, we can encourage them to change their self-defeating attitudes and behaviors. The webinar emphasizes the importance of strong relationships, defusing inappropriate behavior with dignity, relevance in teaching, fostering students' belief in their capabilities, involving students in decision-making, utilizing effective discipline techniques, and creating a fun learning environment.

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In this Webinar

Students who are hard to reach, uninterested, or disruptive can be tough to motivate and rarely respond well to traditional methods of discipline. In fact, methods like detention, suspension, removing privileges, and even rewards often make things worse. In this engaging webinar presented by Allen Mendler, coauthor of Discipline with Dignity, 4th Edition, we will look at how making simple changes in our own attitude and perception (such as viewing a "stubborn" student as "determined") can lead to major changes in the behavior and attitude of our difficult students. The goal is getting them to want to change their self-defeating attitudes and behavior, which can be accomplished by understanding and addressing their unfulfilled needs for attention, connection, competence, or control. The webinar will give an overview and examples of the keys to effective discipline and motivation and will focus on how to make your classroom a welcoming place that emphasizes the importance of:

Learn and Connect With Peers

Join us for one of our upcoming live events to continue learning while having the opportunity to connect with educators from around the world!

ASCD empowers educators to achieve excellence in learning, teaching, and leading so that every child is healthy, safe, engaged, supported, and challenged.

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Motivating and Managing Difficult Students: A Discipline with Dignity Approach - ASCD

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
In this Webinar Students who are hard to reach, uninterested, or disruptive can be tough to motivate and rarely respond well to traditional methods of discipline. In fact, methods like detention, suspension, removing privileges, and even rewards often make things worse.

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What We Say and How We Say It Matter: Teacher Talk that Improves Student Learning and Behavior

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What We Say and How We Say It Matter: Teacher Talk that Improves Student Learning and Behavior

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In this webinar featuring Mike Anderson, author of "What We Say and How We Say It Matter: Teacher Talk That Improves Student Learning and Behavior," educators will discover the impact of their language habits on student engagement and learning. Despite using well-intentioned phrases like praising effort or setting expectations, these statements can inadvertently lead to student disengagement. The webinar aims to help educators identify common language patterns that may not align with their positive goals for students and offers alternative approaches. Additionally, it provides a process for transforming language habits to better support student learning and align with educators' intentions.

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In this Webinar

Have you ever said to a student, "I love the way you're working so hard!"? How about, "Here are the three things I'll be looking for in this next piece of work,"? Or perhaps you've said, "If you all work really hard for the next 30 minutes, we'll do something fun at the end of class!" You probably have-we all have. Even though these statements (among many others) are used with the best of intentions, they might actually lead students to disengage and learn less.

Learn and Connect With Peers

Join us for one of our upcoming live events to continue learning while having the opportunity to connect with educators from around the world!

ASCD empowers educators to achieve excellence in learning, teaching, and leading so that every child is healthy, safe, engaged, supported, and challenged.

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What We Say and How We Say It Matter: Teacher Talk that Improves Student Learning and Behavior - ASCD

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In this Webinar Have you ever said to a student, "I love the way you're working so hard!"? How about, "Here are the three things I'll be looking for in this next piece of work,"? Or perhaps you've said, "If you all work really hard for the next 30 minutes, we'll do something fun at the end of class!"