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75 digital learning tools and apps teachers can use to support formative assessment and instruction in the classroom

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In this section you will learn about 20 active learning activities. Explore the Venn diagram below to find out which activities may work in small or large classes, and which ones may be appropriate for individual work.

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MrNussbaum.com is a kids website that features over 10,000 online and printable activities including over 400 games, tutorials, simulations, videos, interactive maps, research tools, and much more for kids ages 5-14. Established in 2003!

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- Print out little flash cards- one side vocab word one side definition
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When I taught seventh grade language arts, one of my favorite things to teach was S.E. Hinton's book The Outsiders. Every year, we began the unit with a discussion about the cliques that formed in students' lives, how these groups interacted, the unwritten rules that governed their behavior, and what happened when groups clashed or people formed relationships across group lines. After we did some reflecting, writing, and talking, we were ready to start the book.

The reading went fine, more or less. Some chapters we did in class (I would read to them, then they would read silently), and others at home. Some students became as absorbed in the novel as I'd hoped they would; others, not so much. Predictably, some fell behind in the book like they did with all assigned reading.

I checked students' progress with occasional quizzes, we did some work on plot and characters, setting and theme, and then, after a unit test over the whole book-containing mostly questions that asked students to identify characters, setting, and key plot points-we spent nearly three class periods watching Francis Ford Coppola's movie version of the book. And I got to drool over Matt Dillon in the movie's opening scene again and again and again. From start to finish, the whole unit took about three weeks.

In retrospect, I'm not sure why it was my favorite. Seriously. I mean, even though I loved the book, my students' response to it was mostly lukewarm. Maybe it was just the idea of teaching it that I loved. Maybe it was the connections I was able to make to the stuff students dealt with on a day-to-day basis. I don't know. I taught that book a few times, and even though I looked forward to it every time, I always finished the unit a little unsatisfied.

And it's only now, years later, that I'm starting to understand that dissatisfaction: I can't say with any confidence that my students actually learned something from that unit. Upon deeper reflection, I'm not confident that any of my students learned anything of lasting value from at least half the lessons I taught.

This is a hard pill to swallow, because I wasn't half bad as a teacher. I had decent relationships with my students and I believe most of them had good experiences in my classroom, but real, durable learning? I can't say how much of that actually happened.

I don't love admitting that.

But at least now I understand why my teaching didn't produce a lot of actual learning: I never set clear, measurable learning targets.

Things would have been so different if I'd known about backward design.

When teachers talk to each other about the stuff they're teaching, they often say things like this:
"What novels do you do in 8th grade?""Oh that'll be perfect. I can use this when I teach the American Revolution!"
"I don't think I can fit that in; we're doing moon phases next month."

We tend to talk about our teaching plans in terms of the broad topics we cover. This shorthand is practical; we're not going to drill down into specific skill and knowledge objectives while waiting our turn at the bagel table. But when I think about the lessons I gave my students, the ones I observed in my colleagues' classrooms, and the work I've seen my own children do, I think this shorthand might be a pretty fair representation of what many of us are still doing: churning out lessons that keep students busy with our content without ever getting clear about what we want them to learn.

Instead of starting with a topic, we'd do better if we start with an end goal, and that's where backward design comes in.

Traditional vs. Backward Planning

Traditional Lesson Design

For many years, teachers have been planning lessons and units of instruction like this:

Step 1: Identify a topic or chunk of content that needs to be covered.

Step 2: Plan a sequence of lessons to teach that content.

Step 3: Create an assessment to measure the learning that should have taken place in those lessons.

Notice that in this approach, the assessment is created after the lessons are planned. Sometimes it isn't created until most of those lessons have already taken place. The assessment is kind of an afterthought, a check to see if students were paying attention to the stuff we taught them.

For most of my teaching career, this is how I planned. It's presumably how most of my colleagues planned. I believe it's still how many teachers plan.

So what's wrong with it? Well, when we plan this way, we're more likely to include content and activities that have questionable value. When teaching the American Revolution, for example, if our goal is just to "teach about the American Revolution," we can throw in anything that has any relation to that topic: a coloring page of the Boston Tea Party, a colonial flag craft project, or a worksheet where students unscramble words like minuteman, independence, and Hancock.

This random approach creates two problems.

The first and most important problem is a lack of durable, transferable learning. One reason so many of us don't remember much of what we learned in school is that we learned it through this haphazard, topic-driven approach. These random activities are taking up precious time that could be spent on much more valuable stuff.

The other is poor student engagement. Our students know when they're being asked to do something pointless. If they don't see the relevance of what they're learning or a direct line between the content of your course and a desirable outcome, they'll tune it out. Sure, many students will do what you ask anyway, because they want good grades and the benefits that come from them. But they're not learning. If you don't believe me, ask them.

Backward Design

In their book Understanding by Design, which was originally published in 1998, Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe introduced us to backward design, an approach to instructional planning that starts with the end goal, then works backward from there. The "full" version of Wiggins and McTighe's original approach is pretty complex and can be time-consuming to implement. If you're ready for that, I recommend digging into their book. For now, though, I'm just going to share the most basic version of backward design.

Here are the steps:

Step 1: Identify what students should know and be able to do by the end of the learning cycle.

Step 2: Create an assessment to measure that learning.

Step 3: Plan a sequence of lessons that will prepare students to successfully complete the assessment.

The difference in order is significant: Plan the assessment first, then plan only lessons that will contribute to student success on that assessment.

I was first introduced to this concept in my sixth year of teaching, and the genius of it completely blew me away. I used it when planning my next unit and experienced the biggest spike in student success I'd ever seen. On top of that, I was actually excited about teaching the lessons I had planned. For the first time, it felt like none of my class was wasted; everything actually mattered. There was something a lot more satisfying about doing things this way.

Let's take a look at an example to illustrate the difference between a unit planned the traditional, topic-driven way, and the same unit planned with backward design.

Before and After: The Lunar Cycle

The Before, Where the Final Product is a Test

At some point in their school careers, students study the phases of the moon. One pretty typical way to teach this is as follows:

A lecture or video about the phases of the moon, followed by a worksheet to label the phases.

An interactive activity like scraping the filling out of Oreos to represent the lunar phases.

Following a teacher's sample, creating a physical model of the moon phases using something like styrofoam balls.

A unit test that requires labelling the phases of the moon from memory and answering multiple-choice questions about the lunar cycle, eclipses, and seasons.

In many classrooms, teachers also have students track the appearance of the moon over the course of a month, so that might be added as well.

Following this plan, a teacher would feel pretty satisfied that they "covered" the topic of moon phases. But if we look at the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS), the standard relating to moon phases says that grade 6-8 students will:

" Develop and use a model of the Earth-sun-moon system to describe the cyclic patterns of lunar phases, eclipses of the sun and moon, and seasons" ( MS-ESS1-1).

Note the language here: Students are meant to develop a model, then use it to describe these patterns. But in the plan above, students merely copied a model, and they didn't use it to describe anything; even if the model required some written captioning to explain what was going on, because the model was a copy, it can't be safely said that students were really the ones describing the system.

Then there's the test. If we assume that a large portion of a student's grade is based on the test, then students are not being measured on their achievement of that standard. The standard does not require students to memorize the phases of the moon. Nor does it ask them to "demonstrate knowledge" of how the whole system works. The standard wants students to develop a model and use it to describe the system.

It would be easy to blow off this distinction, to say Bah, same difference. The test asks students a lot of questions that would show an understanding of these concepts, so we're covered.

But not really. Asking a person to develop a model is a much higher-order task than asking them to copy a model. Describing systems and patterns is way more challenging than selecting the correct description.

Developing models and explaining things is the work of real scientists: They notice phenomena, study it, then figure out how to represent those phenomena in order to make it clear to other people. To say, "Look at this! It's interesting and it explains why things are the way they are!"

And that's exactly what the NGSS authors had in mind: "Any education that focuses predominantly on the detailed products of scientific labor-the facts of science-without developing an understanding of how those facts were established or that ignores the many important applications of science in the world misrepresents science and marginalizes the importance of engineering." (National Research Council, 2012, p. 43).

In other words, a superior education will teach students to think and practice like scientists. If we don't plan learning experiences that make that possible, we're giving them a sub-par education.

The After, Where the Final Product is a Model and a Presentation

So if we re-do this unit plan with backward design, we'll need to start by developing an assessment that would measure success with that standard. That means the assessment would not be a test where students merely label the moon phases, but a student-developed model of the moon phases along with some kind of presentation where students use that model to explain lunar phases, eclipses, and seasons.

When designing this final assessment, it's essential that the teacher crafts a rubric that clearly outlines specific, high standards for both the model and presentation. The rubric should list criteria for the accuracy and functionality of the model, plus the quality of the presentation itself. Here's an example of what that might look like:

With a good rubric in place, we then work backwards to determine what lessons students need to do excellent work on the final assessment.

Direct Instruction: Students still need to know the basics of the lunar system. Memorization is not the goal, so we're not grading for that, but students do need to know the information well enough to explain it and use the right vocabulary, so we can keep the lecture or video from the original plan. And having them work with the information a bit on some kind of worksheet or with some kind of online practice is fine, but I wouldn't give points for this work. If you need to motivate students to do it, require them to demonstrate proficiency (like scoring at least 80% on the match game with a set of Quizlet flashcards) before they can move on to the next step.

Active processing with models: Next, give students a chance to work with a model so that they experience the cycle in action. This will deepen their understanding of the earth-sun-moon system, which will better prepare them to give their own presentations. Something like this interactive model from CK-12 allows students to manipulate the time of day and the position of the moon to see how these variables change what we see in the sky. Working in groups, students could use the simulator to answer questions about the moon's appearance depending on what phase it's in and the time of day, then transition into making and checking predictions based on those variables.

Presentation practice: If students are going to do well on the final presentation, they'll need practice in explaining the lunar cycle in their own words. Using an existing model (such as the interactive mentioned in the previous step), have students explain the lunar phases, including information about the seasons and eclipses, to a partner or small group. Ask the listening partners to "coach" the presenter if their description has any holes or inaccuracies. Hearing their peers explain the system, along with attempting the explanation themselves, will help them use the language of the lunar cycle more fluently.

Model development: Now students begin developing their own models. The standard does not specify that this has to be a physical model, so you could offer students choice: The model could very well be made with styrofoam balls, but it could also be a hand-drawn diagram, a slideshow presentation, an animated video, a children's book, or even a short skit they present to the class or record on video. Many of these options, like the children's book, include the "presentation" piece right along with the model. Give students time in class to work on these models; this will ensure that they do their own work and will allow you to give feedback if a student is heading in the wrong direction. Remind them regularly that the explanation of the model is nearly half their grade, so they should consider scripting that out if their presentation is going to be "live."

Model presentations: Finally, students present their models. If you have a lot of students opt to give a "live" presentation this could take several class periods, which could be pretty mind-numbing since the subject matter is exactly the same for everyone. To cut down on that overall time, only have students present to the whole class if the class is actually participating in the model (like in some sort of skit or simulation). Otherwise, students can record their presentations on video or present to you one-on-one while their classmates work on something else independently.

With this "after" version, every lesson is designed to prepare students to give excellent presentations at the end. The whole time, they are using the lunar cycle vocabulary, correcting each other's misconceptions, and just like scientists, thinking about how to explain concepts to other people.

Some Questions About Your Lessons

Okay, so we've looked very closely at one small unit for a middle school science class. Now, take this same process and apply it to the things you teach.

1. What exactly do your standards require? Do they ask students to memorize and identify facts, or do they ask them to describe, explain, analyze, or create? (It's probably the latter.)

2. If it's the latter, how closely do your assessments measure those standards? Do they actually require students to do the describing, explaining, analyzing, or creating (which would likely require them to write, present, or create some product), or do they merely ask them to recognize when someone else does it in the form of an answer on a multiple-choice test?

3. Do you need to adjust your assessments so they more closely align with the standards?

4. If you do, the next step is to rework the lessons that lead up to that assessment. Does every lesson contribute to student success on that assessment? Could some of your lessons be omitted because they don't connect directly to the assessment? Are you missing anything? For example, if your assessment requires students to write in academic language and support their ideas with evidence, you should include some lessons that give students practice with that kind of writing.

5. Finally, will the assessment be weighted heavily in your gradebook? (It should be.)The lessons and activities leading up to the final assessment are there to give students exposure to the knowledge and practice with the skills necessary to perform on that final assessment; ideally, they should receive no grades at all on those activities. If you absolutely must assign some points, be sure the final assessment is worth a heck of a lot more than those smaller tasks.

Like I did, you probably also have some favorite lessons and activities. Some of these might turn out to be not just fun to teach, but also solid in terms of equipping students with knowledge and skills that will last.

If it turns out that those favorite lessons don't really align with any standards, you might be able to revise them so they do. Or you might keep them for other reasons-not every minute of class time has to be spent on standards-based instruction. Some activities have value because they help us get to know each other better, they help students develop social-emotional skills, or they simply offer a bit of fun. But if a lesson doesn't do any of these things, if it's disguised as learning but is doing little more than keeping students busy, it's time for it to go.

Using a process like backward design helps us get better at making these decisions. By making this approach part of our regular practice, we'll be able to look back on a day, a week, or a year of teaching and say with a lot more certainty that when they were under our care, our students learned.
Reference:
National Research Council (2012). A framework for K-12 science education: Practices, crosscutting concepts, and core ideas. The National Academies Press. https://doi.org/10.17226/13165.

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Since 2009, coders have created thousands of amazing experiments using Chrome, Android, AI, WebVR, AR and more. We're showcasing projects here, along with helpful tools and resources, to inspire others to create new experiments.

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Students make a tin foil boat and float it, add marbles til failure. Draw boat, say how you could make it better, 2nd try to try and beat first try.

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ZipGrade - iPhone and Android Grading App for formative assessment and quizzes.

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Online multiple choice grader

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ZipGrade - iPhone and Android Grading App for formative assessment and quizzes.

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A mobile device app that turns your iPhone, iPad, or Android device into an optical scanner for grading paper multiple-choice assessments. Great for quizzes, exit tickets, and larger exams of up to 100 questions.

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fun games to incorporate in review sessions

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The teacher I saw it from called it The Unfair Game. You first need a bunch of popsicle sticks with completely random point values on them, -42, +3, +62, -5, etc.

Then you split the kids up into as many teams as you want. You give the kids a question, and they have to solve it. You can either do the first team to get it right or just if they have the right answer, however you want to do it that way, and one member of the team(s) that got it right goes up to pick a random popsicle stick. They show/give it to you, and you write it on the board (Sally's team: +42, -12, -3, +16...).

At the end, before you tally up the scores, you flip a coin to see if the team with the highest points is the winner or the team with the lowest points is the winner. Make sure you tell them before that it could be the highest points OR the lowest points that wins so they don't get discouraged if they have a lot of - numbers.

Flip the coin and tally up the points and see who wins.

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To learn more about the standards, click here. To learn more about the NGSS Appendices,click here.

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Nature based learning in Alna, Maine

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Juniper Hill School is a nature-based early childhood program & place-based elementary school (currently serving students from 3 years old-5th grade).

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Community Playthings | High Quality Furniture for Child Care, Preschool, & Montessori Classrooms

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Community Playthings creates high quality furniture and equipment for childcare, preschool, and Montessori classrooms. Children deserve the best.

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Canva is a free-to-use online graphic design tool. Use it to create social media posts, presentations, posters, videos, logos and more.

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Educational Games, Worksheets, and More for Kids

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Download, print, or work on activities interactively today!

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Bouncy Balls – Manage classroom noise with bouncing balls!

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A free classroom noise level meter, monitor and management tool. Perfect if your school kids are too noisy! Bouncing balls react to sounds from the microphone.

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This post may contain affiliate links. That means if you click and buy, I may receive a small commission (at zero cost to you). Please see my full disclosure policy for details.

Learn about the human anatomy with this easy skeleton handprint x-ray craft for kids. After you finish, hang it up at a window and look at it with the sunlight shining through the paper just as a doctor would with a light box!

Did you know that there are 206 bones in a human adult body? And that the human hand itself has 27 bones?

Your bones are essential because they provide support for your body, facilitate movement, and protect the internal organs. As we found out in the Play-Doh skeleton activity, we will not be able to stand without our bones.

In this easy skeleton handprint x-ray craft activity for kids, we will focus on the bones of our hands. Not only will we draw all the bones of our hands plus 2 of our arm bones, we will also make it look like it's a real-life x-ray scan that you would see at the doctor's office!

Besides learning about the human anatomy, this x-ray craft is perfect for letter x activities. You can also use it as an spooky Halloween decoration!

Skeleton X-Ray Craft for Preschoolers

Materials:

Colored construction paper (orange, red, yellow, and pink work the best)

A dark crayon (black, dark blue, or dark purple)

Vegetable oil

A small bowl

Q-tip

Tape

Instructions:

1. Place your child's hand on the construction paper. You want the entire hand on the paper along with about 2″ of the arm.

2. Carefully trace the outline of your child's hand on the paper with a dark crayon.

3. Mark the interphalangeal digital creases with a line. We are marking the distal and middle creases, where the distal interphalangeal joints and proximal interphalangeal joints are located. There should be two lines for every finger except the thumb because the thumb only has one interphalangeal joint.

4. Draw the phalanges, or the finger bones. If you are doing this with older kids, they can draw the bones as realistically as possible. I was helping my daughter, a preschooler, with this craft, so we drew circles and ovals to represent the bones.

5. Draw the 5 metacarpal bones, which should look like long ovals that go from the bottom of the finger bones to the wrist.

6. Draw the carpal bones. There are 8 small carpal bones in our wrist, so we drew 8 circles.

7. Finally, draw the two long bones in your forearm - the radius and the ulna.

8. Using the dark crayon, color everything in the hand outline except the bones.

9. Prepare a small bowl with a little bit of vegetable oil. A little will go a long way.

10. Dip your Q-tip in the oil. Make sure the Q-tip is not soaked and dripping oil. If there is too much oil on the cotton swab, then you want to press the Q-tip against the side of the bowl to squeeze some oil out.

Paint the bones with the oil.

11. Continue painting with the Q-tip and oil until you finish with all the bones.

12. Tape your skeleton handprint painting up on the window. The oil should have made the paper translucent so when the sunlight hits the bones, it should look like a realistic x-ray scan!

How cool does this hand x-ray craft look? The picture doesn't do it justice! When you look at the drawing in person, you can really see the sunlight shining through the paper.

It's so easy that even preschoolers can do it as an introduction to human anatomy. For elementary school kids, you can really get into the different bones in the hands and their names.

And by the way, my windows are covered with these hand x-ray crafts because my kids won't stop making them!
Related Posts:

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Easy Skeleton Handprint X-Ray Craft for Kids | Mombrite

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Learn about the human anatomy with this easy skeleton handprint x-ray craft for kids. After you finish, hang it up at a window and look at it with the sunlight shining through the paper just as a doctor would with a light box!

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Does cost money for schools/districts

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Open-and-go lessons that inspire kids to love science.

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Mystery Science offers open-and-go lessons that inspire kids to love science. The hook, visuals, and activity have all been prepared for you. Less prep, more learning.

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Best of History Web Sites, created by EdTechTeacher, is an award-winning portal that contains annotated links to over 1200 history web sites as well as links to hundreds of quality K-12 history lesson plans, history teacher guides, history activities, history games, history quizzes, and more.

Best of History Web Sites has been recommended by The Chronicle of Higher Education, The National Council for the Social Studies, The New York Public Library, the BBC, Princeton University, - and many others.

See our Lesson Plans page for a curated list of sites offering quality resources ready for classroom use. Although there are many sites with good lesson plans, students are sure to enjoy the engaging ideas and primary sources offered by the Library of Congress and the U.K. National Archives, whose online offerings are generous.

Check out Games and Animations for links to historical simulations, educational video games, high-quality animations, online quizzes, and more! Learn about medieval water supply with the game Waterworks, or cook your way through the ancient world with Tasting History!

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Welcome! Best of History Web Sites, created by EdTechTeacher, is an award-winning portal that contains annotated links to over 1200 history web sites as well as links to hundreds of quality K-12 history lesson plans, history teacher guides, history activities, history games, history quizzes, and more.

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World's most popular online marketplace for original educational resources with more than four million resources available for use today.

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History for kids - Free history network for kids

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Learn about the ancient Egyptian civilization and what they did in their daily lives. Many things like metal work, paper making and amazing architecture all came from the Egyptians.

When where the Pyramids built check here
View All History of Egypt

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History for kids Welcome to History for Kids the free online history network. We hope you enjoy and have fun exploring our history. The website is packed with articles, worksheets and even a quiz on each section.

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LGBT Inclusive Education | National Platform

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"When I announced the formation of the LGBTI Inclusive Education Working Group to Parliament back in 2017, I said we all have a responsibility to support our children and young people to be confident and proud of who they are, to know that they are valued and loved, and to know that they will be treated equally and fairly.

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Culturally Responsive Teaching

It can be difficult to know how to keep going with equity work, but starting with culturally responsive teaching is helpful.

In my equity journey as a White educator, I have often found myself asking (and heard my colleagues ask) "OK, I get it... what do I do?" The amount of resources on equity in education can be overwhelming, and it can be easy to feel stuck and not sure where to go next. Here are some concrete ideas that have helped me get unstuck and move from ideas to action.

A productive question I have asked myself when I feel stuck and unsure about what to do next is: "What do I need in order to deepen engagement in equity work?" This can be a great question for those at the beginning of equity work and also for those who are having trouble sorting through the vast number of resources that are out there. My answer to that question has changed as I have moved along in my equity journey, and that's the point. Really, what do I need? More information? Statistics? Stories? Allies? Organizations to work with? Accountability? This question can help you narrow your focus and also guide your conversations with colleagues and administration.

Diversifying Explicit Curriculum

Your curriculum is a good place to start. A staple of equity work is diversifying our teaching so that it doesn't overemphasize the White, male, heterosexual, cisgender perspective. We can do that by critically examining both our explicit and implicit curricula. Explicit curriculum is "what" we teach. It's the subjects and source material that we cover and what we submit for administrative and school board approval.

There have been major efforts at diversifying explicit curriculum by expanding the canon of books that students read in English class to include non-White, non-Western sources; ensuring that world history class truly focuses on world history and not just European history; and bringing Indigenous and non-Western understandings of the world into science, psychology, and even mathematics (see the field of ethnomathematics).

One important aspect of diversifying explicit curriculum is to consider the role that people from marginalized groups play and how their experience is depicted. I found that after I initially replaced some of my sources that emphasized the White, male, heterosexual, cisgender experience with more diverse sources, a pattern emerged that troubled me. Even when the characters and stories in my class reflected "diversity," they still followed stereotypical paths. Stories of slavery painted the enslaved only as victims. Modern-day Black characters always dealt with gangs and drugs. Brown characters were always immigrants and spoke Spanish. Gay male characters loved fashion. Characters with disabilities were defined by their disabilities. I made (and will continue to make) a concerted effort to break this pattern. The best resource for doing this was my students.

It started with a conversation about movies- Black Panther and Moana, particularly. My students helped me understand why the character of Black Panther was so empowering for them-that character's culture was a central part of his identity, but not in stereotypical ways. They noted something similar about the Disney movie Moana -not only did it center Indigenous culture, but also it had a female lead that had no romantic interest.

I am still in the process of finding stories that avoid stereotypical depictions of already marginalized folks, but as the search continues, I have found tremendous value in discussing this with students. Even if we can't find a better resource or story, our conversations about why a particular story's depiction of a "minority" character is problematic have always been profound. Author Nic Stone has addressed this issue with regard to Black characters in this article.

Diversifying Implicit Curriculum

I use the term implicit curriculum to refer to other aspects of what we teach, either within or outside of the explicit curriculum. This could refer to images, music, and quotations. An approachable, concrete step in equity work is to conduct an audit of these aspects of your curriculum. Consider the images, music, and quotations you use, not so much in the explicit curriculum (like sources in a document-based question), but for general encouragement and inspiration. Do these reflect the diversity of your student body and school community, and do they draw attention to underrepresented groups?

When I conducted this kind of audit on myself, I found that most of the pictures and memes I used as inspiration or bell ringers featured pictures of founding fathers (I am a history teacher, after all), with a few images and quotes from Martin Luther King Jr. and memes featuring male voices. Since then, I have tried to add more balance by including more memes and quotes from non-White, non-male people.

I invited my students into that process, asking them to find pictures, quotes, and memes that they found inspiring. This accomplished two purposes that are fundamental to equity work: diversifying class material and incorporating student voice.

I did the same for the music I play in class while students enter and during games or study time. My music reflected my background-classic rock with a few modern hits sprinkled in. The only non-English song in my playlist was "Macarena," and I'm not sure that should count! My students helped to diversify my playlist with music that they enjoyed that was school appropriate.

The Power of Small Changes

These efforts will bear fruit in making a more equitable curriculum and classroom experience. One resource that has been particularly helpful is Cornelius Minor's book . He champions the idea of bending the curriculum to the students, rather than bending the students to the curriculum, and offers small, concrete steps we can take in our curriculum and classroom that can help to chip away at systems that often stymie this work.

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It can be difficult to know how to keep going with equity work, but starting with culturally responsive teaching is helpful.

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Teaching can be a profoundly rewarding career, considering the critical role educators play in shaping young minds. But many teachers find themselves overworked and underpaid. Education jobs are among the lowest-paying occupations requiring a bachelor's degree, and teacher salaries consistently fail to keep up with inflation. Meanwhile, the Every Student Succeeds Act demands growth in student performance. And this year, the COVID-19 pandemic has continued to make teachers' jobs even harder than usual.

Earlier in 2021, teachers in many schools across the U.S. had to provide online-only instruction to students, or a hybrid of online and in-personal learning. Because of the difficulties of switching to this system, a massive number of students experienced significant learning loss. While schools are reopening this fall, teachers still have to contend with new variants of the disease and rising case levels.

In some states, teachers are more fairly paid and better protected against the current pandemic than in others. Those states are less likely to face a revolving door of teacher turnover. To help America's educators find the best opportunities and teaching environments, WalletHub compared the 50 states and the District of Columbia based on 24 key indicators of teacher-friendliness. Our data set ranges from teachers' income growth potential to the pupil-teacher ratio to whether the state has a digital learning plan.

Main Findings

Best States for Teachers

Note: With the exception of "Total Score," all of the columns in the table above depict the relative rank of that state, where a rank of 1 represents the best conditions for that metric category.

Ask the Experts

Teachers must be able to make a reasonable living in order to meet the challenges of their profession. For more insight into the issues plaguing teachers and possible solutions for overcoming them, we asked a panel of experts to weigh in on with their thoughts on the following key questions:

1. What are the biggest issues teachers face today?

2. How can local officials attract and retain the best teachers?

3. What tips can you offer young teachers looking for a place to settle?

4. In evaluating the best states for teachers, what are the top five indicators?

5. Do you think performance-based compensation (e.g., providing teachers a bonus when their students meet or exceed expectations) is a promising strategy for improving student outcomes?

6. As states have announced plans to resume in-person classes this fall, what are some key measures to implement in order to protect both teachers and students?

7. Are unions beneficial to teachers? What about to students?

8. What are the main educational trends in 2021?

Methodology

In order to determine the teacher-friendliest states in the U.S., WalletHub compared the 50 states and the District of Columbia across two key dimensions, "Opportunity & Competition" and "Academic & Work Environment." Because competitive salaries and job security are integral to a well-balanced personal and professional life, we assigned a heavier weight to the first category.

We evaluated the two dimensions using 24 relevant metrics, which are listed below with their corresponding weights. Each metric was graded on a 100-point scale, with a score of 100 representing the most favorable conditions for living and working as a teacher.

Finally, we determined each state and the District's weighted average across all metrics to calculate its overall score and used the resulting scores to rank-order the states.

Opportunity & Competition - Total Points: 70

Average Starting Salary for Teachers: Double Weight (~10.77 Points)
Note: This metric was adjusted for the cost of living. State Cost of Living Index was estimated by averaging the indices of participating cities and metropolitan areas in that state.

Average Salary for Teachers: Full Weight (~5.38 Points)
Note: This metric was adjusted for the cost of living. State Cost of Living Index was estimated by averaging the indices of participating cities and metropolitan areas in that state.

Teachers' Income Growth Potential: Full Weight (~5.38 Points)

10-Year Change in Teacher Salaries: Full Weight (~5.38 Points)
Note: This metric measures the change in current dollars for teacher salaries between the 2011-2012 and the 2020-2021 academic years.

Average Teacher Pension: Full Weight (~5.38 Points)
Note: This metric was adjusted for the cost of living. State Cost of Living Index was estimated by averaging the indices of participating cities and metropolitan areas in that state.

Share of New Teachers with Inadequate Pensions: Full Weight (~5.38 Points)
Note: This metric measures the share of new teachers who will not break even on their pensions. In other words, the amount of their future pension benefits will be less than the contributions they made to the state pension plan during their career.

Projected Teacher Competition in Year 2028: Full Weight (~5.38 Points)
Note: This metric measures the projected number of teachers per 1,000 students by year 2028.

Public-School Enrollment Growth: Full Weight (~5.38 Points)
Note: "Growth" was measured by comparing public-school enrollment in fall 2019 versus fall 2020.

Length of Time Before Tenure Kicks in: Double Weight (~10.77 Points)

Teacher Tenure Protections: Full Weight (~5.38 Points)
Note: This metric measures the strength of the state law, if any, protecting teachers' tenure.

Teacher Preparation Program Completion: Full Weight (~5.38 Points)
A teacher preparation program is designed to prepare both undergraduate and graduate students to become licensed teachers. Programs can offer students specialized coursework in the grade level and subjects they are interested in teaching. The teacher preparation program also includes a hands-on student teaching experience, which is required in most states for licensing. Typical coursework covers:

Issues in education

Child or adolescent development

Student assessment

Early childhood methods

Language and literacy

Educational psychology

Academic & Work Environment - Total Points: 30

Existence of Digital Learning Plan: Full Weight (~2.22 Points)
Note: This binary metric considers the presence or absence of state comprehensive digital learning strategies for schools deploying technology, a series of trainings for teachers, and instructional resources for building remote lesson plans.

State Statute on Out-of-School Access to Instructional Materials: Full Weight (~2.22 Points)
Note: This binary metric considers state statute on accessibility of digital content and instructional materials outside of the classroom.

State Guidance on Accessible Technologies: Full Weight (~2.22 Points)
Note: This binary metric considers the presence of absence of state accessibility assurance to acceptable technologies for providing instructional content.

Quality of School System: Triple Weight (~6.67 Points)Note: This metric is based on WalletHub's "
States with the Best & Worst School Systems" ranking.

Pupil-Teacher Ratio: Full Weight (~2.22 Points)

Public-School Spending per Student: Full Weight (~2.22 Points)
Note: This metric measures the annual state and local expenditures for K-12 public schools per capita.

Presence of Annual Teacher-Evaluation Requirement: Full Weight (~2.22 Points)
Note: This binary metric considers the presence or absence of an annual evaluation requirement policy for all teachers in the state.

Presence of Teacher-Effectiveness Requirement: Full Weight (~2.22 Points)
Note: This binary metric considers the presence or absence of state implemented policies for "objective student growth as part of teacher evaluation system," as described by the National Council on Teacher Quality.

Projected Share of Teacher Turnover: Full Weight (~2.22 Points)
Note: This metric measures the share of teachers "planning to leave the teaching profession as soon as possible or as soon as a more desirable job opportunity arises," according to the Learning Policy Institute.

Share of Teachers Who Feel Supported by Their Administrator: Full Weight (~2.22 Points)
Note: This metric measures the share of teachers who strongly agree that their school administration's behavior toward the staff is supportive and encouraging. LPI analysis of Public School Teacher File, 2016, from the Schools and Staffing Survey, National Center for Education Statistics.

Average Commute Time: Half Weight (~1.11 Points)

Prevalence of Childhood Disadvantage: Half Weight (~1.11 Points)Note: This metric is based on WalletHub's "
States with the Most Underprivileged Children" ranking.

Working Mom-Friendliness: Half Weight (~1.11 Points)Note: This metric is based on WalletHub's "
Best & Worst States for Working Moms" ranking.

Sources: Data used to create this ranking were collected from the U.S. Census Bureau, Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Education, National Education Association, National Center for Education Statistics, Council for Community and Economic Research, TeacherPensions.org, ProCon.org, National Council on Teacher Quality, Projections Central - State Occupational Projections, Learning Policy Institute, Education Commission of the States, State Educational Technology Directors Association and WalletHub research.

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Teaching can be a profoundly rewarding career, considering the critical role educators play in shaping young minds. But many teachers find themselves overworked and underpaid. Education jobs are among the lowest-paying occupations requiring a bachelor's degree, and teacher salaries consistently fail to keep up with inflation.

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Educating EL's

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This is a curated collection of resources worth sharing to enhance teaching and learning for English Learners and all learners of academic language.