At a recent meeting of instructional supervisors, I urged them to add one, simple line to a newly revised lesson plan template required for use by teacher candidates at the university.

It read:

What accommodations will you make for students identified as gifted and have an EP (educational plan)?

I asked colleagues to include this on the lesson plan template under the section of “accommodations” for students.

Before I made this request, the section...

In Florida, passing teacher certification exams—or more accurately, not passing-has become somewhat of a crisis.  According to news reports, some 1,000 teachers were fired this summer after failing to pass sections of the Florida Teacher Certification Exam (FTCE). State legislators are examining the tests after a revision of the exam led to increased failure rates. It appears teachers in other states are also struggling. In North Carolina, nearly 2,400 teachers failed to pass the math...