Teachers have been improving how they differentiate students' abilities for many decades. Most teachers now recognize that different students have different strengths and benefit from different approaches and perspectives on learning. Teachers take professional development coursework to continue learning how other educators implement differentiation in their classrooms, helping more students have positive outcomes from the schooling process.

Let's look at what equitable grading is and what it can contribute to efforts to improve equity and inclusion in the classroom.

Does your company invest in professional development for its employees? If not, now is a great time to reconsider. Investing in the professional growth of your employees has many benefits that more than justify any associated costs. In this post, we’ll look at five different reasons managers should make skill development a priority.

If you've ever left the Portland area to live where English wasn't the main spoken language—or even lived in a neighborhood of Portland where English was less common—you know the challenge non-native English speakers face daily. Even people with impeccable language skills must process many cultural, contextual, and idiomatic elements of the workplace while also doing whatever work you hired them to do.

The United States gains a lot of strength from being a place where people from anywhere can find their place and succeed. If your workplace has hired non-native English speakers, you must make an effort to promote strong communication between colleagues of different backgrounds. You may also need to account for more considerable language barriers, such as when coworkers or employees do their work well but with intermediate English language proficiency, resulting in misunderstandings.

By improving office communication and helping everyone get on the same page, you can make your workplace a safe and prosperous environment for native and non-native English speakers.

When businesses invest in training for their personnel, they experience a range of valuable outcomes. First, the fundamental nuts-and-bolts benefits of whatever the training is, is moving employees to a new level of competence and knowledge.

Employees also typically appreciate the presence of valuable training opportunities, as it moves them forward in their careers and poises them for advancement. Finally, employees who share a common training experience also foster connections that they'd lack without the training; inter-office communication can often improve, as can team rapport and collaboration. 

If your team doesn't have a training division, it can be daunting to imagine creating training that is both attuned to what you need and doesn't take up resources required you could use elsewhere. A great compromise that promotes high-quality training without rerouting your on-site team is to find custom training solutions for businesses through Portland Community College.

If you're trying to figure out how to outsource training for my business, you've come to the right place. Training is more needed now than ever, and the benefits you can reap are huge.

Many people have approached the United States' increased focus on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in different ways over the past few years. Reading books about lesser-known histories of cultures in the United States has been eye-opening for some. For others, it's more relational, talking to friends, family, and coworkers to see if their experiences can help inform more equitable and positive experiences and relationships in the future. 

It's been true for decades that gender roles in United States workplaces have been changing. While this can sometimes feel jarring if you grew up expecting to interact in one way with men and another with women, culturally, learning these changing norms can be very helpful. Furthermore, the growing inclusion and acceptance of transgender and nonbinary identities in the professional sphere has added additional challenges for those who may not understand these concepts or simply not be aware of how to address their colleagues. 

Finding a new job or finding your first job is an exercise in patience, resilience, and persistence because no one likes to find out that they didn't get an interview or are just not the top choice for an employer. It can feel like you have sent a million applications even if you are still relatively early in your process of applying. There are ways you can keep things in perspective and make sure you have the staying power to get ready for a job hunt. If you're lucky, you won't need these strategies, but recognize that great workers sometimes have long job hunts, especially in specialized industries or times of economic shift. Here are some tips for how to stay sane while job hunting. We wanted to include some of the more gentle job search tips 2021 has to offer. 

The past few years have shown us that more education is possible online than anyone ever thought possible. With rapidly expanding tools, professors who are growing in online teaching proficiency, and substantial savings in costs, online education has become an advantageous and valuable option.  

Portland Community College has also seen value in the idea of a local online experience, offering a variety of hybrid courses that are primarily online but with practical or hands-on components here in Portland, Oregon. Whether you're considering online college vs. traditional college or trying to choose between online colleges themselves, you'll be impressed with the options available now. You should also weigh the online college pros and cons to make an informed choice and be ready for the benefits and drawbacks of this kind of program.  

The past few years' turmoil has caused many recurring mentality shifts, but a surprisingly positive one is how people have spent time in their homes and with their immediate families or roommates. Here in Portland, family members who would have been out at work or in socializing settings poured their time into their family life and, in many cases, discovered that there were changes needed in their more hectic day-to-day. 

In many careers, your first step after college is going to be an internship. Internships provide you with valuable experience, give you crucial insight into the working world, and help you land your first job. If you are truly fortunate, you may even be able to leverage your internship into a full-time position with that company.