If you wanted to create a system that limits educational options and consigns the vast majority of poor American children to continue to live in poverty, just look around you. Whether you live in urban or rural America, the results of an educational design which
We hear from time to time that there's a conflict between John Hattie’s Mind Frame 2 (The belief that student success and failure are based on what they as teachers/leaders did or did not do), and student-centered or personalized learning. The thinking is that this
“SURN takes the competition out of education.” “I may be only one in my school system, but I am not alone.” “This has been the best ‘hands down’ professional development,” said the participants. These statements came from K-12 instructional leaders making an impact by working across school
Contributed by Calvalyn Day There is a common complaint from educators. They need more support from home. Between shrinking budgets and expanding achievement gaps, educators feel an intense amount of pressure to meet the needs of all their students. Many feel that this goal is nearly impossible without
The most recent government statistics on school bullying have shown no significant progress in our schools: the percentage of students who report being bullied at 2-3 times per month has remained at about 28 percent. The needle has been stuck on this issue the last
Contributed by Pamela Nevills Connecting the Common Core learning to neuroscience is a no-brainer! There are many well-established truths from neuroscience that help teachers become better directors of learning. Teachers understand how working memory and long-term memory affect student learning. They can use information about neuroplasticity to
In the first PISA exams designed to measure problem-solving, Singapore’s 562 score topped 44 countries and economies in an area that Western countries used to claim as their last domain of preeminence. After returning from Singapore to keynote the Educational Leadership Summit along with Michael
Contributed by Casey Reason, Ph.D. Introduction There has certainly been a great deal of controversy in recent months regarding the use of summative teacher evaluation systems as a means for inspiring school improvement. Many states have required districts to rethink their systems for teacher evaluation and to
Are your PLCs having their best possible impact? Are they passionate and inspired? What actions and evidence would you look for? PLC impact cannot be measured by simply the presence of core characteristics: goal setting, shared values, collaborative culture, and positive relationships between staff. These PLC
Contributed by Sonia Gleason During the darkest days of working on school turnaround, or coaching coaches who do this work, I quietly wondered whether improvement is possible. On the day where the principal orchestrates subs coming in to facilitate team meetings to look at data, and