[fusion_builder_container hundred_percent=”yes” overflow=”visible”][fusion_builder_row][fusion_builder_column type=”1_1″ background_position=”left top” background_color=”” border_size=”” border_color=”” border_style=”solid” spacing=”yes” background_image=”” background_repeat=”no-repeat” padding=”” margin_top=”0px” margin_bottom=”0px” class=”” id=”” animation_type=”” animation_speed=”0.3″ animation_direction=”left” hide_on_mobile=”no” center_content=”no” min_height=”none”] I read a small article in The Week magazine about Tom McNamara, also known as “The Sockman.” This retired special education teacher from Illinois found a new calling – collecting a […]
School Improvement
Posted inFeatured, Opinion, School Improvement, Uncategorized
Disproportionate Evaluative Rigor and The Three Laws of Data
[fusion_builder_container hundred_percent=”yes” overflow=”visible”][fusion_builder_row][fusion_builder_column type=”1_1″ background_position=”left top” background_color=”” border_size=”” border_color=”” border_style=”solid” spacing=”yes” background_image=”” background_repeat=”no-repeat” padding=”” margin_top=”0px” margin_bottom=”0px” class=”” id=”” animation_type=”” animation_speed=”0.3″ animation_direction=”left” hide_on_mobile=”no” center_content=”no” min_height=”none”] I promised in a recent post called The Tyranny of the Datum to write about some guiding standards for appropriate data usage, in the spirit of Isaac Asimov’s Three Laws of […]
Posted inCommon Core, Current Events in Education, Featured, From the Front Lines, How to Fix Education, School Improvement, Uncategorized
The Wizards of Ed- The Conundrum of Education
There is a conundrum facing American K-12 education. It is the same conundrum that has always faced American K-12 education. How do we educate “those” kids? “Those” refers to the kids who are dealing with any (or all) of a host of disadvantages. They are from the “wrong” side of the tracks. They are from […]
Posted inCommon Core, Featured, From the Front Lines, School Improvement, The State of Education
Education, Circa 2038
Twenty-five years from now, I will be just shy of 65 years old. I should be retired by then. As I read recently about Amazon’s delivery drone idea and at the same time thought about the seeming inevitability of the Common Core State Standards and their associated tests (even, eventually, in my non-CCSS home state), […]
Posted inCommon Core, How to Fix Education, Opinion, School Improvement, Uncategorized
Common Standards, Disparate Lives
I get the push for common standards, I really do. Poor students shouldn’t be doomed to lesser expectations. As much as I dislike George Bush’s No Child Left Behind and all the unintended(?) negative consequences it has had on public education, I must admit that the “soft bigotry of low expectations” was and is a […]
Posted inCurrent Events in Education, Featured, Opinion, School Improvement
Despite What You Have Heard: American Students are Not 'Falling Behind'
[fusion_builder_container hundred_percent=”yes” overflow=”visible”][fusion_builder_row][fusion_builder_column type=”1_1″ background_position=”left top” background_color=”” border_size=”” border_color=”” border_style=”solid” spacing=”yes” background_image=”” background_repeat=”no-repeat” padding=”” margin_top=”0px” margin_bottom=”0px” class=”” id=”” animation_type=”” animation_speed=”0.3″ animation_direction=”left” hide_on_mobile=”no” center_content=”no” min_height=”none”] This week saw the publication of the PISA scores – the Programme for International Student Assessment, conducted every three years by the OECD (the Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development) – which […]
Posted inFeatured, Instruction & Curriculum, School Improvement, Social Studies
Student Motivation Starts With Zombies!
Incentives inspire learning because incentives drive choices. I learn this every time I buy a Starbucks coffee and receive a free app or song download. My app can guide me by GPS to any coffee shop where I use free wifi and earn stars that eventually gain me a free coffee. This has me wondering […]
Posted inFeatured, Instruction & Curriculum, School Improvement, Uncategorized
Adventures in Coaching..Giving Effective Teacher Feedback
This year I did what many teachers fear the most, I went over to the dark side of school administration in the form of being an Instructional Coach. As I transitioned into this role,I thought surely that this would give me more time to reflect and “cool my heels” -things that I rarely were able […]