Blog

Add Student Executive Functioning Skills to Your Student Performance Box Score

An analysis of post-pandemic student learning points too easily at academic deficiencies. From the pandemic, we learned that our concept of studenthood was limited and children today have needs much greater than the 3 Rs. Continue reading


Smart Is As Smart Does

A while ago Holiday Inn Express enjoyed using “I’m not a rocket scientist, but I stayed at a Holiday Inn Express last night” as an indicator of the smart and well-informed traveler in their clientele.  They seemed to say, “smart … Continue reading


Institutional Elasticity Stymies Growth

Forward progress following a crisis is not propelled by a return to the past but by understanding what must be different in the furture and making change happen. Continue reading


Learning, Perhaps

Although a school year stops on a date specific, learning happens in the unanticipated future. Perhaps. Continue reading


Pandemic-informed Teacher Evaluation

The pandemic caused change. As we emerge from the pandemic, ask yourself as you seek the old normal, is that the best we can do. Some things learned in the pandemic need to become new practices. Continue reading


Hybrid School Year – A Rethought, Pandemic-informed School Calendar

The school calendar is a prime example of – we do things now because that is how it was done when I was in school. The pandemic is teaching us that there is a better way. Continue reading


Educational governance in the long view

School communities choose how schools will be governed by their considered election of school boards. Continue reading


Covid Provoked Reforms – Professional Pay for Professional Teachers

Sometimes a crisis creates an opportunity. The pandemic is stripping public education of its most valuable asset – veteran, professional teachers.  The wear and tear of pandemic teaching is driving more teachers into early retirement and career resignations than in … Continue reading


Covid Provoked Reforms – Proficiency in Standards-based Learning

As the pandemic has disrupted school life, it also can disrupt school thinking. Some pre-pandemic practices cannot be applied now, and the pandemic provides a unique opportunity to correct past practices. Grading is one of these. Continue reading


Yoda, the Dark Path, and the High Ground of Education

Threading through the time of covid is a dark-sided anger that threatens our children and their ongoing education. Their future requires educators to find and hold the high ground of public schooling – a pillar of our society that stands the test of time. Continue reading