Posts by Tom Vander Ark
Next Gen Principal Prep: Blended, Personalized, Competency-based
It’s time to rethink leadership preparation in education. The linear model is obsolete, expensive, and time consuming. It’s time for new pathways and new partnerships that prepare leaders for the schools our young people deserve. New models of preparation must be about matching leadership to the next generation environment where they will serve.
Attacking Poverty With Innovation & Supports
Reflecting on his story, Tom shares how innovations in learning impacts poverty and opportunity while and highlighting the work of Multi-Service Center, a local nonprofit providing services vital to the community.
EdTech.MD to Boost Education & Economy
Baltimore is emerging as a technology hub. With new initiative EdTech.MD, the B'More EdTech scene rivals Manhattan as a hotbed with incubators, startups and organizations all contributing to the inspiring EdTech ecosystem.
Acton Academy: An Invitation to a Hero’s Journey
Acton Academy is small private K-9 school in Austin. The core promise is that each student will “Begin a Hero's Journey.” Located in Austin, Texas, students learn that courage, grit, and perseverance matter far more than regurgitation.
Southern New Hampshire Reshaping Higher Ed Landscape
Manchester, New Hampshire may seem like an unlikely place for a revolution but Southern New Hampshire University (SNHU) has produced three remarkable innovations that have the potential to reshape the higher ed landscape.
Formative Assessment: Progress, Barriers and Opportunity
The progress made, current barriers and opportunities that face formative assessment with the ongoing shift to digital learning and increasing access new technologies and data.
8 ways B Schools are different than Ed Schools
Following a visit to Florida State University College of Education, Tom reflects on the cultural differences between business and ed schools and how ed schools can fight for relevance in the learning revolution.
Good Work: James B. Hunt Edition
Tom's weekly Sunday blog on mission-focused work profiles Jim Hunt, four-time Governor of North Carolina and the most important and longest serving advocate of national standards.
Leave Retention Behind in Favor of Promotion on Mastery
The alternative to retention isn’t social promotion - it's mastery. Why competency-based learning is more important than seat time.
Blended Learning Demands Big Open Spaces
My neighborhood high school is a 50-year-old spider web of additions crammed on to a downtown lot it shares with the district kitchen and stadium. It has little street appeal, no connection with the natural world, and is an energy hog. Like many high schools, the primary architectural features include rows of classrooms off narrow hallways, a cafeteria, and a main office.