Leadership
Content that enables educators, edleaders, organizations and families to increase capacity, apply a growth mindset and implement what’s next in learning on behalf of those entrusted to them.
Answers For & Lessons From Critics of Competency-Based Learning
I'm trying to square two things that happened last week. The Nellie Mae Foundation issued a great report called Making Mastery Work: A Close Up View of Competency Education (MMW), a visit to 11 cool schools. The other event was a Facebook dialog with unschoolers that think competency-based schemes are more testing in a fancy package.
Top 10 Questions to Ask Common Core Vendors
The implementation of Common Core State Standards is intended to create change in our nation's public education system ... not put change in the pockets of the American publishing industry.
Addressing the Placement Gateway With Diagnostics & Instruction
For many young people, placement exams are a hidden gateway in the system. Students often assume that with a high school diploma they can walk on to a community college campus and start working on a degree but they flunk the placement exam and end up in non-credit developmental education courses. That spells the beginning of the end of college for many young people. But that placement trap is beginning to close as states make the exams and preparation available in high school.
Revising Federal Rules Would Promote Innovation, Improve Performance
In times of scarce resources and limited dollars, finding cost-effective ways to promote innovations in education is imperative. If federal education officials really want to help improve student performance, they should be doing all they can to promote technology-driven innovations in public schools.
Data Quality Campaign Releases Annual Report On Data to Improve Achievement
Data Quality Campaign (DQC) today released its annual state analysis, Data for Action 2012, which highlights states' progress in supporting effective education data use to improve student achievement.
Alliance For Excellent Education Releases Report to Inform Education Leadership Challenges
The Alliance for Excellent Education released today The Nation's Schools Are Stepping Up to Higher Standards, a report that identifies four key challenges that public school district leaders must systematically address in the next two years and outlines the essential elements for developing a comprehensive digital strategy.
Student-Centered Learning Need Not Cost Districts More
A new study of the financial implications for public schools embracing student-centered learning (SCL) models reveals that districts don’t need to spend more on these schools if they fund all schools fairly, and then allow schools to make choices about how they use their resources.
Good Work: Candidates & Causes
I appreciate the folks that ran for office for all the right reasons--especially those that were not able to finance their own campaigns. Running for office requires constant groveling for donations, being exposed to malicious claims, and a grinding campaign schedule. Following are 3 good things to come from election 2012 and three bad things.
Toward the Good School Promise: an Election Recap
While there are millions of happy democrats this week, a critic sees a landscape “littered with rubble and ruin and wreckage on all sides” in an open letter to the President. Elections leave aggrieved poles, but I live in a much more optimistic place. In particular, I’m optimistic about five things.
e-Learning Leadership: 10 Strategies
The 17th annual Educational Technology Leadership Conference will take place this week in Roanoke, Virginia. The conference is sponsored by Virginia Tech’s Center for Instructional Technology Solutions in Industry and Education. Given the theme of e-learning leadership, I’ll be leading a conversation about these ten practices: 1.Conversation: lead…