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.

Ed Policy

Poverty: High on the Edu Agenda, Not a Campaign Issue

Frank McCaughey is a teacher in the Bronx where 80 percent of the students in his school live in or near poverty. Frank posted a blog today, “The Biggest Challenge I Face in my Classroom,” where he urged policy makers to take on “the devastation that extreme poverty…

Leadership

Good Work: Making Tough Decisions

Decisions define an organization. Before you fill an open position, step back and look at the decision. It is often a great opportunity to reconsider the structure, to ensure that the organization still meets the challenges at hand. Avoid budgeting processes that assume that everything should be allocated the same way that it was the year before. Spending money and hiring people are often important crossroads.

Leadership

DIY: Raising Money

Raising money is a function of delivering the right pitch to the right person. That's true for impact seeking investments from foundations and return seeing investments from private equity investors.

Leadership

New Report Highlights the Real Teacher-Retention Crisis in America

Our friends from the Foundation for Excellence in Education and the Chiefs for Change recommend a new TNTP report, “The Irreplaceables: Understanding the Real Retention Crisis in America’s Urban Schools.” It examines the teacher-retention crisis through the experiences of a group referred to as the “Irreplaceables” – teachers who…

Ed Policy

Principles for Model Online & Blended Learning Legislation

The International Association for K-12 Online Learning (iNACOL) released a Statement of Principles for Model Legislation in States.  The principles are fully aligned with Digital Learning Now!, a framework for state policy released in 2010. The principles are a useful guide not only for state policy…

Leadership

Playing the Teacher Evaluation Game – A Race to Nowhere

For the past two years, the Department of Education, state departments of education and education foundations have proffered “teacher effectiveness” initiatives focused on evaluation systems, but none has truly moved the needle when it comes to closing the student achievement gap. Are evaluation systems the answer to poor academic achievement in the classroom?

Leadership

Good Work: Embracing Paradox

Most jobs today require you to think for yourself and the questions are getting tougher. Many jobs seem to be rich in paradox, two things that cannot both be true but must be. Paradox offers no easy answers for managers or organizations but it does guide learning.

Leadership

Staff Picks: Opportunity Gap, Resilience & Learning Apps

Karen and Carri Pick “The Education Response to the Opportunity Gap” Karen says, “There’s still lots of work to do to improve the opportunity gap. I really appreciate all of the groups mentioned here. Not time to slow down on equity.” Carri says, “Tom does a great…

Leadership

Staff Picks: EdTech, Blended Learning, Summer Learning

Karen Picks “Book Review: Born to Rise“ Karen says, “Deborah’s heart warming story of turning a painful life event into a chance to make a difference is powerful. She was relentless in her pursuit to open schools in tough neighborhoods for students that needed them most. She built schools…