Rise of the Architect-Leader in Schools
May 18, 2017I kept a blog from Tom Olverson pinned to my browser for most of a week, letting it stew to see if I could add anything to what is already a tremendously elegant argument on school leadership. I think I can, but only because I am building on such well-crafted thinking by Tom, and by…
What Kind of Leaders Are We Raising?
May 15, 2017Does your school value students who exhibit character, grit, and leadership? Is it in your mission to develop these traits in your students? Probably, and rightly so. But as I and others have urged educators to step back and think deeply about the meaning of the word “grit”, an important article by Susan Cain, writing in…
My New Book: Moving the Rock: Seven Levers WE Can Press to Transform Education
May 12, 2017The thesis of my new book is simple: Schools have been stuck for decades, but WE can overcome that inertia without permission from the forces that have created the inertia in the first place. I throw down a pretty strong challenge in this book: WE can change the system of education at scale using these powerful levers…
Mastery Transcript Consortium Gets $2 Million Grant; Potential K-12 Game Changer
May 10, 2017We should all use the term “game-changer” sparingly in education, and probably always preceded by the qualifier “potential. But I believe that the Mastery Transcript Consortium is one of these. When founder Scott Looney first contacted me to discuss this idea more than two years ago, I told him that it deserved this kind of…
New Podcast; Sharing Lessons from “#EdJourney” and “Moving the Rock”
May 6, 2017How great is it that a district superintendent and assistant superintendent take time every week to research, prepare, conduct, edit, and publish a podcast that is shared with hundreds of other educators? What a great example of leading by example as we move into the new era where the “flow” of knowledge is more important…
How Will Educators Deal With the “Death of Expertise”?
May 4, 2017A primary role of education is to give students the skill and wisdom to know how to gain knowledge. A key element of that process for centuries has been the reliance on experts who have invested enormous time, money, and intellectual resources in gaining knowledge and understanding that is deeper, more detailed, and often more…
Think You Know Disruptive Innovation? Read On!
April 30, 2017From Dumaguete City, Negros Island, Philippines Changing what we do in schools is uncomfortable, even hard sometimes, certainly complex. But as you ponder the “why, what, and how” of change at your school, in your district, or by your community, as you struggle with the inevitable discomfort and disruptions, take a look at what REALLY complex…
Check Out Incredible Curriculum Spiral via Ross School
April 23, 2017Rhetorical question for all educators: do you have or wish you had a really well-scaffolded curriculum? To be honest, I would have thought by now most schools could answer that integrated curriculum maps and tight alignment amongst subjects and grade levels were well in our rearview mirrors; that faculty who work in the same school…
Great Job Posting for Innovation Leader
April 22, 2017A you know I rarely advocate for one school, but you also know the high esteem I hold for the remarkable leadership of Mt. Vernon Presbyterian School in Atlanta. So when they asked that I share a job opening opportunity, I am happy to do so. If you think of yourself as an innovator, creator,…
Teaching the Death of Compromise
April 6, 2017The tempest that is Washington D.C. these days provides a puzzle for educators: is it an opportunity for learning, or just too fractious to even touch? What is our role in helping our students to make sense of something, when much of it does not make sense from many traditional perspectives? Are we, as educators and…
A List of Not-So-Quirky School Metrics
April 6, 2017If you don’t follow me on Twitter (what??), or missed it this morning, I posted another article on the Transcend Education site. This was a re-boot from my archives that surprised me when I read it. In 2012, Keith Evans and I came up with a list of what were then somewhat tongue-in-cheek, and definitely outside…
The Test That EVERY School Must Take
April 1, 2017There is surely one thing that unites all educators: we are responsible for both the well-being and learning progress of our students when they are in our charge. The role that testing plays in schools has correctly become an enormous point of controversy as we question just what are we testing and what the results…
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