Exactly one year ago I was in my Prius driving through the Carolinas visiting schools and blogging from the road. This morning I am in Greensboro, N.C. and this time the Prius is back home in California. But I get to report on another school, Miami Valley School in Dayton, Ohio, that is taking some [...]
Is there a place for student-centered school innovation at the crossroads of poverty, test scores, and growth mindset? What does that look like? Many others are tackling this question, but I had the opportunity to see a piece of it today when Laura Dearman of the Martin Institute for Teaching Excellence and I visited Holy [...]
I am proud and honored to help announce the launch of a unique 9-month collaboration amongst leaders of independent schools to take a new approach to the issue of long-term financial and market sustainability in these times of dramatic change. I have been asked by the partnership of the National Business Officers Association (NBOA) and [...]
Jeff Shields, President of the National Business Officers Association, posted comments and a link to a white paper by Ian Symmonds, one of our most respected consultants to independent schools and colleges. In the article Ian cites seven factors common to successful tuition-paying institutions, and Jeff invited comment. I did, as follows (it will not [...]
Last spring I wrote three posts in response to extensive research that proves that the bell-shaped curve of human performance is wrong. (I was reminded of it by watching Malcolm Gladwell's talk about the distribution of performance by students at a range of universities.) The Gaussian distribution lies at the absolute heart of school assessment, [...]
I rarely post a prequel of a school visit, but I am so STOKED about the day I get to spend at All Saints Episcopal School in Ft. Worth later this month. When we find schools and school leaders that are really taking a new tack in learning, we need so share and celebrate. Plenty [...]
What if you could organize your school governance structure to align with forward-leaning principles of learning? What if you had a blank slate, with no or few legacy assumptions or restrictions? What would that look like? How would we "do" school differently? That is the opportunity and challenge we have at Design 39 Campus in [...]
Breaking silos is key to a new era of strategic thinking. That is exactly the leverage offered by a unique collaboration I am honored to lead in partnership with the National Business Officers Association and the Online School for Girls. Strange group? No! I won't reprise the whole program offering here: you can read about [...]
Could we create a valuable college BA degree for $10K? And what might that mean for K-12 education? Anya Kamenetz has written an important article that argues we can create that vastly more affordable experience in college. (Thanks Will Richardson for Tweeting it out.) I have skimmed it and now am going back to review [...]
I rarely re-post, but it almost exactly a year ago since I wrote this post, and the lessons of Merchant, Zuboff, Gorbis, Rinne, and others are increasingly vital to educators: Taking advantage of sitting at the Toyota dealership in beautiful Hays, Kansas as they replace something called in inverter cooling pump. $600. Catching up on blog [...]