Category: Learnings

Microschools are slowly gaining market share across the K-12 landscape. Last month, The 74 reported that, “In 2021, Tiffany Blassingame, who comes from a family of educators, opened her own school in a building attached to a Baptist church in downtown Decatur, Georgia. She teaches 18 K-5 students who come from across Atlanta for a…

For too many kids inside our traditional K-12 system, we’ve never been able to connect them with what was once considered the best way to learn – the apprenticeship. For thousands of years this was the way young people learned almost everything, including how to read, write, and solve problems. The apprentice and their mentor…

Until we decide to create a new system of learning for our kids, one act that would help clear the K-12 landscape of under-enrolled, and usually under-performing, campuses is the practice of school closure. But, according to a recent report from the Brookings Institution, Americans aren’t disciplined when it comes to closing schools that probably…

Instead of grades, we should use rubrics and narratives to provide feedback to our young learners. Recently, EducationWeek provided suggestions for adult learning leaders if they are interested in changing how they provide feedback to their young learners: “When designed effectively, grading rubrics can clarify expectations, minimize subjectivity, and standardize grading criteria across multiple teachers,…

It’s clear that the Trump administration is committed to cutting federal K-12 funding to schools, but keeping track of those cuts has been challenging. Last month, EducationWeek posted an article written by Mark Lieberman that attempted to explain the cuts within the wider context of exactly how federal education funding works: “The first three months…

What makes a great learning organization? The 74 polled 186 educators involved in the Canopy project, a collaborative effort to share information about K-12 innovation, about the information they use to determine whether their schools are doing a good job. Here are excerpts from that post: “School options are proliferating, with the Trump administration and…

Today the Supreme Court deadlocked 4-4 to prevent Oklahoma from approving the nation’s first religious public charter school. NBC News reported that, … “The decision by the evenly divided court means that a ruling by the Oklahoma Supreme Court that said the proposal to launch St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School violates both the…

Homa Tavangar from The Big Questions Institute wrote an interesting piece this week titled “If ‘Everyone is Cheating,’ What Questions Should We Be Asking?” Here are excerpts from Tavangar’s post: “At a recent workshop with a few dozen Heads of School at independent schools in the U.S., one of the participants expressed yet one more…

After almost a month away from the post, I’m back today. I spent the last three weeks in Turkey – specifically Izmir and Istanbul. If you are ever thinking about a place to visit that might not be tops on your list, think Turkey. The food is delicious (“lessetli” in Turkish), the people are wonderful,…