A Better Path to Learning

Category: Learnings

  • Congress Maintains

    —

    by

    svb802
    in

    Congress just passed an education budget for 2026. For the most part, the budget remains similar to 2025 expenditures. This action comes after a year of Donald Trump blustering about how he and Linda McMahon, his secretary of education, would dismantle the U.S. Department of Education. Based upon the actions of House Speaker Mike Johnson…

  • The Bible as a Public School Textbook?

    —

    by

    svb802
    in

    The Bible as required reading in American public schools? Texas and other states think so. EdWeek reported on 1/29/26 that, “Debates over what constitutes the American literary canon – and whether Bible excerpts should be a part of it – erupted…during a tense Texas State Board of Education discussion over a proposed list of books,…

  • Struggle Not Failure

    —

    by

    svb802
    in

    In my 35-years as a public educator, I never saw a young learner that “learned a lesson” from failure. Far from it. Instead, what I witnessed were young learners that doubted themselves as smart and strong, blamed their teacher, and at worse, gave up and dropped out from the learning game – after being labeled…

  • AI Positives

    —

    by

    svb802
    in

    Artificial intelligence has the potential to serve as a transformative change in how kids learn. But today, many K-12 traditional school districts have banned its use in the classroom, along with cell phones and other forms of social media. Maybe it’s time to survey the news regarding how schools are using AI effectively when it…

  • Mixing Learners

    —

    by

    svb802
    in

    I’ve told this story before. Back in the 90’s, Jerry Weast, Montgomery County, Maryland’s school superintendent, started digging around trying to find out why his students were suddenly scoring higher than expected on their reading and math tests. He looks at the district curriculum. He looked at classroom instructional strategies, He examined formative testing. Although…

  • The Inability to Do Right

    —

    by

    svb802
    in ,

    If you hang around K-12 education in this country long enough, like most other things, what comes around goes around. The Atlantic recently published a piece titled “The Program That’s Turning Schools Around.” It’s a story about how important non-profits like Communities in Schools and others are when it comes to providing wrap-around services for…

  • Improving Schools – The Texas Way

    —

    by

    svb802
    in

    A long time ago I was taught by a mentor that earning high test scores for your school wasn’t enough to keep your job as a campus principal. In addition to solid test scores, you had to take care of your learner community – students, parents, and teachers. This was advice that served me well,…

  • Personalized Reading for All

    —

    by

    svb802
    in

    Best practice in reading has flipped between phonics and balanced literacy over the past 50 years. Most recently, Lucy Calkins and her Unit of Study strategy, created at Columbia University’s Teachers College, was criticized for not emphasizing the science of reading (phonics) enough. Now, it seems science of reading strategies are facing criticism. As The…

  • What’s Wrong with a Microschool?

    —

    by

    svb802
    in

    Why aren’t more high schools embracing the microschool idea? Microschools are small learning groups that train young learners to define, plan, execute, and evaluate their own learning. The goals of most microschools are to make young learners better readers, writers, problem-solvers, and to build character. Ten years ago or more, my educational non-profit supported a…

  • What Learning Orgs Could Look Like

    —

    by

    svb802
    in

    Some of the best advice I ever received when it came to running a school or a group of schools came from kids – not adults. I had student advisory groups when I led a middle school and when I led a high school. I even had a student advisory group when I was a…