Category: Learnings

What comes around goes around. Back in the 1990s, when I was a middle school and high school principal, educational researchers told us about the importance of school principals and their effectiveness on teachers, parents, and most importantly, student outcomes. Now, a report released last month, titled “The Principal Effect: How Investing in School Leaders…

A Better Path to Learning has written about the University of Iowa’s Center for Intellectual Freedom before. The Center was mandated by the Iowa Legislature a few years ago, but now it’s back in the news based on low enrollment during its first year of existence. Last week, the Des Moines Register reported that Governor…

Learning is hard work. Most of the time it involves struggle. Too often it leads to failure. Back in 2000, when I was a young principal opening a brand new high school, I came across an article titled “Positive Deviant.” Fast Company printed it inside their monthly magazine (there wasn’t such a thing as online…

“’We all technically, legally own the place,’ Will Xu told me last year. We were sitting at a picnic table on the campus of Deep Springs College, a tiny, experimental school in the California desert where he is a student. The White and Inyo Mountains were ringed around us.” Deep Springs College offers a different…

My wife left a New York Times article on my bedside table recently. The title, “You Can’t Game Your Way to a Real Education” caught my attention. Molly Worthen, a University of North Carolina history professor, is the author. If you’ve read ABPTL for a while, you’ll know that my wife and I have a…

Part 2 this week on AI: America is embroiled in a love-hate relationship with artificial intelligence. As The Atlantic plainly stated in a May 13th article: “America is both the world’s foremost developer of AI and its chief hater.” The article continues: “….The AI industry has spent recent years warning of a jobless future. So…

It’s mid-week before the Memorial Day holiday. Let’s use this time to discuss two very different tales involving artificial intelligence. Today we discuss AI and how it will continue to change how we view testing and cheating. Tomorrow we’ll talk about how AI is impacting our current and future job market. We’ve talked about how…

I’m back after three weeks in Spain. While on the islands of Tenerife and Gran Canarias, I captured two stories that demonstrate the essence of what it means to embrace an “anytime/anywhere” learning focus. I like to take urban hikes while on vacation, with rest stops at places where I can “people watch.” One of…

Here’s a little about a lot – According to a news post in last week’s EdWeek, celebrities like Hugh Grant, Oprah Winfrey, and Texas Senator Ted Cruz have all come out against educational technology in schools. In addition, “More than half of educators who work for public school district – 61% – say that most…

ABPTL is back for a few days after being off last week. Earlier this year EducationWeek released data from the 50 states, asking teachers, beyond salary, what would improve their working conditions inside the classroom. According to EdWeek, “Salary is one major factor long linked to teacher morale. In an effort to look more holistically…