Category: Learnings

Has anyone noticed there is a presidential election going on? But even though the candidates have debated the economy, immigration, tariffs, and – Haitian-eating dogs, public education has been largely left on the sidelines this election season. But a recent PDK International poll suggests America has public education on its mind, even though Donald Trump…

Good news! According to a recent article posted by Tom Vander Ark, CEO of Getting Smart, there is a shift happening between our traditional K-12 school system and newer, more innovative learning organizations. Vander Ark writes, “After a two-year investigation including hundreds of interviews, Kim Smith and Jen Holleran published a landscape of innovation in…

Impactful learning depends on constructive feedback, both positive and negative. Recently, Arthur C. Brooks, a contributor to The Atlantic and a Harvard professor, wrote an article addressing positive feedback titled “A Compliment That Really Means Something.” Brooks writes, “…The quality of our relationships, in fact, depends on the ratio of praise to criticism that is…

Last week I promised to stop writing about school cellphone controversy for the rest of the year (even though I included a cellphone story in ABPTL’s latest Friday News Roundup). So I’m not going to write about cellphones. But I am going to write about artificial intelligence. Recently, Edutopia posted a story about Chanea Bond,…

There are schools that need to be closed. They are toxic places when it comes to making kids smarter and stronger, especially black, brown, and poor kids. When I started teaching in 1984 in the Houston public school system, there were at least 20-25 schools, elementary and secondary, in need of closing. Those schools weren’t…

Kids can’t read. Kids can’t do math. Neighborhood schools are closing. Black, brown, and poor learners are seriously behind their white counterparts when it comes to achievement. And the most important topic discussed in our K-12 world this school year – so far – is whether kids will be allowed to access cell phones in…

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed individuals can change the world. In fact, it’s the only thing that ever has.” – Margaret Mead There’s a movement starting in America, and the movement is called “microschools.” And many of the leaders of this microschool movement are women, the mothers of the young learners…

Schools back in session here in Des Moines, Iowa. My wife and I split time between Des Moines and Montpelier, Vermont, so I take an interest in what is happening with the largest K-12 public school system in Iowa. Back in July, the Des Moines Register published an article reflecting on Ian Roberts’s first year…

I recently ran across an article written by Chad Aldeman, a reporter for EducationWeek. The article, titled “No Textbooks, Times Tables or Spelling Test: Things My 6th Grader Didn’t Learn” begins, “My daughter recently completed sixth grade at our local public school. She had a wonderful experience with warm teachers and a positive school culture.…

“We have met the enemy, and they are us.” – Cartoonist Walt Kelly, Creator of “Pogo” If there was one belief that drove me crazy inside public schools, more than a hundred others, was when the system blamed the kids for academic under-performance. And it’s still happening. Last month, EducationWeek posted an article titled “Students’…