Tag: students

  • The Students Know

    Most parents have no idea how good the school they send their kids to every day really is. That’s why, as a school leader, I didn’t pay a lot of attention to what parents thought about the school day we ran through the year. Instead, we paid way more attention to what our youngsters were…

  • Changing Our Meritocracy

    As I’ve stated before, I’m a big fan of David Brooks’ writing. When I was first read Brooks, he was a bit too conservative politically for my tastes, but, like George Will, Brooks has mellowed a bit over the years. And I suppose I have too. In November, Brooks wrote an article for The Atlantic…

  • Friday News Roundup

    Today’s Friday News Roundup is focused on the top stories of 2024, 2025 predictions, and a few other New Year surprises. Let’s get to it. Every year, The 74 releases 12 charts that defined American education for that year. Here are the chart titles that made news for 2024, without the charts themselves: “Federal Funds…

  • A New Year’s Manifesto

    Happy New Year! Will Richardson just released something he is calling “A Manifesto” titled “Confronting Education In a Time of Complexity, Chaos, and Collapse.” Richardson was a public school educator for over two decades before he began questioning current practices within our K-12 public school system. An author calling for a different and more creative…

  • Friday News Roundup

    It’s Friday! Time for the last News Roundup of 2024. Edutopia just published their “2024 in Review,” a collection of stories that highlight what they considered important when it comes to young learners. Here are nine of their 2024 most compelling ideas and passionate debates that sparked important, memorable discussions among educators: “I’m a teacher,…

  • Our Youngest Learners Are In Trouble

    We are still struggling with learning loss caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, but this time the loss is infecting those kids who weren’t even in school when COVID appeared back in March of 2020. This past summer, The New York Times reported that, “The pandemic’s babies, toddlers and preschoolers are now school-age, and the impact…

  • Learner Led

    When I worked in the traditional K-12 public school system, I constantly thought we didn’t ask enough of our young learners. We were content to have them sit passively at their desks, listening to us lecture on and one about things we knew about, and they didn’t. But what if they knew more about subject…

  • A Sad, Sad Trick

    Education savings accounts are currently being used by mostly middle-class families who are interested in leaving our public school system and enrolling in available private schools. What education savings accounts should be used for is to help primarily lower class families to find learning options for their kids so that those youngsters no longer have…

  • Learners as Explorers

    Exploration is one of the best learning models available – for both young and old. Exploring usually begins with a question, and then pursuit toward answer for that question. Exploration almost always involves challenge and struggle, but with the right type of support and encouragement, most questions lead to answers which lead to learning. Last…

  • Friday News Roundup

    It’s Friday. Time for the News Roundup. Amid Explosion of School Choice, Report Spotlights the Marginalized Families Left Behind (The 74) As feared, the families that need choice the most, when it comes to their child’s education, don’t have real options when it comes to K-12 public schools. The 74 reported this week that, “As…