A Better Path to Learning

Tag: students

  • Reimagining Teachers as Learning Coaches

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    Imagine a learning world where one or two learning coaches work with a group of 40-50 young learners, building learning plans that are personalized and customized for each individual learner. You might think we are lightyears away from this type of adult learning leader/young learner relationship, but maybe not. EducationWeek online published an article last…

  • Spending Without Knowing

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    Schools like to whine about not having enough money. They are convinced that more money will solve all their problems. But here’s the deal. As long as schools don’t know how the money they are given impacts young learners, why should they receive more of it? Earlier this year, USA Today online published an article…

  • Friday News Roundup

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    It’s Friday. Time for the Roundup. Do Cell Phone Bans Work? Educators Share Their Experiences (EducationWeek) No, they don’t. According to EducationWeek online this week, “At least 88 percent of teens own a personal smartphone, according to Common Sense Media, and 43 percent of 8- to 12-year-olds have smartphones.” “About 1 in 10 teachers, principals,…

  • Let the Learner Decide

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    I was set to write about how schools spend billions of dollars on training, but they don’t have a clue if that training works. But that article will have to wait until another day. I serve on a few non-profit boards now that I’m retired. This morning I had a check-in with the leader of…

  • The Troubled High School

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    High schools are in trouble. Filled with hormonal youth, trying to do everything for everyone, debating between college readiness and workforce preparation, our American high schools are struggling – many failing – in front of our eyes. When I was a high school principal in Texas, the mantra of the day was “college readiness for…

  • The Trouble with Tutoring in Public Schools

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    Tutoring seems to be the strategy we’ve chosen in our schools to combat learning loss caused by the COVID pandemic. But it seems America can’t do what we know to do – again. In other words, if we don’t start following best practices, tutoring will become another failed learning strategy and our kids will remain…

  • Are Microschools the Future?

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    A few weeks ago, Nate McClennen from the Getting Smart think tank wrote an interesting piece on microschools, small schools started mainly by parents unhappy with their current public school options. Here are some excerpts from McClennen’s article: “Small learning environments have always been the foundation of formal learning systems. Indigenous groups around the world,…

  • A Coach’s Learning Culture

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    Another college basketball season has started. Our oldest son played the sport for the University of Houston from 2014 to 2018. Kelvin Sampson was his coach. I was thinking about Coach Sampson the other evening as I was watching his Cougars defeat one more challenger in the young season. I was thinking about Coach Sampson’s…

  • Maybe Moms for Liberty Need Their Own Microschool

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    I’m a big advocate for parent involvement and empowerment when it comes to their children’s learning plan. I learned early on, as a school principal, that parents usually knew best when it came to what was in the best interest of their child. With that stated, Moms for Liberty, pretending to be a parent involvement…

  • Friday News Roundup

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    Here’s your News Roundup. Alaska Leads States in First-Ever Rankings of Charter Performance on NAEP (The 74) This week The 74 online reported that, “In an unusual, first-of-its-kind ranking of 35 states and the District of Columbia, charter schools in Alaska turned in the highest scores in reading and math, with students there learning the…