Tag: students

When we ran our personalized learning lab in Houston nearly a decade ago, we paid our two learning coaches around $100,000 each to make 50 middle school-aged learners smarter and stronger. In order to earn that type of salary, these two coaches had to demonstrate 1 ½ years of academic growth for each of the…

I bought some Girl Scout cookies recently and did some grocery shopping at the same time. As I rolled my cart up and down the aisles, I couldn’t help but notice the group of Girl Scouts and how they were working together. It seemed like all of them, eight or nine in number, understood what…

When I was a school leader, I was a big fan of Professional Learning Communities, or PLCs. Rick DuFour, superintendent and past principal of Adlai E. Stevenson High School, brought Professional Learning Community school improvement work into the national spotlight during the 1990’s. Professional Learning Communities, made up of the adult learning leaders inside a…

Part of the problem with the traditional school system is that it has prioritized efficiency over effectiveness – even though the system isn’t that efficient. The traditional school system struggles with effectiveness, especially when it comes to building relationships between all students and the adults who serve them. The system depends on schools that are…

Happy Valentine’s Day! In addition to February being the month for lovers, it’s also the month to recognize and celebrate the contributions African-Americans have made to this country. I’ve gone on record about my skepticism of only giving a month to recognize the significance of any group – African-Americans, Hispanics, Asian-Americans, LGBTQ+. It seems that…

A big problem with our public school system is that they have established goals over the past 50 years that might not equal the overall outcomes we want for our students. Performing well on high stakes tests, high attendance rates, and excellent accountability ratings have been the goals, but have they led to making our…

When I was a middle school principal, we paid special attention to our middle school boys. It wasn’t the case we ignored our female students, but we knew that our young men, especially those who were black, brown, or poor, demanded extra care over the three years spent with us. Recently, I came across a…

“You need a license to buy a dog or drive a car. Hell, you need a license to catch a fish. But they’ll let any butt reamin’ asshole be a father.” – Keanu Reeves’s character “Tod Higgins” in the movie Parenthood I was a public school educator for 35 years – 25 working for a…

When it comes to “school choice,” most state legislators “play it close to the vest.” To date, very few governors or state legislatures have utilized education savings accounts in a way that would really open up learning possibilities for America’s families – especially those black, brown, and poor families. Take for example Iowa. The Iowa…