New York State is a hotbed of this resistance and opposition movement. With the former Commissioner of Education now in DC, recent appointee Commissioner Elia has begun a walk back from her predecessor's agenda. She worked to find or develop better tests.  She has effected a temporary uncoupling of student results and teacher and principal evaluations. For this year's administration, tests are untimed and questions will be released at the close of the scoring window. In her brief…

K-12 Principals, Get Your Irish On

• Ed Week

At last year's conference of the Irish Primary Principals' Network, in Dublin, I was surprised to find myself still awake at 3 a.m., as more than 300 of the 1,200 attendees socialized in the hotel…

Coaching vs. Supervising

During a lunch time conversation with a veteran teacher, the discussion turned to the value of supervision; that is the ability of a supervisor to help a teacher improve upon his or her instructional practices. My colleague was brutally frank, “I’ve been teaching for more than twenty years. I can honestly say that I have never received feedback from a supervisor that was valuable enough to make me a better…

 March Madness...NCAA basketball for non-sports enthusiasts...is over. Villanova won the men's championship with a "buzzer shot". When an interviewer asked Kris Jenkins, the 3 point shooter, when he knew the shot would be a good one, Kris responded by saying he knew when he received the pass. It came to him exactly right. Here was the star of the night, a college junior, acknowledging the teammate who passed the ball. That's a team at work.

What to do when your team isn't in…

Education Revolution ran an article listing what they said were the really bad things in K-12 education.

 I disagreed. They were the worst things from the progressive point of view. But if you asked an average person, you would probably find a blank stare. What's so bad about that?

Progressives think that children having to stay at their desks is hell on earth. I…

Some believe leaders are born.  Whether that is true or not, in our profession, becoming a school leader most often begins in the classroom. Teachers feel the call to make a bigger difference or to fill a different role. They take the first step by entering graduate programs. Those programs, formerly known by the name 'Educational Administration', have, over these past years, become 'Educational Leadership' programs. But, too often, the difference in the names did not necessarily…

Of all the hundreds of questions provoked by the K-12 morass, here is the fundamental one: are the top people incompetent or are they subversive?

 Anybody who studies K-12  will come to this impasse: is the Education Establishment clueless or conspiratorial?

 Charlotte Iserbyt wrote a famous book which you can find free on the Internet: "The Deliberate Dumbing…

Spring is a time of renewal. Leaves open into lime green brilliance.  Perennials pop from the earth and spread an array of color. For educators, the chapter called 2015- 2016 is racing to a close. The next year comes into focus with budgets finalized and assignments made. Students and teachers and principals will be evaluated and next year's decisions will be made.

It may well be the time of year when educators feel most accountable. But is it motivating? Paid with public dollars, we…

What Defines a Good School?

• Ed Week

Words matter. They matter in all aspects of life, especially when we are talking about how to define a school. Of course, brick and mortar are only a small part of the story. The academic and emotional…