What should schools look like?  We believe there are some overarching concepts that should apply to all schools. They begin with purpose and what we know about children learning. We also believe that there are local visionaries who includes advocates and adversaries from within and outside of the community and wonders about what might be.    Read more...

Hate speech and actions are on the rise in our country.  It has long been our belief that leadership is first about who you are and how that informs your actions, and second about knowing how to perform the tasks of the job. Some are drawing a direct line between the words and actions of the POTUS and the polarization and extremism rising around us. We do, and that direct line is why.  Leaders, whether of  countries, states, towns, school districts, boards of education, schools,…

When it Comes to School Discipline, Let Parents Choose

By Education Next 08/29/2017

In the News: Why Principals Lie to Ineffective Teachers — Honesty Takes Too Long

By Education Next 08/18/2017

Teachers are returning to their classrooms and leaders are thinking about and delivering their orientation day remarks. Most leaders have, themselves, also been teachers. They know that some days can be really hard and they remember the days when they were frustrated. But, they also know the better days, the ones that captured a light in a child's eye or the joy of stellar test marks that made a difference in a college acceptance or a performance that was memorable. They also know that…

 Even for liberal educators, even from the very start, didn't it strike everyone that Common Core was way too big, too sudden, too fast. A huge top-down governmental imposition that would transform everything from K to 12. Once it was locked into law at the federal level, we would never escape from it. There was NO testing, no confirmation that any of the ideas worked. They don't, unless the goal is to befuddle students.

It almost succeeded as planned by David Coleman,…

The values that built our country must be claimed and spoken out loud over and over again. A new school year has already begun in some parts of the country and we wonder what will be said about the weekend news. Schools cannot simply hope that this event and events like it will stay far away from our communities and outside of the walls of the school building. News enters our homes, pops up on smartphones and sends us alerts. In some families and churches and communities, there will be…

When adults and children work and learn in an environment that supports risk taking and celebrates even the small successes and views failure as an opportunity for more learning, the environment becomes rich and dynamic with teaching and learning. That is what schools reach for...engaged, dynamic, learning environments that invite all to be learners and changers, to be gardeners attending the growth of themselves and each other. Understanding the fear of failure in one's self and in…