The addition of highly trained STEM teachers and paying them, as well as all teachers, for work they do is a good direction.  But, without a fundamental structural change that supports a new way of teaching and learning, we will continue to get nearly the same results. Without the partnerships of business, community organizations, and higher education, we cannot leverage the change fully. Without architects who understand that STEM/STEAM learning labs must allow for flexible structure…

If you'd like to feel your head spin, try to understand the justification for Constructivism, a destructive pedagogical theory and method that has infested K-12 education.

 Let me sum up the situation with the words of Allen Ginsberg:

"I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by sophistry

 scheming  hysterical shameless,…

Peer feedback benefits the one giving and the one receiving feedback. Here guest blogger Ruth Ebenstein shares another story about learning as it takes place in a Hebrew Day School in Ann Arbor. No matter whether in public, private, or religious settings...how successful teaching and learning takes place can serve as a model and as a reminder.  We wonder if more students were taught how to give and receive feedback and found it empowering and helpful, if as adults feedback would be sought…

A few months back GE released an ad campaign featuring physicist Millie Dresselhaus. The 86 year old has been cast into stardom as the company announced its commitment to have 20,000 women employed in STEM positions by 2020. And, essentially, that's the dual purpose of the ad, not just to announce the program but to raise the question about whether female scientists can achieve celebrity status. Pair that with Rush Limbaugh's recent rant about his disdain for acknowledging women…

To fix education, focus on schools where things go right

My Top 10 Recommended Books for School Leaders

BY JUSTIN BAEDER

DON’T BELIEVE YOUR MOMMA

Don’t believe your momma. She kept telling you to be careful. 

Dan Rockwell

Leadership Freak

Fear is resistance to greatness.…

In DeVos' model, parents should be able to choose if a child attending a 'failing' school can allow the child to attend a religious school or a private school. But what if the parent has a gender questioning child or a developmentally challenged child and the schools available either reject them or do not serve them because they don't have to. This is not a new issue but it is still a problematic one. Choice for all children really belongs only to some.   …

Guest blogger J.M. Myers, M.D. writes:

How ironic that during this month, May, Mental Health Month, we have seen videos of torture, murder, rape, and threats widely distributed on social media. In fact, these Internet sites had previously publicized that they wanted live action.

All this though represents only the most extreme actions of a few who have posted this material. I would maintain that day to day less publicized but very insidious cybermedia postings have introduced…

In the frenzy of the day, with a 'the buck stops here' attitude, leaders can be caught in the 'solutions trap'.  There is graffiti in a bathroom so lock the bathroom. There are students who leave the building during the day so lock the doors preventing them from re-entering without being found out. There are too many students arriving late to class so place more adults in the hall to hurry the students along. There are growing numbers of students being disrespectful so write a new code…

THE SURPRISING SECRET TO GETTING THINGS DONE

The secret to…