Following less than a week of intense criticism, Commissioner King is at a learning crossroad.  His next leadership  steps will either reveal his capacity to lead or not.  Read more here.

Making a School Into a Community of Leaders

(Originally titled “The Time Is Ripe (Again)”)

In this thoughtful article in Educational Leadership, leadership guru Roland Barth explains why teacher leadership hasn’t taken off:

First, principals want to be in control. “If I, as a principal, delegate or accept a teacher’s leadership of something and it goes badly,” says Barth, “…the superintendent isn’t going…

The Power of a Museum Visit 

In this Education Gadfly article, Dara Zeehandelaar reports on a recent study of school field trips. Researchers gathered data on 11,000 Arkansas students in grades K-12 – half took a one-hour tour of the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art and half remained in their schools. Several weeks after the field trip, students took a quiz and here were the results:

• Students who visited the museum…

Does the Common Core Mandate Specific Works of Literature?

In this Education Gadfly article, Chester Finn addresses the concern that the Common Core ELA standards are dictating the use of certain books. There’s recently been a flap over Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye, which is included in the 11^th-grade list in Appendix B of the standards…

Is Music the Key to Success?

By JOANNE LIPMAN

Published: October 12, 2013

NY Times

Turning Education Upside Down

We must be calm enough to do our best thinking not our fastest reacting. With respect and civility we may bring forth a conversation that rudeness and name calling will not. There is room for disagreement but are we engaging in the process or supporting oppositional behaviors that result in things like stalemates and government shut downs?  Read more...

The current issue of AFT's American Educator contains this interesting piece on close reads.  While the author acknowledges the importance of prior knowledge in the comprehension of a text, he cautions teachers to be selective in their pre-reading practices.  Additionally, he points out the inherent hazards of  blindly following the Common Core push for asking text-dependent…

I've often had a fantasy where, circa 1955, the Chairmen of the Departments of English at Princeton, Harvard and Yale stand on the steps of the Library of Congress and proclaim, "We support Rudolf Flesch!" This small gesture could have saved tens of millions of children from misery. But nobody from these places did a thing. Much to their shame.....

Several years back, as I studied Flesch and the swirl we call the Reading…

The bottom line on SAT scores in one chart

Charter Schools and the Future of Public Education

BY STAN KARP

Ethan…

Fed Up With Fund-Raising for My Kids’ School

By ALANE SALIERNO MASON

Published: October 10, 2013 107…

Upending Stereotypes About Black Students

Ed Week

There's a troubling undercurrent to the national conversation about the black-white gap in student achievement. The (mostly) unspoken belief about black students is tied to broader…