Adapting and Adopting: Necessary Skills When School Leadership Changes

The shade of influence cast by the person at the top of the school district’s organizational chart is wide and deep. It does not matter if the organization is an immense urban school district or a compact rural district. The … Continue reading

Teacher Talent: Egads! Only 7% of Teacher Prep Programs Earn High Quality Status

I like James Durbin’s commentary on a life’s many turns. “It is what it is. It is what you make it.” Durbin is a singer-song writer living and succeeding with Tourette syndrome. A bad public image is what it is. … Continue reading

The School Year: A Purchase of Time Not Achievement

Right now, discard everything you have been told about why a school calendar is nine months long. Forget being told that the school calendar is matched to an agrarian lifestyle when children were needed as farm labor in the summer … Continue reading

Teacher Talent: Recognize and Honor Franchise Teachers

Franchise teachers? They exist, but I cannot ever recall a public conversation about a franchise teacher. We accept that professional sports, high powered businesses, and medical and tech enterprises have franchise employees. The Green Bay Packers win or lose on … Continue reading

Education Needs the Best and Brightest To Be Teachers

Creating a new generation of talented, professional teachers begins when today’s teachers and counselors say to the most academically advanced children in each classroom and school, “You should be a teacher.” Implanting a positive conception of teaching as a profession … Continue reading