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Category Archives: School Reform
Book Review: On Your Mark
The district I serve in moved to “standards-based report cards” a few years before I arrived in 2007 and I can honestly say they have created heartburn and lively debate three times each year. These have been revised and re-aligned … Continue reading
#MIpubED Community Concerns
As March 2015 winds to a close, the #MIpubED Twitter chats have uncovered more questions than answers…such is learning. In just a month we have discussed standards, high-stakes tests, and the creation of an online community where educators and their … Continue reading
Posted in Parenting, Politics, School Reform, Students, Teacher Leadership, Teachers
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#MIpubED High-Stakes Tests
Let’s be clear that assessments are not the standards and vice versa. When I was changing careers years ago and had to do a teaching internship, I had this great idea of gathering stories from educators about the trials and … Continue reading
Posted in Parenting, Politics, School Reform, Teachers
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#MIpubED Community Chat
There is so much going on with public education these days that now is a perfect time to really connect educators with the community members we service (parents, business partners, academia, and basically anyone with a vested interest in our … Continue reading
Posted in Leadership, Parenting, Politics, School Reform, Teacher Leadership, Teachers
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Teacher Leadership Series
A colleague and I have been watching our district’s attempt to shift its leadership structure to be more distributed. The nature of distributed leadership in education expands the roles of teachers and changes their interactions with principals, the community, and … Continue reading
Posted in Coaching, Leadership, School Reform, Teachers
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Parent Guide to CCSS
A parent recently approached me with a list of questions about the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) and how our schools are preparing for them. I was so pleased to have the conversation. Why would this be so pleasing you … Continue reading
Posted in Parenting, Politics, School Reform
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Book Review – Professional Capital
Few books make me salivate to read them, prior to publication. I’m usually the latecomer to some chart-topper that has already moved the world’s thinking, but the pre-publication campaign for Andy Hargreaves and Michael Fullan’s Professional Capital: Transforming Teaching in … Continue reading
Posted in Book Reviews, Leadership, School Reform, Teachers
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The Language We Choose
“If we hope to stem the mass destruction that inevitably attends our economic system, fundamental historical, social, economic, and technological forces need to be pondered, understood, and redirected. Behavior won’t change much without a fundamental change in consciousness. The question … Continue reading
Posted in Coaching, Leadership, School Reform, Students, Teachers
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The Public’s Agenda for Public Education
Last week I attended a conference hosted by The Center for Michigan, where they released the report summarizing Michigan data collected at numerous Community Conversations across the state in 2012. While I wasn’t completely impressed with the journalistic layout of … Continue reading
Posted in Politics, School Reform
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Community Conversation Revisited
In February of 2012, I hosted a Community Conversation to explore issues, build understanding, and gather solutions for an involved citizenry in education. The Center for Michigan, who facilitated the conversation held many across the state, gathering data to create … Continue reading
Posted in Leadership, Politics, School Reform
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