Top 10 lists always emerge as the year draws to an end and we pause to reflect on the past year. The Inside Higher Education website had its own top 10 list noting “the stories that attracted the most readers in 2019.” Eight of the top 10 articles included topics we have seen in the past such as racism, cost … Read More
Innovation Reflections from the 2010s
Coming off tandem bone-marrow transplants in my fight against multiple myeloma, I entered 2010 defeated and uncertain about my future. Nine years later, as I trekked through Iceland this past summer (video), I spent many hours reflecting on both my personal life and professional work. From my perspective, the 2010s will be remembered as a pivotal time for us in … Read More
School Impossible: Three Principles for Turnarounds
Happy summer, and I hope that you have some time to rest and relax. My encouragement this summer is to take some serious time-off and to actually do nothing, as recommended by this Forbes article. This wisdom resonates with me because of the inundation of stimuli that typically competes for my attention, especially because of my fondness of Twitter and … Read More
Beyond Compliance: The HeartSmart High Five
We make thousands of choices every day. Children do too. How do we help children choose well? The goal is to build character, the ability to make a good choice in any given moment. Sometimes we think that we’re building character in our schools when we’re actually building compliance. Do children choose the same thing when we’re not in the … Read More
A Year of School Visits: Four Lessons
Since April of 2018, I’ve had an opportunity to visit more than 20 schools as a learner and observer, not as an employee or consultant. This opportunity arose because of two MindShift projects I’ve participated in, but also just out of my own curiosity. Rex Miller, in particular, encouraged me to find the “bright” spots in a dark world, and … Read More
A Look Back at 2018: Looking Ahead to 2019
Review of 2018 At the end of each year I put together a reflection of the year as well as a look ahead. See A Look Back and a Look Ahead 2018 where I shared the best of 2017 and themes for 2018. As anyone who reads my blogs knows, I love to hyperlink things, so click through and use … Read More
Suggestions to Unleash Innovation
This past year, I’ve had the opportunity to start the Digical Education* podcast where I’ve recorded conversations with twenty-eight educators, innovators, or leaders. This opportunity has allowed me to ask questions about policy and practice in education that will allow us to be more successful in our work. Through these conversations, I’ve developed the following suggestions that might help us … Read More
“Horace Mann Had It All Wrong” and School Choice: Conversation with Corey DeAngelis
Introduction: I recently started following Corey DeAngelis on Twitter (@DeAngelisCorey) because of a battle of ideas he got into with some of the traditional education policy wonks that I also like to follow. I was impressed by Corey’s wit, his defense of not only school choice policies, and his knowledge of the research in regards to the effects of private … Read More
Cost of Leadership: Brief Inquiry into Head of School Compensation
Conclusion as the Introduction: Traditionally, an essay concludes with findings and ruminations, but for this blog I’m using a different approach as I’d like to frontload my comments before you dig into the information below. When I started this blog, my assumptions of leadership, which I’ve written about in many blogs are: School success is dependent upon quality and stable … Read More
Building an Engaged School: Educators Crave It
Review of Prior Blogs: In April 2016, I started a blog series entitled Building an Engaged School because of the misery of educators in their work, lack of stability in school leadership, and the ensuing educator shortage (which is now upon us). The blogs I wrote were intended to help school boards, school leaders, and policymakers to think through what … Read More