Month: August 2017

school-leadership; instructional leadership

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All great instructional leaders worth their weight have to know what great instruction looks like when they see it. There is simply no way to successfully lead school improvement and turnaround initiatives if you don’t know what you’re looking for when you walk into a classroom. The problem is that we often have different definitions of what those things are and it begs a myriad of questions related to a principal’s role in guiding teacher growth. Instructional coach? Mentor? Evaluator? Visionary? This debate found its way onto the internet the other day and that made for some frustrated school leaders who chimed in on the discussion. For me, the discussion provided some deep thinking about what we mean when we say that our principals should…

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leadership, instructional leadership

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The art and science of teaching is familiar to all school leaders and no one seems to challenge the notion that there are complex subtleties that master teachers possess that less effective teachers do not. We all know that our best teachers apply practical routines and processes (like setting up desks or tables) that any teacher can learn to do with highly nuanced, artistic skills (like how to get all students involved in a discussion) that are nearly impossible to measure and difficult to master. In turn, the art of teaching is the secret ingredient missing in many classrooms and the challenge for researchers and trainers who are charged with creating a framework of best practices that all teachers can employ. The truth is that…

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student, achievement gap

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If we all dig deep. If we all search our souls for the true deficits that lead to the achievement gaps in our schools, we may find that race and poverty are only the physical manifests of what is actually at play here: low expectations. The psychology of all of this is as fascinating and compelling as it is sad and tragic. Since there are lives at stake here, let us keep our focus on solving problems and not just theorizing about them. Still, solving the true, discriminatory practices that lead to achievement gaps does require our school leaders to understand why and how these gaps reveal themselves daily in our classrooms. Let me be clear that I am true believer in teachers and schools…

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Chalkboard, old-school

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Cultural competence training among teachers and leaders and its related pedagogy have arrived with such bombast that one might think the system we now have is outmoded (which it is), uninspiring (which it is) and that there are scads of children tuned out (which they are) because we have somehow failed (which we have) to connect with them in any relevant way. Of course, it is not true that cultural competence has only recently arrived on the scene but it is true that our industry is finally catching up with what the kids have been telling us for years, that learning is about them and their needs, that we have got to meet them where they are before we can expect them to go where…

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