Category: Instructional Leadership

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Equal access to public school education has been available to every child for generations, though equitable access to knowledge and power still eludes us. Equal opportunity remains an unspoken dream deferred, an ambition unrealized, even within our public schools. Technology can narrow that divide. Rightly so, the work within our public schools has been focused for years on increasing access to technology, and that is a laudable first step. Still, if we do not distill our actions through a filter of equity, powerful instructional tools like laptops and tablets may have no more impact on equitable outcomes than having equal access to #2 pencils. To be clear, any honest pursuit of equality will require us to confront a number of personal and societal afflictions that…

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Children, love, respect, dignity

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The reality that we all face as teachers and leaders, and that no one seems to be talking about, is how the demands on our schools and curricula are so vast that we are now asked to do much, much more than inspire skills in reading, writing, and arithmetic. My how times have changed. As schools are thrust into the intriguing demands of social-emotional learning (SEL), we have to wonder how we ever got here without it. We also have to ponder what the end-game of schooling will be someday if we must figure out how to navigate the pressures of covering so many content standards in so little time along with teaching our children how to manage their emotions, build strong relationships, improve their…

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student hands of hope

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The daily dance around student engagement and lesson planning has been made much too complex in recent years, and I’m not sure why. We have countless definitions of what engagement is and what it is not, and we have varied opinions on how we should rate this concept when we observe a classroom lesson. Let’s be clear that true engagement is a highly advanced instructional skill and is much easier said than done. Still, I don’t think the definition itself is as complex as we are making it out to be. For me, I prefer to think of student engagement as synonymous with “thinking” and even “learning,” with a nod to things like student interest, choice, and real-world application. The real caution here is that…

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No matter what schools look like in the future, success will come when all decisions are made with each student’s best interests in mind and with relationships at the core. This will include deep consideration of each child’s strengths and passions and even how curricula and lessons are designed to enrich the home lives of children and families. Deeper human connections will be paramount because schools must be focused on developing students social-emotionally and not just academically. If we do this well, the entire experience of schooling will feel more organic and personal for all students, from the relationships they form with their teachers to the assignments they interact with. Creating such schools will require districts to build systems and processes from the student outward.…

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The grand experiment that we know of as public education continues to be our best hope to inspire freedom and prosperity across all races and eradicate the grim realities of economic inequality. Teachers, administrators, students and staff boldly engage in this experiment daily and continue to champion the cause that has yet to live up to its promise. In honor of our successes and in recognition of our persistent struggles, it seems only right to review what Dr. King taught us as we wrestle with the complexities of culturally relevant instruction or cultural engagement or whatever term you want to use for engaging all kids.   Lesson #1: Judge students not by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. “I…

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Let me reiterate what has been said countless times. Leadership matters. This is especially true in schools and school districts where so much is at stake and where nearly everyone has an opinion about how schools should be run. Let me also reiterate my continued support for the dedicated and kindred spirits who each day stare down the awesome challenges of leadership in today’s public schools. They are heroes all. Still, despite our best efforts, academic progress in our schools is slow and we must own that. Blaming our shortcomings on politicians or public policy is not bold and is not leadership. Blaming teachers is cowardly, blaming parents naïve. What did Gandhi tell us?  “We must be the change we wish to see in the…

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advice for graduates

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Oh, the pride and privilege of our youth. I’m certain that Shakespeare and our mothers warned us about such things. Yes, let us be clear that we never knew as much as we knew when we were 17. For those of us who are a bit older now and only somewhat wiser, it really is a great honor and blessing to celebrate with young people and join in the great pomp and ceremony that accompanies graduates everywhere. If I could get their attention even for a moment (which is unlikely), I would offer a bit of advice. I would ask them to slow down, to take in these final few moments and experience them in slow motion, to imbibe the wonderful trappings around them with…

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childhood memories

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The ongoing debate in education about what we want all children to know and be able to do has raged on for decades and leaves us all to question and argue the merits of our current standards, assessments and pacing guides that seem to expect so much of our students and teachers with little regard for whether any of this is really doable. The instructional shifts required by the Common Core Standards (or whatever your state calls them) has contributed to this notion that these core competencies must required of all children and all we have to do is practice them over and over. What rarely surfaces in all this dialogue is the very real issue of foundational skills that must be mastered in order to grasp these…

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I can personally and professionally attest to the fragility of the human spirit. That’s because I have been there, along with the rest of us. One minute we believe we can change the world and the next minute we are giving up on it. The thin veil of self-confidence that envelopes each of us, and our children in particular, brings into question the propriety and opportunity we have as educators in the words that we use and the actions that we take. For just a moment, let us all think back as far as we can remember, for it is there among memories pieced together that we might recall the first time someone suggested that we could be good at something, that we had some…

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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 recently 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 lead instructionally.…

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