Being all that we can be, as schools and school systems

To provide a glimmer of hope that what is possible in our schools is actually possible, even probable, let us back go back twenty or thirty years ago and celebrate how far we have come as an industry. Let us be reminded how much better we are now at planning rigorous lessons, inspiring higher-order questions, and requiring a greater distribution of student responses. This growth in instructional best practices is evident among our teachers, but also among our leaders. Our school principals and assistant principals are much better equipped today than ever before in observing teachers, providing meaningful feedback, reviewing academic data, and making instructional decisions around facilities, scheduling, hiring, and professional development. We have a long way to go (we always do), but don’t…

It seems that all of our emphasis in schools on improving reading scores has created a sense that reading is an end unto itself. In fact, let’s be clear that no one reads simply to check off some list that they have read something (except, of course, in school). Reading as a life skill is never really an end game, as much as curiosity is, or knowledge-seeking is. We all read for a reason, even if it is pure escapism into a salacious romance novel or a page-turning thriller. The idea of reading practice as we assign it in school sounds logical. The more that struggling readers read, the better readers they will become. They might even grow to like reading, to be less reluctant.…

Tag: instructional leadership

Being all that we can be, as schools and school systems

Reading for the right reasons: A pathway to discovery

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