The formula is simple—consider the students first and leave ineffective, outdated rules to others.
Archive for the ‘Collaboration’ Category
Effective Educational Technology Requires Effective Implementation
January 19th, 2012
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In a recent post Mel Riddile intertwined two critical issues facing schools in 2012—the need to appropriately utilize cutting edge technology and the negative impact of failing to renovate schools on a regular basis. The following piece will discuss possible impediments to utilizing educational technology in a school and how to avoid them. In a [...]
Brute Force Filtering: Step Up and End It
August 5th, 2011
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Background: Back in 1995, I was teaching an Internet course for our teachers. When I look at the syllabus for that course, I have a good laugh. Sad to say, we could do things in 1995 that would be difficult to pull off today. Yes, we were using ftp and a beta version of Netscape, [...]
Rivercrest: The Miracle on the Mississippi
June 23rd, 2011
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A small miracle occurred in Rivercrest High School, which is located in Wilson, Arkansas near the banks of the Mississippi River. Due to an apparent lack of experience and a degree of naïveté, a second-year English teacher, Lindsey Kelley, decided that it was time to "give students a say in their own education" (student voice) [...]
Sometimes in Education, the Majority Should Not Rule
June 19th, 2011
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by Stuart Singer, The Teacher Leader The Virginia Standards of Learning (SOL) exams, which are representative of many of the end-of-course assessments utilized as barriers to graduation throughout the country, have plenty of room for improvement. In previous posts I have made a number of specific suggestions for upgrading the SOLs. That said, I must [...]
Building the Best Educational Staff: Part 4 Evaluation
May 27th, 2011
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by Stuart Singer, The Teacher Leader Evaluations that have value Academic success has been directly linked to the quality of a school’s teaching and administrative staffs. Ideas are constantly being presented for improving educational personnel. But singular approaches such as merit pay, improved evaluations, and easier termination policies will not individually accomplish that goal. What [...]
Building the Best Educational Staff: Part 3 The Interview
May 15th, 2011
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by Stuart Singer, The Teacher Leader Developing an Effective Interview Process Academic success has been directly linked to the quality of a school’s teaching and administrative staffs. Prescriptions are continually being proposed to improve educational personnel. These plans have included merit pay, improved evaluations, and easier termination policies among others. But this goal is too [...]
Literacy: Third Grade Reading Predicts Graduation
April 11th, 2011
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Background: Nationally, two-thirds of students are not reading on grade level by the fourth grade, the earliest year of testing in the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). That proportion rises to four-fifths for low-income children, according to NAEP results released last year. A recently released national study indicates that students who are not proficient [...]
Money + Time May Not Equal Success
March 17th, 2011
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by Stuart Singer, The Teacher Leader Like Mel Riddile, I saw the recent “60 Minutes” segment featuring the TEP School (The Equity Project) in New York City. The opening tease about a school offering teacher salaries of $125,000 drew my attention. The segment itself was riveting. The discussions of hiring, firing and tenure policies in [...]
Should $125K buy better scores?
March 14th, 2011
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I received this message from a former colleague in an email this morning. "Did you see 60 minutes last night? A school is paying teachers $125,000 per year and their student score are NOT going up!" The title of the 60 minutes segment was "NYC charter school’s $125,000 experiment: Does a non-unionized school that pays [...]
