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Category Archives: School Reform
School Bureaucracy: Lessons from the VA and GM
Summary: The current debacles at the Veterans’ Administration and General Motors, and the parallel inability of upper management to solicit data from grass roots workers, may well mirror the deaf ear of too many senior school administrators to teacher point … Continue reading
At-Risk Students: Follow the Money
Summary: Incentive systems for school districts to retrieve and hold dropouts are themselves dysfunctional. Yet, in committed communities dropout retrieval efforts are succeeding. “Follow the money.” Normally a line uttered on a TV crime show, a recent Education Week article … Continue reading
School Reform: Once Again A Tale of Teacher Power
Summary: Amid the relative merits of “direct instruction” and “inquiry” approaches to curriculum, a narrative emerges that suggests teacher empowerment may be the more important variable. In the ongoing assault on school dysfunction, debate rages between those who advocate “direct … Continue reading
At Risk Low Income Students: Sometime Victims of a Blame Game
Summary: Stereotypical assumptions about low income kids should not cloud the will to social investment, via schools, in their economic future. Yesterday I visited with an old friend and neighbor in a community in which I had lived for 35 … Continue reading
At Risk Students: Lessons from the Post High School Scene
Summary: Community colleges struggle with the same deficits in low income students that handicap their progress in elementary and high school. Here are a couple of very different approaches to this pivotal dilemma. Serendipity sometimes informs the writer. Shortly … Continue reading
At Risk Low Income Students: Readiness Is All
Summary: In the race to improve the academic skills of low income students various “soft” skills need address as well. Student self-perception and personal vision, possession of a viable road map to success, and social skills pertinent to socioeconomic advancement … Continue reading
School Reform Via Targeted Hires and “Big Data”
Summary: The use of “big data” and derivative algorithms to predict which applicants will be successful hires in companies may prove useful in the identification of quality teacher candidates. The fact that 46% of new teachers leave the profession within … Continue reading
School Reform: Yup, Some Regular Every Day Schools Are Doing It
Summary: One low income school stages a dramatic turnaround. How it was done maps out a route that other reformed schools have followed, yet poses dilemmas for the choice makers. The Seattle area’s White Center Heights Elementary prior to the … Continue reading
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