Monthly Archives: April 2014

“School is boring!” Does it have to be?

I absolutely love thinking and learning about schools and students and I assume a lot of other teachers do too. Yet in my experience as a teacher I rarely have an opportunity to sit down in the context of my job with other equally charged teachers and talk and plan new programs and new curriculum and new approaches to […]

School board candidates should show serious engagement with current topics in education

School boards make decisions that greatly influence the education students receive, yet some school board members know very little about curriculum, brain research, child development, or what is going on state-wide, nationally, or internationally in schools. In Maine we value local control of our schools and we are reluctant to cede decision-making authority to bureaucrats. […]

Common Core Will Not Cure All

My chief criticism of the Common Core at this point is that it is being touted as a cure-all for our nation’s educational problems, but in fact it will not cure all. Mediocre teachers implementing the Common Core within the context of our current mediocre schools will only produce mediocre learning outcomes in students. What we […]

Principals Should Focus on Instructional Leadership

  Gordon Donaldson and George Marnik’s The Maine Principal Study reports that school leaders in our state devote relatively little time to initiating educational programs, evaluating curriculum, collecting student data, and other activities directly aimed at improving learning outcomes in students. The principal’s job is so demanding in other areas that it is challenging for […]