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Grades serve no pedagogical function at all. (Detailed feedback does, but that's an entirely different matter.) Grading is about nothing more than efficiently communicating to other institutions the level of learning we, the teachers, estimate (and it is only an estimation) each student gained. Unfortunately, students not only want to know about the content of that communication (understandably enough) but, for many, maximizing the grade (rather than the learning itself) has become their primary goal in taking courses. If we had no grades, then students' own personal sense of learning would be all that they got out of taking courses, and they would focus on that instead. (And it would make courses a much more interesting and productive place to be.)

Kids were disrespectful to teachers, and teachers were impatient with kids

how does a school get to the point that my school was at when I first arrived? In this particular case, there had been a series of administrative turnovers, so every couple of years the priorities changed. There was no adopted discipline code, so school discipline was something that was randomly applied to individual students rather than a part of the entire school culture. Teachers felt that they were not supported by administration, and some students realized that there were few in any consequences for poor behavior (the student who hit the opposing player earned the first suspension in years). Some teachers just gave up; others became angry. Still others were intimidated. Teacher absenteeism was high.

The school turnaround didn’t occur overnight, but at the end of two years of consistent application of the discipline plan

continuous reflection throughout the process

(1) modeling the use of new technologies in communicating to students, teachers and the general public; (2) ensuring that technology becomes integral to teaching 21st-century skills from critical thinking and problem solving to collaboration and information literacy in the classroom; (3) boosting Web 2.0 applications and tools as key components of student learning; (4) offering professional development in these technologies and deploying the online tools that help teachers create learning communities among themselves; and (5) requiring better balanced assessments of student work—including project-based learning enhanced by technology tools—in an age driven by NCLB-oriented testing and better use of data from the assessments to help students improve their performance.

The revised edition also includes a self-assessment for superintendents to evaluate how far their districts have come along the technological curve. CoSN’s CEO Keith Krueger explains that his organization’s research shows that many district leaders are behind that curve, and the new document opens with a letter:

e cautions that the large-scale changes CoSN is advocating are most likely to happen for district leaders who are not engaged in dozens of other initiatives. “Everybody wants the superintendent to be in the middle of everything,” Reeves explains. “The real acid test is whether you can execute the ‘not-to-do list,’” adding that superintendents need to resist establishing too many priorities. Each of the five areas featured in “Empowering the 21st Century Superintendent” includes a set of resources and a series of action steps for superintendents and district leadership teams. For instance, in the 21st-century skills section, leaders are urged to improve their own such skills, create a vision for integrating them into K12 instruction, audit the district’s strategic plan to see which might be missing and adjust professional development accordingly.

My wife and I had Luke “opt out” of No Child Left Behind standardized testing (here in Pennsylvania known as the Pennsylvania System of School Achievement, or PSSAs).

Last week I did just that. I looked at the test and determined that it violated my religion. How, you might ask? That’s an entirely different blog, but I can quickly say that my religion does not allow for or tolerate the act of torture and I determined that making Luke sit for over 10 hours filling in bubble sheets would have been a form of mental and physical torture, given that we could give him no good reason as to why he needs to take this test.

ch a reason for opting out of the PSSA testing will negatively affect the school’s participation rate and could POTENTIALLY have a negative impact on the school’s Adequate Yearly Progress under the rules of No Child Left Behind.

students learn

To some, that term can mean a scripted, day-to-day lesson plan, while to others, it’s a lean set of big ideas that can be tackled in many ways

multiple meanings of the word “curriculum.”

we are obsessing on a small problem while we give short shrift to professional development strategies that could move large numbers of teachers from satisfactory to excellent

removing ineffective teachers has much more to do with ill-trained and supported administrators than tenure rules

scholars from Vanderbilt University and the RAND Corporation plainly conclude that “rewarding teachers with bonus pay, in the absence of any other support programs, does not raise student test scores.”

I'm a success when I do something that I myself can truly understand

the most essential prerequisite to understanding is to be able to admit when you don't understand something

They all tell us what we want our kids to turn out like. They all remind us what we need to value in education. But we don’t. At least not in action. (GENERALIZATION ALERT:) Schools continue to push content-driven curricula. Teachers continue to plan lessons building expertise within the discipline. And if students get our “21st Century Skills”, it’s because of an exception-to-the-rule teacher, choices the students make outside of class, or just plain luck. We all know that what we need is buy-in. We see the success stories, celebrate the schools that do it, and ultimately wonder, what does it take to make it work everywhere? Buy-in. So back to the teacher accessibility issue. How do we ensure that teachers see teaching a 21st Century Curriculum as part of their job?

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he is not trying to grow his audience any longer, he says.

4. You negotiate with the school for special education services.

5. Never threaten. Never telegraph your punches!

Fear of the Unknown As a negotiator, one of the most powerful forces you have on your side is the "Fear of the Unknown." When you threaten, you are telling the other side what you plan to do. If you tell them what you plan to do, you have told them how to protect themselves. At that moment, you lose your advantage - which is the wonderful, powerful Fear of the Unknown. Never telegraph your punches – you will destroy their power and effectiveness.