Leadership is not simply management. This is nowhere more evident than in educational settings where true leaders inspire, engage, facilitate and motivate both teachers and students to achieve success. But what makes a good educational leader? And how do leaders better foster an environment where the foundation of student-centered education thrives?At INSPIRE 2014, Bill Bryan, co-founder and vice president for leadership and organization development at the Center for Secondary School … [Read more...]
Testing the Standardized Test
By Theodore Willson Executive Director, National Institute for Student-Centered EducationAt long last, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts is taking a much needed step back to examine whether the state’s appetite for standardized testing is proving detrimental to teachers and students.Matthew Malone, the state’s education commissioner, thinks it’s time to review how testing is being handled in school districts around the state. He was quoted as saying in a recent Boston Globe article, … [Read more...]
NISCE to Expand Focus and Outreach
….New initiatives result of feedback at two-day INSPIRE 2014 conference… WINCHESTER, MA – November 4, 2014 -- The National Institute for Student-Centered Education (NISCE) today announced that, based on feedback from its INSPIRE 2014 conference, it will expand and enhance its mission-driven programs with a clearer emphasis on practical applications and approaches to student-centered education, and enhancing its focus and strategies to respond to educators’ concerns about the efficacy and … [Read more...]
Achievement Gap or Opportunity Gap?
On Wednesday, October 30th, at the Regent Theatre in Arlington, MA, Dr. Carroll Blake, the Executive Director for the Achievement Gap for Boston Public Schools, will facilitate a discussion following the screening of American Promise. The documentary provides a rare look into the lives of two middle-class black families as they navigate the ups and downs of parenting and educating their sons. The film aims to empower boys of color, their parents and educators and to help close access and … [Read more...]
Interview with Monty Neill, Ed.D., Executive Director, FairTest
On Wednesday, September 18th at the Regent Theater in Arlington, MA, Monty Neill, the Executive Director of the National Center for Fair and Open Testing (FairTest) will be facilitating a discussion following the screening of August to June. The movie calls into question the emphasis on test-based accountability and its influence on the way in which today's curriculum is being narrowed, impacting children’s joy of learning, sense of belonging, creative expression and self confidence.In a … [Read more...]
Comments On “Confessions of a Bad Teacher”
There is really nothing surprising about William Johnson’s op ed in The New York Times Sunday Review. Mr. Johnson eloquently describes the plight of many teachers in contemporary urban American schools under the peculiar and confused pressure of state and national efforts to reform education through reliance on high stakes testing. Mr. Johnson has the courage and patience to work with some of the most difficult students encountered in a public high school. These students do not receive high … [Read more...]
Concerning Drop in Teacher Job Satisfaction
The 2011 version of the MetLife Survey of the American Teacher (28th Annual) shows that only 44% of the teachers surveyed are 'very satisfied with their jobs', down from 59% in 2009. The article reviews possible factors behind that drop and suggests areas of concern to anyone paying attention to the state of public education. Randi Weingarten, President of the American Federation of Teachers suggests that the study is a "wake-up call from teachers. They don’t like what's going on with budget … [Read more...]
Unequal and Unjust Public Schools in America
Marian Wright Edelman, President of the Children's Defense Fund and vocal advocate for our nation's children, has pulled important data from the most recent Department of Education Civil Rights Data Collection Survey. Citing the 2009-2010 version, she speaks to things we know all too well: "inequities in funding and educational resources place poor children in low-performing schools, with inadequate facilities and often ineffective teachers."The litany of practices that contribute to the … [Read more...]
Maybe We Should Think of Homework as Being “Diagnostic”
When reviewing another article in the seemingly endless debate about homework ("Are You Down With or Done With Homework?"), it struck me that educators and parents would be better off using this time-honored educational tradition as a way to zero in on an individual student's approach to learning or their grasp of the work being covered in class.Homework has far more potential as something to start the conversation between a teacher and a student than as the key to promoting greater academic … [Read more...]
Underachiever Wins Nobel Prize
Last week the 2012 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2012 was awarded jointly to John B. Gurdon and Shinya Yamanaka for the discovery that mature cells can be reprogrammed to become pluripotentGurdon discovered in 1962 that the specialization of cells is reversible. In a classic experiment, he replaced the immature cell nucleus in an egg cell of a frog with the nucleus from a mature intestinal cell. This modified egg cell developed into a normal tadpole. The DNA of the mature cell still … [Read more...]
