In an online post, Barnett Berry, reported that states and districts spend about $18 billion annually on professional development and that the funds are spent in highly fragmented ways, typically driven by the preferences of local administrators (often at the district level) who make most of the decisions about how and what teachers are to […]

I am currently consulting to a statewide commission that is examining and then recommending professional growth requirements for teachers’ continuing certification. Here are some pieces I reviewed as I prepped for our sessions: A blog, International Professional Development, posted by the Guardian, presents 10 recommendations for teachers, shared by education leaders. Rachael Stevens suggests that […]

I wrote about vulnerability in an earlier blog  and was reviewing my thinking this week as I prepared to work with principal and instructional coach partners in planning for student achievement and teacher success at their schools. One of the issues I knew I wanted to explore in our conversations was, “How do principal and […]

Last year I shared about the work that I was doing with Hisar School in Istanbul, Turkey.  At that time the leadership team was examining critical student behaviors that they felt were important to making desired increases in student achievement. Having selected the behaviors, they designed a learning walk instrument around these six areas: Learning Objective… […]

While reading an Education Week Blog by Jill Berkowicz and Ann Myers, The Importance of Challenging Our Comfort Zone   (August 6),  I was reminded of the need for school leaders, instructional coaches and teachers to create environments where staffs and students are comfortable with discomfort. Berkowicz and Meyers explore the need for school leaders to be […]

I just wrapped up a two day return to Joplin, Missouri with a chance to work with all of their building administrators in joint sessions with their instructional coaches. We examined longer term and “this next year” school improvement plans. We identified the student behaviors needed to reach critical achievement goals and the teacher behaviors […]