Creating a Sense of Belonging
This year, I’ve been speaking with everyday Americans to hear their ideas about the purpose of public schools and how to improve them. One aspiration cuts across all perspectives: Everyone wants their children to feel a sense of belonging in school. Parents can’t understand why this isn’t more of a priority in education policy, and they are right. Research and experience establish that belonging is essential for addressing the most vexing educational challenges, including lagging academic achievement, chronic absenteeism and student mental health.
The Importance of Coaching
You’ve got your clipboard, your protocol and you’re ready to go. As school walkthroughs get started and evaluation systems are rolled out, it is a good time to revisit what coaching is and how it differs from supervision, mentoring and other types of one-on-one interactions.
First, we will look at the spectrum of approaches that senior leaders use with direct reports across a variety of interactions. Next, we will look at a few specific coaching techniques. Finally, we will discuss ways of designing a coherent model for leadership growth and support.
Who is excelling at teaching Reading?
According to the latest national results, low-income fourth graders read an average of two to three grade levels below their higher-income peers.
It’s not new that students in poverty have lower scores on reading tests than more affluent students. Housing prices, parent perceptions and online school ranking websites all focus on those raw, unadjusted scores, which ignore the fact that some schools and districts simply have a harder job.
3-2-1- On the cost of success, the secret of creative work & the power of walking
I. “Opportunities are grains of sand. They slide right past drooping fingers, but an active palm can gather whatever is within reach and shape it into a little castle. It […]
Bringing your people together
“We’re living in a very ‘me’ culture,” said Maxwell, the author of more than 100 books, including classics including The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership and The 5 Levels of Leadership. “We’ve lost respect for people. We devalue people. It’s a downward spiral…So somebody has to speak up, and then somebody has to show a picture of: what does a high-road leader look like? So what do they look like? Well, high road leaders bring people together.”
Interventions for Absenteeism
An analysis from Rand and CRPE estimates 19% — or 9.4 million students — were chronically absent during the 2023-24 school year.
Educators at the school, district, state and federal levels have implemented interventions and emphasized the monitoring of student attendance amid alarming rates of chronic absenteeism reported after school buildings reopened. Chronic absenteeism, generally, is defined as the percentage of students missing at least 10% of the school year, or about 18 days.