Shout out to the Leadership Summit Sponsors
TALAS Leadership Summit – El Paso, TX | May 16–17, 2025 TALAS is beyond grateful for the generous support and partnership of our Summit and Annual Sponsors. Thank you to […]
3-2-1: On making the most of what you have, how to make a convincing argument, and embracing danger
3 Ideas From Me
I.
“The more control you have over your attention, the more control you have over your future. And it starts with having enough courage to protect your time.
It’s so easy to say yes. We want to be agreeable, helpful, liked. That’s how time disappears and attention becomes fragmented: not in big chunks, but in a thousand small concessions.
What you trade your attention for is what your life becomes.”
How tariff uncertainties are already impacting school purchasing
As uncertainty and concern intensifies over President Donald Trump’s tariff policies, school administrators are beginning to see signs of notable price increases on everything from laptops to paper products.
Back in November, when the newly elected Trump said he would impose a 25% tariff on goods from Canada and Mexico and an additional 10% tariff on China, schools could only speculate how that would impact their budgets. Since then, he has bandied about, proposed and withdrawn, and in fact imposed varying degrees of tariffs on nations as a means to combat drug trafficking and illegal immigration and strengthen domestic manufacturing.
Preschool Enrollment, Spending Hit Record Highs, but Access and Quality Gaps Persist
Although the 2023-24 school year saw historic gains for early childhood education, the national landscape for preschool remains uncertain. The National Institute for Early Education Research(NIEER) has released its 2024 State of Preschool Yearbook, which for the past 22 years has provided a comprehensive, vital portrait of American preschool education. Its analysis shows that state-funded preschool programs nationwide have not only recovered from COVID-19’s devastating impacts, but reached a record high in both enrollment and spending during the 2023-24 school year.
Here is what superintendents value most about learning this summer
Improved reading and math test scores are the No. 1 way superintendents evaluate the success of their summer learning programs(33%), according to a new poll conducted by Gallup for the National Summer Learning Association and The School Superintendents Association.
Other valuable metrics include:
Student performance at the start of the school year (25%)
Number of students enrolled in summer learning programs (25%)
Parent/participant feedback and evaluations of the programs (9%)
Some other way (9%)
Improving Math Proficiency Starts With Us, the Educators
“Well, that’s not how I learned it,” proclaimed the person sitting next to me.
The comment is a familiar one for a math teacher, as I hear it all the time from students and family members. But on this particular day, the source of the remark surprised me: I was at my school’s professional learning committee meeting, and the speaker was one of my long-tenured math teaching colleagues.
“I can’t learn new ways to teach this material, it would take so much work,” he added.
“Isn’t that the job?” I thought.