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Instead of textbooks, why not pay teachers for content?

By Brandon Wilmarth As an English teacher in Oklahoma’s Moore Public Schools, I was recruited by some textbook providers to help them create content. It was a lot of fun, and I was happy to make some extra money doing it. But there are so many teachers in our district who are much more talented than I am. If I was developing curriculum materials that school systems across the nation were purchasing, they certainly could be doing this, too. So when I became a technology integration specialist for the district, one of my long-term goals was to leverage the expertise …

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There’s a new addiction on campus: Problematic Internet Use (PIU)

Susan M. Snyder, Georgia State University; Jennifer E. O’Brien, University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill, and Wen Li, University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill Problematic Internet Use is now considered to be a behavioral addiction with characteristics that are similar to substance use disorders. Individuals with PIU may have difficulty reducing their Internet use, may be preoccupied with the Internet or may lie to conceal their use. A recent study that I coauthored with UNC Chapel Hill doctoral students Wen Li and Jennifer O’Brien and UNC professor Matthew O. Howard examines this new behavioral addiction. Perhaps not surprisingly, …

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Instructional Leadership and Student Performance

According to research, schools that make a positive difference in the learning levels are led by principals who make a positive contribution to staff effectiveness and students under their charge. In the 1980s, instructional leadership was often depicted as “hands-on” leadership in classroom matters. The majority of recent studies report that the involvement of principals in classroom instruction are indirect, and carried out through building a school culture and leading by example. However, most scholars now find that a principal’s impact on student learning is small, but has an important place in statistical data. Even marginal impact is vital to …

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Accountability versus Gaming the P-12 System

I’ve recently delved into The Death and Life of the Great American School by Diane Ravitch. It has been on my reading list for some time now and I finally decided it was time to really give it the attention it deserves. I consider myself an education reformer, and an advocate for reforming the current public school system, so Ravitch’s works speak to me, even if I’m not always completely in the same school of thought. In educational discourse, Ravitch is an interesting figure. She served as the assistant secretary of Education under George H.W. Bush, though she has never …

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Relating Resource Allocation to a Performance-Focused Agenda

Teachers pay a hidden tax to do their job

As the focus on the improvement of learning becomes more central, what educational leaders are expected to do and accomplish through the allocation of resources has changed. Historically, supporters of education were more concerned with the dollar amount allocated per pupil, and they spent much of their political capital advocating for increases from one year to the next. Educational leaders were responsible for creating balanced budgets with the dollars they had available and accounting for expenditures in a responsible manner– a complex task in large school districts. Little attention was paid to how resources were related to performance or what …

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Wasted Data: 5 Facts about Why We Don’t Use Existing Student Databases

It’s no secret that technology implementation in P-12 schools comes with some serious red tape. While American colleges and universities tend to be at the forefront of innovative ways of learning, childhood education lags seriously behind. A recent PBS study found that while 90 percent of P-12 classrooms have at least one computer, only 35 percent have tablets or electronic readers. The amount of policy writing that goes into allowing “new” technology like tablets, let alone the budget for them, makes it prohibitive for most schools to implement the equipment in reasonable time frames. But what about technology that already …

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5 Leadership Styles that Can Transform Education As We Know It

When considering school reform, it’s often easy to think of factors such as who is responsible (teachers, parents, school systems, the government?), or of funding issues such as the fact that 23 states spend less on poor schools than on more affluent schools. Of course all the obvious factors are important. But what about leadership? Not just who is leading the change, but how. Fortunately, when it comes to developing an ideal for effective leadership, there’s no need to invent the wheel. There are several leadership styles that prominent leaders in any school reform movement can choose to embody. Here …

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Why Education Reformers Shouldn’t Dismiss the Idea of Year-Round Schooling

When it comes to propositions for educational reform, the suggestion that the U.S. adopt a year-round schooling model is one of the most drastic – at least within the eyes of the American public. Summer vacation has a long, nostalgia-draped history amongst American school children. Still, the idea of year-round schooling isn’t one that came out of nowhere. In 2005, the National Task Force on Public Education (NTFPE), which included prominent politicians, businesspersons, and education leaders as members, issued a report on the required methodological changes in our education system. The report, Getting Smarter, Becoming Fairer: A Progressive Education Agenda …

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Personality and Its Influence on Instructional Leadership Behavior

Leadership models can be expected to appeal to some administrators more than others, based on their personality traits. A wider range of skills and styles cannot be accommodated by one person, because a leader already has his or her own preferences, influenced by their personality. The natural differences in personality among various leaders result in preferences that operate below the level of the leader’s awareness. It is also not humanly possible for leaders to comply with such varied and complex requirements. As a result of personality differences, a leader develops judgments, and responds to his or her environment by focusing …

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6 Best Practices for Internal Communication in Public Schools

Written by Eric Walters and Karen Gerberry Internal communication may be more important than many think. 42% of communication is  delivered   through   other   people.  Whether  it  is  information   needing  to  be communicated  to  teachers,  students  or  administration  a  student  success  is highly dependent on the frequency and quality of communication. Successful communication between teachers and parents is most common in schools with well-informed, effective educators. Schools, realizing this, have implemented practices to communicate valuable information within their school systems. What are some of these strategies and what benefits do they provide to these school districts? Developing New Policies School systems …

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