Leadership in Education

I used to blog for my old company, but they took the blog down. I am
not actually allowed to own the writings I put up on that blog, but as
I reference them on occasion in my writing I am putting those articles
up in my archives here for reference sake. I'll put the tag GS on those
articles noting that they were originally published on the http://schoolfinder.globalscholar.com/blog/

Leadership in Education

August 5, 2008 – 4:15 am by Brendan

If you are reading my blog and you like it you should read this one also.

Chris Lehmann is the principal at the Science Leadership Academy in Philadelphia PA. While I cannot personally attest to his ability as a principal He does seem to have a quality resume. I have been reading his blog for a few months now and I have to say it usually impresses me.

Friday he posted about NCLB. I have mentioned NCLB many a time (1, 2, 3)and I’m sure that every education blogger has written about it several times in the past few years. I have also said before, as has almost every teacher I have ever known, that NCLB puts too much emphasis on one test.

What we, as educators, haven’t done, as Chris so aptly puts it, is give anyone an option that is better than NCLB.

What we need to do is “tell a new story — we need to articulate a vision of caring, student-centered schools where students are judged by the work of their own head, heart and hands. We need to talk about how the technological tools at our disposal allow us to fundamentally change the structures of our schools so that we can prepare students for the world they will inherit, but we can’t do that as long as our assessment system is firmly placed in the past.”

What is our story? How do we show the powers-that-be what is in the head, heart, and hands of our children? Where is the proof that the student-centered classroom contains students that are actually learning?

I have some thoughts on the answers to these questions, but that isn’t my point today. My point is for you the reader to think about these questions. What proof do you think is objective enough to determine high quality from low quality teachers? How will this help us improve education in the future?

Write your comments here or email me direct. The address is my name at globalscholar.com. I would really like to know what your thoughts are; I don’t want to write to you my readers I want to have a conversation.