It is entirely possible that your school or state or country is making dangerous assumptions about what should be measured (and therefore improved) and what shouldn’t. Kirabo Jackson is an economist at Northwestern University. He used a database of North Carolina students — 464,502 students, according to Paul Tough’s Helping Children Succeed — to examine the long-term impact […]
School Level
Some Tests Are Really Great for Students
Tests are easy to vilify in the USA today because there are too many bad ones and there are too many bogus high stakes attached to them. But this school year I’ve seen an extremely difficult test have a profoundly positive effect on its takers. First, my AP World History kids. Prior to this year, I hadn’t taught an advanced course of […]
The 300-Word Guide to Long-Term Flourishing
Confused about the term “long-term flourishing?” Let’s clear it up in about 300 words. Long-term flourishing is the real purpose of schooling. It’s what every educator and parent on the planet hopes for their children. Long-term because we love the child not just for today or this year, but also in 20 years; flourishing because we know […]
9 Principles for Working Better with Fellow Educators
Welcome to the penultimate portion of this post series (here’s Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3). If you like this post, you might like Never Finished: Continually Becoming the Teachers We Want to Be (and Staying Sane in the Process). Today, we’re going to examine a part of the most underrated element of the three-fold strategy […]
Advice for Teachers Who Try Hard but Feel Hopeless
A few days ago when taking votes for my next ebook, I received a response from someone who I’ll call “Rachel.” She wrote a heart-rending message that I’m guessing literally thousands of Teaching the Core readers can relate to (details changed to protect Rachel’s anonymity): Dave, I’ve been teaching high school for close to 25 years, […]