“Grit” has become a staple of school leadership discussion, due in large part to Angela Duckworth’s best selling book. I just helped a school compose a remarkable vision statement, and grit is mentioned as an essential outcome for their students. Have we swallowed this argument whole a bit too quickly? Does it resonate with us, [...]
What if a standards-based public high school was built entirely around student-designed projects, and driven by engagement, passion, community interactions, and action-oriented results? Would it serve the needs of both high achieving students and those who have struggled with school in the past? Is this the niche of elite college preparatory schools or the ones [...]
On this easy Sunday morning, I read a Tweet from Ira Socol, teeing up Martin Luther King’s “Mountaintop” speech for students. I last saw this speech at the National Civil Rights Museum and MLK memorial in Memphis. It is not as well known as his “I Have a Dream”; it is longer and filled with [...]
There is the traditional and relatively easy way of developing strategy for your school. And then there is a non-traditional, more complex, and RIGHT way. Which is better in a time of rapid change? Traditional strategic planing and implementation goes something like this: Brainstorm ideas. Group those ideas together. Make sure all of the bases [...]
I find that most educators understand the importance of their school’s value proposition. Simply, if families do not see relative value in their school, there is a rapidly increasing array of alternative options they can pursue. Decreasing enrollment demand is a root problem for both public and private schools. An important and passionate minority of [...]
I was going to write a post about "value" today and then saw this post from Seth Godin (HT Angel Kytle on Twitter). Here's the thinking that leads just about every all-you-can-eat buffet to trend to mediocrity: "Oh, don't worry about how fresh the mashed potatoes are, after all, they're free." Indeed, as far as [...]
I have read and commented on three or four recent blog posts related to leadership in schools. I went back through some of my own harvesting of leadership research and found these short reflections on leadership practices that resonate at effectively innovating schools: Leading innovation is always best done from the front. Innovation is not [...]
Feel like a challenge? Want a GREAT professional development opportunity? Sure, your school work is FULL of challenges; why take on one more? Well, because that is what we do! If you have followed this blog you will have read about Eric Juli and Design Lab School in Cleveland. It is an inner city choice school serving the [...]
We know that one of the most powerful keys to effective innovation is the creation and leveraging of networks. We know that bringing new ideas to our organization enriches our DNA. We know that schools share common problems, and, as I found on #EdJourney last year, the problem that seems intractable at your school has [...]
Innovation is the process of enhancing the value of an organization. In schools, if we believe that what customers will value in the future is the same as in the past, we run a real risk of becoming increasingly irrelevant as educators. How do we gauge what might have value? This is one of those [...]