I don't pretend to be an expert on competency-based education (CBE), but I know two things about it: there is a lot of discussion about how to build CBE into our schools, and there is a lot of dissonance about what actually constitutes effective CBE. Thanks to Kim Carter, a long-time guru in developing CBE [...]
Looking northeast from Sun Valley, Idaho I visit and work with so many schools that are trying to build a clarity of possibility about the future. School leaders, faculty, students, and parents know that the traditional model of education is not preparing students for their future; they know they want a deeper, richer learning experience [...]
New learning modalities continue to explode across America. 20 years ago, 90% of US students went to one of three kinds of school: neighborhood, parochial, or private. Now, innovative hybrids are rising faster than we can keep track. Check out this win-win-win partnership amongst companies, schools, and students in Colorado, reported last week on the [...]
Look what showed up in the Fed Ex yesterday! If you pre-ordered, yours should arrive next week. If you did not pre-order...well, let's roll! Check out incentives on my web site, including: I am still donating royalties to education non-profits if you order in September. Thanks for helping to Move the Rock!
It was about 40 years ago that I sat in Prof. Jim Ingle's oceanography class at Stanford as he described the ebb and flow of climate patterns throughout geologic time. With a waving of arms he talked about the rise and fall of sea levels and massive changes in rainfall patterns, each arm flap covering [...]
No one is born evil. No baby is filled with hate. It is naive to think that all people have the same opportunities to grow up with equal powers of intellect, empathy, imagination, and hope, but those inequities provide all of us the opportunity to fight for fewer children destined to fill the ranks of the [...]
Charlottesville: home of the University of Virginia, beloved of Thomas Jefferson, a founding father of our country, slave owner, and one of the intellectual and philosophical giants of his time. Charlottesville: town in Virginia, home to Robert E. Lee, a great military leader and man of honor, who knowingly chose the path of traitor because [...]
Most of the schools I get to work closely with have already started along an arc of transformation from the old, rigid, teacher-centric model to something that approaches deeper learning. Most have crossed the mental Rubicon, at least at the leadership level, that standing still is not an option. The task of these communities is to broaden [...]
The traditional sit-and-get model of school is being swept aside, unevenly to be sure, but as certainly as a rising tide swirling up the beach. We see evidence everywhere, examples that were hard to find just a few years ago. Here are two more that came across my lazy August reading days: The medical school [...]
Great organizations constantly try to understand what makes them great...which is why I have written in the past about how Google does things, and how schools can learn from what they share. Google is, by any measure, a great company: people love to work there, they design and develop products and services that positively impact [...]
