Education Thought Leaders
Revisiting Professional Learning Communities at Work
An interview with Dr. Richard DuFour
Dr. Richard DuFour brings many years of professional experience to bear in advocating that learning communities are the best way to improve student achievement. DuFour, co-author of the best-seller, Professional Learning Communities at Work, explains how a sense of shared purpose, a shared vision, collective commitments and true teamwork foster a culture of pride, engagement and lasting school improvement. Says Dufour, “This isn’t about just feeling good, or having better relationships with colleagues, it’s all about getting better results.” Continue
Why I Changed My Mind About No Child Left Behind
An interview with Diane Ravitch
Long one of the most forceful supporters of No Child Left Behind, Diane Ravitch began to have second thoughts when, at a conference in 2006, she heard speaker after speaker admit that the legislation just wasn’t working as intended. She began to look more carefully at the data. The more she saw, the more convinced she was that the NCLB was a well-intentioned failure. In our September 2010 Main Interview, Ravitch sounds the alarm about the mania for standardized testing, “data,” and school choice; about the undervaluation of teachers; and about charter schools, pointing to evidence that they just aren’t producing the results we want. Sign In or Subscribe to read more and listen to the interview. Continue
21st Century Skills: The Role of Technology in Education Today
An interview with Ian Jukes and Lee Crockett
Because of their exposure to digital technology, kids today really are different. “This generation has developed what we like to call a ‘digital cultural brain,’ a brain that has been profoundly, and I do mean profoundly, affected by the digital culture into which they were born,” says technology expert Ian Jukes. In this interview, he and colleague Lee Crockett call for a change in the way schools think about engaging students and using technology. Continue
Resiliency: Helping At-Risk Students
An interview with Horacio Sanchez
Horacio Sanchez, one of the foremost authorities on child and adolescent behavioral disorders and resiliency practice, explains how to successfully educate and respond to “at risk” students. Sanchez explains why low academic performance, destructive behaviors, and habitual negative patterns occur, … Continue
Effective School Administration: A School Is Only As Good As Its Teachers
“A school is only as good as its teachers. You cannot have a better school if you don’t have better teachers,” says Harry Wong. In this interview, Dr. Wong offers his blunt assessment of the mistakes schools are making in their efforts to improve and explains why the key to success for school districts is to invest in their teachers and their effectiveness, and to develop a culture where everyone knows what the goals, missions and beliefs of the school are and everybody is working towards those. Continue
School Improvement: Turning Around Low Performing Schools
Dr. Sam Redding, Director of the Center on Innovation & Improvement, and co-author of the report Turning Around Chronically Underperforming Schools, explains what the research tell us are the best practices for turnaround situations at low-performing schools. Continue
Brain Rules: What We Know About the Brain and Learning
An interview with Dr. John Medina
Dr. John Medina, a molecular biologist and author of the bestseller Brain Rules, discusses what scientists know about how our brains work and suggests specific ways that knowledge can be used to boost learning and retention in schools. At the heart of his recommendations are short bouts of aerobic exercise, changing the way classes are structured to incorporate what we know about memory, and using as many of our senses as possible to promote the retention of information. Continue
Secrets of High-Achieving Schools in High Poverty Areas
An interview with Kati Haycock
We hear so much today about failing schools and the achievement gap between low-income students and students of color from other young Americans. But there are many high achievement/high poverty schools around the country that are actually thriving in the face of tremendous obstacles. In this interview, Kati Haycock, president of the Education Trust and one of the country’s leading advocates for closing the gaps in opportunity and achievement for all students, explains why these schools are succeeding. Continue
Educating Students in Poverty
According to Dr. Ruby Payne, the poor really are different: the rules they live by at home are quite different from those that govern the middle class behavior expected in schools. They talk louder, leave the television on, and use humor more tactically than their richer classmates. Author of the bestseller, A Framework for Understanding Poverty, Dr. Payne suggests that anyone expecting to teach students who’ve grown up in poverty must understand the hidden rules of that culture. Continue
21st Century Skills and the Global Achievement Gap
Education must fast forward to the 21st century and quickly, says Tony Wagner, if our students want to be able to compete in a globalized, digital world. Wagner is the author of the bestseller, The Global Achievement Gap: Why Even Our Best Schools Don’t Teach the New Survival Skills Our Children Need—And What We Can Do About It, and his message is urgent: our education system must adapt or risk becoming obsolete. Continue
Race, Equity and the Future of Public Education
An interview with Pedro Noguera
Dr. Pedro Noguera is one of the nation's foremost educational researchers on race and closing the achievement gap. In this interview, he discusses the many facets of race that affect our schools and society. Teachers, administrators and the general public expect little from minority students in general, and black boys in particular, he says, and these students continually make poor choices that fulfill these very low expectations. Continue
Leadership for Lasting School Improvement
An interview with Linda Lambert
Linda Lambert explores shared purpose and the crucial link between teaching, leading and learning in this interview. Dr. Lambert is the author of several important books on Leadership Capacity, which, she says, is dependent on understanding the connection between participation and skillfulness. Dr. Lambert's vision of leadership focuses on an organizational approach that reflects the importance of engaging all constituent voices — principal, student, teacher, and parent in improving schools. Continue
Six Secrets of Change: Essential Lessons for School Leaders
An interview with Michael Fullan
Dr. Michael Fullan, acclaimed international authority on educational reform and change, discusses his bestselling book, The Six Secrets for Change: What the Best Leaders Do To Help Their Organizations Survive and Thrive, in this interview. Fullan explains his six secrets for strong and effective school leadership and shares the means to transform schools into positive, well-led organizations that stay strong in the future. Continue
Teaching the Digital Generation
An interview with Ian Jukes, Ted McCain, and Frank Kelly
The old industrial high school, which was teacher-centric and designed for mass instruction, served earlier generations well. But students today are fundamentally different from their predecessors because digital technology has changed them in profound ways. In this interview, Ian Jukes, Ted McCain and Frank Kelly, co-authors of Teaching the Digital Generation: No More Cookie Cutter Schools, explain how we must re-imagine our schools to best serve the students of the 21st century. Continue
From Good to Great Schools: Sustaining Innovation and Improvement
An interview with Phil Schlechty
Phil Schlechty, one of the nation’s best-known experts on leadership and change in schools, reveals why educational reform has not had much impact on student achievement or become permanent in this interview. He argues that to create a great school we must ask very different questions from those we’d ask if we want simply to make a bad school decent. Continue
The Soul of Teaching: Restoring Balance to a Standards-Obsessed System
An interview with Terrence Deal
In an effort to boost accountability in our schools, we’ve emphasized objective measures such as test scores and standards. While agreeing that those are important, Terry Deal argues that we need to restore the balance between those metrics and teaching’s ancient, mystical qualities. Continue