By Dixie Ross
Guest Blogger

Advanced Placement Instructional Planning Reports have just arrived at our schools. Every AP teacher needs to get a copy of their report so that they can identify strengths and weaknesses in their curriculum and instruction. You should be able to get your report from your campus AP Coordinator. In this post, I will discuss a simple metric that should allow you to effectively analyze your results in order to improve future students’ performance. Read More...

By Hayes Mizell
Guest Blogger

For educators, "back-to-school" means slipping into familiar routines. There will be new students, new colleagues, and perhaps a new principal, but most teachers and administrators yearn for as little change as possible from the previous school year. Change, after all, requires new accommodation, new learning, or new practice, each of which increases possibilities for discomfort, mistakes, or embarrassment. There is security in the familiar, even if it is the handmaiden of the status quo.

Educators also return to school with unspoken hope.

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By Jim Williams
Guest Blogger

On Aug. 2, the Alabama Department of Education released information showing the Alabama public schools and school systems that made, and didn’t make, “Adequate Yearly Progress” (AYP) in 2010. These lists receive a lot of attention every year, in part because measuring AYP is required by federal law, and consistent failure brings penalties for schools with large amounts of federal funding.

However, AYP calculations are complicated, and sometimes they mask rather than expose performance differences. Read More...

Rigorous Schools and Classrooms: Leading the Way 

by Ronald Williamson and Barbara Blackburn
(Eye on Education, 2010)

Reviewed by Renee Moore, NBCT
Guest Blogger

“Rigorous Schools and Classrooms: Leading the Way” is a follow-up to Barbara Blackburn’s 2008 book, “Rigor is Not a Four-Letter Word” (see Karen Molter’s review here), and the books should be studied together. Both authors are former teachers (Williamson is also a former principal) whose educational careers extend from classroom teachers to respected university researchers.

While Blackburn’s first book was aimed at teachers, this book shows school leaders how to navigate an entire school toward a more rigorous culture and ...
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By Betsy Rogers
Guest Blogger

I recently had the opportunity to travel for the fourth time as a People to People citizen ambassador. This time our destination was South Africa -- a country I had longed to visit – and the experience was more powerful than I could have ever imagined.

If you’re not familiar with People to People (PTP), the program was founded in 1956 by President Dwight D. Eisenhower as part of the U.S. Information Agency. The purpose has always been to enhance international understanding and friendship by promoting the exchange of ideas and experiences directly among peoples of different countries and diverse cultures. It’s important that Eisenhower, one of the great warriors of the 20th century, offered this explanation for his support: "I have long believed, as have many before me, that peaceful relations between nations requires understanding and mutual respect between individuals."

My PTP focus, as you might guess, has been around education. I love the description you’ll find on the Education page at the People to People website. It reads:

Teachers become students as they step into a classroom in a distant land. For education professionals, lifelong learning is the key to excellent teaching ... Read More...