Two Things You Believe About Education That Research Has Proven Wrong

Cognitive dissonance is a hell of a thing. All of us navigate the world with a rich set of prior knowledge, background experiences, and beliefs rattling around our heads, and if you’re anything like me, the…

Why education will never, ever, put an end to poverty

Genuine Teacher Leadership: What Does it Take?

There are a large number of organizations right now promoting something called, “teacher leadership.” Groups like America Achieves & Teach Plus run competitive fellowship programs, largely focused on policy. Educators 4 Excellence (E4E) is sort of…

“Drive” and Professional Learning

How can we use “Motivation 3.0” to improve teaching?

Teachers in districts around the country with revamped evaluation and compensation systems will soon be getting performance pay bonuses, checks that can amount to several thousand dollars…

When Teachers Go to Jail

Drug trafficking. Burglary. Grand theft auto. Assault. Arson.

Recommended Reading — K-12 Entrepreneurship: Slow Entry, Distant Exit

I read this 2007 piece from two senior Wireless Generation executives for a class this year and found it to be a phenomenal overview of the barriers to entry for education entrepreneurship. If you’ve wondered…

Reading Leveling Assessments — Are They Really Worth It?

Recently, I got an email from one of the many great teachers in the network I work in: “Hey Berretta, can I pilot the STEP assessment next year?”