A struggle worth having for students

When the Common Core State Standards were rolled out in Colorado in 2010, it was a challenge. At first, my colleagues and I at Doull Elementary in southwest Denver struggled to understand this monumental change. We read the documents, pored over the appendices and wrestled with the terminology. Teachers sat around lunch tables debating the […]

Let me begin with three scenarios from my school that I think exemplify successful implementation of the Common Core State Standards: • A principal walks into a math department meeting to find the whiteboard filled with ideas for courses and performance assessments, and scribbled with words like “problem-solving,” “precision,” and “reasoning.” Four teachers and two […]

Right now, high school seniors across the country are trying hard not to think about what is — or isn’t — coming in the mail. They’re anxiously awaiting acceptance letters (or the opposite) from their top-choice colleges and universities. But this story isn’t about them. It’s about a big group of seniors who could get […]

In my experience as a math teacher for 15 years at Basalt Middle School, I have taught many different students and can probably tell you 42 different ways that someone might use the Pythagorean theorem. I can also tell you that parents who are involved in their students’ education and have high expectations for learning […]

For the six years of the Obama presidency, or perhaps the last 35 years since Ronald Reagan’s election, American politics has been dominated by a debate on the size and role of the federal government. This argument, while intense and consequential, has often lacked one element: actual knowledge about the size and role of the […]

This week, the Houston Independent School District will host school administrators from across the state, all gathering to discuss the importance of making sure Texas students are globally competitive. It’s no longer enough for our students to simply graduate from high school. They must be ready to compete in a 21st century global society. That […]

By now, everyone has heard of the story of baseball’s Oakland Athletics and their 2002 season, immortalized by Michael Lewis in the book (and the movie) Moneyball. Recognizing his team’s limitations and scarce resources, Oakland general manager Billy Beane pioneered the use of performance data, rather than unscientific scouting reports, to drive his player draft […]

When I was a senior in high school growing up in Medford, Massachusetts, I probably would have applied only to local colleges — not Harvard, that was for rich kids who were straight-A students, and I was neither. But I was lucky: I had an after-school job at an electronics company, and one of the […]

I often brag about the school where I work, explaining to people I meet that it’s a great place for kids and teachers. When I mention that the school is Boston, they ask if I teach in a suburb of the city, or whether it’s a private school. I am constantly disheartened by the perception […]

One of the lovely formulations in John F. Kennedy’s inaugural addressexpressed his hope that “a beachhead of cooperation may push back the jungle of suspicion.” Kennedy was talking about the Cold War, but we could use a little of this in the partisan and ideological warfare that engulfs our nation’s capital. And so let us […]