At this point in the year, many teachers wonder if there is anything they can do to improve student scores.  The answer is simple but takes some explaining – solve the right problem and quit wasting time solving the wrong ones. So, how do we figure out what the “right

I admit that when I was a building administrator, and I thought about the end of the school year I concentrated on planning to avoid casualties. I missed opportunities to be a more effective academic leader in pursuit of survival. I know now that there are number of things academic

A common question that we receive from principals is, “I have my benchmarking test scores, how to I maximize insights from these tests to boost student performance?” When thinking about academic leadership in December (the transition month between the Formative Period and the Calibrating Period of the Learner Year), the

The Formative Period runs from about the third week of school to winter break. In addition to content delivery/learning, the Formative Period emphasizes the development of efficient learning skills and behaviors in every student. Around the first of October, school leaders need to assess classroom status in terms of student

Last week I had a chance to talk with a school principal about his school improvement plan. His leadership team had just read the schools state report and built a strategic plan for raising their score to the goal that have been set for them by the state. The principal

Educational Directions is a consulting company that works with states, school districts, and individual schools to support student growth as learner and student growth as performer. We usually tie that support to test scores, school and district accountability, etc. As a part of our work with states, districts, and schools,

A core component of Educational Directions is the “Rhythm of  the Learner Year” – ROLY. This approach emphasizes that proficient performance by all students requires a focus on high-level student engagement in optimum learner and performer work. In addition, it emphasizes that the level and nature of this work changes

During the Opening of School and the Formative Period of the Learner Year, teachers focused on preparing students with the minimum competencies needed for success and on building student potential as learner. In the next period – the Calibrating Period – the focus is on building proficient performers (i.e., students

From the start of school through December, the focus for academic leaders has been the development of proficient learners. Ed Directions coaches emphasize that during the Formative Period, student potential can be increased dramatically if they are taught how to learn and not just what to learn. Academic leaders were

Once the school leadership team has completed the data mining and goal setting parts of academic leadership, their tasks expanded to include planning for the opening of school and assessing “readiness.” By July, most schools have a school improvement plan (SIP), but frequently, the plans have been developed without the

Years ago, teachers used to talk about the “big” learning months – September, October, January, February, and March – because these months offered large blocks of time for uninterrupted teaching and learning. As more research became available on the topic of how students learn, the importance of these months was

The Academic Leadership Year – The July Period (Part Six) If leadership has done adequate pre-planning and provided teachers with time to collect and organize their data by the end of July, teachers can begin intentionally developing course, unit, and lesson plans that are designed to move their students towards