Educational Directions Blog

Ed Directions coaches and leadership team encounter lots of educational challenges in the schools we partner with.  Read more about how to overcome some of the more common challenges that we have helped schools overcome.

Taking test preparation seriously even if your state tests won’t count this year

In our planning, the Ed Directions staff looks at state standards or expectations and come up with a plan as ...
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Student Mental and Emotional Health – Part 2

In our first mental health blog we identified an abbreviated list of pandemic related conditions that could create stresses and ...
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Student Mental and Emotional Health – Part One

For the last five years or so, Ed Directions planning teams have been studying the impact of mental and emotional ...
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Become a quantum business with the Five-Legged Model of Performance

In the past, many organizations and business leaders used a reductionist view of the way things work inside their companies, ...
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What we can learn from the K-12 education pandemic response

The classroom has many lessons it can teach the boardroom. Five years ago, I wrote a series of chapters in ...
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Education During a Pandemic: Returning to Traditional School/Classroom Settings – Part Two

Recently, I wrote about a principal’s request for me to review his school re-opening plan for students in April. I ...
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Education During a Pandemic: Returning to Traditional School/Classroom Settings

Last month, a friend asked me to review his school’s plan for restarting traditional classroom learning in April. Specifically, he ...
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Covid-19, NTI, and School Data Needs Part 8 – Critical Thinking

When the Ed Directions coaches started working with schools, they were working with schools that had been identified as “in ...
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Covid-19, NTI, and School Data Needs Part 7 – Social Studies

While there are “smart student characteristics” that are common to all disciplines and all grade levels, there are some characteristics ...
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Covid-19, NTI, and School Data Needs Part 6 – Science

While there are “smart student characteristics” that are common to all disciplines and all grade levels, there are some characteristics ...
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Covid-19, NTI, and School Data Needs Part 5 – Writing

When it comes to writing, there are a number of variables that determine whether or not a student will develop ...
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Covid-19, NTI, and School Data Needs Part 4 – Reading

As we’ve discussed in past blog entries, there are smart student characteristics that are common to all disciplines and all ...
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Covid-19, NTI, and School Data Needs Part 3: Mathematics

While there are smart student characteristics that are common to all disciplines and all grade levels, there are some characteristics ...
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Assessing our NTI Performance as Educators and Evaluating Student Populations

At this point, we’re essentially two semesters deep into non-traditional instruction (NTI) as a result of Covid-19. The natural assumption ...
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Covid-19, NTI, and School Data Needs, Part 2: Grade Level Status

As schools and teachers focus on content coverage and test scores, it’s easy to lose sight of the fact that ...
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Covid-19, Non-Traditional Instruction (NTI) and School Data Needs

  In a recent discussion of how schools can address data needs with the uncertainties of off-site instruction, flexible schedules, ...
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Assessing the At Risk Population in Your School

At this early point in a normal school year, teachers and administrators are assessing the student population to identify those ...
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Unpacking a Standard in the Formative Period

Ed Directions coaches and trainers are currently presenting “Rhythm of the Learner Year – Formative Period” workshops in our partnership ...
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Virtual School – The Challenge of Keeping Students Engaged

 It comes as no surprise that one of the most challenging issues that our coaches have helped teachers with has ...
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Thoughts on Virtual School – The Problem of Attendance

Through discussions with teachers who were finishing their first “virtual school” experience last spring, we found that regular attendance was ...
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2020 – Establishing Academic Rituals

Assessing the Impact – Who Needs Rituals and Routines All students benefit from rituals and routines. They support optimum cultures ...
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Establishing Academic Rituals – Opening School in a Virtual Environment

Assessing the Impact – Who Needs Rituals and Routines All students benefit from rituals and routines. They support optimum cultures ...
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Starting an Uncertain 2020 – 21 School Year After a Semester of Virtual School

A group of Ed Directions coaches were speculating as to the strategies schools were going to use to start school ...
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Strategies for Meaningful Work in a Virtual School Setting

The coronavirus put schools and teachers into an untenable position because they were forced to shut down classrooms and offer ...
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Three key ways that your school district can respond to and improve summer learning in low performing students.

When the Ed Directions coaches started discussing the impact of the coronavirus on schools, one of our first concerns was ...
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We Read the NASSP Report: Supporting A Strong, Stable Principal Workforce, and Here’s What We Have to Add

The NASSP report on principal retention addressed one of the major barriers to ongoing school improvement – the problem of ...
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Testing Period Success – Part 1 – School Achievement Through the Rhythm of the Learner Year

For the past 20 years, the coaches and leaders at Ed Directions have had the opportunity to review school testing ...
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Planning to Prevent School Violence

In a recent community forum the focus of the discussion was school violence. The audience was enthusiastic and involved, but ...
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After the Test – What Do We Do With the Rest of The Year?

Frank DeSensi | Founder/CIOEducational Directions I will admit that as an assistant principal, I did not consider the academic potential ...
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The Rhythm of the Learner Year: Opening of School

When we started working with schools as an external change agent, we immediately noticed a problem with school calendars. In ...
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Another Lesson Learned – Probing Beyond Raw Test Scores

A revelation came at a school where it appeared that very few students understood science. In the process of probing ...
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Is Knowing The Test Answer Enough? Another Lesson Learned From Years Of Academic Partnerships

During the early years of our company, we worked with several middle schools. Their data indicated social studies students were ...
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Turnaround School Test Results – Does Last Year’s Data Truly Represent This Years Student Population?

The answer - no. Not in all cases. The first issue that caused us to rethink our approach to using ...
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