Category: high expectations
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Leveled Reading Instruction Destroys Equity
Teaching students to read with instructional level reading groups keeps marginalized students marginalized. The system must be changed.
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Be BOLD: Equity Required for High Achievement
Over the past year I have written multiple times about how critical equity is for ensuring all of our children master rigorous state standards. It is not something to be put on the back burner for more favorable times. As parents we all want our children to succeed on state standards and go beyond that…
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Science of Reading: Will We Ever Learn?
States and school districts are ‘adopting the Science of Reading’ (Schwartz, 2025) as the basis of their early reading programs while critics, such as this recent opinion in the Wall Street Journal, are already saying it doesn’t work despite the incredible results Mississippi schools have achieved using their adopted Science of Reading program. Is this…
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Indicted or Changing the System?
What do you do when you live in a country that continues to marginalize people, including the very children you are working to serve, to educate? What do you do when this system rachets up its effort to marginalize people rather than take actions to improve the lives of marginalized people? I was thinking about…
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Do We Still Provide Equity in Schools?
The directives coming out of our nation’s capital these days have many educators questioning what they may do in their schools and classrooms and what should they avoid? Do we include Black history as a part of American history? Do we provide mental health support to students traumatized by their life circumstance? Do we provide…
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The Election is Over Now What?
Are you an educator asking now what after the most recent presidential election? As educators, we work relentlessly day after day to ensure all students master rigorous standards and graduate high school college and/or career ready. Providing students whatever it takes so that all students achieve at high levels is not for the faint of…
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The System Is Designed for Poor Student Achievement
The system is perfectly designed to achieve the results we are getting. Have you heard that sentiment before? If you are an educator, you mostly likely have heard a similar statement when talking about student achievement results or continuous improvement planning. Public education in our country is largely designed to sort students and provide differing…
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The Punishing Impact of Deficit Thinking on Schools
Gorski and Swalwell (2023) conclude that “inequity is the accumulative impact of the largely predictable and persistent outcome and experience disparities.” (p. 25) This succinctly summarizes the reality happening in the majority of our schools. The predictability of educational outcomes for students is maddening to educators who are working hard to help all students succeed…
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Cooperative Learning: A Powerful Tool for Equity (Part II)
Cooperative learning is a powerful tool for helping to create equity in our schools and classrooms. Highly effective cooperative learning structures help ensure all students master rigorous grade level standards. This instructional model is constructed so that students are working together to ensure each one learns and masters the content that has often been initially…
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Cooperative Learning: A Powerful Tool for Equity
Cooperative Learning: A Powerful Tool for Equity (Part I) Equity in our schools means that every student masters, at a minimum rigorous grade level standards set by each state, graduating high school ready for college and/or career. This is a daunting task for educators that requires relentless dedication, use of research proven instructional methods, and…