Anne Conzemius's blog

Each of us has our own way of thinking about this simple, but profound statement. Perhaps we have more than one interpretation. Surely there are as yet undiscovered interpretations. That is the beauty of the statement and a very small example of the inimitable nature of Stephen Covey’s brilliance.

At last we have a clear set of standards that put the definitive stamp of reform on educator professional learning: the new international Standards for Professional Learning from Learning Forward. These standards fill an important “knowing and doing” gap in education.

The recent “cheating scandal” in the Atlanta Public Schools has policy-makers, administrators and media pundits awhirl with causal theories and stop-gap measures to get control of the situation. Swift action was taken by Atlanta's interim superintendent, Erroll Davis, to produce a "preliminary action plan to -- among other things -- scrutinize all suspicious test scores, review the academic records of some students and implement new ethics training for teachers.”

What if we empowered every student to take ownership and leadership for his or her learning?

What would that look like?

Imagine how different schools would be if teachers and principals were able to focus completely on a few, significant priorities that have a profoundly positive impact on student learning across all subject areas. Imagine individual teachers actually having extra time because continuous, relevant data helps them target their instruction to students’ greatest areas of need.