Brian M. Stack's School Leadership Blog

In a press release to its members last month, the International Association for K-12 Online Learning (iNACOL) announced that it has been assisting in the reauthorization of the 1965 Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), which is moving forward to the Senate as the Every Child Achieves Act of 2015 (ECAA), a bill last updated as No Child Left Behind (NCLB) in 2001. On their blog , iNACOL’s Maria Worthen said this about the work: “Overall, ECAA moves ESEA in a direction that should appeal to many in the field of blended, online and competency education. The bill would open up greater flexibility around how state systems of assessments and accountability are designed, and eliminates some time-based constructs, such as the highly qualified teacher definition.” The bill calls for states to continue to conduct annual accountability assessments but opens the door for states to consider things like growth measures, adaptive measurements, multiple measures and assess when ready...

Last night’s PTO meeting agenda said that school administrators would be available to lead a discussion on competency-based grading, but really it was all about chocolate chip cookies. What makes for an exemplary cookie, the one that is over-fresh with a sweet, rich, buttery flavor? The one with a real chocolate taste in each bite that complements that rich and flavored dough? You can’t teach someone how to make such a cookie until you take the time to define the criteria that you would use to assess it. It was through the lens of this scenario that Sanborn Regional High School Principal, Brian Stack, and Assistant Principals, Ann Hadwen and Michael Turmelle, helped everyone in the room understand the big picture of competency education, grading, and assessment and how it is working to provide a more rigorous education for all students. Competency Education – The Big Picture Principal, Brian Stack, opened the meeting by talking about the big picture of competency educati...

Last week I had a great conversation with one of my teachers who had recently started incorporating the flipped classroom model into her classroom. We talked about how her role as a teacher looks very different today than it did just a few years ago. The flipped classroom is just one way schools are trying to personalize education for students. It is a topic that I wrote more about recently for MultiBriefs Education , in an article entitled How do you Personalize Learning at Your School ? Strategies like the flipped classroom or blended learning have done quite a bit to promote more personalization in schools today, but they have also shifted the role of a teacher from one who used to serve as the expert delivering content and instruction in front of a room to one who facilitates learning on an individual basis for students as they move at their own pace through a curriculum or a course. At my New Hampshire high school where we are heavily invested in a form of personalizat...