Brian M. Stack's School Leadership Blog

The American schools of today face issues that are unprecedented in our nation’s history. Among the top issues that have become part of the day to day reality of our school leaders include class size, poverty, family factors, technology, bullying, student attitudes and behaviors, parental involvement, student health, funding, and No Child Left Behind. For those of us who have been in the professional for ten years or more, we have certainly seen how these issues have come to consume so many parts of our job as school principals. Thinking back to the training and resources that were made available to me back when I started as a principal, I’m not convinced that I would have been prepared to meet the demands of the job as they are today. Earlier this month, Education Week published an infographic   from the National Association of Elementary School Principals (NAESP) summarizing the information gathered from speaking with over 1,100 new principals as they provided insigh...

Dear Students and Parents of Sanborn Regional High School, This past week, the School Board approved two important policy changes that impact our students. Dress Code and Hats First, the School Board made one revision to its Dress Code Policy regarding hats. Previously, the policy has stated that hats were not permitted in any school building at any time. Now, the policy has been adjusted to allow hats “in the hallways, cafeteria, and other non-instructional spaces in the school.” This policy revision is a result of a student-initiated petition that was developed last year. It allows us to draw a very important distinction for our students regarding when it is and when it is not appropriate to wear a hat. Taking your hat off is a sign of respect to the people around you when you are in a professional environment such as your classroom. This policy allows us to teach this important skill to our students while recognizing that there are times and places in our buildin...

Early last month, a letter arrived on President Obama’s digital inbox calling on him to commit to policies that support the development of Open Educational Resources, known more commonly as OER’s. The letter was first developed and signed by multiple organizations from the education, library, technology, public interest and legal communities. The heart of this letter can be summed up by a key paragraph that appeared on page 2 of the letter: Your Administration recognized the impact and value of Open Educational Resources in the open government initiatives announced in September 2014 as part of the Second Open Government National Action Plan. In this announcement, the U.S. formally expressed its commitment to Open Education and launched an initiative entitled “Promote Open Education to Increase Awareness and Engagement” stating that “there is a growing body of evidence that the use of open education resources improves the quality of teaching and learning, including by accele...