Brian M. Stack's School Leadership Blog

Work is underway by our math teachers at Sanborn Regional High School to re imagine math and math instruction. Next year's freshmen will be the first to experience this "Math 2.0 Reboot" at our school. The following article provides some context on why we are looking to upgrade our current math instruction at our school: As a former high school math teacher, I often ask myself why math has such a bad reputation in our society. For years I have found that people either really liked math (likely because they “got it” in school), or they just plain hated it. I tend to find people with the negative opinion more than the positive one. We hear it from adults all the time: “I wasn’t good at math in school,” or “I never liked math.” Why is it that way? Our schools have great math teachers – educators who love what they do and ones are committed to helping students improve their math skills and advance their math knowledge. The problem, I believe, lies with the approac...

Yesterday in a press room on the ninth floor of the Alliance for Excellent Education office in downtown Washington DC, National Center for Learning Disabilities (NCLD) Executive Director James Wendorf was excited to announce the release of a new report entitled Personalized Learning: Policy and Practice Recommendations for Meeting the Needs of Students with Disabilities . The report is the result of a year’s worth of research supported by the Alliance, NCLD, and the National Council of La Raza (NCLR) with funding by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation . The work engaged thousands of educators and field practitioners, policy makers, and parents from around the country. The event was held in front of a live audience and was also broadcasted live online to an estimated 1,400 participants. In his opening remarks, Wendorf acknowledged that for decades, educators, parents, and others have struggled to find the best ways to teach and support students with disabilities. With the...