I miss Chris Farley. His stint on Saturday Night Live is still memorable. There’s that opening number with Patrick Swayze where he and Swayze were competing for a spot in the Chippendale dancers. Then there’s "Matt Foley", a motivational speaker who lives “in a van down by the river.” But my favorite Chris Farley performance … Continue reading How Chris Farley and Tommy Boy Accurately Explain Educational Policy in North Carolina

Of all the primary political signs that were spread throughout the city where I reside, at least three of four deal with local school board elections. This is not an anomaly. I cannot remember a time in an election cycle in which the majority of roadside political signs of local and state office did not … Continue reading Are They Willing to Confront State Lawmakers on Behalf of Public Schools? Why Local School Board Elections Are So Important in 2018 for Every NC School System

With a new school year starting in North Carolina, it usually is customary for leaders of school systems and individual schools to offer words of encouragement and support to teachers to help inaugurate classes. State Superintendent Mark Johnson offered a “Welcome Back to School” video to teachers last August, and while it seems to say … Continue reading Ever More Complicit in NC’s Testing Culture – Our State Superintendent’s Empty Promise to Curb “Over-testing”

I believe every policy maker who touts "personalized learning" and screams  "differentiated instruction" in our schools to reach every child maximally should sit in on some IEP meetings - the tough ones where parents and schools struggle to find what is not only appropriate for the student, but how those needs will be met. And … Continue reading Dear Supt. Mark Johnson and NCGA, You Are Invited to My Son’s Next IEP Meeting

I miss Kurt Vonnegut. Lived through the Great Depression. Fought in WWII. A POW and a social critic. Truly a leading voice for the twentieth century. Fifty years of writing – 14 novels, 3 short story collections, 5 plays, and 5 works of nonfiction. Slaughterhouse Five is a must read for anyone (and on my suggested list … Continue reading Billy Pilgrim and the Sermon on the Mount – The Differences Between the Beatitudes and the Me-atitudes

There are no “silver bullets” or “magic pills” when it comes to changing a school. There is no one thing that can be done, no standard blueprint, no Harry Potter spell that can be executed that will make a struggling school turn its fortune around overnight. Rather, transforming schools is a process – one that … Continue reading True Human Resources: People Make Schools Work – Ask the NCGA to Invest in Them With Your Vote in November

In many ways I have never stopped being your teacher, and while your time in my classroom may or may not have been the intellectual pinnacle of your academic career (although we know it was), please know that I wish you all good things. Remember to go to class. Major in English. Lots of money … Continue reading To All My Former Students Going Back to College

Dear members of the North Carolina General Assembly and State Supt. Johnson, This may not be a popular opinion, but it is one that is a matter of principle to me. I will be receiving a bonus this year for having a certain number of students pass the AP English Language and Composition Exam for … Continue reading Open Letter to the NCGA and State Supt. Johnson Concerning Bonus Pay for Teachers

Senate Bill 599, misnamed the “Excellent Teachers In Every Classroom” bill, passed through the last days of the recent legislative session of the NC General Assembly in 2017. A hack of a bill, it was sponsored primarily by Senator Chad Barefoot, as a means of addressing the teacher shortage in North Carolina’s public schools with … Continue reading Dear NCGA, We Have Great Teacher Programs in Our Colleges and Universities

News this past February that a “fix” for the class size mandate was “agreed” upon by both chambers of the North Carolina General Assembly should seem like a welcome outcome. On the surface, it was a victory for parents, advocates, and schools in that the mandate will be pushed back for a while and some … Continue reading Using Our Students As Political Pawns (HB90) – Remember This Happened When Voting in November