Tag Archives: best practices

What is Looping?

Sometimes educationalese leaves parents scratching their heads in bewilderment. For sure, there are new terms every year that must be explained to us poor common parents. While looping is not necessarily a new practice, it is becoming more and more common as schools scramble to meet NCLB (No Child Left Behind) laws. Looping is where elementary children stay with the same teacher for more than one year. I have seen this done two ways. The first is where Johnny goes to school and has Mrs. Smith for 1st and 2nd grade. Just to be correct, this is the true definition … Continue reading →

America’s Best High Schools: The Top 100 (Massachusetts to Washington)

Is your child slated to go to one of the top 100 high schools? Here is the second half of a list I’ve started in a previous blog. What makes them the best of the best is that they have the highest porportion of students taking either Advanced Placement exams or International Bacclaureate exams. Massachusetts #82 Boston Latin Boston Maryland #15 Richard Montgomery Rockville #34 Bethesda-Chevy Chase Bethesda #51 Wootton Rockville #75 Churchill Potomac Michigan #9 International Academy Bloomfield Hills #55 Black River Holland Missouri #40 Metro Academic & Classical St. Louis New Jersey #83 McNair Academic Jersey City New … Continue reading →

America’s Best High Schools: The Top 100 (Alabama through Indiana)

Is your child going to one of America’s best high schools? (Or will they be when they get to be high school aged?) Newsweek chooses America’s top high schools each year, by taking the number of AP (advanced placement) and IB (international baccalaureate) tests and divides that number by the total number of graduating seniors. The thinking is that schools with the most percentage of students taking these tests are serious about preparing average kids for college. Here is Newsweek’s list–organized by place rather than rank. (If I wanted to see about my children’s high school–I would look in New … Continue reading →

Kudos to This Innovative Principal. . .

Who challenged his K-8th grade students to collectively read 10,000 books. He said that they could pick their reward. They chose to shave the initials “HP” (for Harrington Park where the school is located) and to send their beloved principal to the roof for an overnight. Apparently, when he initially made the deal, he thought it would take the student body until at least spring time to do it. But they met their goal much quicker than he had expected. So last night, he went up to the roof to spend the night outside. If you live in the North … Continue reading →

My Inner City Story: Practices That Work

We have talked about how teaching in the inner city has to be a passion, how teachers are better served by mentors rather than more in-service and staff development, and we’ve talked about the conditions that plague the inner city. Urban education is a unique set of circumstances and forces set in motion and without support teachers frankly can’t do the job that needs to be done. I am personally convinced after my experiences here that the inner city requires innovative solutions. I would even be so bold as to say that we need to throw out much of what … Continue reading →