RadicallyTransformingLives

  The "Secret Sauce" for the 2022-23 School Year The 2022-23 school year is rapidly approaching! Many students are returning to their classrooms this week and nearly everyone will be back in the "routine" of school within the next month! In nearly every publication across America we read about the apprehension of students to return, the decision by parents to "make a different choice," the stress on teachers, and the massive amount of turnover at the principal and superintendent level.  I'm only one father, husband, educator, and thinker...but it seems to me that the solution is very simple. Everyone in the system has wants and needs and being attentive and responsive to those is the best way to leave the Pandemic in the past and move forward in a positive way. The starting point for discovering the "secret sauce" to your building/district is bringing the stakeholders below together, discovering and learning their "why" and their ne...

  The Great Exodus From America's Schools The great exodus from America's Schools is upon us and we should have seen it coming. For decades, we have systemically ignored the inequalities, inefficiencies, and ineffectiveness in so many of our schools across the United States. Ron Edmonds said it pretty clearly, back in 1978. "We can whenever, and wherever we choose, successfully teach all children whose schooling is of interest to us. We already know more than we need in order to do this. Whether or not we do it must finally depend on how we feel about the fact that we haven't so far." Edmond's encouragement and billions more in state and federal support, however, were not enough to avert the mass exodus of school children from schools across America and Washington State specifically, during the COVID-19 pandemic. In Washington it is estimated that up to 5% of formerly enrolled students have opted out, which amounts to up to 50,000 students and parents making a...

Ensuring Equality in Outcome for EVERY Child - A Call to Action! “We can, whenever and wherever we choose, successfully teach all children whose schooling is of interest to us. We already know more than we need in order to do this. Whether we do it must finally depend on how we feel about the fact that we haven’t so far.” Ron Edmonds I believe the quote above with every fiber of my being. I have watched the impossible become possible. I have watched the kids whom no one believed could learn: learn, succeed, and accomplish great things. I have watched teachers and principals transform the non-transformable over and over again, replacing nihilism with hopefulness. Why is it then that so many of our schools, nationally, continue to fail? Do we have a different definition of “successfully teach?” Or does the truth lie in the reality that we, as adults in this nation, haven’t reached a level of moral conviction to actually be interested in the success of each young person ...