Yesterday's School Growth Webinar focused on one of the toughest challenges for school leaders: Strategic Planning. Over the last ten days we received coaching requests from at least four schools that are trying to figure out whether they will be able to survive the upcoming school year. Changes in their local economy/market and a variety of other school design issues have put the leaders of these schools in a very difficult situation. As we've worked with schools across the globe, those that are not growing consistently exhibit similar traits.

The School Growth ISTE 2014 Conference Survey was conducted a few weeks ago in Atlanta. This was a huge demonstration of educational technology and included some cutting edge solutions that may have a big impact. Dwarfed in the size and scope of the Expo area were some very interesting tools that we think have great potential.

Innovation isn’t just dreaming about what could be--it’s putting feet to those ideas. The most successful leaders are able to synchronize their school design with alignment between what should be, what could be, and what is. Then an Innovation Plan can be developed to determine what will be.

The graduation ban is one of the tools used by schools to enforce disciplinary action or academic quality. Whether to use this method of discipline is often a very difficult decision for school administrators because of the extreme emotions involved and the life-long impact. Why are some students banned from graduation?

Recently we began coaching a school leader who has accepted the role of chief administrator. This is his first time serving in such a capacity so he's trying to start off with momentum in the right direction.

In an era of hyper-sensitivity to slurs and insults, where is the outrage in defense of educators? The public ridicule of principals and professors has damaging consequences for those willing to provide administrative and lecture hall leadership. It's time for some town hall meetings, some sit-ins, some rally speeches!

The teacher tenure law in California has been determined to be unconstitutional, based on the state constitution's guarantee of equal education opportunity. The argument is that this guarantee has some level of quality expectations, with students at least being able to receive an education that is adequate.

Brad Soden had a problem. His wife was paralyzed after a car accident, so she was unable to accompany he and the kids on camping trips. So did he listen to the many "experts" who told him he couldn't solve this problem by building an off-road wheelchair? Of course not!

Selling products and services to schools can be very difficult. In a few weeks I will attend the ISTE Conference in Atlanta, where I will spend most of the time talking with select companies who will be promoting their wares in the Expo Hall to the thousands of educators in attendance. I plan to collect survey information from these for-profit and non-profit companies to see what we can learn from their experiences in working with schools.

(Continued from Previous Post)