Principals and the Common Core

Early in February I spent a week working with several middle and high schools in Oregon. In every school the principal talked about adoption of the Common Core and how they were working with their teachers to be ready for the implementation. As many of you know implementing Common Core standards will change the way many schools and classrooms are organized. An emphasis on greater rigor, higher-level thinking and authentic assessments may challenge some of your teachers and may not be well understood by families.

This week I read a thoughtful eduptopia blog by Erin Powers How Will the Common Core Change What We Do. It's a really helpful summary of the anticipated changes and how to plan for their arrival.

I'd enjoy hearing from you about how your planning for implementation of the Common Core.

Rigor in Your School: A Toolkit for Leaders

This week I'll be in San Francisco to speak at the NASSP Annual Conference. In addition to speaking on Friday about leadership strategies for creating rigorous schools and classrooms, my latest book, co-authored with Barbara Blackburn will be released by Eye on Education.

Rigor in Your School: A Toolkit for Leaders complements Rigorous Schools and Classrooms: Leading the Way. It is organized around our COMPASS model of change and provides over ninety tools that school leaders can use to work with their teachers, families and community to improve the rigor of their school.

If you're attending the NASSP conference I'd enjoy meeting you in our session on Friday morning or in the bookstore following the session. A copy of the handout used at the conference is available on my website at www.ronwilliamson.com. As always, I'd enjoy hearing from you about the book or about your efforts to improve the rigor of your school.

Trends That Principals Should Anticipate

I'm frequently asked about trends that schools need to plan for and be ready to address. When recently asked by a Chicago area Board of Education member, I identified these five:

• Increased demands at the state and national level for greater accountability for improved student learning mean that educators will be pressed to be more successful with all students.
• Greater access to information about how students learn and research-based strategies for improving student learning will add additional expectations about meeting the individual needs of every students including those with the greatest needs and those most talented.
• There will be continued change in the demographics of students in public schools. Schools will be expected to provide a high quality educational program for groups that have often been underserved.
• Stable or declining ressources will characterize the educational environment. Schools will be expected to be more efficient as well as more effective.
• An ever-accelerating pace of change in knowledge, research about teaching and learning, and technology will change the way schools are organized and the way teaching and learning occurs. Traditional schools may become obsolete and new learning structures will emerge. Learning will be more integrated rather than separated by content, and multi-age learning environments will become the norm.

You can learn more about dealing with these and other trends in The Principalship from A to Z (From Eye on Education). I'd enjoy hearing from you about what you think about these trends and what others you anticipate.