Implementation of the Common Core State Standards is believed by many to raise the academic bar for students. Some may even see it as the source of all necessary improvement in schools.  So, will simply increasing the volume of information required to be learned actually increase student success?

The issue at hand is that merely increasing the volume of material to be learned is not beneficial to all students. It is rather like increasing the production quota while withholding the raw…

These days, it is often lamented among secondary educators that students lack critical thinking skills. That sentiment is echoed by college professors at all levels from lower division undergraduate to doctoral candidacy level. It simply cannot be said clearly enough that students need and are lacking critical thinking skills.

What is at the root of the lack of critical thinking skills? While a novice professor of remedial mathematics students, I encountered a student who made an immensely…

A common buzzword in the modern era is college readiness. Hyslop and Tucker (2012) , for example, studied why students in California are not passing college placement exams and are being tracked into remedial courses. Students in their study have passed the high school completion exams and yet are being declared to be unready for college. 

The readiness saga has been part of the American culture for decades. Just as colleges have been asking why the calibre of student enrolling is declining…

Somewhere in every discussion of K-12 school improvement someone reaches the conclusion that adding more days to the school year and more hours to the school day will fix the problem of lagging test scores and national disgrace on the international achievement testing front. After all, if students are in school longer, teachers can teach more and students are subsequently bound to learn more, right?

Silva (2012) raises questions about the idea of added time as a cure-all for public education.…

Prior to the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act (2002), many schools used a tracked model that directed students into courses appropriate for their intellectual development and long-term goals. The mission of schools using this model was simply to assure that all of the enrolled students could learn to the best of their abilities. This was often measured by the ability of the student to find a meaningful method of self-support as adults. For some, this meant preparation for college as they would…

With the pace of life accelerating and the nearly instantaneous availability of information, ideas presented last year may seem outdated. However, McGregor's (1960) notions of Theory X and Theory Y are still widely accepted as seminal in the world of management and leadership. Even in the context of online education, these theories serve as foundational for educational leaders.

To recap, McGregor explains that Theory X is the notion that people despise work and must be coerced to work by…

The modern rhetoric of lawmakers has focused on a perceived need for improved education since the 1983 report, A Nation at Risk.  Since then, efforts have focused almost exclusively on adapting teaching methods to meet the needs of diverse students. Is this really the right focus?

To say that educational methods have not changed much over that last few decades is an understatement. The world has modernized. Information has become the primary commodity. Educational methods are still the same.…

Teaching mathematics in a face-to-face classroom can be challenging. Consider the sheer volume of material to be taught, the pressure to have all students pass high-stakes tests, and the classroom management and discipline. While a passionate teacher can make any subject interesting and can keep most students engaged, it is certainly not an easy task.

So, is it easier or harder to teach math in the online environment? The answer is a resounding, "Yes!" The online environment affords the…

Professional educators commonly recognize and lament the cyclical nature of education. It seems that ideas are often recycled without any modification save changing the name by which the technique or idea is identified. More importantly, these ideas often vacillate from one extreme to the other. This is what is commonly called the education pendulum.

In this model, administrators being pressured by political and social forces to raise test scores attempt to find solutions and improvements that…