Frontline Blog

“The idea that ‘data is king’ still has merit. The difference between now and ten years ago, however, is that there is no shortage of data. The challenge now is to mine the information to find relationships that will help school districts improve.”  

Every school year comes with its own unique challenges, experiences and opportunities — all coming together at the summer to weave a story of perseverance, community and success. There’s no question about it — working in education is rewarding, but it certainly isn’t easy.  

Certainly, we'd all benefit from a few more hours in the work week to get things accomplished — but it's easy to see how the daily hustle and bustle of running a school (otherwise known as logistics and operations management) could consume most of the day for principals and assistant principals. Potentially, school logistics management could eat up all of the hours in the work day of a K-12 principal, leaving less time to monitor the quality of instruction and learning.  

It’s not for the money. Nor the evenings spent grading papers, the calls from the occasional upset parent or the sink-or-swim “opportunity” in those first few years to develop the needed skills to manage a classroom.  

Perhaps you’ve seen the Ben Stiller movie Night at the Museum, where the exhibits come alive at night. While we can’t make you a movie star, we can offer you a unique opportunity to make science come alive for your students with a Boston Museum of Science Teacher-in Residence scholarship from Frontline Education.  

It’s Educational Diagnosticians’ Week! To celebrate these special educators turned evaluators, we asked two former diagnosticians to share testimonials about their lives as student evaluators, including their fondest memories. Diagnosticians have the unique ability to see the daily differences that can be made in the classroom to help students thrive.

When you invest in your district’s brand and marketing strategy, everyone benefits. It becomes easier to attract more students and talented teachers, improve community engagement and maintain an excellent reputation. If you need a few ideas for marketing your own organization, take a look at what these five diverse districts are doing to build up their brand and achieve their goals.  

The start of any new year is a time for looking back, as well as ahead.   We covered a lot of ground on the Frontline Education blog last year. Topics ranged from the teacher shortage, to increasing teacher engagement in professional learning, to running an effective substitute program, to big ideas for student interventions. 60 posts, well over 50,000 words, and plenty of insights.  

For those of us in the northern hemisphere, tomorrow we’ll see the least amount of daylight all year. Here, just outside of Philadelphia, the sun will say goodnight at 4:40 pm. But while it’s easy to tire of the early darkness and frigid temperatures, these are also the perfect conditions for cracking a good book. After all, winter break is just days away. We asked education leaders what they’ve been reading lately. Here are some of their recommendations, both new and old, of books that are helpful, thought-provoking, challenging and inspiring.