Finding Common Ground has always been more than a blog, it has been a community of learners. After writing the Finding Common Ground blog for over 6 years, it is time for Peter DeWitt to focus on other things. This is his last official blog post for Education Week.

Mayhem, Madness and Multiple Messages. What Really Works In Our Schools?

In Education Week, June, 2017 Chester E. Finn, Jr. writes that social-emotional learning (SEL) is the same "hoax" as the earlier flawed California self-esteem movement and is grounded in equivalent "faux psychology." We explain why his view is extremely short-sighted.

The value of being in classrooms to provide feedback seems like an obvious one, and yet so many principals can find themselves trapped in their office, piled under the daily minutia preventing them from getting into classrooms to provide feedback.

There are lots of people who go into leadership positions but never make it further than focusing on their administrative duties. There are at least three reasons why this happens.

Most educators remain quiet, cemented in the belief that their voice is not valued enough to be heard. this is one of the major reasons why we must foster teacher leadership.

The growth mindset is a worldwide phenomenon but unfortunately it has a very low effect size. Educational researcher John Hattie addresses the misperceptions of the growth mindset that contributes to that low effect size in this guest blog.

Who is really responsible for summer slide?

It's easy for leaders to make a grand plan in July when things are relatively quiet, but it's much harder to make those plans work when it's in the middle of January.

While skillfully shared feedback can catapult learning to new heights, poorly offered feedback can have minimal impact, or worse, can potentially have negative impact, leading to disengagement and resentment.