Since the 1990’s, educators have been implored to pay attention to “21st Century Skills,” with creativity at the top of the list. A survey of Global 1500 CEO’s put creativity as the most desired skill in hiring new employees. A growing number of vision and mission statements for schools and districts include an elegy to creativity. But for all the hype about how important creativity is, the reality is that many schools not only fail to encourage creativity, but undermine it.

Education systems invest enormous amounts of time and money in professional learning. The results range from transformative (“This profoundly changes the way I teach and lead”) to wasteful (“Another irrelevant workshop”).

We all want children to have a positive self-image, be resilient when faced with adversity, and create healthy relationships. But what do these aspirations have to do with social-emotional learning (SEL)? States across the country have legislatively mandated SEL as a way of combating society’s ills rather than through the lens of equity.

Few school systems’ mission and vision statements fail to include the phrase “college and career readiness.” Who could possibly be against it? But while there is nearly universal agreement that students should leave high school ready to either pursue additional education or enter a career, there is wide disagreement on what “college readiness” means.

Since the dawn of the standards movement, bitter controversies have divided educators, leaders, and policy makers about standards. But there is one issue on which almost everyone agrees - there are too many standards and not enough to cover them.

It’s the start of a new school year and another round of resolutions for better leadership, teaching, and learning. Then we confront the reality that the vast majority of factors that influence education will be the same.

There is a growing recognition that student conversations in classrooms, if they happen at all, are often of limited value. Students sometimes respond in monosyllables and interact with the teacher, but not with their peers.