It now seems to me that paying attention and having all of your work in on time, which is important, may not be as important as how much [students] actually know that material. I think that the greatest success [from this PD] is that we have put the emphasis on the learning rather than on all of the trivial behaviors that were helping kids “get by” even though they hadn’t learned.

About the Author

Joe Feldman has worked in education for over 20 years at the school, district, and federal levels of government, in district and charter school systems, and in the non-profit sector. He began his career as an English and U.S. History teacher in Atlanta Public Schools and was the founding principal of Thurgood Marshall Academy in Washington, D.C. which has the highest performing students of any open-enrollment public school in the city. He was the Director of K-12 Instruction in Union City, CA. There, he led the district's initiative to make its high school placement process more equitable, resulting in doubling the number of African-American and Latino students enrolled in and passing honors courses. He is now the CEO of Crescendo Education Group, which partners with schools and districts to improve the accuracy and fairness of their grading practices.