Opinion Blog

Finding Common Ground

With Peter DeWitt & Michael Nelson

A former K-5 public school principal turned author, presenter, and leadership coach, Peter DeWitt provides insights and advice for education leaders. Former superintendent Michael Nelson is a frequent contributor. Read more from this blog.


Peter DeWitt is the founder and CEO of the Instructional Leadership Collective. A former public school teacher and principal, he now facilitates professional learning in the United States and abroad based on the content of many of his best-selling educational books. Former superintendent Michael Nelson is a frequent contributor to this opinion blog. He is the co-leader of ILC and a former superintendent who has been an educator for more than 40 years.

Silhouette of child and puzzle pieces
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Teaching Opinion The Myth of Learning Styles
For many years educators were under the false notion that there were learning styles, and recent research shows that they don't exist.
Peter DeWitt, April 29, 2014
2 min read
Education Opinion Better Skills, Better Jobs, Better Lives
In today's guest blog written by OECD's (PISA) Andreas Schleicher, he says, "It's time for all of us to take the lessons we learned through the crisis and turn them into a sustainable plan to get our young people back on the path to prosperity."
Andreas Schleicher, April 27, 2014
6 min read
Education Opinion Education: Is There No Common Ground?
We have been involved in debate after debate about what works best in education. Will we ever find common ground?
Peter DeWitt, April 25, 2014
3 min read
Education Opinion Social-Emotional Learning Is More Than a 21st-Century Skill
To truly prepare students to be college and career ready we need to continue to teach them the social-emotional skills they will need for college, career, and their personal lives.
Peter DeWitt, April 23, 2014
5 min read
Education Opinion Treating Education as a Zero-Sum Game
No matter how many academics give inspirational TED talks or publish papers on innovative pedagogy, no matter how much blood, sweat and tears teachers donate to the cause, there is a hidden barrier to meaningful, large-scale improvement in education: zero-sum thinking.
Michael Brooks, April 21, 2014
5 min read
Education Opinion Stepping Out of Our Comfort Zones
Stepping out of our comfort zones is difficult, but there may be no better time to do it than now.
Peter DeWitt, April 19, 2014
4 min read
Education Opinion Are the BATs a Tour de Force?
What began as a group of vocal teachers, quickly turned into the BAT's encompassing a nationwide group of more than 35,000 educators, parents and students who are showing some serious political strength.
Peter DeWitt, April 17, 2014
2 min read
Education Opinion Modeling Mistakes to Develop Mastery
All students worry about being wrong, and as teachers, we need to recognize the self-censorship that occurs and develop an atmosphere that promotes risk taking and a positive spin on missing the mark.
Starr Sackstein, April 15, 2014
5 min read
Education Opinion So...You Didn't Get Into Your First Choice
"It is not the college we get accepted into that matters, but what we do with the opportunity when we get there."
Peter DeWitt, April 13, 2014
3 min read
Education Opinion Be the Skype Version of Flat Stanley
Flat Stanley has been around for decades, and there is an innovative way to incorporate all that is good about the book with a more modern twist using Skype.
Peter DeWitt, April 11, 2014
5 min read
Education Opinion Silence Is a Good Start...
The Day of Silence is much more than supporting students who feel they don't have a voice. The Day of Silence is for supporting those students who get picked on for using their voice every day.
Peter DeWitt, April 10, 2014
1 min read
Student Achievement Opinion Is the Stress of Poverty to Blame for Academic Failure?
In today's guest post by Pamela Cantor, she asks whether poverty is responsible for academic failure ... or the stress of poverty that is.
Pamela Cantor, April 8, 2014
5 min read
Education Opinion Creating Assessment-Capable Learners
In order to prepare students for when they are on the learning road to self-discovery, we need to make sure they are assessment capable learners.
Peter DeWitt, April 6, 2014
5 min read
Education Opinion This Assessment...Not That Assessment
There is a big difference between the capital A Assessment of high stakes testing, and the lower case a of classroom assessment.
Jennifer Serravallo, April 4, 2014
3 min read