Lisa Nielsen

Parents and educators across the nation are fed up with a government sucking data out of our students like a vampire who needs their blood to survive. Fortunately, the jig is up. Parents have caught on to the fact that not only does all this ineffective, inaccurate, and...

Cross posted at The Innovative Educator Blog and Cooperative Catalyst.

Social media has become a mobilizing force in bringing together students, educators, and parents who are frustrated with the data-driven, standardized, one-size-fits all learning taking place in publicly funded schools today. Many of these groups have...

Just type the word "testing" into the search box on Facebook and you'll find thousands of parents distraught over the standardized tests their children are being forced to take despite the fact that these parents know it is not in the best interests for their children who in many cases...

Articles like this one -- Colleges worry about always-plugged-in students -- often scapegoat technology as the reason 21st century students tune out when it comes to learning. Unfortunately,...

Life in the 21st century provides a whole-new world of opportunities for self-directed, passion-driven, personalized learning. Unfortunately, many of our schools are set in their ways and stuck in the past when it comes to student learning. Here are tools and strategies that are available for schools whose staff is...

If they have the means, I find that most parents where I live in New York City send their children to private schools. There are also some who have figured out how to navigate the system to send their children to elite public schools filled with mostly wealthy white and...

I was inspired recently after visiting a school where students, as principal Barbara...

If you are a kid or have a kid in school today, you know that preparing kids for college is just a way of life. Forget the fact that some people have discovered it is a "Race to Nowhere" that leaves many children riddled with stress, anxiety, headaches,...

What disturbed me most about the much-lauded educational documentary Race To Nowhere was not the outcry of adolescents who explained how school led them to develop anorexia, cut themselves, consider suicide, or require hospitalization for severe anxiety. I knew all that.

What disturbed me was...

The New York Times recently published an article that had some parents and students up in arms. When the students came to class, they found there were no teachers and a classroom full of computers. You see, in this Florida school, they made the choice for the students...

Around the nation, more and more school districts like New York City are considering making teacher performance ratings public. One of the many problems with this, simply put, is that the state tests which these tests are based on, well... they suck. Yep. I said it.

My background...

Across the nation a growing trend in ed reform has taken hold in places like Chicago, Los Angeles, Miami, New Orleans, Seattle, Sacramento, New York, and most recently New Jersey. Non-educators are being considered as top candidates to lead schools. The fresh perspective and super management skills are often cited...

Author's Note: This is the third in a series of posts on passion-driven instruction. You may also want to read When passion drives instruction no child is left behind and Preparing Students for Success by Helping Them Discover and Develop Their Passions.

While today's data-driven educational...

Today's students are told if they listen to their elders, do well in school, score high on the tests and graduate high school and college, ideally on time, then they will be rewarded with a bright future. Problem is, it's not true. A college degree is no longer the magic...

Innovative educators are frustrated when forced to follow political BANdates (i.e. a mandate banning something) such as one that has taken hold across many cities in the nation requiring students to power down at school.

In New York City, the largest of these districts, the iPad toting...

New York City's Mayor Bloomberg has been open about the fact that he doesn't really get social media in general and it's clear its value as an educational tool alludes him. So when the recent story came out that mislead the public to believe Facebook got...