As an educational leadership professor, I hear inspiring messages from colleagues all the time, and I understand the impulse to lead with the highlight reel. Wins matter, from measurable improvement and real growth to culture building, trust restored, and students graduating. Aspiring leaders need those stories because this work is hard, and hope is fuel. […] The post The Syllabus and the Scar Tissue: What Leadership Preparation Programs Leave Out and Why It Matters appeared first on Faculty Focus | Higher Ed Teaching & Learning.
For decades, math assessments have measured the residue of thinking rather than thinking itself. In this sharp, research-grounded piece, Eric Tucker argues that multimodal AI can finally make the Standards for Mathematical Practice visible, capturing spoken arguments, strategic shifts, and productive struggle in real time. For district leaders and curriculum directors rethinking assessment infrastructure, this is essential reading on what it means to measure what actually matters. The post We’ve Been Judging Symphony Rehearsals by the Last Note: Why Multimodal AI Can Finally Measure Mathematical Practice appeared first on Getting Smart.
Picture this: A colleague spends Sunday night feeding her lesson outline into an AI tool, gets back a polished set of discussion questions, and walks into class feeling prepared. When a student pushes back—“I’m not sure this question even fits the reading”—she has to respond in real time, drawing on fifteen years of watching students struggle with exactly […] The post Still the Teacher: How California’s AI Law Keeps You at the Center appeared first on Faculty Focus | Higher Ed Teaching & Learning.
He was there to learn accounting, not comment on my course design. But midway through a Zoom call in the fall of 2025, one of my online adult learners paused and started talking about my Canvas homepage, how the buttons worked, how everything connected. He had taken screenshots and sent them to a former professor at another […] The post Designing a Course Students Want to Screenshot appeared first on Faculty Focus | Higher Ed Teaching & Learning.
What does it look like when three community believers spend 25 years refusing to give up on young people? Heart of Oregon Corps has built a tri-county workforce and learning ecosystem that connects youth facing the greatest barriers to paid work, credentials, and real careers. This Steward Stories spotlight examines the trust, time, and relentless community-braiding that make HOC a model for ecosystem intermediaries everywhere. Education leaders will find transferable lessons in partnership design, sustainable funding, and what it means to build pathways that dignify rather than sort. The post Steward Stories: How Heart of Oregon Corps Turns Service into Careers appeared first on Getting Smart.
Aldine ISD’s HEAL Center expands healthcare pathways through community voice, industry partnership, and real-world learning. The post How One District Answered 13,000 Voices appeared first on Getting Smart.
In a world of instant content, the value of learning lives in how students think, apply, and transform understanding over time. The recent attention around tools like the now-offline Einstein, an AI agent capable of completing coursework on a student’s behalf, has put academic integrity at the forefront of faculty conversations. But what matters more than the tool itself is that […] The post AI Didn’t Break Assessment: It Exposed What Was Already Broken appeared first on Faculty Focus | Higher Ed Teaching & Learning.
When Jon Ketler, founder of the Tacoma School of the Arts, passed away recently, Getting Smart contributor Chris Unger sat down to capture what made him extraordinary. This tribute is more than a remembrance. It is a masterclass in what visionary school design actually looks like when one person decides to stop waiting for permission and start building. Education leaders who have ever wondered whether a single individual can change a system will find both proof and inspiration here. The post He Showed Me What One Person Could Do: A Tribute to Jon Ketler appeared first on Getting Smart.
Historically, higher education has been at the forefront of social change, not only in the United States but also in classrooms and cultures around the world. Considering the many challenges facing American universities and colleges as we navigate higher education’s relevancy and role in society and learning, how can institutions continue to promote innovation where it matters: in […] The post The Importance of Recognizing Innovative Part-Time Instructors appeared first on Faculty Focus | Higher Ed Teaching & Learning.
As AI accelerates into every corner of schooling, education leaders face a question that is both urgent and deeply human: who holds the gavel? In this provocative new piece, Eric Tucker argues that the real risk is not AI itself but our failure to govern it proportionally, treating a graduation algorithm with the same scrutiny as a spelling hint. This consequence-tiered framework gives leaders, policymakers, and educators a practical architecture for protecting learners while keeping innovation alive. The post A Hint is Not a Diploma: Consequential Educational Decision Making in the Multimodal AI Era appeared first on Getting Smart.
Faculty are not resistant to technology — they’re overwhelmed by how quickly it arrives. Faculty today are navigating more digital transitions than ever before, including new learning platforms, AI policies, assessment tools, cloud systems, security requirements, and various communication channels. From where I sit on the IT side of campus, the changes never seem to stop coming. But here’s what I’ve realized after years of helping […] The post Tech Change: A Faculty Survival Guide from the IT Side appeared first on Faculty Focus | Higher Ed Teaching & Learning.
What does it actually take to steward a learning ecosystem, and how is that different from leading a system? Karen Pittman and Merita Irby spent a year inside four community intermediaries, including CommunityShare, the PAST Foundation, and Heart of Oregon Corps, and surfaced three prerequisites that change everything: trust, time, and idea translation. This post is essential reading for any leader working to connect education, youth development, and workforce systems into something greater than the sum of their parts. The post What Ecosystem Stewards Know That System Leaders Don’t — Yet appeared first on Getting Smart.
Why honest naming matters in education redesign: distinguish R&D from implementation so leaders scale learning, not assumptions. The post When Scale Gets Ahead of Learning appeared first on Getting Smart.
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