As I prepared to go on my journey to help football teams open the year I considered the concept of greatness. What is it and how do I help teams and athletes achieve it? The late Muhammad Ali often said, I am the greatest of all time. What exactly does that mean? Does that mean that he was the best boxer? A god, man or both?

Tue Jan 11 09:28 AM

The COVID-19 global pandemic has created an environment of unparalleled challenge for our economic, educational, and social support systems. In the wake of these challenges, the academic and social needs of our school-age populations and the subsequent expectations for educators to address those needs has only increased.

Tue Dec 07 08:32 AM

In an effort to place concrete, ready-to-implement SEL strategies in the hands of more educators, more quickly, The Center for Educational Effectiveness recently released an online training course taught by SEL specialist, Dr. Greg Benner from the University of Alabama. Research shows that SEL not only improves student achievement by an average of 11 percentile points, but it also increases prosocial behaviors (such as kindness, sharing and empathy), improves student attitudes toward school, and reduces depression and stress among students (Durlak et al., 2011). In the six-module SEL training, called THE WHOLE EDUCATOR SERIES, Dr. Benner asserts that the many benefits of implementing strong SEL strategies don’t end with the students, but can be of vast benefit to educators themselves, decreasing their own stress levels and potential for burnout - a critical point given that job-related stress is the primary reason for 43% of educators leaving teaching before and during the pandemic (RAND Corp., 2021).

Wed Nov 10 07:15 AM

As a part of our research partnership with The University of Alabama College of Education, The Akribos Group is pleased to offer our enthusiastic support for The Whole Educator Series. The program was conceptualized and founded by Dr. Greg Benner, O’Sullivan Professor of Special Education, and Implementation Science at The University of Alabama, who is a recognized leader in Whole Child transformation programs.

Wed Nov 10 07:05 AM

Harvard Graduate School of Education (HGSE) Dean James E. Ryan states, “Right now, there exists an almost ironclad link between a child’s ZIP code and their chances of success.” In this five-part blog series I have questioned policy and practice, over reliant on standardized test scores and indirectly the standardized movement, against the stark reality of few schools providing transformative opportunities for students inside of their school systems.

Tue Oct 26 09:18 AM

John F. Kennedy stated, “Our progress as a nation can be no swifter than our progress in education.” The quote is resonant, particularly in this time as since March of 2020, school operations and education delivery have been highly variable across our country. However, it is overly convenient to attribute our difficulty in getting timely supports to children solely because of the COVID pandemic.

Mon Oct 04 09:00 PM

In my first two pieces as guest contributor, we focused on the urgency of what some refer to as the “twin pandemics,” social unrest and COVID 19, causing us to need access to high quality data to ensure we are framing the issues unique to each school system during these tumultuous times. In addition to having high quality data to frame clear problems of practice, it is essential each school organization consistently measure and build high-quality culture, as absent high-quality culture, little work benefitting children gets done.

Wed Sep 22 09:37 AM

In my last piece as a guest contributor, we covered the critical need to have actionable data to help our systems navigate through and beyond the COVID 19 pandemic. The title, To Set Your Course, You Must First Know Where You Are, applies to the following four data domains that we work in as professional educators...

Tue Sep 07 08:06 AM