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The ‘One Initiative’ initiative

By: Don Bavis July 10, 2016

In my opinion, many school districts attempt to implement too many initiatives, too often and without enough clarity on how each fits into the greater scheme of the overall instructional program. Something I refer to as “initiativitis.” It’s nobody’s fault. With the constant changes in state curriculums and assessments, and the frequent onslaught of the newest “research-based, best practice,” districts struggle to keep up. The challenge is that newer initiative priorities are often layered upon older ones, whether they had been successful or not. Teachers become unsure on what the expectations are. Is this new initiative replacing something, or am I supposed to just add this to what I’m already doing? The new and old initiatives often become isolated into pockets of implementation, not complementing but competing with one another for instructional time and resources...