Inside DoDEA Schools: Teacher Qualifications, Costs, and Accreditation

The Tech Divide

Simply put, the tech divide I am referring to deals with schools that have robust technology and those that don't.

• K-12 education in the second decade of the 21st century needs five well-developed components to be successful.
• These components are not stand-alone items.
• They are linked and complement each other.
• The entire package is essential to overcome the tech divide in many parts of America.

If you've read this far, you're probably wondering why I am stating the obvious. After all, your private school has the best of everything. That's why you are sending your kids there. What I want you to do is to share that insistence on having the best possible educational outcomes for your children.

• Share it with a teacher you know.
• Introduce the local district IT director to your IT director.
• Create partnerships.
• Use your connections to overcome the technology divide.

Canva generated this picture of a private school 7th-grade classroom.

Enhanced Connectivity

Enhanced Connectivity in all our schools, private and public, is not just a luxury but a necessity.

• We expect the private school to which we are sending our children to have reliable, high-speed internet access.
• We know that facilitates seamless learning experiences.
• This connectivity is a crucial step that involves more than simply setting up a couple of routers around the school buildings and campus.
• Connectivity is also about ensuring

AI For Teachers

I'm a retired teacher. These days, I write about K-12 education and community college. However, I know how time-consuming it is to write lesson plans and rubrics and ensure compliance with the curriculum. Grading English compositions, communicating with parents, and creating quizzes take infinite time and patience. And those are just a few things we teachers are expected to do.

That's why I want to introduce you to my assistant. It's an AI app called Perplexity. Now, there are dozens of AI apps you can use. Chat-GPT is probably the most popular. Both Google and Microsoft have their versions of AI built into their search engines, as does Grammarly. It doesn't matter which AI app you choose. What's important is to learn how to tell Perplexity or Chat-GPT what you want it to do. That's called prompt engineering. So, let's start with that first. Then, I'll show you some websites with AI tools explicitly written for teachers and administrators.

Introduction to Prompt Engineering

How do you write an effective prompt?

As teachers, you and I have learned how to give clear instructions to our students. We choose our words carefully to achieve a pre-determined result. In other words, we narrow the field and limit the choices. That's precisely how prompts work—that's the essence of prompt engineering.

The art and skill of writing effective prompts is called prompt engineering. It's a burgeoning field within the

I remember the anxiety about filling seats very well, as though it were yesterday. Back in the 90s, my head of school, Dr. Elliston Rahming, had hired me to be the Deputy Director of a new private school he was starting from scratch in The Bahamas. And I do mean from scratch! The budget for our first year had to come entirely from tuition income. Period. Moreover, I was charged with ensuring the seats were filled when we opened for business in September 1995. Now, remember that back in the 90s, the Internet was in its infancy. There was no social media to trumpet the opening of our new school. We only had the local press and word of mouth.

Against that backdrop, let me pose some scenarios to heads of boarding schools, owners of boarding schools, and anybody interested in filling seats at their school.

1. My school's enrollment is declining. I can't afford to hire a marketing professional. What should I do?

Saying that you can't afford a marketing professional is like saying you can't afford insurance. It's a must-have. I understand that you are thinking that marketing is a major expense. Don't think of it that way. Think of marketing as a profit center. When the marketing professional does her job, you will see results. If your budget is really tight, I suggest that you interview a recent college marketing graduate. Your giving her a job where she can prove how good

Why Private School? (2024 Edition)

Private schools challenge their students academically, expose them to more explicit value systems, give greater access to teachers, and allow them to feel safer than at a local public school. When you decide to pursue private schooling for your child, start the research process early. Admission to private schools can be competitive, and finding a school that is a perfect fit for your child and where they will also be accepted takes some time.

A Higher Bar

A major advantage of private education is that your child will likely be challenged to a higher academic standard. Private schools tend to be more academically rigorous than public schools, and private school students may have to meet more criteria to maintain their grade point averages.

"Private high schools typically have more demanding graduation requirements than do public high schools. Compared with public schools, private schools required more coursework (in 4-year high school programs)." Source: Private School Universe Survey (PSS) from NCES

Private school students can expect more regarding the quality of work, course workload, and special requirements such as community service or arts participation. In some schools, what would typically be considered extracurricular activities are prerequisites for graduation, which ultimately round out students' high school experience. The push to meet this higher standard often results in greater student performance.

A 2022 NAEP report found that "Students in private schools scored significantly above the national average