Superintendent experience is not among the qualifications listed Friday in an advertisement seeking applicants for the job of Nebraska commissioner of education.
But it’s easy to see how someone with such experience might check the boxes on the qualifications list assembled by the Nebraska State Board of Education.
The advertisement calls for applicants with experience “as a visionary educational leader within complex organizations and among varied school districts and settings.”
Members of the board are casting a wide net with the broadly written qualifications posted on the website of the search firm McPherson and Jacobson.
The firm is assisting the board in identifying and screening the candidates.
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Steve Joel, one of the consultants, had cautioned the board about narrowing the qualifications so much that qualified candidates without superintendent experience, such as assistant commissioners in other states, would not apply.
Board members are looking for someone to replace Matt Blomstedt, who resigned Jan. 3.
Under the heading of salary range, the advertisement says, “Competitive salary and comprehensive benefits commensurate with experience.”
The listed characteristics sought by the board include the following:
A track record of successfully building teams and consensus as a servant leader who models high character, honesty, respect and trustworthiness in all interactions.
Effective written, oral and interpersonal communication skills, and a commitment to actively engaging stakeholders at all levels.
A critical thinker and creative problem-solver with a history of successful data-informed decision-making, including policy development and academic achievement.
The demonstrated ability to make difficult decisions and effectively manage the people and multiple priorities of a large organization.
An energetic and hard worker who is committed to continuous professional learning focusing on best practices.
The closing date for applications is March 2. Finalists will be selected the week of March 13, and interviews will take place the week of March 27.
Board members will select the new commissioner the week of April 3. Their intention is to have someone in the job by July 1.
Our best Omaha staff photos & videos of January 2023
The Omaha New Year’s Eve fireworks are reflected in the Missouri River with the Bob Kerrey Pedestrian Bridge in the foreground Saturday.
CHRIS MACHIAN photos, THE WORLD-HERALD
Christine Lustgarten poses her dog, Murray, for a portrait after a walk in the snow at Elmwood Park on Tuesday. Lustgarten says her dog enjoys the snow.
CHRIS MACHIAN THE WORLD-HERALD
The Omaha New Year’s Eve fireworks as viewed with the Bob Kerrey Pedestrian Bridge in the foreground from Council Bluffs, Iowa on Saturday.
CHRIS MACHIAN THE WORLD-HERALD
Large blocks of ice rest on the shore of the Missouri River as an ice jam forms near N.P. Dodge Park.
CHRIS MACHIAN, THE WORLD-HERALD
The sunrise illuminates the ice jam on the Missouri River near N.P. Dodge Park.
CHRIS MACHIAN, THE WORLD-HERALD
An ice jam has started to form on the Missouri River near N.P. Dodge Park.
CHRIS MACHIAN, THE WORLD-HERALD
A plane flies near a frozen Carter Lake early on Friday.
At UCT Online Substantial School, they are constantly doing work difficult to make points superior for their learners and guardians. This suggests examining what they do, getting advantage of the greatest innovations in tech, and, higher than all, listening to their local community.
They will be making a amount of key upgrades that will appear into outcome at the beginning of the 2023 school 12 months, to better the way they instruct the youth of South Africa.
They’re introducing additional construction, with outlined phrases in an educational yr, scheduled breaks, weekly assignment deadlines, weekly module release, and all the versatility in between – and contacting this “Structured Flexibility” – the liberty to function inside of properly-outlined boundaries.
Photograph: Supplied
In line with Structured Flexibility, they will tutorial learners with weekly operate plans, serving to them regulate their time far better. Curriculum and On the net Campus Updates will see more videos included, a extra streamlined mastering route, and content material chunked into 45-moment lessons.
They are putting the “earn” in discovering many thanks to their new finding out benefits and gamification programme. Launching in this new school yr, the points amassed have true benefit and can be redeemed in a customized storefront.
Discovering online can be challenging. There’s no educator in the space to stop learners from looking at their phones, no timetable to tell them when to move from class to course, and tiny to quit the outdoors entire world from interrupting their finding out. That is wherever their multi-layer aid arrives in. Along with their crew of motivating Guidance Coaches, who are there to excite, encourage and inspire excellent understanding patterns, Dynamic Educational Guidance will be delivered in the sort of matter facilitation in dialogue message boards, weekly “Ask Me Anything” classes, and Mastery Boot Camps for learners who do not realize success in their casual assessments.
Picture: Equipped
They are restructuring the roles and obligations of some of their team associates. Alternatively than relying on the talent set of an unique instructor, they’ve made teams of qualified Issue Experts and Discovering Facilitators to style and design dynamic mastering content and assessments for every subject. They’ve also upgraded their grading approach to make improvements to moderation and make grades available to learners and guardians with a more quickly turnaround time.
Guardian Orientation has not been launched to better equip guardians to support their learners in an on line mastering natural environment. Plus, their model new and exclusive Guardian Cell App has launched this January to aid guardians in preserving track of learner progress, with scheduled enhancements to be rolled out during the calendar year.
Picture: Equipped
These enhancements and continuous updates to the way we do things at UCT On the net Substantial School will free learners to unleash their likely, enabling them to realise their ambitions and establish their futures!
“We have a excellent option in training right now to carry in a new period of teaching and discovering, one that is obtainable to an abundance of African learners across a wide range of backgrounds. I am deeply passionate about community and the interesting prospects that info-pushed educating know-how can give us. This, combined with understanding initiatives this kind of as aid schooling and collaborative reflection, can make UCT Online Higher Faculty 1 of the most fascinating potential customers in the education sector in South Africa. It is my deep honour to lead the future generation of learners into this fascinating new chapter,” suggests Ms. Banele Lukhele, Executive Head of School and Main Educational Officer.
Be part of the university that will work for you and your little one! Head to their web-site to uncover out more and get your software in.
How faculty shootings have an affect on the homeschooling motion, the romanticization of dwelling training, and the mum or dad/little one energy dynamic that the homeschooling motion encourages.
Photograph bySpenca Arms
With the developing gun violence epidemic in the United States, predicaments like this have began turning into much more and a lot more common. There is a under no circumstances-ending cycle of community colleges failing youthful persons, dad and mom worrying about their youngsters, and moms and dads pulling their young children out of general public college to get started homeschooling them.
What lengths would you go to so that you could secure your kid? Some dad and mom would go to the end of the environment. Many others? They would start out homeschooling their youngsters, even if they do not know what a property schooling involves.
THE Background & THE HISTORIAN
Susan Clever Bauer is an writer, business operator, editor, historian, and an “accidental homeschool guru” (as self-described in her Instagram bio). She is a monumental figure in the homeschooling world, with her The Properly-Qualified Intellect: A Guideline to Classical Education and learning at Household belonging to nearly every single homeschooling mom’s bookshelf because 1999 and her mom Jessie Wise is a nicely-regarded homeschooling pioneer.
I’m not going to talk about gun violence in faculties as a purpose to homeschool. Public educational facilities are a requirement in this country—there are several numerous individuals who will not get any schooling if we did not have a public instruction process in place—so I’m not heading to put us into an oppositional put to that. – Susan Intelligent Bauer
She told me in our job interview before this thirty day period that her mom began homeschooling her in 1972, when homeschooling was practically unheard of at the time. She claimed that her mom experienced extremely prepared her and her brother for faculty, so considerably so that they didn’t suit in. “She was so discouraged by the activities we have been getting in the classroom that she required to come across out what was completely wrong with us so she took us to the local mental well being clinic to see why we didn’t in shape in since she figured there had to be anything completely wrong with us, and the psychiatrist had said: ‘There’s nothing wrong with them they’re just bored.’”
She cherished becoming homeschooled so much that she made a decision to homeschool her very own young children, which is why she started creating English and heritage curricula and how-to-homeschool textbooks.
When I commenced to discuss the premise of this article with her, she slash me off ahead of I could end.
“I’m not gonna go there,” she discussed. “It’s not my position to tear down other possibilities. It’s my undertaking to present a good probability for a terrific schooling to folks who want to consider gain of that. But I consider it’s extremely extremely essential for us to comprehend that not everybody can or need to homeschool, and I’m not heading to oppose us to the community school system. And also it’s an regrettable real truth that gun violence can strike any where: A live performance, a grocery store—as we’ve noticed—a church. […] I’m not heading to speak about gun violence in educational facilities as a motive to homeschool. General public educational facilities are a necessity in this country—there are lots of quite a few people who will not get any education and learning if we did not have a community instruction program in place—so I’m not likely to set us into an oppositional position to that.”
Perfectly, that certainly solutions most of the thoughts I experienced for her.
Susan Clever Bauer delivers up a legitimate argument: Shootings can happen anyplace at any time. Ought to youngsters be homeschooled when there is nevertheless a likelihood of them currently being shot and killed somewhere else? If a parent wants to homeschool their kid for the sole motive of basic safety, isn’t that an uphill fight?
And we cannot neglect that a (correct) homeschool training is some thing that is only achievable for the upper and center course. What occurs to kids apart of the decrease course if every person else pulls their kid out of public faculty? Are we just likely to go away them to choose up the pieces? Why has it achieved the position in which we could abandon reduce-class children in order to preserve our own?
THE Problems WE Deal with
When I attained out to Professor Elizabeth Bartholet earlier this thirty day period, I had just one purpose in mind: I desired to land that job interview.
The U.S. has failed to control homeschooling sufficiently, and has also failed to produce as great a general public faculty education as we really should have, specifically for weak young children. – Elizabeth Bartholet
My logic for this objective is that Professor Bartholet is considerably of a movie star to me—one that I admire. Her purpose for becoming so concerned in this discipline of examine is due to her typical concern “…that U.S. coverage fails adequately to safeguard young children and provides moms and dads way too substantially control over their kids without the need of regard to child finest passions.”
From the point of view of a homeschooler and journalist? Yeah, this checks out.
When COVID-19 initially struck, several public faculty college students struggled immensely, but for the majority of homeschooled students, there was no wrestle. There was no tutorial transition for us. We experienced by now been doing every thing that public college students were being trying to figure out for them selves: We ended up learning from property.
“The pandemic-induced shutdown encouraged quite a few [parents] to educate at home and some will want to keep on that some found out boundaries on what their young children had learned in educational institutions some are no question scared to have their youngsters uncovered to COVID at university,” Professor Bartholet informed me.
When I requested her if she considers homeschooling to be a alternative for community school’s failures, she responded, “no, we need to increase community training. But as I have made very clear, we need to enable parents to homeschool if they can demonstrate the means and determination to furnishing an enough instruction.”
Professor Bartholet referred me to Homeschooling: Guardian Rights Absolutism vs. Youngster Legal rights to Instruction & Security many periods throughout our job interview, in which she discusses “the rapidly growing homeschooling phenomenon and the threat it poses to small children and culture.” Her essay correctly describes the often-ignored pitfalls in the homeschooling neighborhood these types of as how dad and mom can isolate their children from selected thoughts and values, advertise racial segregation and feminine subservience, problem science, and preserve their little ones at property totally free from the possibility that academics will report them to child security expert services in the circumstance of abuse or neglect. As explained in her perform, her essay “calls for a radical transformation in the homeschooling routine and a associated rethinking of baby legal rights. It suggests a presumptive ban on homeschooling, with the burden on parents to reveal justification for permission to homeschool.”
“…We must strengthen public schooling. But as I have designed crystal clear, we need to permit parents to homeschool if they can exhibit the means and determination to offering an ample training.” – Elizabeth Bartholet
Even with the backlash she gained in 2020, numerous homeschool college students (which includes myself) have located Professor Bartholet’s get the job done to be an precise and vital description of the homeschooling encounter. Some of us are physically or emotionally abused and don’t even know that we’re getting abused thanks to a lack of socialization some of us come to feel isolated and unprepared for the “real world” some of us had been by no means taught what’s required to thrive academically some of us practical experience our personal “homeschool shootings” (in instances of domestic violence) most of us never experienced a choice in whether or not we have been homeschooled or not.
But not everybody has a terrible encounter. Not anyone is abused or struggling, so wouldn’t homeschooling technically be really worth the risk?
THE Larger Query
In accordance to a local 2010 review, learners who were being homeschooled achieved a larger retention and graduation amount when as opposed to the total student population. Household-educated college college students ended up considerably less probably to identify as a person of color, extra likely to detect as Roman Catholic, and a lot less likely to dwell on campus as opposed to other learners who had attended public school. Homeschooled pupils documented a noticeably higher ACT-Composite score and a better GPA than their community college peers. This analyze also concluded that homeschooled students were more probable to participate in community university.
For as prolonged as I can try to remember, this research has been cited once more, and yet again, and once more as a reason for mothers and fathers to homeschool their little ones. Glimpse at all these terrific items that homeschoolers do in comparison to the college students who went to community school! Evidently, homeschooling has additional added benefits than challenges, and Professor Bartholet ought to be getting factors also far.
…Right?
I experienced the option to speak about faculty-similar violence and Professor Bartholet’s essay with the researcher who carried out this review, Dr. Michael Cogan.
Dr. Cogan lives (and conducted this examine) in Minnesota. He homeschooled his possess youngsters, has surveyed in excess of 100 homeschooled university learners, and, according to him, Professor Bartholet is on the suitable observe.
“Homeschooling is not putting a wall about them [children]—they’re [parents] are controlling their experiences.” – Dr. Michael Cogan
Regardless of my specialized pondering, this is a good case in point of the sorts of limitations Professor Bartholet proposed, and Dr. Cogan explained to me that he finds these restrictions acceptable and even necessary in order to reduce youngster abuse. When asked outright if he thinks homeschooling could be utilized as a answer versus gun violence, he shocked me when he responded with a hesitant “yes.”
“The aspect I’d get across to persons I chat to,” Dr. Cogan defined, “[is that] people today have this incredibly slim check out of what homeschooling is or is not. Homeschooling isn’t placing a wall about them [children]—they’re [parents] are managing their encounters.”
Conclusion
Is homeschooling the suitable path to just take when it arrives to defending your kids from a university taking pictures? Essentially, yeah.
But ought to you homeschool your little ones for that objective only? No.
In both of those my lifelong encounter and my study on this matter, I have found dwelling education and learning to be a double-edged sword and an outlet for severe parental handle. Whilst homeschooling has its good qualities, I cannot tension enough that there are numerous destructive features that are misunderstood or brushed to the facet. It is futile to pit one particular type of education more than the other, as both equally could be similarly great or lousy.
Lauren Barton is a lifelong homeschooled university student and journalist. This posting was at first posted independently in 2022. It has been edited somewhat by the creator due to the fact that time.
Staging displays that ranged from chemistry experiments to robotics exhibitions, Wayne State University learners, faculty and team stoked visions of school professions for approximately 100 Detroit schoolchildren at Chrysler Elementary School this week as aspect of the university’s WSU Warrior Working day outreach plan.
For nearly an hour and a 50 percent on Tuesday, Jan. 10, scores of third-, fourth- and fifth-grade learners streamed into the school’s multipurpose space for fingers-on demonstrations led by groups from Undergraduate Admissions the Faculty of Medicine and College or university of Engineering and Wayne State’s chemistry, environmental sciences and geology, biological sciences, and kinesiology departments.

LaJoyce Brown, WSU senior associate director of admissions, was a vital organizer of the Warrior Working day event
“We are energized to be in this article today for this Wayne Condition Warrior Day,” claimed LaJoyce Brown, senior associate director of admissions and an organizer of the celebration, in her opening remarks.
“We want to inspire young minds…When you improve up, no issue what it is you want to be, Wayne State is the university for you. If you would like to improve up and become a decide, Wayne Point out is the school for you. If you’d like to increase up and turn out to be an engineer, Wayne Point out is the university for you.”
Brown has been arranging the occasion with Chrysler Elementary counselor Mona Lisa Kelly and other folks as considerably back as 2020, but the pandemic compelled them to postpone.

The School of Medicine was among a number of university units that rolled out eye-catching displays for the almost 100 learners at Chrylser Elementary in Detroit
Judging by the children’s reaction, the extensive-awaited method was a resounding accomplishment. All through the early morning, pupils rotated from one particular display space to a further, marveling more than animal skulls at the biological sciences table, rooting for very small robots that raced through mazes at a Division of Engineering exhibit and viewing chemistry learners whip up foaming messes from check tubes of coloured liquid. There were also rock displays, health and fitness evaluations and a surgical skills desk.
“We appear to show science for the children so that they will respect chemistry,” mentioned Solomon Effah, a second-calendar year chemistry scholar and member of the Nationwide Business for the Professional Advancement of Black Chemists and Chemical Engineers. “We want them to know what they are capable of undertaking.”
In addition to the displays, the application also presented good arts functions, such as an artwork collage by college students and pick out e-book readings to 2nd-graders.
“It’s critical to keep the entertaining in school,” mentioned Latonia Garrett, the director of university student achievement initiatives and educational partnerships, who led the readings. “We need to have to be below, in the neighborhood, as the neighborhood’s college. And we need to have to hold finding out exciting and engaging.”
Christine Chapman, co-founder of The College Axis Task, has been an educational advisor since 1995.
For significant school juniors and seniors, the pandemic has been a substantial source of uncertainty and anxiousness as learners approach for their academic and professional futures. Worried about the gaps in university advising and application help during this period of time, Christine Chapman founded The College or university Axis Venture (CAP) in May 2021.
Unlike many other college or university steerage programs, CAP is built to provide students of all socioeconomic backgrounds and does not target distinct populations. “We are a blended system,” Chapman clarifies, “so individuals who can find the money for our companies and people who require monetary guidance obtain the exact same higher-good quality products in little-team settings. This also facilitates the sharing of diverse experiences and suggestions.”
CAP’s systems include things like school procedure workshops and boot camps that deal with every little thing from purposes to resumes, particular statements and essays. The nonprofit also offers a two-night school application retreat in Vermont and is obtaining ready to launch a faculty counseling on line system with video clips and guided tutorials. In addition to its compensated courses, CAP delivers common cost-free resources like college profile critique conferences with a qualified college or university counselor and an on the internet resource library for pupils and mom and dad.
The excellent of its instruction is an additional facet that sets CAP aside, Chapman suggests. “The people providing the program include my colleagues, who are seasoned educational consultants, educators and industry experts who have invested a long time performing in faculty admissions and school or steering counseling settings, and me,” Chapman suggests. “Together we characterize additional than 100 several years of expertise in the field.”
Chapman notes that the college or university admission system has developed increasingly nerve-racking and aggressive, although at the identical time, guidance counselors at general public and personal faculties need to take care of overwhelming caseloads. CAP gives pupils a lot-desired personalized guidance that they may well not have ample access to at their schools, Chapman suggests.
Describing the process of working with students on their school essays, Chapman remarks on how contributors are not accustomed to the significant stage of attention that CAP provides. “It’s impressive mainly because our system will allow for relationship and vulnerability to materialize so a actually genuine piece can evolve,” she says. “That’s the things that lights my soul on fire when I believe about the operate that I do and becoming ready to offer that to any person and every person.”
Considering that launching, CAP has supplied more than 100 cost-free college or university profile evaluate opportunities and granted more than $2,000 in fiscal help in the variety of tuition guidance and classes. Chapman is fully commited to the philosophy that these services need to not be a luxury. “I’d like to give each individual substantial school junior and senior the guidance and empowerment that they ought to have as they get prepared to transition into an undergraduate education or a vocational path or whichever it could be,” she claims. “That is what drove me to get University Axis off the ground.”
Chapman lives and operates in Hopkinton, but CAP also is registered to supply solutions in California, Florida, New York and Texas.
Kevin Shriner has been appointed the University of Nebraska–Lincoln’s inaugural assistant vice chancellor for electronic and online learning.
He will formally presume the posture Feb. 1. Katherine Ankerson, govt vice chancellor, manufactured the announcement on Jan. 12.
“I am enthusiastic to welcome Dr. Shriner to Nebraska,” Ankerson mentioned. “He delivers 25 many years of expertise in increased schooling, with deep expertise in online systems a passion for earning better instruction obtainable to all college students and a genuinely collaborative technique to his work.
“I search ahead to his management as the college will take the subsequent step in our loaded background of online and distance education.”
Shriner will come to the university from EAB, an training organization targeted on ideal observe investigate, technological innovation providers, and enrollment products and services for non-financial gain establishments, the place he is senior director of enrollment method. In this part, Shriner consulted with far more than 800 establishments, which includes Large Ten institutions, in all 50 states to utilize enrollment techniques, advertising insights, and sector information on building, launching, and strategically arranging educational systems to fulfill the academic prerequisites of pupils and supply pathways to workforce results. He is the primary strategist, marketing consultant, and topic make a difference qualified to hundreds of schools and universities in search of to increase advertising, recruitment, and student results for grownup degree learners and graduate learners, with a concentration in online programs.
He formerly served as affiliate dean for institutional success and affiliate dean for student achievements at Florida Southwestern University. In the course of his tenure, he collaborated with faculty to build a to start with-year experience method and streamline method assessment and basic education assessment.
“I am honored to champion Nebraska’s flagship university as it reaffirms its commitment to expansion in on line plans,” Shriner mentioned. “I glimpse ahead to elevating UNL’s already effective distance schooling packages and producing new, accessible on line instructional possibilities for all pupils that will contribute to the progress and prosperity of our communities.”
As assistant vice chancellor, Shriner will direct the development, integration, and implementation of a in depth, transformative, and inclusive method for on the net and electronic education and learning, reflective of the goals and aims in the N2025 Strategic Strategy. He will report to the executive vice chancellor and work intently with her leadership workforce and the schools to establish campus-wide strategic priorities, a eyesight for on the web programming, and chart and put into practice a system for achievement. Shriner will provide experience, leadership, and coordination on functions and initiatives that advance and assistance digital and online learning.
Shriner holds a Bachelor of Science in park resource management from Kansas Condition College. He also holds a Master of Arts in history, with an emphasis in African-American record, and a Master of Training in higher instruction from the College of Arkansas. His doctorate in higher training management is from Nova Southeastern University.


