Are kids failing school or are schools failing kids? What if schools adopted a “football faith” and religiously committed to making every learning experience a touchdown? What if every educator believed that, no matter what position s/he plays on the team, the ultimate goal is to get the ball, which is the student, into the end zone?
This analogy is a great way to re-imagine American schools, but it will remain in our imagination until we stop fumbling the ball. While teachers on the field are held accountable for what they do when the ball is in their hands, many question who really calls the plays? I believe educators know exactly what to do to solve problems in schools, but we aren’t empowered to do what we know works.
This book calls attention to repeated fumbles in the education industry and provides strategies to help individual school teams to address their own problems. Its first purpose is to get to the root of perpetuated problems in schools so we may better understand why they exist. Second, its purpose is to make a clarion call for all team players, who know what it takes to win, to come together and be real game changers.
About the Author
Dr. Cathy Owens-Oliver is an accomplished speaker, author, instructional
coach, education policy analyst, and National Board Certified Teacher. For more than 25 years, in 46 of 50 states as well as Canada, she has provided consulting services for instructional coaches, college
faculty, state boards, and state departments of education.
She is the President and CEO of Educational Effectiveness Group, a coaching, and consulting practice that helps K-12 schools and colleges of education improve teaching and solve problems that hinder student learning.
She is the author of Why Schools Fumble, a national bestseller in Pedagogy and Educational Problem-Solving. She has presented at countless national conferences and written for leading education journals including Accomplished Teacher Magazine, the Journal of Staff Development, and the Hope Foundation’s What Works in Schools newsletter. Her work also appears in the college textbook: Black Star: An Introduction to African-American Studies.
She earned her doctorate in Education, Leadership, Management, and Policy at Seton Hall University, and completed studies at NC A&T State University, and the University of NC - Greensboro
(where she was a NC Teaching Fellow).
She has held senior roles at the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards, Learning Forward, Educational Testing Service, and the NC Department of Public Instruction. She has served as
adjunct faculty for several colleges.
She completed leadership and coaching training with the NC Center for the Advancement of Teaching, Dale Carnegie Corporation, Institute for Management Studies, Jack McDowell School for Leadership Development, and the Parker Palmer Center for Courage and Renewal.
She has served as a director of ministerial training in NC, MI, and PA. She is the Dean of Education for the COGIC International Sunday School Department and President of the GirlsGotLIFE Foundation. Affectionately known as Dr. O, she has assisted several faith-based groups in implementing organizational change. She enjoys golf, gardening, and mentoring millennials.
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