Stephen Bigelow, PhD - Education Leadership

  I understand the value of assessments. Testing can be a powerful tool for measuring student growth, diagnosing learning gaps, and informing instructional strategies. Yet, over the years, I’ve grown increasingly frustrated by how mandated assessments encroach upon valuable instructional time. As an administrator, I ensured compliance with state and district testing mandates, often prioritizing accountability metrics over meaningful classroom activities. I struggled with the volume of assessments and their impact on students and teachers. Too often, I found myself questioning the purpose of specific tests. Did every assessment genuinely provide value to students and teachers, or were some simply fulfilling bureaucratic requirements? All too frequently, it felt like the latter. The problem isn’t that testing exists — it’s how it dominates the school calendar: preparation, administration, and make-up testing swallow weeks of instructional time. Teachers, already stretched thin, are o...

Student voice is often discussed in education but can look very different depending on your leadership role. Whether in the classroom, leading a building, or overseeing a district, you listen to and act on student perspectives. I’ve seen how powerful student voice can be and faced moments where I didn’t do this as well as I should have. These experiences remind me why it’s so critical, especially as we strive to improve educational systems for all students. Student voice should be far more than token representation — a single student sitting at the board table or a select group involved in decision-making. While those roles have their place, empowering student voices requires going deeper and creating spaces where students feel their perspectives matter. Providing open information forums — where students of all backgrounds could freely share — has consistently been one of the most effective strategies. Student Voice in the Classroom As a teacher, I found that moving beyond lectures to ...

  Happy 2025, everyone! As I contemplate the gravity of this new year—significant to me as a product of 1975—I reflect on the milestones that shape us. Approaching my 50th year, I realize that life is marked by continuous change, punctuated by bursts of exponential growth. For me, this feels like one of those moments. Learning has taken on a renewed excitement, and I’m deeply thankful for the opportunities ahead—and the lessons of the past. I keep thinking back to an undergraduate psychology class I took about 30 years ago (yikes)—I think it was called “Lifespan Development”—and the work of Erik Erikson. Admittedly, I had to look him up for a refresher on the details, but his insights remain timeless. Erikson described midlife as the seventh stage of psychosocial development: “Generativity vs. Stagnation.” This stage involves nurturing the next generation, contributing to society, and creating something lasting. Whether through raising children, mentoring younger colleagues, or pur...