A fierce urgency …This is what I feel when I turn on the news when I watch my children as young adults facing the world of 2018, when I visit with friends and hear about their struggles, and mostly when I enter into schools.

As we march through another school year, three articles caught my attention and insist that we examine this focus in education. Clarity of purpose becomes paramount as we explore the latest thinking on high-stakes testing.

This has become my mantra. These words are desperately needed in the current political and educational climate.

In my New Year’s newsletter from 2016, I suggested that the word for the year be PURPOSE. Here it is another New Year, and I like this idea of finding our educational focus ONE WORD … what might your ONE WORD for 2018 be?

As a society, we readily understand why we need to learn how to read. We have a good grasp on how print impacts the ability to function as a productive adult.

Instead of writing a list of New Year's resolutions of what we will and won't do, there is a movement to determine one word that will focus our goals. This one word can shape decisions and serve as an inspiration throughout the year.