Free Agency

Last time I wrote on this blog I was leaving DC for Tennessee for what I thought would be a summer fling of a job. That was nearly four years ago. The summer fling of a job turned into three and a half years of adventure and learning. Both DC and Tennessee produced dominant results on NAEP. I managed my own team for the first time, getting so deep into evaluation that I'm not sure I'll ever climb out. It was really good and I feel like we made tremendous progress that will continue for years to come. And now I'm a free agent again, unsure of which direction to go next. Maybe because I've done this before I feel very peaceful about it, after all last time I was a free agent I ended up here in Nashville. Maybe because I have a supportive wife this I feel less urgency to get back to work but more motivated to be productive in one way or another. Maybe because I have a some more experience, some more knowledge about how to do things, I am feeling patient about finding the right fit for me to make a difference. In the meantime, this seems as good a time as any for reflection and thinking, for documenting and organizing my thoughts and ideas. This seems like a good time to write down what I will forget later, to remember what I learned so that it will help me in the future. This seems like a good time to return to this blog, which will be my free agency diary of sorts, to see how I evolve over time, to see what I think when I take time between gigs, and hopefully to stumble upon something useful to those pushing forward to forever improve education in America.