Learning Equation

Maximizing the learning environment and focusing on the principles of learning are the most critical needs facing educational leaders of every rank. The Learning Equation: The Education Process and Effective Schools, Teachers, and Students develops a “learning equation” that depicts various learning situations based upon the effectiveness of the school environment and the degree to which students want to learn.The book begins with a practical framework that provides educational leaders with a means of creating an environment that will maximize student learning. The second part of the book underscores important aspects of learning that will help both students and educational leaders. The information in the two parts of the book is captured by the development of ‘the learning equation’ which predicts student academic performance. The learning equation cuts through political and educational ideologies and focuses on reality. Ultimately, the learning equation highlights how student achievement can be finally improved.

In The Learning Equation: The Education Process and Effective Schools, Teachers, and Students Daniel Wentland offers a commonsense primer for school leadership centered around two obvious but rarely acknowledged facts. First, for learning to happen, both educators and students must want to learn. Second, the more we make schooling about solving social problems rather than learning, the less likely they are to succeed at either. Mission creep has turned education into rocket science, something too difficult for most humans to do successfully., Policy outcomes are what matters, not the intentions of the policies. Policies based on facts, not ideologies, solve problems. In this book, the development of the learning equation highlights how student achievement can be improved. Reality is a difficult phenomenon to ignore; the learning equation provides a pathway for student success. The choice is to get on the path for success or continue down the current road of failure. Our children deserve no less.

Daniel Wentland is the author of the following books: Identity Crisis: Teaching Imaginary Economics versus Real Economics, Energizing Your Organization: The Ultimate School Work Environment, Reality and Education: A New Direction for Educational Policy, Knowing the Truth about Education, and Strategic Training: Putting Employees First. His articles have been published in the Ivey Business Journal, Chief Learning Officer, Compensation and Benefits Review, and Education—the oldest education journal in the United States.