The Horace Mann League of the USA
 
Greetings!
 
Welcome to the February 25, 2013, edition of the Horace Mann League Blog. 

Joe Hairston, President, The Horace Mann League of the U.S.A.
Jack McKay, Executive Director, The Horace Mann League of the U.S.A.
Click on the title to read the complete article.

This week's postings:
Expect Ongoing Churning of Schools  by Linda Darling Hammond 
"Much of what students are going to deal with in life involves knowledge and technologies not yet known," she said. Rather than teach them about static, "multiple-choice world," Darling-Hammond said current and future students must "learn to learn." 
 
"If the focus is on the devices, it's misunderstood," Mark Edwards, told attendees at his AASA conference session Friday on digital conversion for student achievement. 
 
At a bare minimum, our children must acquire skills in the "3 Rs" (reading, writing and 'rithmetic) to succeed in life. Humanity is dangerously past due adding a fourth critical R to our children's curriculum - reason.
 

As the United States focuses more on using tests as a means of holding educators and school districts accountable, Finland--which is one of the top performers on international tests--has gone in the opposite direction.

  

Why 'Doubly Disadvantaged' Kids Continue to Struggle Academically  

Research has shown for decades that education, health and safety outcomes for children in homes struggling with poverty remain some of the greatest challenges facing this country.   

 

Few want to hear that. Reformers are sure America's schools would be fine if teachers just worked harder and smarter, and reformers are sure the teachers would do that if merit pay programs made them compete for cash. They seem incapable of understanding that classroom teachers are doing something so complicated and difficult that even the best of them are hanging on by their fingernails. 

  

Whoo-Hoo! Occupy the Schools

In response to a poverty rate that tops 90% in many urban and rural schools -and 1.6 million homeless children-many in schools with no libraries-education reformers at the White House, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and the National Governors Association call for a radical, untried curriculum overhaul and two versions of nonstop national testing to measure whether teachers are producing workers for the Global Economy.  

  

Some other postings of interest.

 

 



About Us
The Horace Mann League of the USA is an honorary society that promotes the ideals of Horace Mann by advocating for public education as the cornerstone of our democracy.

 

Officers:
President: Joe Hairston, (former) Supt., Baltimore County Public Schools, MD
President-elect: Gary Marx, President, Center for Public Outreach, VA
Vice President: Charles Fowler, Executive Director, Suburban School Superintendents
1st Past President: Mark Edwards, Supt., Mooresville Graded Schools, NC
2nd Past President: Julie Underwood, Dean, Sch. of Ed. U. of WI, Madison, WI
3rd Past President: George Garcia, (ret.) Supt., Boulder Valley Schools, CO
4th Past President: Steve Rasmussen, Supt., Issaquah School District, WA

 

Directors:
Martha Bruckner, Supt., Council Bluffs Community Schools, IA
Evelyn Blose-Holman, (ret.) Superintendent, Bay Shore Schools, NY
Carol Choye, Instructor, Bank Street College, NY
Brent Clark, Exec. Dir., Illinois Assoc. of School Admin. IL
Linda Darling Hammond, Professor of Education, Stanford U. CA
Charles Fowler, Exec. Dir., Suburban School Superintendents, NH
James Harvey, Exec. Dir., Superintendents Roundtable, WA
William Hite, Supt., Philadelphia City Public Schools, PA
Christine Johns-Hines, Superintendent, Shelby Township, Michigan 
Dwight Jones, Superintendent, Clark County Public Schools, NV
Eric King, Superintendent, (Ret.) Muncie Public Schools, IN
Steven Ladd, Superintendent, Elk Grove Unified School District, Elk Grove, CA 
Barry Lynn, Exec. Dir., Americans United, Washington, DC
Stan Olson, Superintendent, (Ret.) Boise Public Schools, ID

 

Executive Director:
Jack McKay, Professor Emeritus, University of Nebraska at Omaha, 
560 Rainier Lane, Port Ludlow, WA 98365 (360) 821 9877
 
To become a member of the HML, click here to download an application.