The HML Post
 
 
Greetings!
 
Welcome to the December 16th, edition of the HML POST
More about the Horace Mann League of the USA at  HML website.

The HML Annual Meeting/Luncheon is on Friday, February 14, 2014, at the Omni Hotel in Nashville - in conjunction with the AASA Nation Conference.
Check out HML's Cornerstone on "FLIPBOARD."   (The public schools are the "Cornerstone" of our democracy.)
 
A poverty, not education, crisis in U.S.   by Oliver Thomas in USA Today.

The latest results of the Program for International Student Assessment - which measures the knowledge and skills of 15-year-old students in math, reading and science - were released last week, and once again Finland is near the top.  By comparison, U.S. student scores remained in the middle of the pack. But the most telling difference between Finns and Americans when it comes to education is child poverty. 

 

 

 

As It Turns Out, There Still Is a Vast Right Wing Conspiracy - The Many Friends of ALEC   By Ellen DanninTruthout 

Even if ALEC were to disappear tomorrow, its agenda still would be propelled by a variety of institutional allies, including the Reason Foundation, the State Policy Network and a variety of think tanks.  Two years ago, the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) became the subject of a series of exposés after 800 documents were leaked that laid out ALEC's anti-public, pro-corporate activities. 

 

 

 

10 Measures of School Stability (Part 1 of 2)   Posted by Scott Barron

Imagine for for a moment that you could hook an EKG up to your school and measure the heartbeat. What would the graph tell you? How can the board know that the school truly is viable moving forward? 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

10 Measures of School Stability (Part 2 of 2)   Posted by Scott Barron

 

 

The biggest question facing the board of newcomers is to what degree they will embrace charter schools. Last year, Georgia voters passed a constitutional amendment that enabled the creation of a state-appointed commission authorized to bypass local and state school boards in approving new charter schools.
 
 
Another day, another headline on 
ASCD's Smartbrief extolling some new Common Core strategy. ASCD has signed on as an endorser of Common Core,  and in 2011, the Gates Foundation awarded ASCD a grant of $3 million "to provide teachers and school leaders with supports to implement the Common Core State Standards at the district, school, and classroom levels."  In July of this year, ASCD won an additional $244,000, "to support implementation of the Common Core State Standards." 


Some articles about public education on HML's Flipboard.
  • The Gates Foundation's Hypocritical Investments
  • Attention OECD-PISA: Your Silence on China is Wrong
  • Common Core standards drive wedge in education circles 
  • Finnish education expert critiques U.S. school philosophy
  • The Making of Common Core Creation Stories: Myth or Fact?
  • The Spectacle of Illiteracy and the Crisis of Democracy

 

 


Reprinted with permission.
 
 
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, President, Vision Unlimited, Reisterstown, 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, Superintendent, Sterling Heights, Michigan 
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.