The HML Post 
 
 
Greetings!
 
Welcome to the May 12th edition of the HML POST

 

The HML Flipboard, click here.
Check out HML's Cornerstone on "FLIPBOARD."   (The public schools are the "Cornerstone" of our democracy.)
 
by Richard W. Garnett  in Bloomberg Law
Before last Monday's decision in Town of Greece v. Galloway, it had been nearly a decade since the members of the Supreme Court had shared with us their intuitions, impressions, aruspicies, and auguries - that is, what Justice Breyer might call their "legal judgment" - in a clean-and-straightforward Establishment Clause case involving "religion in the public square."
 
Plea for a new church-state ruling   by by Bloomberg Law 
Lawyers for a school district in a Milwaukee suburb have urged the Supreme Court to take the next step toward clarifying when government activity and religion are to be kept separate.  Rather than sending this already-pending case back for lower courts to weigh the Justices' new ruling on Monday, the new brief argued, the Court needs to give new constitutional guidance promptly.

 

by William J. Mathis and Gary Miron
null While there are undoubtedly many students who wish to enroll in popular charter schools and are unable, the overall waitlist numbers are almost certainly much lower than the NAPCS estimates. The Policy Memo published today by the National Education Policy Center outlines nine reasons why policy makers, reporters and others should be skeptical of the NAPCS waitlist numbers.  
 
Teaching is an inherently moral endeavor with moral purpose, and it takes place in classrooms inhabited by teachers who choose to be there for moral reasons.   This article discusses the concerns that arise from this lack of attention to the moral work of teaching in teacher education, and it identifies hopeful approaches to helping teacher candidates find moral meaning and value in their future lives as teachers.
  
 

An Education Reporter Puts Himself To The (Standardized) Test

by Cory Turner on the NPR Blog 

What are the two most feared - most reviled - words in the English language?  "Tax day," maybe? Or "traffic jam"?

"Pink slip" still connotes an awful brand of helplessness, even though, I assume, most Americans who get pink-slipped these days never see a pink slip    No, my vote is for "standardized test."

  

 The Learning Curve by Pearsons

This report, published by Pearson and written by The Economist Intelligence Unit, is part of a wide-ranging programme of quantitative and qualitative analysis, entitled The Learning Curve.

It seeks to distil some of the major lessons on the links between education and skill development, retention and use.

Underlying this report are the findings from the analysis of a large body of internationally comparable education data - The Learning Curve Data Bank (LCDB). First compiled in 2012, the LCDB has been updated in early 2014 to include, among other indicators, the latest test results from:

' the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS)
' the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS)
' the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA)
' the initial output from the Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC), which looks at cognitive skill levels across the population.

  

 Charter$ & Ca$hing In  by Peter Greene on the Crumudgucation blog

In the past, many charters were launched that focused solidly on providing unique and exciting educational experiences for their communities. These schools were innovative. These schools were connected to their communities. These schools were icing on the public school system cake. And these schools were run by chumps. There's only one question you need to answer to gauge the success of your charter school-- am I making money.  

  

 The scary way Common Core test "cut scores" are selected   by Valerie Strauss in the Washington Post

Cut scores are selected points on the score scale of a test. The points are used to determine whether a particular test score is sufficient for some purpose.   Notice the word "selected." Cut scores are selected based on criteria that the selectors decide have some meaning. Unfortunately, it is often the case that the criteria have no real validity in revealing student achievement, which is the supposed mission of the test - and that means the scores have no meaning either.

  

By Catilin Dickson in the Daily Beast 
The Common Core Standards Initiative has been hotly debated since it was first introduced in 2009. But a new report by the Southern Poverty Law Center shows that conservatives are pushing a radical fact-free agenda that aims to destroy public education as a whole.

There are plenty of rational arguments for why the Common Core State Standards Initiative is not the solution to reforming public education in the United States.

 

  

Corporate reformers love tests.  on Mercedes Schneider's EduBlog

Duncan Flunks the "State led" Test with His Indiana NCLB It seems that now, the test is on them.   Is the federal government usurping state authority over public education?  Consider the protestations that the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) are not a federal mandate, as noted on the corestandards.org website:

Fact: The Common Core is a state-led effort that is not part of No Child Left Behind or any other federal initiative. ... State adoption of the standards is in no way mandatory. ...This work is being driven by the needs of the states, not the federal government.

  

 

"[American children are] not being educated for the - for technology society," Melinda Gates explained to the PBS NewsHour, clearly stating the problem. And since Melinda is married to a billionaire technician, and since their foundation has funded the NewsHour, she too believes she has exclusive access to The Answer for fixing our "fundamentally broken" school system. This Answer is that our school system needs to be updated to a market-based, competitive, technologically oriented system, much like the rest of the 21st century industries. This means more charter schools, more testing, more technology but fewer humans, less job security and no unions to organize the remaining human workers (like the rest of the economy).  

  



  
 Click here to view the League's Flipboard magazine.  The "Cornerstone" is a collection of research and editorials about public education.  
 
The HML Notes -Spring 2014 Edition, click here to download

All of the past issues of the HML Posts are available for view and search purposes at 
 

http://www.hmleague.org/hml-weekly-blog/

  

See these and other related articles in the "Cornerstone" Internet magazine.

 

 


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: Gary Marx, President, Center for Public Outreach, Vienna, VA
President-elect: Charles Fowler, Exec. Director, Suburban School Admin. Exter, HN
Vice President: Christine  Johns-Haines, Superintendent, Utica Community Schools, MI
1st Past President: Joe Hairston, President, Vision Unlimited, Reisterstown, MD
2nd Past President: Mark Edwards, Superintendent, Mooresville Graded Schools, NC

Directors:
Laurie Barron, Supt. of Schools, Evergreen School District, Kalispell , MT
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
James Harvey, Exec. Dir., Superintendents Roundtable, WA
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
Kevin Maxwell, CEO, Prince George's County Schools, Upper Marlboro, MD
Stan Olson, Director, Silverback Learning, Boise, ID
Steven Webb, Supt. of Schools, Vancouver School District, WA

 

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.