The HML Post 
 
 
 
Welcome to the May 19th edition of the HML POST

 

The main HML website, click here.
Check out HML's Cornerstone on "FLIPBOARD."   (The public schools are the "Cornerstone" of our democracy.)
 

Wall Street & California's Student Debt Crisis  by Charlie Eaton and Brian Stewart, in the Center On Culture, Organizations and Politics, UC Berkley.

This brief shows large student loan debt increases in California since the 2004-05 school year. Further, we show that the whole public higher education sector - not just students - is paying more than ever to Wall Street. By the academic year ending in 2009-10, California's public colleges and universities were spending more than $1 billion a year on interest alone for bonds and institutional borrowing. 

 
This is the BASIS Sales Pitch    by Gene Glass on the Diane Ravitch blog. 

Ever Hear a BASIS Schools Sales Pitch?  The Basis charter schools - some ten schools in Arizona and a couple more in places like San Antonio and Washington, DC - have long been a fascinating subject for this blog and others.   US News & World Report continues to rank schools like Basis Scottsdale and Basis Tucson in the top ten high schools in the nation. This happens in spite of the fact that the schools' practices result in thinning elementary and middle school classes down from a hundred to a couple dozen by graduation from grade 12. Is this the best education in the country or the worst journalism, I ask you,US News?

  
 

Gary Marx presents individual chapters about an array of massive trends that have profound implications for everyone.  The first trend is about the changing "Demographic Sphere."

 Generations:  Millennials will insist on solutions to accumulated problems and injustices and will profoundly impact leadership and lifestyles.

Diversity:  In a series of tipping points, majorities will become minorities, creating ongoing challenges for social cohesion.   Worldwide, a growing numbers of people and nations will discover that if we manage our diversity well, it will enrich us.  If we don't manage our diversity well, it will divide us.  Aging:  In developed nations, the old will generally outnumber the young.  In developing or less-developed nations, the young will generally outnumber the old.

  



The 2011 results of the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) and the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) propelled some scholars to call for new educational reforms to improve U.S. students' score rankings. However, few seem to have noticed that U.S. students indeed ranked first on one measure: Sleepiness. U.S. students were reported to have the highest percentage of sleepiness in classrooms among all participating countries in TIMSS and PIRLS. Surprisingly, the prevalent sleep deprivation in U.S. students has largely been overlooked by educational researchers and policy makers. 
 
 
Do you ever feel as though reading one more word about our failed and failing public schools will cause your head to pop off of its very brain stem and spin wildly in the air before reattaching itself at an angle most askew? That is what is known as a medical condition, reader, which is why I am prescribing for you an immediate treatment course consisting of a winebox, bed rest and a change of scenery. Today's topic: health care-specifically the Obama administration's brilliant new policy of rewarding the excellence of doctors and hospitals through an innovative approach called *pay for performance.* What could possibly go wrong?
 
Don't Call Them Dropouts: Understanding the Experiences of Young People who Leave High School Before Graduation.  A Report from America's Promise Alliance and its Center for Promise at Tufts University
Major Findings:  The Center for Promise research team traveled across the country to investigate these initial research questions:
  • What do young people say about why they leave high school before graduating? 
  • What circumstances surrounded the decision to leave?
  • What were students' lives like when they left school, and what effects did leaving school have on them and their families?
  • Why do young people say they come back to school?
  • What opportunities do young people have to re-engage after leaving school, and what barriers do they encounter along the way?
It's Time for a New Accountability in American Education   by Linda Darling Hammond and Randi Weingarten on the Huffington Post blog. 
Voices across the country are raising concerns about the new Common Core State Standards. But if you listen carefully to the conversations, the main concern is not about the standards, themselves, but about the consequences of high-stakes tests attached to the standards. And those concerns are well-founded: Trying to implement ambitious goals for deeper learning through an outmoded testing model tied to a long list of punishments for children, educators, and schools is like pouring new wine into old bottles. It will certainly turn sour.  
 
Myth 8. Want to find the best high schools in America? Ask Newsweek or U.S. News.  by Gene Glass on the Education in Two Worlds blog 
The print media regularly mine gold. Rank anything from best to worst and some market niche is going to spend money to get to the results. The most livable cities in the U.S.? Minot, North Dakota and Dalhart, Texas, rank #1 and #2. Never mind that the criteria are some crazy combination of "Car thefts per 1,000 people" and "Days per year without gale force winds." The citizens of North Dakota and the Texas panhandle will fall over themselves to buy the magazine and the local newspapers will feature the good news. 
 
 
 
The American Statistical Association, the largest organization in the United States representing statisticians and related professionals, said in an April report that value-added scores "do not directly measure potential teacher contributions toward other student outcomes" and that they "typically measure correlation, not causation," noting that "effects - positive or negative - attributed to a teacher may actually be caused by other factors that are not captured in the model." This month, two researchers reported that they had found little or no correlation between quality teaching and the appraisals that teachers received using VAM. 

  

 
 
 
Articles receiving the most hits from previous HML Postings
Six Charter School Myths   by Leonie Haimson 
   
 

 More on the

 
  
 
The Horace Mann League website (click here) contains information about the League's projects, activities, past events, galleries, publications, and much more.
 
 
 
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.

 

 

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.