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Greetings!
Welcome to the November 10th edition of the HML POST
The HML website, Click here. The HML Flipboard magazine, Click here. The HML Pinterest Board. Click here.Past issues of the HML Post, Click here. |
 The school finance reforms (SFRs) that began in the early 1970s and accelerated in the 1980s caused some of the most dramatic changes in the structure of K-12 education spending in U.S. history. We analyze the effects of these reforms on the level and distribution of school district spending, as well as their effects on subsequent educational and economic outcomes.
Walk a mile in my teaching shoes by Greata Callahan in the Minneapolis Star Tribune
 I am a teacher at Minneapolis' poorest school: Bethune Elementary. We were mentioned in the article. Here is my side of the story - the side of hundreds of dedicated educators who take their jobs as seriously as any professionals on Earth.
Let's start with what it means to be a "good teacher." As the article says: "The district uses three different tools to evaluate teachers: classroom observations, a student survey and student achievement data." Let's put that into the perspective of a Bethune kindergarten teacher.
Urban School Superintendents: Characteristics, Tenure, and Salary by Council of Great City Schools on the Urban Indicator
 | | Larry Nyland, Seattle |
The Council of the Great City Schools surveyed its member districts in the winter of 2014 to determine the characteristics of big city school superintendents for the 2013-2014 school year. This report presents the results of that survey. Surveys were sent to superintendents and their assistants using an online survey tool. The surveys were sent out in January 2014 with reminders by email and phone in February, March and April. Respondents were asked to provide information on the gender, race/ethnicity, salary, benefits, bonuses, and previous work experience of their district's superintendent.
President Obama Destroyed His Educator Base by Edward Berger on the Berger blog  The Obama administration, and especially Arne Duncan, dealt a blow to educators, parents and educated citizens when they sided with corporations like Pearson, and those who believe a punishing blow to teachers and public community schools will improve American education.
STORY OF A DROPOUT A report from The Education Trust follows the true  story of a student named Cornelius, from the day he started kindergarten to the day he dropped out of school. He went from learning to love reading as a child to feeling alienated in high school, struggling to complete his work and receiving out-of-school suspensions. Teachers called him "emotionally disturbed." The report attempts to show why low-income male students and male students of color drop out of school at disproportionately high rates. Accompanying the report is a discussion and resource guide for educators to help marginalized students stay in school.
Bob Herbert's new book "Losing Our Way: An Intimate Portrait of a Troubled America" A review by Diane Ravitch on the Ravitch blog
 This book is one of the most important, most compelling books that I have read in many years. For those of us who have felt that something has gone seriously wrong in our country, Herbert connects the dots. He provides a carefully documented, well-written account of what went wrong and why. As he pulls together a sweeping narrative, he weaves it through the personal accounts of individuals whose stories are emblematic and heartbreaking.
Common Core Betrays the Civil Rights Movement
 Given the power of its symbolism, many individuals and entities have attempted to appropriate the legacy of the civil rights movement for their own purposes. In 2010, for instance, conservative talk show host Glenn Beck led a march on Washington to restore what he professed was the distorted history of the movement. While Beck's tenuous appeal to the movement's heritage might be dismissed, the danger of misappropriation of its core values of justice and equality are greater when the person or group doing the usurping can legitimately lay a claim to that legacy.
The Myth of Chinese Super Schools by Diane Ravitch in the New York Times Book Review section
Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Dragon? Why China Has the Best (and Worst) Education System in the World by Yong Zhao
 Duncan, President Obama, and legislators looked longingly at Shanghai's stellar results and wondered why American students could not surpass them. Why can't we be like the Chinese?, they wondered. Why should we be number twenty-nine in the world in mathematics when Shanghai is number one? Why are our scores below those of Estonia, Poland, Ireland, and so many other nations? Duncan was sure that the scores on international tests were proof that we were falling behind the rest of the world and that they predicted economic disaster for the United States. What Duncan could not admit was that, after a dozen years, the Bush-Obama strategy of testing and punishing teachers and schools had failed.
 Some of you may be aware that the American Federation of Teachers is trying to organize teachers in Cleveland. The organizers are claiming the ICAN school it is trying to organize (University of Cleveland Preparatory School) pursued unfair labor practices. And on Thursday, the National Labor Relations Board agreed with the union when it filed a complaint against ICAN and set a Jan. 20, 2015 hearing on the matter.
But perhaps even more groundbreaking than even that complaint filing was this: In the 17-page complaint, the NLRB claimed that the charter schools run by ICAN were "employers" for the purposes of their jurisdiction. What's that mean? It means they are private employers, not public ones.
Separation of Church and State -- Part I by Frank Breslin opn the Huffington Post blog
 We have a long tradition in America of the Separation of Church and State that prohibits government's promotion of religion, on the one hand, and interference with its free exercise, on the other. In their refusal to establish a state church or to favor one religion over another, the Founding Fathers did not think that religion was bad, but that there was something amiss in human nature, a certain tendency, a will to power, a lust for domination, that always bore watching.
 Seventeen years and a host of education reforms separate public declarations by its highest-ranking officials that the nation's largest labor union should become a leader of education reform. Children who were just entering the public school system when National Education Association (NEA) president Bob Chase addressed the National Press Club in 1997 are adults now, perhaps with children of their own. NEA executive director John Stocks issued the same call to arms in 2014.
Tracing Successful Online Teaching in Higher Education: Voices of Exemplary Online Teachers by Evrim Baran, Ana-Paula Correia & Ann Thompson in the Teachers College Record
 The findings of this study indicated that when teachers described their successful practices, they often linked them to their changing roles and new representation of their "selves" within an online environment. Their portrayal of the teacher self, both built on a plethora of previous experiences and reformed with the affordances and limitations of the online environment, went through a process whereby teachers were constantly challenged to make themselves heard, known, and felt by their students. This study showed that it was critical to listen to teachers' voices and give them a participatory role in the creation and use of their knowledge and experience in order to form their online teacher personas. As a result, programs that prepare faculty to teach online may need to encourage teachers to reflect on their past experiences, assumptions, and beliefs toward learning and teaching and transform their perspectives by engaging in pedagogical inquiry and problem solving.
(video)Dawn is breaking. Teachers around the world begin their day being parents, partners, energetically charged, ignoring how the coming day will be.
Parents Are Responsible for Teaching Children Kindness - Even If It Ruins the Fun by Rebecca Carroll on the AlterNet blog
 Parents understand that life is a constant barrage of "why" questions -Why can't I have four cupcakes? and Why does that man on our block always call me "Papi"?As our kids get older, it's also a relentless string of comparisons between what they know that we were allowed to do when we were their age, and what they are not allowed to do now that we are the adults. In these moments, it can be difficult to decide when to give them straight answers and when to massage the truth a little.
ALEC "Report Card" Recycles Bogus School Quality and Improvement Claims by William J. Mathis and Christopher Lubienski on the National Education Policy Center at the University of Colorado
 Repeating the previous year's approach, ALEC assigns its grades based on states' policies regarding their support for ALEC-favored policies such as charter schools, vouchers and digital learning. The reports claim to be "research based," but the criteria are ideologically driven free-market beliefs. Defying settled science, they conclude that money doesn't matter, and the difference between high- and low-performing states is school choice.
 Acts of school violence have been carried out by attackers of all races, ages, disciplinary histories, and family backgrounds. And, though perpetrators are typically male, women have also played roles in mass attacks, experts on such incidents say. In the events analyzed, attackers fell all along the social spectrum, from popular students to "loners," the Secret Service report said.
While the agency didn't find common demographic threads, it did note some psychological trends among attackers: Many "felt bullied, persecuted, or injured by others prior to the attack," many had a history of suicide attempts or feelings of depression or desperation, and most had no history of criminal behavior.
And, in 31 of the 37 events studied by the Secret Service, shooters told at least one person about their plans beforehand, the report said. Threat-assessment experts say that such "leakage" is common, and that attackers often leave more subtle clues that they are distressed, even if they don't explicitly detail their plans in conversations.
 Check out our picks for the Top 10 Worst Cities for Education-or, perhaps better, the Top 10 Cities with Room to Improve in Education. Our criteria included test scores, parent/community reviews and the percentages of residents with less than a high school diploma.
Reprinted with Permission
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Note to HML Members: The HML Post is membership benefit, however you can share future HML Post editions with a colleague. (We hope that your colleague will find the information worthwhile and join the League.) Before sending the email address of the colleague, check to make sure that he or she is agreeable to receiving the HML Post each week. Send the name and email to jmckay@hmleague.org. Thanks.
The Greatest Discovery print
The 11 * 18 inch print is available for individual or bulk purchase. Individual prints are $4.00. Discount with orders of 50 or more.
For additional information about this or other prints, please check here.
 In 1840 Mann wrote On the Art of Teaching. Some of HML members present On the Art of Teaching to new teachers as part of their orientation program. On the inside cover, some write a personal welcome message to the recipient. Other HML members present the book to school board members and parental organizations as a token of appreciation for becoming involved in their schools. The book cover can be designed with the organization's name. For more information, contact the HML ( Jack McKay)
The Horace Mann League website (click here) contains information about the League's projects, activities, past events, galleries, publications, and much more.
All of the past issues of the HML Posts are available for review and search purposes.
Finally, 6 links that may be of interest to you.
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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.
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