|
Greetings!
Welcome to the DECEMBER 15th edition of the HML POST
The HML website, Click here. The HML Flipboard magazine, Click here. The HML Pinterest Board. Click here.Archived issues of the HML Post, Click here. |
|
|
 | | Gene Carter |
 | | Pedro Noguera |
The 95th Annual Meeting of the Horace Mann League will be held in conjunction with AASA's National Con ference on Education, in San Diego, on Friday, February 27, 2014, at the San Diego Marriott Hotel and Marina.
Recipients of the League's major awards are Dr. Gene Carter, Emeritus Executive Director of ASCD and former public school leader along with Dr. Pedro Noguera, Professor at New York University and internationally recognized scholar on school improvement and student achievement. Click here for registration information.
 Many students will avoid enrolling in free SAT prep if the sign-up offer is public. Nearly everybody who went to secondary school remembers being peer-pressured into something-pranks, parties, or cutting class. It's a time when people tend to be most insecure and conscious of what others think of them. That spills over into decisions about the future: Some students make poor decisions about their education because they're worried about how their peers will perceive them.
Public education is being taken over by free-market ideologues, private investors and large education corporations for private gain right under our noses. It's happening all over the country and at the expense of all American public school kids.
8 Educational Gifts for Your Kids This Holiday Season
 If you're at all like me, each December brings the unique challenge of trying to offer the children in your life presents that do more than flash lights in their faces and then gather dust within minutes of being opened. I am always on the hunt for fun, truly educational toys that will stand the test of time, and luckily, in my five-plus years of parenting, I've come across a few that really fit the bill. So I decided to compile a list of some "must-give" educational toys for those who, like me, are always happy to have a few helpful hints in this arena.
When Charter Schools Are Nonprofit in Name Only by Marian Wang of ProPublica on the TruthOut website
 Some charters pass along nearly all their money to for-profit companies hired to manage the schools. It's an arrangement that's raising eyebrows.
A couple of years ago, auditors looked at the books of a charter school in Buffalo, New York, and were taken aback by what they found. Like all charter schools, Buffalo United Charter School is funded with taxpayer dollars. The school is also a nonprofit. But as the New York State auditors wrote, Buffalo United was sending " virtually all of the School's revenues" directly to a for-profit company hired to handle its day-to-day operations.
 This animated feature on school privatization stars little Timmy, a kindergartner who likes his public school. Timmy gets a confusing lesson in corporate education reform, starting with the rightwing mantra "Public Schools have failed." (a two-minute video)
When Bad Things Happen to Good Schools: How to Build Trust in Tough Times by Naomi Hunter on the NSPRA website
 Imagine this scenario...It's a Saturday afternoon. Your superintendent is in bed with the flu, and the deputy superintendent is at a family member's memorial service. Your phone rings, and the news is bad - a preschool special education teacher has been taken into custody for alleged physical abuse of autistic students. The story is already breaking in the local online newspaper, and TV crews are on the way. Each situation presented its own unique communication challenges, but we've learned some general principles that helped us build trust at times when it felt like our district's reputation was at stake.
Free Market Doesn't Work in Education by Stephen Dyer on the 10th Period website
 How only in Cleveland does it appear that Ohio's charter school sector is providing meaningful, positive benefits to kids. Or how CREDO's methodology works (averaging kids in traditional public school buildings and comparing these "virtual" kids' performance with real charter kids). Or how Ohio's charter school sector has been making very minimal improvements over the years. Or that the state's charter reform initiatives over the last few years haven't had much impact on charter school performance. Or that Cleveland charters are doing a good job educating poor, minority kids. Or that 93% of Ohio charter schools' proficiency scores are below the 50th percentile in the state. Or that 44% of charter school kids are seeing low growth and performance.
FairTest provides these weekly summaries of news clips and other resources as a tool to build the national assessment reform movement. We encourage parents, educators, students, administrators, community organizers, researchers and other allies to draw on the positive initiatives described in these links as models for their own local campaigns.
Strength in numbers
 Just what is the innate nature of humans is a question that wrestles many a mind. At one end of the spectrum, the self-interested survivor - competitive, egotistical, deadly if necessary. On the other side, the altruistic pack member - selfless and spirited by a sense of community and civil rights.
I'm not about to attempt what centuries of far more intelligent people than I have failed to do, and answer this riddle unequivocally. The truth is, I have no idea. But I do know that, if you look back over history, there are plenty of examples of group effort producing stunning progress.
 Smartphones, iPads, TVs, computers, videogames. Technology is omnipresent, especially for young students. They just can't get enough; one 2013 study found that college students check their digital devices for non-class purposes 11 times per day on average, and 80 percent of them admitted that the technology was distracting them from class. This has some educators and scientists concerned: Are students distracted because their brains are hard-wired for it after a lifetime of screens? Is there a cultural or behavioral element to the fixation that has infiltrated the classroom?
 Seven major trends have the potential to reshape government - in many cases from the outside - and transform the public sector.
In the United States and elsewhere, trust in government is at an all-time low, citizen expectations are rising, and government finances are under stress. The result: the gap between citizen expectations and government's ability to meet them has never been greater. Book after book, study after study-from both the right and the left-argue that our current industrial age model of government needs to change radically.
But how? What are the main features of a government better suited for our times? What forces will most significantly change government, and which of them have the greatest potential to make a positive difference?
What's Ahead for Education Budgets Under the New Congress? An interview with Jack Jennings on the AASA Network
 An interview Jack Jennings about the U.S. Congress and the impact on public education. Mr. Jennings was the CEO and President until he retired in 2012. According to a poll of national leaders conducted by Education Week, that Center was one of the ten most influential organizations affecting school policy in the United States. Jack Jennings received the League's "Outstanding Friend of Public Education" award in 2012.
 Just months after it opened, First Place Scholars, the first charter school in Washington state, is in turmoil.
Its first principal resigned in November, more than half of its original board of directors have left, too, and the state's charter-school commission has identified more than a dozen potential problems that need to be fixed soon if the school wants to keep its doors open.
Among them: hiring a qualified special-education teacher for the roughly two dozen students who need those services, and completing background checks on some of its nonteaching staff.
 Powerful 'Lockdown' PSA Marks a Grim Statistic: Nearly 100 School Shootings Since Newtown The new reality in American classrooms. Classroom lockdown drills-at my first grader's school and every other school in America-have become the norm since the tragedy at Newtown, two years ago this Sunday. The powerfully sad PSA below from Grey Toronto, unveiled today, takes place during just such a lockdown-and highlights a depressing statistic: There have been nearly 100 school shootings since Newtown, yet there has been almost no movement on gun control.
 In fall 2014, overall postsecondary enrollments decreased 1.3 percent from the previous fall. In fall 2014, enrollments decreased among two-year public institutions (-6.0 percent) and four-year for-profit institutions (-0.4 percent). Enrollments increased among four-year public institutions (+2.2 percent) and four-year private non-profit institutions (+1.6 percent). It should be noted, however, that part of the decrease in two-year public enrollments is due to institutions being reclassified in IPEDS as four-year institutions. Without these reclassifications, two-year public enrollments would have decreased by 3.4 percent and the growth in four-year public enrollments would have been 0.4 percent. Taken as a whole, public sector enrollments declined by 1.5 percent this fall.
------------
-------------
Horace Mann Prints 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.
|
|
|
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.
|
|
|
|
|
A handful of large school districts are aggressively pushing big publishers and other providers of digital content to overhaul the way they deliver instructional materials, a movement that experts say could upend long-established purchasing patterns and help educators more easily access materials from multiple vendors. 
Over the past two decades, accountability pressures have intensified and contributed to drastic changes in district and school leaders' roles and responsibilities. Researchers, reformers, and practitioners grapple with the shifting policy environment and its influences on leadership. The editors of School and District Leadership in an Era of Accountability have assembled current research on "successful school and district leadership during the accountability era from multiple perspectives". This research is clearly organized into themes by the editors and includes discussions relevant to multiple stakeholders in the field of education.
Americans seem confident in the mythical notion that the United States is a free nation dedicated to reproducing the principles of equality, justice and democracy. What has been ignored in this delusional view is the growing rise of an expanded national security state since 2001 and an attack on individual rights that suggests that the United States has more in common with authoritarian regimes like China and Iran "than anyone may like to admit." I want to address this seemingly untenable notion that the United States has become a breeding ground for authoritarianism by focusing on four fundamentalisms: market fundamentalism, religious fundamentalism, educational fundamentalism and military fundamentalism. This is far from a exhaustive list, but it does raise serious questions about how the claim to democracy in the United States has been severely damaged, if not made impossible.
