Welcome to the February 9th edition of the POST and Happy New Year
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 Relationships Matter: Putting It All Together  by Esther Quintero on the Shaker blog  (Excellent video)
Social Side of Education
Social Side of Education
  If there is one take away about the social side approach, it is the idea that relationships matter in education. Teaching and learning are not solo but rather social endeavors and, as such, they are best achieved by working together. The social side perspective: (1) shifts the focus from the individual to the broader context in which individuals operate; (2) highlights the importance of interdependencies at all levels of the system - e.g., among teachers within a school, leaders across a district, schools and the community; and (3) recognizes that crucial resources (e.g., information, advice, support) are exchanged through interpersonal relationships.

When schools close for the day, poor families are thrown into chaos. Low-wage hourly workers have far fewer snow day options than their salaried middle-class professional counterparts. Most low-wage employers do not provide family leave days. If you take a day off to care for your kids when schools are closed, in the best case scenario, you'll lose a day's wage. Again, the poorer you are, the less of an option this is. For a privileged family, that 5am school closing phone call might mean game day or family fun, but for many Buffalo families, it's a dreaded wake-up call, forcing parents to make painful and impossible decisions.

on the Education in Two Worlds blog by Gene Glass

  Most of my professional energy over the last fifty years has been devoted to attacking educational tyranny. There is a pattern in this form of tyranny.

First, a crisis is manufactured. The nation is at risk. The sky is falling. None of this is innocent; there are interests pushing crisis - those who will profit from it either by gaining bureaucratic power or commercial profit. Next, the situation is grossly oversimplified. We are committing educational suicide because our test scores are falling. (In the education case, the data were simply misinterpreted - our always low test scores were actually rising). So we fall into simplistic thinking where a single criterion variable is substituted for a balanced picture about what education should achieve.


 

Charter Cap n Gown II: The College Years   on the Edushyster blog

  The report compared members of the respective classes of 2007 from the city's high schools and five of our local academies of excellence.Fifty percent of the BPS students had scored a college degree within six years vs. 42% of their charter peers. Now I know what you're thinking. That equals a difference of eight percent, and eight rhymes with *hate* and also *overstate.* Which is why it's time to look at the numbers behind those numbers. The 2007 class of Boston high school grads consisted of 1700 students, of whom some 850 have now attained their post-secondary attainment. The 2007 class of Boston charter high school grads, from a total of five charter high schools, consisted of 80 students, of whom 33 have scored their sheepskin. 


 

In Defense of Annual School Testing  by Chad Aldeman  in the New Your Times
  Yes, test quality must be better than it is today. And, yes, teachers and parents have a right to be alarmed when unnecessary tests designed only for school benchmarking or teacher evaluations cut into instructional time. But annual testing has tremendous value. It lets schools follow students' progress closely, and it allows for measurement of how much students learn and grow over time, not just where they are in a single moment.


 

  The current argument is that high-stakes testing may have caused severe damage to students - especially poor children of color - but we can't spend federal dollars without attaching test-driven accountability. Parents are thus being told that their kids are subject to the educational malpractice of test, sort, and punish because school reformers believe that they wouldn't invest in schools unless somebody has to give up a pound of flesh.

If this spin works, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan will soon hold his nose as he promotes the worst of No Child Left Behind, explaining to teachers, students, and parents that imposing his agenda hurts him more than it hurts us.



 

 'Choice' Denying Opportunity?   by Thomas J. Gentzel  on the Learning First Alliance web site

   Last week was National School Choice Week, self-described as "an unprecedented opportunity to shine a spotlight on the need for effective education options for all children."   Ironically, "opportunity" for America's schoolchildren is what National School Choice Week places at risk. The further irony is "choice" can mean public tax dollars siphoned away from community schools to subsidize for-profit ventures. Vouchers, tuition tax credits and charter schools not governed by local school boards create a secondary, profit-driven system of education that strains limited resources and risks re-segregating schools, economically and socially, by admitting only certain, top-performing students.


 

Every now and then results from one international assessment or another come out and the United States inevitably winds up somewhere in the middle.  There is a great hue and cry about what this means for the future of American democracy (nothing good) and public education is blamed (along with good-for-little teachers). The only solution is to speed up the current smorgasbord of school reforms, the irony being that neither they, nor their predecessor reforms, did anything to improve the U.S. ranking on these international tests.
 

 The quieter charter school divide: what you need to know about 'backfill'   by Sarah Darville  on the Chalkbeat website

   One main issue is backfill, or what happens to space vacated by students who leave charter schools. Some schools, seeking to fulfill a larger mission and bolster their finances, fill those spots by calling students off of their waiting lists. Other schools focus on teaching the students who remain, avoiding a potential drop in test scores and the social and academic disruption of adding new students.
 

In the last 100 years, we got very confused about happiness. This is no small thing. The way we define happiness drives what we do, what we're willing to sacrifice, and how we spend our money and our time.


 

Fewer Top Graduates Want to Join Teach for America   by Motoko Rich in the New York Times

  Teach for America, the education powerhouse that has sent thousands of handpicked college graduates to teach in some of the nation's most troubled schools, is suddenly having recruitment problems.   For the second year in a row, applicants for the elite program have dropped, breaking a 15-year growth trend. Applications are down by about 10 percent from a year earlier on college campuses around the country as of the end of last month.   The group, which has sought to transform education in close alignment with the charter school movement, has advised schools that the size of its teacher corps this fall could be down by as much as a quarter and has closed two of its eight national summer training sites, in New York City and Los Angeles.


 

Turn and Face the Strain: Age Demographic Change and the Near Future of American Education by Matthew Ladner  on the Foundation for Excellence website
  The myth that bigger budgets will lead to better public education has been refuted by years of research, yet a state's commitment to quality schools often is measured by how much it spends on them. As detailed in this groundbreaking report by Dr. Matthew Ladner, that approach not only has failed but also is no longer sustainable given the demographic trends facing our nation. The number of Baby Boomers entering retirement has been well documented. As they leave the workforce, their contributions to government revenues will decline while their demands on government expenditures will increase. We tend to focus on the impact this will have on services, entitlement programs and public employee pension funds. 

  The undersigned organizations are concerned that the proposed regulations will not increase access to highly trained and effective teachers for all students, particularly those who are currently taught at disproportionately higher rates by teachers who are untrained, unlicensed or uncertified, out-­-of-­-field, and inexperienced - namely students of color, students with disabilities, English language learners, students in rural areas, and students from low-­-income families. Indeed, the proposed regulations may have the opposite effect. While each individual organization may have a separate list of concerns and recommendations, the specific concerns of the CTQ are listed below:
1.    Alternative route teacher preparation programs should not be held to different standards than traditional route teacher preparation programs regarding rates of teacher employment and retention.
2.    The proposed regulations would have a disproportionate impact on minority-­-serving institutions and high-­-need fields. This would have potentially negative consequences for K-­-12 students in high-­-need fields.
3.    The proposed rule undermines existing laws and ongoing activities to increase equity in education.

"School Performance in Context:  The Iceberg Effect" by James Harvey, Gary Marx, Charles Fowler and Jack McKay.

To download the full or summary report,

Summary Report, Click here

Full Report, click here

To view in an electronic magazine format,

Summary Report, click here.

Full Report, click here



 


 


 

Political Cartoon for the Week


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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.

 

    


 

 

A Gift:  On the Art of Teaching   by Horace Mann

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 the past issues of the HML Posts are available for review and search purposes.
 
Finally, 7 links that may be of interest to you.
Jack's Fishing Expedition in British Columbia - short video

 

 

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.