The Horace Mann League's 95th Annual Meeting and Luncheon, Friday, February 27, at the Marriott Marquis Hotel in San Diego.  

 Pedro Noguera, The HML Outstanding Friend of Public Education Award.    Dr. Noguera's more than 200 research and scholarly articles and publications address topics such as urban school reform, education policy, conditions that promote student achievement,  education and community development, youth violence, and race and ethnic relations.

  Gene Carter, HML Outstanding Public Educator Award.  

Gene Carter, who served as executive director and CEO of ASCD, retired in June 2014, after 22 years.  Prior to joining ASCD, Dr. Carter was superintendent in Norfolk, Va., for nine years.  During that time, he was selected as the first National Superintendent of the Year.
 

   Mark Edwards, Friend of the HML Award.  Mark Edwards is the AASA Superintendent of the Year, and the recent Past President of the Horace Mann League.  He is currently the superintendent of the Mooresville Graded Schools in North Carolina.  His second book, Thank You for Your Leadership: The Power of Distributed Leadership in a Digital Conversion Model, is featured at the AASA Bookstore.   

  Click here for registration form.  Please register on or before Tuesday, February 24th, so a lunch count can be available for the hotel staff.

5 Psychological Theories of Motivation to Increase Productivity on the Plush site

  We all want to be more productive but getting motivated enough to actually get things done can seem impossible.   Social scientists have been studying motivation for decades, trying to find out what motivates our behavior, how and why.   Dozens of theories of motivation have been proposed over the years. Here are 5 popular theories of motivation that can help you increase workplace productivity...

Washington Bill Would Let College Adjuncts Qualify as Substitute Teachers  by Peter Schmidt on the Chronicle of Higher Education site

 pending in Washington State's Senate would clear the way for experienced adjunct faculty members at colleges to be certified as substitute teachers in public schools.

The measure, introduced on Thursday, calls for the state's Professional Educator Standards Board to provide for the issuance of substitute-teacher certificates to adjunct instructors, whether or not such faculty members have completed teacher-preparation programs or hold regular teaching certificates. To qualify for the substitute-teacher certificates, the adjuncts would need to have at least a master's degree from a regionally accredited higher-education institution and three or more years of demonstrated success teaching. They also would need to meet existing requirements for teachers regarding personal fitness and moral character.

  Every day we hear stories about the troubles in American education: our test scores are stagnant, we're falling behind our international peers, and our schools are failing to prepare future generations to succeed in the 21st century. For the last decade, this story - and the fear it inspires - has shaped the way we talk about our education system and informed our national education policies.

More pressure. More assessments. More of the same.   But what if the efforts we've been pushing so hard in our schools are actually the things that are leaving our education system worse off? What if the initiatives that narrow, standardize and pressure our school environments, are the reasons our children are less engaged in school and less prepared to be thoughtful, capable, contributing adults?

  Click here to see video 

In Beyond Measure, we set out to challenge the assumptions of our current education story.

Rather than ask why our students fail to measure up, this film asks us all to reconsider the greater purpose of education. What if our education system valued personal growth over test scores? Put inquiry over mimicry? Encouraged passion over rankings? What if we decided that the purpose of school was not the transmission of facts or formulas, but the transformation of every student? And what if this paradigm-shift was driven by students, parents, and educators, not politicians and policymakers?

The 6 Major Barriers Standing in the Way of Educational Changeby David Nagel on the Campus Technology site 

  An anti-testing backlash has emerged among parents demanding changes to the No Child Left Behind Act, and education researchers have pointed to evidence-based ways forward.   Yet, as a new National Education Policy Center Policy Memo published today points out, the mistakes in NCLB are still being repeated, and lawmakers' discussions in Washington, D.C., surrounding reauthorization of the law are failing to adjust course.   NCLB was "an ineffective solution to some very real problems," according to the new NEPC Policy Memo. The memo, Reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act: Time to Move Beyond Test-Focused Policies, discusses the broad research consensus that standardized tests are ineffective and even counterproductive when used to drive educational reform. 

   Debate about the purposes of education never seems to end.  Should young people become educated to get prepared to enter the workforce, or should the purpose of education be focused more on social, academic, cultural and intellectual development so that students can grow up to be engaged citizens?

Over the last 50 years, anxiety about competition with the Soviet Union, Japan, and China for global economic, military and political dominance have supported periodic calls for more effective workforce development. Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker recently tried to change the mission statement of the University of Wisconsin to focus exclusively on workforce development. With each new workforce development or economic competitiveness demand on our K-12 schools, there has been push-back from those who want greater emphasis on a broader view of education.   But it doesn't have to be either-or.  Education should prepare young people for life, work and citizenship.

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