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Welcome to the April 13th edition of the HML POST
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Suggested editorials and related research are always welcomed.
 
Four in 10 new teachers quit within a year on the Guardian (USA Edition) site

   Teachers union launches scathing attack on government's education policy, which has tripled the exodus of newly qualified teachers. 

Almost four out of 10 teachers quit within a year of qualifying, with 11,000 leaving the profession before they have really begun their career and record numbers of those who remain giving up mid-career, according to analysis of government figures. 

The exodus of new recruits has almost tripled in six years, resulting in a crisis in teacher supply in a profession that has become "incompatible with normal life". 

Denouncing the government's record on schools, she said the education system was "being run on a wing and a prayer", with teachers exhausted, stressed and burnt out in a profession that was being "monitored to within an inch of its life".

 

Ohio State Board Member Criticizes Obsession with Testing    by Diane Ravitch on the Ravitch blog

    Retired Judge A. J. Wagner, member of the State Board of Education, shared his views in a letter to Senator Peggy Lehner, chair of the Senate Education Committee and the members of an ad hoc committee she appointed to examine issues regarding the current testing debacle. His views are worthy of a read.

 

Dear Senator Lehner and Members of the Committee:

I am writing to you to share my opinion which is formed by the February 2015 Policy Memo from the National Education Policy Center on "Reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act: Time to Move Beyond Test-focused Policies." I urge you to carefully consider the analyses and recommendations in this Memo.

A compelling body of research exists about the problems with test-focused reforms, as described in the Memo. (available online at http://nepc.colorado.edu/publication/esea). Key concerns include:

 

America Is Criminalizing Black Teachers: Atlanta's Cheating Scandal and the Racist Underbelly of Education Reform  by Brittney Cooper on the Salon.Com site 

  Scapegoating black teachers for failing in a system that is designed for black children, in particular, not to succeed is the real corruption here. Since the early 1990s, we have watched the deprofessionalization of teaching, achieved through the proliferation of "teacher fellow" programs and the massive conservative-led effort to defund public education in major urban areas throughout the country. There is no longer a consensus that a good public education - a hallmark of American democracy - should be considered a public good. 


Three rules to spark learning by Ramsey Musallam on Ted Talks (Video
Ramsey Musallam: 3 rules to spark learning
  It took a life-threatening condition to jolt chemistry teacher Ramsey Musallam out of ten years of "pseudo-teaching" to understand the true role of the educator: to cultivate curiosity. In a fun and personal talk, Musallam gives 3 rules to spark imagination and learning, and get students excited about how the world works.





Race to the Top: A Metaphor Reconsidered by Arnold Dodge on the Huffington Post site

Race to the Top? C'mon. 

The phenomena of racing and reaching the top couldn't possibly have been the goals set for children's education. Anyone who knows anything about the fragile, unpredictable, erratic, self-conscious development of a youngster couldn't possibly have come up with such a name. 

But, let's pause to reconsider the possibilities. Maybe critics of the feds should take a minute to do a close read of the name and give the planners a break. Maybe they had something else in mind. Let's try a thought experiment.

What if the federal education bureaucrats were dog whistling to the rich folks to get them on board with the initiative?


 

Is it a student's civil right to take a federally mandated standardized test?  by Lyndsey Layton on the Washington Post site

  The nation's major civil rights groups say that federally required testing - in place for a decade through existing law - is a tool to force fairness in public schools by aiming a spotlight at the stark differences in scores between poor, minority students and their more affluent counterparts.

And they are fighting legislative efforts to scale back testing as lawmakers on Capitol Hill rewrite the nation's main federal education law, known as No Child Left Behind.

"Removing the requirement for annual testing would be a devastating step backward, for it is very hard to make sure our education system is serving every child well when we don't have reliable, comparable achievement data on every child every year," Kati Haycock, president of the Education Trust, said in recent testimony before the Senate education panel. Her group joined 20 civil rights organizations to lobby Congress to keep the requirement to test all children each year in math and �reading.


 


 Charter Schools, Politics, and Democracy (Part 2) by Larry Cuban on the Cuban site

  Deborah Meier offered her views on the purposes of publicly-funded charter schools in Part 1. Part 2 offers views of others who have supported and opposed charters over the past decade. Before offering their views, however, I would like to frame the overall back-and-forth on charters historically-a debate that has been ongoing since their origin in Minnesota in 1991 but stretches back to the beginnings of compulsory, tax-supported public schooling.

 

Teachers Push Back on Criticism of Their Profession  by Jordan Moeny  on the EDWeeks site 

  Nancie Atwell, the revered educator who recently won the $1 million Global Teacher Prize, sparked a firestorm last month she said that she would discourage "smart, creative" young people from becoming public school teachers today.  Atwell said that the profession had become too "constrained" by the implementation of the Common Core State Standards and schools' emphasis on standardized tests.  The comments on our original post on the story included voices on both sides of the debate--though our informal poll on the matter came out strongly against recommending teaching to young people.

  

The Every Child Achieves Act of 2015 Source: the National School Boards Association
  Lets states develop accountability systems - The bill ends the federal test-based accountability system of No Child Left Behind, restoring to states the responsibility for determining how to use federally required tests for accountability purposes. States must include these tests in their accountability systems, but will be able to determine the weight of those tests in their systems. States will also be required to include graduation rates, one measure of postsecondary education or workforce readiness, and English proficiency for English learners. States will also be permitted to include other measures of student and school performance in their accountability systems in order to provide teachers, parents, and other stakeholders with a more accurate determination of school performance.


 How the Obamas opted their children out of high-stakes standardized tests  

by Valerie Strauss on the Washington Post site 

   Thousands of public school parents around the country are opting their children out of taking high-stakes standardized tests this spring, tired of the emphasis on high-stakes testing and concerned about the validity of the assessments aligned to the Common Core State Standards or similar standards. A growing number of principals and superintendents are supporting parents in this decision, though pushback is getting strongerfrom others. But, says educator Alan Singer, there is another way to opt out your child from standardized testing - send them, if you can afford it, to a private school that doesn't give them. 



Ken Robinson: How to escape education's death valley
  Sir Ken Robinson outlines 3 principles crucial for the human mind to flourish -- and how current education culture works against them. In a funny, stirring talk he tells us how to get out of the educational "death valley" we now face, and how to nurture our youngest generations with a climate of possibility.






"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


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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: Dr. Charles Fowler, Exec. Director, Suburban School Administrators, Exeter, HN
President-elect: Dr. Christine  Johns-Haines, Superintendent, Utica Community Schools, MI
Vice President: Dr. Martha Bruckner, Superintendent, Council Bluffs Community Schools, IA
1st Past President: Mr. Gary  Marx, President for Public Outreach, Vienna, VA
2nd Past President: Dr. Joe Hairston, President, Vision Unlimited, Reisterstown, MD

Directors:
Dr. Laurie Barron, Supt. of Schools, Evergreen School District, Kalispell , MT
Dr. Evelyn Blose-Holman, (ret.) Superintendent, Bay Shore Schools, NY
Mr. Jeffery Charbonneau, Science Coordinator, ESD 105 and Zillah HS, WA
Dr. Carol Choye, Instructor, (ret.) Superintendent, Scotch Plains Schools, NJ
Dr. Brent Clark, Executive Director, Illinois Assoc. of School Admin. IL
Dr. Linda Darling Hammond, Professor of Education, Stanford U. CA
Dr. James Harvey, Exec. Dir., Superintendents Roundtable, WA
Dr. Eric King, Superintendent, (ret.) Muncie Public Schools, IN
Dr. Steven Ladd, Superintendent, (ret.) Elk Grove Unified School District, Elk Grove, CA 
Dr. Barry Lynn, Exec. Dir., Americans United, Washington, DC
Dr. Kevin Maxwell, CEO, Prince George's County Schools, Upper Marlboro, MD
Dr. Stan Olson, President, Silverback Learning, (former supt. of Boise Schools, ID)
Dr. Steven Webb, Supt. of Schools, Vancouver School District, WA

Executive Director:
Dr. 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.