Welcome to the HML POST
(Editorials and research articles are selected by Jack McKay, Executive director of the HML. Topics are selected to provoke a discussion about the importance of strong public schools.
McKay is Professor Emeritus from the University of Nebraska-Omaha in the Department of Educational Administration and a former superintendent in Washington state.) Feedback is always appreciated.
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The Horace Mann League of the USA Post
A gift for your New Teachers: On the Art of Teaching by Horace Mann. 
The book, On The Art of Teaching by Horace Mann has been presented to new teachers as a welcome gift by a number of schools district.  For orders of 50 or more, the district's name is printed on the front cover.

Ordering Information
Cost per copy: $12.50
Orders of 50 to 99: $11.00
Orders of 100 or more: $10.00
Send orders to:  (include name of district, P.O. #, and address)
The Horace Mann League of the USA
560 Rainier Lane
Port Ludlow, WA 98365
or   email:  Jack McKay
FAX (866) 389 0740

by Alia Wong on the Atlantic Monthly site 
Grownups are hitting the books and taking classes just so they can help their kids with their math homework. 
"It feels like a dark time," wrote the comedian Louis C.K. in a tweet last April. "I'm pissed," he wrote in another, a few minutes later. C.K. was, indeed, very, very angry. And this time, it wasn't his own "yucky" existence that was making him fume. Rather, it was a different kind of "massive stressball" irking him: the Common Core State Standards.
In his now-famous rant, the middle-aged father of two lamented the controversial academic benchmarks and the accompanying onslaught of rigorous testing in New York City's public schools, where his daughters were enrolled. Specifically, C.K. was exasperated by the Common Core's overhaul of math-a subject his kids, he noted, once loved. "Now it makes them cry," he tweeted, posting pictures of his then-third-grade daughter's apparently mind-boggling homework. "Thanks standardized testing and common core!" (Read more)
  
I walked her in that first week of school half thrilled beyond words at the adventure she was embarking on, half scared out of my skin of leaving my 5 year old in the care of another all day long. She shared my mixture of emotions; I could see it on her face. Reluctantly she let go of the leg she was clutching as I said goodbye. That was 2 years ago. We've come so far. 
I left that first year of public school with a wonderful feeling of pleasure and satisfaction. She did it. We did it. She could read and add numbers and she made friends. She played and created and had a blast. It was an incredible experience for us both.  (Read more)
  
This paper illustrates how the media, particularly The LA Times, entered the debate surrounding teacher evaluation, resulting in a storyline that shaped how the public perceives teacher effectiveness. With their series of articles in 2010, The LA Times entered the conversation about the place and value of value-added measurement (VAM), arguing that it is a tool to root out the presumably ineffective teachers. Research examining education policy is often represented by the media in ways that direct the public to take up specific positions and assign responsibility to particular parties. In this paper, we build upon research around the power of news media to create common knowledge and shape a prevalent worldview.
Conclusions/Recommendations: We argue that the striking similarities between the story of VAM in education reform, as told by The LA Times, and the culturally familiar storyline of a quest romance or wish-fulfillment narrative (Frye, 1957) give this particular version of VAM a sense of familiarity, veracity and therefore power over the public imagination. We discuss the discursive features used to accomplish this and suggest the need for continued analysis of the role of the media in shaping public opinion on education policy.  (Read more)       
 
Via the reauthorization of the Higher Education Act (HEA), stronger accountability proponents are now knocking on the doors of the colleges of education that prepare teachers and, many argue, prepare teachers ineffectively. This is raising questions about how effective and necessary teacher education programs indeed are. While research continues to evidence that teachers have a large impact on student achievement, the examination of teacher education programs is a rational backward mapping of understanding how teachers impact students. Nonetheless, whether and how evaluations of teacher education programs should be conducted is yet another hotly debated issue in the profession.
Conclusions: This work resulted in a set of seven "beyond excuses" imperatives that participants involved in the T-PREP consortium developed and participants at the local level carried forward. The seven key imperatives are important for other colleges of education to consider as they too embark on pathways toward examining their teacher education programs and using evaluation results in both formative and summative ways.  (Read more) 

   by Anita M. Varrati, Mary E. Lavine & Steven L. Turner  on the Teacher College Record site 
Beginning teachers often identify the school principal as a key figure for support and guidance. Few teacher education conceptual models exist that significantly integrate the building principal into the clinical experiences of teacher candidates. The rationale behind initiating discourse on principal involvement grows out of current policy and reform initiatives that require increased accountability for improved student performance. The call for more deliberate principal involvement in preservice also arises in regard to teacher attrition and retention concerns. Having the principal engage in active mentoring during preservice may positively address these issues by providing a more complete socialization and enculturation process into today's context of schooling.
Conclusions/Recommendations: M³-A new conceptual model of collaboration (three supports for preservice teacher: mentor, university supervisor, and principal) was presented to include the principal with the preservice teacher, university supervisor, and cooperating teacher in a community of practice for teacher preparation. To build on this research and continue the discourse about the principal's role, several implications and areas for future study are presented.
(Read more) 
  
Race to the top: The charge of the elitist parent    by Brian Stack on the MultiBrief site  
You see them all the time, but maybe you have never noticed they are there. I often refer to them as the "elitist parents." They are on the sidelines with you bragging about how their children are part of two competitive traveling soccer teams in addition to the everyone-gets-to-play community league your child plays for.
Their children seem to always get the solos at the school band concert, but probably because they take private lessons for two hours a day, four days a week.  (Read more) 
 
 The human mind is truly incredible, and we should all strive towards creating a tenacious memory we can rely on. Many lucrative professions or hobbies require such a trait-actors, musicians, artists and entertainers in general do countless drills, just so the required information can be embedded in the memory with certainty. Clearly numerous doors that lead to a successful future are unlocked if one has a great memory. Although beneficial, it is not an essential ingredient within the success formula-what you lack in memory can always be compensated with diligence. Keeping track of crucial elements in your life through list-making is still an unrivaled tactic for counterbalancing feeble recollection. By utilizing constant reminders, we can have significantly greater organization, we won't be under the impression we have forgotten something, and we will have a clear insight into which task has a stamp of immediacy attached to it.   (Read more)     
  
By Sharon P. Robinson, American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education (AACTE), and Joe A. Hairston, Howard University on the Learning First Alliance site 
As the first cohort of leaders embarks on their course of study with the new AASA Urban Superintendents Academy at Howard University and the University of Southern California, we are thrilled to see this promising work come to life. Urban districts desperately need forward-thinking leaders, particularly those from underrepresented demographic groups, prepared to be barrier-busting champions for every student in their care.
Following an intensive kick-off conference later this month, participants in the Academy-predominantly from underrepresented racial/ethnic groups-will spend the academic year undertaking internships in the field, focusing on problems of practice under the guidance of experienced mentors, and taking graduate courses at the university before completing culminating projects. These participants, in-service administrators who want to enrich their field experience and training for urban settings or prospective superintendents, will be prepared for certification through the program.  (Read more)
  
  The Global Problem of Privatization and Commercialization  by Daine Ravitch on the Ravitch blog site
The case for a Global Response to the Commercialisation and Privatisation of Education is not only clear, it is urgent. In the context of the many challenges that confront public education systems globally, the increasing commercialisation and privatisation in and of education represent the greatest threat to education as a public good and to equality in education access and outcomes. It should therefore not be of any surprise to anyone that this issue dominated the proceedings of the 7th World Congress of Education International (EI)[i], which took place between 22-26 July in Ottawa, Canada, Noting the dimension and the threat to students, teachers, education support personnel and quality public education for all posed by the ongoing commercialisation and privatisation of education, the World Congress , consisting of nearly 2,000 delegates, resolved that we need a global response to the rapidly expanding for-profit corporate sector involvement in education.  (Read more) 
Let me begin by saying that I am often no fan of hyperbole. We live in an era in which blog titles like this one are used as click bait, lures to entice--and, really, to enrage--readers and provide as little meat on the figurative bone as possible. But I really mean it when I say this: North Carolina is waging war against public education. From the rise of mega-testing companies and the policies that mandate them, to the widespread adoption of common curriculum, to the years of economic struggle following the Great Recession, public schools have endured substantial stress, and they may very well look substantially altered by the end of this decade. The biggest change? Public education is wholly political, evenly divided and polarized by factions on the left and right. What I call war, others may call a revolution. (See more)
  
Want to Reform Education? Let Teachers Teach  by Steve Nelson on the Huffington Post site
Assessment may be the most damaging concept in contemporary education debate.
Education reform is obsessed with assessment and accountability. Whether in the form of No Child Left Behind, Race to the Top, or the slightly more reasonable Common Core, billions of dollars are devoted to defining what kids should know and then assessing whether they know it. I won't waste my keystrokes or your time reiterating the evils of the testing and assessment industry. Lots of folks have done that quite thoroughly.
Most thoughtful educational commentary suggests how assessments might be better. I, like many others, have pointed out the foolishness of many exams based on the Common Core. Appropriately, the phrase "fill in the bubble" has become shorthand for poor educational practice.  (Read more)

With a new school year approaching, districts around the country are issuing urgent pleas for teachers to come work for them.
The words on many people's lips are "teacher shortage," and in some places, they have the ring of crisis to them.
"There are 467 current job openings, and we're all trying to pull from the same applicant pool," said Beverly Mortimer, superintendent of the Concordia, Kan., school district. "Out in the rural areas it becomes harder and harder to pull those applicants."
Regionally, stories of teacher shortages have been prevalent this summer, perhaps best exemplified by the Clark County, Nev., school district's launch of a nationwide campaign to entice both new and retired teachers with hiring bonuses of up to $5,000.  (Read more)

Since the 1970s, researchers have attempted to link observational measures of instructional process to student achievement (and occasionally to other outcomes of schooling). 
Conclusion: Conclusion: This paper has stressed that our data base on effective teaching is limited-still it has some implications for practice. Even though the knowledge base is limited, there is no clear knowledge that teachers-in-training learn and have the opportunity to practice and use. It would seem that teacher education programs would want to assure that their graduates, in addition to possessing appropriate knowledge, would also have clear conceptual understanding and skills related to active teaching, proactive management, communication of appropriate expectations for learning, and the ability to plan and enact instruction that balances procedural and conceptual knowledge. Future research on the use of this knowledge base and its effects in teacher education programs would be informative. If done correctly, research on teaching can improve instruction. However, the research must be applied carefully if it is to have useful effects. And, as noted often in this paper, research must consider outcomes of schooling other than achievement such as creativity, adaptability, and problem finding.  (Read more)
  

 
   The Horace Mann League  on the The Horace Mann league site
 
"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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A Few Political Cartoons 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)
 
  
  
  
 
  
   
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.