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Welcome to the February 15, 2016, edition of the HML Post. A service to the members of the Horace Mann League of the USA.
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Highlights of the 2016 Annual Meeting of the Horace Mann League
Click
here
for video highlights.
Dr. Andy Hargreaves
is the Chair in the Lynch School of Education at Boston College. Andy has authored or edited over 30 books, several of which have achieved outstanding writing awards for the AERA, the ALA, and the AACTE.
Video of comments by Andy Hargreaves , click here.
Dr. Gene Glass is a Regents' Professor Emeritus at Arizona State University in both the educational leadership and psychology in education divisions, having retired in 2010.
Currently, Glass is a senior researcher at the
National Education Policy Center
and a research professor in the School of Education at the University of Colorado Boulder.
Video of comments by Gene Glass, click here.
The HML Outstanding Friend of the Horace Mann League award
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| Laurie Barron and Gary Marx |
Gary Marx is the author of the recently published,
Twenty-one Trends for the 21st Century: Out of the Trenches and into the Future.
Gary is the President of the Center for Public Outreach and the Past President of the Horace Mann League.
Click here to view additional photos of the Annual Meeting
National Conference on Education, Arizona State University's David Berliner reflected on the various education reform ideas being discussed in education today.
On evaluation:
If one teaches a "stupid" dog to whistle and the end result is the dog not capable of whistling, does that make one a bad teacher, joked David Berliner during his AASA conference session Thursday on misguided uses of student achievement tests.
As the use f standardized achievement tests increases in holding schools and educators accountable, questions have been raised about the correlation between student test scores and the quality of teachers' instructional skills. This brings up the point, said Berlinger, about whether standardized test scores are an applicable metric to judge the quality of teachers.
Carla Santorno, superintendent of Tacoma Public Schools (member of the HML) was honored at AASA's 2016 National Conference on Education with a Women in Leadership award.
At AASA's 2016 National Conference on Education, Mark Edwards (Past President of HML), superintendent of the Mooresville Graded (N.C.) School District and the 2016 AASA National Superintendent of the Year, discussed the critical need for funding technology needs in schools.
 "The world will not stand still," futurist Gary Marx told conference attendees at a Thursday Thought Leader Session. On all fronts, massive forces are reshaping society today at a pace that is accelerating. These changes include demographics, technology, the global world, public and personal leadership, and jobs and careers.
His session provided a miniature intelligence report that drew from his recently published book 21 Trends for the 21st Century: Out of the Trenches and into the Future. Marx's main point was to illuminate what is happening in the world based on extensive research. The former senior executive of AASA travels worldwide to provide counsel on trends. (
Read more.)
 The Horace Mann League will recognize three outstanding educators at the professional group's 94rd annual meeting on Friday, Feb. 12. The lunch event was at the Phoenix Downtown Sheraton Hotel. (Read more.)
Video highlights of the HML Annual Meeting, click here.
 I have kept no secret at this Blog that I consider the BASIS charter school chain to be a disaster. If you wonder why,
read here
, and
here
,
here
, and
here
. In spite of its obvious shortcomings, US
News & World Report was blind to the facts when it ranked a couple of its schools (BASIS Scottsdale and BASIS Tucson) among the Top Ten high schools in the United States! BASIS contend that they are not "selective" and that they are open to all comers. This is another cunning and deceptive part of their sales pitch.
Listen to one of their "parent information sessions"
and imagine what kind of parent would send their child into that school. (Read more.)
 How has social media changed the superintendency? When Maree Sneed, a partner at Hogan Lovells in Washington, D.C., asked how many of the participants had to deal with social media issues during the time they were at the AASA conference in Phoenix, almost all of the attendees in this well-attended session on School Employee Use of Social Media raised their hands.
Christine Johns, (HML President) superintendent in Utica, Mich., for the past 10 years, shared information about her district's efforts to develop an acceptable use policy related to social media so that teachers have filters and guidance as to where the boundaries lie.
This clearly is a highly charged topic for superintendents, who were able to offer their own examples, practices and questions. In this highly interactive and engaging session, participants had differing experiences and views regarding the younger members of their workforces. Some believe that millennials are more savvy about the use of social media and are better equipped to recognize the dangers of sharing too much or not protecting privacy. Others feel that younger teachers were more apt to cross boundaries because they are used to sharing more freely and may not recognize what may be inappropriate. (
Read more.)
 Can a teacher's worth be measured by how much his students' test scores improve? And should teachers who don't move that needle very much be fired? These are two of the most controversial questions in education.
Some school districts have plunged ahead with "yes" answers to both. Whether that strategy - which leads to high teacher turnover - has improved student learning has yet to be fully analyzed. But a first stab at it has just been released by a quartet of researchers from the University of Virginia and Stanford University.
First, some background. It might seem pretty obvious that firing ineffective teachers and replacing them with better ones would be good for students.
But identifying which teachers are ineffective is tricky. And it's even trickier to dismiss unionized employees. Whether to pursue a dismissal has often been left up to the whims and energy of school principals. That's why some policymakers came up with the idea of finding objective measures, and then adopting new firing policies. (
Read more.)
Eleven states now tie teacher outcomes back to their preparation programs, and an increasing number of states are planning to use that data to decide whether to keep programs open, according to a new report by Bellwether Education Partners.
The report comes as many teacher preparation programs and experts are waiting on the U.S. Department of Education to finalize new federal regulations that could require all states to determine how graduates fare after completing teacher preparation programs and report that data publicly.
The 11 states that currently track this data look at a variety of graduate information, including the academic growth of students taught by graduates (as measured by standardized tests), job placement rate of graduates, and the persistence rate once teachers begin teaching. Some states, like North Carolina, track outcomes by institutions, while other states, like Ohio, dig into individual programs within institutions. (
Read more.)
Last week marked the annual, "National School Choice Week," with
events across the country
promoting "education options" such as charter schools and vouchers.
Everyone loves "choice," right? In a country where every year brings us 100 new choices for how to brush our teeth, maximizing "choice" appears to be the holy grail no matter what the enterprise.
It turns out there's a lot wrong with school choice.
As
People for the American Way
points out,
"National School Choice Week is deliberately designed to blur important differences in educational policies...National School Choice Week wants everyone to be so busy cheering and dancing for the broad concept of giving parents and students educational options that they don't stop to think about these distinctions." (Read more.)
The Washington State Supreme Court ruled last fall that charter schools are unconstitutional in the state due to a lack of public oversight but that wasn't going to stop someone like Bill Gates, a private citizen and billionaire, from getting his way.
 Erika Christakis' new book, The Importance of Being Little, is an impassioned plea for educators and parents to put down the worksheets and flash cards, ditch the tired craft projects (yes, you, Thanksgiving Handprint Turkey) and exotic vocabulary lessons, and double-down on one, simple word:
Play.
That's because, she writes,
"the distinction between early education and official school seems to be disappearing." If kindergarten is the new first grade, Christakis argues, preschool is quickly becoming the new kindergarten. And that is "a real threat to our society's future." (
Read more.)
The amount of time students spend doing physical activity in school appears to be linked to higher standardized math scores in D.C. schools, according to a new American University study that examined the success of the city's
Healthy Schools Act and found that schools offering more physical activity had significantly better math success.
"This finding demonstrates that students' academic performance improves when there's a balance between time spent on physical education and time spent on learning," said Stacey Snelling, dean of American University's School of Education. (
Read more.)
Sponsor a Professional Colleague for membership in the Horace Mann League.
Click here to download the "Sponsor a Colleague" form.
Starting the week off with a cartoon.
A gift for your Community Leaders:
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
FAX (866) 389 0740
To
download the full or summary report,
To
view in an electronic magazine format,
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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
.
 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.
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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. Christine Johns-Haines, Superintendent, Utica Community Schools, MI
President-elect: Dr. Martha Bruckner, Superintendent, Council Bluffs Community Schools, IA
Vice President: Dr. Eric King, Superintendent, (ret.) Muncie Public Schools, IN
Past President: Dr. Charles Fowler, Exec. Director, Suburban School Administrators, Exeter, HN
Directors:
Dr. Ruben Alejandro, Supt. of Schools, Weslaco, TX
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. Ember Conley, Supt. of Schools, Park City, UT
Dr. Linda Darling Hammond, Professor of Education, Stanford U. CA
Dr. James Harvey, Exec. Dir., Superintendents Roundtable, WA
Dr. Steven Ladd, Superintendent, (ret.) Elk Grove Unified School District, Elk Grove, CA
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.
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