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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.
The HML website, Click
here.
The HML Flipboard magazine, Click
here to read and follow more articles.
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What does it mean to be white? MTV's 'White People' is a groundbreaking documentary on race that aims to answer that question from the viewpoint of young white people living in America today. The film follows Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and filmmaker, Jose Antonio Vargas, as he travels across the country to get this complicated conversation started. 'White People' asks what's fair when it comes to affirmative action, if colorblindness is a good thing, what privilege really means, and what it's like to become the "white minority" in your neighborhood.
Read more.
Is it a good time to become a teacher? Salaries haven't kept up with inflation, tenure is under attack and standardized test scores are being used to fire teachers. And that's if you get a job. Special correspondent for education John Merrow reports on the struggles for today's newly trained educators to find work and stay in the classroom.
Study finds Idaho's 4-day school weeks don't save money, ed impact unknown by Betsy Z. Russell on the Spokesman Review site
 A new study by a rural education group examined the 42 of Idaho's 115 school districts that have gone to four-day school weeks as a money-saving move, and found that none have seen significant savings as a result and there's been no examination of the impact on student achievement.
 The results showed that socially competent children were far more likely to earn a college degree and have a full-time job by 25 than those with limited social skills. Those with limited social skills also had a higher chance of getting arrested, binge drinking, and applying for public housing.
"This study shows that helping children develop social and emotional skills is one of the most important things we can do to prepare them for a healthy future," said Kristin Schubert, program director at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, which funded the research, in a release. "From an early age, these skills can determine whether a child goes to college or prison, and whether they end up employed or addicted." Want to read more?
Golf Association Adopts Standards and Accountability Policies by Jack McKay on the HML blog
 The Nation's political leaders are finally addressing a long brewing problem. They are concerned about the declining ability of golfers and their golf instructors. Since most of our national leaders play golf at some point, they claim to have a strong background in golf techniques and golf instructional practices. Based on their experiences, they are placing the blame on the golf instructors and their associations for the lack of ability of our nation's golfers and the lack of dominance in international competition. (Read more)
 When you think of charter schools, there are probably a few people and concepts that come to mind: Michelle Rhee, "grit," Bill Gates, Eva Moskowitz, KIPP, etc. And if you happen to think of teachers unions at some point during this education policy reverie, you'll probably have them in the role they're traditionally assigned by the media - as anti-charter and anti-reform. Just like Israelis and Palestinians, Crips and Bloods, Yankees and Red Sox, teachers unions and the charter movement simply don't like each other. That's just the way it is.
But according to a recent piece in the American Prospect by Rachel M. Cohen, the truth of how charters and unions relate to one another is more complicated. It turns out that there are some charter school teachers out there who've started to think a union isn't such a bad idea after all; and their ranks are growing. (Read more)
People wanting measurable progress in public schools ought to beware of accountability coalitions on the Advocate site
 Even when there is good news about educational progress, it's greeted with caveats based on the new politics: In an email message about a rise in ACT test scores, the executive director of the Louisiana School Boards Association praised progress but at the same time said there is an over-emphasis on test preparation in high school, to the detriment of other subjects.
This reflects a nostalgia for the days of yore, when all the conditions that Arne Duncan decried above were the standard operating procedure. Critics of accountability are not exactly in alliance, but for now believe themselves to have a common enemy. People wanting measurable progress in taxpayer-funded schools ought to beware of such a coalition. (Read more)
The Path Least Taken II: At a Glance by Jim Hull on the Center for Public Education site
Much is known about the tools high school graduates need to do well in college.
We know much less about the impact of high school on career readiness, however. This study looks at the credentials and high school experiences of non-college going high school graduates in an attempt to identify those factors that relate to success after school in both work and life. In Part 1 of the Path Least Taken we compared the characteristics of non-college going 2004 graduates to their college going peers. The first finding was that just 12 percent of high school graduates had not enrolled in college by age 26. Even then, nearly a third of these non-college enrollees reported that they still expected to attend college sometime in the future. We also found that non-college enrollees are distinctly different from their college going classmates. (See more)
State's highest court upholds school voucher program despite lack of accountability and standards by Sharon McCloskey on the NC Progressive Pulse
 In a 4-3 decision that defies principles of accountability to taxpayers and students alike, the elected Republican justices of the North Carolina Supreme Court today upheld a school voucher program that allows taxpayer dollars to fund tuition for private schools having virtually no obligation to provide North Carolina students with even a basic education.
Chief Justice Mark Martin, writing for the majority and joined by Justices Robert Edmunds, Paul Newby and Barbara Jackson, couched the opinion in terms of judicial restraint and deference to the legislature, saying that the court's role was "limited to a determination of whether the legislation is plainly and clearly prohibited by the constitution." (Read more)
6 strategies great leaders use for long-term success by Steven Krupp on the World Economic forum site  Much can change in five years. In the last half-decade, volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous (VUCA) conditions have crumbled nations and bankrupted major financial institutions. The gale winds of creative destruction toppled iconic brands and created new ones. Uber became the world's largest taxi company without owning a single vehicle, and Alibaba became the largest retailer without owning inventory. As the pace of change continues to accelerate, leaders must play the long game to succeed in 2020 and beyond. This means thinking long term, focusing on customer needs and embracing new models. All good advice, but incremental improvements and hard work alone won't cut it. The most successful leaders envision a bold future and then make it happen. Real leaders are not just along for the ride - they shape the future by thinking big. (Read more)
Get Ready For The Next Wave Of Education "Reform
"
by
Jeff Bryant on the Education Opportunity Network site
 Education activists are rejoicing that the latest versions of No Child Left Behind reauthorization coursing through Congress may give struggling schools a way to have more control over their own governance and destiny.
Teaching Social Skills to Improve Grades and Lives by David Bornstein on the New York Times site
 "These early abilities, especially the ability to get along with others, are the abilities that make other kids like you, and make teachers like kids," said Mark T. Greenberg, a professor of Human Development and Psychology at Penn State and a co-author of the study. "And when kids feel liked, they're more likely to settle down and pay attention, and keep out of the principal's office, and reap the benefits of being in a classroom. And this builds over time; it's like a cascade. They become more bonded with peers and healthy adults and they become more bonded to school as an institution, and all those skills lead them, independent of their I.Q., to be less at risk for problems." (Reads more)
5 Ways The Tech Industry Is Reshaping The Education System As We Know It by Cisco Impact X on the Huffington Post site
 Education is experiencing a tech revolution. Chalkboards have been replaced by smartboards and the teacher's gradebook is published online for parents with a secure login. Tech has even infiltrated the classroom with tablets and video conferencingenhancing student engagement and creating more opportunities for remote learning.
However, though the rate of jobs in computer science continues to grow rapidly, there aren't enough students in the field to meet the demand. Nine out of 10 US K-12 schools are not currently offering computer-programming classes. (Read more)
Understanding Why Students Drop Out of High School, According to Their Own Reports by Jonathan JacobDoll, Zohreh Eslami and Lynne Walters on the Sage Open site
 Are They Pushed or Pulled, or Do They Fall Out? A Comparative Analysis of Seven Nationally Representative Studies. This article has attempted to discern the reasons that students have dropped out of high school over the past half a century, with perceptions by both students and administrators. Overall, there is credence for each type of dropout antecedent, whether being a push, pull, or falling out factor. At the same time, it was apparent that pull factors elicited the highest rates overall for all the studies, while eliciting prominence in four of seven studies. Future scholarship can build upon the awareness of each of these nationally representative studies, and further elucidate reasons as to why each antecedent occurred. Although this study has promising elements and targets 25,700 high school freshmen with triennial instruments, it is at the cusp of the ninth-grade year. (See more)
Let secondary students sleep in, start elementaries earlier by John Higgins on the Seattle Times site.
 An advisory committee has recommended swapping school start times in Seattle, with middle and high schools starting later than elementary schools.
Seattle high schools and middle schools should start at least an hour later than they do now, and most elementary schools should start 90 minutes sooner, says a committee that has spent seven months figuring out a schedule better suited to teen-sleep needs. If the School Board approves the changes, Seattle would be among the largest districts in the country to push back high-school start times.
"For maximizing academic achievement, health and safety, and equitable access to educational opportunities, improving school-start times may be the most cost-effective investment the district can make," the committee wrote. (See more)
The political system is broken by Tom Dunn on the Troy (OH) Daily News
Ohio's Superintendent of Public Instruction, Dr. Richard Ross, is under fire from some state legislators for the Ohio Department of Education's (ODE) failure to post failing scores for the world to see on dropout recovery and online charter schools, which he was required to do by law. The conspiracy theorists in the legislature feel the Department's failure to post these scores was an attempt to hide from all of us just how pitiful these charter schools are performing, as if we didn't already know that, and they may be right about their conspiracy theory claim. After all, charter schools are Dr. Ross's pet project as well as Governor John Kasich's, the man he is beholden to for his job and for whom he is the mouthpiece in education. But even if the politicians are correct in their assertion, their comments and their outrage about this particular incident once again shows the frightening mentality that exists in politics in our state capital.
 The state Supreme Court should keep the pressure on the Legislature to solve education inequities of its overreliance on voter-approved local levies. THIS week, the Legislature will file its own progress report on its efforts to get back into the state Supreme Court's good graces on education reform and funding. The court would be right to take a dim view of the Legislature failing to fully fund education, fully 10 months since the court held the state in contempt. The state still relies too much on voter-approved local levies to pay for basic education. No question lawmakers made impressive progress this year, adding about $1.3 billion in new education funding, including class-size reductions in K-3. But the court, in its 2012 McCleary ruling, made clear the state's reliance on local levies must stop because it creates intolerable inequities between property-rich and -poor districts. Voters in wealthier districts, such as Bellevue, lavish resources on their schools that more rural districts, such as Prosser, can only dream of. (Read more)
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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.
 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. 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.
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