Welcome to the HML POST - For the busy leaders of public education.
October 26, 2015
(Editorials and research articles are selected by Jack McKay, Executive director of the HML. Topics are selected to provoke discussions about the importance of strong public schools.  Feedback is always appreciated. 

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The Horace Mann League of the USA Post
 C harters: The Illusion of Change: Pedro Noguera 
by   Julian Vasquez Heilig  on the Cloaking Inequity site.
Charters: The Illusion of Change 
Charters: The Illusion of Change
What is typically different about charter schools and traditional schools both on a national level and to some extent locally? Teachers' Democracy Project filmmakers answer this question in the new short documentary film "Charters: The Illusion of Change"
A few months ago, I visited Washington DC to attend a  Latino Leadership Weekend conference  that was held at the University of Maryland Business School. During one of the breaks at the conference, I had the chance to sit down with Teachers' Democracy Project filmmakers from the Baltimore area and discuss charter schools for their short documentary film.  ( Read more .) 

Gene Sharratt, (presenter) Jack McKay and Mike Trevisan (Dean of the School of Education) 
Washington State University (WSU) honored Jack McKay at a luncheon sponsored by their College of Education on October 17, 2015. He was recognized for his numerous contributions to education and received their Advocate for Education Award.
This award is presented to individuals who have demonstrated a commitment to improving access to education, creating an environment of expectation in families and communities, and most of all, they believe in today's children as leader of tomorrow.  Amy L. Cox, Development Coordinator at WSU notes that this year marks the 9th time the College of Education has made the award and they are thrill to make the award to Jack McKay.  Throughout his career, Jack has been a strong supporter of public education and as Executive Director of the Horace Mann League. (Read more on HML website.)
 
The  National Center for Science Education  is a non-profit organization with some 5,000 members that provides information and resources for schools, parents, and concerned citizens working to keep evolution and climate science in public school science education. The center originally was focused on fihting efforts by some schools to teach creationism alongside evolution, but in 2012 added climate change denial to its work.
Minda Berbeco, a climate change scholar, writes about teaching climate change on the center's website, and in this post, she looks at recent stories in the media about Utah supposedly trying to change its science education standards to deny climate change. She says the stories are wrong - but Utah does take aim at education on evolution. ( Read more.)
 

Rumors abound that the news is going to be bad, with scores down nationally and in a bunch of states. That will be used as fodder to attack Common Core, teacher evaluations, charter schools, or whatever else you happen not to like that's prominent in today's education policy conversation.
But let me suggest that journalists and editorialists consider the most likely explanation: It's the economy, stupid. While those of us in education reform are working hard to make sure that demography does not equal destiny, we must also acknowledge the strong link between students' socioeconomic status and their academic achievement (a link that some amazing schools are weakening).  ( Read more.)
 
Why 12th Grade Must be Redesigned Now and How.  By Joel Vargas on the Jobs for the Future site.  
In an economic era that increasingly rewards workers who have postsecondary credentials, high school must be more effectively designed to give all students a firm footing in college and career. There is no more obvious place to start than the redesign of 12th grade, building on states' widespread implementation of college and career ready standards and assessments that culminate in grade 11. In many respects, the senior year can be an early proving ground for how to leverage a new infrastructure to ensure more students are prepared not just to start college or a career, but to succeed in both. Doing so will require more systemic secondary-postsecondary partnerships, grounded in shared responsibility, to create and support new ways to set students, regardless of skill level at the beginning of 12th grade, on tailored trajectories toward key, common milestones of credential attainment. This, in turn, will require attention to building new capacities and cultures, validating new learner experiences, responding collaboratively to data that spur innovation, and developing policy incentives that nudge without creating new problems out of undue pressure.  ( Read more .)
 
  Developing School-Wide Approaches for Bullying Prevention: The Value of Partnerships     by Katherine Tayloand Emily Doolittle on the Institute of Education Science site. 
  About 22% of 12 to 18 year olds report being bullied at school . Bullying behavior can be obvious (pushing, name calling, destroying property) or more subtle (rumor spreading, purposeful excluding). In whatever form it takes, bullying involves acts of physical, verbal, or relational aggression that are repeated over time and involve a power imbalance. Bullying has a variety of harmful effects, including the potential for a negative impact on student academic achievement. This leads to the question, what can schools do to prevent bullying? In support of Bullying Prevention Awareness Month, we want to highlight two IES projects that have tackled this issue by developing programs that support social and problem-solving skills for students and a positive school climate. (Read more.) 
 
In today's climate of high-stakes testing and the volatile global institution of education, educators and their respective government entities that control their resources are struggling to provide effective and efficient learning environments. Obstacles to these efforts have taken-and still take-the form of inequitable funding, inconsistent or poor teacher education, political banter, cultural and environmental diversity, corporatism, and even warfare (DeVillar, Jiang, and Cummins, 2013).

Can You Get Smarter? by Daniel Duane on the New York Times site.
The very notion of cognitive enhancement is seductive and plausible. After all, the brain is capable of change and learning at all ages. Our brain has remarkable neuroplasticity; that is, it can remodel and change itself in response to various experiences and injuries. So can it be trained to enhance its own cognitive prowess?
The multibillion-dollar brain training industry certainly thinks so and claims that you can increase your memory, attention and reasoning just by playing various mental games. In other words, use your brain in the right way and you'll get smarter.  ( Read more.)
 
 
Hedge fund billionaires and major politicians like President Obama, Republican Presidential contender Jeb Bush, and New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo  love charter schools. For Obama, Bush, and Cuomo they are the miracle cure for what ails American education.  Los Angeles is considering a proposal Broad Foundation to turn half of its public schools into charters by 2023. But what is the "miracle" behind claims for higher student test scores at some well-known charter schools? It may simply be "lock them out to drive them out." Let's look at the Success Academy Charter School Network, whose schools would more aptly be named "Suspension Academies."
According to a report by the website Chalkbeat, in New York City  charter schools  suspended students at about three times the rate of traditional public schools. ( Read more.)

A groundbreaking study on adverse childhood experiences indicated , "Childhood abuse, neglect, and exposure to other traumatic stressors which we term adverse childhood experiences (ACE) are common. Almost two-thirds of our study participants reported at least one ACE, and more than one of five reported three or more ACE. The short- and long-term outcomes of these childhood exposures include a multitude of health and social problems." 
The state of Washington  is a leader for compassionate schools and they have laid out the ten principles of a compassionate school. They believe that this is ultimately a process, not a program. The principles are below:
1. Focus on culture and climate in the school and community.
2. Train and support all staff regarding trauma and learning.
3. Encourage and sustain open and regular communication for all.
4. Develop a strengths based approach in working with students and peers.
5. Ensure discipline policies are both compassionate and effective (Restorative Practices).
6. Weave compassionate strategies into school improvement planning.
7. Provide tiered support for all students based on what they need.
8. Create flexible accommodations for diverse learners.
9. Provide access, voice, and ownership for staff, students, and community.
10. Use data to identify vulnerable students, and determine outcomes and strategies for continuous quality improvement. 
Obama Administration Calls for Limits on Testing in Schools by  Kate Zernike on the New York Times site.
  Faced with mounting and bipartisan opposition to increased and often high-stakes testing in the nation's public schools, the Obama administration declared Saturday that the push had gone too far, acknowledged its own role in the proliferation of tests, and urged schools to step back and make exams less onerous and more purposeful.
Specifically, the administration called for a cap on assessment so that no child would spend more than 2 percent of classroom instruction time taking tests. It called on Congress to "reduce over-testing" as it reauthorizes the federal legislation governing the nation's public elementary and secondary schools.



The Obama Administration's weekend statement calling for "fewer and smarter" tests "belatedly admits that high-stakes exams are out of control in U.S. public schools but does not offer meaningful action to address that very real problem," according to the National Center for Fair & Open Testing (FairTest), a leader of the country's rapidly growing assessment reform movement.
FairTest Public Education Director Bob Schaeffer explained, "The new Council of Great City Schools study to which the Obama Administration responded, reinforces widespread reports by parents, students, teachers, and education administrators of standardized testing overuse and misuse. Documenting testing overkill is, however, just the first step toward assessment reform."
"Now, is the time for concrete steps to reverse counter-productive testing policies, not just more hollow rhetoric and creation of yet another study commission," Schaeffer continued. "Congress and President Obama must quickly approve a new law overhauling 'No Child Left Behind' that eliminates federal test-and-punish mandates. State and local policy makers need to heed their constituents' 'Enough is enough!' message by significantly reducing the volume of standardized exams and eliminating high-stakes consequences. That will help clear the path for the implementation of better forms of assessment."  ( Read more.)

 
   A Report Card the Doctor Doesn't Want to Take Home by Abigail Zuger on the New York Times site.
I got my report card the other week, and I must say I didn't do very well. I'm pulling around a B, better than average but not by much. My parents would be appalled.
I am graded these days not by test performance or classroom participation, but by my success in getting patients to do well. Not necessarily to feel well or to be well, mind you, but to perform well on their own tests. They do well, I do well. They do badly, I flunk.
Gone are the days when anyone paid attention to my peer interactions, effort, improvement, or to the difficulty of the assigned material. Most of those variables are now impossible to assess - and as for the medical equivalent of the essay question, forget it. No one has the stamina to plow through my notes.
Rather, "continuous quality improvement," as we call the process of getting doctors to be their very best selves, requires something snappy and easy to track.  ( Read more.)
 
5 Questions for Organizational Leaders to Ask   by Kevin O'Brien on the Huffington Post site. 
One skill essential for every leader is to be very good at asking the "right" questions. It doesn't matter if they are leading themselves, a group, or a whole organization. Questions by their very nature invite as opposed to divide. Individuals that think they know everything stop asking questions. And once the questions stop, the learning also stops. If you are a leader who desires to create a great organization and culture, here are five questions you may want to ask:  
1. Are people optimistic about their future at the company?
2. Do people feel fairly treated by the company and each other
3. Are people expected to hold each other accountable for commitments?
4. Do people ignore artificial boundaries like "departments" in order to get things done?
5. Are people free and encouraged to help their colleagues' grow?  

Why Iowa's graduation rate is so much higher than California's by Sonali Kohli and Joy Resmovits on the Los Angles Times Site. 
  California's high school graduation rate has improved in the last five years, moving from 74.7% in 2010 to 81% in 2013-14. According to data released Monday, California is one of 36 states that improved their graduation rates between 2012-13 and 2013-14. 
But California high schools still have a long way to go before they match Iowa, which led the country with a 90.5% graduation rate in 2013-14.
There are a few differences that explain the gap.
One reason is simple: money.  ( Read more.)
 
'Iceberg Effect' Authors Rebut Critic's 'Misguided' Blog Post
by James Harvey on the Ed Week site. 
  Marc Tucker's outburst attacking our recent summary report, " Iceberg Effect" was so  misguided and rife with errors and misconstructions that we have issued an open letter responding point by point to the blog post.
Both organizations that issued the report-the Horace Mann League and the National Superintendents Roundtable-also wanted to address the blog post here in the pages of Education Week. The "Iceberg Effect" is a summary of our full report, " School Performance in Context: Indicators of School Inputs and Outputs in Nine Similar Nations."
Tucker appears most distressed about one recommendation, among dozens in the document, urging a reduction in alarmist rhetoric about schools. But in his blog post, Tucker fails to deal convincingly with the quantitative evidence offered in "Iceberg Effect" and laid out completely in the full report, specifically:
1. The United States has the highest rates of childhood poverty in the developed world.
2. Social stress (including deaths from violence) is highest in the nine-nation world with which the United States is compared.
3. U.S. support for young families is the lowest in the developed world.  ( Read more.)
  
What is the Educational Industrial Complex (EIC)? by  Dipti Desai of New York University.  
  The term Educational Industrial Complex (EIC) was first used by Anthony Picciano in 1994. According to A. Picciano and Joel Spring (2013), the EIC revolves around three major components-ideology, profit, and technology. The EIC is made up of multiple networks and alliances of agencies, organizations, foundations, media companies, educational technology providers, for profit educational providers, venture philanthropies, and think tanks. These networks and alliances interact with each other to push for market-based initiatives. The three biggest players in "education reform" in K-12 schools mostly directed to low-income students and families are the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (Microsoft), the Eli and Edythe Board Foundation (finance, real estate, and insurance) and the Walton Family Foundation (Walmart). Education reform means promoting market based initiatives that undermine public education. These market-based initiatives promote competition, privatization, high-stakes testing and anti-teachers unions. Public charter schools and for-profit schools are advocated. (Download report.) 
 
  Joe Kennedy, the assistant football coach at Bremerton High, has been leading a prayer on the field directly after the games.  Sometimes opponents and fans stay as well. He claims he is just saying a prayer by himself.
But clearly, if he is a coach and he's saying the prayer, out loud and on the field directly after a game, it's a problem.

From CNN:
The Bremerton School District had said if he prayed while on duty as a coach he would be violating federal law. 
Kennedy, as he has done after most games for seven years, prayed anyway, defying the order. He opened his eyes to find a huge crowd of supporters around him. According to the Seattle Times, Kennedy, 46, has never asked anyone else to participate in the postgame prayer. And at first, it went largely unnoticed but players began to join him. One of them is a Bremerton captain. He's agnostic. (Read more.) 
 
Is 2016 The Year That Progressive Education Returns?   by Robert Sun on the Te@chThought site. 
  The 1920's were a high point in the Progressive Education movement. Developed in response to the rigid pedagogy of 19th Century industrial society-methods that stressed uniform learning largely defined by social class-Progressive Education sought to break the mold with a more enlightened approach to public schooling.
While Progressive Education had many elements, it essentially followed three teaching strategies. First was an emergent curriculum that responded to children's enthusiasms, recognizing that students are most motivated to learn something they are already interested in. Second was an integrated curriculum wherein children learn thematically, rather than through compartmentalized subject matter. Third was the notion of experiential education, learning by doing. Experiential education requires students to get out of their chairs, work with their hands, and actively cooperate with others on a shared goal.  ( Read more.)
 
Can You Get Smarter?  by Daniel Duane on the New York Times site.
 
  
Upcoming Event:  
The 94rd Annual Meeting of the Horace Mann League will be held on Friday, February, 12, 2016, at the Phoenix Downtown Sheraton Hotel, starting at 11:45 am. 
 
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
or   email:  Jack McKay
FAX (866) 389 0740
 
  
Horace Mann
 
  
  
     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.