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Welcome to the March 21, 2016, edition of the HML Post. A service to the members of the Horace Mann League of the USA.
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 One of the most mocked terms the education reform movement has come up with is "deeper learning." It reminds me of my high school days, when we would sarcastically fill a silence with, "Whoa, that's deep," after a classmate's incomprehensible statement. When you ask a proponent of "deeper learning" what it means, you get a jargon-filled earful about collaboration, project-based learning, self-directed learning, problem solving, critical thinking and communication. At high schools that are practicing it, you hear about small classes, caring advisers, student work that can be shown off in a portfolio and the opportunity for students to do internships in the real world. To the lay person, it seems like a kitchen sink of good educational practices. Many high schools in America claim to do these same things. (Read more.)
Too many of today's students, particularly those in impoverished neighborhoods, are not receiving the educational opportunities they need and deserve.
These educational injustices, coupled with the top-down nature of school reform in many communities is prompting educators, students, parents, and citizens alike to question the ways in which we hold public schools accountable for student learning and performance.
Given national trends toward increased support for testing and standardization, policies incentivizing the expansion of school vouchers and charters, assessment of students and teachers linked to test scores, and a federal role in education of historic proportions, this interactive lecture delved into the present school reform discourse and education policy landscape.
(View video.)
 A revolt involving hundreds of thousands of Americans against the federal and state government has been brewing over the past couple of years. What caused this grassroots revolt? Parents and students have had enough of high-stakes testing required by federal law and implemented by the states and have chosen to "opt out" of the tests.
High-stakes tests swept the nation with the passage of No Child Left Behind during the presidency of George W. Bush. Politicians told the public that the tests were a bold new education reform.
Actually, high-stakes testing has a long, dark history. High-stakes tests were born in China to sort their society more than 1500 years ago. In the United States, for the last 100 years, standardized tests have been used to sort and track children. Contrary to current rhetoric, they were not created for civil rights purposes. (Read more.)
 To wit:
Available statistics show Texas leading the nation, with 49,197 students being paddled at least once during the 2008-09 academic year; Mississippi came in second, with 38,131 cases; then there's Alabama, with 33,716; Arkansas, with 22,314; Georgia, with 18,249; Tennessee with 14,868; and Oklahoma with 14,828.
For those unfamiliar with this type of chastisement, it is worth noting that the paddle is typically made of wood and is used on the thighs and buttocks for infractions such as bullying, "defiance," fighting, using profanity, refusing to put a cell phone away, smoking on school grounds, tardiness or violating a school dress code.
Equally noteworthy, boys of color receive the stick far more frequently than white males or females, regardless of race. Indeed, more than a third of those paddled during that school year - 35.6 percent - were Black boys.
(Read more.)
 North Dakota residents (89%) are more likely than those living in any other U.S. state to rate the K-12 education provided in their state as excellent or good, followed closely by those living in Minnesota and Nebraska. In stark contrast, about half as many Nevada and New Mexico residents, 42% in each, rate their public education systems positively.
Gallup data reveal a strong relationship between states' economic conditions and residents' perceptions that their public education systems are providing high-quality education that will prepare students for workplace success. Public education systems require strong financial support at the state and local level, and challenging economic conditions can make it more difficult to provide the funding required for schools to deliver a high-quality education. Additionally, students living in states with higher unemployment rates may face different challenges in finding a good job. (Read more.)
Despite widespread public opposition to the corporate-driven education privatization agenda, at least 172 measures reflecting American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) model bills were introduced in 42 states in 2015, according to an analysis by the Center for Media and Democracy, publishers of ALECexposed.org and PRWatch.org. (A PDF version of this report may be downloaded
here.)
One of ALEC's biggest funders is Koch Industries and the Koch brothers' fortune. The Kochs have had a seat at the table - where the private sector votes as equals with legislators - on ALEC's education task force via their "grassroots" group Americans for Prosperity and their Freedom Partners group, which was described as the Kochs' "secret bank."
 Just because it's flashy doesn't mean it actually improves learning.
Maybe we shouldn't be surprised that the idea of using digital technology in the classroom tends to be either loved or hated. After all, anything that's digital consists only of ones or zeroes. By contrast, my own position is somewhere in the middle, a location where I don't often find myself, frankly. I'm not allied with the Waldorfians, who ban computers from elementary and middle schools, but neither do I have much in common with teachers whose excitement over the latest export from Silicon Valley often seems downright orgasmic.
Basically, my response to ed tech is "It depends." And one key consideration on which it depends is the reason given for supporting it.
(Read more.)
 Serving subpoenas on public schoolteachers in class. Reading them their Miranda rights on school grounds. Using taxpayers' money to hire investigators to search school employees' computers late at night.
Many battles have been fought in recent years between education reformers - who generally favor high-stakes testing and the data-based evaluation of teachers - and those with a more progressive approach to schooling. But nowhere, it seems, is the fight more pitched than in this liberal, diverse township of nearly 38,000 about 20 miles from New York City.
A superintendent who promoted a reform agenda stepped down a year ago, but conflict has raged on in this normally serene suburb that is home to many who work in the media and business empires of New York.
(Read more.)
At an education conference on Privatization of Public Education and the Unions in San Francisco he discusses the corporate financialization of public education and and how this is destroying the public education in the United States along with the role of the education unions in confronting this frontal attack on public education. (View video.)
 The study draws attention to the utility of applying configurational approaches to investigate the influence of complex combinations of organizational supports on school outcomes. We compare this approach to more traditional methods that focus on the effects of isolated factors, controlling for each other. Our results show that leadership is associated with students' classroom participation via multiple configurations of organizational supports. These configurations are different from the set of organizational supports that are related to an absence of classroom participation.
"The preponderance of evidence indicates that school principals contribute to school effectiveness and student achievement indirectly through actions they take to influence school and classroom conditions (Hallinger & Heck, 1996a, 1996b). The size of the effects that principals indirectly contribute towards student learning, though statistically significant, is also quite small" (Hallinger, 2005, p. 229).
(Read more.)
 School leaders are faced with stress as part of their daily jobs; however, left unaddressed, stress has the potential of becoming mentally and physically exhausting. School leaders need opportunities for stress reduction as well as the means to predict and anticipate stress in an effort to minimize its effects. This commentary discusses leadership-related stress and offers strategies to minimize and cope with stress.
School leaders are so frequently immersed in stressful situations that the potential exists for mental and physical exhaustion. The personal and professional effects of stress may become a matter of life and death if left untended (Burgett, 2001). Lupien (2010) notes that as the brain detects stress (i.e., good and bad), it responds with varying degrees of a fight or flight response. Principals are not afforded with these primal outlets for stress reduction throughout the professional day (e.g., fight, yell, run away) and must find ways to minimize damaging emotional responses by predicting and anticipating stressors.
(Read more.)
Four Steps to Implement RTI Correctly
by Amanda VanDerHeyden, Matthew Burns, Rachel Brown, Mark R. Shinn, Stevan Kukic, Kim Gibbons, George Batsche, & W. David Tilly on the EdWeek site.
 With the 2001 passage of the No Child Left Behind Act,
the national education agenda shifted from a focus on process and access to a focus on results. In this new education climate, Response
to Intervention, or
RTI, spread like the latest diet fad because it offered schools a way
to get better results for students.
RTI refers
to a collection of practices that involve identifying academic risk, intervening prior
to full-blown academic failure with increasingly intensive interventions, and moni
toring student growth.
RTI is designed
to remove the oh-so-human temptation
to speculate and slowly mull over learning problems, and instead spur teachers in
to action
to improve learning, see if the actions worked, and make adjustments in a continuous loop. (
Read more.)
by Alan Schwarz, Walt Bogdanich and Jacqueline Williams on the New York Times site.
With several of its marquee players retiring early after a cascade of frightening concussions, the league formed a committee in 1994 that would ultimately issue a succession of research papers playing down the danger of head injuries. Amid criticism of the committee's work, physicians brought in later to continue the research said the papers had relied on faulty analysis.
Now, an investigation by The New York Times has found that the N.F.L.'s concussion research was far more flawed than previously known.
For the last 13 years, the N.F.L. has stood by the research, which, the papers stated, was based on a full accounting of all concussions diagnosed by team physicians from 1996 through 2001. But
confidential data obtained by The Times
shows that more than 100 diagnosed concussions were omitted from the studies - including some severe injuries to stars like quarterbacks Steve Young and Troy Aikman. (
Read more.)
In 2013, educator and writer Jessica Lahey wrote a
convincing piece
for The Atlantic in which she argued that her introverted students needed to learn to speak up in class. In it, she defended her decision to keep class participation as a small but significant portion of her students' grades. The quieter kids in the class simply needed to learn how to speak up in "a world where most people won't stop talking."
"The big insight, really, is all human beings have nervous systems that respond differently to stimulation, so we all have different needs to be at our sweet spot and be at our best and most ready to learn."
Part of the mission of the Quiet Schools Network will be to encourage teachers to reframe "classroom participation" as "classroom engagement," the idea being that there are other, quieter ways to measure students' understanding of the material than how quickly and loudly they can talk about it. A lot of kids - and not just introverts - need a "longer runway," Kasevich said, meaning more time to prep before they're ready to make a useful contribution to the discussion. "A lot of these kids prefer to learn by thinking and processing deeply," (
Read more.)
The researchers, from public and private universities in California - including Stanford University, UCLA, and the University of California Berkeley - say that the Common Core standards themselves do not accomplish what supporters said they would and that linking them to high-stakes tests actually harms students. Overall, there is not a compelling body of research supporting the notion that a nationwide set of curriculum standards, including those like the CCSS, will either raise the quality of education for all children or close the gap between different groups of children. Therefore attaching high-stakes testing to the CCSS cannot be the solution for improving student learning. (
Read more.) (
Read complete report.)
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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