Welcome to the HML POST and Happy Labor Day
(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.
The HML Leadership Pinterest
Board. Click
here.
The HML Horace Mann Quotes on Pinterest, Click
here.
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A little humor to start off the new school year.
DEFIES MEASUREMENT strengthens the discussion about public education by exploring why it is so important to address the social and emotional needs of every student, and what happens when the wrong people make decisions for schools. Presenters: Terri Elkins, Susan Kofalik, Ken Wasson, Keandra Rhone, Susan Kahn, Katie Carter, David Berliner, Robert Crease, Linda Darling Hammond, and more. (See and Read More.)
American public education is in controversy. As public schools across the country struggle for funding, complicated by the impact of poverty and politics, some question the future and effectiveness of public schools in the U.S.
Proponents of charter schools
maintain that
"charter schools are public schools."
However, the Washington State Supreme Court
ruled 6-3 on September 04, 2015, inLeague of Women Voters vs. State of Washington that charter schools are unconstitutional in Washington State.
The Court's decision hinges on the issue of public funding being sent to schools that are not publicly governed.
As is true of charter schools nationwide, the charters in Washington State (up to the current ruling) were eligible for public funding diverted from traditional public schools. Charter schools were approved via a November 2012 ballot initiative (I-1240, the Charter Schools Act) in which charters were declared to be "common schools" despite their not being subject to local control and local accountability. And also like America's charters in general, Washington's charters are not under the authority of elected school boards. (
Read more.)
Court's decision.
 Here's what the hyperventilating folks at Stand for Children Washington had to say:
We are deeply disappointed by the Washington State Supreme Court ruling public charter schools unconstitutional in our state. Whether or not the Court's decision has legal merit, there is no doubt that the result is morally wrong. It is an affront to our most vulnerable students.
Whether or not there is legal merit? It's a Supreme Court decision, for crying out loud. As the Court said, it had nothing to do with the merit of charter schools themselves but to the legal issues of funding them with Washington state tax dollars.
Nearly 1200 Washington families have made the careful choice to send their children to high-quality public charter schools in pursuit of a better education for their children. Nine of the ten charter schools in the state have already started class for this school year. This ruling makes the future of those students uncertain. (Read more.)
 Unlike in past eras, there is no set body of knowledge we can transmit in carefully defined dollops throughout 12 years of schooling that will fully prepare our young people to meet their futures. The mission for schools can no longer be just to "cover the curriculum" or "get through the book." It must be to prepare students to work at jobs that do not yet exist, creating ideas and solutions for products and problems that have not yet been identified, using technologies that have not yet been invented.
Rather than memorizing material from static textbooks, our young people need to learn how to become analysts and investigators who can work with knowledge they themselves assemble to solve complex problems we have not managed to solve.
The problem is, our current education system was designed to meet the needs of the industrial revolution, not the knowledge revolution. And our education policies are too often designed to hold the old factory model in place, rather than to stimulate this new learning and create the settings in which it can thrive. (
Read more.)
Official Press Release.
 Life is never a smooth ride. We encounter unexpected bumps on the way that test our character and challenge our limits. During these times, the best way to power through is by keeping ourselves motivated. Curious to know how successful people manage to do that? Read on. (Read more.)
 Yesterday a truly great educator died. I hope truly great education does not die with him.
The following come from his obituary in the New York Times.
Dr. [Thomas Sobol was the New York State education commissioner for eight years, appointed by Gov. Mario M. Cuomo (the wise father of the tyrannical Governor of NY, Andrew) in 1987."During Dr. Sobol's tenure, the percentage of high school graduates going to college increased, as did the number of students passing advanced placement exams."
"Despite that success, Dr. Sobol resigned in frustration in 1995, accusing Gov. George E. Pataki, a Republican and current candidate for President [if you didn't know], and lawmakers from both parties of making his department and the policy-making Board of Regents scapegoats for the grinding bureaucracy, violence, family dysfunction, poverty, poorly trained teachers, deficient buildings and inferior learning materials that had plagued public schools."
 There are four major styles of leadership which apply well in the educational setting. While each of these styles has its good points, there is a wide berth of variation, and in fact transformational leadership is truly an amalgamation of the best attributes of the other three. Let's explore how servant leadership, transactional leadership and emotional leadership compare to transformational leadership. (Read more.)
 Our school superintendents last in their jobs
now only three to four years
, on average. The rate of turnover
among our chief state school officers is unprecedented
. It seems that fewer and fewer people are interested in applying for these jobs. They chew people up like a meat grinder in the increasingly irascible battles being fought at every level of our education system. No one, it seems, wants to talk about this, but this situation will in time leave us without capable leadership where we need it the most. (Read more.)
 Programs brought forth by Teach For America (TFA) were usually accepted right off the bat with very little argument against it. Last night this changed dramatically as the Chair of the Professional Standards Board (PSB), Byron Murphy, lambasted Teach For America for their arrogance and slamming of career teachers, as well as their tendency to use teaching as a stepping stone. Byron Murphy also came down hard on the individual who presented the program, Jeremy Grant-Skinner, who is also the Senior Managing Director of this TFA program. Murphy claimed Grant-Skinner had absolutely no school leadership experience. When it came time for a motion by the board to vote on the program, not one single member of the Professional Standards Board would enter a motion.
 Advocates say that much of that opposition is based on misinformation or misunderstanding. However, those proponents have struggled to articulate a clear, consistent, and convincing rationale for how the Core will improve American education.
Why proponents have struggled to address the opposition
Common Core advocates failed to anticipate the political backlash against the standards that emerged in recent years, or to respond to it in a rapid or coordinated manner. They also have struggled to combat the volume and speed of opponents' messaging on social media, where information (and misinformation) is being disseminated rapidly and widely, often unbeknownst to proponents. (
Read more.)
 Labour's Liz Kendall today called for a Finnish-style education revolution to ensure poorer children do not start school having already fallen behind.
The leadership contender said Britain had to learn from schools in the Nordic country, which tops international education league tables.
Under her proposals, newborn babies from disadvantaged backgrounds would be given intensive support to ensure they begin school on an equal footing. (
Read more.)
 Within the last few years, the focus on educational accountability has shifted from holding students responsible for their own performance to holding those shown to impact student performance responsible-students' teachers. Encouraged and financially incentivized by federal programs, states are becoming ever more reliant on statistical models used to measure students' growth or value added and are attributing such growth (or decline) to students' teachers of record.
Findings from this study provide a one-stop resource on what each state has in place or in development regarding growth or value-added model use as a key component of its state-based teacher evaluation systems. Despite widespread use, however, not one state has yet articulated a plan for formative data use by teachers. Federal and state leaders seem to assume that implementing growth and value-added models leads to simultaneous data use by teachers. In addition, state representatives expressed concern that the current emphasis on growth and value-added models could be applied to only math and English/language arts teachers with state standardized assessments (approximately 30% of all teachers). While some believe the implementation of the Common Core State Standards and its associated tests will help to alleviate such issues with fairness, more research is needed surrounding (the lack of) fairness and formative use associated with growth and value-added models. (Read more.)
 How do you attract people from your community into the public schools during the school day? One successful method is the Superintendent's Patrons Tour. The tour is based on three ideas: (1) people support an activity in direction ratio to their understanding and appreciation of the activity's purpose and complexities; (2) the operation of the school district and its delivery system for educating children is an activity that requires public understanding and support; and (30 most adults' knowledge of the school district is limited to the schools they attended as students. (Read more.)
 The NCAA scored a victory in August when the National Labor Relations Board declined to grant college athletes at Northwestern University
the right to unionize. But even as the start of college football season this week diverts attention from a tumultuous summer, the NCAA and its major conferences are bracing for more challenges.
"It's hard to have a feeling other than being an enterprise under siege," Big 12 Conference Commissioner Bob Bowlsby told The Huffington Post this week. (
Read more.)
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
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. 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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Backlash against overtesting, "accountability" and Common Core is right on. Here's how we empower teachers and kids.
