Welcome to the HML POST - For the busy leaders of public education.
October 5 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.   Dr. McKay is the Executive Director of the HML and 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. 

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The Horace Mann League of the USA Post
  The Network for Public Education assigned an "F" to the selection of John King as a replacement to Arne Duncan, who recently resigned as Secretary of Education.
Diane Ravitch, eminent education historian and President of the Network for Public Education, said, "The policies of the US Department of Education have inflicted immeasurable harm on American public education. The blind faith in standardized testing as the most meaningful measure of students, teachers, principals, and schools has distorted the true meaning of education and demoralized educators. Punitive policies have created teacher shortages across the nation, as well as a precipitous decline in the number of people preparing to become teachers. The Race to the Top preference for privately managed charter schools over public schools has encouraged privatization of a vitally important public responsibility."  ( Read more.)

Here Is What We Know About John King, The Next Secretary Of Education   by Rebecca Klien on the Huffington Post site
U.S. Secretary of Education  Arne Duncan is stepping down from his post in December to spend more time with his family, he announced Friday. President Barack Obama has already tapped John King Jr., former New York State education commissioner, to take Duncan's place.  
1. He Is A Fierce Supporter Of The Common Core.
 2. His Tenure As New York State Education Commissioner Was Riddled With Controversy.
3. He Is Committed To Diversity In The Classroom.
4. He Has Experience In The Classroom.

In keeping with a long Washington tradition of announcing less-than-good news at the end of the week, when many journalists are operating at three-quarter-speed (due to hangovers or laziness), the Obama administration announced on Friday that Arne Duncan, President Obama's old  hoops buddy , who the Washington Post  once called  "the most powerful education secretary in U.S. history," was stepping down from the Department of Education. He was one of the precious few original members of the administration still standing. It had been a long seven years.  (Read more.)

The new generation of principals, though, especially those who work in urban schools, have become far more involved with what happens in the classroom. Spurred by new state laws that call for improved methods of teacher evaluation, many districts across the country are looking for principals to serve as instructional leaders and talent judges - helping teachers improve, rewarding those deemed "most effective" and firing those who aren't.
"There is a big shift in what the principal job looks like these days," says Robyn Hansen, president of the National Association of Elementary School Principals. States are under pressure to make sure teachers are being regularly evaluated, and "the teacher evaluation system requires principals to be in and out of the classroom and to drive instructional practices to be better."  ( Read more.)

Private Equity Asset-Stripping Strategy Meets Charter Schools to Produce Even Better Looting   by By  Yves Smith on the Truthout site
The nub of the looting strategy is the acquisition and leaseback of lavish buildings to house charter schools. Because charters are correctly perceived to be risky tenants, bond financings for these purchases are at junk bond rates, meaning high financing costs are heaped on top of what would already be unjustifiably high rental charges, by virtue of putting schools in educationally unproductive glamorous digs. And of course, in an environment where it's business as usual to lard up bond deals that could be done on a plain-vanilla basis with far more complicated deals that lower interest rates a smidge in return for allowing consultants to charge hefty fees and the financiers to dump risks worth more than the cost savings on the hapless borrower through derivatives, the financial rent extraction can occur at an even greater scale on a high-cost financing.  ( Read more.)




We should be outraged by such behavior and demand appropriate punishments and sanctions as well as restitution and correction. But we should not be shocked. As an ethicist who has looked at the behavior of individuals in business and corporations, I can point to a number of troubling trends that help explain these transgressions.  ( Read more.)

Those "Powerful Market Forces"  by  Valerie Strauss on the Washington Post site
In March 2014, billionaire Bill Gates participated in an interview with the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), one of the many organizations he financially supports in his effort to promote the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) (see Chapter 9). In a 6-minute video clip from the AEI  interview, Gates purports to explain various aspects of CCSS, including the reason for the "common" component. His explanation has nothing to do with educational quality:
 If [states] have two [sets of standards] they're comparing, they ought to probably pick something in common because, to some degree, this is an area where, if you do have commonality, it's like an electrical plug, You get more free market competition. Scale is good for free market competition. Individual state regulatory capture is not good for competition.  ( Read more.)

Five ideas to improve teacher quality  by  Jackie Mader on the Hechringer site. 
Low-performing schools struggle to attract and retain good teachers. This June, in an effort  to give more students access to excellent teachers , the United States Department of Education required states to submit "educator equity plans," meant to identify the root causes of why poor and minority kids receive more inexperienced teachers and fix the problem. Earlier this month, plans from 16 states were approved and while these plans vary in specifics, many of the states focused on reforming teacher preparation as the key first step to improve quality.
Here is the first of five reforms that states have proposed:
1. Determine the success of training programs: The Indiana Department of Education will survey new teachers and the principals that oversee those teachers to evaluate the effectiveness of Indiana's educator preparation programs.  ( Read more.)

The business school-trained are taking on education - but what about the teachers and students?  Limiting ourselves to technical and methodological solutions to the problems in education misses the point   by Megan Erickson 
Neoliberal  scholars and politicos who seized upon A Nation at Risk  during the late 1980s and early '90s to argue that American schools were globally uncompetitive and in need of a lifesaving  injection of free-market principles succeeded in turning a controversial, unsubstantiated proposition into conventional wisdom almost overnight. Today many political officials, along with nearly every corporate philanthropist, take it for granted that a lack of accountability and rigor has left the education system in a state of crisis . This belief has, in turn, paved the way for those who are "socially conscious" but apolitical (for example, the rising figure of the "social entrepreneur")  to frame education and poverty as bipartisan technical challenges in search of methodological solutions. Naturally, the solutions that spring from the minds of business school-trained advocates are rather more likely than those thought up by teachers or parents or students themselves to be based on the widespread adoption of a new technology or design or habit of mind, instead of something with as high an overhead as increasing or redistributing material resources.     ( Read more .)

Ruling that the Supreme Court has not settled the issue, and setting the stage for the Court to do so, a federal appeals court  declared on Wednesday that the main college sports organization's total ban on any pay for students who play football or basketball at major schools is illegal under federal antitrust law.  But, it also ruled by a divided vote that those athletes should not be paid even one dollar more than what it costs them to attend college while they are there.  It voided a judge's order that they get paid $5,000 for each year of play, after they have left the campus.  (Read more.)
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled in a case that applies only to so-called Division I of the National Collegiate Athletic Association - that is, the big-time programs - and only for basketball and football players at that level.  (R ead more.)


So far this month in education news, a California court has  decimated rigid job protections for teachers, and Oklahoma's governor has  abolished the most rigorous learning standards that state has ever had. Back and forth we go in America's exhausting tug-of-war over schools-local versus federal control, union versus management, us versus them.
But something else is happening, too. Something that hasn't made many headlines but has the potential to finally revolutionize education in ways these nasty feuds never will.  ( Read more.)

As Worries Rise and Players Flee, a Missouri School Board Cuts Football  by  Ken Belson on the New York Times site. 
Students and families at Maplewood Richmond Heights High School are looking forward to homecoming, the highlight of the autumn school calendar for decades. But for the first time, the centerpiece event will be soccer, not football.
The school board in Maplewood, a St. Louis suburb, disbanded the high school's football team in June, even though it reached the state championship game five years ago. A decade ago, such a move would have seemed radical. But concerns are growing about football players' safety, and soccer and other sports are gaining popularity.  ( Read more.)

The Key to Effective Schools: Sustainable, Scalable Professional Development Committees Driven by School Leaders and School Staffs
 on the EDat Apple site
It is amazing to me that very successful entrepreneurs decide to pour money into poorly designed educational initiatives using a logic that they would never use in the world of business.
Mark Zuckerberg poured $100 million into an ill-fated plan to "rescue" Newark. A toxic superintendent, an angry parent citizenry, all documented in the newly released " The Prize: Who's in Charge of America's Schools" by Dale Russakoff.
"The Prize" may well be one of the most important books on education to come along in years. It serves as a kind of corrective to the dominant narrative of school reformers across the country.   ( Read more .)




  Secretary of Education Arne Duncan thinks our schools are shortchanging students with special needs or disabilities. The truth is, he's right - he's just not right about how our schools are failing them.  
In a new  rule issued by the Department of Education (DOE) on Aug. 21, 2015, we are informed that Secretary Duncan has amended the regulation governing Title I, Part A of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 to prohibit states from creating modified academic standards, and using alternative assessments based on those modified standards, for most children with identified special needs. In the past, two percent of all students were permitted to take modified tests that would count toward demonstrating proficiency; the new rule reduces the number of students taking modified tests from two percent to one. Now, only students with "the most significant cognitive disabilities " are exempt.  ( Read more.)

Accountability for Public Schools Only  by Peter Greene on the Curmudgucation site.
Arne Duncan today held a press chat to announce that  USED would be throwing more money ($157 million) at charter schools. 
Throwing money at public schools is, you may recall, anathema to reformsters, who are concerned that while money has been thrown higgledy piggledy at public schools, it appears that insufficient amounts of the money have struck students in the test-taking parts of their brains.
Throwing money at public schools is bad, because we are just certain that they are wasting it and that the taxpayers are not getting a sufficient bang-to-buckage ratio.    But throwing money at charter schools is awesome, because we have no idea where the hell it's going.  (Read more.)

  Per-pupil spending can vary drastically between school districts, with affluent suburban districts often outspending their neighbors by significant margins. Such disparate school spending is frequently identified as a primary culprit in our nation's wide achievement gaps between students of different socioeconomic and racial backgrounds. The argument makes intrinsic sense to many: if one school district spends significantly more educating its students, then of course those students will perform better academically. Existing research on the topic, however, paints a muddier picture.  (Read more.)

Simon Sinek presents a simple but powerful model for how leaders inspire action, starting with a golden circle and the question "Why?" His examples include Apple, Martin Luther King, and the Wright brothers -- and as a counterpoint Tivo, which (until a recent court victory that tripled its stock price) appeared to be struggling.




Does Pre-K Make Any Difference?  by   David L. Kirp on the New York Times site.
DOES preschool work? Although early education has been widely praised as the magic bullet that can transport poor kids into the education mainstream, a major new study raises serious doubts.
Since 2004, Tennessee has offered state-subsidized prekindergarten, enrolling more than 18,000 of the state's neediest 4-year-olds. An early evaluation showed that, as you'd expect, youngsters who attended pre-K made substantial gains in math, language and reading. But, startlingly, the gains had evaporated by the end of kindergarten.
Those first results were alarming, and worse was yet to come.
A just-released study tracks the same kids to third grade. There's still no evidence that the children benefited cognitively from preschool. They may be better socialized to school life - a skill, emphasized in preschool, that may well bring long-term benefits - but many of them haven't mastered the three Rs.  ( Read more.)
 

Upcoming Event:  
The 93rd 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.