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Welcome to the HML POST - For the busy leaders of public education.
October 19, 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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 This summer I got to meet Lyon Terry, my state's teacher of the year for 2015. Lyon told me about something clever he does in his classroom at the beginning of each school year: He takes a big piece of paper and draws an arrow on it, pointing up and to the right, and labels it the Learning Line. He puts a dot at the bottom of the arrow and labels it "Birth." He puts another dot a little farther up, for 4thgraders. Then another one for high school graduates, and one farther up-but not at the top-for himself.
(
Read more
.)
 The research is equally clear, though, as to the importance of school principals. In fact, principals account for at least 25 percent of a school's total impact on student achievement, according to research conducted by organizations such as ASCD and the Wallace Foundation. Principals create the necessary conditions for teachers to succeed-the individual support, the technology, the facilities, the interface with parents and policy leaders. (Read more.)
 A hoax is a deliberate attempt to deceive, and is more elaborate than a simple lie. Hoaxes are stories of doubtful veracity, constructed to create a desired opinion in the mind of the hearer. The Piltdown Man was a hoax. American education has not had to contend with many hoaxes, but the Global Education Reform Movement (GERM) to privatize our public schools is fertile ground for growing a few hoaxes. Slick TV ads for online charter schools - like those run by K12 Inc., for example - that show smiling children and happy mothers negotiating an education on a laptop on the kitchen table approach the mendacity of a full-blown hoax.
Unlike hoaxes, myths arise from our well-intentioned attempts to understand and generalize our personal experiences. Unfortunately, our personal experience is a poor guide to the creation of general knowledge
 Pennsylvania public schools are now at Defcon 1-borrowing millions of dollars to keep the lights on, starting to ask teachers to work without pay, and even voting to shut the schoolhouse doors and send the kids home-all because an unprecedented state budget crisis has left them within weeks of insolvency.
Funds are running out so fast in Erie, the state's fourth-largest city, that the schools could shut down by November 1. The school board last month unanimously authorized this previously unthinkable option. If the money runs dry, Erie would consider requiring its 12,000 students to stay home for a week or two. (
Read more.)
 Willie Jolley, Ph.D.
was recently rated the No. 1 inspirational speaker following his appearances at the Get Motivated seminars, where he replaced the legendary Zig Ziglar. He offered these motivational nuggets to businessmen and women:
- Sometimes setbacks produce major comebacks.
- Be consistent.
- Know your assets.
- The secret to success is relationships.(Read more.)
by Stephanie Hirsch on the Learning Forward site.
 According to the 2015 National Survey on College and Career-Ready Literacy Standards and Collaborative Professional Learning, 91% of teachers surveyed r
eport working on standards implementation during collaborative time with colleagues, with 77% rating it valuable or extremely valuable in supporting their transition to new literacy standards.
73% of teachers who report having regular time to collaborate feel better prepared to implement the standards. And yet more than 80% of teachers report having fewer than two hours a week to collaborate. (Read more.)
In the years since North Carolina's Republican takeover in 2010, the state's once-proud education system has fallen on tumultuous times thanks to politicians who no longer seem to value public schools. Despite a $450 million budget surplus this year, lawmakers have refused to restore school funding to pre-recession levels -- which leaves teachers struggling to cope with rising enrollment while their salaries remain stagnant.
 The context for this one is simple enough-what mistakes do we constantly make in education that hold us back from the best versions of ourselves? From realizing our collective potential as a construct, field, and industry? What mistakes do we make over and over and over again, expecting a different result each time?
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 The "Word Gap" theory holds that poor kids' school performance is the result of their parents' inability to expose them to rich vocabularies at home.
This is a great theory because it makes the problem "poverty" and not "schools where discipline is job one." It means that teachers can be forced to be "accountable" by turning them into machines that drill their poor kids on vocabulary instead of pursuing project-based learning, experiential learning, and all those other rich (ahem) pedagogical approaches that wealthy kids get to do in their classroom. (
Read more.)
 Why do rich kids end up
doing better than poor kids in school? Of late, one common explanation for this has been the "word gap," or the idea that
poor children are exposed to significantly fewer words by age three than their wealthier peers.
As a former elementary school teacher and now educational psychologist, I understand the appeal of the "word gap" argument. But, focusing on the "word gap" as an explanation for the
achievement gap
between poor students and wealthier students is both distracting and potentially harmful. Such an explanation could allow educators at all levels to both deny and widen this real gap that exists between the rich and the poor kids.
(Read more.)
"The corporate reformers' top-dollar public relations gurus must have anticipated a series of lavish celebrations of their market-driven reforms. But, reality intruded. It's a safe bet there will not be ten-year and 15-year victory laps for those prohibitively expensive urban experiments that produced underwhelming results. If the Gates Foundation stays its course, even its education division may not be around for a 20-year birthday party.
 We force children to take tests that their brains cannot grasp.
We ignore research that proves that children who are 5-6 learn best experientially.
We rob them of precious free play that teaches them how to be good citizens, good friends and good thinkers.
We waste precious teaching and learning time that could be spent experientially learning the foundations of math, reading and writing, as well as valuable lessons in social studies, science and health. (
Read more.
)
 As life-long learners, teachers are continuously learning to improve their teaching practice and expand their knowledge base. Thankfully, the Internet has levelled the ground and provided unrestricted access to a plethora of resources and materials to help you grow professionally . This page features some examples of web tools to use for your professional development. Additionally, we have curated this list of popular books recommended by teachers for teachers. Most of these books have been best sellers in the education section in Amazon.Whether you are a beginner teacher or a veteran, you will definitely find something interesting to enlighten your teaching and make you a better teacher.
 Ken Nickerson could have retired from his job as a professor of biological sciences at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln 10 years ago, when he turned 62.
He could have retired five years ago, when the university offered faculty a year's salary to step down as part of a buyout to encourage more of them to leave.
He could have retired last year, when, in yet another buyout offer, administrators dangled the equivalent of 90 percent of one full year's salary in front of faculty who would finally agree to go.
But Nickerson stayed. After 40 years of doing research as well as teaching, "I want to find the answers to certain questions before I retire," he said. "I want to get those discoveries made, I want to get those publications out, and there's a pretty long list of them still." (
Read more.)
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
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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It's pretty clear that the ability of a school or teacher to increase students' standardized test scores is associated with long-run outcomes. Let's dig in to some evidence:
For the last few years, states that adopted the Common Core State Standards have been purchasing new textbooks and other instructional materials to better align their curriculum with the new academic benchmarks. But it turns out they're largely in the dark when it comes to deciding which materials deliver the most bang for the buck.
