Welcome to the Tuesday morning, January 30, 2018, edition of the HML Post. This weekly newsletter is a service to the members of the Horace Mann League of the USA.
More articles of interest are on the HML Flipboard site.
Editor's note: The HML Board encourages the wider distribution of the
HML Post. If you would like to have the
HML Post made available to your administrative team (or graduate students),
click here.
The HML Post is a service provided by the Horace Mann League. If you know of a colleague who might appreciate the research and editorials relating to public education, send the person's email. Click here.
Quote of the Week
A (school) Board's perception of reality is reality; regardless of the facts.
1st Corollary: The function of the superintendent is to make the reality and the facts fit as closely as possible.
2nd Corollary: Any administrator's tenure in a district is directly related to how close the facts and reality correlate.
A Retired Superintendent
_________________________________________
Horace Mann League's Annual Meeting
Friday, February 16, 2018, 11:45 am to 1:30 pm, Omni Hotel, Nashville (AASA Conference). Registration click here.
The prevailing theory of action behind the exam requirements and accountability movement is that schools and students held accountable to these measures will automatically increase educational output due to the accountability pressure. The assumption inherent in these policies is that when students and educators are faced with the pressure of examinations, they will simply try harder. Pressure to improve test scores is assumed to produce gains in student achievement as schools work to improve their instruction for low-achieving students (Vasquez Heilig & Darling-Hammond, 2008).
School choice proponents often attack their critics by saying that anyone who doesn't support choice programs - charter schools, voucher programs, tax scholarship credits - love the status quo and don't care that children are trapped in failing traditional public schools.
So let's stipulate from the start:
*There are some perfectly awful publicly funded traditional public schools and some severely troubled districts, especially in America's cities. Kids shouldn't be trapped in them.
*There are some great charter schools, which are publicly funded but run privately, some of them by for-profit companies. In some cities, some charters provide better experiences than the traditional public school.
*All choice supporters aren't interested in destroying the traditional public system, and no supporter of the traditional public system that I have ever heard of thinks the traditional schools don't need improvement. (
Learn more.)
Consider the core dilemma that few members of education policy elites want to talk about much less tackle: with near unanimity on the importance of preschool to individual children, their parents, and society, those who teach preschoolers outside of public schools (predominately female) are paid just above the poverty level.
A couple of years ago, I wrote a post for my Education Futures opinion blog on edweek.org, entitled
"10 Reasons the U.S. Education System Is Failing." I listed 10 problems and issues that prevent the U.S. education system from living up to its potential. Even years later, my list-which addressed economic shortfalls, gender and racial disparities, parent engagement, and more-still periodically shows up as one of edweek.org's top-read blog posts.
1.
In this digital age, we need to rethink literacy.
2. The way we currently assess students is not working.
4. We continue to retain and socially promote students.
5. Anti-intellectualism and academic disengagement are running rampant.
7. We are not able to consistently produce quality teachers.
8. We are not doing enough to foster digital equity.
9. We are not doing enough to get girls involved with STEM.
Effective school superintendents are those who are able to bargain and build strong coalitions within and outside their school districts. Within the district, they must work successfully with the school board, central office, unions, school leaders, and teachers. Outside the district, they must work well with the mayor and city government, business, higher education, cultural institutions, state officials, and parents.(Learn more.)
The value of large-scale assessments (national or international) is that, properly administered and reported, they provide a window into the world of schools along with solid estimates of student performance. The NSRoundtable and the HMLeague understand that. Each association is especially committed to the sort of assessment practices that help states, districts, schools, and teachers determine areas in which students are performing well and those where students need additional support. Several aspects of the new Common Core tests promise that sort of information.
This report sets out to do three things: (1) It aims to demystify assessment terminology and methodology so that front-line educators can understand what lies behind pronouncements about the performance of American students. (2) It brings together and examines two dierent strands describing the performance of our students - domestic and international assessments - to shed some light on how valid, in the broadest sense, these domestic benchmarks are. And (3) it provides a critical examination of the validity of NAEP benchmarks, dened broadly not technically, by asking how students in other nations measure up to them.
The central finding of this report is that the NAEP benchmark of Procient is a defective and a misleading guide to action that is frequently inappropriately linked to Common Core assessments about "career and college readiness." (Learn more.) Full report, click here.
A century-old pillar of the school system is under fire as schools look to modernize student assessment b
y Laura McKenna on the Eutopica site.
Under pressure from an unprecedented constellation of forces-from state lawmakers to prestigious private schools and college admissions offices-
the ubiquitous one-page high school transcript lined with A-F letter grades may soon be a relic of the past.
In the last decade, at least 15 state legislatures and boards of education have adopted policies incentivizing their public schools to prioritize measures other than grades when assessing students' skills and competencies. And more recently, over 150 of the top private high schools in the U.S., including Phillips Exeter and Dalton-storied institutions which have long relied on the status conveyed by student ranking-
have pledged to shift to new transcripts that provide more comprehensive, qualitative feedback on students while ruling out any mention of credit hours, GPAs, or A-F grades.
(Learn more.)
What're the key factors of a killer presentation? Well-structured text, quality images, and public speaking skills, to name a few. However, there are more tricks and detailes in the presentation making process. Below is our ultimate cheat sheet of 10 dos and don'ts for making your presentations persuasive and attention-grabbing.
1.Do think about your key message first.
2.Do a 15-word summary.
3.Do browse a user-friendly presentation platform.
4.Do put yourself in the listeners' shoes
. WIIFM (What's In It For Me).
5. Do choose photos wisely
.
6.Don't stuff the slides with text.
7. Don't read!
8. Don't plan body language
.
9.Don't apologize.
10.Don't overuse effects and transitions. (
Learn more.)
Sponsor a Professional Colleague for membership
in
the Horace Mann League.
Click here to download the "Sponsor a Colleague" form.
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
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. Martha Bruckner, Exec.Dir., MOEC Collective Impact, Omaha, NE President-elect:
Dr. Eric King, Superintendent, (ret.) Muncie Public Schools, IN Vice President: Dr. Laurie Barron, Superintendent, Evergreen School District, Kalispell, MT.
Past President:
Dr. Christine Johns-Haines, Superintendent, Utica Community Schools, MI
Directors: Dr. Ruben Alejandro, Supt.
of
Schools, (ret.) Weslaco, TX
Dr. David Berliner, Professor Emeritus, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ
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 USD, Elk Grove, CA
Dr. Stan Olson, President, Silverback Learning, (former supt.
of
Boise Schools, ID)
Dr. Lisa Parady, Executive Director,
Alaska Council of School Administrators Dr. Kevin Riley, Superintendent, Gretna Community Schools, NE
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.
