Welcome to the Tuesday morning, April 17, 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.

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Corporate Friends
  Quote of the Week
Do not listen with the intend to reply, 
but with the intend to understand.
Unknown
__________________
 
Tips On Culturally Informed Communication by National School Public Relations Association (NSPRA) Communication Equity and Diversity on the NSPRA Site.
Think beyond race and ethnicity.
Culture encompasses characteristics that are central to a person's identity which may be invisible to others. Culture encompasses race, ethnicity, socio-economic status, sexual orientation, gender identity, body size, age, physical abilities, and family structure.
Avoid using gender-specific nouns and pronouns (use they instead of he or she; try families instead of mom, dad, or parents).
Avoid scheduling events on any religious day of observance, including those for Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist and other religions. 
Know that based on your geography, some religious observances may be more prevalent in your area than at somewhere else in the country. Know your demographics and plan accordingly. 
Be aware that transportation, internet access, and phone service may not be accessible to all families. Plan accordingly and make accommodations such as providing transportation to and from meetings from a central location, providing access to computer labs and technology, and establishing partnerships with nonprofits or municipalities that have access to computer labs and technology.  ( Learn more.)



How to Design an Agenda for an Effective Meeting  by  Roger Schwarz from the INC Magazine on the HML Blog.
We've all been in meetings where participants are unprepared, people veer o track, and the topics discussed are a waste of the team's time. These problems-and others like it-stem from poor agenda design. An effective agenda sets clear expectations for what needs to occur before and during a meeting. It helps team members prepare, allocates time wisely, quickly gets everyone on the same topic, and identify issues when the discussion is complete. If problems still occur during the meeting, a well-designed agenda increases the team's ability to effectively and quickly address them. Here are some tips for designing an effective agenda for your next meeting.  
1. Seek  Input from Team Members
2. Select Topics That  Affect the Entire Team
3. List Agenda Topics as  Questions the Team Needs to Answer
4. Note the  Purpose of the Meeting
5. Estimate a Realistic Amount of  Time for Each Topic
6. Propose a Process for Addressing Each Agenda Item
7. Specify How Members Should Prepare for the Meeting
8. Identify Who Is Responsible for Leading Each Topic
9. End the Meeting with an  Evaluation
Here are some questions to consider when identifying what the team has done well and what it wants to do differently:
* Was the agenda distributed in time for everyone to prepare?
* How well did team members prepare for the meeting?
* How well did we estimate the time needed for each agenda item?
* How well did we allocate our time for decision making and discussion?
* How well did everyone stay on topic? How well did team members speak up when they thought someone was o topic?
* How effective was the process for each agenda item?   ( Learn more .)


Evidence Shows Students Still Learn More Effectively From Print Textbooks Than Screens by Patricia Alexander and Lauren Singer Trakhman on the Science Alert Site.
  
Today's students see themselves as  digital natives, the first generation to grow up surrounded by technology like smartphones, tablets and e-readers.
Teachers, parents and policymakers certainly acknowledge the growing influence of technology and have responded in kind. We've seen  more investment in classroom technologies, with students now equipped with school-issued iPads and access to e-textbooks.
While new forms of classroom technology like digital textbooks are more accessible and portable, it would be wrong to assume that students will automatically be better served by digital reading simply because they prefer it.
Speed - at a cost?   Our work has revealed a significant discrepancy. Students said they preferred and performed better when reading on screens. But their actual performance tended to suffer.
For example, from our  review of research done since 1992 , we found that students were able to better comprehend information in print for texts that were more than a page in length.  ( Learn more.)

When you're a  manager, your employees are constantly watching to see  how you behave and what you say. As a result, it's important to be intentional about your  choice of words in any setting.
As the boss, there are certain things you probably shouldn't say.
You're probably aware of the more obvious statements, like:
  • "I'm only doing this because corporate is making me."
  • "I really shouldn't be telling you this, but..."
  • "I just need to vent to you about [Person]..."
However, in addition to these obviously-nots, there are a few others phrases that, although seemingly harmless, may end up hurting you and your team.
1. "Keep doing what you're doing"
2. "Was that clear?"
3. "Failure isn't an option"
4. "Don't bring me problems, bring me solutions"

To excel as a manager, you've got to be a great communicator. When you're speaking, keep your goals in mind and think critically about the messages you're sending. With that sort of intentional communication, odds are you'll have a positive impact on your team.
( Learn more.) (Author includes some alternative phrases.)

If you want to bring up a kid to be a successful investor or entrepreneur, the current education system says they should be studying STEM subjects, cramming facts and figures, and immersing themselves in coding class. I've spent my working life as an entrepreneur and investor - I've founded startups, and now invest across Europe for GV (the venture capital investment arm of Google) - but as a father, when I look at the way we're educating our kids, I think there's something missing.
Machines are already superintelligent on many axes, including memory and processing speed. Unfortunately, those are the attributes our education system currently rewards, with an emphasis on learning by rote.
It doesn't make sense to me. Part of my job as an investor is to attempt to predict the future - I need to make bets on the way we'll be behaving in the next two, five, ten and 20 years. Computers already store facts faster and better than we do, but struggle to perfect things we learn as toddlers, such as dexterity and walking.    ( Learn more.)

Diane Ravitch assails state of education in New Mexico  By Robert Nott on The New Mexican site.
New Mexico is no Land of Enchantment for its public school students, author and public education advocate Diane Ravitch told a crowd of avid supporters at the Lensic Performing Arts Center.
That's because too many of those children live in the kind of poverty that stunts learning in an environment of educational reform programs - including a teacher evaluation system, reliance on standards-based assessment tests and an A-F school grading plan.
Neither New Mexico nor the United States, Ravitch said, is doing enough to fix the problem by attacking the root causes, such as poverty and poor health care.
New Mexico suffers from "bad policies, bad leadership and the highest rate of poverty in the nation," ( Learn more.)
 

Defining bad teachers is often subjective, and different groups have myriad ways of judging teacher quality. Parents may base their opinions on brief, informal interactions with teachers, or on limited evidence of stylistic choices a teacher might employ in instruction or in building relationships. Students, on the other hand, have more direct interactions with teachers, but may lack maturity or an understanding of the overarching goals or learning objectives that influence their teacher's performance. Policy makers often base decisions on student achievement measures, though these may be flawed metrics and also ignore other critical aspects of a teacher's performance. News media often rely on shocking, often horrifying anecdotes of bad teacher behavior (haven't we all seen the mugshot of the arrested slimy teacher?), firing up the public's imagination about the number and impact of all those bad teachers. Our work asks if it is possible to find enough common ground between all these perspectives to come up with a satisfactory definition of a bad teacher, one which we think will include a spectrum and combination of behaviors.   (Learn more.)

Projections of Education Statistics to 2026 on the National Center for Education Statistics site.
This edition of Projections of Education Statistics provides projections for key education statistics, including enrollment, graduates, teachers, and expenditures in elementary and secondary public and private schools, as well as enrollment and degrees conferred at degree-granting postsecondary institutions. Included are national data on enrollment and graduates for at least the past 15 years and projections to the year 2026. Also included are state-level data on enrollment in public elementary and secondary schools and public high schools beginning in 1990, with projections to 2026.   ( Learn more.)

What is Giftedness? on the Gifted Development Center site.
So what is giftedness? The Moms are right. It is developmental advancement that can be observed in early childhood. But the child doesn't advance equally in all areas. As she asks what happens after you die and "How do we know we aren't part of someone else's dream?" she still can't tie her shoes! An eleven-year-old highly gifted boy got off the plane with his calculus book in one hand and his well-worn Curious George in the other. The higher the child's IQ, the more difficulty he or she has finding playmates or conforming to the lock-step school curriculum. The greater the discrepancy between a child's strengths and weaknesses, the harder it is for him or her to fit in anywhere.
  Rita Dickinson (1970), the founder of gifted education in Colorado, reported that a large percentage of the gifted children she tested in the Denver Public Schools were referred for behavior problems.   ( Learn more .) 

The Right Way to End a Meeting  by Paul Axtell from the Harvard Business Review on the HML Blog site.
Meetings are really just a series of conversations-an opportunity to clarify issues, set direction, sharpen focus, and move objectives forward. To maximize their impact, you need to actively design the conversation. While the overall approach is straightforward- and may seem like basic stuff - not enough managers are actually doing this in practice:
  • Set up each conversation so that everyone knows the intended outcomes and how to participate.
  • Manage the conversation rigorously so that the discussion stays on track and everyone is engaged.
  • Close the conversation to ensure alignment, clarity on next steps, and awareness of the value created.  (Learn more.)
How To Discredit a Strike by Peter Greene on the Crumudgucation site.
From the list of must-see news is  this item in The Guardian  that brings us  a secretish manual for fighting back  against the teacher strikes breaking out across the US. But there is good news here-- I'll get to that in a moment.
The "messaging guide" is only three pages long, but it includes specific ideas about how to fight back against these crazy teachers and their desire to be paid a decent wage and also work in decent facilities.
1. Teacher strikes hurt kids and low-income families.
The guide cites some "research," But the point here is that parents working hourly-wage jobs can't just take off or suddenly get child care. But the guide says to note that it's "unfortunate" that teachers are "protesting low wages by punishing other low-wage parents and their children" when instead teachers should, I guess, punish those families the old-fashioned way-- by standing by idly while the schools that serve low-income neighborhoods are gutted and torn down in tasteful slow motion.   (Learn more.)

The release of the 2017  National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) in reading and mathematics shows widening gaps between the highest and lowest achieving students in America, underscoring a continuing need for investment in efforts to make education systems more equitable. Compared to 2015 results, 2017 scores in reading and mathematics were higher for eighth-grade students who performed in the 75th and 90th percentiles of test takers, and they were lower for fourth-graders in the 10th and 25th percentiles.
Those stubborn and widening gaps are one of the major findings of this year's NAEP results, also referred to as the Nation's Report Card. The gaps persist even as the data also show that overall scores in both reading and math for fourth- and eighth-graders have risen since the assessments were first given in the early 1990s, and that gaps between white and black and white and Hispanic fourth graders have narrowed.
(Learn more.)

Broken laptops, books held together with duct tape, an art teacher who makes watercolors by soaking old markers.  Teacher protests have spread rapidly from West Virginia to Oklahoma, Kentucky and Arizona in recent months. We invited America's public school educators to show us the conditions that a decade of budget cuts has wrought in their schools.   We heard from 4,200 teachers. Here is a selection of the submissions, condensed and edited for clarity.  (Learn more.)

Because of parental protests, New York State shifted it testing contract to Questar Assessment from Pearson in 2015 because Pearson would not release test questions to teachers and the public for review.  Analysis of reading passages and questions released by Questar from the 2017 8th grade ELA exam reveal major problems in the design of the test and its value for assessing student learning and improving instruction.
A well-designed test starts with easier reading passages and questions to build up student confidence as they proceed through the test. Placing easier passages and questions first, and having a variety of different types of questions, helps educators establish the specifics children are having trouble understanding. But the Common Core aligned exam has reading passages that are almost all of similar length and difficulty and with the same types of questions. Not only is it designed so that large numbers of students fail, but it also gives educators no information about why they are failing. It is worthless as a learning assessment to inform instruction.  (Learn more.)
 
Teachers can help reduce mental health problems in children, study finds on the Florida International University site.
School-based mental health services delivered by teachers and staff can significantly reduce mental health problems in elementary-aged children, according to a new study by researchers at FIU's Center for Children and Families.
The implications are significant considering approximately 30 to 40 percent of youth in the U.S. will be diagnosed with at least one mental health disorder by adolescence.
"More than half of children in the U.S. who receive mental health care receive those mental health services in a school setting, which makes educators frontline mental health providers for affected children," added the study's senior author, Jonathan Comer, professor and director of the Mental Health Interventions and Technology (MINT) Program at FIU's Center for Children and Families. "Our findings are encouraging in showing how-with sufficient training and support-mental health services can be quite effective when delivered by school-based professionals who are naturally in children's lives."   (Learn more.)
  
The report's most significant takeaway, Singer and Braun argue, is the need to de-emphasize rankings when assessments are released. Although ILSAs provide a valuable framework for understanding how a jurisdiction's education system is performing, and for motivating further investment in education, the rankings so dominate the releases that "they become the statement of truth, and the data that are underlying the rankings get lost," says Singer.

According to state and national data, chronic absenteeism - which has a profoundly negative effect on student achievement - is closely correlated with ongoing and/or unmet health care needs (U.S. Department of Education, 2016). For example, in a recent survey of high school students in Florida, 92.4% of respondents indicated that health reasons were "sometimes" or "usually" the cause of their absences (Brundage, Castillo, & Batsche, 2017).   

A January report by the National Superintendents Roundtable (NSR) and the Horace Mann League, titled " How High the Bar?," recommends NAEP adopt benchmarks used by international education assessments, such as Progress in International Reading Literacy Survey (PIRLS) and Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS).
Their achievement levels of low, intermediate, high, and advanced would give more a neutral take on student scores, says James Harvey, executive director of NSR, without using the loaded words "basic" and "proficient." And because NAEP informally uses the level "below basic," Dr. Harvey says swapping in PIRLS and TIMSS's four terms would be easy and allow NAEP to keep the scoring measures that give the test consistency. 
" We tried to make it clear that we don't mind high standards, we just want them labeled correctly," says Harvey. "If they would stop using 'proficient' and replace with 'high,' we would be quite happy."    (Learn more. )

Trying to pin down what makes an effective school leader can be a little like trying to eat soup with a fork, but a group of academics has come up with what looks like a pretty good list.
Not surprisingly, the researchers identified the quality of  leadership as one of the key factors driving the transformation, in line with many previous studies into school improvement.

  1. They have consistent, high expectations and are very ambitious for the success of their pupils.
  2. They constantly demonstrate that disadvantage need not be a barrier to achievement.
  3. They focus relentlessly on improving teaching and learning with very effective professional development of all staff.
  4. They are expert at assessment and the tracking of pupil progress with appropriate support and intervention based upon a detailed knowledge of individual pupils.
  5. They are highly inclusive, having complete regard for the progress and personal development of every pupil.
  6. They develop individual students through promoting rich opportunities for learning both within and out of the classroom.
  7. They cultivate a range of partnerships particularly with parents, business and the community to support pupil learning and progress.
  8. They are robust and rigorous in terms of self-evaluation and data analysis with clear strategies for improvement.
Although this list was drawn up with particular reference to schools in difficult circumstances, they appear to readily translate into different contexts.  ( Learn more.)

5 ways to boost your attention span by  Eric   Barker on The Week Magazine site.
The human brain is the most amazing thing in the universe. It got us to the moon, built the pyramids, cured smallpox ... And it also can't seem to go six minutes without checking Facebook.
Just like noise-canceling headphones need batteries, your brain has to expend precious resources in order to filter distractions around you. So doing the same task is harder in environments with more tempting or annoying stimuli.
So how do you go about increasing your attention span? First step: don't waste what little you have.
1. Stop multitasking:  Juggling multiple activities not only divides your attention among the tasks - but you also pay a cognitive "penalty" on top of that to manage the switching. 
2. Exercise:  Strengthen your body and you strengthen your brain. 
3. Meditate:  Focus on your breath and when your mind wanders, return your attention to your breath. 
4. Call your mother nature:  Exercise and meditation both strengthen your attention muscles. 
5. Reduce interference:  Simply put, make your environment as boring as possible when trying to focus. Research shows even having a phone in the room can be distracting.  (Learn more.)

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The Education Cartoon of the Week.




 

The Superintendent's Special topics:
(Please share your ideas.  Contact Jack McKay )


The Better Interview Questions and Possible Responses  (From the HML Post, published on March 21, 2016.)
  
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. Eric King, Superintendent, (ret.) Muncie Public Schools, IN  
President-elect:  Dr. Laurie Barron, Superintendent, Evergreen Schools, Kalispell, MT. 
Vice President: Dr. Lisa Parady, Exec. Dir. Alaska Assoc. of School Admin., Juneau, AK
Past President:  Dr. Martha Bruckner, Exec.Dir., MOEC Collective Impact, Omaha, NE

Directors:
Dr. Ruben Alejandro, Supt. of Schools, (ret.) Weslaco, TX
Dr. David Berliner, Professor Emeritus, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ
Dr. Talisa Dixon, Supt. of Schools, Cleveland Heights - University Heights, OH
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. Martin Brook, Executive Direcctor, Tri-State Consortium, Satuket, NY
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.