 |
Welcome to the Tuesday, January 15, 2019, edition of the
HML Post
.
The
HML Post is a weekly review of recent of articles about educational research and leadership articles. T
he HML Post is a service provide by the members of the League.
Last week's HML Post, click here. The "New" HML Blog site, click here.
Donations are welcomed and appreciated.
|
|
Quote of the Week
I don't know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everbody.
a mentoring (retired) superintendent
_____________________
Horace Mann League' s Annual Conference
|
|
|
|
Kevin Welner and Bill Mathis of the National Educaton Policy center
|
|
The 98th Annual Meeting of the Horace Mann League will be on Friday, February 15, 2019, at noon, at the J.W. Marriott Hotel near the LA Convention Center, and held in conjunction with AASA's Conference.
2018 Recipients of HML's Outstanding Public Educators.
Don't Teach Your Kid to Code. Teach Them to Communicate
by
Greg Satel on the Medium Education site.
|
|
|
Structural changes necessary in detracking efforts challenge not only the technical dimensions of schooling, but also the normative and political dimensions.
We argue that detracking reform confronts fundamental issues of power, control, and legitimacy that are played out in ideological struggles over the meaning of knowledge, intelligence, ability, and merit. This article presents results from a three-year longitudinal case study of ten racially and socioeconomically mixed secondary schools participating in detracking reform. We connect prevailing norms about race and social class that inform educators', parents', and students' conceptions of intelligence, ability, and giftedness with the local political context of detracking. By examining these ideological aspects of detracking we make a case for reexamining common presumptions that resistance to policies providing greater opportunities to low-income and minority children is driven by rational estimates of the learning costs and benefits associated with such reforms.
WORLDWIDE, RISING populism and identity politics are leading to increased demands from families seeking out specific types of schools that mirror their ideologies. In some countries, this has extended to replacing the public system of schools with government vouchers that can be used to pay for private schools - a priority of
Betsy DeVos, the nominee for U.S. education secretary.
Advocates argue that school choice promotes competition that will improve performance and allow the freedom of choice that will best serve student educational needs and family preferences.
These are not new ideas. Nobel prize-winning economist Milton Friedman designed an educational voucher plan some 60 years ago that was adopted by Sweden and Chile. Under his plan, families can use vouchers at any approved private school. Several states and cities in the U.S. sponsor voucher approaches for students from low-income families that are used mainly at religiously affiliated schools.
Why is it that now with a bustling economy, rising productivity, and shrinking unemployment American public schools are not receiving credit for the turnaround? In light of scathing criticism of poorly performing public schools, the question sounds foolish. It isn't if you consider the Great School Scam of the 1980's.
For the last decade, U.S. Presidents, corporate leaders, and critics blasted public schools for a globally less competitive economy, sinking productivity, and jobs lost to other nations. The United States, as one highly popular report put it in 1983, had educationally disarmed itself in a hostile economic war. "If only to keep and improve on the slim competitive edge we still retain in world markets," the report said, "we must dedicate ourselves to the reform of our educational system."
(
Learn more.
)
The college-admission process exerts a powerful shaping influence on high school students. Eager to secure spots on campus, they scramble to build themselves into the people their dream schools seek, with the requisite honors classes, extracurricular passions, and perfectly structured essays.
But what if colleges rewrote that script? What if they found new ways to evaluate students, so they could better understand the value and nuance in their learning and in their life stories?
The students who stand to gain the most from such changes are those who are too often sidelined in the application process: The immigrant whose English isn't great yet, but who wowed her class with a worldwide DNA analysis. The boy who packs groceries 30 hours a week to keep his family afloat. The girl whose school doesn't offer AP courses, but who learned to read ancient Greek poetry in her spare time.
(Learn more
.)
The Teachers Won'
That grassroots demonstrators secured the traction they did is striking in many ways, and the outpouring of political activity among educators offers a valuable lesson for reporters on the school beat.
Teachers in Arizona, at least, were surprised to discover that their pursuit of better education conditions and a higher salary might not be a pipe dream after all; the endorsement from political leaders in both parties and, perhaps most importantly, from the parents of their students, reinforced their optimism, Russakoff said.
This empowerment was "transforming," she said. It was an awakening.
The change in mindset, as the Harvard Graduate School of Education's Martin West noted during the EWA discussion, seems to have spread into the general public. That's evident in recent survey data, including an Education Next
poll released in August. West, the editor-in-chief of EdNext, and his research team
found that roughly half of U.S. adults (49 percent) support teacher pay increases-a 13 percent jump from 2017.
Engaging environments, personal contact with families, systems, and logistics make the difference.
Getting kids to show up at school is an age-old problem. A recent report by the U.S. Department of Education notes that about 6 million students (1 out of 7) miss at least 15 days during the school year, increasing their likelihood of lower achievement and dropping out.
Exemplary schools prioritize four factors that lead to greater daily attendance.
1. Engaging environment:
School leaders and staff connect personally with individual students by knowing each student by name, fist bumping and always saying "hello."
2. Personal contact with families:
Principals, social workers and staff build relationships with families, making school welcoming.
3. Attendance systems: We shifted our systems to coordinate with county, state and local agencies to address impediments that lead to missing school.
4. Record-keeping and logistics: Throughout the day, schools with high attendance analyze their student data-from ID-card scanners that students use as they enter. (Learn more.)
After following nearly 4,000 students in five diverse school systems, TNTP's researchers concluded that
this "opportunity myth" does exist, and is the result of several things happening in schools.
First, most students went through their day without grade-appropriate assignments. Students wasted more than 500 hours per school year on assignments that were simply too easy for them. Totaled up, this amounts to six months of wasted class time in each core subject!
Though students met the requirements of their classroom assignments 71 percent of the time (and earned A's and B's), they only demonstrated mastery on grade-level standards 17 percent of the time.
Clearly, classroom assignments must be more rigorous to inspire the deep engagement required for learning and memory retention.
Additionally, some teachers neither held their students to high expectations nor provided strong instruction. Less than half of the teachers reported that they thought their students could meet or exceed grade-level standards. (
Learn more.)
Four-plus years after it was first published, a report on personalized instruction is getting renewed attention as schools in the northeast consider calling their experiments in the instructional model a failure.
Noel Enyedy, an associate professor at the
University of California Los Angeles Graduate School of Education and Information Studies
, suggested that there's "little evidence for the effectiveness" of personalized instruction delivered through technology. The primary reason: The term encompasses so many disparate systems, it's "nearly impossible to make reasonable claims one way or the other." Implementation in the classroom matters, as does how personalized learning is integrated into classroom "routines and structures" and how the computer itself is used in the instructional process. (Learn more.)
School leaders benefit from setting up and maintaining a system of support to help them meet the many challenges of the job.
As an administrator, I use this mantra when the work feels too difficult or the feedback seems too tough, to remind myself that the challenge is also a moment of opportunity.
For some school leaders, it is counterintuitive to think that they might need to ask for help. But in order to thrive, it's vital that school leaders reach out and create pathways for support. How do they seek support?
1. FIND CONNECTION
Who are your supporters? Who can you trust to discuss challenges and solicit advice?
2. READ TO LEARN
Reading up on best practices and tips from others can help administrators gain perspective.
3. BUILD ROUTINES
Work stress often means stress outside of work as well. Recalibrating throughout the year is critical to stay focused and connected.
4. REFLECT AND REFRAME
In those dark moments of doubt where you question your choice to become a school leader, step outside of your circumstances to see the bigger picture. Reframing a challenge is a useful way to gain perspective.
5. BE MINDFUL
As the adage goes, "Be mindful, even when your mind is full." Incorporate simple mindful strategies into your day for shelter from the day-to-day stress. (
Learn more.)
Anybody who wants to can find reams of educational research verifying that parent involvement is a critical factor in a child's educational success. To educators, that idea is a no-brainer. Over the years, I have become convinced that a positive home-school connection is an essential tool for me to have in my teacher toolbox. I look at it this way: A positive home-school relationship makes my job much easier, and it benefits the children and their families. Support from home translates into rested kids, help dealing with behavioral or academic concerns, and completed homework and projects.
Understanding the importance of parent involvement and opening my classroom doors to parents during instruction time, however, were two very different things.
What Activities can oarent do?
- helping with activity preparations (for example -- cutting, tracing, collating);
- reading with small groups or individual students;
- working with a child on a special project;
- tutoring in math or language arts;
- assisting children with homework;
- publishing (putting together) student books; or
- helping with special art projects or center activities.
The list of activities a parent volunteer can do -- with specific, helpful instructions -- is almost limitless.
(Learn more.)
Directors of the Horace Mann League. A series of brief articles about the officers and Directors of the Horace mann League.
Dr. James Harvey is the
Executive Director of the
National Superintendents Roundtable
James Harvey has worked with school superintendents since 1992 and served as executive director of the National Superintendents Roundtable since 2007. The Roundtable, an invitational membership organization, is dedicated to leadership in support of just and humane schools. It holds in-depth seminars on cutting-edge topics annually and Harvey has led Roundtable study missions to England, France, Finland, Cuba, and China to understand schooling abroad. The Roundtable also examined the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) at a 2012 meeting at OECD in Paris.
A native of Ireland, Harvey attended elementary and secondary schools in Ireland and London and completed his high school education at a public school in Pennsylvania. He is the author or co-author of dozens of articles and five books on education and education policy, including A Legacy of Learning (2000, with David Kearns former CEO of Xerox) and The Superintendent's Fieldbook (2004 and 2013). He was the principal staff writer and editor of A Nation at Risk (1983) and What Work Requires of Schools (U.S. Department of Labor's SCANS Commission, 1991). Earlier, he served in the Carter administration as an education lobbyist and on the staff of the Committee on Education and Labor of the U.S. House of Representatives.
His doctoral dissertation at Seattle University examined both the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) and American school performance in an international context. This research was published by the Roundtable and the Horace Mann League in 2015 and 2018 as The Iceberg Effect and How High the Bar? He serves on the boards of the Horace Mann League and the Network for Public Education as well as on the Steering Committee of the Urban Superintendents Academy sponsored by AASA and Howard University. Married to Anne Paxton, he is the father of three children: Janet, Jamey, and Patrick.
-------------------
Cartoon of the Week
Click
here to register for the 2019 Annual Meeting.
The 2019 Outstanding Friend of Public Education- Dr. Henry Levin
Dr. Henry Levin,
Professor of
Economics and Education at Teachers College, Columbia University, New York. Dr. Levin's special areas of interest are: Economics of education, cost-effectiveness analysis, school reform, and privatization. He is Co-Director of the Center for Benefit-Cost Studies in Education.
The 2019 Outstanding Public Educator- Dr. Jeanne Oakes
Dr. Jeanne Oakes is Presidential Professor Emeritus in Educational Equity at UCLA. She focuses her time with the Learning Policy Institute (LPI) on projects related to
deeper learning, teacher preparation, and resource equity. She plays a leadership role in both the resource equity work, as well as LPI's work with the Partnership for the Future of Learning.
The 2019 Outstanding Friend of the Horace Mann League - Andy Schaefer and Discovery Education.
Andy Schaefer, as Vice President of Discovery Education, has over the past ten years, been a strong advocate of public education and the mission and purpose of the Horace Mann League. During the ten-year span, Andy has assisted the League in building a stronger relationship with our corporate partners.
The 98th Annual Meeting of the Horace Mann League will be on Friday, February 15, 2019, at noon, at the J.W. Marriott Hotel near the LA Convention Center, and held in conjunction with AASA's Conference.
Click here to register for the 2019 Annual Meeting.
______________________________________
Our Valued Corporate Partners
|
The Superintendent's Special topics:
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 Ad., 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, Middle school Principal, Zillah Schools, 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, Mesa Public Schools, AZ
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 Brooks, Executive Director, Tri-State Consortium,
Setauket, 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.
|
|
|
|
|
|
