A new report by LFA and Grunwald Associates, with support from AT&T, examines how parents perceive the value of mobile devices, how they see their children using mobiles, and what they think of the possibilities for mobile learning.
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Several commentators have worried that many state plans to achieve universal student proficiency by 2014--a requirement of No Child Left Behind--resemble balloon mortgages. Soon after the law passed in 2002, many states required relatively small student gains in the first years, demanding most of the gains after 2008. The predictable result: More and more schools are falling short of their targets as the 2014 deadline looms. We're told to brace ourselves for the Fannie Mae of NCLB. ...
A growing chorus of voices is calling for federal education policies that support, rather than seek to prescribe, good practice. Groups like the Forum for Education and Democracy, the National Education Association and the "Broader, Bolder Approach" Coalition have published manifestos on the federal role in
education. We at the Learning First Alliance joined that chorus on Monday, when we published our own statement on the federal role.
A common thread in these manifestos is that schools generally do their best work if given the capacity to succeed. Yesterday, I came across two vivid examples of this point. ...
Today, the Learning First Alliance (LFA), which sponsors Public School Insights, released a statement calling for a new federal role in supporting success for all American public school children. Transforming the Federal Role in America's Public Schools offers a framework to help a new president, administration, and Congress align federal policies with the needs of America's more than 50 million public school students.
The statement emphasizes support for students in need, as well as more effective and transparent accountability among key players in the system. The principles also call for greater collaboration among the federal government, states and districts. ...
Every couple of weeks, we give our readers an update on new stories we've published about public schools and school districts that are succeeding against tough odds. Here's our most recent batch:
- A Middle School Aims for a Blue Ribbon in Alabama's Black Belt, 10/3/2008
- An Elementary School is Taking Flight in Queens, 9/25/2008
- Partnership of Expertise and Knowledge is Empowering Teachers in a Virginia School District, 9/17/2008
- A Full-Service Elementary School is healing students and communities in New York, 9/9/2008 ...
It took Checker Finn at the Fordham Foundation about a nanosecond to respond to the Community Agenda with an entirely over-the-top attack on community schools. Finn, whom friends and foes alike often respect for the integrity of his ideas, has apparently become a complete fantasist. In defiance of all evidence, he calls the community school idea "gooey and emotional" (it actually rests on sound evidence). He also describes it as an attempt "to turn the spotlight away from cognitive learning" (it actually marshals community resources in support of cognitive learning.) This is conspiracy theory, not argument.
And it gets worse. Finn believes that school-based services for parents--such as career counseling, parenting classes and medical services--merely "coddle" parents or "indulge [them] in their shortcomings." Where's the indulgence in helping parents find jobs, find health care or support their children in school? These services actually bring families into school buildings and empower parents to support their children's success. Simply telling parents to shape up ship out is hardly a promising alternative. ...
A coalition of over 100 education, youth, social services and health organizations have released "The Community Agenda for America's Public Schools," a call for more partnerships among public schools and other community or social service organizations that work to improve the lives of children.
Marty Blank of the Coalition for Community Schools made it clear that the agenda connects strong community supports with high academic achievement. "We are not in the 'either-or' category in this debate [between academic and social supports].... What we do is take the next step and we say how this can be done. We need to get past this conversation that says it's either one way or the other." (As Quoted in Education Week)
You can read more about the Community Agenda here. ...
For months now, Washington think tank dwellers have been casting supporters of the Broader Bolder Approach to Education as characters in a morality play about the future of school reform. The storyline goes like this: BBA supporters, who link student achievement to influences both inside and outside of schools, are slothful defenders of the status quo. Struggling against them are righteous warriors for school reform.
As we've noted before, this is a bogus story. No one benefits from this phony battle between school improvement and out-of-school supports for student success. Students need excellent schools, but they also need excellent pre-K and after-school programs, health care programs, and other out-of-school supports for learning. ...
Last night, public television stations nationwide aired a one-hour documentary, Where We Stand, which evaluates the strengths and weaknesses of the U.S. public education system. While the noise of our current financial crash is drowning out news of the documentary, I do hope it will fuel robust conversations about public education.
The documentary's story line is already familiar to the education policy crowd: The world is changing; our children will have to compete for jobs with their peers in Helsinki or Hong Kong; we're being creamed in international assessments of student performance; and our nation's prosperity depends in part on the fate of our schools. Yet we have ample evidence that this message has not necessarily penetrated the public consciousness. While just about everyone supports high academic standards in the abstract, students and their families alike often balk at ambitious coursework in, say, advanced mathematics or science. ...
In a story that has received remarkably little media attention so far, eight urban public schools in Connecticut are participating in an experiment to give teachers, parents and communities greater autonomy over curriculum, governance and budgets. The Connecticut Alliance for CommPACT Schools is helping these formerly struggling schools reorganize.
Among the hallmarks of this effort: ...
Nobel Prize-winning economist James Heckman--and his research on early childhood education--have been very much in the news in recent months. In late August, authors from the Reason Foundation distorted this research in a Wall Street Journal hit job claiming that pre-school actually harms children.
Heckman, a strong supporter of early childhood, quickly called them out on their distortions, and researcher David Kirp followed suit a few days later. In Sunday's New York Times Magazine, Paul Tough cites Heckman's conclusions that "specific interventions in the lives of poor children can diminish" the skill gap that separates them from their wealthier peers, "as long as those interventions begin early (ideally in infancy) and continue throughout childhood." ...
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