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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Last week, the Chicago Sun Times ran a series of editorials advocating social and emotional learning in Chicago Public Schools. According to the Sun Times, troubled schools whose students regularly face the consequences of violence and neglect confront sobering odds in raising those students' academic performance. The writers call for a social and emotional learning curriculum in all schools, as well as for more social workers, school counselors and psychologists.
Like the signers of the Broader, Bolder Approach to Education, they recognize the importance of stressing "social development and non-academic skills" alongside academic learning. And like the Broader, Bolder Approach signers, they will likely be accused of abandoning academic rigor for some fuzzy-headed notion of "life skills." ...
Welcome back to school! Many of you are now preparing back-to-school presentations, columns, and other communications. The Learning First Alliance--which sponsors Public School Insights--has just released language you can use in your back-to-school communications. You have our permission to use it all or in part, as your needs dictate.
Our sample language outlines an emerging vision for 21st century public schools, a vision that is already taking shape in schools from coast to coast. It reaffirms the extraordinary mission of our public schools and encourages strong partnerships among public schools, citizens and communities.
Feel free to steal our words. Make them your own.
You can download the language here. ...
On Saturday, the New York Times ran a fascinating story about a Florida science teacher's struggles to teach evolution to students raised on the biblical story of creation. (For the first time this year, the Florida Department of Education began requiring all public schools to teach evolution.) That teacher's struggles no doubt mirror struggles faced by thousands of teachers across the country.
Laws on evolution in public school classrooms will continue to swing back and forth as intelligent design advocates and their creationist kissing cousins keep pressing their case with policymakers. In the meantime, teachers simply have to make do without strong--and scientifically sound--guidance on how best to survive in this environment.
In 2002, Charles Haynes of the First Amendment Center offered some thoughts on a way forward. ...
Phi Delta Kappa, International has just released the results of the 40th Annual Phi Delta Kappa/Gallup Poll of the Public's Attitudes Toward the Public Schools. It makes for fascinating reading.
The Big Headlines
The press will no doubt focus on the following findings: ...
In a Washington Post editorial today, Robert Samuelson reacts to author Bill Bishop's caution in his new book, The Big Sort: namely, that Americans are increasingly segregating themselves by social and political values into so-called "lifestyle ghettos." Samuelson soft-pedals Bishop's claim that this trend is exacerbating political polarization and endangering our long-held commitment e pluribus unum, but other commentators lend Bishop's concern greater weight. ...
When Krista Parent arrived in rural Cottage Grove, Oregon in the mid 'eighties, it was a timber town whose students regularly dropped out of high school to work in the lumber mills. Academic achievement was not among the community's top priorities. Now, over 20 years later, students in Cottage Grove's South Lane School District perform well above state averages in assessments of reading and mathematics, and the district's high school graduates more than 95% of its students.
We were recently lucky enough to interview Parent about how she and her colleagues at South Lane worked with the community to transform the district's schools. Parent describes how South Lane's educators reached out to their community to transform the academic culture. They attended meetings of civic organizations, parent groups, church groups and other groups that had a stake in the schools' success as the lumber mills fell on hard times. Parent and her colleagues won community members' trust by listening to--and honoring--their aspirations and expectations for their children and their schools. ...
(Or is it Dr. Brooks and Mr. Hyde?)
Last month, David Brooks implicitly lumped Nobel Prize-winning economist James Heckman together with other signers of the "Broader, Bolder Approach to Education" as standard-bearers for a desiccated "status quo." He apparently objected to that group's contention that "poverty and broad social factors drive high dropout rates and other bad outcomes. Schools alone can't combat that, so more money should go to health care programs, anti-poverty initiatives and after-school and pre-K programs." ...
Public School Insights recently caught up with Hugh Price, former President of the National Urban League and current chair of ASCD's Whole Child Initiative. In an expansive telephone interview, Price told us about his new book, Mobilizing the Community to Help Students Succeed, which describes how educators and communities can work together to improve student motivation in school, celebrate academic success, and foster stronger student achievement. ...
It appears that a phony debate continues to rage over whether schools alone or out-of-school social programs alone can close achievement gaps between poor and wealthy students. Provoked by the "Broader, Bolder Approach to Education," an important statement calling for both in-school
and out-of-school interventions to boost student achievement, the debate is distracting us from constructive deliberation about what it will take to support all students' achievement.
Of course schools can and should make a profound difference in the lives--and academic achievement--of our most vulnerable students. Indeed, that's a major premise of this website, which highlights the success of public schools and districts across the country, many against sobering odds. Let's be clear: It serves no one well--least of all educators--to depict public schools as powerless and educators' dedication as wasted. Defeatism has no place in discussions of school reform. ...
A few weeks ago, we were excited to learn that Crook County Middle School's Michael Geisen, a forester-turned-science teacher, was named by the Council of Chief State School Officers as the 2008 National Teacher of the Year. Selected for an innovative teaching approach that focuses on the individual needs of students, school/community connections, and collaboration with his colleagues, Geisen is now spending a year traveling nationally and internationally as a spokesperson for education.
He recently spoke with Public School Insights about a variety of topics including what he hopes to achieve as teacher of the year, his belief in the need to redefine "basic skills" and "intelligence," the support teachers receive (or should receive), and how he personalizes teaching to foster a life-long love of learning while increasing standardized test scores.
Listen to 5 minutes of highlights from our interview (or read through the transcript below): ...
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A VISION FOR GREAT SCHOOLS
On this website, educators, parents and policymakers from coast to coast are sharing what's already working in public schools--and sparking a national conversation about how to make it work for children in every school. Join the conversation!
