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.
Connected Community
Blog Entries
New success stories keep coming in from districts across the country--Many thanks to Public School Insights readers who have taken time to submit news about what's working in their schools.
Many of the stories we have posted over the past two weeks focus on community connections.
Here's a sample: ...
An Exclusive Interview with Richard Simmons about His Campaign for P.E. in Schools
Tank top, striped shorts and all, Richard Simmons is becoming a force to be reckoned with in Washington's education policy debate. He has mounted a major campaign to get physical education into the schools and has caught the attention of key policymakers on Capitol Hill.
Amidst all this activity, he recently found time to talk me about his goals, the dire need for physical education and his frustration with the glacial pace of reform in Washington during an election year.
Richard told me about his advocacy for the FIT Kids Act, which would establish a framework for schools to closely look at the quality and quantity of PE they are providing, and to supply parents with that information to better understand the PE their kids are receiving. ...
Education Week reported a couple of months ago that a change to Medicaid reimbursement rules could cost districts Billions in the coming years. Currently, schools that provide health care services for Medicaid-enrolled children with disabilities can be reimbursed by Medicaid for transportation and administrative costs. But a Bush administration decision may well bring an end to all that.
Districts across the country are now bracing for the double impact of lost Medicaid reimbursements and a potentially "wrenching" fiscal crisis. (A very hasty Google search of news stories over the past few weeks turned up articles about the effect of Medicaid changes on schools in Florida, Arizona, Wisconsin and others.) ...
In my title, I paraphrase Sylvia Allegretto, an author of a grim new Economic Policy Institute report on the steady deterioration of teacher pay over recent decades.
Teachers, it seems, are among the only professionals who get shafted at both the best of times and the worst of times. Over the past decade, Allegretto and her co-authors find, the compensation gap separating teachers and similarly-educated professionals in other fields has grown by almost 11 percent. What's worse, the gap is especially large for experienced teachers: "The brunt... has fallen on senior teachers (45-54), whose pay deficit within their age group has grown by 18.0 percentage points among women (who comprise the vast majority of teachers) since 1996." ...
When it comes to public schools, beauty has too often been in the report card of the beholder.
Recent years have witnessed a surge in efforts to grade the nation's public schools. Groups such as Editorial Projects in Education (publishers of Education Week), the Fordham Foundation, and the U.S. Chamber of Congress issue separate and at times conflicting report cards grading states on the quality of their K-12 education systems. States maintain their own systems for grading individual districts and schools--and their grades often contradict federal designations of schools' Adequate Yearly Progress under No Child Left Behind. ...
Read with a child on March 3rd to celebrate the joy of reading and promote children's literacy!
The National Education Association's Read Across America is a nationwide "annual reading motivation and awareness program that call for every child in every community to celebrate reading on or around Dr. Seuss's birthday."
Over the next two weeks, PublicSchoolInsights.org will celebrate Read Across America with special on-line events, including: ...
A new study by the Center for Information & Research on Civic Learning & Engagement (CIRCLE) finds that low-income youth are far less likely than their peers to learn about politics and citizenship in school. At a time when voter turnout among disadvantaged youth is dishearteningly low, CIRCLE's findings raise concerns that a generation is being disenfranchised through neglect. 
Fortunately, schools like the Boston Community Leadership Academy are working to level the playing field.
Let me hear from you. How can we ensure that our low-income youth have access to excellent civic education? ...
Welcome! This new Learning First Alliance website presents a fresh, 21st century vision for public schools, with real examples of what is working in all kinds of public schools and districts. see how public schools - maybe even yours -- are pursuing imaginative strategies to helping students succeed.
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Nowhere are the "Christmas wars" more explosive - and nowhere do people feel the stakes are higher - than in public schools. In schools around the country, the December "holiday" (aka "Christmas") assembly has become a high-stakes contest that stirs deep emotions.
For many people on all sides, the argument isn't really about Christmas songs or Nativity pageants - it's about who gets to decide what kind of society we are. Schools, after all, are where we define who we are as a nation.
The depth of the divide is illustrated by two requests for help I recently received. The first was from an elementary-school principal struggling to figure out if her school's plans for the December program would pass constitutional muster. The proposed script includes a skit about Santa Claus that ends with a Nativity re-enactment during the singing of "Silent Night."
The second was from a parent in another town who is upset because all mention of Christmas has been banned in her child's school.
Both approaches are wrongheaded and divisive. Both violate the spirit, if not the letter, of the First Amendment. ...
Success Stories
‘Yes, We’re Serious’ — A Campaign to Reach 100% Graduation
Story posted April 23, 2013. (We previously covered this initiative in August 2012, but this narrative adds a different, and very valuable, perspective.)
Results:
- The district graduation rate has steadily increased from 78.5 percent in 2006 to 95.2 percent in 2012.
- All high schools in the district exceeded their individual target graduation rates.
- More than 100 businesses, civic, government and faith-based organizations have signed up to be a part of the 100% Graduation Project.
There’s a real conversation-starter hanging on a wall outside the Clarksville-Montgomery County School System’s (CMCSS) board room. It’s a wall-sized poster of football players representing each of this Middle Tennessee district’s seven high schools. They are standing on the 50-yard line, in uniform, looking tough and determined, with game faces on. Below them is the text: “95.2% is not enough.”
The poster stops many visitors in their tracks. When they realize the meaning behind the words — that the number reflects CMCSS’s current graduation rate, and the district’s goal is 100 percent — they typically question if district leaders are serious. We are!
“One hundred percent graduation,” said Superintendent Dr. B.J. Worthington, “is our goal, and our community has made the commitment. We’ll not strive for anything less.” After all, a football field is 100 yards long, and CMCSS is not content to stop 4.8 yards short ...
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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!
