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Blog Entries
The upcoming presidential inauguration offers schools and students an apt occasion to reflect on citizenship, the presidency, the nation's past, and our collective future. Here's a sampling of current initiatives to promote this kind of reflection:
The Presidential Inauguration Committee is sponsoring an essay contest for Washington, DC school students. They're asking students to answer the following question: "how can I contribute to my neighborhood through community service?" The winners will get plum seats near the inauguration platform. The deadline for essay submissions is January 11th.
Another initiative is challenging Americans to write an inauguration address--or rather, the the essence of an address boiled down into six words. SMITH Magazine and the National Constitution Center have teamed up to sponsor this competition. They have even created a lesson plan teachers can use to ...
Tackling "the Empowerment Gap": An Interview with Jefferson County, KY Superintendent Shelley Berman
As the celebrated superintendent of Hudson, Massachusetts schools, Dr. Sheldon Berman distinguished himself as one of the nation's leading champions of civic education. Since coming to Louisville, Kentucky a year ago, Berman has maintained his passionate commitment to civics, though he has altered his approach somewhat to meet the specific needs of students in his large urban district.
Berman recently spoke with us about his work in Jefferson County Public Schools. He told us about the impact of No Child Left Behind on civics education, the consequences of the "Empowerment Gap" for low-income students, and the implications of this historic presidential election for civics education.
Download the full, 15-minute interview here, or listen to five minutes of highlights:
Researcher Meira Levinson warns of a civic achievement gap that is every bit as troubling as academic achievement gaps. Poor students and students of color know less than their wealthier,non-minority peers about civics and government and they are less likely to vote or participate in other civic activities. Even worse, they are far less likely to believe they can make a difference through civic action.
Just days before an historic presidential election whose results could hinge on poor and minority voters, Levinson spoke with us about these gaps--and what schools can do to narrow them. Download the full, 20-minute interview here. ...
For parents, staff and students at the John Stanford International School, it's never too early to go global. The diverse public elementary school in Seattle holds classes in Japanese, Spanish and English, focuses on world cultures, and even allows some students to attend school in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. All the while, students maintain impressive scores on Washington State assessments. (See our full story about the John Stanford School here.)
I recently caught up with three teachers from John Stanford, Maria Buceta Miller, Margretta Murnane and JoAnne Uhlenkott. They shared some of the secrets of their success.
You can download the entire 20-minute conversation here. You can also read through a transcript of highlights below.
Alternatively, you can download any of the following excerpts from the full interview: ...
A week ago, New York City Schools Chancellor Joel Klein announced that the district would pilot a new reading program in 10 elementary schools. Created by the Core Knowledge Foundation for grades K-2, the reading program will focus on both phonics and content knowledge.
Core Knowledge founder E. D. Hirsch recently spoke with Public School Insights about the program, which marks a strong departure from current practice in New York City elementary schools. He describes his dismay that so many schools have narrowed their curricula in the wake of No Child Left Behind. Such tactics are inevitably self-defeating, he tells us, because children cannot develop strong reading skills when they lack content knowledge. Too many poor students with strong decoding skills fall far behind after 4th grade because they cannot thrive on the academic starvation diet of a narrow, skills-focused curriculum. ...
About six years ago, the superintendent of the Gainesville City School System (GA) told elementary educators to start dreaming: he wanted them to create their ideal learning and teaching environments. Each of the district's elementary schools would open with a unique focus, to be determined by the people who would work in them.
After extensive research, Principal Jill Goforth and other Gainesville educators decided to embrace the Core Knowledge Foundation's approach to education-an approach that emphasizes a rigorous, content-focused curriculum to help all students establish a strong foundation of knowledge that they can build on later in school and life. ...
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. ...
Harvard professor and cultural critic Henry Louis Gates, Jr. captured some 25 million viewers with his riveting PBS documentary series, African American Lives (WNET). Using genealogical research and DNA science, Gates traces the family history of 19 famous African Americans. What results is a rich and moving account of the African American experience.
Gates recently spoke with Public School Insights about the documentary and a remarkable idea it inspired in him: To use genealogy and DNA research to revolutionize the way we teach history and science to African American Students. Now, Gates is working with other educators to create an "ancestry-based curriculum" in K-12 schools. Many African American students know little about their ancestors. Given the chance to examine their own DNA and family histories, Gates argues, they are likely to become more engaged in their history and science classes. As they rescue their forebears from the anonymity imposed by slavery, students begin to understand their own place in the American story.
If the stories in African American Lives are any guide, they're in for an experience.
The Significance of African American Lives
PUBLIC SCHOOL INSIGHTS: Tell me about "African-American Lives" and its significance, in your view.
GATES: Wow, that's a big question. [Laughing] I got the idea in the middle of the night to do a series for public television that would combine genealogy and ancestry tracing through genetics. I've been fascinated with my own family tree since I was 10 years old - that's the year that my grandfather died. ...
Child advocates have worried in recent years that recess has been disappearing from public school calendars as schools focus more heavily on academics--primarily math and reading. Is this concern warranted? According to the National School Boards Association's Center for Public Education, the answer is yes and no.
In its recent analysis of research on the fate of recess, the Center reaches the following conclusion: "To borrow from Mark Twain, reports of recess's death seem to have been grossly exaggerated.... Even so, the pressure on schools to find more instructional time is real, and it seems to be leading many districts to shave minutes from the recess time they provide. In addition, children who attend high-poverty, high-minority, or urban schools are far more likely than their peers in other locations to get no recess at all-a definite 'recess gap' that commands our attention." ...
In the Washington Post today, Jay Matthews offers a thought-provoking challenge to uncritical purveyors of critical thinking programs. "As your most-hated high school teacher often told you," Matthews writes, "you have to buckle down and learn the content of a subject--facts, concepts and trends--before the maxims of critical thinking taught in these feverishly-marketed courses will do you much good."
To some extent, Matthews is states the obvious. If you don't have anything to think about, critical thinking will likely elude you. Critical faculties atrophy when starved of content knowledge. (Unfortunately, too many low-income students must in fact survive on an academic starvation diet when basic reading and mathematics crowd out important content areas.) ...
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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!
