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.
School Community Communication
Blog Entries
In less than 5 short years, "Teachers TV" has grown from an idea harbored by a British Schools Minister into a popular and influential British television channel devoted solely to education. Now, there are efforts afoot to help something similar take root in American soil.
We recently spoke with Andrew Bethell, Teachers TV's CEO and creative director. Bethell described the accomplishments of the television channel, which has broadcast thousands of often riveting mini-documentaries about what's happening in British schools.
The documentaries offer authentic accounts of successful practice and real-life struggles to improve. They also feature broad education reform strategies--without ever losing sight of those strategies' impact on actual schools and students. As Bethell is careful to point out, Teachers TV focuses on more than just teachers: It highlights the work of ...
A new article in the January issue of School Administrator examines a concept conspicuously absent from many recent reform discussions: transparency. The article profiles four school districts whose "openness" and "ongoing communication with the public" helped them win critical bond and finance elections. All four received Gold Medallion awards from the National School Public Relations Association.
The school districts won public support by reaching out to their communities. They learned about the public's aspirations and concerns, and they gave the public a stronger voice in decision-making. They also became much more open about how they spent their money, dispelling common public concerns that public schools will squander any new dose of funds.
School districts that use this approach can point to more than just victories at the polls. They boast stronger, more sustained public engagement in their work, which can in turn fuel critical gains in ...
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. ...
Last week, we published some language schools and districts could use in their back-to school communications. This week, we saw a back-to-school speech delivered by a Dallas fifth-grader who has given us a run for our money.
Dalton Sherman delivered a powerful message before a crowd of some 20,000 people in the Dallas Independent School District. Check it out. ...
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. ...
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): ...
Addressing the American Federation of Schools convention after her election as president, Randi Weingarten urged the dramatic expansion of the community school model:
Can you imagine a federal law that promoted community schools — schools that serve the neediest children by bringing together under one roof all the services and activities they and their families need?…Imagine schools that are open all day and offer after-school and evening recreational activities, child care and preschool, tutoring and homework assistance. Schools that include dental, medical and counseling clinics.
Robert Podiscio of the Core Knoweldge Blog worries that such schools could relegate education to the margins while becoming "social service agencies of last resort." This is definitely a danger--if schools lack the resources and support to carry out their broader role. Pondiscio thoughtfully describes what often happens when schools must redeploy their existing resources to fill the void left by policymakers who blithely de-fund programs for communities in greatest need. ...
Last week, we interviewed Paul Houston, who recently retired from his 14-year position at the helm of AASA, about his legacy as an educator and his thoughts on the current state of education reform.
This week, we turn our attention to another education leader who is reflecting on a long and distinguished career: Warlene Gary, who in late June retired from her position as executive director of the national PTA.
In our exclusive interview, Gary speaks about what she has accomplished in her 35-year career, her commitment to equity, her efforts at the PTA to reach out to poor communities and communities of color, and her frustration with the "paralysis of analysis" that hamstrings so many education reform discussions in Washington, DC. ...
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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!
