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.
Standards that Matter
Blog Entries
Washington Post columnist Marc Fisher reminds us today that school improvement does not necessarily require a death-match between high-profile "reformers" and the education "establishment."
Fisher tells the story of a once struggling elementary school that has dramatically raised the achievement of its overwhelmingly disadvantaged student body: "Broad Acres did this without Rhee's reform tactics: no young recruits from Teach for America, no cash for students who come to class, no linkage of teacher pay to test scores."
In other words, Broad Acres made great strides without any of the capital "R" reforms that dominate national discussion about education. Nor did they make their gains over the dead bodies of recalcitrant teachers, administrators or community members.
What did Broad Acres do? The school fostered on-going faculty collaboration, gave strugging students individual attention, offered engaging out-of-school enrichment activities, and supported students' physical and mental well-being.
This is not to argue that we should abandon important discussions about those capital "R" reforms, which focus mainly on incentives and ...
Sally Broughton's middle school students have had a greater impact on their rural community than do many people three or four times their age. The Montana Teacher of the Year has helped her language arts and social studies students successfully advocate for policies to improve life in their school and their neighborhoods. In the process, her students at the Monforton School have strengthened their grasp of history, civics, mathematics, research, writing, and public speaking.
Broughton's remarkable achievements have earned her the American Civic Education Award from The Alliance for Representative Democracy. She recently told Public School Insights about the indelible mark her students have left on Bozeman, Montana. They have much to show for their work: public restrooms downtown, a school-wide bicycle helmet policy, a community playground, and a sophisticated early warning system for local residents living near a vulnerable earthen dam. And the list goes on....
President-Elect Obama is urging Americans to devote themselves to civic and community service. Sally Broughton's students in Bozeman can show you how it's done.
Download our full, 16-minute interview here, or read a transcript of interview highlights.
PUBLIC SCHOOL INSIGHTS: I've heard quite a bit about these very, very fascinating projects that you've done and that have actually managed to change public policy in your community. Could you describe how you go about this, and how these projects support broader academic goals?
BROUGHTON: Absolutely. We do something called Project Citizen. During that time, the children find a problem that can be solved by public policy and they investigate it. ...
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 ...
Some radical reform zealots have used America's standing in international comparisons of student achievement to justify all manner of miracle-cure education reform propositions. (Abolish school boards! Abolish school districts! Abolish school buildings!)
Cooler heads have looked beyond mere rankings to examine practices common to the most successful countries. Most recently, Achieve, the National Governors Association and the Council for Chief State School Officers released a report on such practices.
As I read it, Benchmarking for Success offers some important (if implicit) lessons for reformers:
- Beware miracle cures that have little to do with what gets taught and how it gets taught;
- Seek coherence rather than erratic, disjointed interventions;
- Build public schools' capacity for success.
The report offers more specific recommendations for creating a world-class public education system. Here are a few highlights: ...
In his recent U.S. News & World Report commentary on twenty-first century skills, Andy Rotherham creates a bit of a straw man. He writes:
Schools, the 21st-century skills argument goes, focus too much on teaching content at the expense of essential new skills such as communication and collaboration, critical thinking and problem solving, and concepts like media literacy and awareness.
Is that really how the argument goes? I'm not so sure. Most 21st-century skills advocates, including those in the Partnership for 21st-Century Skills (P21), see content knowledge and 21st-century skills as closely linked, even mutually dependent. ...
Time Magazine's cover story about Michelle Rhee is lighting up the blogosphere. One particular passage from the story is attracting special attention:
“The thing that kills me about education is that it’s so touchy-feely,” she tells me one afternoon in her office. Then she raises her chin and does what I come to recognize as her standard imitation of people she doesn’t respect.... “People say, ‘Well, you know, test scores don’t take into account creativity and the love of learning,’” she says with a drippy, grating voice, lowering her eyelids halfway. Then she snaps back to herself. “I’m like, ‘You know what? I don’t give a crap.’ Don’t get me wrong. Creativity is good and whatever. But if the children don’t know how to read, I don’t care how creative you are. You’re not doing your job.”
This quotation clearly unsettles Core Knowledge blogger Robert Pondiscio, who counts himself a supporter of many reforms Rhee champions. He worries that her bare-knuckles manner will backfire, and he objects that good teachers are by definition "touchy-feely."
I share his concern, and I'll add another. Are we so sure champions of standardized test data are NOT touchy-feely? Do current standardized assessment systems really offer reliable, objective ...
This cloak-and-dagger headline from Sunday’s Columbus Dispatch appears above an unexpectedly tame--though heartening--story about innovative teacher professional development in Ohio.
Apparently, some Ohio districts are using “value-added analysis” of student achievement data to guide school improvement and professional development efforts. The data allow teachers to estimate their impact on students’ academic progress from one year to the next. Teachers and principals can use these data to improve individual teachers’ practice.
The scores are “secret,” because neither the state nor Battelle for Kids, the private non-profit that supplies the teacher-specific data, are authorized to make them public. Administrators may not use the data to fire teachers. They do use them, however, to determine what teachers can do to improve their ...
The usually astute Alexander Russo really misses the mark in a recent article criticizing initiatives such as community schools. In the most recent issue of Scholastic Administrator, he argues that such initiatives' focus on out-of-school factors like health care and family well being distract from schools' fundamental academic mission.
Russo writes that such initiatives "shift attention away from classrooms" and successful school improvement efforts. "Now is not the time to abandon these efforts," he intones, knocking down the same straw man so many others have toppled before him.
Advocates for community schools have no intention of abandoning school improvement efforts. They clearly describe student success in the classroom as a primary goal of their strategy. They also marshal solid evidence that their approach improves student learning outcomes. ...
DC think tank Education Sector just released an important new white paper on "Measuring Skills for the 21st Century." Here are some major points that grabbed my attention: ...
Just over a week ago, education blogger Corey Bower wondered whether a Barack Obama victory could narrow the achievement gap. Among the reasons he cites: Obama could be a role model for African American students; Obama could unsettle traditional stereotypes that reinforce low achievement among students of color.
One possibility Bower's thoughtful and cautious analysis does not consider: Schools have an opportunity to use Obama's victory as a teachable moment. Without descending to partisan politics, schools can capitalize on a new sense of civic empowerment among students who, rightly or wrongly, have long felt disenfranchised. In her recent Public School Insights interview, Harvard researcher Meira Levinson put it this way: ...
SIGN UP
Sign up for our e-newsletter on public school success.
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!
