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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Cheryl Cook-Kallio puts her money where her mouth is. After decades of teaching civics in American public schools, she won a seat on the Pleasanton, California City Council in 2006. Two years later, her inspiring work as a teacher of civics, government and American history earned her the American Civic Education Award from the Alliance for Representative Democracy. She recently told us about her school.
As an elected official, Cook-Kallio lives what she teaches, and she inspires her students to live what they learn. She and her colleagues at Irvington High School in California push their students to become civically engaged both inside and outside of school.
Irvington students research and solve local problems, raise money for struggling communities, simulate Congressional hearings and explore diverse political perspectives on critical issues. They understand the Constitution and its direct bearing on their lives. These efforts are an integral part of a challenging academic curriculum, not just extracurricular activities for an ambitious few. ...
The evidence is clear-and should be profoundly disturbing: we are failing to impart to today's students the information and skills they need to be responsible citizens. Yet only an educated citizenry can insist that our nation's commitment to liberty be upheld, and the promise of our Constitution fulfilled.
A recent survey by the National Constitution Center demonstrated that more American teenagers could name the Three Stooges than can name the three branches of government. Such statistics highlight a trend with troubling implications for the future. We must do a better job of educating young people to become active and informed participants in our democracy.
At least a partial answer lies in a paradigm shift in the way that civics is taught in our schools. A thorough civic education creates citizens who have a grasp of history and the fundamental processes of American democracy, an understanding and awareness of public and community issues, and the ability to think critically and enter into dialogue on those issues with others who have different perspectives.
Fixing How We Teach Civics: Assessing the Problems ...
Mike Petrilli of the Fordham Foundation thought he had a big scoop: "Obama campaign wants to dump NCLB testing, use portfolios instead." He draws his slender evidence for this claim from a comment by Obama spokeswoman Melody Barnes. Barnes mentions the promise of portfolios and "other forms of assessments that may be a little bit more expensive but...are allowing us to make sure children are getting the proper analytic kinds of tools." Petrilli's conclusion: "embracing portfolios is a clear signal of an intention to roll back accountability."
"Not so fast," say Michele McNeil and Alexander Russo. According to Russo, ...
Editor's Note: Ambassador Akbar S. Ahmed, a distinguished professor at American University, first submitted this posting to Public School Insights in March 2008. Ambassador Ahmed's comments on education about Islam are particularly timely during this presidential election, which has stirred ugly anti-Muslim sentiment in some quarters. We're pleased to publish this contribution by a man the BBC described as "the world's leading authority on contemporary Islam."
As a Muslim professor teaching on campus, nothing is more important to me than the education of the young generation, who represent the future of this planet. In the United States, the world's only superpower, knowledge of the rest of the world is often startlingly lacking, and misperception, intolerance, and hatred against "others," especially Muslims, are far too common. Popular media conceptions of Muslims as evil or Islam as an inherently violent doctrine are widespread. Prominent media figures and government officials have referred to Muslims as "ragheads" and "satan-worshippers." Muslims have been the target of cross-burnings and widespread intimidation. An atmosphere of fear dominates life in America and rabid Islamophobia runs just below, or indeed often above, the surface. It is in this environment that thousands of young Americans out of high school are sent to places like Iraq to fight wars in cultures they don't understand. ...
A growing chorus of voices is calling for federal education policies that support, rather than seek to prescribe, good practice. Groups like the Forum for Education and Democracy, the National Education Association and the "Broader, Bolder Approach" Coalition have published manifestos on the federal role in
education. We at the Learning First Alliance joined that chorus on Monday, when we published our own statement on the federal role.
A common thread in these manifestos is that schools generally do their best work if given the capacity to succeed. Yesterday, I came across two vivid examples of this point. ...
Today, the Learning First Alliance (LFA), which sponsors Public School Insights, released a statement calling for a new federal role in supporting success for all American public school children. Transforming the Federal Role in America's Public Schools offers a framework to help a new president, administration, and Congress align federal policies with the needs of America's more than 50 million public school students.
The statement emphasizes support for students in need, as well as more effective and transparent accountability among key players in the system. The principles also call for greater collaboration among the federal government, states and districts. ...
Commentators have noticed that education was absent from yesterday's presidential debate. This just weeks after the masters of the Ed in '08 campaign closed up shop and declared victory in their quest to make education the election's top issue.
Bloggers have suggested credible reasons for Ed in '08's premature demise: The market inferno sucked all the oxygen out of the education debate. Wall Street failures damaged the reputation of business-inspired education reforms favored by Ed in 08's funders. ...
...that has impelled people to respond to our recent interviews with Finnish education official Reijo Laukkanen and PISA assessment authority Andreas Schleicher. Most telephone calls and comments we've received reveal unabashed enthusiasm for Finland's support for teachers, whom Lukkanen and Schleicher credit for Finnish students' success on PISA, one of the most well-known international assessments.
Yet Stanford mathematician James Milgram takes a different tack. In a comment he sent us yesterday, he questions both Finland's preeminence in mathematics and PISA's ability even to detect such high achievement. ...
Every couple of weeks, we give our readers an update on new stories we've published about public schools and school districts that are succeeding against tough odds. Here's our most recent batch:
- A Middle School Aims for a Blue Ribbon in Alabama's Black Belt, 10/3/2008
- An Elementary School is Taking Flight in Queens, 9/25/2008
- Partnership of Expertise and Knowledge is Empowering Teachers in a Virginia School District, 9/17/2008
- A Full-Service Elementary School is healing students and communities in New York, 9/9/2008 ...
Like many others, I've been wondering what lessons educators and students can draw from the current financial crisis. Certainly, schools should do more to teach financial literacy: Americans could stand to know much more about credit. Schools could perhaps also do more to instill character in students: Financial wizards could have done much more to rein in their greed.
But the crisis offers a third--and I would argue larger--lesson, a real teachable moment: We're all in this together.
This fact seems lost on some people who readily understand the first two lessons. One generally thoughtful education blogger argued against big financial bailouts on the grounds that borrowers who lived well beyond their means should experience a chastening dose of failure. Many others have rejected bailouts on the grounds that Wall Street hucksters shouldn't profit from their sins. ...
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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!
