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When Krista Parent arrived in rural Cottage Grove, Oregon in the mid 'eighties, it was a timber town whose students regularly dropped out of high school to work in the lumber mills.  Academic achievement was not among the community's top priorities. Now, over 20 years later, students in Cottage Grove's South Lane School District perform well above state averages in assessments of reading and mathematics, and the district's high school graduates more than 95% of its students.

We were recently lucky enough to interview Parent about how she and her colleagues at South Lane worked with the community to transform the district's schools.  Parent describes how South Lane's educators reached out to their community to transform the academic culture.  They attended meetings of civic organizations, parent groups, church groups and other groups that had a stake in the schools' success as the lumber mills fell on hard times. Parent and her colleagues won community members' trust by listening to--and honoring--their aspirations and expectations for their children and their schools. ...

Since Public School Insights first appeared a few months ago, we've been privileged to interview many inspiring people--leading authors, educators, and advocates--about what it takes to ensure all children the opportunity to succeed in the 21st century.

Now you can browse all of our interviews--25 and counting--on our new "Visionaries" page. Among the people we've interviewed:

• Best-selling writers Dave Eggers, Richard Louv, Jon Scieszka, and Dan Pink;
• Leading researchers Helen Ladd, James Heckman, Don Deshler and Pedro Noguera;  
• Celebrated advocates Will Steger, Richard Simmons and Hugh Price; and
• A host of outstanding educators.

Be sure to take a look.

Image from http://www.bbctraining.com/modules/2857/text-version2.html ...

(Or is it Dr. Brooks and Mr. Hyde?)

Last month, David Brooks implicitly lumped Nobel Prize-winning economist James Heckman together with other signers of the "Broader, Bolder Approach to Education" as standard-bearers for a desiccated "status quo." He apparently objected to that group's contention that "poverty and broad social factors drive high dropout rates and other bad outcomes. Schools alone can't combat that, so more money should go to health care programs, anti-poverty initiatives and after-school and pre-K programs." ...

Last week's Sunday New York Times published an interesting article on the benefits and perils of online reading. Taking on a topic often framed as a debate between dour supporters of books and wild-eyed proponents of technology, the Times leaves the impression that the book advocates and internet enthusiasts are both mostly right.

Truly proficient on-line readers are creative, critical, and self-directed brokers of information from many different sources, so schools that do not include forms of on-line reading in their curricula miss an important opportunity to prepare students for the 21st century. To quote the Times, "Reading five Web sites, an op-ed article and a blog post or two, experts say, can be more enriching than reading one book." True, but the value of such reading depends on the websites--and the book. It also depends on the reader's ability to ask the right questions, separate wheat from chaff, analyze information and construct arguments. Young, 21st-century readers still need some old-fashioned guidance. ...

In late May, this blog reported that best-selling author Dave Eggers, Oscar-winning documentary filmmaker Vanessa Roth and 826 National executive director Ninive Calegari were working on a documentary that aims to inspire public support for teachers' work while offering an unvarnished view of the challenges teachers face every day.  (See our recent interview with Eggers for more information about their plans.) ...

In case you hadn't noticed at first glance, the soberly-dressed person at right is Richard Simmons.  (The hair is admittedly a giveaway.)  He donned the suit and the earnest expression yesterday to testify before the House Education and Labor Committee about the need to increase time for physical education in public schools.  

According to the Washington Post, the affair was less formal than the photograph suggests:  The irrepressible Simmons reportedly kissed onlookers, photographers and even Congressmen as he entered the hearing room, and he lent the hearing the atmosphere of "a support group" where lawmakers traded stories of weight loss. ...

Last Sunday the Dallas Morning news published a disquieting article about students' results on the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills (TAKS).  Here are a few excerpts:

Students are passing the ninth-, 10th- and 11th-grade language arts TAKS at higher rates than ever. Some even post near-perfect passing rates.

But on the short-response portion, fewer than half of North Texas students pass.

                                                ...

Testing experts say exams should include sections that expose such academic cracks.

But rarely do Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills tests ask students to do more than fill in a bubble.

...

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. ...

The past month has witnessed many skirmishes over the reliability of rising state test scores as measures of some high-profile education reforms' success. At issue are: ...

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. ...