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In June, two towering figures in education and on the LFA Board retired: Paul Houston of AASA and Warlene Gary of the national PTA.

I recently interviewed Houston about the state of public schools, the state of school reform, his vision for the future of public education, and his own legacy after 14 years at the helm of the American Association of School Administrators.  (My tribute to Warlene Gary will appear in this space next week.)

In the interview, Houston describes the failure of too many recent reform efforts to address 21st-century challenges, the danger of looking to China for guidance on education policy, the American education system's abiding faith in second chances, the evolving role of the superintendent, and the reasons for his famous bloody-mindedness on matters of school reform. ...

Today, the New York Times published Jennifer Medina's story about the success of the Urban Assembly School for Law and Justice, a small school that sends almost all of its students--the large majority of them poor--to college. The school's inspiring success is a testament to the passion and unrelenting hard work of its staff and students.

Still, an aspect of the Times story left me distinctly uneasy. "To hear the tales of the new graduates is to understand the enormous effort and amount of resources it takes to make a school succeed," Medina writes. "Teachers and other staff members routinely work 60 hours a week....  [School Principal Elana] Karopkin said it would be unfair to say she was burned out, but admitted she was nothing less than 'exhausted,' both physically and emotionally."  Asked about her staff's workload, she replied that "nobody should be forced to choose between educating other people's children and having their own." ...

On Wednesday and Thursday, teacher/bloggers extraordinaire Nancy Flanagan and Bill Ferriter debated the benefits of technology in the classroom, and a host of other top-flight educators added their insights in the comments section.  Their postings were so thoughtful and engaging that I just had to add my two cents.  

I had to think about the debate and resulting comments as my wife and I watched the new Pixar film Wall-e yesterday.  The film presents a technological dystopia.  Humans have escaped to outer space after filling the planet with so much consumerist junk that it can no longer sustain life.  The film reminds me of Beckett's play Endgame, whose characters inhabit trash cans, overwhelmed by the refuse of an increasingly degenerate culture. ...

Over the past few weeks, Public School Insights has been interviewing signers of a recent statement calling for a "Broader, Bolder Approach to Education"--an approach that combines ambitious school improvement strategies with out-of-school supports for student achievement--such as early childhood education, after-school programs, and health services for children.

A few days ago, we had the privilege of interviewing Nobel prize-winning economist James Heckman, a signer whose recent work on topics such as graduation rates and the benefits of early childhood education has attracted close attention from education advocates. ...

Yesterday, we posted the beginnings of a civil--though keen--debate on the value of technology in the classroom between Bill Ferriter and Nancy Flanagan, two distinguished teachers and bloggers in the Center for Teaching Quality's Teacher Leaders Network. Today, Nancy and Bill rebut each others' statements and sharpen their own positions.

Where do you stand on technology and teaching? Weigh in by posting a comment, below.

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Nancy's Reply: Tools don't have a conscience

Speaking of cultural realities, Bill says "digital tools are playing an increasingly important role in the work of successful individuals primarily because they make evaluating, inventing, creating and collaborating more efficient. Without a fluency in using technology to facilitate productive endeavors, students truly are unprepared for the future." ...

The Public Education Network has just released its "Civic Index for Quality Education," a tool to assess and improve community support for excellent public education. According to the good people at PEN, the Civic Index "identifies and measures the level of involvement across 10 sectors of the community...:

• Education leadership of local elected officials
• Commitment to the values of tolerance and inclusiveness
• Active parents
• Strong civic organizations (parent, philanthropic, civic/religious organizations)
• Utilization of school performance data to improve school quality
• Youth involvement
• Partnerships with higher education
• Knowledge o, and voting for, the school board
• An active business community
• Media coverage

"These [indices] reflect 10 key conditions that must exist outside of schools--and complement those conditions we know from Standards Based Reform must be present inside schools--to ensure student success." ...

Our friends at the Teacher Leaders Network, which connects accomplished teacher leaders from across the country, hooked us up with two of their dazzling teacher/bloggers:  Nancy Flanagan and Bill Ferriter, two award-winning teachers who have built national reputations as both thought leaders and practitioners. 

What resulted was a pointed but always respectful debate on the promise and perils of teaching with technology.  In guest postings today and tomorrow, Nancy and Bill will sketch out the contours of this debate.

Nancy Flanagan: Brave New Curriculum - or More of the Same? ...

Over the past week, Public School Insights has been interviewing the distinguished co-chairs of the high-profile task force behind a new campaign calling for a "Broader, Bolder Approach to Education."  As we noted in an earlier post, the task force is advocating for a set of policies to reform schools while offsetting the social and economic disadvantages that contribute to academic achievement gaps.

I recently spoke with campaign co-chair Helen Ladd, a prominent professor of economics and public policy at Duke University.  Like co-chairs Pedro Noguera and Tom Payzant, Ladd argues that schools alone cannot close achievement gaps--The nation needs aggressive school reform strategies as well as policies to minimize the impact of poverty on student performance. ...

Currently a professor of practice at Harvard's Graduate School of Education, Tom Payzant has been around the educational block. He has served as an Assistant Secretary of Education under President Clinton, and as superintendent of schools in Boston, San Diego, Oklahoma City, Eugene (Oregon), and Springfield (Pennsylvania). In Boston, he was credited with narrowing achievement gaps and presiding over the largest improvement in mathematics scores of any major urban district participating in the National Assessment of Education Progress Trial Urban District Assessment. He has received many leadership awards, including Massachusetts Superintendent of the Year, and published extensively, promoting academic reforms to both professional educators and policymakers. Recently, he also served as co-chair of the task force that released a statement promoting "A Broader, Bolder Approach to Education." ...

In the first installment of our interview with innovative teacher Luajean Bryan, Bryan described the hands-on projects that have driven up enrollments in her advanced math and science classes.  In this second installment, she tells us about her strategies for overcoming the challenges teachers face when attempting do these types of projects, including how she corrals the resources she needs and her thoughts about the "time" dilemma.

Be sure to listen to our highlights from the interview (5 minutes):

Or check out our transcript: ...