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.
As part of its week-long examination of student health and safety, Public School Insights has assembled abundant information on its member associations' initiatives to ensure every child a healthy learning environment. Read on for an extensive list of resources from Learning First Alliance member associations...
American Association of School Administrators
The Asthma Leadership Project
AASA helps building school district leaders' capacity \to address childhood asthma.
Healthy School Environments
Poor indoor air quality poses a serious risk to children’s health and academic performance. To prepare schools for children, this program promotes holistic improvements to the school environment, while educating students and staff.
Leadership for Healthy Communities
Working in collaboration with the Leadership for Healthy Communities partner organizations, AASA encourages superintendents' commitment and action to reduce childhood obesity. ...
This week, Public School Insights turns its attention to student health and security. Both are essential to safe, inspiring learning environments that foster strong
So, stay tuned to www.publicschoolinsights.org for a series of on-line events focusing on student health, including: ...
In our exclusive interview two weeks ago, Children's Literature Laureate Jon Scieszka insisted that we should give children greater choice in what they read. Apparently, the Children's Book Council (CBC) agrees.
The organization is sponsoring the Children's Choice Book Award program, which allows children to select award winners. The CBC has just released the titles of 25 finalists in five categories: Grades K-2; Grades 3-4; Grades 5-6; Favorite Author; and Favorite Illustrator. If you know a child in grades K-6, encourage him or her to vote here before May 4th.
The winners will be announced live on May 13 at the Children's Choice Book Awards Gala in New York City. ...
For years now, education reformers have been getting earfuls of advice from business leaders.
Turning this convention on its head last week, a USA Today business Reporter looked to an educator for insights on leadership. The paper's corporate management reporter interviewed Molly Howard, NASSP's 2008 Principal of the Year, about the qualities that have helped her raise academic expectations, student performance and graduation rates at her high-poverty high school in Georgia. ...
Education Week reported a couple of months ago that a change to Medicaid reimbursement rules could cost districts Billions in the coming years. Currently, schools that provide health care services for Medicaid-enrolled children with disabilities can be reimbursed by Medicaid for transportation and administrative costs. But a Bush administration decision may well bring an end to all that.
Districts across the country are now bracing for the double impact of lost Medicaid reimbursements and a potentially "wrenching" fiscal crisis. (A very hasty Google search of news stories over the past few weeks turned up articles about the effect of Medicaid changes on schools in Florida, Arizona, Wisconsin and others.) ...
Mimi Bair is the principal of Memorial Middle School in Little Ferry, NJ, and a former staff member at Woodrow Wilson Elementary in Weehawken, where she helped implement an innovative arts-focused curriculum that has helped the school's mostly low-income students outperform students state-wide. (You can find PublicSchoolInsights.org's story on Woodrow Wilson Elementary here.)
Ms. Bair recently shared some of the secrets of her success.
A group of phenomenally creative students at Fleming County High School In Flemingsburg, KY have created a downright lyrical public service announcement promoting the education profession. Their short animated film won a 2008 Public Service Announcement competition sponsored by the Future Educators Association, a division of Phi Delta Kappa International.
The PSA is both a moving celebration of the educator's calling and an example of sophisticated multimedia work high school students are doing around the country. Be sure to check it out and share it with others! ...
In the week since the New York Times published a conversation on education philanthropy entitled How Many Billionaires Does It Take to Fix a School System, some high-profile bloggers have characterized the piece as an unintentionally sad commentary on the state of education funding. The transcript of a conversation among NYT Magazine editor Paul Tough and five education talking heads: Green Dot Charter School Founder Steve Barr, American Enterprise Institute education impresario Frederick Hess, New York City Schools Chancellor Joel Klein, Venture Philanthropist Vanessa Kirsch and former Gates Foundation education head Tom Vander Ark.
To Diane Ravitch, the article confirms that the champions of corporate-style education reform have nothing but disdain for those "ordinary educators who toil in the classroom.... Only those untainted by actual direct experience of education have the insight to 'fix' the school system." ...
Remember the standards movement?
A must-read issue of the AFT's American Educator examines the nation's failure to make good on the
promise of "a well-aligned standards-based education system." Drawing on the AFT's latest review of state standards, the editors acknowledge improvements over the past decade but describe most state standards as "vague and repetitive."
What's more, they add weight to the argument that the standards movement has given way to its evil twin, the testing movement. Poorly written, narrow assessments too often take the place of well written standards, and they impoverish the taught curriculum. ...
Rounding out our two-week celebration of NEA's Read Across America this year is Public School Insights' telephone interview with Don Deshler, one of the nation's most respected experts on adolescent literacy. Deshler is well known for linking policy to practice. As director of the Center for Research on Learning at the University of Kansas, he has been providing specialized training to secondary special education teachers for over 20 years
In the interview, Deshler discusses strategies for building schools' capacity to address the very specific needs of struggling adolescent readers. He urges schools to make adolescent literacy a school-wide focus, arguing that adolescent students with serious reading difficulties require both high quality and "high dosages" of instruction. ...
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