Prove Progress Since "A Nation at Risk," or Start Ducking Now
By Rich Bagin, APR, Executive Director of the National School Public Relations Association (NSPRA)
The 30th anniversary of the landmark report, A Nation at Risk, occurs this month. We can bet that national and perhaps even local media will use this event to ask, “What has changed?”
And then they will ask the natural follow-up question, “Are our nation’s school still at risk?”
We must be proactive and anticipate how these questions will play out for your local communities. If we do not take the lead on this one, the education-bashing machine will again turn our schools, staff, and leadership into punching bags.
As NSPRA colleague Larry Ascough noted in his Texas daily newsletter:
Anyone who has set foot in a school of late already knows that education today is not anything like it was 30 years ago. It’s improved, and it continues to get better. Teachers and kids are doing things no one could even imagine in 1983. But there are a lot of folks who don’t know it. Wise leaders will anticipate and be proactive in letting their constituents know about their education progress, how much schools have improved their strengths and plans for the future.
Begin today to compile your system’s story and messages about your improvement and make sure your entire staff understands just how you have improved since 1983. Your staff should be willing to talk with pride about their progress as well. Give them insights (or talking points) for discussing how far your district has progressed since the early eighties.
Outstanding gains have been made at a time when we are:
- reaching more diverse audiences,
- serving more exceptional children,
- increasing technology to boost instruction, and
- delivering more positive results in a climate of diminished resources.
Use the spotlight to talk about future initiatives and the support your schools and staff need to continue to deliver results that we can all be proud of.
Be proactive now to tell your school or district’s story, or be prepared to duck when the media comes calling.
This post originally appeared on NSPRA’s Always Something blog. Reposted with permission.
Image by Pictofigo (Own work) [CC-BY-SA-3.0], via Wikimedia Commons
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Public education has been
Public education has been savaged for all these 30 years. First we denied any problems. The assaults continued. Eventually, we "confessed" to being not as good as we could be, supposedly only if we gave into testing without end and beat ourselves up whenever asked why we continued to "fail."
Thanks be for all the accountability the Kings of the Foundations and "yes" men who guide the poor teachers and right wing politicians who set us straight about how bad our unions are and how they destroy learning.
And here are three cheers for the future privatization of education because without those job creating profiteers getting ready to save all those failing learners and solving the achievement gap, what would we do?
Here's a project that is
Here's a project that is trying to do just what your article says.
www.gopublicproject.org Check it out.
It seems many Americans are
It seems many Americans are worried about American public schools, because, in 2012, about 70% percent of people did not have much faith in the public school system (“Confidence in Institutions”). What is causing this distrust? Perhaps it is due to the fact that bullying is such a problem (Middle-school teacher Interview). Or, maybe parents are worried that the large classes do not allow their children to learn at their own pace and in their own way (qtd. in United States 2; Kennedy, Banks, and Grandin, 140-1; Gardner, 6; Middle-school teacher Interview). But, most worrying are the test scores. There is a lower percentage of American students who get high math scores than that of similar countries (Hanushek, Peterson, and Woessmann, “U.S. Math Performance”, 4). Also, students are not raising their test scores as quickly as those in twenty-four other countries (Hanushek, Peterson, and Woessmann, “Achievement Growth”, vi). Equally problematic is the fact that only 2/3 of students stay in school for the entire amount of time that they should and do not drop out (Robinson Interview). It seems that parents are right to worry about the public schools. But, they should not give up on public schools as some imply (Nielsen, “End the Race to Nowhere”). Changes can be made.
“Confidence in Institutions.” Gallup. Gallup, Inc., 2013. Web. 24 Apr. 2013. .
Gardner, Howard. “Multiple Intelligences: The First Thirty Years.” (2011): 6. PDF. 1 Apr. 2013. .
Hanushek, Eric A., Peterson, Paul E., and Woessmann, Ludger. “Achievement Growth: International and U.S. State Trends in Student Performance.” Harvard’s Program on Education Policy and Governance and Education Next Report No.: 12-03 (2012): vi. PDF. 1 Apr. 2013. .
---. “U.S. Math Performance in Global Perspective.” Harvard’s Program on Education Policy and Governance and Education Next Report No.: 10-19 (2010): 4. PDF. 1 Apr. 2013. .
Kennedy, Diane M. and Banks, Rebecca S. with Grandin, Temple. “Chapter 8: 2e Students and Education: Too Bright, Too Broken.” Bright Not Broken: Gifted Kids, ADHD, and Autism: Why Twice-Exceptional Children Are Stuck and How to Help Them. San Francisco: Jossy-Bass, 2011. 140-1. Print.
Middle-school teacher. Personal interview. 13 Mar. 2013.
Nielsen, Lisa. “End the Race to Nowhere: Fix the School, Not the Child: 20 Ideas for Parents Who Are Sick of Waiting for Superman and Tired of Having Their Children Race to Nowhere: It’s Time to Stop.” Scribd. Scribd Inc., Feb. 2011. Web. 1 Apr. 2013. .
Robinson, Ken. Interview with Mike Huckabee. Huckabee. FOX News. 31 Jan. 2009. Television. 23 Apr. 2013. .
United States. Department of Education. Institute of Education Sciences. National Center for Education Statistics. Introduction. The Nation’s Report Card: Mega States: An Analysis of Student Performance in the Five Most Heavily Populated States in the Nation. Washington D.C.: n.p., Feb. 2013. 2. PDF file. 23 Apr. 2013. .
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