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Jonathan Becker

Re-reading A New Culture of Learning - Jay Cross's Learnstream - 0 views

jaycross.posterous.com/ding-a-new-culture-of-learning

ADMS707 culture learning technology web

shared by Jonathan Becker on 14 Feb 11 - No Cached
  • Jonathan Becker on 14 Feb 11
     
    This post nicely summarizes key points from a book that partly informed the way I designed this course.
Roger Mancastroppa

Consumers and Education Professionals in the Organisation and Administration of Schools... - 0 views

www.eric.ed.gov/ED347657.pdf

ADMS707 reform education politics states boards

shared by Roger Mancastroppa on 18 Feb 11 - No Cached
  • Roger Mancastroppa on 18 Feb 11
     
    What we can learn from England - Findings of a longitudinal study that explored the impact of recent educational reforms in England on the nature of the relationship between headteachers and lay school governors. Recent legislation has increased governors' and consumers' power and reduced the power of the "producers" of education. Governors are members of school governing bodies who have volunteered to work with headteachers in school administration. Findings indicate that the governor/headteacher relationship is not a consensual one. Factors inhibiting the development of a partnership include the micropolitical nature of school governance; the emerging organizational cultures of governing bodies; the loose coupling of governing bodies to schools; the differences between heads and governors about power; the complex and ambiguous nature of reform legislation; and cultural factors, such as race, gender, and ethnicity. The question is raised whether community involvement should extend to nonprofessionals taking a key role in educational decision making and policy formation.
Phil Riddle

Why Blame the Teachers? Room for Debate - 1 views

www.nytimes.com/...why-blame-the-teachers

Acountability Teacher Evaluation Standards

shared by Phil Riddle on 08 Mar 11 - No Cached
  • Phil Riddle on 08 Mar 11
     
    I don't know if the New York Times regularly does this for certain topics, but this link has articles from various op-ed columnists about the testing/evaluating culture in our schools.
Phil Riddle

Teach for America: Letting the Cream Rise - 0 views

www.washingtonpost.com/...AR2011022505002.html

Teach for America Budget Cuts Low income students

shared by Phil Riddle on 06 Mar 11 - No Cached
  • Phil Riddle on 06 Mar 11
     
    A very positive view of Teach for America and the ability of that organization to improve educational outcomes. George Will makes some bold claims and doesn't substantiate them. "Until recently...it seemed that we simply did not know how to teach children handicapped by poverty and its accompaniments - family disintegration and destructive community cultures. Now we know exactly what to do."
REL N

A Board's Eye View : Education Next - 0 views

educationnext.org/aboardseyeview

ADMS707 Niemeyer Boards reform

shared by REL N on 17 Feb 11 - No Cached
  • “Code of Conduct for School Board Members.” This was intended, wrote the superintendent, in recommending the code, “to set standards for how the Board interacts with itself.” Sounded like sex to me. But the preoccupation with board member behavior was the result of the long-standing tension between the democracy represented by elected officials who oversaw the schools and the professionalism of those hired to run them. The superintendent was definitely attempting to tip the balance in favor of the pros. “We will not attempt to exercise individual authority over the district’s operations, staff, or personnel decisions,” read one of the rules he was proposing for us. Another: “We will not express individual judgments about the performance of the superintendent or staff. . . . We recognize the value of the chain of command. When approached by staff, constituents or the public, we will channel all inquiries to the administrator.” I e-mailed the superintendent, “Is this a joke?” He called and laughed lamely.
    • REL N
      REL N on 17 Feb 11
       
      "... the preoccupation with board member behavior was the result of the long-standing tension between the democracy represented by elected officials who oversaw the schools and the professionalism of those hired to run them."
  • “We should let people know we are looking for quality, of course, but not to the point of advertising outside official channels.”
  • the board never reviewed other major expenditures, such as the installation of a new computer system.
  • ...11 more annotations...
  • I asked the superintendent how a new asphalt parking lot was installed at the Greenport School without board approval–or even a bid or a notice or a need. He informed me that a bid wasn’t necessary for a job worth less than $10,000.
  • no clarification of what any of this meant–or cost. Don’t ask. “Mandated” was the knowing word from veteran board members.
  • almost 16 percent of the children in the school district were disabled, almost double the national average.
  • more than 350, were either “emotionally disturbed,” “learning disabled,” or “speech impaired.” These were the kind of catchall categories that allowed a district to dispose of many problem children–in Hudson those children were mostly black–with expensive baby-sitting.
  • over the next several months as I learned that the district had been running a deficit for several years. In fact, the state comptroller’s office, which oversees the fiscal integrity of all state and local government agencies, had conducted its own audit and found the same thing: “overexpenditure of budgetary appropriations and the overestimation of revenues.” Money was being moved around, from one fund to another, which was also against the rules, the comptroller noted. And when auditors had asked for records, they couldn’t be found.
  • the school board was not where the biggest battles would be won or lost.
  • The teacher union president, normally a regular presence at school board meetings, stopped coming so that he wouldn’t have to answer my questions about what was being done to improve things that his teachers controlled. (He had already stopped responding to my phone calls and letters.)
  • the debate was as much cultural–and racial–as educational,
    • REL N
      REL N on 17 Feb 11
       
      The author was frustrated that the board refused to discuss the academic mediocrity in the schools and then he realized that "the debate was as much cultural-and racial-as educational,...."
  • “Mandates” and laws sprouted acres of explanatory weeds–most of them unnecessary. No one ever read the original “mandate.”
  • no one seemed to know why the “Parent/Family/Community Involvement Policy” was necessary, but it was assumed that it was required by some Oz-like authority, passed through the policy-writing machinery at some school board association office, and sent to us for our “approval.”
  • No one else on the board expressed any hint of having read it. And I was beginning to discern a pattern: the more written, the less understood.
  • REL N on 17 Feb 11
     
    A concerned parent joined the local school board in hopes of improving the academics. After 6 frustrating months he resigned from the board believing that "the school board was not where the biggest battles would be won or lost."
Phil Riddle

What I Learned at School - 0 views

www.nytimes.com/...31lee.html

Standardized Tests Teachers Personal Connections

shared by Phil Riddle on 02 Apr 11 - No Cached
  • Phil Riddle on 02 Apr 11
     
    A good counter-narrative to the testing culture and teacher bashing we are witnessing in some circles.
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