ADMS707

An older talk, but it still has a lot of implications for education today.

Sir Ken said that in education "mistakes are the worst things you can make." He says that it educates creativity out of the students. I agree although it doesn't really educate the students at all. If you are not allowed to make mistakes it is pretty difficult to learn. :-( Great clip. Thanks for sharing!

These new guidelines from the Virginia Board of Education are a perfect example of passing the buck....when the board initially created these guidelines in January, they were very explicit and strict and there was a lot of backlash to it.(http://www.doe.virginia.gov/boe/meetings/2011/01_jan/agenda_items/item_j.pdf) Now if you read the March guidelines, you can clearly see that the board is now asking local boards to define and create policies regarding social networking interactions between students and staff. Seems similar to feds asking states to define mandates, doesn't it?

Scary...

Calls for shared curriculum for the common standards have triggered renewed debates about who decides what students learn, and even about varied meanings of the word "curriculum," adding layers of complexity to the job of translating the broad learning goals into classroom teaching.

Deals with the struggle of public service professionals that resist changing the occupational norms that would decrease their power even though it would benefit their clients. To examine the relationship between professionalism and change, data were collected from elementary school principals, local school board members, and lay members of community health planning. Principals were slightly less inclined than school board members to accept change. The least professional of the three groups, community health members, were the most negative about change. The mixed findings may result partially from the spurious relationship between professionalism and change. Two additional variables were introduced to test this hypothesis: amount of "turbulence" or dissatisfaction among clients and diversity of viewpoints within groups. Controlling for the former variable yielded little difference; however, there was a strong positive relationship between diversity of viewpoints and change. Consequently, group consensus is seen as a major variable in predicting acceptance of change.

"The local school board, especially the elected kind, is an anachronism and an outrage. We can no longer pretend it's working well or hide behind the mantra of 'local control of education.' We need to steel ourselves to put this dysfunctional arrangement out of its misery and move on to something that will work for children."

Solidarity is key! (so is spelling the title of the article correctly, but that did not seem to bother NBC 29!) Regardless- I am completely in support of collective forces saying that not only are the budget cuts unacceptable- but how dare anyone impose more mandates now.

I think one of the quotes from this article sums it up best..."The governor and the House Appropriations Committee focus investment in higher education, economic development and transportation - while cutting K-12 education. This makes about as much sense as fixing the roof and repaving the driveway while ignoring the cracks in the foundation of your house."

The rural school problem is prominent and deserving of immediate attention on the local and state levels.

Local (US District Court) vs. NCLB legislation (US Dept. of Education): A case study/policy analysis examining how federal law plays out on the local level. A school system in Richmond County, Georgia found difficulty implementing NCLB because of conflict between NCLB and school desegregation policy. This was the cause for the federal-local political disagreement.

KIPP is threatening to close schools in Baltimore unless they are able to resolve a dispute with the teachers' union regarding teacher pay for extended school days.

Reading Was Fundamental.....The 8% that comprises the federal part looks like a lot of money right now...

Staff directory for Virginia Department of Education

Parents' job loss prompts students to worry that they may need to leave a key support systems--their school.

On-line tool providing lagging indicator education results.

In corporate strategy we said that our dashboards provided business intelligence for real-time decision-making. I commend this effort but I do not think that the metrics are granular enough or that the data are available quickly enough. While an interesting attempt/first step, I see this as an on-line collection of "rear view mirror" performance. We have not really captured leading indicators. Rather, this tool makes it easier for us to review our lagging indicators. We can get a clearer picture of our deficiencies/gaps, but I'm not sure how this will help inform timely and effective decision-making.

I'm not sure how I feel about this blog. Part of me says "Oh no!" while the other part says that we need to make education accessible but we would be better served to go with a more individualized approach. Right now it feels as though we often cater to the lowest common denominator which is not fair to anyone. Can we learn something from the operations concept of mass customization? Educators--feedback please!! I'd love to hear what your experience tells you r.e. these issues.

I am intrigued if not in full agreement with this piece by Kolb. He makes good points about a national baccaulaureate exam...it's true, algebra is algebra, grammar is grammar, in all 50 states. Some of our colleagues would disagree that we need primarily focus on the best and the brightest and that those who are not ready to learn should be sequestered until they are (paraphrasing here). He says, "We really aren't serious as a nation when it comes to education," but I think that we are fast approaching a time when (I hope) it becomes a primary focus of our political debate (from Candy).

NEA's proposals for changing NCLB

Discusses the use of reinvigorating the field of study of democracy within the classroom to actualize democracy in the educational system.

"This is a game about power, and I think you have a vacuum on one side," he said. "She's concluded - and I think with some wisdom - that there's really no countervailing force that is well-funded, is well-organized. What I think she wants to build is an organization that can really step up and amass political support and play hardball."

Sorry for another Huffington Post article, but Randy Turner hit the nail on the head as to how I am feeling about "school reform." Thought you might like it too.

"Some Republicans are so skeptical of the federal role in education that they want to abolish the Education Department." Obama wants to replace the federal metric of adequate yearly progress, known as AYP, with more flexible measures that reward student growth. Yet it remains unclear how the government would force improvement of low-performing schools while getting out of the way of those that excel. Obama wants to replace the federal metric of adequate yearly progress, known as AYP, with more flexible measures that reward student growth. Yet it remains unclear how the government would force improvement of low-performing schools while getting out of the way of those that excel.