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Vince Breunig

Effects of Inequality and Poverty vs. Teachers and Schooling on America's Youth - 0 views

  • What does it take to get politicians and the general public to abandon misleading ideas, such as, “Anyone who tries can pull themselves up by the bootstraps,” or that “Teachers are the most important factor in determining the achievement of our youth”? Many ordinary citizens and politicians believe these statements to be true, even though life and research informs us that such statements are usually not true.
  • till further discouraging news for those who advocate testing as a way to reform schools comes from the PISA assessments (The Program for International Student Assessment). Nations with high-stakes testing have generally gone down in scores from 2000 to 2003, and then again by 2006. Finland, on the other hand, which has no high-stakes testing, and an accountability system that relies on teacher judgment and school level professionalism much more than tests, has shown growth over these three PISA administrations (Sahlberg, 2011).
  • Now, in the USA, our parents are a greater determiner of our income in life than either our weight or our height.
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  • what the best and wisest parents want for their children should be what we want for all children. Thus, that same kind of opportunity to catch up in school should not be denied to youth who come from poorer families
  • citizens calling for school reform without thinking about economic and social reforms are probably being foolish. The likelihood of affecting school achievement positively is more likely to be found in economic and social reforms, in the second bill of rights, than it is in NCLB, the common core of standards, early childhood and many assessments after that, value-added assessments, and the like. More than educational policies are needed to improve education.
  • I think everyone in the USA, of any political party, understands that poverty hurts families and affects student performance at the schools their children attend. But the bigger problem for our political leaders and citizens to recognize is that inequality hurts everyone in society, the wealthy and the poor alike. History teaches us that when income inequalities are large, they are tolerated by the poor for only so long. Then there is an eruption, and it is often bloody! Both logic and research suggest that economic policies that reduce income inequality throughout the United States are quite likely to improve education a lot, but even more than that, such policies might once again establish this nation as a beacon on a hill, and not merely a light that shines for some, but not for all of our citizens.
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    What does it take to get politicians and the general public to abandon misleading ideas, such as, "Anyone who tries can pull themselves up by the bootstraps," or that "Teachers are the most important factor in determining the achievement of our youth"? Many ordinary citizens and politicians believe these statements to be true, even though life and research informs us that such statements are usually not true. citizens calling for school reform without thinking about economic and social reforms are probably being foolish. The likelihood of affecting school achievement positively is more likely to be found in economic and social reforms, in the second bill of rights, than it is in NCLB, the common core of standards, early childhood and many assessments after that, value-added assessments, and the like. More than educational policies are needed to improve education.
ron saari

How To Explain the Michelle Rhee Syndrome: The Big Picture | Larry Cuban on School Refo... - 1 views

  • Historically, when the nation has a cold, schools sneeze. Examples are legion. When the Soviet Union launched the satellite Sputnik in 1957, President Eisenhower signed the National Defense Education Act (1958) aimed at getting better math and science teachers National problems of drug and alcohol abuse and tobacco smoking has led to states mandating courses to teach children and youth about the dangers of all of these substances. The Civil Rights movement in the 1950′s and 1960s’s spilled over the schools across the nation. Christian groups have pressured school boards to have prayer in schools, teach creationism, and vouchers (Educational Policy-2004-Lugg-169-87). The U.S. has competed economically with European and Asian countries for markets in the 1890s and since the 1980s. Each time that has occurred, business leaders turned to the schools to produce skilled graduates then for industrial jobs and now for an information-based economy.
  • This vulnerability to political stakeholders is very clear now with business and civic leaders pushing schools to be more efficient and effective in competing with China, Japan, and Germany.
  • In big cities where the problem of bad schooling is worst, results-driven reformers want mayors to take over schools and appoint their own superintendents, individuals who will accept no excuses from teachers and principals, will fight union rules, raise test scores, and create more charter schools.
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  • In American culture there is a decided historical preference for individual action, technological fixes (“miracle cures,” “silver bullets”) to problems, and heroic leaders.  And here at the intersection of cultural traits and a dominant business-driven school reform agenda stretching back over a quarter-century is where Michelle Rhee, Joel Klein, Paul Vallas, Arne Duncan, Geoffrey Canada, and similar figures enter the Big Picture.
  • The current business-dominated reform agenda is harnessed to heroic, media-wise individuals carrying tool-kits filled with charter schools, union-busting devices, and pay-4-performance schemes. This agenda and bigger-than-life individuals place major attention on  ineffective teachers as the major reason for poor student performance in schools.
  • Yes, the conflating of urban schools with all U.S. schools is as damaging a fiction as schools being responsible for economic growth and heroic leaders saving urban schools. No one says such things about schools and teachers in LaJolla (CA), Northbrook (IL), and Massepequa (NY). 
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    I don't always agree with Cuban on his views of tech integration, but he has a wonderful way of explaining the "big picture" which helps us understand what's happening better. 
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    interesting article about school reformers
Dave Laehn

Unsexy Reforms That Stick and Work (Mike Smith)* | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Cla... - 0 views

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    Good article that speaks to reforms that work in education comparing Massachusetts and Minnesota with top performing Asian countries in math and science
Bill Van Meer

The Problem With Education Reform. And Disco. | PrincipalsPage.com Blog - 0 views

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    education reform
Bradford Saron

Locating the Coordinates of School Reform in 2011 | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Cl... - 0 views

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    Where are we now?
Bradford Saron

The Gap Between Social Media and Business Impact: 6 stages of social business transform... - 0 views

  • Stage 1: Planning – “Listen to Learn”
  • Stage 2: Presence – “Stake Our Claim”
  • Stage 3: Engagement – “Dialog Deepens Relationships”
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  • Stage 4: Formalized – “Organize for Scale”
  • Stage 5: Strategic – “Becoming a Social Business”
  • Stage 6: Converged – “Business is Social”
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    Stages of transformation apply to all reform. 
Vince Breunig

Is significant school reform needed or not?: an open letter to Diane Ravitch (and like-... - 1 views

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    Open Letter to Diane Ravitch from Grant Wiggins
Bradford Saron

Professional Learning Communities: A Popular Reform of Little Consequence? « ... - 0 views

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    You don't often see criticism of PLCs. Especially from such high profile bloggers. 
Bradford Saron

Executive Summary | U.S. Department of Education - 1 views

  • 1.1 States should continue to revise, create, and implement standards and learning objectives using technology for all content areas that reflect 21st-century expertise and the power of technology to improve learning.
    • Bradford Saron
       
      Sounds like a Technology Plan, doesn't it. 
  • 3.2 Leverage social networking technologies and platforms to create communities of practice that provide career-long personal learning opportunities for educators within and across schools, preservice preparation and in-service education institutions, and professional organizations.
    • Bradford Saron
       
      This is exactly what we are doing right now. 
  • 4.1 Ensure students and educators have broadband access to the Internet and adequate wireless connectivity both in and out of school
    • Bradford Saron
       
      Both in school and at home. 
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  • 4.2 Ensure that every student and educator has at least one Internet access device and appropriate software and resources for research, communication, multimedia content creation, and collaboration for use in and out of school
    • Bradford Saron
       
      1:1 just got national endorsement. 
  • 5.2 Rethink basic assumptions in our education system that inhibit leveraging technology to improve learning, starting with our current practice of organizing student and educator learning around seat time instead of the demonstration of competencies
    • Bradford Saron
       
      Leveraging technology to improve learning. 
  • Convening education stakeholders, in person and online, to share content, insights, and expertise and to collaborate on key elements of this plan. Ideas and best practices that emerge from these convenings will be shared throughout our education system
    • Bradford Saron
       
      My hand is digitally raised right now. 
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    iI found this interesting. Wisconsin could benefit from some of this thinking.
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    Great job, Miles!
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    As you know Brad, I am all over this. One thing I have been thinking about: in the past some reformers have tried to bring a more experiential feel to public education. I am thinking of John Dewey, progressive reformers in Waukegan, IL and Gary, IN in the 1930s, open classrooms in the 1960s and earl 1970s. Each time these reforms failed to take hold and scale up. I think it would be smart to look at these efforts and think about what's different today, what's the same, and how do we avoid the same fate.
Bradford Saron

Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice - 2 views

  • A steady diet of pundit Thomas Friedman, publisher Rupert Murdoch, and press releases from the Business Roundtable would convince most readers that CEO decisions in managing their businesses, technological choices, swings in financial markets, and global boom-and-bust cycles had little to do with the U.S. economy. While putting onto public schools the solution for economic downturns, rather than business executives, is a loony non-sequitur, it is a victory in shifting blame from corporate leaders’ flawed decisions to the shoulders of educators
    • Bradford Saron
       
      Wow. What a powerful comment.
  • It is also a myth that all U.S. schools are broken. Surely,most urban schools are low-performing and in many cases have earned the label of “dropout factories.” Washington, D.C, for example, would be a poster child for such districts. Moreover, although islands of excellence in urban districts do exist (including D.C.), they are seldom stable over time. Where the myth-making enters is when urban schools are conflated with all U.S. schools. Not only I but many others have pointed out that the U.S. has a three-tiered system of schooling where the top two tiers have mostly “successful” schools by current standards. The bottom tier contains failing urban schools. Thus, all U.S. schools are not failures by any standard.
    • Bradford Saron
       
      I have been looking for a good way to say this for two years. Cuban just did. 
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    One could add that public education got no credit during the boom times of the 1990s.
Bradford Saron

Teaching for America - NYTimes.com - 0 views

  • Incremental change isn’t going to get us where we need to go. We’ve got to be much more ambitious. We’ve got to be disruptive. You can’t keep doing the same stuff and expect different results.
  • There are three basic skills that students need if they want to thrive in a knowledge economy: the ability to do critical thinking and problem-solving; the ability to communicate effectively; and the ability to collaborate.
  • they insist that their teachers come from the top one-third of their college graduating classes.
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  • They have invested massively in how they recruit, train and support teachers, to attract and retain the best.
  • Duncan’s view is that challenging teachers to rise to new levels — by using student achievement data in calculating salaries, by increasing competition through innovation and charters — is not anti-teacher.
  • How we recruit, train, support, evaluate and compensate their successors “is going to shape public education for the next 30 years,” said Duncan. We have to get this right.
  • All good ideas, but if we want better teachers we also need better parents — parents who turn off the TV and video games, make sure homework is completed, encourage reading and elevate learning as the most important life skill. The more we demand from teachers the more we have to demand from students and parents. That’s the Contract for America that will truly ensure our national security.
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    Here, Friedman analyzes Duncan's new approaches to federally initiated school reform. His last point, however, is very thought provoking. 
Deb Gurke

What Are The Standards To Judge Reform Success? Part 2 - 0 views

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    He who controls the frame controls the policy. If the right has taught us nothing else, it has taught us that. You have to play the hand you're dealt, or figure out a different way to deal. The left (and I include most education leaders here) have not been able to control the frame, hence, the policies we have today.
Bradford Saron

Cognitive Interfund Transfer: Are we to venture-out into reform? - 1 views

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    New blog post
Bradford Saron

Cognitive Interfund Transfer: For Whom are We Reforming? - 0 views

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    New blog post. 
Bradford Saron

Why most conversations about education start with the wrong premise « Re-educ... - 0 views

  • The new way of thinking is that the point of school is to facilitate the transition from childhood to adulthood. That means designing schools based on research from the field of human development, not on research on how to raise test scores.
  • Academic content is important—it’s really important!—and it’s best learned by kids who are pursuing material that interests them, who are surrounded by adults they trust, who are intrinsically motivated to learn, who are mature and responsible, and who have a sense of autonomy over their education.
  • the first focus of school should be on creating an environment grounded in sound principles of human development. Academic learning then becomes a powerful by-product of that environment.
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    We start the discussion on education reform based on the wrong premise!
Bradford Saron

Education Needs a Digital-Age Upgrade - NYTimes.com - 1 views

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    We need to also patch in program update for the leaders who would actually facilitate the reform too!
Bradford Saron

A trip to the Reformy Education Research Association? « School Finance 101 - 0 views

  • Policy recommendation: Immediately implement a new teacher evaluation system based 50% on student assessment data. Prohibit the use of experience or degree level as a basis for compensation.
  • Policy recommendation:  Set in place a strategy to turn over all host district schools, across all grade levels to the charter operator.
  • Conclusions & Implications: The strongest correlate of true teaching effectiveness was the estimate of teacher contribution to student achievement on the same test a year later. However, this correlation was only modest (.30). All other measures including effectiveness measures based on alternative tests and student, parent and administrator perceptions of teacher effectiveness were less correlated with the original value-added estimate, thus raising questions about the usefulness of any of these other measures. Because the value-added measure turns out to be the best predictor of itself in a subsequent year, this estimate alone trumps all others in terms of usefulness for making decisions regarding teacher retention (especially in times of staffing reduction) and should also be considered a primary factor in compensation decisions. Note that while it may appear that school administrators, students and their parents have highly consistent views regarding which teachers are more and less effective (note the higher correlations across administrator ratings of teachers, and student and parent ratings), we consider these findings unimportant because none of these perception-based ratings were as correlated with the original value-added estimate as the value-added estimate was with itself (which of course, is the TRUE measure of effectiveness).
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    Wow. A thoughtful article with good content and reform recommendations to think about. What do you think? 
Bradford Saron

School-by-School vs. System Reform: Why Business Leaders Need to Go Back to the Future ... - 0 views

  • Do you remember those days?  Well, they are gone. Over the last 30 years, the dominant American firms have gone global.  Thirty years ago, they weighed in on American education policy because they were scared to death that they would be unable to compete because they would not be able to hire a competitive work force.  Now, they care as much as ever about getting a competitive work force, but they have learned that they can find the people they need at whatever skill level they require all over the globe, and often in greater quantity and at less cost than they can get them in the United States.  If they can't get what they need for their research and development labs or their distribution centers or their factories here in the United States, they can get them in Singapore or India or China or Hungary.
  • They tend to be deep believers in "disruptive change."  They typically distrust government and the "system," and adopt a rather libertarian outlook.  Rather than work within the education system, they tend to support people and entities that work outside the system or work hard to challenge it.  They distrust education professionals and prefer instead to trust young, bright, well-educated people who are willing to take the system on.  In short, they identify with and give their support to people like themselves.  They are big backers of individual charter management organizations and of policies that would strengthen charter schools, which they see as taking on the system.  It is very doubtful whether the charter school movement would have gotten away from the starting gate without these deep pocketed, very committed supporters.
  • I very much hope that, as the new generation of business leaders that has provided so much support to charters and other entrepreneurial efforts in education take pride in their successes, they also recognize the limitations of those efforts, and turn their talents and their influence to another, much more difficult challenge:  How to greatly improve the system that educates all the children in this country.
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    Hat tip: @mcleod
Bradford Saron

Reforming Chinese Education: What China Is Trying to Learn from America | Solutions - 0 views

  • Some educators have come to the conclusion that China’s outstanding academic success, as indicated by test scores, may be what is holding it back. Now, China is searching for better education models elsewhere. Although the government does not publicly endorse American education as the model, the public seems eager to embrace what is viewed as a more liberal and creative system—ironically, at a time when many in the United States are gazing enviously at the discipline and order of the Chinese system, and the No Child Left Behind Act has brought a new focus on testing.
  • For thousands of years, dynasties of emperors (with a few exceptions) followed the Confucian tradition of conformity, hierarchy, and respect for authority, and the Communist government continued this tradition by seeking to maintain control over all aspects of life. The result has been a highly disciplined but docile workforce. Fostering creativity suggests freedom, and though that prospect can be glimpsed in education reforms, the reality may still lie someway off.
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    A must read from Yong Zhao. 
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