Year: 2010

Father, father, father …

Eduflack Arne Duncan, Obama, Parents

In our nation’s capital yesterday, President Barack Obama reissued his call to get fathers more involved in their children’s lives.  Calling for “responsible fatherhood,” the President noted that fathers (Eduflack included) need to be part of their kids’ lives “not just with words, but with deeds.”

USA Today’s Greg Toppo has the full story on the event here.  What’s most interesting are the stats that Toppo offers up from the U.S. Census.  About one in three children lived away from their biological fathers last year, and that number leaps to almost two in three (64 percent) for African-American children.
Why is this an issue for Eduflack?  Allow me to get on my soapbox for a moment.  If we are serious about improving our public schools, particularly for historically disadvantaged students, we need to better engage in the homes.  If we are going to improve student proficiency scores, we need parents keeping tabs on what is happening in the classroom and making sure homework is done.  If we are going to improve graduation rates, we need parents who are prioritizing that diploma.  And if we are going to move more first-generation students onto college, we need parents who nag and prioritize and push their kids to achieve.
So when Obama talks about getting fathers more involved in their children’s lives, he is also talking about getting them more involved in their kids’ schools.  He’s reminding them that good fathers can be in the PTA.  They can chaperone class trips.  They can pick the kids up at school.  They can actually know their kids’ teachers and other parents in the classroom.  They can talk with their kids about school, and life.
Back in November 2008, Eduflack offered up some education reccs to then President-elect Obama.  The “big idea” of the day was focused on parental involvement, building off of the similar father encouragement efforts the President is still offering today.  At the time, I wrote:
  

I propose you actually establish an Office of Family and Community Engagement, an authorized body at the Assistant Secretary level that can get information into the hands of those who need it most.  The most recent regs from ED show that the current infrastructure isn’t getting it done.  If you’re serious about greater family involvement, turning off the TVs, and such, make the commitment to Family Engagement (and we do have to think beyond the traditional mother/father nuclear parent family structure). EdTrust has today’s student attaining education at lower rates than their parents. That is a travesty.  And the responsibility falls on the family.  Parents are our first, and most durable, of teachers.  Equip them with information, help them build the paths and help them paint the picture of the value and need for education.  Create this new office, have it collaborate with OESE, OCO, and others, and see the impact of effectively collaborating with families and the community at large on education improvement.

      
So how about it?  Obama is absolutely correct.  It falls on all of us fathers to be a bigger and better part of our children’s lives.  But we can’t ignore the fact that some kids will never experience the benefits of having their biological fathers around them.  That’s why we need to focus on family and community engagement.  Buying into the notion that it takes a community to raise a child, we need to engage all parental units into tuning in to the education needs facing their family, boosting interest, involvement, dialogue, and results.  The U.S. Department of Education has focused on family engagement before.  Now is the time to go all in and note that family engagement is just as important to classroom success as many of the content areas on which ED currently focuses.
Can anyone really question that Race to the Top and I3 have a higher chance of success if families are engaged in the process and invested in the outcomes?  What about ESEA?  Clearly, the families of today’s students can help prioritizing key issues, hold policymakers accountable, and ensure that our expected results are not forgotten once the ink on the reauthorization has dried.
An Office of Family and Community Engagement fits with Obama’s call to fathers yesterday.  And it works with EdSec Duncan’s speech to the National PTA earlier this month.  And it aligns with the goals and priorities both have offered for our national education agenda.  So if not now, when?  And if not now, why?  The time, the demand, and the attention is there.

Around the Edu-Horn, June 22, 2010

Eduflack Edu-horn

ASU is offering online certificate program in Web-based teaching http://sbne.ws/r/4Z5o (from ASCD)


NBPTS wins Gates $$ to “measure effective teaching” —http://tinyurl.com/2bfahsy

RT @douglevin Huge number of i3 Applications received involve #edtech | data.ed.gov http://ht.ly/21KY0

Is cheerleading a sport (for Title IX purposes)?http://tinyurl.com/23b5z2b

KIPP “isn’t gaming system” on student gains —http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/7067226.html

Around the Edu-Horn, June 21, 2010

Eduflack Edu-horn

House, Senate Dems call for GAO review of quality, biz model of for-profit colleges — http://tinyurl.com/2u56dyr

RT @D_Aarons The agony of a girl who just wanted to fit in 1st in series on bullying by The Boston Globe http://bit.ly/d2GcH8

EdTrust on delivering statewide data systems to Cali — http://tinyurl.com/262mfhk

Mathews: Should Hispanic students be allowed to take AP Spanish? http://tinyurl.com/247urb3

Attending college full time while in HS in GA — http://www.ajc.com/news/ga-program-lets-high-551454.html

Around the Edu-Horn, June 16, 2010

Eduflack Edu-horn

RT @hechingerreport Does money spent on new education technology improve education?http://bit.ly/99Lcr2

New Attendance Counts website focusing on links between coming to school, achieving — http://www.attendancecounts.org/

RT @cpylevdoe President of Virginia Board of Ed. releases statement on #RttT, Common Core and SOLs: http://tinyurl.com/28hrchy

Continued fed efforts to tighten oversight of for-profit colleges — http://tinyurl.com/276vzpr

Too young for a FL community college? http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2010/06/16/age

Social Media Failure in Our School Districts

Eduflack Arne Duncan, teachers, technology

By now, we’ve all heard the concerns about social media in the K-12 setting.  The fears of teachers revealing their personal lives of Facebook.  The worry of what can be accessed and posted on YouTube, revealing the good, bad, and ugly of the 21st century classroom.  Even ongoing tweets about both policy and practice in the classroom or the central office.  The concern has grown so significant that many school districts have policies banning the use of social media, even erecting firewalls to ban access to sites like Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter with LEA computers or through LEA-based Internet connections.

Last month, Eduflack wrote on edreformer.com about current disintermediation efforts.  The concept is a simple one.  Rather than work exclusively through the traditional media, hoping they can offer a complete and balanced story, more and more folks are doing the storytelling themselves.  Using blogs, Facebook, YouTube, and the like, they cut out the media “middle man” and get the story directly to those stakeholders who need it most.  The Obama Administration has been particularly adept at the practice, using the powers of the Internet and social media to build lasting dialogues on the issues of the day.

This is a practice also pursued by the good folks over at the U.S. Department of Education, where, among other things, they have their own usedgov YouTube channel.  To date, there are 139 videos up there.  Some are of events that EdSec Arne Duncan and his staff participate in.  Others are specific efforts to deliver the ED message directly to key stakeholder audiences.

About three weeks ago, ED offered up a video from Duncan for school principals.  In the five-minute piece, Duncan lays out the Administration’s education priorities, funding commitments for programs like Title I and IDEA, and plans for improving the federal commitment to public education (particularly through ESEA).  It is just Duncan in front of a blue curtain and US flag and the ED learning tree seal, but it is effective.  A good video, with both good intent and a good message.  And it also gives a strong pat on the back to those school leaders who are fighting the good fight each and every school day.

By now, we all know that ED has been investing resources to ensure that school principals are part of the ESEA reauthorization discussion and have bought into school improvement efforts like i3.  We’ve seen teacher quality expanded to include principals.  And we’ve seen school leaders better involved in discussions than we seen in years past.  According to the Digest of Education Statistics 2008, there were 98,793 K-12 public schools in the United States.  We assume most of these schools have principals leading them.  So figuring out how to engage these nearly 100,000 school leaders on issues of policy and improvement is a good thing.

Yet as of this morning, there have only been 143 views of the video.  In three weeks, only 143 people have watched the piece (and I assume some of them are like Eduflack, not principals, the intended audience).  Nearly 100,000 school leaders, yet only 143 visits.  Why?

One primary reason, it appears, is our school districts’ fear of social media.  ED is using YouTube to distribute the video.  Most school districts ban YouTube, fearing access to unauthorized materials and a general waste of instructional time.  So even if ED puts all of the promotional efforts at its disposal behind the release of this video (and others like it) the intended audiences simply can’t access it.  Classroom teachers can’t get to the usedgov YouTube channel  Principals can’t peruse it.  Even superintendents and central office personnel can’t get in.  (Eduflack first heard about this video from educators in Houston who wanted to view the video, but were denied.  Since then, it seems the ban is a pretty standard practice.)

We ask our schools to prepare students for the rigors and opportunties of a 21st century world, yet we are asking them to teach with access to only the most basic of 19th century tools?  We continue to ask a technologically adept student population (for the most part) to unplug when they get to the schoolhouse doors, and forget how to access an unending wealth of information?  We ask teachers to improve the quality and result of their teaching, yet deny them the ability to supplement instruction through shared technologies and content that are FREE to all?  

Years ago, when the Edu-mom used to teach 10th grade English, she would roll out an old videotape of the Simpsons to help teach Edgar Allen Poe’s The Raven.  It was nothing special, just Bart Simpson reciting the poem, word for word, with the requisite Homer and company as backdrop.  But it helped make the poem more relevant for the students.  It took it beyond the printed words in the textbook and brought it to life.  (And the Simpsons then subsequently did the same with Hamlet, the Iliad, and other classics that should be covered in an English class in a way that even the most disinterested student would pay attention.)

ED should be complimented for offering up information distribution channels like YouTube and delivering information directly to the stakeholder audiences who need it the most.  (Though it is important to note that ED’s own firewalls prevent most employees from accessing sites like Facebook or many education policy blogs.)  The real failure here is on the school districts.  Despite the fears of accessing unauthorized materials or wasting classroom time and resources on social media, these uniform bans are only handicapping educators and shortchanging students.

We should be encouraging intellectual exploration and finding new ways to engage new technologies and medias to make learning more interactive, more relevant, and more effective.  We should be expanding educators’ access to the resources they need, not restricting them.  If we are really focused on 21st century learning, we need to find ways to embrace and maximize 21st century tools.  Now’s the time to embrace, not run away in fear.

         

Around the Edu-Horn, June 15, 2010

Eduflack Edu-horn

IN, WGU launch an online university in Hoosier State —http://tinyurl.com/2cgh3rn


RT @BuffaloReformED New York Charter Schools Attract Few Hispanics – http://nyti.ms/cFVR22

RT @TeacherBeat Improvements, Challenges in Chicago’s Teacher Evaluation System: http://bit.ly/cTBX3o

At-risk schools in Memphis to get longer school year —http://tinyurl.com/2dwjjwv

Is higher ed the pathway to careers?http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2010/06/15/jobs


Around the Edu-Horn, June 14, 2010

Eduflack Edu-horn

Nashville, Tenn., to open district’s first virtual high school http://sbne.ws/r/4VlM (from ASCD)

RT @smarick check out Michele McNeil’s great article on Rd 2 RTT apps: buy-in, side deals, and more: http://bit.ly/8XfoWp

Newsweek’s top high schools list is out — http://tinyurl.com/2doxmrc (And Falls Church’s GMHS is #44!)

GED to result in HS diploma in WV? http://www.wvgazette.com/News/201006090999

Feds focusing on for-profit colleges — http://tinyurl.com/2fglfgf (kudos @hechingerrerport)

A Work-Around for Edu-Jobs?

Eduflack Arne Duncan, stimulus, teachers, Workforce

Edu-jobs.  For the past month or so, we have been hearing how our K-12 public school systems need $23 billion in emergency funding from the federal government in order to keep teachers across the nation in jobs this fall.  EdSec Arne Duncan has made passioned pleas on Capitol Hill for such funding.  The teachers unions have stood behind Duncan’s request in a way far stronger than they have ever supported the EdSec.  And House leaders like Education and Labor Committee Chairman George Miller (CA) and Appropriations Chairman David Obey (WI) have echoed the calls and urged their fellow leaders on the Hill to ask, “what about the teachers?”

To date, though, Congress has resisted.  Many senators, wary of spending more and more money, have refused to move the issue forward.  They even cite the absence of edu-jobs from President Obama’s request for emergency funding from Congress.  Despite the best of intentions, right now, it seems like efforts to fund edu-jobs aren’t going anywhere.

It all has Eduflack thinking.  In February of 2009, the U.S. Congress passed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, a $787 billion spending bill designed to help states and localities IMMEDIATELY deal with the budget shortfalls and shrinking coffers just about everyone was facing.  By spring, we saw roadside signs erected declaring that this public works project or these jobs were funded courtesy of ARRA.  Our K-12 schools got a big chunk of that money as well, with ARRA funding Race to the Top, i3, and big boosts to Title I and IDEA funding just for starters.

We’ve also heard how a great deal of the education ARRA funds went back to the school districts to pay for salaries.  Despite the initial guidance that stimulus dollars were meant to be one-time injections, and were not designed to pay for long-term obligations (like teachers’ salaries) that would have to be funded well after all the ARRA money was spent, we still used the stimulus for teachers’ salaries.  Just last month, one of President Obama’s leading economic advisors declared ARRA had saved 400,000 educator jobs across the country (while saying that one out of every 15 teachers could now be laid off without the additional $23 billion). 

Curiosity has gotten the better of Eduflack.  We committed $787 billion to economic stimulus that was needed as soon as possible.  The funds were made available in February of 2009.  It is now June 2010.  The nearly $800 billion is all supposed to be spent by September of this year.  According to the Recovery website, of that $787 billion that was so desperately needed, $406 billion has actually been paid out.  There is still $381 billion still sitting in the kitty.

In California, the state seen as having the most dire current economic position (and the most difficulty paying teachers), only $8.8 billion of the nearly $22 billion promised to the Golden State has been dispersed.  In New York, they’ve gotten $2.5 billion of their $12 billion.  Illinois has taken in $3.7 billion of its $8.1 billion.  Georgia’s taken in $2 billion of its $5.4 billion.  Oregon’s taken in just $809 million of its $2.5 billion.  And even the cash-strapped Ohio has only tapped $1.7 billion of its available $7.6 billion.

So it begs the question, why don’t we just reallocate some of the committed $787 billion in stimulus money to pay for the $23 billion in edu-jobs?  The money was designed to help states and localities save jobs.  Check.  Funds have already been used to save teachers’ jobs (those 400K that Christina Romer touts).  Check.  There is plenty of money that still hasn’t been spent.  Check.  And we need to spend this soon.  Seems like a win-win for all involved.  And one could even win over the reformer crowd (which has been concerned that edu-jobs funding will simply perpetuate the notion of last hired, first fired and prize tenure over effective teaching).  Tie the dollars to the priorities in ARRA, using RttT language to ensure that new edu-jobs spending is aligned with teacher and principal quality provisions being moved through Race.

A simplistic idea?  Perhaps.  But new federal funding for teachers’ jobs isn’t going anywhere.  If the goal is to protect those educators and avoid laying off the “one in 15,” then why not ask Congress to reallocate the funding they’ve already spent?  At this point, it is just like asking if we can use our allowance to buy baseball cards instead of bubble gum.  The money’s already left Congress’ wallet.