Diane Ravitch On Fixing The Countrys Broken Education System - Bing Videos

 It is always helpful to listen to a variety of points of view. That is certainly the case in the current volatile debate on education reform.  Here, celebrated education historian Diane Ravitch is interviewed by Andrea Mitchell on the overall subject of education reform.

Now, you must remember, Diane Ravitch was for No Child Left Behind before now being against it. I am OK with positions evolving over time as circumstances change. However, I am also much more cautious about the new position.

Listen to this interview and how Dr. Ravitch, who is obviously highly skilled at communicating (and debating), now frames the conversation.  Obama's plan is characterized as "close, fire, punish." You mean there is no middle ground here?

Also, there seems to be a defense of poor performing schools based on the fact that they often serve poor children. I call that the "Poverty Defense."

Here is what I see happening. First, I am not against teachers. I am, however, for students. This debate ,in my opinion, depends on what perspective or through what lens you are filtering expected education outputs.

If you focus on student "outputs" (how well a student can read or do math), then it will obviously mean looking at all of the "inputs" (teachers, principals, curriculum) as a way of examining the means for improving "outputs."

Of course, the other way of looking at "outputs" is to accept no responsibility for them or otherwise blame parents, poverty and stupid reformers.

I also want to make it clear that I don't feel Dr. Ravitch or teachers overall are uncaring about students and the impact an education or lack thereof has on their lives. To the contrary, I happen to believe they care deeply.

I also believe that what is commonly called a "special interest" or perhaps more correctly called "self-preservation" is at play here.. Teachers probably do feel under seize, but my advice would be to hang in there and lets all agree that unless and until "outputs" improve to acceptable levels, the climate is not and should not change. Only ACCEPTABLE RESULTS should change the conversation or the tension.  


Click on the link below to view the interview.Your comments are of course welcome.


Diane Ravitch On Fixing The Countrys Broken Education System - Bing Videos

Leadership Summit Presentations and Documents

A leadership summit was held in Baton Rouge, La on January 12, 2011 for new school board members. It is reported that ninety new board members attended. (Pictured: Paul Pastorek, State Superintendent of Education)

The Louisiana Department of Education generated a press release on Jan 21, 2011 concerning the event. I have listed the link to that press release below for your easy access.

I strongly urge those interested in education for this state and parish to review the release and take a moment to check out the wealth of other information that is available.

I strongly recommend you review, download and study the document titled District At-A-Glance for Caddo Parish. Again, if you have an interest in local educational issues, you will certainly find this document helpful.

CLICK ON LINK BELOW:

Press Release Archives - Louisiana Department of Education

Return on Educational Investment(District by District Comparison)

This is a report by the Center for American Progress that attempts to measure school district productivity. The analysis is based on spending per pupil and compared with achievement levels. A special interactive map allows you to look up a particular state and compare all the districts within the state to each other.

Productivity is a business concept. This exercise may or may not be useful in the field of education. The decision to close a school has far more implications than is reflected in a dollar and cents analysis. Surely some facilities are being underutilized. And, of course closure and/or consolidation may ultimately be indicated.

But, that decision must be based on more than a simple calculation.

In any event, it is wise to study this data. I am sure it will hit the national, state and local educational conversation like thunder.


Return on Educational Investment

Education reformers made bold strides in 2010, but what’s next for 2011? | StudentsFirst.org

Although I think the movie Waiting for Superman was an example of special interest (charter schools), it did serve to spark more conversation and interest in the overall topic of education. That said, at this point, I am pleased to cosign the message from Michell Rhee. Click on the link below to view her comments.


Education reformers made bold strides in 2010, but what’s next for 2011? | StudentsFirst.org

How Do You Get Black Kids to Learn? Teach!

When we argue for "Supportive Parents" and "Quality Teaching" as critical factors in achieving academic excellence, it is difficult to convey this message in a meaningful way. In addition, this site argues for "Building a Learning Culture" again, a difficult concept for many to visualize.

In the following interview with teacher Anitra Pinchback, it all comes together for me.
Note the following statements by Ms. Pinchback:

"We are always looking for outside accountability but as educators we should have inside accountability, too. You should do it because it works not because someone is looking"

"Each year, I meet with my parents during the first 2 weeks of school. I cover learning expectations and standards, and set the tone."

"I worked with parents on their (the child's) behavior and attitudes. I told them it's a lifestyle (culture) change for the family."

I hope these few excerpts have whet your appetite for more. Because there is much, much more.

Click on the link below for the full interview. If you have a passion in this area, you will not be disappointed.



How Do You Get Black Kids to Learn? Teach!

Shanker Blog » Teachers Matter, But So Do Words

I have made the argument in using the Priority Impact Matrix (PIM)that of the five critical factors driving achievement, the teacher is number 3 on my list. That is behind a motivated student and supportive parents. These are followed by the principal and finally a rigorous curriculum.

Therefore, the post below makes good sense to me, and is one of the reasons I use the PIM. We must be careful with all the information coming forth and depending on the interest group, it can cause confusion in the public.

Again, this is a good post. Click and read.



Shanker Blog » Teachers Matter, But So Do Words

There Are No Unmotivated Students | Dropout Nation: Coverage of the Reform of American Public Education Edited by RiShawn Biddle

I disagree with the assertion that "there are no unmotivated students".

I follow Dropout Nation. Usually the comments are strong and well reasoned. However, in this instance, I could not disagree more regarding the topic of motivated students.

In my view, there are five factors that drive academic excellence. They are: a motivated student, supportive parents, high quality teaching, high quality principal leadership, and a rigorous curriculum.

This is the recipe that represents the total shared responsibility for academic success.

You can not leave out any one of these factors and expect academic excellence.

I am not a "...lazy, shiftless adults in schools and communities." I am a parent of three adult children with a deep concern for the education of all children, but with an emphasis on the black community.

And I believe motivation matters. To demonize individuals as "lazy and shiftless" for holding an opinion on this topic appears somewhat extreme and unreasonable.

As well, not holding students and families accountable for a child's behavior is both demeaning and disrespectful.

Instead, we should make every effort to coach parents and make available to them key resources for assisting their children.

The obligation to educate the nation's children is an important trust. It should not be reduced to name calling, insults and blame.

Only a shared, healthy, and inclusive approach will work in the end.

Thanks to Dropout Nation for putting this topic in the conversation.

Your comments are always welcome. Please join in.



There Are No Unmotivated Students | Dropout Nation: Coverage of the Reform of American Public Education Edited by RiShawn Biddle

Class Struggle - Why Jay's classroom focus is wrong

I follow both Jay Matthews and Rishawn Biddle. Therefore, it was interesting to see the two of them exchange views as Jay presents on his blog.

I have personally adopted a view that five (5) factors are more important and have more impact on overall student achievement. They are in order of importance: A motivated student shows up to school, Supportive parents/guardians, High quality teaching, High quality principal leadership, and a Rigorous curriculum.

With that in mind, I enjoyed the following exchange. I hope you will as well. Click on the link to view.






Class Struggle - Why Jay's classroom focus is wrong

Should Students Help to Assess Teacher Performance? | StudentsFirst.org

Should Students Help to Assess Teacher Performance? | StudentsFirst.org

In the work place, I often experienced what was called 360 degree feedback. That simply means your performance is rated not only by your supervisor, but also by peers, and subordinates. These ratings were combined and compared with self-evaluations.

Needless to say, this type of system can be quite revealing. My take away was that we all have blind spots and can usually improve. If done appropriately, the student input can indeed be a valuable part of the teacher evaluation process.

Critical Race Theory - An Organization Forms, Spin-off Movements, Criticism, Methodology, Derrick Bell, Related Legal Movements

Critical Race Theory - An Organization Forms, Spin-off Movements, Criticism, Methodology, Derrick Bell, Related Legal Movements

Derrick Bell on the civil rights movement and the convergence of black/white interests.

Atlanta Schools Face Scandal While Searching for Leader - NYTimes.com

Atlanta Schools Face Scandal While Searching for Leader - NYTimes.com

The Atlanta school system is certainly not a model at this point in time. Rocked by an alleged cheating scandal regarding standardized tests, it now faces a challenge to its accreditation.

On top of the cheating investigations, it appears the school board is aligned along "ideological and philosophical" factions which has caused it not to be able to govern effectively.

And of course while the adults fight over who controls the sandbox, the children languish.

Cheating is wrong. Nothing else to say if that is a true allegation. While I am no fan of high-stakes tests, I am equally no fan of cheating. Not only is it morally wrong, but what kind of lesson is that to teach our children.

My advocacy is for understanding the lay of the land, and working hard to compete within the boundaries of the rules and regulations. Otherwise a win- is no win at all.

Frederick Douglass (a black male role model)

I have just finished reading "Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave."

Of course I have read other material about Mr. Douglass in the past, but this experience was quite different.

In this case, I was reading his first hand account of his life as a slave, up to the time of about 1845 which would have made him all of 27 years old.

To briefly illustrate the eloquence and tone of the book, note the following:

"I was broken in body, soul, and spirit. My natural elasticity was crushed, my intellect languished, the disposition to read departed, the cheerful spark that lingered about my eye died; the dark night of slavery closed in upon me; and behold a man transformed into a brute!"

"You have seen how a man was made a slave; you shall see how a slave was made a man."

"My long-crushed spirit rose, cowardice departed, bold defiance took its place; and I now resolved that, however long I might remain a slave in form, the day had passed forever when I could be a slave in fact. I did not hesitate to let it be known of me, that the white man who expected to succeed in whipping, must also succeed in killing me."

Frederick Douglass, born into slavery, taught himself to read and write. Remember, a slave who could read was considered a danger to the very system of slavery.

This volume should be highlighted to black males. He is truly a role model for the challenges facing black males discussed on this site and others.

Low academic achievement, high unemployment, low graduation rates, etc., are but a few of our modern day issues.

I believe a close read of this book and seeing the world as Mr. Douglass saw it, would do wonders to motivate today's black males to conquer the world now as we see it.

Your thoughts?

Social Costs of Achievement......

The social costs of achievement have now been identified as a result of a new study.

Researchers "...found that for African American and Native American teenagers, the higher their GPAs at the start of the study, the more their feelings of social acceptance decreased over the one-year period. In contrast, for White teens and teens of other races and ethnicities, the higher their GPAs at the start of the research, the more their feelings of being socially accepted increased over the year."

See a report on the study at http://littleurl.info/dwa.

John McWhorter in Losing The Race identified what he called a Cult of Anti-Intellectualism operating in the black community. He further states that "...the main reason black students lag behind all others starting in kindergarten and continuing through postgraduate school is that a wariness of books and learning for learning's sake as "white" has become ingrained in black American culture."

The late John Ogbu, as early as 1986, observed the phenomenon he called "acting white" as a primary driver of black peer pressure adversely impacting black achievement.

McWhorter points out that this is not just "..an inner-city pathology-it is culture-wide."

This site, in its Learn To Learn brochure, argues in favor of building a "learning culture." I know this may be oversimplified and easier said than done.

However, I believe the evidence is clear that much of our lag in achievement is self-imposed.

And, if we are ever to compete successfully in the academic realm, it will be as a result of nothing less than a black cultural academic revolution.

One day (and it will occur one day at a time) we will arrive at a place where achievement at the highest levels will garner respect and will not be viewed as something other than being "black."

Rather it will have become as natural as breathing. And, when that day comes, the achievement gap will no longer exist.

The Achievement Gap (Race, Economics, and Class)

Dalton Conley noted in Being Black, Living in the Red that:

"Overall, blacks do worse than whites (the result one expects from anecdotal information and summary statistics), but when the differences in economic endowments that African Americans and whites bring to the educational system are taken into consideration, blacks do better than whites in some measures and the same as whites in others."

""For instance, net worth is the second most important predictor of attaining the increasingly important college degree (after parental education level.) This central importance of assets in financing higher education in an increasingly technical economy shoots a hole through the enticing account of inequality offered by Herrnstein and Murry in The Bell Curve."

"While young African Americans may have the opportunity to obtain the same education, income, and wealth as whites, in actuality they are on a slippery slope, for the discrimination their parents faced in the housing and credit markets sets the stage for perpetual economic disadvantage."

""...black-white asset gap will continue to widen. This is true because of the cruel fact that wealth begets greater wealth. Starting with a few hundred dollars at 10 percent compounded interest, an individual will end up with a thousand dollars after a decade or two. Starting with a thousand dollars, however, another individual will end up with several thousand dollars, and the wealth gap will have grown in absolute terms despite equal access to investments."

"Wealth, not occupation or education, is the realm in which the greatest degree of racial inequality lies in contemporary America."

On the other hand, Annette Lareau, in her book, Unequal Childhoods, make the class argument.

She states "Many Americans believe that this country is fundamentally open. They assume the society is best understood as a collection of individuals.  They believe that people who demonstrate hard work, effort and talent are likely to achieve upward mobility. Put differently, many Americans believe in the American Dream.  In this view, children should have roughly equal life chances.  the extent to which life chances vary can be raced to differences in aspirations, talent, and hard work on the part of individuals.  This perspective rejects the notion that parents' social location systematically shapes children's life experiences and outcomes."

Other scholars,  Ms. Lareau points out, take the position that "...systemic forms of inequality, including, for example, differences in parents' educational levels, occupational prestige, and income, as well as in their child-rearing practices do exist. However, "These scholars, see such differences within society as a matter of gradation. To explain unequal life outcomes, they see it as helpful to look at, for example, differences in mothers' years of education or the range of incomes by households in a particular city." "Scholars who take this perspective on inequality typically focus on the ways specific patterns are related (e.g., the number of years of mothers' schooling and the size of children's vocabularies, or the number of years of mothers' education and parental involvement in schooling).

Lareau challenges both views. "...I see as more valuable a categorical analysis, wherein families are grouped into social categories such as poor, working class, and middle class.  I argued that these categories are helpful in understanding the behavior of family members, not simply in one particular aspect but across a number of spheres.   Family practices cohere by social class."

Lareau therefore concluded "Social group membership structures life opportunities.  The chances of attaining key and widely sought goals-high scores on standardized tests such as the SAT, graduation from college, professional jobs, and sustained employment-are not equal for all the infants whose births are celebrated by their families.  It turns out that the family into which we are born, an event over which we have no control, matters quite a lot."

All in all, this is excellent information. No doubt scholarly and of significant merit. But, we as a people, can not accept or be confined in terms of our life aspirations by any preconceived notions or explanations.  We must confront this type of information squarely, and resolve to break the gravitational pull of either race, economics or class.

A Call for Change

A new report was released on November 9, 2010 by Council of the Great City Schools (CGCS).

This report is titled A Call for Change and it primarily examines black male achievement in 6 areas.

1. Readiness to learn
2. Black male achievement on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP)
3. Black male achievement on the NAEP in selected big city school districts
4. College and career preparedness
5. School experience
6. Postsecondary experience

Much of the information contained in this report has been revealed from other sources. However, this document does serve to collate significant data sets for review and further analysis.

One of the recommendations by CGCS is to "Convene a White House conference on the status of Black males and develop an overall call to action and strategic direction for improvement."

I vote no on this one. The last thing we need, in my view, is to be studied in the glare of a White House summit as some helpless endangered species.

Instead we should say thanks for the data and the hard work that went into pulling this information together and then get to work making our own corrections.

Government has neither the time nor resources to devote to what I consider to be our problem. When will we (black males) summon the courage and will to reverse these trends?

Marian Wright Edelman notes that "Education is a precondition to survival in America today."
Surely when talking about self-preservation, black males must take ownership of this cause themselves.

To review the report go to http://www.cgcs.org and click on ACHIEVEMENT.

Do Black Leaders Practice Straight Talk With the Black Community

Are black leaders capable of communicating with the black community with straight talk?

By straight talk I mean, state the facts as they are and without trying to concurrently open an escape hatch for our mostly dismal results.

I am not talking about the so called blame the victim mentality. However, it is dangerous and demeaning to always sugarcoat the facts. And why is it wrong for us to admit that a lot of our problems are self-inflicted? And that many of the solutions are within our reach and control.

Here are examples from a recent news stories.

"The fact that our nation seems tone deaf regarding the economic inequality faced by African Americans is of great concern." This statement is followed by a litany of economic measures i.e., income, unemployment rates, poverty rates, wealth, etc., all of which show the black community trailing everyone else.

Another news story proclaims "Because of the current economy and high unemployment rates, Black people in the U.S. are witnessing a severe downturn in economic status with respect to wealth attainment and empowerment."

On the one hand, it is the NATION that ignores our problems and on the other it is the CURRENT ECONOMY that is taking us out.

Now, I am not naive to the historical conditions out of which black Americans have arisen. For illumination on our struggles, I would suggest a read of at least From Slavery to Freedom by John Hope Franklin and Roll Jordan Roll (The World The Slaves Made) by Eugene D. Genovese.

And I think Norman Kelleys' The Head Negro in Charge Syndrome provides a thought provoking critique of black political and intellectual leadership.

I am just plain nauseated by black writers and leaders who will not state the facts; point to a strategy that is self-owned, managed and monitored, and challenge our folks to regain the will demonstrated by our ancestors.

If they could survive slavery and create the foundation for our existence, then surely we can summon the courage to honor their suffering by competing and winning in any modern day arena.

Relationship or Leadership

A very nice commentary in the October 27, 2010 edition of Education Week reports some excellent results involving an Ohio high school.

Laura Pappano writes about an aspect of the school turnaround conversation that it not being measured nor receiving the kind of attention it deserves. She says "it's about relationships."

The piece describes an inner-city Cincinnati high school that was transformed from an "...absolute failure by any measure..." to one that has been nominated for national Blue Ribbon School honors.

Apparently the school was assigned a new principal in 2001 by the name of Anthony G. Smith. The article goes on to describe how Mr. Smith engaged his staff, the community and business to forge "relationships" that obviously mattered.

The commentary makes the absolute correct statement that "At the heart of all reform efforts are the people who bring the strategies to life."

Together, the various interests have transformed this once "...dark and impersonal building..." into a campus of excellence.

That these kinds of results are achievable with an inner city school should not be surprising if the school has the right "leadership" at the helm.

Derrik Bell has said, when commenting on successful black schools "The common element among successful black schools was a strong principal willing to give priority to his or her vision of education even over policy directions coming from the central administration. To buck the system, the principal must have the strong support of the parents and the community, support that can come only if the school makes measurable progress with the students."

And herein lies my major point of contention with an otherwise excellent commentary. The winning characteristic observed in this turnaround is impeccable "leadership" that delivered "measurable" improvements.

There is nothing new about that combination. Whether in education, business, sports or almost any other arena. Great leadership will usually produce measurable results.

And yes, most, if not all great leaders, either know (or learn) how to establish, nurture, and leverage important relationships for the benefit of the enterprise.

That is why exceptional leadership by the principal combined with a highly qualified and motivated teacher in the classroom is an absolute must for any school to succeed.

Advocacy Role Expanding ( More Commentary)

As we move forward to engage the 2009-2010 school year and beyond, this site will begin to provide more direct commentary regarding our state and local school situation. We have been quite passive as Louisiana passed its new "Career Diploma" legislation and locally as the Caddo school board and the new charter community openly spar. No more.

Our original purpose was to mainly serve as a resource. However, we detect a clear need for commentary focused on helping with conversations and debates about the critical area of education.

Comments and opposing views are not only welcome but encouraged.

So help me as we attempt to heat things up in the future.

Thanks.