Educational
Leadership. . .
Public
education in modern America
is under attack. There is a very real
and persuasive movement to change the very fabric of our educational system and
to make education a resource that is socially, economically and politically
controlled. A resource that is
available, in any meaningful way, only to a select group. The potential power of public education to be
a force for a socially just, democratically ruled society is muted by the
attempts to privatize schools, to control what and how material is taught, and
by the efforts to silence the voices of parents, community members and
educators in decision making about educational policies and initiatives. That all of these attacks are carried out
under the guise of "reforming" our schools or providing more
equitable outcomes makes them difficult to counter, and more damaging in their
impacts.
As
we "reform" our schools we see a loss of diversity and a
re-segregation of our educational system.
History has shown us that a separate and unequal society starkly divided
along any demographic lines (racial, gender, religious or class) can not thrive
or survive for very long.
On the 60th anniversary of
Brown v. Board, Congress is set to expand a...
The Huffington Post|By Diane Ravitch
Legally, you can't tell a
parent of a kid with a disability that the child can't...
phoenixnewtimes.com|By Amy Silverman
With the standardization
of curriculum and the emphasis on test scores for "core" content areas,
students lose out on opportunities to learn and experience curriculum that is
vital to our survival as a society. A
culture filled with individuals who are only educated to read
"closely" or to perform rote algorithms will stagnate and
decline. Students need time and
experiences with the arts, with science and the social sciences to become well
rounded, community ready, emotionally healthy citizens.
The arts are not the whole
solution for education in the 21st century. We...
The Huffington Post|By Kerry Washington
It was announced today that
the Boston Public School department is
"reorganizing" by eliminating all Departments of History &
Social...
networks.h-net.org
We are raising a generation
of chronically sleep-deprived, anxious,...
The Huffington Post|By Vicki Abeles
As we seek ways to
"get back to basics" in educating students we see an effort made to
turn educators into script reading, robotic automatons. New evaluation tools, supposedly imposed to
hold educators accountable, actually go a long way towards forcing conformity
in our classrooms that reduced the
ability of educators to exercise their professional judgment and to
individualize instruction for specific student needs. That, and the fact that they are often based
on flawed research, means that educators will find themselves spending as much
time justifying their methods as they do practicing their profession.
Has research slamming
"value-added measures" affected the education...
Washington Post
Two companies are banking on
helping districts improve their ability to hire high-performing teachers by
using predictive analytics.
blogs.edweek.org
The Madison School Board is
considering spending $273,000 for a...
madison.com|By
Lee Enterprises
Not satisfied with
controlling the public and political dialog about education, so called
"reformers" are setting their sights on the programs that educate
future educators.
The TPA in edTPA stands for
Teacher Performance Assessment. Student...
The Huffington Post|By Alan Singer
I could respect the efforts to "reform"
our schools more if the intentions behind privatization efforts were truly
focused on improving outcomes for all students.
Yet, a significant majority of these "reform" efforts are
designed either for profit, or to benefit a specific clientele. Both the educational profiteers, and the
school choice movement that represents a small number of parents are well
represented in lobbying efforts. The
students who truly need the support and advocacy must rely on their families,
community groups and educators. The
battles in the political arena are unequal and the outcomes often predetermined
in favor of the wealthy and privileged.
Banks and equity funds that
invest in charter schools in underserved areas can take advantage of a very
generous tax credit, which they can combine with other tax breaks while they
also collect interest on any money they...
The Huffington Post|By Alan Singer
The second year of Wisconsin’s statewide
school choice program expands the number of eligible students to 1,000.
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel|By Edgar
Mendez
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — More than 3,400 students have applied to
receive a taxpayer-funded voucher to attend private and religious schools...
madison.com|By
Lee Enterprises
The financial attacks on public schools have been
devastating for districts, administrations and school personnel. Inequitable school funding and cuts in state
aid to our public schools have left districts across the state vulnerable to
fiscal ruin. Then the budget problems
are used against the districts in an effort to privatize schools around Wisconsin.
Proposals to fix the state’s
school funding formula target aid for the unique needs of rural schools and now
we need a bi-partisan commitment to get the work done for the sake of our
communities.
newiprogressive.com|By Kathleen Vinehout, State Senator 31st District
Steve Domurat, a 23-year
veteran of cleaning and maintaining Wauwatosa Public Schools, will be part of
the district's plan to layoff half of the custodial staff and hire contractors
to clean the schools. Domurat is cleaning...
wauwatosanow.com
Noting that it would be nice
to finally have a little spending cash on hand,...
The Onion
The political efforts to
control education are gearing up as Conservative leaders look for ways to
control local school districts. These
leaders can look south to Chicago and dream of having the power to appoint
their own school boards to carry out their attacks on public schools even more
effectively.
Last night, in a discussion
devoted to Milwaukee
County government
“reforms,” conservative gazillionaire Sheldon Lubar casually dropped a bomb:
His next target is the Milwaukee Public Schools.,Daily Dose
expressmilwaukee.com
A year after Chicago’s school board voted to close a
historic 50 schools, the...
WBEZ
In order to counter these attacks we need strong leadership at the local level. That is why this quote from the article about MMSD using a screener in the hiring process is so problematic. In the article it states that, "Board member Ed Hughes said he believes the board's role is not to debate contracts like this at length, but to trust the administration's recommendations." Notice how there is no mention of trusting educators or community members. It is also problematic in that our school board is elected to oversee our school system and make decisions about just these types of decisions and contracts. If our elected officials don't hold school administrations accountable then they are not doing the job that they were elected to do.
In some places we are even seeing school boards push the
"reform" agenda while ignoring the educators who work in their
schools.
wisdemocurmudgeon.blogspot.com
I am the son of a black
father from the South Side and a white mother from...
The Chicago Sun-Times|By
Letters to
Leadership doesn't end with elected officials. In fact, our strongest leadership should come
directly from the staff, community and even students in our schools. We can work to elect officials to help us and
to represent our interests, but if we've learned nothing else from the past 3
years here in Wisconsin,
it should be that the people themselves need to be our biggest and most vocal
advocates. This means fighting to make
our voices heard and continuing to spread the message about the power of public
education.
The goal of Teacher Powered
Schools initiative, led by Education Evolving, is to seed a movement that will
inspire other teachers in schools across the country to realize their potential
as leaders.
blogs.kqed.org
The group of parents, educators and community
members at my school (SCAPE) is working to get involved in the process of
developing our school's School Improvement Plan (SIP). We have been working to make our voices heard
on many issues and the SIP is a way to have an influence on a wide range of
things going on in our school. Our
primary goals in this process are. . .
-Meaningful and
direct family/community input in the creation of the SIP. This
includes having a parent
on our SBLT (School Based Leadership Team).
It also means having some mechanisms in place for input so that the
representation is truly inclusive and not simply the "squeakiest
wheels."
-Diversifying the voices
heard in discussion about school policies.
Investigate
and address reasons why we
aren't seeing consistent participation in school events and decision making.
-Identifying alternative
ways to measure student growth, school climate and other goals (academic,
climate and social-emotional).
-Becoming a data informed,
not a data driven school
-Sharing the positives about
our school/staff/students. Using these
as potential
"data" in a
systematic way.
-Identifying what we as a
school community value and what we want our students
to experience. What does it mean to be successful, educated,
etc.?
-Investigating potential
partnerships that could impact student achievement
(including things like
birth-3 reading programs) and build connections with community organizations
and other resources.
Every school is different,
every district is different, but they all have some venues where those who
support and believe in the power of public education can have a voice. The challenge is to identify the best
mechanisms and to find like-minded individuals to join in the fight. We can't forget that the majority of people
support their public school. We must not
allow a tyranny of the minority to destroy something of such great value.
The
Good, The Bad and
The
Ugly. . .
The Good . . . Now on to bargaining in "good faith" as required by law.
MADISON, Wisconsin - Democratic gubernatorial candidate Mary Burke's...
www.greenfieldreporter.com
The Bad . . . Education isn't the only target of the current Conservative
"reform" movement.
State legislatures have
favored employers over their employees.
opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com|By COREY ROBIN
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — The 20
highest-paid state employees last year worked for the Wisconsin Investment
Board, which manages the...
madison.com|By
Lee Enterprises
One way to fight back is
to spend your money effectively and wisely.
Stock your summer BBQ with
these union-made products
chicagolabor.org
The Ugly . . . The harm that is being done to the people of Wisconsin is terrible, and needs to be
stopped.
