Crow Man Blues

Will textbook-laden backpacks be a memory?

2012-01-06T17:06:00.001-05:00

The era of children bearing backpacks stuffed with heavy textbooks may soon be over. Instead, they will open their leather binders and flick their fingers across the screens of their e-book readers.

Those of you who already read using a Kindle, Nook or other electronic book reader understand the convenience, the interactivity and the easy portability of these devices. Now you can carry an entire home library with you wherever you go. In fact, one New England boarding school eliminated the physical books and shelves of its 20,000-book library and created a digital version from which students can “borrow” using their Kindles.

Once the investment in the e-reader is made, e-books are often cheaper than physical books and, in many cases, free to download. Publishers can easily keep e-books up to date and eliminate traditional complaints about outdated facts or maps.

Readers/students can highlight pertinent content, jot down study notes, take advantage of a built-in dictionary by just holding a finger down on a word, read PDF notes from teachers and even listen to audio versions of the books on their e-readers. Some models with WiFi access will connect the reader to the Internet, too.

School districts across the nation have begun to experiment with the logistics of using the technology. One e-book experiment in an Illinois middle school was so successful that the school district purchased Kindles for every 8th-grader in the school. Clearwater HS in Florida is another early adopter of the e-reader technology. This September, the 2,000-plus students at the school received their own Kindles, each loaded with books tailored to the student’s class schedule.

Since Amazon and Barnes & Noble designed the devices for the book-reading consumer, they are not fully compatible yet with the needs of teachers and students. For instance, early models lacked page numbers, which made it difficult to track progress and add assigned readings to the lessons. The early devices didn’t take into account the needs of the visually impaired, either.

However, manufacturers, listening to educators, made some changes to digital book formats and added audio for the visually impaired. The new generation of e-book readers will allow users to share notes and highlighted text with their classmates.

But the tug of war between the reading needs of the general public and students remains, as Amazon and Barnes & Noble reconsider how they approach providing content to the K-12 school market. Recently Barnes & Noble adjusted their group purchase plans to acknowledge the needs of school libraries and government funding streams. Amazon is still working on the licensing problem.

Pioneering teacher librarians have already produced lesson guides for using e-readers. “From the Creative Minds of 21st Century Librarians” for instance, contains a series of lessons and units that help integrate Kindle and Nook devices in classroom learning.

If your school is considering experimenting with e-reader technology, join the e-book educators’ discussion group at http://edukindle.ning.com where teachers and librarians share their experiences with Kindles, Nooks and other e-readers.

Budget constraints in the New York City public school system will preclude a wide embrace of e-book technology. Nevertheless, several city public schools gingerly dipped their toes into the e-book environment recently.

It’s too early to know what impact the technology will have on teachers and students. One thing is for certain: If schools adopt e-reader technology, it will be a weight off students’ backs.

Reading websites for youngsters

2012-01-06T17:03:00.000-05:00

The ability to recognize and process printed text is heavily dependent on comprehending spoken language. Fluent readers should understand the meaning of both printed and spoken language. That’s why teachers of our youngest readers should take advantage of Internet sites that offer interactive, read-aloud storybooks and language learning activities that foster literacy.

The following is a short list of websites that provide free interactive stories for preschool and new readers.

One of the most well-known sites is Storyline Online presented by the Screen Actors Guild Foundation that features streaming video of guild members reading children’s books aloud.

Actors such as Betty White, Melissa Gilbert, James Earl Jones and Elijah Wood perform these readings for children. Jason Alexander reads his own book “Dad, Are You the Tooth Fairy?” and even Al Gore reads from William Steig’s “Brave Irene.”

“Enemy Pie” by Derek Munson, as read by Camryn Manheim, will please readers of every age. Review the stories before you ask children to listen to them to make sure they are age-appropriate for your class and to plan your lessons.

Each story comes with an activity guide that can help promote a deeper understanding of the contents. For instance, the activity guide for “Enemy Pie” suggests that the students retell the story in their own words and tell and write about their own experiences working out differences with other people. The guide also includes a host of cooking, drawing and writing activities around making cherry pie. It also points to four websites that discuss ways to be a good friend.

The Starfall website (www.starfall.com) teaches children to read with phonics using simple video graphics in what the website calls “an educational alternative to other entertainment choices for children.” Students explore and interact with speech sounds in every book and game as they develop a basic understanding of letter-sound relationships.

The youngest children start getting ready to read by learning the letters of the alphabet and the sounds associated with each letter. They then progress to more complicated sounds like blends and then to whole words in sentences.

Every step of the way, students interact with the lesson by responding to questions by clicking the cursor on letters and words on the computer screen.

In an “All About Me!” section, children make choices to create an online persona and then interact with their pet and a favorite toy in the scenario of their choosing. As students become readers, they can read short vocabulary-controlled tales and stories and then listen to them read.

Most of the materials you will need are free, but if you should want more, the Starfall store sells games, books paralleling the website, worksheets and CD-ROMs for classrooms without Internet connections. Current reading research informed the development of the website’s content, which is aligned with current standards.

The PBSKids website has an abundance of learning resources and activities for children. At PBSKids.org/games, you’ll find interactive games that help students develop reading, letter recognition and literacy skills.

Each interactive lesson features popular characters from PBS educational broadcasts like Elmo, Curious George and Martha the speaking dog. Each activity is so entertaining that children won’t realize that they are learning.

All learning activities presented by PBS include teacher and parent guides. The speed of the Internet connection may be an issue for some households, so check before you suggest any assignments for your students to do at home.

The Scholastic website for kids also has some interactive reading activities and games to promote literacy. At www.scholastic.com/clifford, you will find read-aloud versions of stories from the popular “Clifford” series, for instance, as well as related crafts, activity sheets and printables. Many of the resources on this website are free, but others must be purchased.

With budget cuts limiting the availability of new materials across grade levels, these free resources on the Internet can help bridge the gap and meld reading instruction and computer literacy.

The octopus paxarbolis: Developing information literacy

2012-01-06T16:56:00.000-05:00

Time is running out for the endangered Pacific Northwest tree octopus. This rare creature (octopus paxarbolis) found only in temperate coniferous rain forests of the Olympic peninsula is threatened by loss of habitat and decimation by feral cats, bald eagles, poaching, and some say, sasquatch. Even though awareness of the tree octopus problem is growing, the federal government refuses to list the gentle creature as an endangered species and some environmentalists claim that the lumber industry heavily influences that decision.

Students assigned to research the problem found information on the tree octopus website and were prepared to spring into action to prevent the impending extinction of the creature. However, octopus paxarbolis is a hoax perpetrated by Lyle Zapato to test the credulity of readers.

Researcher Donald Leu used the website to test seventh-grade students’ information literacy skills. His findings (on the University of Connecticut website) revealed that students did not have the tools to evaluate information they found on the Internet and in this case continued to believe the information about the fictional octopus even after they knew it was false.

“These results are cause for serious concern,” says Leu, “because anyone can publish anything on the Internet and today’s students are not prepared to critically evaluate the information they find there.”

The American Library Association (ALA) recognized the problem as far back as 1989 in a white paper, “The Importance of Information Literacy to Individuals, Business and Citizenship.” The authors wrote, “To be information literate, a person must be able to recognize when information is needed and have the ability to locate, evaluate, and use effectively the needed information.”

Information literacy includes knowing how to use computers to find information and then having the skills to evaluate it in its context. It is vital to know how to find information, but that is insufficient if you cannot recognize propaganda, distortions of facts and other misuses and abuses of information. How we make sense of it all and cull the wheat from the chaff is crucial to becoming an informed citizen and maintaining our democracy.

The importance of developing critical thinking skills predates the computer, of course. Carl Sagan suggested that everyone develop a “baloney detection kit” by applying scientific reasoning to every claim or opinion. An updated kit by Michael Shermer and Pat Linse is available on the Skeptic website. The 16-page booklet includes suggestions on what questions to ask and what traps to avoid, and contains a how-to guide for developing a class in critical thinking. An entertaining 15-minute video by Shermer summarizes the 10 questions that skeptics should ask as they evaluate the trustworthiness of any claim.

If you want to have students practice their baloney detection skills and have a laugh, too, you can direct them to several hoax websites and ask them to find evidence that the information presented is not real. A few good examples: the British Stick Insect Foundation, Clones-R-US and the dihydrogen monoxide website.

Hoax or Not? http://www.kidsnetsoft.com/webquest/html/introduction.html
Chris Clementi has developed a WebQuest called “Hoax or Not?” in which she gives students the opportunity to investigate the veracity of several emails and websites by doing a thorough search on Google or another search engine. This is a good framework if you have time to assign a WebQuest. Make sure you are using age-appropriate materials to tailor the task and the process to your students and the opportunities for Internet access at your school.

Hoax websites are the extreme end of the spectrum; misinformation can take many other, often more subtle forms on the Internet. You’ll find helpful summaries of several approaches to evaluating web content at Education World’s “Fact, Fiction, or Opinion? Evaluating Online Information.” “Kathy Schrock’s Guide for Educators” offers a portal for almost everything you ever wanted to know about thinking critically about online content.

A brochure from the New York Library Association outlines standards for digital learning that can help you construct a classroom environment that will foster life-long learners who are critical information consumers.

Teaching students to question everything is the first step in helping them separate fact from fiction. Just asking “What is dihydrogen monoxide?” will reveal the truth about the compound and cut through the distortions on the DHMO.org website.

More Web-based tools for teaching

2012-01-06T16:38:00.001-05:00

Free Technology for Teachers (www.freetech4teachers.com) is a must-see for teachers interested in integrating technology into their classroom practice. The blog by Richard Byrnes, a Maine social studies teacher, is chock full of the latest and greatest Internet tools for teachers. He explores obvious Web services from National Geographic and Google to less-known sites such as Starfall where younger readers can participate in free interactive activities that can help them improve their reading proficiency.

Besides all the professional development resources listed on the site, Byrnes provides links to Web-based tools that teachers can integrate into their lessons or Web resources that can enrich the topics they teach. For instance, in teaching about hurricanes, you can access information that will help students track storms with Google Earth or on the National Hurricane Center (www.nhc.noaa.gov), or the students can watch videos from National Geographic called “Forces of Nature” (www.nationalgeographic.com/forcesofnature) or learn about “Ten Freaky Forces of Nature” from National Geographic Kids (http://kids.nationalgeographic.com/kids).

For students who have some knowledge of earth science and geography concepts, Byrnes recommends a game called “Stop Disasters” (www.stopdisastersgame.org) from the International Strategy for Disaster Reduction. In this game, students confront natural disaster situations and come up with plans to mitigate the damage and prevent loss of life.

Teachers of younger students are not neglected either. For instance, type “reading” in the search box at the top of the page and limit the search to the blog. The results show that Byrne has reviewed hundreds of websites that help students with reading. Try Starfall (www.starfall.com) for younger students as it allows them to listen to animated characters tell stories and practice reading short stories in the “I’m Reading” section. If they are stuck on a word, students can click on it and hear it pronounced. Another site is Guys Read (www.guysread.com) dedicated to promoting reading and literacy in young boys who are reluctant readers.

Byrne also found another useful site that helps determine the readability of material found on the Internet. Twurdy (www.twurdy.com) is a search tool that helps determine the basic readability of your search results. There are three types of Twurdy searches: Just Twurdy, Simple Twurdy and Twurdy with Pop. Twurdy with Pop is the most thorough but slower search algorithm, which teachers can use to match the reading level of their students to the difficulty level of their search results.

Many school servers usually block access to YouTube, so Byrne came up with “47 Alternatives to Using YouTube in the Classroom.” Just go to his “Favorite Resources” at the top of the page. His choices include School Tube (www.schooltube.com) where students and teachers can share videos online. Teacher Tube (www.teachertube.com) provides teacher-created videos as resources for other teachers. Vista (www.nextvista.org) is a non-profit website that contains videos that teach you to do something or explain a concept. How Stuff Works (www.howstuffworks.com) is filled with excellent educational content on almost every subject.

“My Fake Wall” (www.myfakewall.com) is a fake Facebook page where teachers can ask students to create fake profile pages for historical figures or characters in a book. You can upload images, write wall posts, add comments and “likes” and “dislikes.”

If you click on the link to Free Downloads, you’ll find “How to Do 11 Techy Things in the New School Year.” This is a free primer for teachers who want to try using more technology in the classroom but aren’t sure where and how to start.

If you want to keep abreast of the new material that Byrnes finds, you can friend him on Facebook, follow him on Twitter (twitter.com/#!/rmbyrne) or sign up on his website for updates via email and RSS feed.

This and more articles can be found on the UFT website.

Some thoughts on politics and the economy

2011-08-16T22:18:00.000-04:00

“This is an impressive crowd -- the haves and the have mores. Some people call you the elite -- I call you my base.” -- George W. Bush

"When it comes to tax cuts for the wealthy, Americans are united across the political spectrum, supporting a message that says, “In times like these, millionaires ought to be giving to charity, not getting it.” Drew Westen, NYTimes August 7, 2011

"400 people control more of the wealth than 150 million of their fellow Americans. ...the average middle-class family has seen its income stagnate over the last 30 years while the richest 1 percent has seen its income rise astronomically." "...we cut the fixed incomes of our parents and grandparents so hedge fund managers can keep their 15 percent tax rates." "... only one side in negotiations between workers and their bosses is allowed representation." "it is not public opinion but the opinions of the wealthy that predict the votes of the Senate." Drew Westen, NYTimes August 7, 2011

A corporation is a business entity that has many of the legal rights as an actual person. But when it comes to corporations, profit is private and individual. Loss is public and social.

WASHINGTON, Sept 27 2007(Reuters) -
"With the U.S. government fast approaching its current $8.965 trillion credit limit, the Senate on Thursday gave final congressional approval of an $850 billion increase in U.S. borrowing authority. The Senate voted 53-42 to raise the debt ceiling to $9.815 trillion, the fifth increase in the U.S. credit limit since President George W. Bush took office in January 2001."
Judiciary Report Sept 27. 2007

"And while Reagan somewhat slowed the marginal rate of growth in the budget, it continued to increase during his time in office. So did the debt, skyrocketing from $700 billion to $3 trillion. Then there's the fact that after first pushing to cut Social Security benefits - and being stymied by Congress - Reagan in 1983 agreed to a $165 billion bailout of the program. He also massively expanded the Pentagon budget." Brian Montopoli Feb 4, 2011

"...Reagan actually ended up raising taxes - eleven times. That's according to former Republican Sen. Alan Simpson, a longtime Reagan friend who co-chaired President Obama's fiscal commission that last year offered a deficit reduction proposal. Brian Montopoli Feb 4, 2011

"Reagan also raised the gas tax and signed the largest corporate tax increase in history, an act Joshua Green writes would be 'utterly unimaginable for any conservative to support today.'" Brian Montopoli Feb 4, 2011

Teacher Incentives? Not Cash!

2011-03-14T13:19:00.000-04:00

Gotham Schools reports that New York City’s $75 million teacher merit pay experiment quietly bit the dust as the Bloomberg administration sheepishly backed away from the program last year after independent researchers deemed the experiment a failure.

The 2007 merit-pay deal, blessed by both Mayor Bloomberg and former UFT President Randi Weingarten, went public without much debate or kick-back from the union membership. The experiment affected only 200 low-performing schools and limited bonuses to a maximum of $3,000 per teacher if a school met its goals. Weingarten lauded the agreement since it allowed union members to decide how bonuses were distributed in their schools and the program also gave them an opportunity to make more money.

As noted by researcher Roland B. Fryer writing for the National Bureau of Economic Research, there was “no evidence that teacher incentives increase student performance, attendance, or graduation,” nor did he find “any evidence that the incentives change student or teacher behavior.”

“If anything,” Fryer said, “student achievement declined,” on state math and English tests and had little if any effect on student attendance, behavior or graduation rates.

In other words, Mr. Obama, if you are interested in school improvement, rethink your Teacher Incentive Fund initiative because unlike most professions in the private sector, financial incentives are not why individuals choose careers as teachers or public safety workers. No one became a cop to get rich or a teacher to earn Wall Street style bonuses.

‘Seising’ up earthquake education

2011-03-11T16:45:00.000-05:00

(A version of this article appeared in the New York Teacher on February 18, 2010)

Seismic events have been part of earth’s existence since it became a planet and, with an average of 50 earthquakes a day around the world and the recent devastation in Japan, maybe it is time for teachers to make a concerted effort to spark student interest in our planet’s most powerful forces.

Packed with resources that can help bring that subject to life, the Internet provides maps, statistics, charts, videos and lesson plans that can help teachers make earthquake education a reality.

The two greatest earthquakes recorded and measured were a 9.5 magnitude in 1960 in Chile and a 9.2 in 1964 in Alaska. The recent catastrophic 8.9 magnitude earthquake in Japan, the fifth highest since scientific earthquake measurement began.

Facts like these are contained on the Web site of the United States Geologic Survey, the federal agency with responsibility for recording and reporting earthquake activity nationwide.

The site contains many historical records and statistics of earthquakes in the United States. There are several galleries of photos depicting the aftermath of recent earthquake events and a historical collection of images going back to the 1906 San Francisco earthquake.

Click on the Learn tab across the top banner and look at a catalog of earthquake topics, FAQs, earthquake glossary, educational resources for teachers and fun ideas and activities for students like science fair projects and online games. Another feature is “Today in Earthquake History,” where you can find out if a major earthquake occurred on a specific date.

If you go to your favorite search engine and type in “earthquake lesson plans,” you will get thousands of returns appropriate for your grade level. Here are a few sites that I found using Google.

At geology.com you can find a list of earthquake lesson plans, classroom activities, projects and demonstrations that can be adapted for all students. Simply enter “earthquake” in the search box. The Center for Innovation in Engineering and Science Education at Stevens Institute of Technology has a lesson here called “Musical Plates” that is a real-time data-collection project where students view the occurrence of earthquakes around the world to draw conclusions about continental drift.

On Teacher Planet (www.teacherplanet.com) from Drexel University, there is an earthquake resource page which includes lesson plans and worksheets with activities. You can find clip art, study units and a slew of other resources. There are puzzles that ask you to fit continents together and match terms about plate tectonics.

Founded in 1984 with support from the National Science Foundation, (IRIS) is a consortium of more than 100 U.S. universities dedicated to the acquisition, management and distribution of seismological data. If you want to see the printable seismographic records of the 2011 earthquake in Japan, you will find everything you want right here.

A PowerPoint presentation shows images from before and after the quake hit and explains the process leading up to the tsunami and all the destruction that occurred. If you click on Lessons and Resources on the left side menu, you will be presented with a table of lessons and activities that are suitable for 5th- to 12th-grade students.

When you are on the home page, you should click on Educators to find resources for all levels of students. These include animation, educational software and posters. Full-size posters to hang in your classroom are available.

Natural events of the magnitude of those that occurred in Japan and Haiti last year force us to pause and look at our planet a little more closely. The answers to questions of why and how these geologic events can affect our lives become the basis for understanding our place on the third rock from the sun.

The Greatest Show on Earth--Earth

2011-01-04T22:10:00.000-05:00

Americans strongly support providing environmental education in schools and the National Environmental Education Foundation has taken up the challenge by building environmental education resource guides for teachers at classroomearth.org and eeweek.org. These sites were designed to strengthen environmental education across the curriculum and provide lesson plans, multimedia and other resources to help teachers prepare students to meet the environmental challenges that face the global community.

NEEF was chartered by Congress in 1990 to advance environmental knowledge and action, as well as to activate environmentally responsible behavior in the general public. Classroom Earth was established to promote environmental literacy for school children. Major funding for the Classroom Earth site was provided by the Weather Channel and it was developed by harnessing the expertise of committed educators to help define the scope and content of the resources.

The site is geared to secondary educators and offers interdisciplinary classroom resources that are not limited to the science or social studies classroom. If the site is used in conjunction with the resources on NEEF’s National Environmental Education Week initiative then you can span the K-12 curricula in almost every subject area.

The well-organized home page classroomearth.org features glimpses at newsworthy items, but easily leads you to resources, grants, professional development and testimonials from teachers.Check the resource tab near the top of the page.If you are looking for something more specific you can also search by keyword.

While it has been traditional to teach about the environment in the science classroom, the search tool also points to lesson resources in foreign language, language arts, mathematics, social studies and the arts.

The foreign language resource is limited to one Spanish language Web site — somosamigosdelatierra.org — but it is a destination rich with vocabulary, cartoons, music and a host of activities that emphasize the global nature of environmental issues. You’ll find articles concerning the Area de Libre Comercio de las Américas and other Spanish-language information about ecology.

The language arts resources contain lesson plans and activities like analyzing and reporting on the impact of epidemics on world population and creating a brochure on alternative energy resources like photovoltaic cells. The lesson plans are excellent examples of an interdisciplinary approach to environmental studies.

In mathematics we find very sophisticated lessons like “Meadows or Malls: Using Matrices to Make Decisions,” and others that are less complicated like analyzing tree rings where students become dendrochronologists. The math lesson plans also include energy audits and exercises that help explain how to determine population through random sampling.

If you teach younger children, don’t be daunted by the sophistication of the secondary level lessons on Classroom Earth. NEEF also created a site to meet the educational needs of younger children as part of its effort to promote National Environmental Education Week.

This year’s Environmental Education Week theme is “Ocean Connections,” and will feature resources about our dependence upon the ocean. There are grade-appropriate lessons for teachers across the K-12 spectrum including lessons about Gulf oil spill.

At a time when schools are strapped for cash, you will be interested to know that many organizations offer grants to promote environmental education. For instance, the Captain Planet Foundation offers grants ranging from $250 to $2,500 for school projects that promote understanding of environmental issues. Many other grant opportunities are listed under Funding Resources on the EEWeek site, or by clicking on the Grant tab near the top of the page of the Classroom Earth site.

NEEF has done a good job in aggregating these resources and has made a lot of progress in promoting our national environmental literacy. By using these sites, you may learn as much as your students.

Online template resources can reduce teachers' paperwork burden

2011-01-04T21:42:00.000-05:00

Creating individual forms for every task can be tedious and require specialized software or knowledge. That’s why seamstresses, woodworkers, lawyers, accountants and teachers all use templates to help simplify routine tasks.

Templates¬—predesigned layouts or patterns that help reproduce the original item—can help you work more efficiently and accurately. Educators use standard forms all the time and those templates are usually supplied by the school or the school system. But what about those individual templates you use with students? Certificates immediately come to mind. But what about short answer quizzes, class calendars, graphic organizers or bulletin board postings?
Fortunately, there’s a treasure trove of templates that you can find online.

If you use Microsoft products there is an extensive library of free templates at your disposal. Once there you can view the templates for teachers that include formatted quizzes and tests and classroom management templates like a “testing in progress” sign for your door, seating charts, trip permission forms, certificate of excellence or student of the month awards, and even a substitute feedback form. Some templates require that you have other programs that are part of the MS Office Suite® like Excel® and PowerPoint® but most of them can be used with Word®.

If you would like to expand the menu of items designed specifically for teachers, then go to Education World® to see a list of tools and templates that include all the standard items like awards, and calendars, but also include teacher friendly items like graphic organizers, flyers and posters, icebreakers, and goal setting contracts.

The graphic organizers include two and three circle Venn diagrams, KWHL and KWL charts, and a research notes chart. In addition, there are worksheets that have holiday themes like Martin Luther King, Jr. and Halloween. There are also fiction and non-fiction book report forms and culturally sensitive reward coupons for students. There is even a personalized license plate form that allows students to create their own vanity plate and can be used as an icebreaker at the beginning of the school year.

If you use MS PowerPoint for classroom presentations, then you’ll be thrilled to find Brainy Betty’s catalog of PowerPoint templates. This is a rich resource that can help you create some nifty backgrounds that will jazz up any presentation. There are even video and audio clips that you can download to enhance your presentations, as well as, flash programs that can animate even the driest subject.

Also, don’t neglect the obvious. The NYC Department of Education includes templates for schools, administrators and teachers on its Web site. Take a look at the templates regarding the discipline code and behavioral contracts, for example. As with most templates on the DOE’s site, they are available in several languages. The DOE’s site http://schools.nyc.gov is very extensive, so try to narrow the search by using phrases like mathematics, language arts, and social studies templates, but place the phrase between quotation marks.

If you can’t find what you want online, then create your own templates. Every word processing program includes template files that you can customize. In MicroSoft Word® you can use a template wizard to customize your template. Just click on “file,” then click on “new,” and then on “general templates” and you will see many commonly used templates. Customize the template and then save the file as your personal template that you can use again without reformatting the document.

A teacher’s time is a terrible thing to waste. For teachers, it makes no sense to reinvent the wheel. That’s why templates are important. These online resources can help make your life easier.

Re-Framing the Public School Debate

2009-04-01T20:28:00.000-04:00

“Frames are the mental structures that allow human beings to understand reality—sometimes to create what we take to be reality.” Lakoff

Do you believe that the American business model applied to schools will produce better teachers and more qualified students? Then your thought process about public schools is probably mired in the myths fostered by the 1980’s report, A Nation at Risk, which claimed that, the failure of our public schools would eventually lead to our economic decline and inability to compete in the world market. Those findings were driven by a right wing ideology from the likes of CEO’s and business leaders who posed the idea that we can only keep our competitive position in the world by improving our schools.

Time and our current economic situation have proven that those ideas were pitched to open the door for conservatives to take control of the public school debate. And, they succeeded, as that idea took hold, educators and teacher unions at all levels, ceded their leadership in the field to business moguls who despite public acts of helping schools with funding for charter schools and laptops, secretly professed that they want to ultimately privatize the schools to make a lot of money.

Now, we seem to be stuck in the rhetorical frame that public schools are failing despite the facts that indicate a different reality. That frame is the elephant in the room and no one has been able to change our concept to another reality. Schools are living up to the standards we set for them. Today, according to the 2004 Census, more kids graduate high school than ever before. (We need to improve those numbers for minorities, especially Hispanics, but over all those figures are rising.) Around 28 percent of our national population gets a 4-year college degree and in New York State it’s sits at 30 percent. And, based upon 2006 statistics from G-8 countries, we are scoring very well in most categories of reading and math. (Don't get me wrong, there is still plenty of room for improvement.)

Yet, because the debate is framed around the idea that our schools are failing, those who call for privatizing schools have gained a foothold with the general public in the public education debate. Even though the general public thinks schools are failing, parents consistently think that the schools their children attend are good. The incongruity of that thinking, however, doesn’t seem to make an impression because the picture of failing public schools is so entrenched in the national mind-set.

We also hear, but not so loudly at this moment in our economic history, that the business model should be applied to schools. The belief is that children are revenue sources and schools should be able to generate a profit. How do you increase profit? Add additional revenue sources, reduce expenditures, cut salaries, break the negotiating strength of unions and, of course, eliminate all regulations and standards of accountability. In addition, these business leaders throw in the concept of merit pay as an incentive to teachers so they will teach to the bottom line--standardized tests. It works for businesses, doesn’t it? Well....

To make this all sound palatable to the general public, conservatives have convinced the public that public education has failed the nation and they design schemes that ultimately and deliberately underfund the school system. (Unfunded mandates in NCLB, vouchers, charter schools, home schooling) With unrealistic and ill conceived demands and continuously diverted resources, schools would become nothing but holding pens festering with failure. That’s because conservative school reform movements are akin to the urban renewal efforts that were the results of landlord-arsonists in the Bronx or the fire-bomb deliberately dropped by police in a Philadelphia residential neighborhood to root out a small band of dissidents. Those efforts had the effect of displacing and silencing a noisy, but ultimately, powerless minority for the profit of the few.

Public schools are doing the job they were meant to do. They are acculturating a diverse population that can unite us as one democratic nation with faith in the possibilities of every individual. This last election gave us a glimpse at what that future would look like. Better schools aren't about a better economy. Improving schools is about becoming a better country. That’s how we should frame future discussions about public education.

Another Bad Idea: Merit Pay for Teachers

2009-03-12T14:37:00.000-04:00

"Teacher unions should not be such willing partners in the merit pay group-speak coming out of Washington."

Teacher unionists are abuzz with the new found attention their profession and their schools are getting from the Obama camp. However, there’s much to raise our concerns, especially the idea that merit pay will make a difference in the quality of teaching and the improved academic achievement in our students.

Over the last generation of teacher unionism, no issues have provoked union leaders more than threats to tenure or the idea of individual merit pay for teachers based on the performance of students. However, because the President said that he would include teachers and their unions in the policy decision-making process, union leadership is giving him a green light on the merit pay concept and AFT/UFT President Randi Weingarten eagerly portrays how her union has embraced a performance-based bonus system in 200 New York City schools.

But teacher unions should not be such willing partners in the merit pay group-speak coming out of Washington, because the concept of merit pay for teachers is fraught with more danger than benefit. If the concept became the norm in our schools, it could set the stage for a Ponzi scheme of supposed academic excellence, in which only a few would benefit, while the rest would find themselves bankrupt.

First of all, Obama is wrong about the research. There is no valid replicable scientific social research out there that proves that individual merit pay will make a positive dent in an objective measure of the overall quality of teaching in a school or school system. It’s mostly intuitive supposition that is based on the “carrot and stick” meme of Western culture. It’s not necessarily a given that the promise of monetary rewards when a goal is reached will improve the quality of the process used to get there.

Secondly, the concept of merit has inherent in it that only a few will benefit. The effect of the promise of financial reward may skew the Bell Curve slightly upward, but most will be in the average range and few will be at the top or the bottom. That’s automatic and it is antithetical to the idea that we must raise all the boats in the harbor. Merit pay is an elitist, anti-union concept that belongs in the tool box of CEO’s, but not in the hands of school systems and governments. Take a look at the stock market, or at our iconic corporate giants, and see where merit pay and bonuses have gotten us.

Embracing a business model for our schools is an idea that’s as defunct as many American businesses and as backward as the 19th Century factory model used to educate our youngsters. Stakeholders, corporate and social, should reconsider the processes used by businesses to achieve their goals and then rethink the ideas behind why we educate our children in the first place. Once we do that, the concept of merit raises for teachers will be a thing of the past.

Rally: City Hall Rumble for Fair Budget Funding

2009-03-06T16:19:00.000-05:00

Send your state legislators this letter before April 1, urging them to pass a fair budget.

The Rally for New York on March 5, 2009 brought thousands of New Yorkers out to City Hall Park in an effort aimed at forcing Albany and City Hall to produce a fair budget for schools and other public services. It is estimated that more than 40,000 concerned citizens, union workers and parents came out to protest what is perceived as an unfair budget that will ultimately punish the most vulnerable in our city—children, the elderly and the infirm.

But as large as the demonstration was some say that this is only the tip of the iceberg as dissatisfaction about the proposed budget cuts is causing a rumble of outrage in all sectors of our society. Albany is accused of unfairly distributing stimulus funds and shorting various localities like the city. While lawmakers haggle over the amount of the cuts, funding for schools, hospitals and other services will be held hostage as the state tries to resolve its economic crisis by cuts to education, childcare and healthcare.

Noting that the proposed budget plan places a greater burden on the working class, support for a fair-share tax reform movement is also growing as it is estimated that a modest rise in the income taxes of those who earn more than $250,000—the top 5 percent—could produce revenues of as much as $6 billion per year.

The rush-hour demonstration packed lower Manhattan from the tip of City Hall Park along Broadway up past Worth Street as New Yorkers came out to make sure that the federal stimulus funds are spent in a way that protects communities, schools and the other vital social services that keep the city running.

While most city workers were represented at the rally, members of the UFT from all five boroughs showed up in force to voice their concern for children and schools. They held placards calling for fair budgets with slogans like "Don't be fools, support our schools," and reminders that "Our children deserve better." Some of the demonstrators are pictured here and while others will be showcased in the following edition of the New York Teacher.

Send your state legislators this letter before April 1, urging them to pass a fair budget.

National Standards: A society gets the schools it deserves

2009-02-26T13:42:00.000-05:00

AFT President Randi Weingarten arguing for national standards said in an opinion piece in the Washington Post, “I am not so naive as to think that it would be easy to reach consensus on national standards, but I believe that most people would agree that there is academic content that all students in America's public schools should be taught, and be taught to high standards.”

Do most people agree on the academic content for America’s public schools? What do we, as a nation, expect high school graduates to know and what skills would we like them to have? Despite, the various commissions that recognize the need for 21st Century workers to have good communications skills and the ability to analyze and resolve problems creatively, there is little if any consensus on how schools can produce that highly skilled workforce. There are so many conflicting interests and aspirations that we are forced to consider why we teach certain things, and not others. Can we reconcile the difference between the education of the individual from the education of the citizen?

In our haste to establish national standards, let’s not neglect those students who fail to complete high school. These are the youngsters who increasingly end up in our penal system. This is a national disgrace, but is it an accident of neglect and indifference or is it intentional? Could there be a hidden curriculum in our schools? Before we can establish national standards we have to honestly assess whether those standards will be for all children or will there always be a neglected class that will have to fend for itself?

Obviously, if there are national standards, unlike NCLB, there should be funds to support the mandates. But, would costs force legislators to limit the scope of what schools teach? Will schools only provide “essential” instruction in reading, writing and arithmetic and drop all the other “non-essential” subjects like music, art, social studies, science and health? In other words, will schools and teachers be forced to teach to the test?

I recall former New York State Governor George Pataki saying that he would not approve increased funding for public education because the state constitution only guaranteed a sound education until the 8th grade. So despite all the talk of improving NYS schools, the Governor fought against additional funding for NYC public schools. Where there’s a will there’s a wallet!

Since education has traditionally been a local issue, and a public school education in Massachusetts is generally much better than one in Mississippi, national standards should start to raise all the boats in the harbor. But, local control of schools is so closely guarded that any perceived imposition from Washington will be bitterly opposed. Local politicians wary of outside control, will scare the citizenry with threats of increased costs from higher taxes. Only the most enlightened communities will look at the increases as an investment in their children and the future of the country.

A society gets the schools it deserves.

Tribune-a bellwether for the industry's future.

2008-12-10T10:28:00.000-05:00

The news that the Chicago Tribune is declaring Chapter 11 because of its excessive debt and shrinking revenues makes me believe that we will be witnessing the collapse of print news media over the next fifty years.

The bellwether company signals the general direction the entire industry faces. Despite the fact that most papers remain profitable, there has been a general decline in advertising revenues and a greater decline in readership as more consumers rely on the Internet for their news delivery.

The financial problems like poor investments and carrying excessive debt for most print media conglomerates is only the tip of the iceberg. There is a more basic problem facing the print media. It has more to do with the fact that newspapers have always been primarily a one way news delivery system without major input from readers or the public. There is a very limited "talk back" factor for print, but it is unlimited in the electronic news delivery paradigm. This is the paradigm shift that the Internet makes possible.

This may sound strange, but because of the impending financial collapse of some of these print giants we have an opportunity to restore the "agora" concept of news delivery. The news that's fit to be transmitted will be what comes up in our browsers. (See Newser, see newsworldmap.com, see igoogle, etc.)

Yet some companies like the New York Times have positioned themselves well enough in electronic media to make the transition into this brave new world as long as they make a clean break with the print paradigm and start thinking of becoming Internet broadcasters. That's why the Tribune collapse may be the signal to the industry that it is time to make serious move to the Internet. That means to rethink the way news is developed and delivered, and start to consider how they will make that happen using a broadcast medium like the Internet.

Think of all the trees we're going to save.

Not Better off? Better off with Obama!

2008-10-27T12:32:00.000-04:00

The source for this information is CNN Money.

I’ve been receiving a tirade of emails claiming that Obama’s tax plan will sink small businesses and take a major tax bite out of the income of ordinary Americans. Here is something that’s closer to the truth.

The candidates tax plans:

Source:The Tax Policy Center

McCain: Even though everyone gets a cut under the McCain plan, high-income taxpayers would benefit more than everyone else. According to CNN Money and the Tax Policy Center, the highest-income households - those with incomes of at least $603,000 - would see a boost in after-tax income of 3.4%, or more than $40,000. The McCain plan gives nearly one-quarter of its benefits to households making more than $2.8 million annually - the top 0.1% I guess that will benefit the McCains, too.

Obama: High-income taxpayers would pay more in taxes, while everyone else's tax bill would be reduced. The lowest income groups would benefit the most - in terms of reducing their taxes. Obama's plan would keep the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts in place for everyone except those making more than roughly $250,000, and he would increase the capital gains tax. (I guess Wall Street doesn’t like this, but Main Street doesn’t give a hoot.)

Under both plans, all American taxpayers could pay a price for their tax cuts: a bigger deficit. The Tax Policy Center estimates that McCain's tax proposals could increase the national debt by as much as $4.5 trillion with interest, while Obama's could add as much as $3.3 trillion if they remained intact for 10 years.

So let’s be realistic: Which tax policy would benefit the average Joe—not the plumber? Which tax plan will be better for the country? In reality, I don’t think candidates will be able to live up to their campaign promises on taxes, because the Bush/Cheney administration hasn’t been a careful steward of our economy. The next president is going to have to try and clean this mess up. I’m reminded of the bumper sticker—“we’re spending our children’s inheritance”—often seen on retirees cars. Our children and grandchildren will be paying for fifty years to correct the fiscal malfeasance of the last 8 years.

Oh, and for you fiscal conservatives out there--How do you like the recent acts of socialism by the US government? Now the taxpayer is part owner and guarantor of the financial industry. The “we the people” will have to make up for the fiscal irresponsibility of the financial industry. I hope Paulson knows what he’s doing and that he’s an honorable man, because certainly there are only a few people in this country who understand what he’s doing. By the way, none of those people are in the White House.

Also, if I remember correctly, “W” ran a few other enterprises into the ground and had to seek a bail out for those, too. It’s nice to have a rich Pappy, huh?

Council approves Bloomberg’s power grab

2008-10-24T00:32:00.000-04:00

The City Council agreed today to extend term limits to three four–year terms by a 29-22 vote. (See how your representative voted.)

Many of the council members who voted for the proposal offered two arguments. The first is that the current financial crisis requires an experienced hand at the helm and who can manage our finances better that our own resident billionaire. Well, that kind of argument didn’t work for Guiliani in 2001 who wanted to extend his term for only 90 days. Bloomberg opposed that suggestion then and continued to oppose extending term limits until very recently.

The second argument goes something like this: The change in the charter does not in any way usurp the democratic process, because the people will continue to have the right to vote for the candidate of their choice in the primaries and the general election in 2009.

But, that’s a bogus argument since incumbents who would have been term-limited will undoubtedly run again and more than likely be the candidate of choice in their party primaries. How many Republicans or Independents will oppose Bloomberg in the primaries? In essence this ruling has limited the field of possible candidates.

Remember, that in 2006 Bloomberg spent a little more than $84 million, setting a record for any campaign other than national campaigns for president. (See what the current presidential candidates are spending. ) Add to that Bloomberg’s ability to control most of the media and Anthony Weiner and Bill Thompson would be little more than a blip on the media radar. And Tony Avella, well, he wouldn't even make a showing.

A Quinnipiac poll found that registered voters generally disapproved of Bloomberg’s plan and overwhelmingly thought that it should be the voters who make the decision and not the City Council. But the mayor autocratically decided that he can go over the heads of the voters and the lapdogs in the council succumbed to the pressure, or made deals with Bloomberg and approved the measure. Up until recently the mayor didn’t support extending term limits. He even vetoed a 2002 bill to amend it, saying it was an attempt by politicians to change the rules for personal gain.

Take a hike Mike!

But, Bloomberg is not invincible. He failed to get a new football stadium built on Manhattan’s West Side. He failed to get the 2012 Summer Olympics and he failed to win over the state Legislature to approve his congestion pricing plan. Consider also the construction crane failures that the DOB botched up. Or, judge him on the effectiveness of the school system he now controls. (Mayoral control sunsets in 2009 and maybe then will we be able to accurately measure any progress.) Or, judge him on the Housing Stability Program that failed miserably to reduce the number of homeless in the city.

Another four years will be more of the same. Take a hike Mike!

Take a hike Mike

2008-10-03T17:31:00.000-04:00

There’s something suspicious about the mayor calling for the end of term limits so that he can have another four years at the helm of the city, especially since it is early enough to schedule another referendum on the issue. Why is he trying to bypass the need to take it back to the voters?

Mayor Bloomberg said in his press release, ”I also understand that people voted for a two-term limit, and altering their verdict is not something that I think should be done lightly.” Remember, that the people voted twice (1993 and 1996) for this two-term limit.

However, the Mayor adds, that according to the Charter, the Council has the right to change the law without a referendum that tests the will of the people.

“Something is rotten in the state of Denmark.”

Mayor Mike and all the other mayoral candidates (except for Green) in the aftermath of 9/11, disapproved of Giuliani’s call to extend his term for 90 days in the wake of the disaster and turmoil we experienced at that time. So why are people lining up behind this idea now for Mayor Mike?

If 9/11 wasn't a good enough reason for Giuliani to extend his term for 90 days, then why does this financial crisis rise to the level of an emergency that requires Mayor Mike to hold office for another 4-year term?

A Daily News online poll shows that a large percentage of people oppose the potential power grab and a New York Times piece quotes several people who expressed opinions that this Wall Street crisis doesn’t justify suspending the election rules.

Read Mark Green’s blog on the Huffington Post where he says there’s plenty of time to bring the issue to the people in a public referendum. He adds that if this is the time to have a financial manager run the city, then why don’t we just suspend the mayor’s office and city government and hire Warren Buffet?

One way to cure an addiction to power and fame is to cut the person off from the source. So take a hike Mike and let someone else carry the baton.

Middle School Critical for Developing Complex Thinking Skills for Youngsters

2008-09-21T23:33:00.000-04:00

I'm back! I just couldn't pull myself together to do any posts over the summer, but it's September (almost October) and I'm starting to feel guilty about not writing anything here for more than three months.

One of the resources I use to motivate me to write about education is the Public Education Newsblast that comes out every Friday.

This week's edition had an interesting report of research that was done at the University of Texas at Dallas that found that the middle school years are the optimal time for training adolescence in complex reasoning skills, and critical thinking skills.

The study used teenagers diagnosed with attention deficit problems, and researchers applied recent cognitive neuroscience findings to create a program called SMART-Strategic Memory and Reasoning Training-to teach teens how to think critically and effectively use the information they learn.

Dallas Morning News reporter Robert Miller says that the university researchers are ready to apply the findings to develop a Web-based training program to teach strategic reasoning to all students, teachers and parents. All they are seeking is $20 million.

One of the researchers, Dr. Jacquelyn Gamino, says that if the SMART program works with ADHD students, "then it makes sense that those without cognitive deficits will be able to improve as well."

That's not necessarily so, especially if you remove the personal interactions that adolescents connect to. A Web-based program might be too impersonal. Yet, the research sounds interesting because it does attempt to bring the latest findings in brain research into the realm of pedagogy. Think about how a person learns, or how you learn as an adult and then think about how you can codify that knowledge and use it in a daily classroom environment.Then think about how you learned to think critically about a subject.

Also, how does this research stand up against Reuven Feuerstein's Structural Cognitive Modifiability theories? Feuerstein worked with special ed and other low functioning children and young adults and proved that they could learn high order thinking skills.

Now there is another push to improve middle schools in NYC. Maybe instead of the DOE turning things over to bureaucrats who unenthusiastically deal with the challenge, the DOE can turn program development over to brain/cognitive development researchers. Egad, I can't believe that I'm opening the door for more Aussies and Teacher's College programs!

How about something simpler--require that all middle school teachers be subject certified middle school specialists instead of Common Branch non-specialists and reduce class sizes so that teachers and students can connect with each other for more than a minute or two a day? How about hiring school leaders who have specialized knowledge of middle school education and perhaps even taught in middle schools? How about that?

Connecting the Tots… Obama’s Education Plan

2008-06-06T22:27:00.000-04:00

There is no denying the fact that the earlier children are exposed to a high quality, organized learning environment, the more successful they will be in school and in life.

The classic Head Start, founded in 1965, and more recently, the Early Head Start (for infants and toddlers) programs have made positive impacts on the academic and social development of children and their families. The overall goal of these programs is to develop school-readiness for the children of low-income families. Even though there are uneven results because children score higher on academic measures early, but later, especially for minority children, the scores drop to the levels of those children who never attended pre-school programs. However, there are collateral benefits like greater earning power, more stable marriages, reduced dependence on welfare, less time on average in the penal system and lower rates of drug use for those who attended early childhood preschool programs.

Despite under-financing, mixed reviews and what some may characterize as “soft-statistics,” the programs have staved off “bang-for-the-buck” critics and continue to service under-privileged children. That’s because most everyone sees the benefits: White children have a 22 percent higher high school graduation rate; African-American youth have a 12 percent less chance of being charged with a crime and being arrested. (The increase in academic achievement for African-American youth, however, is not statistically significant after the third or fourth grade.)(See Ludwig and Phillips, 2007)

Even the “bang-for-the-buckers” know that studies show that Head Start has a 7 to 1 benefit-cost ratio. That means that for every dollar spent for pre-school programs you get a benefit equal to at least 7 dollars. (Just consider what it costs to incarcerate our youth.)Those same studies show that there is a direct relationship with increased funding to an increase in school attainment and a likelihood of attending some college.

So maybe, Obama has it right! He is making early childhood education the keystone of his education program and proposes spending $10 billion a year on his “Zero to Five” pre-school proposal. That kind of an investment could even provide a higher benefit-cost ratio.

Barack Obama's Education Plan: The Devil is in the Details

2008-05-22T12:02:00.000-04:00

As promised I will look more closely at some of the education proposals outlined on Barack Obama’s Web site.

Here is what he says about recruiting, preparing, retaining and rewarding teachers:

• Recruit Teachers: Obama will create new Teacher Service Scholarships that will cover four years of undergraduate or two years of graduate teacher education, including high-quality alternative programs for mid-career recruits in exchange for teaching for at least four years in a high-need field or location.
• Prepare Teachers: Obama will require all schools of education to be accredited. He will also create a voluntary national performance assessment so we can be sure that every new educator is trained and ready to walk into the classroom and start teaching effectively. Obama will also create Teacher Residency Programs that will supply 30,000 exceptionally well-prepared recruits to high-need schools.
• Retain Teachers: To support our teachers, Obama's plan will expand mentoring programs that pair experienced teachers with new recruits. He will also provide incentives to give teachers paid common planning time so they can collaborate to share best practices.
• Reward Teachers: Obama will promote new and innovative ways to increase teacher pay that are developed with teachers, not imposed on them. Districts will be able to design programs that reward accomplished educators who serve as a mentor to new teachers with a salary increase. Districts can reward teachers who work in underserved places like rural areas and inner cities. And if teachers consistently excel in the classroom, that work can be valued and rewarded as well.

Vague stuff, but there are some hints at what this all means. For instance, at first, his proposal for recruiting teachers sounds very much like Wendy Kopp’s “Teach for America” (TFA) programs that started in 1990. But unlike that program that recruited teachers from prestigious schools after they had their undergraduate degrees and then provided grants for them to take classes that would allow them to get certified, Obama’s proposal would provide scholarships for students in college who want to pursue teaching careers, with the stipulation that they must teach for four years in a high-need subject or hard-to-staff location.

The test of the program will be measured by the retention rate and effectiveness of these teachers. Many TFA teachers drop out of the program before they finish their commitment. Some jump to KIPP and leave the public school system. Others leave the classroom and work in some kind of education administration positions. Even though the track record is basically a good one, the placement of new teachers in hard-to-staff schools often leads to a hasty departure.

Now as a teacher unionist, I’m running into some problems with the second proposal. What is a “voluntary national performance assessment” and how will that be used? And, since the test is voluntary how will it measure “that every new educator is trained and ready to walk into the classroom and start teaching effectively?” If you’re an educator you know the pitfalls of that kind of thinking. Do we measure the performance of teachers based on student results on standardized tests? Or, does it mean that we give the test to new college grads who volunteer to take it because they want to go into teaching?

Obama has it right on mentoring. One of the key components to retain teachers is based on whether they were mentored by a senior, quality teacher. Also, giving teachers “paid common planning time” so they can share experiences and best practices really works and would go a long way to retain new recruits and educational communities.

When teacher unionists see phrases like “new and innovative ways to increase teacher pay,” “reward accomplished educators,” and reward teachers who “consistently excel in the classroom,” it’s like smelling smoke. It’s instinctual to immediately look for a fire and to be on the alert. But Obama says that these programs should be “developed with teachers, not imposed on them.” So what is there to worry about?

Success in the restaurant business depends on three things: location, location, location. It’s not much different for education, except that the three things are: implementation, implementation, implementation.

Which future for education would you choose?

2008-05-20T13:45:00.000-04:00

This is bare bones outline of what the two Democratic candidates vying for the nomination propose on the issue of education and comes directly from their Web sites. The McCain plan for schools, well, you judge for yourself.

Barack Obama:(Please see details.)

Early Childhood Education:

Zero to Five Plan
Expand Early Head Start and Head Start
Affordable, High-Quality Child Care

K-12:

Reform No Child Left Behind
Make Math and Science Education a National Priority
Address the Dropout Crisis
Expand High-Quality Afterschool Opportunities
Expand Summer Learning Opportunities
Support College Outreach Programs
Support English Language Learners

Teachers:

Recruit Teachers
Prepare Teachers
Retain Teachers
Reward Teachers

College Access

Create the American Opportunity Tax Credit
Simplify the Application Process for Financial Aid.

Hillary Clinton:(Please see details.)

Early Childhood Education

Nurse home visitation programs to help new parents develop parenting skills.
Quality child care and Head Start.
Pre-kindergarten for all four-year olds.

K-12

End the unfunded mandate known as No Child Left Behind.
Meet the funding promises of IDEA to ensure that children with special needs get the attention and support they deserve.
Recruit and retain thousands more outstanding teachers and principals, especially in urban and rural areas.
Cut the minority dropout rate in half.
Create "Green Schools" in order to reduce energy costs and eliminate environmental hazards that can hinder children's development.
Expand early-intervention mentoring programs to help one million at-risk youth aspire for college and job success.
Identify at-risk youth early on and provide $1 billion in intensive interventions, such as early college high schools and multiple pathways to graduation, to get them back on track.
Double the after school program to ensure that 2 million young people have a safe and stimulating place to go between 3 and 6 p.m.
Invest $100 million in a new public/private summer internship program.
Provide opportunity for 1.5 million disconnected youth in job programs linked to high-growth economic sectors.

College Access

Create a new $3,500 college tax credit.
Increase the maximum Pell Grant.
Strengthen community colleges through a $500 million investment.
Create a graduation fund to increase college graduation rates.
Increase to $10,000 the college scholarship for those who participate in AmeriCorps full-time for one year.
Get rid of the red tape in financial aid.
Hold college costs down and hold colleges accountable for results though an online college cost calculator, a college graduation and employment rate index, and truth in tuition disclosure.
Challenge selective colleges to expand access for students from low-income communities.

John McCain: (Please see details.)

McCain’s plan is short on details and pushes the slogan "Excellence, Choice, and Competition." Here is a quote emphasizing what he will do "...place parents and children at the center of the education process, empowering parents by greatly expanding the ability of parents to choose among schools for their children. He believes all federal financial support must be predicated on providing parents the ability to move their children, and the dollars associated with them, from failing schools."

Vision Required to Preserve Ridgewood Reservoir

2008-05-17T16:41:00.000-04:00

Seventy concerned citizens, community activists and local politicos turned out on May 15 to show support for the preservation of the Ridgewood Reservoir as a natural urban oasis on the border of Queens and Brooklyn.

The group voiced concern about the city’s proposed plans to cut down trees, breach the walls of the dam and to build artificial-turf covered ball fields that would destroy what is considered a unique natural habitat. The area contains a succession forest with many native plants, freshwater wetlands and critical habitat for native birds, mammals and amphibians.

The Ridgewood Reservoir Education and Preservation Project (RREPP), a group of community members and nature enthusiasts, opposes the plan and is promoting the concept of creating an environmental learning center on the site. The group feels that the development plans could jeopardize some endangered or threatened plant species and several bird species that are declining or rare that were spotted during recent bird surveys.

Naturalist Robert Jett gave the group a short summary about the local flora and fauna and pointed out that 142 different species of birds were found in the area, as was a thriving population of Italian Wall Lizards. One of the problems pointed to was that an invasive species of vine called Kudzu has choked off many of the edges of forested areas and will have to be removed or controlled.

Neglect of the area has led to invasions of another kind. Some local residents race their ATV’s through the area and pose hazards to joggers and walkers. In addition, this is a favorite site for paintball warriors who come into the park to enact their mock-combat war games. However, those problems would subside if there was adequate staffing, consistent maintenance and wider use by the public.

After the tour, Queens Borough Commissioner of Parks Dorothy Lewandowski talked to the group gathered in the parking lot on Vermont Place about the city’s preliminary plan for Ridgewood Reservoir and said that there will be public hearings that will give the community an opportunity to voice its concerns.

City Councilman Joseph Addabbo, community activist David M. Quintana and State Assemblyman Darryl C. Towns, who were among the organizers of the demonstration, agree that the reservoir provides the city with a unique opportunity to establish a recreation and education resource in the community. After all, most of the work has already been done by nature.

It will take a little vision and a small investment to make this a reality.

"Are wired kids well served by schools?"

2008-05-10T16:37:00.000-04:00

That's what Stefanie Olsen asks in her News Blog on CNet where she reports that according to some researchers from the University of Southern California and University of California at Berkeley teachers and schools have very little influence on the development of the tech skills of their students.

One group survey by a team sponsored by Dale Dougherty, founding editor and publisher of Make and Craft magazines found that only 15 percent of programmers said that they learned to write code in school.

According to the piece, wired kids find school boring and are put off by the culture of delayed gratification fostered by school systems. While, by using technology they can publish their thoughts on blogs, their videos on You Tube and build their own personal web pages on MySpace or FaceBook. They are not doing this in preparation to apply to college or to find a job once they graduate. Instead they are socializing and seeking immediate recognition from their peers. In other words, kids get to be the producers as well as the evaluators of their work, while they are also establishing social networks.

Olsen reports that a Pew study found that as many as 83 percent of all kids play video games, and 53 percent of kids create media online.

In fact, the findings go further:

* 39% of online teens share their own artistic creations online, such as artwork, photos, stories, or videos, up from 33% in 2004.
* 33% create or work on webpages or blogs for others, including those for groups they belong to, friends, or school assignments, basically unchanged from 2004 (32%).
* 28% have created their own online journal or blog, up from 19% in 2004.
* 27% maintain their own personal webpage, up from 22% in 2004.
* 26% remix content they find online into their own creations, up from 19% in 2004. See Pew Study

In fact, according to PEW, 64 percent of wired teens answered "yes" to at least one of those content creation activities.

So are the schools and teachers being left behind in this technology revolution? What if any role should schools have in this sea change? Or, are teachers and schools irrelevant in teaching technology?

Moral dilemmas.

2008-05-10T15:51:00.000-04:00

Recently, I was assigned by a local weekly newspaper to capture images of a car that crashed through a store front and FDNY thought the damage threatened the integrity of the structure.

I arrived at the scene ten minutes after I got the call from the editor, but emergency crews had already removed the car from the front of the building. So I missed the shot of the car penetrating the storefront. However, I got some decent shots that somehow told the story well enough that the editors used one of the images.

Fortunately, no one, not even the driver was seriously hurt, but it occurred to me that it would make a great image, if the building would collapse in front of my eyes. So after I got the obligatory shots, I posted my self in what I considered a good spot to capture the collapse.

The Department of Buildings inspector arrived and after surveying the situation said that the building remained structurally sound.

So here is the quandary for photojournalists: (This was my fourth photojournalism assignment, so I'm a newbie.)
Do you feel guilty because you sometime wish that you can witness the worse scenario for the sake of the image, instead of being thankful that no one was hurt and the damage was all repairable?

Even though this assignment in no way approaches the severity of major disasters, I was thinking of those photographers who go into war zones or neighborhoods that suffered devastation from hurricanes or those who were around to photograph the WTC attack and continued to photograph even though there was so much suffering and destruction around them.

What do they feel when they document these events?

Pay Now or Pay Later

2008-03-31T23:12:00.000-04:00

Nearly 70 percent of dropouts begin high school at low literacy levels in NYC and many of those dropouts end up in the prison system. Mayor Bloomberg, by all accounts is a smart business man, and Chancellor Klein who heads the NYC public school system must recognize that the failure to invest wisely in public education will continue to drain the city coffers.

What are the figures often used? In 2004 it was estimated that it cost around $59,000 per year to keep a criminal in jail in NYC! Even though the number of people incarcerated in the state has dropped over the last few years, the "prison class" consists of about 63,000 individuals in jails around the state and a large proportion of those inmates come from NYC.

Despite the fact that NYS spends more per capita per student than all other states and at the per capita cost of around $13,000 per year for NYC, it only makes sense to put the money into instruction in our schools.

One group made the logical connection and is reaching into the community of out-of-school youths, 16 to 24 years old, with reading levels below 8th grade, who are interested in preparing for the GED and/or improving their skills.

The Youth Development Institute (YDI) began the Community Education Pathways to Success (CEPS), which provides the academic, vocational and personal support people with low skill levels need to become eligible for GED programs and to succeed in post-secondary life. CEPS participants, who rarely attended their high schools, have become readers and made gains on standardized tests.

No one argues that paying $59,000 per annum to incarcerate youths is too much money. But you always get an argument about what it costs to effectively educate our children. Well, we can pay now, or we can pay later!