Learning Management System News

The Washington Post has a brief video of Paul Reed Smith, renowned guitar maker, and his desciption of success.  From the interview several points stand out and are worth repeating.  In order to achieve success, one must first have a decent dose of courage.  Smith’s advice was, in the face of fear, to do it anyway; this is courage. 

Smith also advises that for success to be reached there must exist a love or passion for that particular endeavor.  Without love or passion, the efforts will prove to be too daunting, too demanding, or too unworthy.  Following quickly on the heels of love, there must also be drive or determination.  In the face of discouraging statistics or circumstances, there must be a determination to excell, to achieve, to arrive. 

Okay, now this one is the most important.  In order to achieve true success, one must not continually define success by someone else’s standards.  Who determines what is success for you?  If you are stellar school teacher, your success will be defined differently than an investment banker. 

The last bit of advice that I gleened from this guitar maker, was to continue to improve.  Do better this year than you did last.  Don’t settle for your own status quo but continue to improve.Â

The Race to the Top competition is in the news again.  This time, according to the Washington Post, we learn which states made it to phase one.  Click here to read more.    Reportedly, the competition has been narrowed to 16 competitors.  Yep.  That’s right sixteen states out of fifty. 

So what about the rest of us?  Are the states that either chose not to participate or didn’t qualify somehow less worthy of government assistance?  Seems to me like this Race to the Top is actually a Race to Destruction for public education. 

While the competition encourages innovations in the way school is approached, it simulataneously puts major restrictions on the tried and true methods that are currently in limbo because of lack of funding. 

The Obama administration’s attempt to re-vamp public education is in fact contributing greatly to it’s fall.Â

Principals have a difficult job.  They have many responsibilities.  They face high expectations.  There are challenges everyday.  But perhaps the most important thing they can do is to support the teachers in their school.  Principals, and other administration, must demonstrate support to the teachers who serve under them.  

An article in the Washington Post discusses the results of a recent survey that indicate how strongly teachers feel about working in a supportive environment.  It’s true.  Teachers are more willing to support the administration’s plan, mission, and goal, if they feel adequately supported.

I’ve worked in systems where the administration team was very supportive and in others where they weren’t.  On the one hand, teachers strive to try new techniques and praise their leaders.  On the other hand, teachers seek to do what’s best in their classroom, even if it undermines the leadership.   Effective leadership is key to producing healthy, strong schools.  Â

As the temperatures start to creep up and the snow begins to melt, schools systems across the country are trying to determine the best way to make-up missed class time.  In central Virgina, some schools have missed thirteen days or more due to inclement weather.  In general, school systems try to plan for make-up days but, usually there aren’t so many.

 Some local systems have concluded that adding additional minutes of classroom instruction everyday from now until the end of school is the most effective and beneficial way to make-up time.  In our schools, twenty minutes was tacked on to the end of the school day. 

Other systems continue to add full school days to the end of the year.  Graduations have been moved back a week from their original scheduled date.  Students have added days to their countdowns. 

In the long run, which one of these two amendments will be most effective?  I am not sure that either option is optimal but I certainly think that extending the school day makes more sense. 

Students in Virgina typically take their standardized tests towards the middle of May.  Once complete, teachers have very little success getting students to focus.  To add additional days to the end of the year, means you increase the number of days that students are not being actively engaged in relevant material. 

However, by adding time to the end of the day class-time is increased before the testing begins.  Students are actually making-up time when it counts.Â

An article in the Washington Post follows up on some comments made be Obama in response to the firings of all the faculty and staff at a Rhode Island high school.  To read the article click here.  As the author points out in the article, the “re-structuring” as it is being called, is intended to increase performance.  However, the reality is likely to be far from successful.  Reportedly, the Central Falls, where the firings took place, is the smallest and poorest city in the state. 

I taught for several years in a rural middle school.  I struggled with some students.  No matter how hard I tried, which techniques and theories I implemented, nothing seemed to work.  The kids were indifferent at best. 

Last week, I went to the grocery store around 9:30pm.  I saw a former student there with her mother.  (You are probably thinking that these things have nothing to do with each other, but keep reading.)  This kid was one of those kids.  She was one that I could never reach.  I couldn’t crack her code for anything.  But as I left the grocery store, I may have finally understood why. 

Yes, she was there with her mother, but not to shop.  To work.  She and her mother are the night shift cleaning crew.  Most likely, she begins work around 10pm and who knows when she fini,shes.  Finally it hit me.  It wasn’t that I was failing as a teacher.  The external circumstances were too great and out of my control.  This poor girl was asleep.  She worked all night with her mother and came to school for the free meals and a place to sleep. 

So here is the problem with school reform.  It doesn’t actually address the real, underlying problem.  The problem is in the homes, in the economy.  Until the underlying problems are addressed, school reform, like that of Central Falls, will be unsuccessful.Â

The governor of Virginia, Bob McDonnell, recently proposed a plan to encourage more charter schools in the Commonwealth.  In his plan, McDonnell suggests that if a charter school does not recieve approval from the local school board then it may seek an appeal at the state level.  McDonnell’s theory, as shared by many, is that education will improve where competition exists.  That competition is created in expanding the charter schools in the state.  Read more here.

Charter schools are classified as those schools that are publicly funded by privately operated.  Because of their charter status they are granted more freedom in scheduling, curriculum, and other areas.  The hope is that a charter school will come up with a more successful approach to education. 

Here’s the rub.  According to the Washington Post article, charter schools or the possibility thereof have existed in Virginia for twelve years yet there are only three in the entire state.  What does this say?  I think we can reasonably conclude that Virginia, overall, is not interested.  The citizens of this state would prefer to invest their time, energy, and resources into a system that exists for the benefit of all.  Sure, there is always room for improvement in public education but is it worth scrapping all together?  I don’t think so.

An article in the NY Times is reporting on a school system in Rhode Island that has taken some drastic measures to overhaul an area high school.  Reportedly, the school board voted to dismiss all faculty at the school in question.  All.  Everyone.  Fired.  Gone.  The idea is that, now, with all new faculty the school board can groom and train these educators is successful techniques to directly address the low graduation rates that have plagued the school for several years.

I understand the school board’s desire to jumpstart a revolution but they may have gotten into more trouble with this decision.  Schools across the county are struggling to fill positions.  How does this school think it will fill ALL of its positions?  And where is the guarantee that every new hire will be better than the ones previously employed?

I find it hard to believe that every member of that faculty was sub-standard in their craft.  It’s just highly unlikely that those staff members were all deserving of this termination.  One must weigh the impact this decision will have on countless lives and the community itself.  No doubt there will be an exodus of sorts as these, now unemployed, teachers search for new jobs.    In the end, will this decision be in the best interest of all parties?  It is unlikely.

Many parents of college students are furious over the latest extension of the privacy act.  Colleges and universities make extreme financial demands on parents, yet, those parents are denied access to their child’s grades.  The institutions will gladly send a bill, or two, but grades?  No way, those are personal, private.  Sorry, no access. 

Parents have the right to know their child’s grades, whether that child is five or twenty-five, if the parent is paying the bill.  Informed parents can offer incentive and support that the university system cannot and will not do. 

In schools across the country parents are being held responsible for their child’s attendance to school.  If a child is found truant, the parent can be made to serve jail time.  So how is it that at one end of the spectrum, we insist on parent responsibility and support but on the other end we refuse to allow it?  Parents have the right to know what is going on with their child’s education, regardless of age.

The Obama administration is attempting to begin the process of overhauling the nation’s public education system.  As one of his campaign promises, Obama is dissecting the No Child Left Behind legislation that was created under G.W. Bush.  According to the New York Times, Obama and the education secretary hope to rewrite the standards to produce college- and career-ready students. 

In an earlier blog, I discussed a new “board-exam” style approach to high school education where students would be tested for mastery in tenth grade, then, if mastery is demonstrated, allowed to pursue college preperatory or community college courses.  The board exam is a very European approach to education.  So, too, is this suggested change of standards. 

I am a firm believer in doing what you are good at.  So, I would have to support a system which encourages to pursue education that is appropriate for their futures.  For too long, our current system has maintained that every student can and should, and must (even if they don’t want to) learn it all.  Let’s face it, education has become watered down because we somehow feel obligated to offer everyone the same education.  Now, I do believe that everyone ought to be offered the same quality of education.  Students who wish to pursue a future in construction or mechanics ought to be offered an education that prepares them for that.  Students who wish to pursue a future in the medical field ought to be offered an education that prepares them for that.  In short, I believe that everyone ought to be offered a quality public education, just not the same one as everyone else.Â

Whether you agree with his religious views or not, Jerry Falwell was man with a plan.  According to an article in the Washington Post, when Falwell started Liberty University in 1971 his goal was for enrollment to reach 50,000.  The university reportedly reached and is exceeding that goal as of this spring semester. 

The article mentions that although his overall vision remained the same, 50,000 students, the details have adapted to the present by hoping to reach 25,000 on-campus enrollments and 25,000 online enrollments.  Does this change mean that Falwell’s goal was unattainable?  No, it just means that he was sensible enough to adjust his expectations to the happenings of our current world.

Educators are good at making unit plans, or chapter plans, or lesson plans, but perhaps it would be useful to, like Dr. Falwell, draw back the microscope a little to get a bigger picture to see the purpose for accomplishing the small plans.  As you prepare to teach a lesson, ask yourself “how will knowing this help my students in the future?” or “in what ways do I envision students using the information in this lesson outside of the classroom?”.  Plan Ahead, it’s important.