Pontiac school board to vote on restructuring plans, closing schools
Friday, January 2, 2009 11:50 AM EST
By DIANA DILLABER MURRAYOf The Oakland Press
The Pontiac Board of Education plans to vote Monday on whether to create a system with one high school and a few elementaries or a single high school with both elementaries and middle schools.
Their decision Monday will also determine how many schools the district will keep open in the fall.However, Board President Damon Dorkins said trustees will not determine which schools will remain open until they vote on the final restructuring plan on Jan. 26.
Two options have been recommended by the Pontiac Redesign Committee for Instructional Effectiveness and Financial Efficiency that has worked for several weeks on the project.
Both options would feature a single high school made up of combined student populations of Pontiac Northern and Pontiac Central high schools — 2,460 — located at Northern. And both include keeping Frost school as a preschool academy and Kennedy School for special education programs.Most likely to be closed under either option are Central, Bethune, Crofoot, Franklin, Longfellow and Whitmer Human Resource Center.
The advisory committee’s goal is to come up with a structure that will be more efficient for the district, which has declined from 20,000 to only 6,700 K-12 students. It also is designed to help eliminate a $10 million projected deficit and improve instructional programs.
Option One, which seemed to be most popular with the board, would keep open two middle schools and seven elementaries. It would be similar to the existing system with kindergarten through sixth-graders in elementaries, seventh through ninth-graders in middle schools and 10th through 12th-graders in high school.Schools recommended for this configuration are Northern; Madison and Jefferson/Whittier middle schools; and Herrington, Rogers, LeBaron, Emerson, Owen, Alcott and Whitman elementary schools.
Closed under Option One would be Central High School, Bethune School (with alternative high school moved to another location), Lincoln Middle School, and Crofoot, Franklin, Longfellow, and Whitmer Human Resource Center elementaries.
Option Two, which would close more schools, would feature one high school for ninth through 12th-graders and five kindergarten through eighthgrade elementary schools.
Under that option, the district would keep open Northern, all three middle schools and only four elementary schools.It would incorporate combined middle and elementary schools of Jefferson/Whittier and Lincoln/Whitman; Madison Middle School; and Herrington and Rogers elementary schools.Closed would be Central High School, Bethune School (with alternative high school located elsewhere); and Alcott, Crofoot, Emerson, Franklin, LeBaron, Longfellow, Owen, and Whitmer Human Resource Center elementaries.
Vice President Gill Garrett has proposed an option of his own.
Garrett would move all seventh and eighth graders into Madison Middle School, which has a capacity of 1,180 and is on the same campus as Northern. He would move elementary students from Crofoot, Longfellow, Franklin and Whitmer Human Resource Center to the Jefferson Middle School/ Whittier Elementary campus. In this scenario, Lincoln Middle school would be closed.
Before the board approves a total restructuring plan that names schools to remain open and defines instructional features to be included, two additional meetings will be held.
The first is the fourth and final public forum at 6 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 13, at Whitmer Human Resource Center in the city-school complex off Auburn Road and Woodward northbound.
The second meeting at 12:30 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 15, will be a board study session. Besides reviewing information gathered at the public forum, trustees have asked administrators to provide more in-depth data about capital outlay per pupil, energy cost per pupil, building capacity, feasibility, necessity for improvements, and density of student population around each building.Some trustees said the data provided the advisory committee for their recommendations are from two different sources that do not agree.
In addition, the board wants to consider the geographical impact of the schools closed before their final vote.
Sunday, January 04, 2009
Disruptive Digital Learning equals Cheaper, Better, Faster!
Waivers free high school students to study online, off-campus
State steps up role in Web-based high school education
BY LORI HIGGINS • FREE PRESS EDUCATION WRITER • January 4, 2009
Eleven Michigan school districts and one charter school can now allow students to take more courses -- and in some cases all of their classes -- online and off-campus, moves that could further cement the state's reputation as a leader in online education.
Michigan already broke new ground in 2006 by becoming the first state in the nation to require students take an online class or have an online educational experience in order to graduate.
Just in November, the Center for Digital Education ranked Michigan second, behind Florida, for online education.
Two metro Detroit districts -- Waterford and Avondale -- are among the handful moving farther ahead, winning approval from the Michigan Department of Education to allow larger numbers of students to take online courses wherever they want.
At least two dozen of the state's 552 districts and 230 charter schools have applied for the waivers from rules that require students be in a school building for nearly 1,100 hours each school year. Students also are currently limited by state law to taking only two online courses outside a school building during a semester.
"That would be so much easier," Kayla Jacques, 18, of Waterford said of the chance to take online courses from the comfort of home. She is a senior at Waterford Alternative High School and stays late after school several days a week to take an online class.
The waivers are a result of a challenge issued to districts earlier this year by State Superintendent Mike Flanagan, with the goal of seeing what innovative ideas school districts could come up with if they were allowed to bypass some rules that might be "standing in the way of schools reaching more kids," said MaryAlice Galloway, senior adviser to the chief academic officer at MDE.
Most of the 24 districts that submitted proposals targeted struggling students, particularly those attending alternative high schools. That's not surprising given that a quarter of the state's students fail to graduate on time, including 15% who drop out altogether.
Nearly all of the districts made online education a key component of the plans.
"It gives them a shot at catching up," said George Heitsch, Avondale superintendent.
Virtual enrollment boom
Online education has soared in Michigan in the last decade, illustrated by growth in enrollment at Michigan Virtual University, one of the options students have to take online classes. MVU offers more than 200 high school courses and enrollment has spiraled upward from 100 students in the 1999-2000 school year to an expected 15,000 this school year.
Part of the growth is influenced by students who need to make up credits required to graduate. But there also are students who want to take on larger course loads, those who want to take courses their schools don't offer and those with scheduling conflicts that prevent them from taking classes they want.
Most of those students who enroll at MVU, however, take one course at a time. The seat-time waivers will give students in districts that win approval an opportunity to take most or all of their course work online. And, in most cases, it allows them to take classes anywhere they can find an Internet connection.
That's what has Jacob Carman, 18, intrigued. A student at Waterford Alternative High School, he said being away from school would mean fewer distractions while he's learning. And there would be the convenience of not having to follow a school schedule.
The Avondale district, approved for a seat-time waiver last month, already has 10 students taking all of their classes online. Conor Helmrich, 16, is one of them.
"I'm able to wake up, turn my computer on and get going," Conor said. It's a lifestyle that has made him the envy of his friends. "They wish they could sleep in until whenever, and then do their work."
It may sound unstructured, and for the student who lacks inner motivation, online classes from home may not work. It helps that Conor's parents play an active role in his education. And the school closely monitors online students' progress and how often they log into the system.
"I got my parents all over my back on this," Conor said. "They're calling me like every hour making sure I'm on track."
No one is expecting hordes of students to sign up for a schedule in which they don't have to show up for school every day, if at all.
Jacques and her friend Katie VanOvermeer, 17, say they wouldn't want to take all of their classes online.
"I like coming to school here," Jacques said.
The Waterford district is beginning the program with alternative high students and those who are homebound for medical reasons. It will then expand it to its traditional high schools, said Lynn Kosinski, supervisor of secondary education.
But the district's plan includes limiting participants to 10% of the student body.
Trial program
The state is looking at the seat-time waivers as a pilot program and will closely monitor how well it works.
"What we're going to learn is not only which kids do well, but what kinds of support a district can give them to help them succeed in a virtual learning environment," Galloway said.
One thing they do know is that students taking online classes need support. Districts allowing students to take their course work online will assign a teacher mentor who regularly will meet face-to-face with them and monitor progress between meetings. Some districts also require students to take exams on a school site.
The Avondale district last spring piloted an afternoon program in which 12 students came into a computer lab and took all of their courses online. That program is still going on, but the seat-time waiver has opened it up to allowing up to 80 students to complete their course work outside of school.
Among the 10 students enrolled are four who would just rather not come to school. But there are others who have been expelled and can't come to school, said Chuck Granger, director of community education, adult education and the Avondale Academy, the district's alternative program.
Contact LORI HIGGINS at 248-351-3694 or lhiggins@freepress.com.
State steps up role in Web-based high school education
BY LORI HIGGINS • FREE PRESS EDUCATION WRITER • January 4, 2009
Eleven Michigan school districts and one charter school can now allow students to take more courses -- and in some cases all of their classes -- online and off-campus, moves that could further cement the state's reputation as a leader in online education.
Michigan already broke new ground in 2006 by becoming the first state in the nation to require students take an online class or have an online educational experience in order to graduate.
Just in November, the Center for Digital Education ranked Michigan second, behind Florida, for online education.
Two metro Detroit districts -- Waterford and Avondale -- are among the handful moving farther ahead, winning approval from the Michigan Department of Education to allow larger numbers of students to take online courses wherever they want.
At least two dozen of the state's 552 districts and 230 charter schools have applied for the waivers from rules that require students be in a school building for nearly 1,100 hours each school year. Students also are currently limited by state law to taking only two online courses outside a school building during a semester.
"That would be so much easier," Kayla Jacques, 18, of Waterford said of the chance to take online courses from the comfort of home. She is a senior at Waterford Alternative High School and stays late after school several days a week to take an online class.
The waivers are a result of a challenge issued to districts earlier this year by State Superintendent Mike Flanagan, with the goal of seeing what innovative ideas school districts could come up with if they were allowed to bypass some rules that might be "standing in the way of schools reaching more kids," said MaryAlice Galloway, senior adviser to the chief academic officer at MDE.
Most of the 24 districts that submitted proposals targeted struggling students, particularly those attending alternative high schools. That's not surprising given that a quarter of the state's students fail to graduate on time, including 15% who drop out altogether.
Nearly all of the districts made online education a key component of the plans.
"It gives them a shot at catching up," said George Heitsch, Avondale superintendent.
Virtual enrollment boom
Online education has soared in Michigan in the last decade, illustrated by growth in enrollment at Michigan Virtual University, one of the options students have to take online classes. MVU offers more than 200 high school courses and enrollment has spiraled upward from 100 students in the 1999-2000 school year to an expected 15,000 this school year.
Part of the growth is influenced by students who need to make up credits required to graduate. But there also are students who want to take on larger course loads, those who want to take courses their schools don't offer and those with scheduling conflicts that prevent them from taking classes they want.
Most of those students who enroll at MVU, however, take one course at a time. The seat-time waivers will give students in districts that win approval an opportunity to take most or all of their course work online. And, in most cases, it allows them to take classes anywhere they can find an Internet connection.
That's what has Jacob Carman, 18, intrigued. A student at Waterford Alternative High School, he said being away from school would mean fewer distractions while he's learning. And there would be the convenience of not having to follow a school schedule.
The Avondale district, approved for a seat-time waiver last month, already has 10 students taking all of their classes online. Conor Helmrich, 16, is one of them.
"I'm able to wake up, turn my computer on and get going," Conor said. It's a lifestyle that has made him the envy of his friends. "They wish they could sleep in until whenever, and then do their work."
It may sound unstructured, and for the student who lacks inner motivation, online classes from home may not work. It helps that Conor's parents play an active role in his education. And the school closely monitors online students' progress and how often they log into the system.
"I got my parents all over my back on this," Conor said. "They're calling me like every hour making sure I'm on track."
No one is expecting hordes of students to sign up for a schedule in which they don't have to show up for school every day, if at all.
Jacques and her friend Katie VanOvermeer, 17, say they wouldn't want to take all of their classes online.
"I like coming to school here," Jacques said.
The Waterford district is beginning the program with alternative high students and those who are homebound for medical reasons. It will then expand it to its traditional high schools, said Lynn Kosinski, supervisor of secondary education.
But the district's plan includes limiting participants to 10% of the student body.
Trial program
The state is looking at the seat-time waivers as a pilot program and will closely monitor how well it works.
"What we're going to learn is not only which kids do well, but what kinds of support a district can give them to help them succeed in a virtual learning environment," Galloway said.
One thing they do know is that students taking online classes need support. Districts allowing students to take their course work online will assign a teacher mentor who regularly will meet face-to-face with them and monitor progress between meetings. Some districts also require students to take exams on a school site.
The Avondale district last spring piloted an afternoon program in which 12 students came into a computer lab and took all of their courses online. That program is still going on, but the seat-time waiver has opened it up to allowing up to 80 students to complete their course work outside of school.
Among the 10 students enrolled are four who would just rather not come to school. But there are others who have been expelled and can't come to school, said Chuck Granger, director of community education, adult education and the Avondale Academy, the district's alternative program.
Contact LORI HIGGINS at 248-351-3694 or lhiggins@freepress.com.
Thursday, January 01, 2009
FIT for Acheivement!
Plan for schools fit for achievement, some say
Obama's program to modernize schools around the country could make big difference, educators say
BY LIBBY QUAID • ASSOCIATED PRESS • January 1, 2009
WASHINGTON -- Barack Obama probably cannot fix every leaky roof and busted boiler in the nation's schools. But educators say his sweeping school modernization program -- if he spends enough -- could jump-start student achievement.
More students than ever are crammed into aging, run-down schools that need about $255 billion in repairs, renovations or construction. While the president-elect is likely to ask Congress for only a fraction of that, education experts say it still could make a big difference.
"The need is definitely out there," said Robert Canavan, chairman of the Rebuild America's Schools coalition, which includes both teachers unions and large education groups. "A federal investment of that magnitude would really have a significant impact."
Obama is promising to give every student access to the Internet. Outgoing Education Secretary Margaret Spellings pointed out that billions already has been spent through the E-Rate program.
"We should never spend money in the public sector, especially in education, unless we're getting something for it, unless it's to some good end," Spellings said. "I commend him (Obama) for taking that on. That's another very ripe area. But not unless it's moving the needle for kids."
There's widespread agreement, however, that improving classrooms helps student performance.
Studies in Houston, New York City and North Dakota have made a link between classroom conditions and performance; in the New York study, researchers found students in crowded classrooms scored lower in math and reading.
Nearly half the principals in primary and secondary schools said deteriorating conditions are interfering with learning, according to the Education Department.
Judi Caddick, a middle school math teacher in Lansing, Ill., just south of Chicago, said in the older part of her World War II-era school, classrooms had just two power outlets, forcing teachers to string extension cords into the rafters or to unplug a TV power point presentation in order to plug in a computer for a child.
"It looked like a spaghetti bowl," Caddick said.
A new school is almost complete.
"It's a huge difference," Caddick said. "We don't have to have necessarily state-of-the-art and fluffy stuff. But at least when you don't have mold problems, and you don't have things that are broken, and you don't have an inability to use the technology, it's an investment."
Obama's program to modernize schools around the country could make big difference, educators say
BY LIBBY QUAID • ASSOCIATED PRESS • January 1, 2009
WASHINGTON -- Barack Obama probably cannot fix every leaky roof and busted boiler in the nation's schools. But educators say his sweeping school modernization program -- if he spends enough -- could jump-start student achievement.
More students than ever are crammed into aging, run-down schools that need about $255 billion in repairs, renovations or construction. While the president-elect is likely to ask Congress for only a fraction of that, education experts say it still could make a big difference.
"The need is definitely out there," said Robert Canavan, chairman of the Rebuild America's Schools coalition, which includes both teachers unions and large education groups. "A federal investment of that magnitude would really have a significant impact."
Obama is promising to give every student access to the Internet. Outgoing Education Secretary Margaret Spellings pointed out that billions already has been spent through the E-Rate program.
"We should never spend money in the public sector, especially in education, unless we're getting something for it, unless it's to some good end," Spellings said. "I commend him (Obama) for taking that on. That's another very ripe area. But not unless it's moving the needle for kids."
There's widespread agreement, however, that improving classrooms helps student performance.
Studies in Houston, New York City and North Dakota have made a link between classroom conditions and performance; in the New York study, researchers found students in crowded classrooms scored lower in math and reading.
Nearly half the principals in primary and secondary schools said deteriorating conditions are interfering with learning, according to the Education Department.
Judi Caddick, a middle school math teacher in Lansing, Ill., just south of Chicago, said in the older part of her World War II-era school, classrooms had just two power outlets, forcing teachers to string extension cords into the rafters or to unplug a TV power point presentation in order to plug in a computer for a child.
"It looked like a spaghetti bowl," Caddick said.
A new school is almost complete.
"It's a huge difference," Caddick said. "We don't have to have necessarily state-of-the-art and fluffy stuff. But at least when you don't have mold problems, and you don't have things that are broken, and you don't have an inability to use the technology, it's an investment."
Sunday, December 28, 2008
Pontiac Promise / Update!
Bill may bring tuition help for Pontiac district students
Friday, December 26, 2008 10:22 AM EST
By RANDAL YAKEYOf The Oakland Press
Students in the Pontiac School District could get a boost from legislation passed in Lansing.State Rep. Tim Melton, D-Auburn Hills, chairman of the House Education Committee, said the Michigan Promise Zone Act has passed the House and Senate and is headed to Gov. Jennifer Granholm to become law.
The plan is designed to increase the accessibility of higher education by providing tuition assistance.“In order for us to grow Michigan’s economy and create good-paying jobs for our workers, we need a strong and vibrant workforce,” Melton said.Melton said the plan was not meant to be the cure-all for college funding woes for Pontiac students, but that it was a good first step in getting money for students who otherwise would not be going to college.
“There will be an 11-member authority board established,” Melton said. “This will not be run by the school district or the city, because we have several different cities in the Pontiac School District.”
The geographical boundaries of the Pontiac School District include all of the city of Pontiac, portions of Auburn Hills, Lake Angelus and Sylvan Lake, and the townships of Bloomfield, Orion, Waterford and West Bloomfield.
The Pontiac School District superintendent will establish the requirement for students receiving the funding. The requirements will most likely be based on how long the student lived in the district, grade-point average and ability to secure scholarships and grants.
“We limited it to the 15 Michigan public universities, and some private colleges and community colleges,” said Melton.
“If you go to a private school like Baker or Lawrence Tech, we cap the tuition you can get at the average you pay at a public university.”
The authority board will also have to raise the first two years of funding on its own.
Melton said he has already contacted Oakland University, Oakland Community College, Fifth Third Bank and Flagstar Bank authorities about helping with funding.
He has also contacted Chrysler Corp. and General Motors.Under the legislation, up to 10 Promise Zones will be authorized throughout the state in areas that have a combination of low rates of educational attainment and high rates of poverty and unemployment.
The Pontiac School District has already submitted an application to be the state’s first Promise Zone.
Melton’s plan is based on the Kalamazoo Promise — the nation’s first Promise Zone plan — which guarantees graduates of Kalamazoo Public Schools free college tuition at any university or community college in Michigan.
The Kalamazoo plan was funded by a wealthy benefactor.Melton said after two years of raising money for the district, other sources will become available.“After the third year, we will be then be able to capture half the state education tax in the zone,” Melton said. “That money can then help this Promise Zone authority capture some revenue.
We may also have to continue to raise money.”
According to the House Fiscal Agency, the legislation could capture over $46.2 million based on data on the Kalamazoo Promise Zone.
The Fiscal Agency said that the legislation could have a significant effect on the School Aid Fund.
Melton said he did expect Granholm to sign the legislation sometime before the end of the year.
Friday, December 26, 2008 10:22 AM EST
By RANDAL YAKEYOf The Oakland Press
Students in the Pontiac School District could get a boost from legislation passed in Lansing.State Rep. Tim Melton, D-Auburn Hills, chairman of the House Education Committee, said the Michigan Promise Zone Act has passed the House and Senate and is headed to Gov. Jennifer Granholm to become law.
The plan is designed to increase the accessibility of higher education by providing tuition assistance.“In order for us to grow Michigan’s economy and create good-paying jobs for our workers, we need a strong and vibrant workforce,” Melton said.Melton said the plan was not meant to be the cure-all for college funding woes for Pontiac students, but that it was a good first step in getting money for students who otherwise would not be going to college.
“There will be an 11-member authority board established,” Melton said. “This will not be run by the school district or the city, because we have several different cities in the Pontiac School District.”
The geographical boundaries of the Pontiac School District include all of the city of Pontiac, portions of Auburn Hills, Lake Angelus and Sylvan Lake, and the townships of Bloomfield, Orion, Waterford and West Bloomfield.
The Pontiac School District superintendent will establish the requirement for students receiving the funding. The requirements will most likely be based on how long the student lived in the district, grade-point average and ability to secure scholarships and grants.
“We limited it to the 15 Michigan public universities, and some private colleges and community colleges,” said Melton.
“If you go to a private school like Baker or Lawrence Tech, we cap the tuition you can get at the average you pay at a public university.”
The authority board will also have to raise the first two years of funding on its own.
Melton said he has already contacted Oakland University, Oakland Community College, Fifth Third Bank and Flagstar Bank authorities about helping with funding.
He has also contacted Chrysler Corp. and General Motors.Under the legislation, up to 10 Promise Zones will be authorized throughout the state in areas that have a combination of low rates of educational attainment and high rates of poverty and unemployment.
The Pontiac School District has already submitted an application to be the state’s first Promise Zone.
Melton’s plan is based on the Kalamazoo Promise — the nation’s first Promise Zone plan — which guarantees graduates of Kalamazoo Public Schools free college tuition at any university or community college in Michigan.
The Kalamazoo plan was funded by a wealthy benefactor.Melton said after two years of raising money for the district, other sources will become available.“After the third year, we will be then be able to capture half the state education tax in the zone,” Melton said. “That money can then help this Promise Zone authority capture some revenue.
We may also have to continue to raise money.”
According to the House Fiscal Agency, the legislation could capture over $46.2 million based on data on the Kalamazoo Promise Zone.
The Fiscal Agency said that the legislation could have a significant effect on the School Aid Fund.
Melton said he did expect Granholm to sign the legislation sometime before the end of the year.
Saturday, December 27, 2008
GIVE STUDENTS ALTERNATIVE ENERGY EDGE by DESIGN!
St. Clair County students work on a solar-hydrogen fuel cell car. From left: Jason Hoogerhyde, John Freeman, Cody Benedict and Evan Miller. Rather than learning TV repair, students are getting trained in alternative energy.
Schools to invest in alternative energy, give students edge
BY PEGGY WALSH-SARNECKI • FREE PRESS EDUCATION WRITER • December 27, 2008
St. Clair County RESA Career Technical Center students will be calculating actual energy outputs from school-owned windmills, solar panels and a hydroelectric plant.
In Warren Consolidated Schools, students will find lessons from a district-owned wind power station integrated into their classes.
Both programs are the result of a trend by a growing number of schools to meld alternative energy into their lesson plans.
"I think kids are interested in this type of thing. And a lot of us see it as the future, to lessen our reliance on nonrenewable sources. And there are going to be jobs there," said Dan DeGrow, superintendent of St. Clair County Regional Educational Service Agency.
St. Clair RESA plans to invest up to $450,000, depending on how much grant money it receives, in three wind turbines -- each about 100 feet tall -- solar panels next to the turbines and a mini-hydro plant. It will be working with local governments on getting site permits.
Gone are the days of students taking high school electronics to become TV repairpeople. The jobs are moving to other categories, such as alternative energy technicians.
"What we decided was we wanted a way to teach traditional electronics but within a more current context," said Pat Yanik, director of career and technical education for RESA.
Beginning next fall, students will monitor the electricity generated by their three alternative energy sources, learn how to convert the power to actual energy and make decisions on how to distribute their self-generated electricity to RESA facilities. The actual energy generated will be small, but the lessons will be huge.
"With the energy crisis and the government push for it at the federal level and the state level, alternative energy seemed to be a pretty going item that students and parents can understand," said electronics teacher Zack Diatchun.
The Warren Consolidated Schools Board of Education has approved up to $9,000 for a wind spire -- a smaller (30-foot high) version of the windmill-style turbine -- to establish a district-wide alternative energy institute, said Superintendent Robert Livernois. Like St. Clair RESA, Warren Consolidated also hopes much of the cost will be offset by grants.
"The sky's the limit for us. That's what's so exciting about it from a K-12 perspective, you can talk to a second-grader and a 12th-grader," Livernois said. "Our belief is you've got to start somewhere, so as we launch this institute, it's really designed to begin cultivating awareness."
Students at St. Clair RESA have been told their program will open in the fall.
"It doesn't seem like something that they put into a high school-type course, but it's a really good idea they're putting it in," said Cody Benedict, 17, a senior from Yale High School who will be going to school for another year and taking the energy program. "It's going to be a larger range of stuff to learn for jobs."
There's no timetable for the Warren Consolidated program yet, but Livernois expects there will be varying components of alternative energy that will be applicable to most grades.
"We're going to use it in a study of just how much energy you can produce in the community," said Mark Supal, a technology teacher at the Macomb Mathematics Science and Technology Center, where the wind spire will be located.
Even students who won't be around for the new programs recognize the possibilities.
"I got accepted to Michigan Tech ... and I'm probably going to take electrical engineering, but I'm probably going to branch into some kind of alternative energy," said Dalton Pelc, 17, a senior from Kimball Township attending Port Huron High School. "That's what we need, and that's because that's what the economy needs."
Contact PEGGY WALSH-SARNECKI at 586-826-7262 or mmwalsh@freepress.com.
Monday, December 22, 2008
CONGRATULATIONS to the YAPO Wolverines 4-H Club!
The Oakland Press (theoaklandpress.com), Serving Oakland County
Pontiac seniors get a 4-H Christmas
Sunday, December 21, 2008 12:25 AM EST
By ANN ZANIEWSKIOf The Oakland Press
Residents of the McDonald Senior Apartments tapped their feet and sang along Saturday as a group of angel-faced children belted out Christmas songs.
The children, who belong to the United Nations 4-H Club in Pontiac, also passed out goodie bags and cake as part of an effort to spread a little holiday cheer.“I like that we get to sing for the people who live here,” said 10-year-old Mary Wright of Pontiac. “It’s community service.”
While most people connect 4-H Clubs with farm kids and livestock competitions, the United Nations 4-H Club is for children living in the city.
The group, based out of Whitman Elementary School in Pontiac, has 40 members who range in age from 4-12.
Sharon Cornell, a former teacher and a Pontiac resident, is the leader of the club and of the Yapo Wolverines 4-H Club, which is also based in Pontiac.
The clubs are affiliated with Michigan State University’s 4-H program.Children who are members take field trips to museums, pumpkin patches and Detroit Tigers baseball games.
They also are involved in community service projects, such as a recent canned food drive that netted 800 cans and Saturday’s Christmas concert at the McDonald Senior Apartments on Baldwin Avenue.“The kids need to get out. They need to know that there are other people who need help,” Cornell said.
On Saturday, a group of children and Cornell’s husband, David, gathered in front of a community room with song books. They sang songs such as “We Wish You a Merry Christmas” and “Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer” to an audience of about 20 people.“It’s great. The kids are all good. Beautiful!,” said a smiling Alberta Stamps, who lives at the facility.
After the concert, the children passed out cake and goodie bags stuffed with cookies, candy and other items purchased with donated gift cards from Meijer and Target.“I’ll hang it on my door,” Stamps said, after a child handed her a piece of cardboard painted in rainbow colors that said, “Happy Holidays.”Laticia Greer, 6, doled out goodie bags and cake wearing a Santa hat.“I was a little bit nervous” about singing, she said. “The best one was ‘Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer.’”
McDonald residents Lillian Blackwell, Helena Witherspoon and Anniebell Cowart all said they enjoyed the children’s company.“
It was really nice, just being around the kids, seeing the kids sing,” Blackwell said. “This kind of cheered me up.”
Contact staff writer Ann Zaniewski at (248) 745-4628 or ann.zaniewski@oakpress.com.
Pontiac seniors get a 4-H Christmas
Sunday, December 21, 2008 12:25 AM EST
By ANN ZANIEWSKIOf The Oakland Press
Residents of the McDonald Senior Apartments tapped their feet and sang along Saturday as a group of angel-faced children belted out Christmas songs.
The children, who belong to the United Nations 4-H Club in Pontiac, also passed out goodie bags and cake as part of an effort to spread a little holiday cheer.“I like that we get to sing for the people who live here,” said 10-year-old Mary Wright of Pontiac. “It’s community service.”
While most people connect 4-H Clubs with farm kids and livestock competitions, the United Nations 4-H Club is for children living in the city.
The group, based out of Whitman Elementary School in Pontiac, has 40 members who range in age from 4-12.
Sharon Cornell, a former teacher and a Pontiac resident, is the leader of the club and of the Yapo Wolverines 4-H Club, which is also based in Pontiac.
The clubs are affiliated with Michigan State University’s 4-H program.Children who are members take field trips to museums, pumpkin patches and Detroit Tigers baseball games.
They also are involved in community service projects, such as a recent canned food drive that netted 800 cans and Saturday’s Christmas concert at the McDonald Senior Apartments on Baldwin Avenue.“The kids need to get out. They need to know that there are other people who need help,” Cornell said.
On Saturday, a group of children and Cornell’s husband, David, gathered in front of a community room with song books. They sang songs such as “We Wish You a Merry Christmas” and “Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer” to an audience of about 20 people.“It’s great. The kids are all good. Beautiful!,” said a smiling Alberta Stamps, who lives at the facility.
After the concert, the children passed out cake and goodie bags stuffed with cookies, candy and other items purchased with donated gift cards from Meijer and Target.“I’ll hang it on my door,” Stamps said, after a child handed her a piece of cardboard painted in rainbow colors that said, “Happy Holidays.”Laticia Greer, 6, doled out goodie bags and cake wearing a Santa hat.“I was a little bit nervous” about singing, she said. “The best one was ‘Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer.’”
McDonald residents Lillian Blackwell, Helena Witherspoon and Anniebell Cowart all said they enjoyed the children’s company.“
It was really nice, just being around the kids, seeing the kids sing,” Blackwell said. “This kind of cheered me up.”
Contact staff writer Ann Zaniewski at (248) 745-4628 or ann.zaniewski@oakpress.com.
Saturday, December 20, 2008
21st Century Digital Learning Environments (Pedagogy)
21st Century Pedagogy
Even if you have a 21st Century classroom (flexible and adaptable); even if you are a 21st century teacher ; (an adaptor, a communicator, a leader and a learner, a visionary and a model, a collaborator and risk taker) even if your curriculum reflects the new paradigm and you have the facilities and resources that could enable 21st century learning - you will only be a 21st century teacher if how you teach changes as well. Your pedagogy must also change.
So what is 21st Century pedagogy?
Definition:
pedagogy - noun the profession, science, or theory of teaching.
Source: http://www.askoxford.com/concise_oed/pedagogy?view=uk
How we teach must reflect how our students learn. It must also reflect the world our students will move into. This is a world which is rapidly changing, connected, adapting and evolving. Our style and approach to teaching must emphasise the learning in the 21st century.
The key features of 21st Century Pedagogy are:
? building technological, information and media fluencies [Ian Jukes]
? Developing thinking skills
? making use of project based learning
? using problem solving as a teaching tool
? using 21st C assessments with timely, appropriate and detailed feedback and reflection
? It is collaborative in nature and uses enabling and empowering technologies
? It fosters Contextual learning bridging the disciplines and curriculum areas
Knowledge
Knowledge does not specifically appear in the above diagram. Does this mean that we do not teach content or knowledge? Of course not. While a goal we often hear is for our students to create knowledge, we must scaffold and support this constructivist process. The process was aptly describe in a recent presentation by Cisco on Education 3.0 [Michael Stevenson VP Global Education Cisco 2007]
We need to teach knowledge or content in context with the tasks and activities the students are undertaking. Our students respond well to real world problems. Our delivery of knowledge should scaffold the learning process and provide a foundation for activities. As we know from the learning pyramid content delivered without context or other activity has a low retention rate.
Thinking skills
Thinking Skills are a key area. While much of the knowledge we teach may be obsolete within a few years, thinking skills acquired will remain with our students for their entire lives. Industrial age education has had a focus on Lower Order Thinking Skills. In Bloom's taxonomy the lower order thinking skills are the remembering and understanding aspects. 21st Century pedagogy focuses on the moving students from Lower Order Thinking Skills to Higher Order Thinking Skills.
The 21st Century Teacher scaffolds the learning of students, building on a basis of knowledge recall and comprehension to use and apply skills; to analyse and evaluate process, outcomes and concequences, and to make, create and innovate. For each discipline in our secondary schools the process is subtly different.
Collaboration
The 21st century is an age of collaboration as well as the Information Age. 21st Century students, our digital natives, are collaborative. The growth of social networking tools, like bebo and myspace and the like, is fueled by Digital natives and Gen Y. The world, our students are graduating into is a collaborative one.
Collaborative projects such as Julie Lindsay's and Vicki Davis's Flatclassroom project and the Horizon Project, iearns and many others are brilliant examples of collaboration in the classrooms and beyond. These projects, based around tools like ning or wikis, provide students and staff a medium to build and share knowledge and develop understanding.
For example:
My own students are collaborating with students from three other schools, one in Brisbane, another in Qatar and a third in Vienna; on developing resources for a common assessment item. Collaboratively, they are constructing base knowledge on the technologies pertent to the topic. They are examining, evaluating and analysing the social and ethical impacts of the topic. But perhaps even more holistically they are being exposed to different interpretations, cultures and perspectives - Developing an international awareness which will be a key attribute in our global future.
URL: http://casestudy-itgs.wikispaces.com
Don Tapscott in Wikinomics, gives are many of examples of the business world adopting and succeeding by using global collaboration.
In a recent blog post from the Official google Blog, Google identified these as key traits or abilities in 1st Century Employees...
"... communication skills. Marshalling and understanding the available evidence isn't useful unless you can effectively communicate your conclusions."
"... team players. Virtually every project at Google is run by a small team. People need to work well together and perform up to the team's expectations. "
Source: http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2008/07/our-googley-advice-to-students-major-in.html
So to prepare our students, our teaching should also model collaboration. A vast array of collaborative tools are available to - wikis, classroom blogs, collaborative document tools,social networks, learning management systems - Many are available at no cost. If you have not yet tried them, look at:
? wikis - wet paint and wiki spaces
? Classroom blogs - edublogs, classroomblogmeister
? Collaborative document tools - Google documents, zoho documents
? Social Networks - ning
? learning managements systems - Moodle etc
These tools are enablers of collaboration, and therefore enablers of 21st century teaching and learning.
Collaboration is not a 21st century skill it is a 21st century essential.
If we look at UNESCO's publication "The four pillars of Education, Learning: The Treasure within" Collaboration is a key element of each of the four pillars.
- Learning to know
- Learning to do
- Learning to live together
- Learning to be
(http://www.unesco.org/delors/fourpil.htm)
Collaboration is not limited to the confines of the classroom. Students and teachers collaborate across the planet, and beyond the time constraints of the teaching day. Students work with other students regionally, nationally and globally. Learners seek and work with experts as required. This is 21st Century Collaboration
Real World, Inter-disciplinary & project based learning
21st Century students do not want abstract examples rather they focus on real world problems. They want what they learn in one subject to be relevant and applicable in another curriculum area. As teachers we need to extend our areas of expertise, collaborate with our teaching peers in other subjects and the learning in one discipline to learning in another.
Projects should bring together and reinforce learning across disciplines. The sum of the students learning will be greater than the individual aspects taught in isolation. This is a holistic overview of the education process which builds on and values every aspect of the 21st Century students education.
Assessment
Assessment is still a key part of 21st Century Pedagogy. This generation of students responds well to clear goals and objectives, assessed in a transparent manner.
Students should be involved in all aspects of the assessment process. Students who are involved in setting and developing assessment criteria, marking and moderation will have a clearer understanding of:
? what they are meant to do,
? how they are meant to do it,
? why it is significant
? why it is important.
Such students will undoubtedly do better and use the assessment process as a part of their learning.
Students are often painfully honest about their own performance and that of their peers. They will, in a collaborative project, fairly assess those who contribute and those who don't.
This is their education, their learning and their future - they must be involved in it.
Linked to assessment is the importance of timely, appropriate, detailed and specific feedback. Feedback as a learning tool, is second only to the teaching of thinking skills [Michael Pohl]. As 21st Century teachers, we must provide and facilitate safe and appropriate feedback, developing an environment where students can safely and supportively be provided with and provide feedback. Students are often full of insight and may have as valid a perspective as we teachers do.
Fluency
What is fluency and why is it better than Literacy? Ian Jukes introduced this concept at NECC. He asserts that students need to move beyond literacy to fluency. They need to be
fluent in:
? The use of technology = technological fluency,
? Collecting, processing, manipulating and validating information = information fluency,
? using, selecting, viewing and manipulating media = media fluency,
What is fluency compared to literacy? A person who is fluent in a language does not need to think about speech, or reading rather it is an unconscious process of understanding. A person who is literate in the language must translate the speech or text. This applies to our students and their use of 21st century media. We need them to be unconsciously competent in the use and manipulation of media, technology and information.
The conscious competence model illustrates the difference between Literacy and Fluency. The person or student who is literate is in the conscious competence category. The person or student who is fluent is in the unconscious competence category.
As educators, we must identify, develop and reinforce these skill sets until students become literate and then fluent..
Conclusion and the path forward.
To teach using 21st Century pedagogy, educators must be student centric. Our curricula and assessments must inclusive, interdisciplinary and contextual; based on real world examples.
Students must be key participants in the assessment process, intimate in it from start to finish, from establishing purpose and criteria, to assessing and moderating.
Educators must establish a safe environment for students to collaborate in but also to discuss, reflect and provide and receive feedback in.
We should make use of collaborative and project based learning, using enabling tools and technologies to facilitate this.
We must develop, in students, key fluencies and make use of higher order thinking skills. Our tasks, curricula, assessments and learning activities must be designed to build on the Lower Order Thinking Skills and to develop Higher Order Thinking Skills.
Acknowledgements:
For being a brilliant critical friend, thanks for the advise and especially for the grammar - Marg McLeod.
By Andrew Churches
Arne Duncan Secretary of Education
Reform Starts Now: Obama Picks Arne Duncan
His secretary of education selection shows education is a priority.
by Grace Rubenstein
December 16, 2008
President-elect Barack Obama talked reform while announcing Chicago schools chief Arne Duncan as the next U.S. secretary of education.
"For Arne, school reform isn't just a theory in a book, it's the cause of his life," Obama said at Tuesday's press conference. Obama specifically mentioned pay-for-performance teacher salaries and charter-schools development as strategies with strong potential.
"If charter schools work, let's try that," Obama said. "Let's not be clouded by ideology when it comes to figuring out what helps our kids."
Duncan described his clear-eyed view of education in a June 2007 interview [1] with Edutopia when he said, "Quality public education is the civil rights issue of our generation."
Duncan, known for transforming underperforming schools and experimenting with new models, has a record as a pragmatist with a taste for innovations. His version of reform, judging by his record, centers on boosting teacher quality and supporting students with added services such as after-school programs. In the Chicago Public Schools [2], where 85 percent of the 400,000-plus students live below the poverty line, test scores, attendance, and teacher retention all went up during Duncan's seven-year tenure, while the dropout rate declined.
The Buzz
For weeks, pundits, educators, and education bloggers have speculated on what Obama's pick would show about his true beliefs on education.
"Arne Duncan has a type of personality that Obama seems to prefer, which is a pragmatist who will bring about change, but he'll do it in a way that will minimize confrontation in conflict," says Jack Jennings, president of the nonpartisan Center on Education Policy [3]. "He's brought about change in Chicago, but it hasn't been a head-on clash with the teachers' union. He's done it in a way that they all walk away from the table congratulating each other."
Supporters say Duncan has the right constitution for the job. On both substance and style, he has won praise from divergent interest groups, including the American Federation of Teachers [4] and the New York City-based Democrats for Education Reform [5].
Duncan shut down Chicago schools that performed poorly and reopened them with entirely new staffs. He started coaching and mentoring programs for teachers. He also supported a boom in new charter schools with diverse models, from military academies to single-sex schools, and piloted a program to pay teachers bonuses for top performance -- two controversial innovations Obama supports.
An Uncertain Future
Of course, an education secretary can't exactly dictate reform from on high. But he can use the bully pulpit to put a spotlight on certain problems and solutions, says Jennings, and hand out grants to support new innovations. He can also provoke change through regulations -- most notably those that guide implementation of the No Child Left Behind law.
On NCLB, Duncan is a middle-of-the-roader [6]; he supports the law's goals of high expectations and accountability but has challenged Congress to improve it by doubling its funding and amending it "to give schools, districts, and states the maximum amount of flexibility possible."
Not the least of Duncan's hurdles will be the nation's preoccupation with the economic crisis. In a sign of the media's interest in education, the first question at Obama and Duncan's press conference after the announcement of Duncan's nomination was about the Federal Reserve Bank lowering its interest rates.
The financial squeeze hitting schools could hinder Duncan's efforts.
Making money and resources key to success, Duncan and Obama both made the case for education by defining it as the path to prosperity; Obama called it the "single biggest determinant" of the economy's long-term health.
"We're not going to transform every school overnight," Obama said. "What we can expect is that each and every day, we are thinking of new, innovative ways to make the schools better. That is what Arne has done. That's going to be his job. That's going to be his task."
Grace Rubenstein is a staff writer and multimedia producer at Edutopia.
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
Tuesday, December 09, 2008
School of the Future World Summit 2008
Evan Arthur - The Australian Digital Education Revolution
Martin Bean - What Technology Makes Possible
Randy Fielding - Design for the Creative Age - Part 1 (slides 1-49)
Randy Fielding - Design for the Creative Age - Part 2 (slides 50-75)
Randy Fielding - Design for the Creative Age - Part 3 (slides 76 - end)
Julio Fontan - Country Spotlight: Colombia
James Grant & Lee Burley - Building Schools for the Future
Bill Hill - The Digital Renaissance Age
Michael Horn - Disrupting Class
Victor McNair - Teacher E-Portfolios
Katrina Reynen - Innovation that Drives Transformation Across School Systems
Don Richardson - Innovation Management
Ratnasingam Selvarani & Angeline Fern - Transformational Learning - Part 1
Ratnasingam Selvarani & Angeline Fern - Transformational Learning - Part 2
Yasutaka Shimizu - NEXT Project - Part 1
Yasutaka Shimizu - NEXT Project - Part 2
Jaeshin Song - e-Learning of Korea
Wim Veen - Homo Zappiens: New Learning Strategies in a Digital Age
Tony Wagner - The Global Achievement Gap
Monday, December 08, 2008
YAPO CLC (Vision & Mission Statements)
YAPO COMPUTER LEARNING CENTER
“where learning becomes a community of practice”
Due: February 4, 2008
“where learning becomes a community of practice”
Due: February 4, 2008
- What is the mission or purpose of the YAPO Computer Learning Center (CLC)?
- What programs or events currently meet the purpose of the YAPO CLC?
- What programs or events need to be added to meet the purpose of the YAPO CLC?
- How can the programs or events be funded?
- Predict (vision) what the YAPO CLC will be providing to the community in 90 days, 6 months, 1 year, 5 years, 10 years.
- The continuing mission of the YAPO CLC is to create a digital learning-centered community that addresses "community needs" as defined by its participants (Youth, Parents, Educators, CLC Volunteers and the greater Pontiac Community of Partners).
- Current programming (with some outstanding exceptions) is merely what others whom provide some funding to the YAPO CLC feel is adequate. For the most part it is simply pedestrian, mundane and totally lacking in any inspiration, creativity and engagement. Additionally, it is bereft of any meaningful 21st Century learning experiences of any consequence or relevance to the technological-world we now encounter.
- NEW YAPO CLC programs must meet or exceed the criteria of inspired, creative and innovative while also engaging its participants. Well designed learning programs will also exhibit the following content thematics; self-directed learning, project-based learning, the utilization of cognitive and critical thinking skills, 21st Century skills and when possible by example, demonstrate the creation of new knowledge. These programs should be opened-sourced in nature for the purpose of being shared (see new revenue-streams below).
- Funding programs (new revenue-streams) have two schools of thought; (1) We do what others want and in doing so receive funding. (2) We do what we want and funding is attracted to what we do. I personally am a "BIG FAN" of the later simply because it insures that we get what we deserve in all cases. By that I mean whom would design a learning program that didn't assure success? Additionally, whom would know more about us and our needs then us? Finally, if we didn't have the "talent we have around our community table" then perhaps we couldn't be successful. But we do! We simply need to leverage this dynamic human-resource asset in meaningful ways.
- In the business-world vision has become a trite and meaningless word, having said that, VISION (Beginning with the End in Mind) suggests a plan or work in progress. Who among us have not witnessed something truly outstanding and when asked to describe it have resorted to "you have to see it to believe it." That's usually a VISION in progress. To indescribable to put into words (understanding) and therefore it is much easier to just witness it in action. This is the kind of VISION I'm speaking of and the sort of which I believe we currently have in some cases and are capable of creating more of in the future at the YAPO CLC.
So let's begin the "dance of change" by asking the question; What does that NEW YAPO CLC programming look like?
EXAMPLE:
TENT-POLES: Inspired, Creative, Innovative, Engaging and demonstrates the creation of new knowledge.
Themes: Adult Community Needs; workforce development, education, skill reinvention, intervention programs, introduction to 21st Century skills.
Themes: Youth Community Needs; basic remedial education, 21st Century skills (deeper understanding), Science, Math, Art, Reading & Technology (SMART), informal social skills, critical and cognitive thinking, project-based learning.
Themes: Greater Pontiac Community of Partners; Provide community-wide impact, inclusive vs. exclusive, shared-resources, silo-busting vs. hardened silos of irrelevance, resonates with higher-ordered community-building thinking and doing and is exemplar in its execution.
CRAFTING the FABRIC (to put on the tent-poles): This requires identifying a theme so let's take Art as an example since everyone can relate to it.
Sunday, December 07, 2008
Thursday, December 04, 2008
Monday, November 17, 2008
Framing for the Proposed Legislation (Previous Post)
Stephen Dill proposes a 21st Century system based on these objectives:
- Extend education throughout life. Make it a part of our daily lives and have it begin with birth and end soon after death.
- Take education out of centralized buildings (schools) and make it the responsibility of the family, community, nation, and the world.
- Leverage technology to enable everyone to have access to the same resources.
Scenario
Let’s look at this from the perspective of the individual and step it out to the world.
Individuals
- Youth education is seen as a family function, augmented by a volunteer force of seniors, retirees, and experts available in the immediate and adjacent communities performing the roles of teacher, coach and mentor.
- Youth education begins in the home using modules with lessons for parent, child and siblings.
- Individual education is an individual’s obligation to society, advocated by federal law, supported by employers, communities and families.
- Course topics cross all philosophies, languages, religions and beliefs for the old and the young they are teaching.
- Team teaching is carried out in playgroups in neighborhoods in homes, community centers, parks and businesses. Groups of adults of all ages with similar interests meet in public and corporate settings as well as virtually within collaborative Web environments. Parents and children gather in homes and community centers, sharing interests and research and reporting progress among peers.
- When the individual exhibits enough maturity, progress is self-determined, self-monitored and presented to the relevant communities for input and use by others.
- Learning happens in life: in the workplace, the libraries, on the farms, in the factories of the immediate and adjacent neighborhoods.
- Scheduling, networking and cross leveling of resources is supported online.
- Education is not seen as a formal stage of life, instead a life-long habit of reading, reflecting, exchanging and growing.
US education system
- Facilitates discussions about learning, living and life.
- Teaches self esteem, self-confidence and the value of improving one’s self, community, nation, world and legacy.
- Gradually returns school buildings to alternative uses.
US culture
- Gradually encourages lifelong learning
- Respect for generations, races and all differences is built into every person’s thinking as they learn to rely on more and more people in order to learn, to carry out their obligation.
World culture
- Understanding and respect for nationalities, beliefs, generations, races and all differences is built into every person’s thinking as they learn to rely on more and more people in order to learn, to carry out their obligation.
Thursday, November 13, 2008
Wednesday, November 05, 2008
Disruption Seeks/Creates Cracks in the SILO!
Published Online: October 28, 2008
Published in Print: November 5, 2008
Scholars Discuss 'Disruptive Innovation' in K-12 Education
A latecomer to a panel discussion this week on “disruptive innovation” in K-12 education and health care may have suspected that he or she had entered the wrong room.
The main speaker, Clayton M. Christensen, was talking about the steel industry, not education or health. Then he discussed the automobile, radio, microchip, and software industries.
To Mr. Christensen, a professor at the Harvard Business School, those industries offer profound lessons for K-12 schooling. In every case, the introduction of a new technology led to the upending of the established leaders by upstart entrants, he explained at an Oct. 27 panel discussion at the American Enterprise Institute.
See Also
What technological innovations have changed the way you teach and the way your students learn? Share your experiences in our forum.
Mr. Christensen, the lead author of Disrupting Class: How Disruptive Innovation Will Change the Way the World Learns, said similar changes will soon happen to public school districts, as providers of virtual schooling gradually claim more and more students, starting with those who are poorly served by their current schools.
'No Stupidity'
The book, published last spring and co-authored by Michael B. Horn and Curtis W. Johnson, predicts that those changes will accelerate until, by 2019, roughly half of all high school courses will be taken online. ("Online Education Cast as 'Disruptive Innovation'," May 7, 2008.)
To the roomful of policy experts and educators at the think tank’s luncheon meeting, Mr. Christensen explained that the leading companies did not lose their primacy through their managers’ incompetence. Instead, it was because they obeyed two hallowed principles of business: First, listen to your best customers and give them what they want; and second, invest where the profit margin is most attractive.
Rather, businesses need to be willing to act in ways that may be opposed to their short-term interests, and that lower their costs and simplify their products or services, making them more attractive to a larger pool of potential customers.
“It’s a story with no villains and no stupidity,” noted Frederick M. Hess, the director of education policy studies at the AEI and the moderator of the discussion.
Mr. Horn, who runs Innosight Institute, a think tank in Watertown, Mass., devoted to Mr. Christensen’s theories, was on a panel at the event. Outlining the application to education, he cited Harvard education professor Howard Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligences and said “children’s need for customization collides with schools’ imperative for standardization.”
The billions of dollars that have been invested to put computers into schools have failed to make a difference because “we have crammed them into conventional classrooms,” said Mr. Horn.
Schools and students have not been able to reap the benefits of technology, he said, because of the web of constraints—called “interdependencies”—that schools have not been able to escape, including the organization of the school day, the division of learning in academic disciplines, the architecture of school buildings, and the federal, state, and local mandates that educators must obey.
'Customization'
On hand at the Oct. 27 event as the official “responder and raconteur” was education expert Chester E. Finn Jr., the president of the Thomas B. Fordham Institute in Washington.
Perhaps to the surprise of some in the audience, Mr. Finn generally agreed with Mr. Christensen’s and Mr. Horn’s arguments.
Mr. Finn, who served in the U.S. Department of Education during the Reagan administration, had two main points of contention. First, he disliked the authors’ reliance on Mr. Gardner’s theories, which, he asserted, are dismissed by “respectable cognitive psychologists.”
On that point, the authors are “wrong, but it doesn’t matter,” he concluded. “Gardner or no, I’m still in favor of greater individualization and customization of education.”
Second, Mr. Finn said, he thinks the authors have underestimated the power of politics to stymie the change in education, because in most cases it is the schools, not the students, that are the purchasers of the new technology-driven forms of education.
That means virtual schools will face “resistance and pushback and hubris, and a sort of smugness” from public education, Mr. Finn said.
As a result, he said, he did not expect regular public schools to become the “main route” for new technologies to be applied to K-12 education.
Mr. Finn added that a more likely route was for charter schools and families to purchase the technology directly, possibly in the form of supplemental private education, perhaps subsidized by philanthropies.
"Field Trip?" (Pontiac Northern High School)
Committee seeks input from community on Pontiac schools
By DIANA DILLABER MURRAY
Of The Oakland Press
The day after voters decide who they want for president of the United States, a new community advisory committee is asking residents in the Pontiac district to help redesign schools.
This is the first of four forums planned before the advisory committee makes its recommendations and the board makes its decisions for the next school year.
Merging Pontiac Central and Northern into one high school and closing middle and elementary schools are possibilities as school officials reel from another major decline in enrollment and loss of state funds. The district is operating schools for 20,000 students when enrollment this year is down to only about 7,100.
At the same time, school officials want to improve academic programs, with such possibilities as creating magnet middle schools and smaller themed academies within the high school.
The district could have a deficit as high as $6.5 million by June 30, and even more by next school year if major restructuring is not accomplished. The district may lose as much as $8 million in state aid due to an enrollment decline of around 1,000 students. In addition, budgeted revenue from property sales and contract negotiations has not been realized.
The audit for the 2007-08 school year was recently completed by Plante and Moran accountants and will be made public Nov. 10. It should give the district and taxpayers a more clear idea of where the district stands financially.
Acting Superintendent Linda Paramore said two weeks ago that she has initiated an executive order that will cut some costs immediately.
Paramore and the school board also called together the advisory committee for the “Redesign of Pontiac Schools for Instructional Effectiveness and Financial Efficiency” to help ensure the community has a say in the major, and likely controversial, changes that will be made. The committee includes City Council members, business people, representatives of various ethnic groups and various parts of the community, clergy, school administrators and three board members.
Chairman of the advisory committee is board President Damon Dorkins. Chairman of the instructional subcommittee is board Vice President Gill Garrett and the finance subcommittee chairwoman is board Treasurer Karen Cain.
Merging Pontiac Northern and Pontiac Central high schools and closing one of the buildings is a controversial possibility, as is closing one or more neighborhood schools. Therefore, the board wants the decision to be made based on input from the community forums.
School officials hope that closing schools will free up money for improving the educational programs to retain or bring back some students who have left for other districts or charter schools.
This school year the board voted against closing Lincoln Middle School as proposed, and to keep sixth graders in elementary school instead of moving them on to middle school. Data showed test scores indicate sixth graders do better on their MEAP tests in the elementary school environment.
The district also created a district-wide preschool academy to prepare children for kindergarten and a more successful school career with its special programs.
In addition, the board approved a new police authority corps under Security Chief Darryl Cosby, with the goal of creating a safe school environment for learning. The new corps have arrest powers for misdemeanor cases, unlike previous security officers. The specially trained school police authority officers work with two Pontiac police officers who handle felony arrests while school officers handle misdemeanors.
Dorkins and Garrett said the people they have talked to in the community say they understand something has to be done — that buildings have to be closed.
But the Oakland Press readers who commented on the proposal to merge high schools to save money and have improved academic programs are adamantly against the idea.
Contact staff writer Diana Dillaber Murray at (248) 745-4638 or diana.dillaber@oakpress.com.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)