The Millennial Generation (guest article by Wally Bock)

Last week, Joanna, the daughter of the Most Beautiful Woman in the World, took an afternoon of her time to help me do car shopping. After driving me around and functioning as my car buying advisor, she went off to babysitting, which is one of several jobs that she's got.

Now, if you're thinking, "Wow, what a good kid. She sure is different than most teenagers," you're right and you're wrong.

You're right if you think that Joanna is a good kid. She's also smart and pretty sure of herself. She's got some values, too. She is a good kid. But she's not that different from lots of others in her generation.

You're wrong if you think that "She sure is different than most teenagers." The generalization you're working with came from the last couple of generations. It includes things like lots of youth crime, teen pregnancies and plummeting test scores.

None of those are true for Joanna's generation. Instead teen pregnancies and crime have been falling for the last decade, the time they've been teens. Test scores are going the other way, steadily upward. It seems that this is a group that's very different from their older brothers and sisters or Baby Boomers like me.

Joanna is part of what we're calling the Millennial Generation. That's the group born from around 1977 to 1995 or so. I'm imprecise here because there's not much agreement on exact dates, but the oldest of those are just graduating from college and entering the workforce. Others are moving through the teen years.

There's very little agreement on how many there are either. The estimates range between 60 and 74 million, but whatever number you choose, there are a lot of them, more than any generation except the Baby Boom.

That means that they are and will be a huge economic and social force. They may already be the most studied generation in history. All the major polling and market research firms, including Gallup, Yankelovich and Harris have studied them, along with a bevy of "trendspotting" firms and a clutch of academics.

Like any other generation, their perceptions and attitudes grow out of their own experience. Experiences and events that matter to you may not even appear on their radar.

A few weeks back Joanna and I were talking with some other folks. I mentioned the bombing of the Marine barracks in Beirut. She said, "What's that?" She didn't know. Why should she? It happened before she was born. For Joanna and others born around the same time, the world has different reference points than it does for older folks.

The Kennedy Tragedy for them is the plane crash, not an assassination. Someone named George Bush has been on every national ticket but one since they were born. There have always been ATM machines and round the clock coverage of news and public affairs on cable. They've never used a bottle of White Out or heard a telephone actually "ring."

Here are the events that they remember based on a survey of high school seniors in the class of 2001.

Colombine Shootings
War in Kosovo
Oklahoma City Bombing
Princess Di's Death
Clinton Impeachment and Scandal
OJ Trial
Fall of Berlin Wall
Mark McGwire/Sammy Sousa homerun contest
They've been well cared for. Children seem to be valued and cared for most in alternating generations. These folks caught a generational wave where children are highly valued and they've benefited from the longest economic boom in history. When they were kids, they got four times the number of toys that their Boomer parents got just twenty years earlier.

Today, nearly six in ten Millenials aged 6-17 have a TV of their own. There are different estimates of the teenagers personal spendable income, but the lowest is $60 per week. Twenty-two percent of the older teens have their own checking account and forty-two percent have a credit card. So, they've got high expectations.

They've got confidence that they'll achieve those expectations, too. Some of that is the natural confidence of youth. Some of it comes from growing up in good economic times. According to the Harris Poll of the class of 2001, eighty-eight percent have established specific goals for themselves for the next five years and virtually all (ninety-eight percent) are sure they'll someday get to where they want to in life.

And where is that? The Higher Education Research Institute at UCLA has surveyed college freshman for 35 years. They found the class entering in September 2000 to rank "status" the lowest that it's been in 23 years. The Harris poll of this year's graduates found ninety-seven percent saying that "doing work that allows me to have an impact on the world" is important.

All in all, they seem to be an interesting mix of ambition and practicality, with a solid underpinning of values. One of their biggest worries is reducing debt. Sixty-three percent of the college graduates believe they'll have to make some sacrifices to achieve those goals they have.

This is a connected generation. Joanna is online like virtually all the college grads, seventy-five percent of those aged 12-17, and half of those aged 9-11. If computers and net technology were bolted on to the lifestyle of their parents, and mastered by their older siblings, the Millennials have always had it in their world.

The net is their primary source of news. Eighty percent use the net frequently as an information source. The next closes sources are radio (fifty-seven percent) and television (fifty-five percent). Compare that with American adults in general who prefer TV (seventy-five percent) followed by radio, newspapers, magazines, and, last in line, the net.

For them, this technology is a natural part of life. Where my daughters, who are a little older than Joanna, used to chat on the phone with friends, Joanna has added instant messaging and email to the ways she stays in touch. My kids wanted their own phone line, Joanna has her own cell phone.

Here's an important distinction. My generation and the Millennials older siblings see the net as something they connect to. But Millennials see the net as a way to connect to the world and each other.

Being connected is important. If the Baby Boomer slogan is "Be all you can be," then the Millennial slogan might be "Be all we can be." And technology is just one of the ways to make it happen. Seventy-eight percent of those college graduates feel that the net has brought them closer to other people.

Other people, including family and friends and society as a whole are important to them. Seventy-one percent of those eligible voted in the 2000 presidential election. They've vocal about issues like civil rights and the environment.

So, what we've got is a bunch of bright, concerned, connected and technologically savvy kids that work and play well with others. And they're coming soon to a classroom or workplace near you.

This feature appeared on 2 July 2001

Copyright 2002 by Wally Bock

Mwenye Baraka--Jemmimah Thiong'o

"Hey, Rock, watch me pull a rabbit out of my hat."

"Agaiiin?"

"Roaaaar."

"...and now, for something that we hope you'll really like."

Baraka: "Disposition" Tool: What Do We Know?

What Is Creativity?

Sleeping On The Job: Are We Keeping You Awake, Bill?

Pictures From Iraq: What We Learn From War

In all the debate about Iraq, we forget that human faces are attached. Living, dying, connecting. Iraqis, American troops, civilian personnel, they all have stories to tell about the lives they have led and friends they have lost.

Tim Clemente, former FBI agent, and a friend, has been a counter-terrorism expert, but he found some humanity in the work that he does. We probably wouldn't agree on politics, per se, but he has been a good friend and tremendous father to eight beautiful children. Good kids.

Make no mistake, the Iraqi War is a tremendously unpopular conflict complete with epic villains and Shakespearean deceivers, but the soldiers who went there to fight and show a human side of a nation in turmoil, won't face the scorn that their brethren from Vietnam went through nor will they have the heroes welcome that the "greatest generation" received after World War II.

What will be their legacy? These troops, former students, humans, all.

Bill on Obama: Whose Line Is It Anyway?

Stay out of the race.

It seems that Bill Clinton is getting it from all sides. Bill the Clinton has been all over the country stumping for Hillary and setting the record straight. To the point where Barack Obama retorted at the CNN Congressional Black Caucus Institute debate on Monday evening (1.21.08), "Sometimes I don't know who I'm running against."

Senator Obama's query is certainly justified. Rarely does a former president take sides in the primary election, usually letting the events before the party's convention play themselves out. Today's Chicago Tribune's editorial (1.22.08), "President Heckler," makes the case that Bill should keep his mouth shut, indicating that the former President always did have a problem with restraint.

Can you blame, Bill? Before Hillary teared up in New Hampshire and "found" her voice, she needed help--a great deal of it. Out came the big guns. Enter Bill Clinton, stage right, in full Lady MacBeth regalia.

However, now that Hillary has regained her frontrunner status, do we need to hear Bill being oh so un-presidential and slinging the mud.

The Clinton's have been known for their fierce loyalty to each other, even in the face of infidelity and other acrimony. It's all about the power. Just win baby.

The Clinton's have also been known for their equally vociferous destruction of the opposition. For them, politics is a blood sport (think 2007 New England Patriots and Mike Tyson chomping Evander Holyfield's ear).

When Barack Obama talks about wanting a change in business as usual in Washington, DC, he is speaking directly to and about the Clintons.

So, where does this leave us, the voters? Well, we watch and we wait, looking for one of them--Bill or Hillary--to slip up on the slippery rocks of presidential politics, waiting for the O'Reilly's of the world to pounce. That's what David Axelrod, Obama's chief political strategist, is banking on.

As a result, Bill and Hillary Clinton have to play Barack's game. It's the audacity of hope, baby.

The Clintons have been baited into giving up their "win at all cost" and "destroy your opponent" game because, in the end, they will need Barack's support and supporters to have a snowball's chance in hell of beating the Republicans in November. If Barack doesn't win the Democratic nomination outright, he won't be anybody's number two. His ego is way too big to allow that. So, he'll be a power-broker of a different sort.

So, again, where does that leave us?

Unfortunately, as one reader of this blog observed, the Democrats are squandering their best chance of winning the most winnable election they have had in more than a generation.

Thanks, Bill.

Presidio Hill School: What is a Progressive School?

A few months ago (October 5 – 6, 2007), the teachers at Presidio Hill School joined other progressive educators from around the country for the first national Progressive Schools Conference in more than a decade. You’ll be happy to note that we helped to host the event by sponsoring 15 progressive educators at the school for a lunch and tour. Many of the other area progressive schools were involved with the conference planning, including San Francisco School, Park Day School in Oakland, Blue Oak School in Napa, and several others. Two of our own teachers presented at the conference, talking about progressive practices and what they are up to in their classrooms.

As I have often said, progressive education is less about regurgitating rigid content standards (although content is very important as students mature) and more about creating habits of mind that make life-long learners successful. Progressive Education is also democracy in action.

Thinking about Presidio Hill School as not only the oldest progressive school in California, but also as one of the exemplars of progressive practices, I put together some questions that people ask me about our school. The questions serve as a starting point for this discussion.


What are the hallmarks of a truly progressive school?
Progressive schools value the social-emotional growth of students. Progressive Schools also value collaboration over competition, which is part of both democracy in action and our social activist heritage. Also, progressive schools promote depth over breadth in all content areas, which spurs student interests and helps students pave their own way into a particular subject or discipline. Additionally, many Progressive Schools either de-emphasize or just don’t give grades as a way to tell that a student is progressing. Written comments take the place of just having grades only.

Don’t many other schools do this?
Absolutely, comments and commenting is a hallmark of not just progressive schools but most independent schools in general. What’s unique about our school is that parents, teachers, and even students are in on the conversation. It’s not just a one-way monologue, but the whole community is engaged in the discussion. Comments serve as a way for teachers, parents, and students to understand what can be done to improve and how we all can work together to usher that improvement along.

Who decides what gets taught at PHS?
At many independent schools, the school decides. It is the school’s curriculum. It is what the school values.

At PHS, teachers have great autonomy on what is taught, what is added, and what is taken out. The school (in teams of educators) does “scope and sequence work” to determine what should be taught where and when in the curriculum. The school audits what we teach by having conversations around what students know and should know, and what skills they have or should have from teacher to teacher and year to year. Nearly all our teachers belong to national and local organizations where best practices (and even standards) are shared. Our teachers present what they know at conferences, workshops and staff meetings and learn from each other and from conferences, workshops and other means all the time. We don’t rely on textbook companies or the state to tell us what gets taught when.

In what other ways do teachers collaborate?
Teachers discuss students constantly. This is a very important point: teachers know more about students and their world—socially, emotionally, and academically—than at any other school that I have worked. I have worked in traditional schools, progressive schools, and alternative schools. Teachers also tend to know other students that aren’t in their classroom, too. The great thing about being the size that we are is that we get to know one another well.

Last question, my child really loves PHS, can I go to school here?
Absolutely. Many parents and adults involved with PHS report they get so much satisfaction from engaging the students they love with what they are learning. By attending the Corporation Meetings, Follies, driving on field trips, going to Dialogue Circles, volunteering at the auction, and many other kinds of endeavors gives parents and the adults in the community a progressive school education too.

REPRINTED FROM MY BIMONTHLY
FRIDAY LETTER 10-19-2007
(http://www.presidiohill.org/news/archives/from_the_director/)

Barack Obama at Ebenezer Baptist Church on January 20, 2008

The cadence is not exactly King-like, but Barack Obama, on Dr. King's birthday, captures the essence of King in talking about the substance of hope in a speech that he gave in the pulpit of the Ebenezer Baptist Church: Martin Luther King's Church (both senior and junior). Ebenezer was Dr. King's church for most of his career as a Civil Rights leader.

In the end, Obama's speech is more Lincoln-esque than King-like in the theme that it tackles: Unity.

The biggest complaint against Barack Obama is not that he's inexperienced, per se, but that he's short on ideas. I'm not sure if the speech at Ebenezer changes that perception. What he does do for the very first time in the campaign is light a small fire under the core of the national African American electorate, perhaps save the remaining lions of the Civil Rights Movement.

Why such a small fire for people who want to trust and follow him? Why such a small fire for a people who want to be excited and ignited?

Some people would say that Obama has kept Black people at arms length. However, exhorting Black people to take responsibility for themselves, more of a Bill Cosby theme rather than a King one, gives Barack Obama a different dimension than other African American presidential candidates and leaders in the recent past. He tells Black people what they must do rather than what others must do for them.

It's why most African American Civil Rights leaders have been luke-warm to Obama's candidacy. He refuses to strike the same refrains that Civil Rights leaders have struck since King's death. King's "promissory note" and "insufficient funds" are the stuff that Barack avoids on the stump and in the pulpit at Ebenezer. Obama's "fierce urgency of now" is to join him and elect him because there will not be a him without a broader us.

At the very end of his Ebenezer Baptist Church sermon, Obama tells a story of a young white worker in his campaign, Ashley, which explains all you need to know about Barack Obama.

For most of Senator Obama's speech he has had the flights of oratory that hearkens the Kennedy (both JFK and RFK) rather than King, yet when he mentions Ashley, people seem a bit more skeptical about where Barack intends to take them next.

Would King have advanced a trope like Ashley into one of his speeches? Probably not. You could hear a pin drop in Ebenezer because Barack is leading them home to where he wants to go.

Ashley's story is about self-sacrifice. She has gotten Black people mobilized in South Carolina since the start of Obama's campaign. It's not just him, as Barack states, that people want to follow. It's the hope that an Ashley feels from his candidacy, which elevates her out of the degradation of poverty, eating mustard and relish sandwiches while her mother struggled with cancer when she was nine years old.

It's not exactly what Black people want to hear at the end of the speech where Barack has had them in the palm of his hands, but it is, I suspect, why so many white liberals embrace Barack's candidacy. He speaks to them. He certainly speaks to a number of Black folk, too. But has he convinced them yet. Has he convinced all of us.

In this house divided, only time will tell.

---

A Dream Deferred: Dr. King's Mountaintop Speech

The greatest speech that Dr. King delivered happened just two days before his death. King was a pretty defeated man by April 1968, understanding that his time in this world was nigh. He was the prophet predicting his own demise.

The Memphis Sanitation Worker's strike gave King a bit of a bounce in his step, while he was preparing for the Poor People's March on Washington, the site of King's greatest triumph up until that time. Yet, King took a moment in the Memphis march during what would be his last campaign to fire up his peaceful warriors.

Dark days were ahead, and King was beyond worrying. He had given all he could to advance a movement in the South to finally rip the chains from the sharecroppers and children of sharecroppers where he grew up and cut his teeth as a young preacher. Although the North gave King the money he needed, he saw intense opposition to his own opposition to the War in Vietnam. King's fiery furnace phrase, "I don't fear any man" was less a taunt to his would-be killer(s) and more a challenge to the people who would pick up his historical mantle of direct yet radical non-violent movements four decades later: Us.

In my estimation, politicians are not these peaceful warriors--sorry Barack Obama. High-flying and churchy oratory aside, the next people's leader will come from the fields, jungles, or forests of the developing nations rather than the halls of our current version of the House of Lords, also known as the US Senate.

The new Kings are leading their people in second and third world nations where the grassroots movements can halt the scythe of dictators, industrialized nations, multinational corporations, and time.

There will never be another King in our nation, I fear, because we are all too much in and of this world.

Juno: A Movie and a Cautionary Tale

Juno. Have you seen it? A movie, directed by Jason Reitman, about a sixteen year old who gets pregnant by her high school boyfriend, the nice kid, and puts the baby up for adoption but falls in love with the adoptive dad (Jason Bateman??!!) is the stuff that the old ABC After School Specials used to be made of. It goes to show you, it's not the what that makes a great movie, it's the how.

Juno should be seen by every junior high and high school student as a kind of cautionary tale about how to be authentic. It's less John Hughs's Breakfast Club and more in the vibrant dialogue flavor of Michael Lehman's Heathers because it will spawn other pretenders that won't be nearly as good. Yet, Juno is different than Lehman's movie because it goes against type. It's a wise-talking and rather normal character-driven movie that seems to be popular during this epoch, kind of like Dan in Real Life and other recent flicks where the central characters are borderline depressed people who find it hard finding love or even loving themselves, while all the while the audience is rabbit-eyes over them.

A clip from Jason Reitman's Juno

Harrowing: Are We Headed for a Recession?

After some harrowing weather in Virginia on Thursday, I returned home late last night to a whole bunch of new ideas. Mostly what I have been thinking about is how to keep my little school in San Francisco growing and striving without killing the people who are having a tough time just making ends meet. Raising tuition six to eight percent on families as we enter what could be the beginning of a recession (or worse) is not a good plan for longevity.

More on the plan in future posts.

Whiffenpoofs 2007--Baa Baa Black Sheep

On Yale: Is Financial Aid to the Rich Fair?

Did Yale get it right?

For over forty years, the Ivy League colleges have been trend-setters in providing financial assistance and other forms of aid to people that some newspapers are calling the new middle class in America--or a family of four earning between $150-200,000. That's $150K!!!

Believe it or not, the so-called elite universities have priced themselves out of the market for what some people would call the moderately rich. If Yale and Harvard (plus some of the other wealthier Ivies) are sitting on their billion dollar nest eggs, also known as endowments, then is this really good for education?

Probably. But Probably not.

According to the article below from the New York Times, Congress is doing some arm-twisting, making these schools spend money from their endowments. Yale's endowment is over $22 Billion dollars. That's billion with a "B." At four percent interest on $22 Billion dollars, Yale would reap $880 million in interest to spend from its nest egg with another $220 million that can go back into the endowment. That's a great deal of money, even when you think about the size of the an institution like Yale. To put this in perspective, the cost of educating all 4,000 of its undergrads is a mere $192 million. Of course, the price of a Yale education is priceless, but should a university earn more money in its endowment than it cost to educate its students? Hmmmm....

What does this mean? Since the Ivies set the trends for the other colleges and universities in the US, small and large, particularly when tuitions began to mirror buying a foreign luxury sedan (between $30 - 48,000 a year), Congress is banking that the universities must begin to make college more affordable. Who wants to see a coed go to debtor's prison (see Countrywide Home Loans). Universities that have been literarily printing money since the mid- to late-Eighties will see some of that come back to the people (who can probably afford the high tuition), although it may be a stretch for most. Perhaps that remodel of the kitchen will have to wait four more years.

Indeed, some families are opting out of the rat race by "disowning" their children, emancipating them early on or even making them go and and get a "real" job so that they will appear to be penniless in the eyes of the universities. Do many kids do this? Probably not, but the desperation of getting those poor little rich kids into Yale has its price.

$22 Billion!! With a "B."

January 15, 2008
Yale Plans Sharp Increase in Student Aid

By KAREN W. ARENSON

Yale said Monday that it would sharply increase financial aid for undergraduates, including those from families with annual incomes up to $200,000, in a bid to ease costs for a broad swath of students.

Yale and other universities with large endowments have been under pressure from Congress to spend more and reduce charges for students. Harvard announced a similar aid expansion in December, saying the policy would cut the cost of attending college to 10 percent of income for a typical family making $120,000 to $180,000 a year.

Last week, Yale said that it would increase its annual spending from its $22.5 billion endowment, freeing up money for more aid.

The president of Yale, Richard C. Levin, said Monday in an interview, “I hope this will send a strong message to people with incomes between $45,000 and $200,000, some of whom at the high end perceive our sticker price as very daunting, that Yale does offer help at that range.”

On average, students who receive financial aid will see their charges drop in half, Mr. Levin said. A family with two children in college, $180,000 in income and $200,000 in assets will sees its Yale bill drop, to $11,650 from $22,300. Full tuition, room and board this year costs $45,000.

Students will still be expected to contribute in addition to parental payment — but the bill will drop to $2,500 next year, down from their $4,400 share of the $45,000 total. Despite other efforts to increase the aid and outreach to low- and middle-income students, Dr. Levin said, “we are still believed in many parts of the country to be inaccessible and too expensive.”

Yale said its changes, to take effect in the fall and apply to all undergraduates, would raise spending on undergraduate aid by $24 million, to more than $80 million. Yale also said it would limit the increase in tuition, room and board next year to 2.2 percent, raising total costs to $46,000. In the last five years, the increases have ranged from 4.5 percent to 5.5 percent.

Senator Charles E. Grassley, the Iowa Republican who has been pressing colleges and universities to spend more of their endowments, applauded Yale, saying, “Students and parents are the winners.”

But Mr. Grassley questioned why other colleges with endowments of more than $1 billion had not followed suit.

Other well-heeled colleges have also taken steps to assist low- and middle-income students by replacing loans with grants in aid packages.

Not everybody welcomes the trend. Critics say it could lead less-well-off colleges to reduce aid for lower-income students as they tried to compete for upper-income students.

“We encourage colleges to fully fund the neediest students before extending financial aid pledges up the income scale,” said Robert Shireman, executive director of the Project on Student Debt, a group that focuses on financial aid.


Copyright 2008 The New York Times Company

The Little Rock Nine--50 Years Ago

Students Cheat the System To Get Educated: Public School Officials Catch On, Throw The Crumb-Snatchers Out

I love stories like the one below from yesterday's New York Times about students sneaking into richer districts to get educated. I'd actually like to thank the NYT for providing us with another coined phrase: domicile investigator. Hey, man. Pimp my house, and then come on over to peep it.. That's not what they were thinking here, me thinks.

Funny, I thought public education was supposed to be "free." What's the deal with that economic disparity-thing anyway? What I know for sure is that if all things were equal in this country, families and their students would not feel compelled to sneak to wealthier districts in order to get educated.

Perhaps these parents should be rewarded for actually sending their kids to school, snd congratulate them further for not having their children get into trouble. Now there's a thought...

What do you think?

-------

January 13, 2008
SCHOOLS
On the Lookout for Out-of-District Students

By DEBRA NUSSBAUM
AT 8 o’clock one morning, Juanita Ludwig and Vincent Constantino, employees of Clifton Public Schools, are knocking on the door at a house to check a tip. Someone had said a Clifton elementary school student did not really live there and was sneaking in from another district.

Ms. Ludwig, the supervisor of counseling and student services, explains to the parent who answers the door that the district must check to see that the child lives there most of the time. “We made sure there were age-appropriate toys for an 8-year-old child,” she said. “We explain to the parents that the child must stay at the house at least four nights a week.”

“They weren’t upset,” Ms. Ludwig said. “A majority of people understand.”

This time, Ms. Ludwig and Mr. Constantino, the district’s domicile investigator, concluded that the student lived there full time. But that is often not the case.

In the 2006-7 school year, the Clifton district, which has 10,500 students, investigated 625 reports of students illegally attending its schools; it caught 62 last year and 59 the year before. Those students cost the district hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Clifton is hardly the only district searching for students sneaking into its schools. While the State Department of Education does not keep statistics, administrators in suburban districts report that hundreds of tips are received and checked every year.

And there are many ways to find students who don’t belong. Bounties, detectives, stakeouts with cameras, and hot lines that receive tips from anonymous callers are tools that some school districts use to combat the perennial problem of illegally enrolled students.

Those who are caught can suffer consequences: For example, in Ewing, 13 families were asked to remove their children from its schools last year when attendance officers investigated and found the families did not live in the Mercer County community.

There is strong anecdotal evidence that families, including some from Pennsylvania and New York, try to sneak into some of the state’s top suburban districts, said Richard Vespucci, a Department of Education spokesman.

“It’s been an issue on again and off again,” he said. “It’s a bigger issue when the economic climate is weaker. It’s climates like this where property taxes are a real issue and anyone spending public funds wants to show where they are spending the money.”

Districts combat the problems in various ways. Clifton, for example, offers a $300 bounty to anyone reporting a student who turns out to be attending a district school illegally; it has paid once so far this school year, once last year and twice the year before. Students are required to reregister in certain grades in some districts, and attendance officers go to students’ homes to verify they live there.

School administrators say taxpayers demand the accountability. With the average per-pupil cost at about $12,000, taxpayers want to be assured that a student’s “permanent home is located within the school district,” Mr. Vespucci said.

In Cherry Hill, where about 400 such cases are investigated each year, the district got a tip a few years ago from a woman who lived in another South Jersey town. The woman said a fellow employee was bragging about sneaking her child into the Cherry Hill school district, said Don Bart, director of support operations for the district, which has almost 12,000 students.

The district’s full-time attendance officer checked it out, and the student was asked to leave the district. “We are just enforcing the law,” Mr. Bart said.

Under state law, a student a student may legally attend the school in the district where he or she resides the majority of the time. Out-of-district students are required to pay tuition.

Three years ago, the Clark Public School District hired a retired police officer to investigate cases of illegal students. The investigator has parked outside students’ homes to see if they come out in the morning and checked documents like licenses and car registrations.

“The key word here is domicile,” Superintendent Vito Gagliardi said. “The child must live in the house as a primary residence.”

Dr. Gagliardi said the concern is not only for taxpayers, but also for a student who has to lie to teachers and classmates. “In addition to protecting the tax dollar, this is unfair to the child,” he said. Students whose parents take them to districts outside the one they live in have to be careful what they say, and it can be uncomfortable when someone wants to go to their house, he said.

In some cases in Clifton, investigators have followed buses or sat outside homes at 6:30 a.m. in an effort to see if students really live in the district, said Ms. Ludwig. The district also requires three proofs of residency. “We are very vigilant,” said Ira E. Oustatcher, assistant superintendent.

With pressure on districts to reduce class size and stretch dollars, many taxpayers do not have patience for families sneaking into a district, be it for better schools, safety or convenience.

“The school districts are not being coldhearted,” said Frank Belluscio, a spokesman for the New Jersey School Boards Association. “There is a financial burden on them, and they have limited resources. This is painful for schools, but it’s what the law says. It’s been a nagging problem and fairly consistent over the years.”

Ewing has one full-time attendance officer and four part-time officers, said Raymond Broach, the school superintendent. “It’s a pretty steady issue,” he said. Students have been caught coming in from Bristol and Morrisville, Pa., across the Delaware River.

In Teaneck, Al Schulz, a retired police detective, is attendance officer. Sometimes, he watches to see if students are coming over the George Washington Bridge from New York, said David Bicofsky, the district spokesman.

“You are talking $10,000 to $11,000 a year to educate a student,” he said. “You have to be vigilant for your taxpayers.”


Copyright 2008 The New York Times Company

Students At Work: Get Out Of Their Way!!

Data Research

When I was at Agassi Prep in Las Vegas, we piloted programs to use data in our assessment of students. Even though the kids still lagged far behind many of their peers from across the City in mostly non-minority schools, the students made great gains in a period of less than four years.

I must admit that I do not recommend that quantitative data alone is solely the answer but it certainly helps. It helps when trying to move the very bottom quartile kids from where they were to the next quartile up. It also works when trying to move the second two quartiles to the top two, but less well. However, it didn't work as well when trying to move the top kids up more. Why? It seems that instruction was aimed at the middle and lower half of the class rather than to the very top achievers. Often, there is even a negative return on data mining investments because the bright kids in a class want to be engaged in a different way.

What does this mean?

The question asking and other inquiry-based methods of learning help students more than putting kids into buckets (or quartiles). Yet, "sit and get" kinds of exercises are meant to help a large majority of students get through the gates that a particular school holds.

What are your experiences in using data successfully to drive student instruction?

Caveat Emptor

I sometimes engage in lengthy discussions on other blogs, especially about Progressive education and politics. This entry came from http://www.amptoons.com/blog/archives/2008/01/07/a-dangerous-distraction/#comment-315177, a site that I am having a great deal of fun at:

I think what Barack Obama represents is a new sense of connectedness to politics that many Americans are experiencing. It’s as if he offers a bit of a reprieve from the learned helplessness we’ve experienced under Bush. (I’m not convinced I’ll vote for him, mind you.) The actual changes he can make are uncertain.

Boy, I couldn't agree with you more. People forget that politics is more about feeling sometimes (JFK) and less about how someone can operate the system (LBJ). It's the beauty of Obama's candidacy and the danger of it. We are all waiting to be inspired and each of last week's Iowa Caucus winning candidates, Obama and Huckabee, are raising people's pulse rates a bit. Of course, we need to put both men through the fire, so to speak. Not even Progressives should be let off the hook. We should also avoid sound-bite politics and try to understand what they are saying and who are behind them. Who is Obama's Karl Rove? David Axelrod. I think that David Axelrod has a very checkered past in Chicago's politics. Caveat Emptor, my friends. Caveat Emptor.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Axelrod_(political_consultant)

Starting Now: My Least Favorite Time of the Year

Although the middle of January generally marks the half year point in most schools, coming back from Christmas Break feels so much like the mid-way point. It isn't.

Additionally, the mid-winter to mid-spring time also feels like the toughest slog during the school year to me, especially February, which has to be the cruelest month of the year.

Over the last ten years or so as an educator, now being an administrator with hiring and firing decision-making, this time of the year is the most nerve-wracking. Yet, nothing compares with the unexpected loss. Seven years ago, I lost my first student at a school to suicide, which is the toughest blow of all. Losing a child to his or her own hand is devastating, which acts in a way to pull one's mind always back to that day.

I'm interested in other people's experiences of the ebb and flow of the school year. If you have a favorite time of the year or least favorite, please comment below.

To Sir With Love

Even before "A Nice White Lady," Sidney Portier defined the inspirational teacher in To Sir With Love.



Artist: Lulu
Song: To Sir With Love
Album: Best Of-From Crayons To Perfu

Those schoolgirl days, of telling tales and biting nails are gone,
But in my mind,
I know they will still live on and on,
But how do you thank someone, who has taken you from crayons to perfume?
It isn't easy, but I'll try,

If you wanted the sky I would write across the sky in letters,
That would soar a thousand feet high,
To Sir, with Love

The time has come,
For closing books and long last looks must end,
And as I leave,
I know that I am leaving my best friend,
A friend who taught me right from wrong,
And weak from strong,
That's a lot to learn,
What, what can I give you in return?

If you wanted the moon I would try to make a start,
But I, would rather you let me give my heart,
To Sir, with Love.

US Presidential Candidates On Education: Fred Thompson

In addition to being an actor who has played presidents in two films, Fred Thompson is trying to act his way into the White House. Thompson held out to the very last minute before announcing his candidacy to see if he can gain some momentum and save a little dough for the role errr... road ahead. Thompson voted for No Child Left Behind in 2001 but feels that charter schools are the answer. They aren't. According to USA Today, here's where Thompson stands on NCLB and other educational issues:

Fred Thompson on education

On No Child Left Behind law
When he was a U.S. senator representing Tennessee, Fred Thompson voted in 2001 for the No Child Left Behind education law. The law, signed by President Bush in 2002, requires states to test students annually. Schools failing to make academic progress over several years could be closed or have their faculty replaced.

Thompson has said he believes it is appropriate for the federal government to provide money if states meet certain goals but thinks implementation of the law has gone too far. “The most encouraging reforms in education are occurring at the local level, with options like charter schools,” he said on his campaign website. “And often the best thing Washington can do is let the states, school districts, teachers and parents set their own policies and run their own schools.”

On making college affordable
Thompson has yet to unveil a higher-education platform. In the past, he has supported education savings accounts that allow parents to sock money away for college tuition and let it grow tax-free.

Other education priorities
Thompson said on his campaign website that he supports giving parents more choices in where they send their children to school, including vouchers that would allow them to pay for private-school tuition. He wants to reduce federal education mandates and emphasize science and math instruction.

US Presidential Candidates On Education: Bill Richardson

Bill Richardson is another marginalized presidential candidate who has the right ida about No Child Left Behind. Catch his other stands on the issues, according to USA Today, before he's out of the race:

Bill Richardson on education

On No Child Left Behind law
New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, a Democrat, says he wants to scrap the education law known as No Child Left Behind, which requires states to test students annually. It was signed by President Bush in 2002. “Our students are suffering under this failed policy,” Richardson said on his campaign website. He wants to beef up education funding and replace the current system of sanctions for chronically low-performing schools with one that provides more assistance.

On making college affordable
Richardson wants to make college available to “every high school graduate who wants to attend.” He supports expanding college grants and loan options but has not provided many specifics.

Other education priorities
Richardson wants to raise pay for new teachers (to $40,000 nationally) and establish a pre-kindergarten program for all 4-year-olds. He is opposed to vouchers that would allow families to pay for tuition at private schools. Richardson also says he wants to give schools money to expand outreach to parents.

US Presidential Candidates On Education: Mitt Romney

Mitt Romney is the only presidential candidate willing to admit, however implicitly, that the No Child Left Behind and the current US Department of education is a way to neutralize the powerful teachers' unions. So, the smoking gun is in the hands of a presidential candidate who has flip-flopped (that is a pretty cool word) on educational issues.

Here is where Romney sits on the other issues, inluding NCLB:

Mitt Romney on education

On No Child Left Behind law
Former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney has talked about how his views on federal involvement in education have evolved. Romney said during a May 2007 debate in South Carolina that he supported abolishing the Department of Education during his 1994 U.S. Senate bid because "it was very popular with the (GOP) base.”

As governor from January 2003 to January 2007, he said he saw the impact the agency had in “holding down the interests of the teachers union.” He said that is why he embraced the No Child Left Behind education law, which requires states to test students annually. “I find the testing of our kids to be a good thing, to find out which schools are succeeding and which ones are failing,” he said at a New Hampshire town meeting in August 2007.

On making college affordable
As governor, Romney established a scholarship program to reward the top 25% of Massachusetts high school students with a four-year, tuition-free scholarship to any state public university or college.

Other education priorities
Romney supports vouchers that would allow students from low-income areas pay for private-school tuition. As governor, he advocated merit pay for teachers, English immersion classes for foreign-speaking students, and increased math and science requirements. He told a New Hampshire crowd in August 2007 that the failure of inner-city schools is “the great civil rights issue of our time.”

Human Tetris

So, I love funny and weird stuff that kids would love, too. Simple, charming, and old school. For your entertainment pleasure, here it is, Human Tetris:

US Presidential Candidates On Education: Barack Obama

Other than the fact that my mother attends church with Senator Obama, I didn't know much about him until his candidacy for the US Senate seat in Illinois a few years back. He certainly is Kennedy-esque in coming out of nowhere to upset the apple cart of the status quo.

While attending an educator's of color conference in Independent Schools in Boston at the tail end of November 2007, we (mostly African American) educators debated Barack's chances for getting the Democratic Party's nomination and later winning the election. Out of the seven or eight of us who debated his chances, I was the lone voice who said that Obama had a chance of getting the Party's nod to head the ticket. Not that I was or am endorsing Obama at this point, but I did see that Obama's luck and skill as a candidate is more savvy than we have seen in many generations--perhaps not since the initial candidacies of Ronald Reagan, Jimmy Carter, John Kennedy, or Franklin Roosevelt.

At the moment, Barack's populist candidacy is in the Carter mode, which doesn't portend a great presidency. Yet, I'll argue now what I argued in Boston: Barack creates his own luck and inspires people's imagination in a way that is rare in US politics. Whether it's education or foreign policy, the American people would like to see some forward progress in most areas in the overall effectiveness of the next presidency.

According to USA Today, Obama's views on education policy is as follows...

Barack Obama on education

On No Child Left Behind law
Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., was not in office when Congress passed an education bill in 2001 that requires states to annually test students, known as the No Child Left Behind law. He has said it is a well-intentioned attempt to erase long-standing achievement gaps between white and minority students, but he believes the Bush administration ruined it through inflexible application. Obama wants more money for schools and to move away from traditional testing to judge schools.

On making college affordable
Obama has been pushing for an increase in the federal Pell grant awards that students can get to pay for college. That increase was part of a wide-ranging college funding bill that the Senate passed in September 2007. Obama was a co-sponsor of legislation that President Bush signed in September 2007 lowering fees and cutting interest rates for student loans by half, to 3.4%, and increasing Pell grant awards from $4,310 in 2007 to $5,400 by 2012. But Obama missed the vote on final passage.

Other education priorities
Obama says he wants to improve teacher quality and increase pay, especially for those teachers who also mentor students or boost achievement. Obama has said, however, that improvements in achievement shouldn’t be based “on some arbitrary test score.”

US Presidential Candidates On Education: Ron Paul

Like Sen. Barack Obama, the constituent base for Rep. Ron Paul (R.-Texas) are rabid and different. Both men garner support that echoes Beatlemania or Ross Perot-like enthusiasm. Rep. Paul is also in the populist camp, which seems to be striking a chord with the fringe as well as mainstream folks alike. His take on families who homeschool their children separates him from his other presidential competitors.

Below is where Ron Paul stands on education, as compiled by USA Today...

Ron Paul on education

On No Child Left Behind law
Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, voted against the education law known as No Child Left Behind, which requires states to test students annually, and remains wary of federal intervention in education. He is co-sponsoring a bill that would allow states to opt out of the No Child Left Behind mandates but still receive federal education aid. Under the proposal, residents of those states would receive a tax credit equal to the amount that they otherwise would have received in federal funding.

On making college affordable
Paul says he is concerned about the increasing debt load college students are bearing. He would lower taxes so families have more money to pay for college. Paul missed the vote on a bill that cut the interest rate on federally backed student loans by half, to 3.4%, and increased Pell grants from $4,310 in 2007 to $5,400 by 2012. President Bush signed the bill into law Sept. 27, 2007.

Other education priorities
Paul champions home schooling. He would push for tax credits to help parents instruct kids at home, promote home-school diplomas as equivalent to regular high school certificates and block federal mandates on home-school curricula. Paul also supports abolishing the Department of Education and believes education decision-making should be made at the state or local level.

US Presidential Candidates On Education: John McCain

Not exactly the Education Presidential candidate, John McCain stands by his expertise as a patriot. His website states: "John McCain is an experienced conservative leader in the tradition of Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, and Ronald Reagan. He is a common sense conservative who believes in a strong national defense, a smaller, more accountable government, economic growth and opportunity, the dignity of life and traditional values." Okay, but what does that have to do with the rest of us.

According to USA Today, here is where McCain lives when it comes to education:


John McCain on education

On No Child Left Behind law
Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., has praised the No Child Left Behind education law as a “good beginning” that requires schools to meet specific performance targets. He voted for the law, which requires states to test students annually, in 2001. McCain says there are problems with the law, particularly when it comes to testing students with disabilities and non-English-speaking students, but he has said “improve it, don’t discard it.”

On making college affordable
McCain generally backs greater federal funding of Pell grants and government low-interest loans to help students afford college. He missed the vote on a bill that would cut the interest rate on student loans by half, to 3.4%, and increase Pell grants from $4,310 in 2007 to $5,400 by 2012. President Bush it into law Sept. 27, 2007.

Other education priorities
McCain supports vouchers, saying that they would enable parents to choose better schools for their children and that the competition would force public schools to improve. He also believes in merit pay for teachers.

US Presidential Candidates On Education: Dennis Kucinich

Dennis Kucinich is the progressive's progressive. He's sort of a throwback to the populist presidential candidate William Jennings Bryan with more than a little bit of a whiff of the accused anarchists Sacco and Vanzetti . Kucinich is like your crazy uncle who everyone is embarrassed by because of his odiferous gas, but you can't help but be enamored by his willingness to call a spade a spade.

This is where USA Today says that Kucinich stands on education...

Dennis Kucinich on education

On No Child Left Behind law
Rep. Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio, doesn’t hide his contempt for the education law known as No Child Left Behind and its reliance on test scores to judge performance. He voted for the bill in 2001. Kucinich told the National Education Association in July 2007 that he wants to reduce the amount of testing and give schools greater flexibility to use other ways of measuring student achievement. “We need to make sure children can read, but we do not want to defeat the learning experience and make it all about testing, because then all you have is a generation of test takers,” he said.

On making college affordable
Kucinich says he wants to make public college tuition-free and would pay for it by cutting the defense budget by 15%, or $75 billion. He voted for a bill that would cut the interest rate on student loans by half, to 3.4%, and increase Pell grantsfrom $4,310 in 2007 to $5,400 by 2012. President Bush signed the bill into law Sept. 27, 2007.

Other education priorities
Kucinich wants to establish pre-kindergarten programs for all 4-year-olds. He said this and other education initiatives can be paid for by cutting defense spending.

US Presidential Candidates On Education: Mike Gravel

The 2008 Iowa Caucuses have come and gone, while the New Hampshire primary is coming up hard on our right. The next candidate that we examine is Mike Gravel of Alaska, who is still in the race. Gravel, although the longest of long-shots, is still in the race, contrary to what MSNBC's Keith Olbermann has indicated. This is where Gravel stands on educational issues, according to USA Today:


Mike Gravel on education

On No Child Left Behind law
Former Alaska senator Mike Gravel says he doesn’t like the No Child Left Behind education law, saying its emphasis on testing has robbed students of a well-rounded education. The law requires every state to test students annually. Schools failing to make academic progress over several years could be closed or have their faculty replaced.

“Principals constantly prep students for the tests by cutting not only art, gym and music but also history and science,” he wrote in The New York Sun on Aug. 30, 2007. “No wonder children are bored with school.” Gravel was not in office when President Bush signed the law in January 2002.

On making college affordable
Gravel says low-income students who want to attend college should be given tuition assistance. He wants to provide technical training to those who don’t want to attend college. He would give tax breaks to companies that hire and train teenagers to perform technology-based jobs.

Other education priorities
Gravel supports government vouchers for low-income students, a longer school calendar and merit pay for teachers. “Why should teachers with energy, excitement and talent be paid the same as the ones who don’t make an effort?” he asks.

Gravel also points out that American students spend far less time in school than their Japanese and European counterparts. He advocates an education system that would require students to begin school at a younger age and to spend more hours a day and more days a year in school than they do now.

Education As We Know It Is Dead: Radical Ideas About Education

Two days ago, one of our readers wrote:

>NCLB, Great concept but DUMB implementation

I'm not all that in love with the concept of NCLB because of what it does. I hate to be a platonic elitist but, like you, I believe that all children should be seeking what they are good at and what their strengths are. We should figure out the bare-bones of what kids absolutely need to know and then get them into societally appropriate endeavors where they will be productive. Do all kids need to have Geometry and Algebra II? Do they all need to have Ancient History, World History, and US History? Can we feed them early on in their educational careers by having them fed by things like culinary schools or a sales academy, perhaps, rather than dragging their carcasses through a regiment of "what we think you need to know" think? What about giving kids who aren't real school-type kids the Cliff Notes' version of education, with the appropriate credit, of course, and get them doing more stuff that might make a difference in their lives, and more importantly in the lives of their community.

Education as we know it is dead, or at least close to it. When in many urban and rural communities, over half of the children are dropping out between 7th and 12th grade (see they never give us the drop out rates of the kids who have never made it into high school), then you know that the*system*isn't*working. It's not about teachers, administrators, or parents, per se, it just means that what we are selling (in teaching) isn't being bought by America's youth.

In any event, I like NAF's Academy model or even CART in Fresno. Do you know that school. If you don't, you should visit it some time. CART is what I was basing some of my Agassi School ideas on.

About the environment. It's like ulcers. Remember everybody got ulcers back in the day. What happened to ulcers? We as a society work ourselves into conditions, illnesses, and diseases. We need to stop doing that. Global warming is one thing that we have created, like the Cold War, that truly exists and yet it doesn't. "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down that wall."

How the Iowa Caucuses Work

Today marks the beginning of the presidential election primaries with the Iowa Caucuses. It's democrary in action where common, ordinairy folks get to cast ballots for representatives who will later go to the district, state, and national conventions where candidates will be elected--or annointed--by their individual national parties this summer. If that sounds convoluted, well, it is.

Here's a further breakdown of how the Caucuses in Iowa work:

How the Iowa caucuses work
Neighbors sip coffee, tout their candidates
The Associated Press
updated 3:07 p.m. PT, Sat., Jan. 10, 2004

IOWA CITY, Iowa - Pat Kennedy expects the coffee to be hot and the passions to be strong when she opens her home to Democrats eager to caucus and begin choosing a nominee for president.

“I don’t think we’ll be getting into big, heated arguments, but I expect people to stand their ground,” said Kennedy, a rookie precinct chairwoman in Corning, Iowa. “When people first get here, we’ll read some letters from the candidates ... then we’ll divide off into groups and go from there.”

It’s more complicated than that, of course, but a process Kennedy and other activists don’t take lightly. Iowans of both major parties will gather Jan. 19 in church basements, town halls and homes to nominate their candidates for president — and help shape American politics for the next four years.

Since 1972, when Democratic caucuses surprised the nation with their support of George McGovern, Iowa has enjoyed political clout and publicity envied everywhere but New Hampshire, site of the nation’s first primary.

Unlike primaries, where machines count the votes, the Iowa caucuses are dynamic and intimate, a cousin of the New England town-hall meeting. They are performed at the most fundamental political level — in each of the state’s 1,993 precincts.

'Neighbors getting together'
“It’s neighbors getting together, discussing political issues ... and, oh, by the way, picking a presidential candidate,” said Jean Pardee, a precinct chairwoman in Clinton, Iowa.

“It’s not just going in and casting a ballot for whomever,” Pardee said. “It means you are concerned, not only about a particular candidate, but the issues and party-building. It’s all very exciting.”

Caucuses begin with supporters of candidates clustered in corners of middle-school libraries, courthouse hallways or kitchens and living rooms. Space is designated for uncommitted voters.

Democrats have a complex system, one that uses a mathematical formula to calculate support — and ultimately award delegates to county, state and national conventions — based on percentages.

For a candidate to be considered viable, he or she must have the support of at least 15 percent of the meeting’s participants, party rules state. Those lacking often are lobbied to join with neighbors supporting more popular candidates.

“That’s when it gets kind of crazy,” said Mark Daley, spokesman for the Iowa Democratic Party. “There will be people screaming back and forth ... and senior citizens with calculators trying to do the math.”

Percentages reported to party
The percentages are reported to party headquarters and winners and losers declared.

Republican caucuses use a “one head, one vote” method. “We think it’s more democratic that way ... because if you want to vote for an underdog, your voice is heard,” said Kristin Scuderi, spokeswoman for the Iowa Republican Party.

With President Bush running unopposed, Scuderi says, participants will focus on the GOP platform and voter turnout.

The caucus system dates to 1846 when Iowa joined the Union. It first gained national attention in 1972, the year state leaders moved the caucuses to January and created the nation’s first test for presidential hopefuls.

A handful of reporters from major newspapers showed up to report that Maine Sen. Edmund Muskie, the favorite to win the caucuses, polled just 35 percent, the same number declaring themselves undecided. The other surprise that night was the strong third-place finish of Sen. George McGovern of South Dakota, the eventual Democratic challenger to President Nixon.

“The name of the game in Iowa has always been expectation,” said Hugh Winebrenner, a caucus historian and political science professor emeritus at Drake University. “McGovern did much better than expected, and that launched him in the primaries that followed.”

Jimmy Carter's surprise
Four years later the surprise came from Jimmy Carter, an unknown Georgia Democrat who ran a low-budget caucus campaign. Carter used momentum from his second-place finish — more voters were undecided than behind any Democrat that year — to win the nomination.

While the 1972 and 1976 results minted Iowa as a political proving ground, Winebrenner says its reputation as a kingmaker is not valid. Caucus winners who failed to win the nomination include Democrats Dick Gephardt in 1988 and Tom Harkin in 1992 and Republicans George H.W. Bush in 1980 and Bob Dole in 1988.

“We don’t always choose the winner. The buck doesn’t stop here,” Winebrenner said. “I think of Iowa’s role now as more of a winnower of the field.”

Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah, for example, dropped out of the 2000 race after coming in last in Iowa. His wife later called the caucuses “the sign from God.”



© 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3926132/

Happy New Year! What's Old is What's New

So, it's the New Year! What does it hold in store for us as a people, as a nation of innovators and learners. Most of our early attention this year will be centered on what's happening in Iowa, Pakistan, Iran, and Iraq. Taking our collective eyes off of the ball.

Perhaps we'll even pay some attention to what the Israelis and Palestinian's are up to (vis-a-vis the Bush administration wanting to salvage it's reputation in the world. Can you say, "Condi-NOT!")

The real attention should be on the future of education and what the early Presidential primaries may have in store for the school children in this country for the next three generations. Although we can no longer ignore world events (global warning, enter stage right), we must also keep our eye on the ball as it relates to the dumbing of the American child.

One woman that I spoke to said that No Child Left Behind poses a grave and present danger to the autonomy of our nation as a civilization. Does this sound like a hysterical ranting of yet another John Dewey Progressive who doesn't quite get that the Me Generation ended along with the Seventies and hippies?

Yet, witness the resurrection of Jimmy Carter, a man with plenty of vision and great ideas and very little follow through, at least some folks would say so. Did Jimmy Carter's presidency derail Al Gore's hope at the White House--or Barack Obama's? Can effete men and women of principle win the highest office in the land? Or must all politician's these days be shrewd political operatives who pander to all sorts of special interests in this country to get anywhere at all? The George W. Bushes, the Mike Huckabees, and the Hillary Clintons. With special interests groups firmly in hand, Presidents and candidates like these offer little new or innovative in the way of foreign or domestic policies. Who cares if Hillary will be the first woman President in this country if the results are the very same as they are today. Perhaps she has a little more vigor than our current feckless leaders in power, who lie and steal and cheat and lie, to great effect, shamelessly telling people just what they want (and perhaps need) to hear.

"I won the election fair and square." "There is no global warning." "It's okay to reveal the identity of a CIA agent and have it not matter all that much." "Let's send many thousands of young men and women to the Middle East and fight a war that has always been and will always be about oil." "It's okay to serve up one of the worst educational public policies in our nation's history as long as we divert the attention of the American people on what really matters."

In short, I am angry this New Years Day. I don't feel that we as a people and as a nation are any closer to solving what ails us. In writing this blog (and dedicating my career to education), I have put all of my eggs into one basket--that of America's school children--while they and their teachers are being scrambled to death with meaningless tests, jumping through hoops that will always tell them that they are less than. Also, if the tests that come with the scourge of a law are designed to make the school children in this country be great followers who don't question authority in any way--or the opposite of the root word of education, which is "educere," meaning to "lead out"--then we are in for generations of heartache. We must do more to fight for what matters most and has always mattered most.

Last Century, we spent a lot of time working on infrastructure--dams, roads and highways, schools, skyscrapers, fiber optics. This year and into this next epoch, we must use micro-technologies as our metaphor and rallying cry for what to concentrate on next. People, each and every one of us, especially children, should be moved to the center. No Child Left Behind serves as one of those 1984 lessons of marketing the opposite. While drop out rates soar in middle and high schools, and boys of all stripes and hues lose out in higher ed, then we must re-focus our attention on what matters most and what has always mattered most in this country...

Education.

US Presidential Candidates On Education: John Edwards

In 2001 John Edwards voted for the awful No Child Left Behind bill that has become the scourge of most public schools and school districts in this country. Make no mistake, NCLB is a mistake. There is no way to sugar-coat how bad the law and its intended or unintended impact on teaching and learning has meant for American education.

However, we do like some of the other more creative solutions that Edwards is authoring about reducing the drop-out rate and providing more access for students to go to college. Yet, does Edwards go far enough? Not nearly. According to USA Today, here are some of the other issues that Edwards has grappled with educationally...

John Edwards on education

On No Child Left Behind law
As a senator representing North Carolina, Democrat John Edwards voted in 2001 for the education bill known as No Child Left Behind. Now, he says, the law should be “radically overhauled.” The law requires every state to test students annually. Schools failing to make academic progress over several years could be closed or have their faculty replaced.

Edwards wants better tests that measure true skills (essay questions instead of multiple choice, for example) and an assessment system that takes actual student progress into account. “We need to find out if schools are working, but I think we need a more precise way to measure what’s happening. And the parameters of what we’re measuring need to be more diverse, not just whether you can fill in a bubble in response to a math or science question,” he said at a community meeting in Dubuque, Iowa, in August 2007.

On making college affordable
Edwards would create a national program to pay for one year of public-college tuition, fees and books. He has predicted the program would allow more than 2 million students to go to college who might not be able to afford it otherwise. In return, Edwards says, students would be required to work part-time in college, take a college-prep curriculum in high school and “stay out of trouble.” He would pay for the $9 billion cost of his initiative through changes to the federal student loan program.

Other education priorities
Edwards wants to tackle the nation’s dropout problem (three out of 10 ninth-graders don’t finish high school) by creating "second-chance schools" that he says would help dropouts by offering them one-on-one attention and a chance to earn a diploma. He’s also proposing to help states provide universal pre-kindergarten for 4-year-olds; parents would pay on a sliding scale based on their income.

US Presidential Candidates On Education: Duncan Hunter

Duncan Hunter?!! Your guess is as good as mine. I hadn't heard of him either. Wouldn't you know it that he has a very Libertarian streak when it comes to education--with the exception of school vouchers. People like Hunter cloak their disdain for public education but is willing to have taxpayers bankroll private schools in the form of vouchers. Here's where Hunter stands on the other educational issues...

Duncan Hunter on education

On No Child Left Behind law
Although Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., voted in 2001 for the education law known as No Child Left Behind, he is no fan of federal intervention in education. Signed by President Bush in 2002, the law requires every state to test students annually. Schools failing to make academic progress over several years could be closed or have their faculty replaced.

Hunter says he would move to dismantle the top-down “expensive and inefficient” mandates of the law and has co-sponsored legislation to change it. That bill would give states the right to opt out of the law and allows them to “assume full responsibility for the educational needs of its students,” according to Hunter’s congressional website. States not willing to take this step would be required to follow current mandates under the law. “I believe we can educate students more effectively by returning school curriculum prerogatives to the states, local communities and, most importantly, to the family,” he said.

On making college affordable
Hunter has said he doesn’t think the federal government should play a large role in college affordability. He voted against legislation that Congress passed and the president signed in September 2007 that increased Pell grants from $4,310 in 2007 to $5,400 in 2012 and cut the interest rate by half, to 3.4%, on federally backed student loans.

Other education priorities
Hunter supports vouchers and government aid to pay for private school tuition, from kindergarten through 12th grade. He also wants to make sure home-schooled children have the same access to federal benefits, such as financial aid, as those attending public school.

US Presidential Candidates On Education: Chris Dodd

Chris Dodd, like most of the other candidates, would like to spend more money on fully funding No Child Left Behind, particularly in funding failing schools. He voted for the original legislation in 2001. Not much innovation in his arsenal. Just the same old thing. Here is where Dodd stands on NCLB and some of the other issues...

Chris Dodd on education

On No Child Left Behind law
Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn., would keep intact the basic accountability-driven framework of the education law, known as No Child Left Behind, that President Bush signed in January 2002. The law requires every state to test students annually. Schools failing to make academic progress over several years could be closed or have their faculty replaced.

Dodd wants to spend more money on failing schools, a departure from the law’s emphasis on punishing schools that perennially score poorly on tests. Dodd voted for the legislation in 2001.

On making college affordable
Dodd says no one who wants a college education should be denied one. As president, he would make community college free for anyone who can’t afford a traditional four-year university by partnering with states to subsidize tuition at community colleges. Dodd says he can pay for the program through cuts in federal government subsidies to student lenders.

Dodd missed the vote on a bill that would cut the interest rate on student loans by half, to 3.4%, and increase Pell grants from $4,310 in 2007 to $5,400 by 2012. President Bush signed the bill into law Sept. 27, 2007.

Other education priorities
Dodd proposes a number of programs that require local buy-in and lots of money: universal pre-kindergarten for low-income families, a school modernization fund, smaller class sizes and a longer school day. Dodd also wants to develop national academic standards that states would voluntarily adopt instead of having a mishmash of different programs.

Mad TV's "A Nice White Lady"

It's great when the popular culture can poke fun at itself. From Freedom Writers to Dangerous Mind and more, Mad TV gets it right.

US Presidential Candidates On Education: Mike Huckabee

Mike Huckabee is a rising star in the Republican Party. Republicans have been looking for a telegenic candidate like Huckabee ("What would you give me for Mike Huckabee and Kevin Spacey") who believes what the right wing element of the party believes. Huckabee is a died in the wool neo-con and the Right loves him. This is what USA Today says about his stand on education...

Mike Huckabee on education

On No Child Left Behind law
Former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee, a Republican, supports the education law known as No Child Left Behind. Signed by President Bush in 2002, the law requires every state to test students annually. Failure to meet certain requirements results in reduced federal funding to schools.

Though he has said opponents of the law have maligned it as unwarranted federal intrusion, Huckabee agrees states should oversee implementation of the law. “While there is value in the No Child Left Behind law's effort to set high national standards, states must be allowed to develop their own benchmarks,” he wrote on his campaign website.

On making college affordable
If elected president, Huckabee says he would be willing to provide federally funded, state-administered scholarships for students who go into national service, such as teaching in high-poverty schools. He also supports scholarships for low-income students who do well in high school.

Other education priorities
When he was governor of Arkansas, Huckabee emphasized arts and music education for young students. He’d like to continue that as president, saying it’s “crucial that children flex both the left and right sides of the brain. … Our future economy depends on a creative generation.”

US Presidential Candidates On Education: Hillary Clinton

Many of the pundits have said that Hillary Clinton is the candidate to beat in next year's election? Yet, is her position on education that of a frontrunner or that of an also ran. You decide...

Hillary Rodham Clinton on education

On No Child Left Behind law
Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., voted in 2001 for the education bill known as No Child Left Behind. Signed into law by President Bush in 2002, the law requires every state to test students annually. Schools failing to make academic progress over several years could be closed or have their faculty replaced.

Now Clinton is calling for a “total change” in the law partly because she says the federal government isn’t giving states enough flexibility to measure student progress. “We need to make sure that when we look at our children, we don’t just see a little walking test,” she said at an August 2007 debate. Like other Democratic candidates, Clinton has accused the Bush administration of not funding the law adequately.

On making college affordable
Clinton has sponsored legislation that would gradually increase the maximum Pell Grant for low-income college students to $11,600 a year. She missed the vote on a bill that would cut the interest rate on student loans by half, to 3.4%, and increase Pell grants from $4,310 in 2007 to $5,400 by 2012. President Bush signed the bill into law on Sept. 27, 2007.

Clinton also wants to increase the Hope Tax Credit to $3,500 from $1,650 and make it available for four years of college instead of the current two. With this tax credit, families would subtract the credit amount directly from the taxes they owe. Clinton wants to increase money for programs that help minorities and first-generation students (those who are the first in their family to attend college). She also wants to adjust federal loan programs so students can borrow at lower rates.

Other education priorities
Clinton wants to provide federal funding to states that agree to establish voluntary pre-kindergarten for all 4-year-olds. Low-income families and those with limited English proficiency would be allowed to enroll their children for free. States would be required to work with existing community-based preschools to ensure parents have a choice on where to enroll their children. States also would have the option to expand Head Start programs as part of a strategy to offer universal pre-K programs.

US Presidential Candidates On Education: Rudy Giuliani

This post is taken directly from USA Today's on-line segment that shows where the candidates stand on various issues.

Rudy Giuliani on education:

On No Child Left Behind law
Former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani has not explicitly criticized the education standards law known as No Child Left Behind. Signed by President Bush in 2002, the law requires every state to test students annually. Schools failing to make academic progress over several years could be closed or have their faculty replaced.

Giuliani talks about giving parents more control over decisions affecting their children’s education, instead of giving it all to the federal and state agencies that are central to the law’s structure. “My mother did a much better job with my education than a government bureaucrat could do,” he said on his campaign website.

On making college affordable
Giuliani doesn’t offer many specifics, except to say he wants the competitive marketplace to sort things out. “Give people more of the decision-making about education and schools will become more competitive,” he told Scholastic News Online in September 2007 during a stop in Houston.

Other education priorities
Giuliani’s mantra on the campaign trail is to talk about school choice, such as more charter schools and vouchers for low-income families to pay for tuition at private schools. He has said repeatedly that the federal government should not be telling local schools what to do.

(Note: I wrote USA Today for permission to use their content, yet they never returned my message. Therefore, I will link back to the original on-line article. To see the original article go to: http://asp.usatoday.com/news/politics/election2008/issues.aspx?i=8&c=6)

US Presidential Candidates On Education: Joseph Biden

Joe Biden is the first candidate that we'll examine. His stance on No Child Left Behind is, like most of the other candidates, that it is under-funded. He favors innovation and retaining good teachers, while proposing a sizable increase in funding to schools. These sound like good ideas, except where are we going to get that money? Raising taxes?

The following, taken from the candidates website, represents what Biden believes about Education:

Education: A Promise For The Future

“My mother has an expression, children tend to become that which you expect of them. I want a country where we expect much from America’s children. Every child must graduate from high school. Every child should go on to higher education. Today, just two-thirds of students entering high school graduate, and about two-thirds of those go
on to college. We are losing too many children in this country, wasting too much talent, leaving so much potential untapped. We know what we need to do: First, stop focusing just on test scores. Second, start education earlier. Third, pay educators more. Fourth, reduce class size. Fifth, make higher education affordable.”
-- Joe Biden

To build a 21st century education system, Joe Biden would:
1. Move Toward A Sixteen Year System
2. Focus on Retaining And Training Teachers
3. Reduce Class Size

______________________________________________________________________

1. Strengthening Our Education System: Moving Toward A Sixteen Year System Joe Biden would replace the 20th century 12-year school system with a 16-year system. He would start education earlier so that every parent who wants to can send their child to two years of preschool and make sure that students can afford at least two years of higher education.

2. Support and Retain Our Teachers
Research has consistently shown that teachers are the single most important factor in determining how well a student performs in school, yet we can’t keep talented teachers in the classroom. Teacher attrition costs our schools $2 to $7 billion a year. Each year 270,000 of our 3.2 million public school teachers leave the field. Every school day, over 1,000 teachers leave the field for reasons other than retirement. Teachers leave for a wide range of reasons – from low pay to burn out.

3. Reduce Class Size
Create a national initiative to reduce class size: Joe Biden would hire 100,000 new teachers to reduce the average class size to 18 students, particularly in the early grades. Students in small class sizes in kindergarten - 3rd grade are as much as half a year ahead of students from larger classes in reading, math and science by the time they get to 5th grade. Smaller classes will provide teachers with the resources they need to create the opportunities for learning that our students deserve.

What Must Be Done: National Candidates Educational Policies

Today begins a comprehensive journey to let readers know where the different candidates stand on educational policies. We'll highlight three areas of focus: No Child Left Behind, Learning and Teaching, and Innovation.

Since many Progressive Educators in the Open Source Community believe that the educational mandate entitled No Child Left Behind, while a good sentiment to let no child flounder in sinking public schools, the reality has been less than ideal. In fact, many people call the bill "No Child Left Untested." Please remember that No Child Left Behind is fully a bipartisan effort that has been the death-knell to innovative teaching and creative learning. Sort of like everything touched by the current president's administration and this Congress. No one is excused from blame in this shambles of a law and what it has wrought

Why is NCLB so bad? It's not just that it is underfunded. The bill needs to be scrapped, completely. It does not work and it is harmful to the very children that it was intended to help. The poor, the black, and the brown. Simply put, teachers spend far too much of their time focusing on what will be on the state and nationally mandated testing and too little time on actually teaching children to think and how best to learn. Currently, we spend a fair amount of time teaching students what to learn rather than how to learn; that goes for public and private schools alike. Put it this way, if the Stanley Kaplan Testing Company was so widely wonderful and innovative, why aren't their methods not in practice at the major universities (Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Stanford) in the country?

What are my credentials on educational reform, innovation, and No Child Left Behind? I was the chief architect in turning the Andre Agassi School around after it was mired in controversy (from 2004 - 2006). Although we did a great deal in the two years that we were at the school, more can be done, especially given how much money the Agassi Foundation, the Federal government, as well as the State of Nevada is spending on the school. The Agassi public relations machine obscures some of the hard facts about the school and what needs to be done to help Andres Big idea.

Also, I would definitely look to the pre- (so called) Excellence Movement that swept the country during the Reagan regime as a place to look for answers. Short History Lesson: The Civil Rights Seventies, which can be likened to a Second United States Reconstruction, made some headway in dismantling the problems that were posed by democracy in this country. Young and idealistic teachers buoyed by M.L. King, Malcolm X, and the Kennedy brothers, gave their careers and even their lives to dismantle newly desegregated schools throughout the land. Yep, that's in this country. Many of these teachers have recently retired or are nearing retirement age.

So, what changed? In California and beyond, Proposition 13 destabilized the efforts of real teaching and learning, de-funding and thereby de-neutering the short gains that were made in education.

Can any of the presidential candidates restore the hope that education was supposed to engender for all Americans? Probably not, but by adding your name to a growing chorus of outrage about what is being done to the United States Public Schools, you can fight to overturn years and years worth of worthless teaching and death defying learning in our nations schools. When children feel disrespected, seen and not heard, and cast to the side, then they tend to lash inward or outward. This is certainly no justification for the wrongs that a deranged few have perpetrated on K-12 and higher education, but it is a chorus of mistrust that must be heard and confronted with compassion, dignity, and real solutions--rather than longer school days and tests every year. Namaste, Brian

Benazir Bhutto Assassinated

Today, Benazir Bhutto was assassinated in Pakistan after returning from self-imposed exile in London just a few short months ago. When hearing of her return, I thought to myself, she is not long for this world. Today's New York Times obituary said of her:

A deeply polarizing figure, Ms. Bhutto, the “daughter of Pakistan,” was twice elected prime minister and twice expelled from office in a swirl of corruption charges that propelled her into self-imposed exile in London for much of the past decade. She returned home this fall, billing herself as a bulwark against Islamic extremism and a tribune of democracy.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/28/world/asia/28bhuttocnd.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin



As we head into another United States presidential electoral cycle, may we teach the children well about how the electoral process can lead to peaceful and meaningful change.

Oobleck Pool at the Exploratorium

Here's an example of what some teachers have done at the Exploratorium in San Francisco. This is a group of the Exploratorium's Teacher's Institute who run back and forth across a pool of cornstarch and water--Oobleck--at the Exploratorium.

Too Much TV--When Kids Are Bored

The Exploratorium is a children's science museum that many Bay Area families visit during breaks. Teachers also use the Exploratorium to support their science learning in their classrooms.

My children have been sleeping late this past week. It's what my wife truly hates: too much TV. Like one of those Berenstain Bears' books where the bear cubs and their goofy dad watch way too much television or eat far too much crappy foods. The sanctimonious books were the mainstay of our hosuehold when the kids were three, four, and five. Not any more, thank goodness. My daughter and son are now older and their taste in reading has gotten to be much more sophisticated. They've been reading books like EVERY LITTLE BIRD THAT SINGS, which is about a girl whose family owns a funeral parlor (actually not one of my favorite books that she has chosen for us to read to her at night). My son is reading INTO THE WILD, based on the disappearance of a young man into the wilds of Alaska. Although we got up late today, we're preparing for a day of turning the television off--tomorrow.

From the museum's website, "The Exploratorium is an experimental, hands-on museum designed to spark curiosity—regardless of your age or familiarity with science. There are hundreds of exhibits to touch, pick up, and tinker with. Your curiosity can be your compass to endless discoveries!"

One of the featured exhibits this month is Making Sense of Sound. Part of the museum's exhibit is where people who listen for a living tell you about what they do. At least that is what I was able to glean from the museum's website. There is an acoustic engineer, a wildlife tracker, an auto mechanic, an experimental music maker, as well as others, who go through their lives in sound. In a future post (hopefully tomorrow), we'll give you a review of this exhibit and perhaps some of the other museums treats.

TURN OFF THE TV!!

Making Art at the Peninsula School

Come, All Ye Faithful

Yesterday, my family and I made our yearly pilgrimage to church. This time we were at a candle light service at St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church in Marin City. We chose it because we knew that it was Anne Lamott's church and that it was multiracial and multicultural. The last two elements would fit nicely with our family. Plus, the minister is a sister.

Thirty minutes before the service began, I drove like a bat out of hell, trying to beat the traffic (which there was none) and parishioners who would be lined up down the block to get into the Marin City church. As we pulled into the parking lot, across the way from the Outback Steakhouse, where we have spent a good deal of our dining out time since we arrived back in the Bay Area, we noticed very few cars in the parking lot. Including our own car, there were only three families who had arrived. One very friendly-faced African American woman waved to us as I turned off the Christmas carols and the car.

I wasn't mistaken, there was no one at the church--twenty minutes before the service was to start!! This was different than going to my mother's church, Trinity UCC in Chicago. There we had to get to church at least an hour before the service was to begin just to get a decent enough seat somewhere within one hundred feet of the altar. Even as we waited outside of the narthex to get into the church building and the sanctuary itself, we noticed the small worship space--intimate, let's say. Also, the candles that were on gold foil that stretched out in front of the lectern, roughly 4'X12'. The building itself held about 170 seats artfully placed around the central speaking area.

I must say the the modest size of the church and the few people that trickled into the sanctuary--either given candles with drip catchers or flashlights--took some getting used to. No one asked us for money the entire time, and people seemed generally interested in us as humans. As in so many multiracial places, the majority of the folks looked "white."

We sang carols and listened to bible verses read by what I presume were the elders of the church. I did have to speak with my son a few times to get him to behave (stand-up to sing--sit-down to listen to a reading--over and over again). Without understanding the true meaning of Christmas, I told him, there would be no presents the next day. It wasn't an artful threat, but it was what I was feeling at the time.

It all was quite wonderful as it turns out in a "give love on Christmas Day" sort of way. It felt like school rather than church, which always put me at ease. I appreciated every moment of it. I must admit that I didn't quite feel the spirit inside the church, but we will go back.

Every day and in every way, education extends to every aspect of our lives. Whether it's re-inventing traditions or co-creating community wherever we are, living in Open Source communities means coming as you are.

Making It Back

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December 23rd--White::Christmas

Two days before Christmas.

I remember this day more than any other--even more than Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. So, what's so special about Christmas Eve Eve? It's probably the anticipation of being picked up by my dad on Christmas Eve. My brother and I would spend two or three times per year with our father, each time was very special, going to Downtown Chicago on the IC (Illinois Central Railroad). The train was a commuter rail line to the City then rather than a train the went from Chicago and all the way down through down State, Illinois, then on to Memphis, TN, Jackson, MS, and New Orleans. The City of New Orleans.

Trains meant freedom. For generations of Black people and this one Black boy from Robbins, Illinois. Riding on a train was like the holiday that we loved so well; Christmas. Traveling from Robbins via Blue Island to the Randolph Street station, which were in the very bowels of City, underground out of the elements. It could be snowing like crazy, or sleeting, but we were safe--with our Dad.

My father died six days before the events of September 11, 2001. It was like my own personal grief was swallowed whole by what the nation was experiencing at the time, sending me reeling off of my own tracks, as it were.

But back in the late Sixties, bracing the stiff rain, sleet, and wind of Chicago's brutal winter to hang out with our father is still the highlight of my life.

What was special about that time? There were pinball machines and baseball machines and donuts and places where you could actually make a record. My brother, dad, and I jammed into a photo booth-sized cubicle making our rendition of "White Christmas." To me, my father sounded exactly like Bing Crosby, how deep he could make his voice.

Racing home to show my mother was probably the biggest letdown, that's when we would realize that they were never, ever going to get back together. I have to admit, I don't remember a time when they were together, but I had their wedding pictures staring at us over at my "Aint" Bert's house, airbrushed to perfection to emphasize their diminutive size and airbrushed eyebrows and red, red lips; they both looked liked they had on lipstick. I loved that picture. How beautiful they were. They were my hope for the future. They were what I remembered about Christmas.

Although my mother and father went on to marry other people. Again, hurtfully so for mom, and pretty happily so for my father, they were what I secretly wished for at Christmas. If they could only get back together, then all would be solved.

So these days, I listen to the candidates talk about what constitutes a married couple, what constitutes love, a household, a family. My mind goes back to that train station underneath the City of Chicago, and I remember those moments that made me unequivocally and irrevocably me. Making "White Christmas" and hoping for a reunion that wold never come. No one was more heartbroken than me; it was like waiting and waiting for Jesus to arrive. Dying waiting for "The Christ." The One who would save us all.

"I'm dreaming of a white Christmas. Just like the ones I used to know.

http://people.uis.edu/mleon1/images/robbins.gif