Breaking News that Parents Can Use

Posted: May 2, 2012 | Author: | Filed under: Education, Long Island Schools, Nassau county schools, New York Schools, Parents | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Education news has been breaking at such a fast and furious pace that I’m calling your attention to a few important stories you may have missed.

New Organization to Engage Families in Education

First, I’m delighted that my good friend Myrdin Thompson of Louisville, Ky., has been named regional director for the central states in the newly formed National Family Engagement Alliance (NFEA).  Myrdin ThompsonThe organization was unveiled this week as part of Parenting Magazine’s Mom Congress Conference in Washington, DC. Gwen Samuel of Meriden, Conn., was appointed as regional director for the eastern and southeast regions and has been an advocate for disenfranchised families.

The organization will provide resources, education and support to engage families, individuals and organizations in schools for the benefit of children. Both women have been recognized for their advocacy and training of parents and education professionals in effective family engagement in education.

While Myrdin was in Washington this week, she was honored as a White House Champion of Change and met with President Barack Obama. He characterized her as “awesome,” which is exactly what she is. Myrdin and I are both part of the blogging team at ParentNet Unplugged, a great group of people dedicated to parent engagement in education.

A few months ago, I featured Myrdin in two consecutive Your Education Doctor blogs because one just wasn’t enough. I called her a Parent Advocate Par Excellence, and I’m thrilled that she will be bringing her experience and expertise to our shared passion of parent engagement in education! To read more about Myrdin, here are my blogs:

Profile of a Parent Advocate Par Excellence

Part 2: Lessons for Parents and the Future of Public Schools

A Letter to the President from School Boards Leader

Standardized tests have recently been on the minds of both parents and children. Last week, Mary Broderick, president of the National School Boards Association, wrote to President Obama urging him to begin a national dialogue on education — not among politicians but educators. Mary BroderickShe asked him to wear his “parent hat” to the endeavor of finding a new direction for public education.

Your daughters, she wrote, “like all of our children and all of our teachers, don’t need more tests designed to identify weaknesses. They need excited, motivated, passionate teachers who feel challenged, supported, and encouraged to try new approaches, who share with their students a learning environment that is limitless. …”

She also decried the focus on standardized testing, saying: “Strict quantitative accountability has never worked for any organization, and it has not worked with No Child Left Behind and Race to the Top. … Teachers’ focus on tests is undermining their potential and initiative, making it more difficult to share a love of learning with their students.”  Here is the full text of her remarks.

Resolution to Reduce Standardized Testing

Finally, the National Education Association (NEA) has thrown its support behind a resolution calling on federal and state policymakers to reduce standardized test mandates, and to base school accountability on multiple forms of evaluation that will support students and improve schools.

Other supporters include: Parents Across America, the National Center for Fair and Open Testing, and the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. The resolution’s signers have joined with public education advocates Diane Ravitch and Deborah Meier to call upon state officials to “reexamine school accountability,” and to develop an evaluation system that reflects the “broad range” of how students learn rather than mandating extensive standardized testing. Click here for the full text of the resolution.

News You Can Use

Posted: February 1, 2012 | Author: | Filed under: bully, Education, Long Island Schools, Nassau county schools, Parents, school administration, school district | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

If you follow me on Twitter @DrMerylAin, you know that I’ve been trying to tweet the education news that has been coming fast and furiously since 2012 began. There’s so much of importance that it’s hard to keep track. The economy has still not recovered as school districts grapple with their 2012-2013 budget process. The following news items deserve to be watched as they unfold, both as local and national trends. The key is to read the fine print and ask lots of question.

1.         The Half Hollow Hills (N.Y.) Board of Education voted unanimously to freeze salary increases of district administrators for two years as a result of negotiations between the board and the administrators’ union. While it sounds idealistic, note that included in the agreement is a stipulation that there will be no administrative terminations due to budgetary reasons. Is this just an attempt by administrators to save their jobs at the expense of teachers, librarians, nurses and others? Will the salaries of non-union administrators, such as the superintendent, also be frozen? 

2.         School districts throughout the country are looking to save money and school libraries and librarians have become targets. Nowadays – librarians or library media specialists — do so much more than encourage reading, which is certainly important enough. They teach cutting edge online information skills and collaborate with teachers. Is your school district threatening to cut librarians and libraries? Let the school board and district administration know that this is unacceptable. There is also a petition drive to ensure that all U.S. students have access to an effective library program. The petition asks that the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) provide dedicated funding to support library programs. 

https://wwws.whitehouse.gov/petitions/!/petition/ensure-every-child-america-has-access-effective-school-library-program/tmlbRqf

3.         We all know about the harm that has been done to young people with cyber-bullying. The National School Boards Association and other educational groups requested “clear guidance” from the Supreme Court about the power of school officials to mete out consequences to students for electronic misbehavior. Nevertheless, the Supreme Court recently decided to stay out of this maelstrom by not hearing two cases involving students’ use of their MySpace accounts to belittle other students and a school principal. By not hearing the two cases – one in West Virginia and the other in Pennsylvania — the issue of whether school officials throughout the U.S. can regulate online behavior that takes place off school grounds is still unresolved. Check to see if your school district has policies and practices in place to deal with cyber-bullying.

 4.         A measure being presented in the Indiana House of Representatives would let 51 percent of parents vote on turning public schools into charter schools. The “parent trigger” almost made it through the Indiana General Assembly last year as a part of a package of education reforms that included the creation of the nation’s most expansive voucher program and an expansion of the groups that can approve new charter schools. In its place, legislators approved an abridged version of the bill, which left the ultimate decision with school boards and limited it to schools that have underperformed for at least two years in a row. Proponents are attempting again this year to pass a full “parent trigger.” 

The idea is part of a national trend that began in California in 2009 and has been debated in a number of states over the last two years. The proposal would also let parents petition the state school board to have the state take control of their schools. The “parent trigger” leaves out the school administration and school boards from the decision. Although the California law has given parents this power, the parents of one school who attempted to use it now find themselves in court. The “parent trigger” has also been used as a vehicle to push for removal of incompetent teachers and principals. Two other states, Texas and Mississippi, approved the “parent trigger” last year. Other states, including Arizona and Florida, are considering the measure this year.

 5.         Proposed revisions to the American Psychiatric Association’s definition of autism would exclude about three-quarters of those now diagnosed with milder forms of autism called Asperger syndrome or “pervasive developmental disorder, not otherwise specified,” also known as P.D.D.-N.O.S. These are people who have difficulties with social interaction but do not share the most severe impairments of children with classic autism. The proposed revisions, which would take effect in 2013, have alarmed parents of children with special needs and special education advocates. The changes, coming at a time when resources are shrinking, may reduce the number of students who will qualify for services that will ultimately improve their ability to learn, socialize, and succeed in school and beyond.

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