Because federal judges wield significant power, they are at the core of a president’s legacy. We explain how they are chosen and confirmed.
Source: Appointing federal judges and U.S. attorneys: An explainer with resources – Journalist’s Resource
Illegal income: How much does crime pay?
A new study suggests most people who earn money illegally do it by selling drugs and earn less than $1,500 a week, on average.
Source: Illegal income: How much does crime pay? – Journalist’s Resource
Bullying and teen suicide: A collection of academic research
This collection of academic research examines the issue of bullying and child suicide. We included research that looks specifically at suicide and bullying among sexual-minority youth, including gay and lesbian students.
Source: Bullying and teen suicide: A collection of academic research – Journalist’s Resource
Taxing sugar instead of soda prompts healthier food purchases
A new study suggests taxing sugar instead of soda is a more effective way to help people cut calories.
Source: Taxing sugar instead of soda prompts healthier food purchases – Journalist’s Resource
Community Schools Need Strong Community Relationships
Key Takeaway: Research on educational leadership shows the importance of strong collaborative relationships between community partners, teachers, and school leaders.
Find Documents:
Press Release: http://nepc.info/node/8807
NEPC Publication: http://nepc.colorado.edu/publication/leadership
Contact:
William J. Mathis: (802) 383-0058, wmathis@sover.net
Julia Daniel: (786) 253-3538, julia.daniel@colorado.edu
BOULDER, CO (August 31, 2017) – Community schools have gained attention as an effective means of implementing reforms such as extended learning time, high-quality learning opportunities, and integrated student supports. A new NEPC Policy Memo argues that community school leaders should employ specific strategies and collaborative practices that help ensure that the benefits of such reforms are shared equitably.
In Strong Collaborative Relationships for Strong Community Schools, Julia Daniel of the University of Colorado Boulder examines research on educational leadership and the impact of strong collaborative relationships between community partners, teachers, and school leaders.
Collaborative relationships among teachers, parents, and other school stakeholders can lead to several positive outcomes such as improving the organization of the school, improving student learning, and increasing the commitment from and trust between people working at a school and living in the surrounding community. In a community school, collaboration between stakeholders can support the successful implementation of integrated student supports, expanded learning time, and meaningful family and community engagement. Successful collaborative leadership in schools is built on the following long-established but crucial strategies:
- Creating time for collaboration so that stakeholders can assess issues, set common goals, make plans, reflect and build on practice, and deepen relationships.
- Prioritizing processes that allow people to engage honestly and constructively in problem solving and creating shared ownership of the process by creating designated spaces for open dialogue, collective reflection and improved practices.
- Creating structures and roles that provide meaningful ways for stakeholders to sustain participation and develop leadership, including regular meetings and supportive but challenging leadership.
- Committing to collective leadership development that builds the capacity of community members and other stakeholders to participate in improving conditions for learning and growth both inside and outside of the school.
Although there is a basic common sense to each of these four recommendations, they are often not sufficiently prioritized or pursued. Julia Daniel’s Policy Memo calls attention to the foundational research that supports school leadership based on collaborative relationships and explains its particular importance for community schools.
Find Strong Collaborative Relationships for Strong Community Schools, by Julia Daniel, on the web at: http://nepc.colorado.edu/publication/leadership
The National Education Policy Center (NEPC), housed at the University of Colorado Boulder School of Education, produces and disseminates high-quality, peer-reviewed research to inform education policy discussions. Visit us at: http://nepc.colorado.edu
Source: Community Schools Need Strong Community Relationships | National Education Policy Center
San Diego Union Editor Continues Spurious Attack on Teachers and Public Education
The editorial says in the Trump era Democrats see themselves as protecting the disadvantaged but that is not true when it comes to schools. The editor claims, “When it comes to public education, however, there’s fresh evidence that state Democratic leaders are the ones siding with the powerful forces over the disadvantaged.”
Those powerful forces – in an era when billionaires like Carrie Walton Penner, Reed Hastings and Eli Broad flex their financial muscle to privatize schools – are teachers and their unions. The evidence presented is bogus and the conclusions reached are based on willful ignorance.
The Issue – California’s ESSA Evaluation Plan
The new Federal Education Law dubbed the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) is an abomination. Diane Ravitch (education historian and former US Assistant Secretary of Education under Lamar Alexander) described (August 30th) a speech given by Professor Nicolas Tampio at Fordham University. She noted:
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Hate Groups, Hate Mapping and Grand Rapids
Two weeks ago, WOOD TV 8 provided airtime for a West Michigan white supremacist group and then failed to adequately question them on their philosophy and practice.
The WOOD TV 8 story cited the Southern Poverty Law Center Hate Map, which listed the white supremacy group as one of three “hate groups” in the area. The other two groups given the “hate” designation by the SPLC are Act for America and the Grand Rapids chapter of the Nation of Islam.
Act for America is a national group, but we could not find any solid evidence that the Grand Rapids chapter still exists. The hyperlink on the side-panel of the SPLC Hate Map is even a dead link. The only real piece of info we could find online about the GR chapter of Act for America is from 2008 and identifies Mark Lee as the contact person.
The…
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Walmart ad is both insulting and a lie
There is a new Walmart ad that has been running on TV in recent weeks, an ad that is identified as “many chairs, one table.”
In this new minute-long Walmart video ad, we see a montage of people, each of them grabbing a distinctly different chair. At one point music begins in the ad, which is a 1967 hit song from the band The Youngbloods, Get Together.
The chorus line for the Youngbloods song is, “come on people now, smile on your brother. Everybody get together, try to love one another right now.” We see a diverse group of people gathering their chairs and eventually they all end up at a large table outside, sharing food and enjoying this beautiful communal gathering.
It’s bad enough for Walmart to use this popular culture song from the 60s, but it is even more offensive that this corporation would use a community…
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CURMUDGUCATION: The Night Before
The slightly-cranky voice navigating the world of educational “reform” while trying to still pursue the mission of providing quality education.
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T’was the night before students, and all through my noggin
My thoughts were all stirring, like a drunken toboggan. My artwork was hung on the corkboard with care In hopes that my students would soon ‘nough be there. The textbooks are nestled all snug on the shelves It took me six hours—what? You think I have elves? Yeah, my wife in her classroom and I in my cap Just hoped by October we’ll get just one nap, But up in my brainpan there rose such a clatter I tossed and I turned thinking “What’s still the matter?” In my head I kept wondering what might ail my plans– Did I skip a main point? Did I use comic sans? My brain , so wrapped up in the things I can’t know Gives a lustre of panic to my gut far below. Would some jolly old man come, my classroom to save? Tomorrow is the first day back for students, which means it’s one night I’m guaranteed the Teacher Nightmare. Ordinary people have night mares about showing up in church without pants. Teachers have night mares about showing up for class without plans and the students are out of control or you can’t even find your own classroom. Basically a complete professional collapse. Tonight, despite all the preparation, despite all the experience, there’s a million things we can’t know until we meet the students, see what they know, see how they tick, see who will come running to meet us and who will stay back throwing rocks in our general direction. We’ve rehearsed many times (for some of us many, many, many times) and yet that rehearsal was only to be ready for the unexpected, not to lock everything into immutable place. Our success will depend on our preparation, our knowledge of the material, and– scariest of all– our willingness to be present, to be really there with our students. Which of course means we have to be vulnerable. And so, when the fear and uncertainty hit, the most natural impulse in the world is to protect ourselves, to cover up. And yet to do that is to wall ourselves off from our students, to deny a teacher-student relationship with them, to be rigid, guarded, even defensive. All of which only gets in the way of the work. And newbies– here’s one of the secrets they never tell you– you will never be absolutely certain, never believe that you have everything under control, never reach a point where you are certain you have nothing left to learn or perfect or grow. (This is why I’m certain that some charter operators and school leaders like Eva Moskowitz don’t know what they’re talking about– because they’re 100% certain they know what they’re talking about, and if you’re 100% certain, then you don’t understand the situation). This year comes with extra nervousness at our house. For the first time in twelve weeks, for a few hours, we will be parting company with these guys: 
I did this thirty-ish years ago, and it was hard then. To take two tiny humans that you have cared for and in whom you’ve invested your whole heart, and turn them over to somebody else while you go off to work. I can’t tell you how many times I got all weepy over leaving my first two, and I don’t expect it’s going to be any better this time. But it’s a reminder– every student who sits in my classroom was somebody’s baby. I teach high school students, so they’re not very babylike now, and yeah, I know not all parents are fully invested in their kids. But still. These were somebody’s babies, and those somebodies mostly trust us with that precious cargo. They deserve the best I can give them, and they deserve someone who shows up 100%, and they deserve someone who watches out for them and helps them discover what it means for them to be fully human, fully themselves in the world. And when I’m in my room and they’re walking it, it will hit me like a bathtub full of warm water and the nerves and the worry will just slough off. But for right now I am going to finish up and probably not sleep, because I think I need to rewrite a couple of questions on the quiz tomorrow, and I didn’t get papers set out for third period and I think I need to re-arrange the desks a little. And I never got around to picking out a shirt today. And to all a good night. |
| Read This Book: P. L. Thomas and Trumplandia
Posted: 28 Aug 2017 04:04 PM PDT One of the first bloggers I stumbled across when I fell down the internet edublogs rabbit hole was P. L. Thomas. I found his writing engaging and interesting, but challenging. Thomas can write about big ideas and keep them anchored to the nuts and bolts at the same time. I’ve always said I like to read hist stuff because it always makes me feel smarter. We also traded some messages about classic seventies comic books, and I admire (without attempting to imitate) his biking prowess.
So it was a real pleasure to have a book by Thomas on my reading pile this summer. Trumplandia: Unmasking Post-Truth America is another hard-hitting book from the folks at Garn Press, a publishing start-up focusing on social justice. Thomas is good at making connections, and while many of us are getting caught down in the sheer volume of post-truth muck in Trump’s America, Thomas has a real gift for staying above personal arguments and focusing on ideas. Democracy, race, class, education, poetry, and the very bending of Truth itself as we’ve watched it be hammered on for the past few years. Thomas is ridiculously well-read, but he is also a winner of the NCTE George Orwell Award for Distinguished Honesty and Clarity in Public Language, so he never leaves you feeling like you’ve been buried in a hail of erudition, lost in a scholarly fog. He’s clear and smart, but he writes with a transparency that opens doors for the reader rather than leaving them stranded in the foyer, thinking they don’t know enough to enter. Like I said– reading his work makes me feel smarter. Thomas does the best of what any of us can hope for in these times– see clearly the Kafkaesque mess that is engulfing our country (some of it new, and some of it not so new) while still seeing the virtues, the better qualities that can guide us through this mess, if we’ll just embrace our natures. That makes this book a great back-to-school read. Click right now and buy a copy. |
Source: CURMUDGUCATION: The Night Before
CURMUDGUCATION: Hiring Big Brother
The slightly-cranky voice navigating the world of educational “reform” while trying to still pursue the mission of providing quality education.
| Hiring Big Brother
Posted: 28 Aug 2017 07:23 AM PDT Data mining? Constant surveillance? That’s just unacceptable for our students. Hell, rich parents would never stand for it!
Well, about that… |
Mister Journalism: "Reading, Sharing, Discussing, Learning" 