An example of action to influence paradigms

Below is a letter that I wrote to The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary President and Author Dr. Al Mohler. I wrote it as a way of seeking to get people that do have a platform in the media and writing as well as responsible for training our future leaders for swimming up stream against the "anything goes" and lack of critical thinking about what is happening in our world that is accompanying the changing of the guard with this new Administration...please read this and consider what you could do that might influence intelligent conservatism and not "gotcha" conservatism...below is the letter and consider what your thoughts are as we enter this time in our country...___________________________________________

Today on Glen Beck's new show on Fox he had Joel Olsteen. Yes I think his speaking and teaching is spiritual pablum and most times plagiarism passed off as original material. If you get the video you will see that one of the top religous individuals of our time if you consider ratings, size of church and dollars made through book sells had the intelligence and depth of Caroline Kennedy. He could not answer with any depth basic softball questions that Glenn Beck asked. My question is to you as a Seminary President are the current and future students of Southern able to think critically and analytically to the point of answering basic questions with depth and clarity? We have cried against critical exegesis yet I feel one of the things that it has led to is being afraid of critically understanding and depth of thought. It is what I feel has hurt conservatives is the lack of intelligent conservativism. Yes, you display that but are we producing leaders of tomorrow that can think with depth and clarity. Joel Olsteen had someone "in his corner" so if he could not answer with substantial depth Glenn Beck's questions how can his followers be challenged to know what they believe and why? This time in our history demands clarity of thought and individuals to be able to speak out not as one that is intentionally devisive but one that can speak with confidence and facts. One of his answers bordered on Universalism and different religions worshipping all the same God. Maybe Mr. Olsteen was nervous and we can give him the benefit of the doubt or maybe he is part of the product of our times where everyone and no one does anything wrong. If nothing is wrong why is one way better than another? Follow his thinking to a logical conclusion! Or are we afraid to think any more? Is it wrong to ask questions?I am afraid we are at a time much like the children's book "The Emperor's New Clothes". We all see the problems and know these new ideas for these times are suppose to be the best like the Emperor's New Clothes but no one is willing to say anything about them...what if no one speaks up like the child did in the story? Where will this leave us as a country and a world? Please use your platform to speak out on these issues...
Richard Reynolds M.Div.,M.Ed.,Ed.S.Southern Class of 1987

Are all paradigms good or do some go in the wrong direction?

State exams now count towards high school grades for many Missouri students
By Valerie Schremp Hahn
ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
Thursday, Jan. 15 2009
It's a dirty little high school secret.For as much as state and federal officials rely on standardized test scores to rate and compare high school quality, they know the exam results are flawed.The reality is that students — particularly those in high school — have known for years that a bad score on a state standardized exam may mean a lot to a principal or teacher, but little to them. So it was tempting for some students not to care too much about how they performed, or to even resort to random bubble-filling.But that's all changing this year.For the first time in Missouri, high school students could see their grade take a hit in certain subjects if they disregard state standardized exams.Under the new system, state exams, now called end-of-course exams, will be part of semester finals for many classes. And the state highly encourages districts to make exams count for at least 10 percent but no more than 25 percent of a student's final class grade.State education officials and St. Louis area school administrators applaud the move as a way to invest students in a state school assessment."There was a value attached to it," said Ron Helms, principal of Lindbergh High School, where students recently took their first end-of-course exams. "The kids didn't look at it as a state assessment alone. They saw it as a part of their final exam."The test also makes it easier for teachers to see exactly what students learned in the course. If a particular teacher or school gets especially good results, others can learn why — though schools shouldn't use the scores to evaluate teachers, says Ann Jarrett, teaching and learning director with the Missouri National Education Association. But some educators say the approach has drawbacks, including scheduling state exams to conform with a district's calendar. Because it could take a week or so to get results, schools have to schedule exam times earlier in order to tally final grades — especially important for graduating seniors or students who might have to enroll in summer school. And while educators agree it's good to test kids on what the state wants them to learn, there's some danger in focusing too much on that goal. A biology teacher, for example, may have less flexibility to personalize her instruction, because she has to administer an exam given to every other biology student in the state. "There is that pitfall of 'I'm only going to teach to this level of the test' rather than 'let's make this a rigorous course,'" said Sara Torres, a supervisory director with the Science Teachers of Missouri. But overall, said Torres, teachers generally think the new tests are a move in the right direction.The Missouri State Board of Education approved the new rules in February 2007, and gave the go-ahead to develop exams for Algebra I, English II and biology. Exams for at least seven other classes are being developed to use next school year and beyond. The changes do not affect testing in elementary or middle school grades.The new high school exams replace the Missouri Assessment Program tests given to sophomores for math and juniors for science and communication arts. Aside from concerns about students not taking tests seriously, critics say the old system didn't test students at the right time, sometimes months after they had covered a topic.Illinois has tried a different approach to making high school exams more meaningful for students. The Prairie State Achievement Exam is built around the ACT college entrance exam. Students who take the exam also receive an ACT score, giving them a motive to perform well. All Missouri public high schools will experience the change by spring. Some are getting the first taste now, because certain courses are structured to end after the fall semester. About 70 of the state's 524 school districts have given their first end-of-course exams this semester. Brentwood High School students took the exams this week. On Wednesday morning, teacher Kelly Javier cheerfully distributed pencils, rulers and even peppermints to her honors Algebra I students before handing out their end-of-course exam. Students knew it would count for 20 percent of their final grade."You always ask me, 'Can I have a drink? Can I go to the bathroom?'" she said. "You better do that. You better hustle. I need all of you and your brain cells before you start."Afterward, students said they found the test challenging but not too tough, and some said the wording was different than what they're used to.Chris Reichert, 15, said that while he took the old MAP exam seriously, it was hard to study for it because nobody knew exactly what would be on it and it covered a huge range of topics. "This is a lot better because it will tell how much we learned in class," he said.Nationwide, more states are turning toward end-of-course exams or exit exams, says the Center on Education Policy. While it's a challenge for some districts to fit so many separate exams into their schedule, many expect the exams to improve accountability and give students immediate feedback on what they have learned."There's a great attraction to these exams, because they seem to be like capstones," said Jack Jennings, founder of the Center on Education Policy, a nonprofit group that researches education issues. And educators hope the exams will result in higher scores."In the end, that should result in better, cleaner data about what is the quality of instruction at the high school," said Michael Muenks, coordinator of curriculum and assessment for the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. "We expect that we should see higher numbers of kids being proficient. It should be fascinating to watch."vhahn@post-dispatch.com 314-340-8228
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Shifting the thinking about our schools....

orlandosentinel.com/services/newspaper/printedition/tuesday/localandstate/orl-dropout1309jan13,0,5712907.story

OrlandoSentinel.com
How to keep kids in school?
Christine Armario
The Associated Press
January 13, 2009
CLEARWATER

Mary Jane Henry and her husband are college-educated professionals. She worked for years as a caseworker specializing in children with psychological disorders. He is a computer programmer.Despite their backgrounds and attentiveness to their children, two of their boys dropped out of high school, she said."He was always there, interacting with teachers, interacting with principals," Henry recalls of her husband. "All of those things were in place, and none of it motivated them to stay there."On Monday, Henry and her sons attended the statewide Dropout Prevention Summit hosted by the Florida Department of Education. For two days, parents, students, administrators and advocates will work together to brainstorm ideas to solve a dilemma families are facing nationwide: how to keep a child in school.Across the state, 2.6 percent of high-school students dropped out during the 2007-08 school year, according the state Department of Education. In many places, that figure is significantly higher.The impact is far-reaching: High-school graduates in Florida are twice as likely to be employed as those who don't finish school. Dropouts will likely earn less than their peers and are more likely to be incarcerated or need public assistance, according to figures from the Department of Education presented at the conference.At a time when Florida schools are facing the prospect of even deeper budget cuts, the need to combine resources with community leaders is paramount, several of the participants said."Students and their concerns don't go away because budgets decline," said Kimberly Davis, director of dropout prevention for the Education Department. "We have to still keep working and keep moving forward, but we've got to make sure that we're doing it efficiently."Florida often ranks low in national rankings of high-school graduation. The Quality Counts report released last week ranked the state 44th in the nation, with a graduation rate of 60.8 percent.State education officials say the graduation rate in the 2007-08 school year was actually 75.4 percent. Among other things, Florida includes students who earn general educational development diplomas, which are not counted by many national rankings.For three years, education leaders in Florida have been gathering for workshops on dropout prevention. But this is the first year that students, parents and business and community leaders have come together to develop an action plan, Davis said.
Copyright © 2009, Orlando Sentinel

A rebuttal to the previous post...

A number of newspaper articles have announced yet another "decline in literacy." This time it's adults, who, it is claimed, have dropped in literacy between 1992 and 2003, with a greater percentage lacking basic literacy.
This has resulted in the usual pious pronouncements about the low quality of our schools, our teachers, and poor teaching methods at all levels. Education Secretary Spellings, for example, was quoted in USA Today as saying that adult literacy programs are "inefficient" and "not using research-based methods" (January 8, 2008).
A look at the actual report shows that these conclusions are completely unjustified.
In 1992, only 24,000 adults in 11 states were actually tested on literacy. In 2003, only 18,500 adults in seven states were tested on literacy, a tiny percentage of the population. Researchers then gathered data on factors known to be connected to literacy, factors such as poverty levels, level of education, and minority status. They then used this data to make an educated guess about levels of literacy for the rest of the population.
In other words, one or more of the values of the predictors changed between 1992 and 2003 (the report does not specify which predictors have changed or how much). The change in the values of the predictors is undoubtedly the major reason for the "decline" of literacy that was reported. Literacy wasn't actually measured for most of the country.
The estimates of adult literacy are probably fairly accurate, and the value of the study is that it gives planners of adult literacy programs some idea of what they are up against.
The study does not, however, tell us whether schools are improving or getting worse, or whether one method of teaching reading is better than another, or whether teachers in general are better or worse than they were. All we really know from the study is that some things have changed between 1993 and 2003, factors that have nothing to do with teaching methods and teachers.
Critics should not blame schools for factors that have nothing to do with schools.
Posted by: STEPHEN KRASHEN January 14, 2009 at 03:49 PM

1 in 7 U.S. Adults Struggle with Reading

1 in 7 U.S. Adults Struggles with Reading Anything Beyond a Picture Book
A new study concludes that about 32 million adult Americans can't string together English sentences or paragraphs or read anything beyond a picture book. Undiagnosed learning disabilities and readers of other languages make up a portion of this statistic, but high school dropouts play a major factor in this startling number as well.
Struggling to read affects a person's ability to contribute to society, from participating in the democratic process to meeting basic needs. Dropout prevention should be a priority for every school district—or when the next report comes out, the title of this blog post may be, "1 in 5 U.S. Adults Cannot Read."

Are 32 million adults falling through the cracks of early literacy efforts, or do these efforts fail to carry into later grades? How surprised are you that one in seven Americans essentially cannot read English?

taken from: http://ascd.typepad.com/blog/2009/01/1-in-7-us-adults-struggle-reading-anything-beyond-a-picture-book.html
ASCD is a professional Educators organization

Education a key to new paradigms

Forget the Threat of Outsourcing!
Sometimes a thousand well chosen words can change your view of something important. So it was for me with a brief piece in yesterday's New York Times, "Why Is Income Inequality in America So Pronounced? Consider Education," by Tyler Cowan. To make a short story even shorter, Cowan cites several serious academic studies that conclude we've given far too much weight to outsourcing and the riches of the top 1% as cause of rising wage and wealth inequality. The true culprit, to an overwhelming degree, is the growing chasm between the prospects of those who have (or don't have) a college degree. It's almost that simple, and I urge you to read the article.
(NB: The author admits his answer is not for the ages. The growing potency of technology means that even the college sheepskin holders will be under attack fairly soon. But for now that sheepskin matters ... a lot.)
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Recommendation for ideas--Tom Peter's.com

Education
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It Takes a (Rather Large) Village ...
An attendee of one of our Brand You Workshops, Steve Wood, shared his wife Cullen's project with us. It's called Cullen's abc's. She's a preschool teacher in California and in her spare time she records what she calls "idea videos" on YouTube. Cullen gives simple information of interest to preschoolers in a clear and friendly way. It's a great use of current technology to share her passion for teaching with the world. What we find fascinating is that, according to Steve, a Chinese news agency has published an article about the videos.
What kind of inspiration does this spark for you? Does it make you want to create your own "idea videos" for something you're passionate about? Does it make you want to find the same type of videos done by preschool teachers in, say, Russia for your children to watch? Let us know.

Staten Island School Chorus Finds Fame on YouTube

December 26, 2008

Staten Island School Chorus Finds Fame on YouTube

By AZADEH ENSHA

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Something seemed a bit off in the fifth graders' song about a Christmas tree. "Altos, a little more carefully, please," the chorus director, Gregg Breinberg, told them. "You're still a little flat."The children, students at Public School 22 in Graniteville on Staten Island, listened to Mr. Breinberg carefully before starting again. As well they might — he helped make the chorus popular on YouTube, and their predecessors once serenaded the singer and songwriter Tori Amos with two of her songs.Mr. Breinberg, 36, had his own jagged route to P.S. 22 and YouTube. He had been a music teacher at a nearby school, and when that job was cut he arrived at P.S. 22 in 1999 — as a second-grade teacher."It was never my intention to be a classroom teacher," Mr. Breinberg said. "In the absence of a music job, I used music to teach second grade. Everything I taught, from math to English, I taught with music."The following year, he persuaded the school's administration to let him start a chorus and become a full-time music teacher again. That was difficult enough, given cutbacks in arts programs, but he also wanted the group to sing contemporary songs instead of, say, "Kumbaya.""I remember being in a chorus when I was a student and singing songs that I hated," he said. Before long he had the new chorus singing "Viva la Vida" by Coldplay and "1000 Oceans" and "Flying Dutchman" by Ms. Amos."I love to sing," said Joseph Spear, 10, a member of the chorus. "When I get depressed, I think about my songs and it makes me feel better. I also sing for Mr. B because he takes his own time to teach me, and so I always put in a 100 percent effort because that's a really cool thing for him to do." In the summer of 2006, Mr. Breinberg began posting videos on the Internet of the students singing. He started a YouTube channel and a complementary blog, posting regular updates and information about the chorus's performances, which up to that point occurred just twice a year at the school.A viral moment happened when the gossip blogger Mario Lavandeira, better known as Perez Hilton, began putting links to the videos on his Web site, perezhilton.com. "A reader e-mailed me a link to one of their videos and I instantly loved it," Mr. Lavandeira said. "The first video of theirs was one of their many Tori Amos covers, and I'm a big, big, big Tori Amos fan and I thought it was so cool that this choir teacher was having the kids do Tori Amos songs."By Christmas, the chorus's YouTube videos had been seen 2,110, 267 times. Ms. Amos gradually learned of these young interpreters of her work and was intrigued. "I first heard about P.S. 22 when friends started sending me YouTube links of their rehearsals," she wrote in an e-mail message from England. "The first time I heard them I thought this director had a very imaginative arranging sense," she said. "The fact that the children are so versatile — I didn't expect this level of ability from a children's choir and was really blown away, touched, thrilled and inspired all at once."She met the students in Midtown Manhattan in May of last year. In that encounter, which — of course — itself became a video on YouTube, Ms. Amos wiped away tears as the children sang another of her songs, "Dragon." She then joined them on "Father's Son."One of the singers, Alex Avilla, 13, who is now a student at Intermediate School 51 on Staten Island, said of that day: "I have to say, it's my favorite memory from that school."Another former chorus member, Justin Rolon, 12, has begun a career in show business since leaving P.S. 22 and has been cast in a television show that is being developed. Mr. Breinberg has "taken the time to give me lessons and that's why I am where I am right now," Justin said. "He's helped me and everybody else in so many ways."Melissa Donath, the principal at P.S. 22, said Mr. Breinberg was "very modest, but he always makes sure that the kids are treated like professionals and he gives them the utmost respect. Every year, he brings out the best in our children."Another student, Mariah Baez, 10, said, "Mr. B is like our family." And Mr. Breinberg, in turn, seems to feel a deep affection for his singers. "There's a great feeling in seeing these kids — some of whom have been abused, neglected, who have nothing to look forward to when they get home — and knowing that when they come in to my class to sing, you can just see the depth of their emotional experience come through," he said.So far in December, the chorus has had eight engagements. On Dec. 18, they sang at a party for the photographer Bruce Weber's new book, "All-American VIII: Nature's Way" (Little Bear Press). They also appeared at the Christmas tree lighting ceremony at Staten Island Borough Hall and, on Sunday, they performed for the unofficial swearing-in ceremony of Michael E. McMahon, the borough's new congressman. "Now I have to get them ready quicker because we have more performances," Mr. Breinberg said. "We've never had a December like this."As for the group's success, Joseph Spear said, "It makes me feel famous that a whole bunch of people know me."

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7 Habits of Highly Ineffective Principals- Washington Post

7 Habits of Highly Ineffective Principals

By Jay MathewsWashington Post Staff Writer
Friday, December 5, 2008; 6:19 AM

Joe Nathan, a University of Minnesota school leadership scholar, dropped by recently to tell me about his latest project: the Minnesota Leadership Academy for Charter and Alternative Public Schools. He wants to produce all-star principals for innovative schools, including the charter school movement he has been studying since its beginnings.Nathan gave me a report he just produced with Carleton College junior Joanna Plotz. Their paper, "Learning to Lead," reveals the secrets of good management of schools and companies, derived from interviews with 24 business leaders. In the Leadership Academy, which opened this fall in cooperation with the Minnesota Department of Education, each participating educator has two mentors, one a successful business executive and the other a successful school leader.That sounds peachy, but it doesn't get to the heart of what many teachers tell me is the key issue in school leadership today: How did we produce so many lousy administrators?It occurred to me that what Nathan is doing with the report and the academy might be easier to understand by looking at his main points from a reverse angle. Call it a devil's advocacy. Let's stand Stephen R. Covey's self-help classic on its head and reveal the Seven Habits of Highly Ineffective Principals. (Please keep in mind it is totally my idea, not Nathan's, to summarize his very upbeat paper this way.)

1. Insist on being trained at one of our leading schools of education. In their report, Nathan and Plotz cite former Columbia University Teachers College president Arthur Levine's conclusion that "educational administration is the weakest program that schools of education offer. . . . Few strong programs exist; most vary in quality from inadequate to appalling." Nathan told me many of the great school leader training programs he knew were outside the ed schools, such as Building Excellent Schools, New Leaders for New Schools, the Knowledge Is Power Program Leadership Institute and the Broad Foundation. That might be because Nathan thinks it is important for schools to show significant increases in student achievement, as assessed by tools such as tests. Many of our education schools don't buy into such narrow measures and don't think you should either.

2. When you become a principal, make sure you keep your goals to yourself and avoid mission statements at all costs. I endorse this view. I often make fun of mission statements. But what do I know? My term as student body president of Hillsdale High School was a disaster, and I have avoided all leadership responsibilities since. Kris Johnson, the former chief administrative officer of Medtronic, the medical technology company, told Nathan and Plotz it is "vital to have alignment between what a person is doing and what the organization has established as priorities." Dave Larson, executive vice president at the food and agriculture company Cargill, said his company tells new employees on their first day how their work will help the company accomplish its goals. Contrast this with schools that hand new teachers a curriculum but don't explain how it will help teachers reach their students.

3. Fight the current fad to assess students regularly. It is intrusive and insulting to teachers. Many school critics argue that we should let teachers test and grade in whatever way makes sense to them. The business and school leaders Nathan has recruited for his academy disagree. They think consistent means of assessment are important in diagnosing each child's progress and what the school is doing to help.

4. Crack down on mistakes. People have to be brought up short whenever they screw up. Otherwise they will keep doing it. Avert your eyes from this bit of pap from Nathan and Plotz: "Mistakes within some limits are a vital part of growth. Organizations making a great deal of progress sometimes will make errors. Learning from mistakes is an important part of progress."

5. Don't let teachers meet regularly to talk about students and share ideas. They will only gossip and plot against you. Notice that one of the reasons why many successful charter and alternative public schools have lengthened the school day is to have time for these gab sessions. One of the business leaders in the Nathan-Plotz report, former General Mills Foundation director Reatha Clark King, said an important way to improve quality is to "encourage people to think outside the box and free up their thinking." This is obviously someone who does not know how to survive in a big school district, where ineffectiveness is often seen as a virtue because the lethargic administrator is less of a threat to others.

6. Inspiration is for saps. Your staff must know you're their boss, not their preacher. This seems obvious, but Nathan, Plotz and the executives they consulted don't buy it. They say, "The most effective leaders encourage and inspire people. Threats and fear will not produce the highest achievement." There they go, back to that achievement thing. Real world administrators don't need to be effective. They just need to survive.

7. Whatever you do, don't try to select and train a successor. Nathan told me that, although many districts have principal training programs, he rarely found principals or superintendents who see it as a key responsibility, as corporate chiefs do, to develop talented people who could take over for them. He thought this was a great waste, but experienced school leaders would see this as avoiding possible betrayal. Nathan's academy is designed to train junior administrators or teachers with administrative ambitions. Maybe that's why he makes such a big deal about finding the next generation of leaders. Only superintendents and principals who share his view are going to allow their best staffers to attend his academy. They might see this as a great idea, but they better be careful.Which is the more prevalent mindset in school districts these days -- Nathan's or the ineffectiveness rules above? I think it is a close call. Let's see how the graduates of his new academy handle the deadening devotion to routine and fear of change in the average school district before we decide who has the upper hand.