Most popular TED Talk of all time!

HB 3836--time for action!

Yesterday, HB 3836, which would allow DCCCD to offer a 4 year degree in Early Childhood Education after first giving our higher ed institutional partners the opportunity to collectively work together to solve our substantial teacher gap, was heard by the House Higher Ed Committee yesterday. We are grateful for the strong leadership of our area legislators in authoring/sponsoring this bill (Reps. Giddings, Koop, Anchia, Anderson, Meyer, Alonzo, Johnson, Laubenberg, Rose, and Villalba), as well as the strong testimonies provided by numerous Commit partners including Alan Cohen at Dallas ISD, Stephanie Mace at United Way, Melanie Rubin at Dallas Early Education Alliance and Terry Ford at Lumin.

  We were especially encouraged to hear statements of appreciation and agreement from several committee members on the need for this legislation, including noting the breadth and depth of the local coalition supporting this initiative. A very short video highlighting legislative response to the testimonies and the bill can be accessed via the following link: https://vimeo.com/125843077 We need to encourage the House Higher Ed committee to vote the bill out of committee at their next meeting.

  To make this bill happen, we need all hands on deck to email the House Higher Ed committee members by Monday, April 27th to request that this bill be voted out of committee next week. The session ends in five weeks, so we are up against the clock.

 Sample email text and addresses for the committee members and their chiefs of staff are below. We have to have a hearing on the bill’s Senate companion (SB 1810), sponsored by Senator West, next week. Thank you for your continued support. Yesterday’s hearing was a great encouragement that together we are moving the needle on this critical legislation benefitting our youngest learners in Dallas County.

Sample email: Dear Representatives, I am writing in support of HB 3836, which would allow Dallas Community College to address the severe early childhood teacher shortage in our region by offering a four-year BA degree in early childhood education if local higher education institutions do not first opt to collectively address our severe workforce shortage. Please vote in support of this bill in committee on Wednesday, April 29, so that this critical legislation can be quickly heard on the House floor. We urgently need to expand access to high quality early childhood educator programs in our region.

Dallas County Schools--public and private

Interesting “snippets” from The COMMIT! Partnership’s annual report, “Our Kids.  Our Tomorrow.”

·         750,000 students served by COMMIT!

·         Coalition of 160 different institutions with a “vested stake” in Dallas     County’s educational outcomes.

·         Between 1980 and 2010, poverty increased by 242% in Dallas County neighborhoods.

·         Dallas has 3^rd highest childhood poverty rate in U. S. (38%), behind Detroit (59%) and Memphis (44%). 

·         Dallas County’s job growth lags behind surrounding counties.  Between 2000 and 2012, jobs increased in Denton County (+63%), Collin County (+71%), Rockwall County (+89%), Kaufman County (+4%), Ellis County (+21%), Tarrant County (+10).  In Dallas County jobs fell (-13%).

·         By not increasing each student’s level of attainment, our region loses $6.9 billion in lifetime earnings for every cohort of about 30,000 students entering the K-12 system annually.

 

·         Hispanic and African American students lag woefully behind white students in Dallas County in every measured category:  in 2014, only 345 black students graduated “college ready.” Fewer than half as many economically disadvantaged students graduated college ready as more affluent students (1,128 compared to 2,600). 

·         56% of eligible students are not enrolled in Pre-K or Head Start. 

·         36% of students in Dallas County are reading on grade level by 3^rd grade. 

·         $33 million is left on the table in Dallas County in student financial support/services. 

·         Teacher supply is declining by 4% annually, while student population is growing at 1% each year. 

·         While there are examples of high-poverty schools doing well or better, poverty remains a key driver in low performance.  

More clear and compelling evidence that we must attack poverty and its associated stresses on children and families.  And, NOW!

Fun and games: highlights from the first season

Watching grandchildren do whatever it is they choose to do is one of the great, amazing blessings of being a grandparent.  If one of my four grandchildren is anywhere, doing anything and I can get there--or, am allowed to be present!--I am there!

What follows in the video is a highlight reel from Wyatt's first season to play tackle football.  You'll see him as #20 for the purple and gold Vikings.  He's a great blocker, really steady on defense in the secondary or sometimes at linebacker, a hard driving runner at fullback (at times you'll note a pile of boys moving down the field at about 5 yards at a whack--usually Wyatt is under that file with the ball!), and, on several occasions this year, he breaks with the ball for long runs to the end zone.

I'll admit it is hard to determine who is doing what on parts of the video.  Maybe it takes a granddad's eyes to catch it all.  Watching helps me remember the fun of this season.  At the same time, it causes me to remember and anticipate basketball (Wyatt and Owen), volleyball (Gracie), dance (Gracie), soccer (Wyatt, Owen and soon Henry), grandparent days and lots of other school related events! 

Nothing better!

Enjoy!

Public schools and poverty

Poverty Is What's Crippling Public Education in the U.S.—Not Bad Teachers

• ANTHONY CODY
• 1:34 PM ET
• COMMENTS

Reuters

Earlier this month in New Zealand, Minister of Education Hekia Parata shared a piece of knowledge that has become common the world over. In the Southland Times, “Experts have found that four consecutive years of quality teaching eliminated any trace of socio-economic disadvantage.”

The source of this is an American economist by the name of Eric Hanushek, a professor at Stanford University, who has been spreading this for the past several years. According to Hanushek, "Good teachers are ones who get large gains in student achievement for their classes; bad teachers are just the opposite."

He looks at the distribution of student test scores, and imagines that if we could fire the teachers who are associated with the lowest 10 percent or so, then we would make huge gains. This is the theory behind a great deal of the push for 21st century K-12 education reform in the US.  In order to identify and efficiently dispatch these slackers, we need national standards, and rigorous tests aligned to them.

This has led reformers to advocate that we:

• Test students more often, so we can measure learning incrementally. Test students in every subject, and at every grade level—even kindergarten, so that all teachers can be properly judged.
• Eliminate barriers to firing the "bad teachers" who get low scores, so due process and seniority protections have to go.
• Create new evaluation plans that give significant weight to "value added" measures drawn from test scores, for both teachers and administrators.

Hanushek has also argued, by the way, that more money won’t help schools succeed, nor will small class size. The teacher is the only variable worth targeting. Unions are a problem to the extent to which they make it difficult to quickly fire teachers identified as ineffective.

But the real world is proving to be a difficult place for Hanushek’s theories to be verified. No school has ever replicated the results predicted by his "four great teachers in a row" theory. In fact, there is no real research to support the idea that we can improve student achievement this way—it is all based on extrapolations.

And in fact, new data shows that in the three large urban school districts where these reforms have been given full rein, the results are actually worse than in comparable districts that have not gone this route.

Some of the key findings from the Economic Policy Institute’s April report:

• Test scores increased less, and achievement gaps grew more, in “reform” cities than in other urban districts.
• Test-based accountability prompted churn that thinned the ranks of experienced teachers, but not necessarily bad teachers.
• School closures did not send students to better schools or save school districts money.

Most importantly:

• The reforms missed a critical factor driving achievement gaps: the influence of poverty on academic performance.

This last point is crucial. This attention to the supposedly pivotal role teachers play in student success comes at a time when the number of children in poverty has been on the rise. According to a study in 2011 (pdf), one school in five was considered high poverty, up from one in eight in the year 2000. Another study showed that "many high-poverty schools receive less than their fair share of state and local funding… leav(ing) students in high-poverty schools with fewer resources than schools attended by their wealthier peers."

We are turning our schools into test preparation factories.

While conservative economists such as Hanushek wish to focus our attention on "bad teachers," in actuality by far the largest factor affecting school performance is family income. In fact, the achievement gap between rich and poor has grown to be twice as large as the black/white performance gap in America.

Teachers are important, and of course we want to recruit the most expert and brightest possible, and give them lots of support. But the expansion of tests, and efforts to make teacher jobs depend on ever-rising scores, are turning our schools into test preparation factories.

Hanushek’s ideas have been driving a vast school reform project, which has been underwritten by the largest philanthropies on earth—starting with the Gates and Walton foundations. Now that this project is a decade old, and showing little signs of success, the time has come for a major reappraisal.

Rather than vesting our trust in tests to identify and weed out the worst teachers, why not invest some confidence in these teachers themselves, and empower them to engage in peer observation and growth through proven programs like Peer Assistance and Review? These programs feature experienced teacher coaches working with peers who have been identified as struggling. This has been found to be an effective way to strengthen teachers—and remove those who are unable to improve.

And how about some direct action to reduce the extreme income gap between wealthy and poor? An increase in the minimum wage would provide increased stability to millions of families, which would help children focus on their studies instead of where their next meal will come from. Most schools have cut nurses, librarians and counselors, at the same time we are expanding our investment in measurement systems.

So I offer this warning to the people down under and beyond. This misguided emphasis is no more likely to work there than it has in the US—unless of course, New Zealand truly is “opposite land,” where hot snow falls up.

This post originally appeared on Quartz, an Atlantic partner site.

Frustrated student. . .what do you think?

By now lots of people have seen this video that went viral from Duncanville High School here in the Dallas area.

 Excuse a couple of the words, but I'd like to know what you think of this young man's commentary/reaction to his his teacher.

 Few things are more important than getting public education back on track.

 

Gerald Britt, VP with CitySquare speaks up. . .

To hear Rev. Gerald Britt, CitySquare VP of Public Policy and Workforce Development, respond to calls for the firing of Dallas Independent School District Superintendent, Mike Miles click here.

Gracie speaks up for CitySquare!

Last week, my Granddaughter, Gracie Toombs made a presentation to her REACH class on CitySquare. 

The assignment involved students studying and researching selected non-profit organizations and reporting to their classmates on what they learned.

 I was lucky enough to be present to hear and capture Gracie's presentation on video.

 Of course, I was proud of her, and grateful for her reporting on CitySquare!


 

Screening "Revisionaries"

CitySquare is hosting a fundraiser and movie screening of Scott Thurman's important documentary!

When:   Thursday, October 11, 2012

Where:  The Magnolia - West Village 3699 McKinney Avenue, Suite #100, Dallas, Texas

Agenda:
6:30 - 7:00 – Doors Open
7:15 - 8:45 – Movie Screening
8:45 - 9:30 – Community Conversation/Town Hall - Style Discussion

Featured guests include: Scott Thurman – the film's director; Mavis Knight – Board Member, Texas State Board of Education; Ron Wetherington – Board Member of Texas Freedom Network, Professor at Southern Methodist University; Rev Gerald Britt – VP of Programs and Public Policy (CitySquare), and  moderated by James Washington - Publisher with the Dallas Weekly

 Cost: $20 Price includes small popcorn and a drink.

About the Film:  Once every decade or so, 15 elected citizens influence what is taught to every child in the state of Texas. The often highly politicized, state education board does so by rewriting the teaching and text book standards for millions of children with most of America following suit. Because Texas is one of the nation’s largest textbook markets, as well as the deciding factor on which books its public schools buy, publishers typically print editions for all of America based on the Board’s rulings. “The Revisionaries”, a new, award-winning documentary, tracks the rise and fall of these controversial, secreted figures in American education while proving that political power and ideological beliefs indeed still have an immense effect on what our children are learning every day. It is the first-ever film to spotlight all that surrounds Texas’ bruising textbook battles, and to take seriously their far-reaching impact on public education across the country.

Texas schools suffer from Legislature's knife. . .

What follows are exerpts from Manny Fernandez's article, "At Texas Schools, Making Do on a Shoestring," published in The New York Times on April 8, 2012:

From the previous school year to the current one, districts across Texas eliminated 25,286 positions through retirements, resignations and layoffs, including 10,717 teaching jobs, according to state data analyzed by Children at Risk, a nonprofit advocacy group in Houston. Texas public schools spend $8,908 per student, a decrease of $538 from the previous year and below the national average of $11,463, according to the National Education Association. California spent $9,710 and New York $15,592.

“I’ve been in education 42 years, and I’ve been a superintendent about 25 of those 42 years, and this is the worst that I’ve ever had to cut,” said John Folks, the superintendent of one of the districts suing the state, Northside in San Antonio, where officials eliminated 973 positions and made classes larger in a $61.4 million budget reduction. “We cut about 40 special education teachers. We cut about 28 athletic coaches. We froze salaries. School districts can’t take much more than this.”

You'll find the entire, very disturbing article here.  After you read it, let me hear from you.  I believe we must do better by our children.

More on CitySquare's 17th Annual Urban Ministries Prayer Breakfast!

One of the reasons that this year's prayer breakfast promises to be among the best we've ever hosted at CitySquare is our participants' list! 

The morning will be fast-paced and filled with experts and important leaders. 

Our own Rev. Gerald Britt will make an opening statement as he introduces Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings, a champion of public education and a leader with a heart for renewal and reform for the sake of every DISD student. 

Following the Mayor's remarks, he and Gerald will join a distingished panel that includes representatives from Commit!, Educate Dallas and the United Way of Metropolitan Dallas.

Be sure and read my post from yesterday.  Whatever you do, don't miss our special morning on April 12!

My favorite artist. . .

My favorite artist, Gracie Bea Toombs is headed to the state art competition with her latest masterpiece! 

The fact that she is my granddaughter has absolutely nothing to do with my objective assessment of her wonderful work! 

I'm thinking Picasso. 

How about you?

Public education's obvious, dark secret

"Root cause of achievement gap is poverty. Test scores on SAT, ACT, state tests, NAEP, show a tight correlation. No surprise."

Diane Ravitch

The Perfect Teacher

When asked to speak at the Richardson Chamber of Commerce's 53rd Annual New Teacher Luncheon, I decided to enlist the help of my granddaughter, Gracie Toombs, in my presentation.  After talking about the importance and power of "just one teacher," I invited Gracie to the stage to read her essay, "The Perfect Teacher."  Gracie wrote the essay about her teacher last year at White Rock Elementary School.

The folks at the Richardson Chamber captured her on this video.  I had to share it.

Education gap. . .corporate response

Trisha Cunningham of Texas Instruments presented what follows at the Dallas Social Venture Partners' latest "Big Bang" conference here in Dallas.

Interesting in view of current challenges across the nation.


Trisha Cunningham, Texas Instruments from DallasSVP on Vimeo.

Richard Dreyfuss on public education in civc life

Cast a Vote in Pepsi Refresh Everything contest: Help DC Middle School!

My friend, Matt Worthington teachs at MacFarland Middle School in Washington, DC.  Read what he sent me recetnly and then go here to vote for his project via the Pepsi Refresh Everything contest.  Or, look just above at the voting widget to cast your ballot of support!

I'm emailing you asking for your blog support. My middle school, MacFarland Middle School in DC Public Schools (Waiting For Superman) is currently in the running to win $50,000 for an Apple Mobile Learning Lab through the Pepsi Refresh Everything contest. To be truthful, we're broke and with the nearly $800,000 we had to cut from our budget, we have absolutely no money for new technology in our building because the priority is maintaining staff. It's not the District's fault either, because I know they're working hard to get schools more money, but it's just not happening. So we enrolled in Pepsi's contest and now our project is live!

But we need votes. We're currently ranked 24 (down from 21) out 258 contestants, but in order to get the grant we have to rank top 10. I'm emailing you to ask for your advocacy during the month of June to ask your followers to vote for MacFarland at www.refresheverything.com/macfarlandmobile.

Here's three ways MacFarland Friends and Family can vote everyday:

1. Register to Vote & Vote Here Everyday

2. Text "107022" to 73774 (NO REGISTRATION REQUIRED)

3. POWER VOTING DAILY at our profile page using 10-digit codes found under Pepsi Bottle Caps and other Pepsi Products.

All in all, people can vote potentially 12 times a day, with a minimum of 52 votes cast per person everyday and a maximum 1002 votes using Pepsi's POWER VOTES.

Also, if you're able to do embed widgets on your blog, our profile page has some HTML code that you can plug right into a HTML widget and it'll have a little badge on your blog you can use for the month of June.

Let me know if you can support. We'd desperately appreciate it.

-Matt Worthington

The Perfect Teacher

Gracie Bea Toombs is my 9-year-old granddaughter.  She is a very special little girl.  Of course, you'd expect me to say that, but it is true.  Gracie is about to complete the 3rd grade at White Rock Elementary School.  She loves school, even more her teacher, Ms. Cornett.   Not long ago, Gracie wrote the following tribute in honor of her teacher as the school year draws to a close.  I think you'll like it, and I think you'll see what I mean about Gracie.

The Perfect Teacher

There are many kinds of teachers.  Some tall.  Some small.  Some teachers just speak matter of fact like.  Some teachers just teach the way textbooks tell them to.  But the best teacher's lessons don't come from a textbook.   Her lessons come from her heart.  If you were uneasy, mad or sad, the perfect teacher comforts you.  She loves each and every child for who he or she is. 

This year, I am one of the 21 fortunate third graders who are in her class.  I like all teachers, but this year she has stood out to me.  She opened up her heart to every student in my class.  She has taught us so much this year.  Sure, she's taught us reading and math.  But that's not the most important thing.  She has taught us about protests in the middle east and the struggle in Japan and how it effects us.  For black history month she had us memorize speeches about segregation and women's rights.  While the other classes were just reading from textbooks, we were there at those freedom marches and protests.  For earth day we helped the world by making new paper from recycled paper.  We also planted sprouts while all the other classes colored bookmarks.  We gave water to people in Africa through thewaterproject.com. 

She has taught us life skills:  kindness, love, peace, organization, and self-estemm.  But those aren't the most important things she did for us.  She has told us to stand up to injustice, that we could be anything we wanted, and that we can change the world.

But it is not us.  It's her.  The other classes may say they learn more than us, but you can go up to any one of them and ask them about protests in the middle east, or the struggle in Japan or about changing lives in Africa or about life skills or about standing up for what we believe in, and trust me, they won't know as much as WE do. 

Sometimes it only takes ONE TEACHER to change the world world.  And that teacher is my third grade teacher, Miss Cornett.

Charlie Broom

There's just something about a coach.

Charlie Broom was mine.

He coached linemen, both offensive and defensive at Richardson High School when I was there.  Coach died a few weeks ago.  He was 83. 

Charlie was more than just a coach in my life.  For a number of years he served as an elder at the Richardson East Church of Christ while I served as the Senior Minister. 

Funny how life works out. 

From the time I was 15 until I was 18, Coach Broom played a key part in my life.  Under his direction and that of head coach Joe Simpson, the Richardson High School Eagles worked our way to the Texas state semifinals where we were smashed by the team from Abilene Cooper 42-7.  We played that game in the Cotton Bowl, our second game in the venue that year.  We played before 42,000 fans in the  quarter finals against Bryan Adams High School.  What a magical year. 

Coach Broom got us there. 

Charlie loved kids. 

"Hey, babe," he would greet us whenver he saw any of us.  And, he greeted me with that term of endearment when I was his minister. 

Charlie made people better.  I don't know what tribute tops that one. 

We will miss him.  We are grateful we knew him. 

Thanks, Coach.  Rest in your well-deserved peace.

6th Grade Graduation or something like it!

So, I've noticed that time rushes on.

There is no space for standing still.

The funny thing is, while time elapses quickly, a moment at a time, we seldom take careful note until the realization arrives: I'm getting a lot older!

The photo below pictures a graduation ceremony of some sort, most likely that perilous transition from elementary school to junior high!

Just for the record, that's me standing third from the left between Jimmy Foster and Jane Baker (I think).  My best buddy back then, Stan Holmes, is first from the left.  Don't we all look happy!  Maybe, just maybe on this auspicious occasion we were in touch with the fact that time was slipping past us.  Maybe or maybe not.  Clearly, if we had an inkling, we suppressed it quickly as we went about the business of "growing up," whatever that means!