Chicago Military Academies

The Newshour had an interesting story on the use of military type academies in Chicago's public schools. While anyone who has had a class with me will know I am certainly a fan of discipline and hard work,  this may be a little too far. Most strikingly, these military academies are only based in low-income African American and Latino parts of the city and not based in White areas of the city, such as the suburbs. On the other hand, it is hard to argue with their results in terms of graduation and college placement. Of course, that is only one outcome measurement and I do wonder what other effects this type of schooling would have on students generally.

Newshour Video (Click on Streaming Video)

Also, below is a great clip of the Drill Championships at one of the military schools. It includes some interesting images and is worth a bit of reflection.

The Nine: A Review

Well, I just finished The Nine by Jeffrey Toobin. It was good and I recommend it to people that are familiar/interested with the Justices on the Supreme Court. Couple of things I would say about it. First, I learned a lot about the Justices that I did not know, especially some of the lesser known Justices like Breyer and Souter. I learned some addition things about the Clarence Thomas nomination. I have a deeper respect (if possible) for Justice O'Conner. I will say I thought a little too much attention was focused on abortion. I thought it did a decent job on Lawrence v. Texas. I thought it could have done a better job on U.S. v. Lopez. I thought he could have spent a little more time on the recent affirmative action cases. And, I really didn't understand the point of the last chapter. 

Lastly, I think Toobin overestimates the coming conservative revolution on the court. I still think Justice Kennedy, as the swing vote, will be somewhat unpredictable going forward. Further, while I think it is a safe bet that Justice Alito will continue to be very conservative, I am not sure Justice Roberts will be as reliable.

New Creationism/Evolution Front

Here is the newest front in the creationism/evolution battle:

Creation college seeks state's OK to train teachers

Dallas school plans master's in science education, fueling debate over teaching evolution

08:40 AM CST on Saturday, December 15, 2007

By HOLLY K. HACKER / The Dallas Morning News
hhacker@dallasnews.com

Texas' debate over teaching evolution is going to college.

The nonprofit Institute for Creation Research in Dallas wants to train
future science teachers in Texas and elsewhere using an online
curriculum. A state advisory group gave its approval Friday; now the
final say rests with the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board,
which will consider the request next month.

The
institute's proposal comes amid a fierce debate over how to teach
evolution – the theory that humans and other species evolved from lower
forms of life – in Texas public schools.

Some advocacy
groups are attacking the creation institute's plan, saying it's an
attempt to undermine the teaching of science in public schools.

"They teach distorted science," said Eugenie Scott, executive director
of the California-based National Center for Science Education, which
opposes teaching creationism in public schools. "Any student coming out
from the ICR with a degree in science would not be competent to teach
in Texas public schools."

The institute was created in
1970 by the late Henry M. Morris, a Dallas native known as the father
of "creation science," the view that science – not just religion –
indicates that a divine being created the Earth and all living things.

Patricia Nason, chairwoman of the institute's science education
department, said that, despite the institute's name, students learn
evolution along with creationism.

"Our students are given
both sides," said Dr. Nason, who has a doctorate in curriculum and
instruction from Texas A&M University. "They need to know both
sides, and they can draw their own conclusion."

The institute, through its graduate school, wants to offer an online master's degree in science education.

According to the school's Web site, it offers typical education
classes, teaching such fundamentals as how to use lab equipment, the
Internet and PowerPoint in the classroom. But it also offers a class
called "Advanced studies in creationism."

Continue Reading ...

I think I would have to agree with Jonathan Adler at the Volokh Conspiracy that it may be better to pass on this. Nothing against private education, but when the name of the university conflicts with standard education curriculum, perhaps that is a hint something fishy is probably going to happen.

It does bring to mind the large amount of power state accreditation boards have over education, however. While relatively unnoticed, they control the gateway to our teacher and administrator certification processes. Everyone involved in educator preparation should be paying a little more attention to what is coming before these state panels, as this story illustrates.

Disciplined Teacher Database

See my post today At the Schoolhouse Gate on the newly released list by the Sarasota Herald-Tribune of teachers with disciplinary marks on their state teaching certificate. Scary stuff.

Blogging and Education Professors

Mitchell Rubinstein noted today that the University of Wisconsin Law School gave a good deal of credit to Law Professor Ann Althouse, whose blog was ranked in the top 100 law blogs by the ABA. The law school came out with this press release. The ABA top 100 can be found here (no, don't bother checking, the Edjurist is not on the list). If you are into the law, there are a ton of great legal blogs (blawgs) about pretty much everything. The ABA has them in categories so it should be easy to find a few that suit you. My personal favorite? The Volokh Conspiracy (although I could live without the advertising it has on it now). Here are some other educational law blogs categorized at the ABA. And, one last hint, if you are looking for recent legal information and can't afford Westlaw or Lexis, searching the ABA Blawg Directory is a great place to start to find some current events and some legal analysis. It searches not only the educational law blogs, but also all the other legal based blogs. The ABA does screen the blawgs it chooses to list, so there is some degree of confidence in the material (at least better than Google). This is a good spot to point out to our students in educational law courses as they can go back to it even after they leave our class.

Anyway, this got me to thinking ... what if the Edjurist did by some miracle (and it would take a big one) wound up on this list? What would the education school that I work for had done? ... My guess? ... Probably the first thing they would have asked me is "what is a 'blog' and why are you doing that?" Even if this would have got to my school of education's media guy (who I am sure is familiar with blogs), I am not sure they would have done anything with it. Maybe I am underestimating schools of ed., but, having lived in both worlds, it seems law schools are much more keyed into emerging markets and communication streams. Schools of education, in their drive to remain pseudo-scientific in nature and mission, hold fast to traditional elements of scholarship. I really hope that schools of education pick up on these new scholarship outlets soon. Blogs should be an acceptable and even encouraged element of faculty scholarship as long as they pull their weight in traditional outlets as well ... but as of now they probably don't even count as service.

New ISLLC Standards Approved

Apparently, the new ISLLC standards were approved today by NPBEA (from an NCPEA update). The ISLLC standards are the standards for school administrator preparation that serve as the basis for most state's regulations of educational leadership preparation providers. Just wanted to give a heads up. I will update when I have a link.

Update: Here are the New Standards (Passed along by Gary Martin of NCPEA).

Standard 1: An education leader promotes the success of every student
by facilitating the development, articulation, implementation, and
stewardship of a vision of learning that is shared and supported by all
stakeholders

Functions:

A. Collaboratively develop and implement a shared vision and mission.

B. Collect and use data to identify goals, assess organizational effectiveness, and promote organizational learning

C. Create and implement plans to achieve goals

D. Promote continuous and sustainable improvement

E. Monitor and evaluate progress and revise plans

Standard 2: An education leader promotes the success of every student
by advocating, nurturing and sustaining a school culture and
instructional program conducive to student learning and staff
professional growth.

Functions:

A. Nurture and sustain a culture of collaboration, trust, learning, and high expectations

B. Create a comprehensive, rigorous, and coherent curricular program

C. Create a personalized and motivating learning environment for students

D. Supervise instruction

E. Develop assessment and accountability systems to monitor student progress.

F. Develop the instructional and leadership capacity of staff

G. Maximize time spent on quality instruction

H. Promote the use of the most effective and appropriate technologies to support teaching and learning

I. Monitor and evaluate the impact of the instructional program

Standard 3: An education leader promotes the success of every student
by ensuring management of the organization, operation, and resources
for a safe, efficient, and effective learning environment.

Functions

A. Monitor and evaluate the management and operational systems

B. Obtain, allocate, align, and efficiently utilize human, fiscal, and technological resources

C. Promote and protect the welfare and safety of students and staff

D. Develop the capacity for distributed leadership

E. Ensure teacher and organizational time is focused to support quality instruction and student learning

Standard 4: An education leader promotes the success of every student
by collaborating with faculty and community members, responding to
diverse community interests and needs, and mobilizing community
resources.

Functions

A. Collect and analyze data and information pertinent to the educational environment

B. Promote understanding, appreciation, and use of the community’s diverse cultural, social, and intellectual resources

C. Build and sustain positive relationships with families and caregivers

D. Build and sustain productive relationships with community partners

Standard 5: An education leader promotes the success of every student
by acting with integrity, fairness, and in an ethical manner.

Functions

A. Ensure a system of accountability for every student’s academic and social success

B. Model principles of self-awareness, reflective practice, transparency, and ethical behavior

C. Safeguard the values of democracy, equity, and diversity

D. Consider and evaluate the potential moral and legal consequences of decision-making

E. Promote social justice and ensure that individual student needs inform all aspects of schooling

Standard 6: An education leader promotes the success of every student
by understanding, responding to, and influencing the political, social,
economic, legal, and cultural context.

Functions

A. Advocate for children, families, and caregivers

B. Act to influence local, district, state, and national decisions affecting student learning

C. Assess, analyze, and anticipate emerging trends and initiatives in order to adapt leadership strategies

Alaska to Spend a Billion Dollars a Year on Education

Just in case you were having doubts about how much we spend on education at the state level, the Governor of Alaska announced last week that she intends to increase state dollars for education to a billion dollars a year within the next three years.

The state revenues for each state can be seen here. Alaska ranks 43 for the sheer amount of money it provides its schools. However, if divided per capita, Alaska ranks in the top 5.

Suspended for Hate List

A student in Colorado composed a "hate list" of less than 5 students at Sagewood Middle School.
The list contained "no threat or intent to harm anyone" but was
apparently just a list of peers the student in question disliked.
Nevertheless, the student was suspended.



Joanne Jacobs wonders what the district would do if it got its hands on Santa's naughty list.



Crossposted At The Schoolhouse Gate

Student Work

Over the next few weeks, I will be posting some of my student work. We (the teachers of A308/E310 at Indiana University) had an assignment that asked students to combine their knowledge of educational law with some Web 2.0 tools. The results were very impressive. I will be posting some of them both as a reward for working hard on the project and to show others what is possible when you let the reins loose a little on student creativity.

Here is the first one. Completed by Carlton and Luke: (Listen to the words).