Front page NY Times story about Shanghai’s test results on the international test, PISA. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/07/education/07education.html?pagewanted=2&ref=global-home. Having just visited Shanghai, where I saw the incredible bustle of millions of people (on the day we went to Expo, the World’s Fair, they clocked a million visitors–THAT DAY!), this is a stunner.

Our guides told us that students in China work very very hard. Indeed, the results show it.

What always shocks me is that news stories like this one focus on schools–higher teacher pay, etc. They don’t even mention the influence of home–parents who are gung ho for academic achievement. Honestly, that is the elephant in the room, as far as I’m concerned. We need to be honest here. Bring parents along as critically needed partners for education–as they do in China, Finland, etc. Without that, all the money in the world will not get us back to the top rung.

Dear colleagues,

If you attended and participated, thank you. If you have ideas to share, we’d love to hear of them.

If you did not attend, and would like more information about Procedures Lite (a voluntary process for parents and schools to develop IEP services without the procedures and meetings usually involved) and SpedEx (the use of an outside agreed-upon consultant to assist parties to assure that a child’s program will provide a free appropriate public education (FAPE) in the least restrictive environment–within 30 days! And, if the subsequent IEP is agreed upon, the consultant revisits the child in his agreed-upon program to assure that it is as planned and can provide a FAPE.  A very child-centered approach!  Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education is funding this pilot.  For more information, please email to info@specialeducationday.com

Happy Special Education Day! December 2. 35 years ofthe IDEA and 6 years of Special Education Day!

Indeed, if our country is going to move forward successfully, it’s going to be more from the parents–than the schools. An excellent op-ed.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/24/opinion/24friedman.html?_r=1&src=me&ref=homepage.  As an immigrant, a former teacher, an always parent and citizen, a current attorney who works for public schools–I know that it’s about time to get the parents (and next, the kids) at the responsibility table.  Education will not happen without that.  If they don’t get there soon, it will indeed be a very very scary world for us.

Thank you, Thomas Friedman.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/21/opinion/21friedman.html?_r=1&src=me&ref=homepage. Thank goodness–Thomas Friedman finally (though, only in the last paragraph) said what we all know. Teachers can’t teach alone. Parents have to support education, turn off the TV and electronics, feed their kids, get them  to bed on time,  Etc. 

What is still left to be said is, Kids have to study in order to learn. And, shock of shocks,  if the work is hard, they need to study harder.  Not get an excuse for not doing so that condones  lack of  hard work and effort.

Once we get all three players aboard–teachers, parents, students–then we’ll finally get achievement up.  Alas, it woun’t happen before that.

It strikes me as ironic that people look to successful countries, Finland, Singapore, etc., and discuss what their schools are doing –while ignoring the parent and student role in those countries. I am sure that the three players are on board.

Thank you, Tom Friedman, for finally writing that the second player–parents–need to carry our their responsibility.  Next  time, please write about the students’ own critical role.

http://educationnext.org/all-together-now-meets-differentiated-instruction/

My father told me–if something sounds too good to be true, it’s probably not. Differentiated instruction (DI) is designed to make mainstreaming/inclusion work. As far as I know, including all sorts of learners in one classroom is an unproven theory created in the name of a civil right, not pedagogy.  It’s basis is a dream. It’s reality is unproven. Will another generation of students be the guinea pig for this ‘hot’ theory?   As a former teacher and current school attorney, I admit that I’m a skeptic. I worry that DI will lead to further dumbing down for all–in the name if ‘all together now.’   The slide is slow and imperceptible–yet very real and troubling in our current world.

The headline, “Special ed students could bankrupt districts.  http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?section=news/education&id=7786691  On KGO television in California. It’s not the kids’ doing. It’s the system for special education that is broken. It promises more than it can deliver. It is burdened by bureaucracy and legal threats.  It does not have good evidence of success.  All that is true. All that lead us to establish Special Education Day on December 2–to attempt to fix the system. www.specialeducationday.com.

It’s not children who are bankrupting a system. It’s the system itself that will bankrupt schools. The 35-year-old system, full of unintended, ineffective, and burdensome consequences, that does not work. It must change. Don’t blame it on the students.

http://boston.com/community/blogs/rock_the_schoolhouse/2010/11/was_galileo_wrong.html.  Galileo was right.  So is Diane Ravitch. So was I when I taught students to memorize their number facts. It’s obvious. It’s clear. It’s real. Without facts at their fingertips, students can’t move forward to learn science, math, and live their lives.  And that’s bad for all of us.

http://www.educationnews.org/commentaries/102694.html

A wonderful article with lots of ideas by John Jensen,Ph.D.–about why teacher prep and teacher inservice don’t always translate to better teaching and learning.

He cites a Teacher of the Year’s ADAMANT insistence that his students learn the material. The teacher insisted on hard work. Drill. Repeat. Hard work. Drill. Repeat.  How different from the current mode–that kids will learn if we just present material to them; they’ll learn by osmosis. etc.  Alas, it does not work that way. Kids have to practice; “practice makes myelin’-the connectors in the brain, according to Daniel Coyle in The Talent Code.  Greatness is not born. it’s grown. Practice, practice, practice–especially if the skill is hard.

But, alas, it’s not to be, as we now believe that kids will simply pick up what they need to know. 

According to this article,  teachers don’t learn from each other.  So good ideas are not shared. Even about being ADAMANT that kids learn!  Inservice may not be enough.   If only we encouraged more teachers to be like this one–and supported them in their efforts to be sure their students actually learned the materials–NO EXCUSES!

I enjoyed the movie a lot–and seeing some friends in it. I live and breathe education!  Alas, it’s a controversial movie–making it all the more interesting.  

 Yes, we need to ‘fix’ our schools, especially in the cities. Yes, we need to focus on the fact that our top students are not on a par with the world’s top students. But why no word about special education–the program that serves about 14% of all students nationwide and costs millions (often twice the amount we pay for regular education services). Why is special education off the table? We absolutely need to fix that, as well–in the context of school reform. http://voices.washingtonpost.com/answer-sheet/diane-ravitch/has-ravitch-hurt-supermans-osc.html