I woke up this morning to this refreshing discussion. Check it out.

(Urban parents don’t care what Gary Orfield thinks)

What do I think? Well, when I was a teacher in the Berkeley schools back in the late 1960’s, we had tracking at the junior high. The highest level course and the lowest level course. I taught both and will never forget the parents of my lowest level students (you can imagine who they might have been in this urban setting). They exhorted me to NOT lower standards, NOT go easy on their kids, NOT demand less than the best. They exhorted me to PUSH their kids to excellence, to PUSH them to learn as much as possible, to PUSH them to work hard.

It taught me that parents are parents–wherever they live–and they want the best for their children. This article lays that out well. Thanks for it.

The Boston Globe reports that educators and advocates like Pres. Obama’s changes for the No Child Left Behind Act. Maybe they are good. Let’s hope.

My concern is that Massachusetts continues to allow nonstandard accommodations (NSAs) on its state testing program, the MCAS. Thus, some students have the test read to them–and they ‘pass’ reading. Some use computers, and they ‘pass’ math. So long as tests continue to allow invalidating NSAs, it hardly matters what the policy is.

Check it out!

(Massachusetts likes Obama’s NCLB changes)

Short and targeted writing is good. The Christian Science Monitor editorial meets that criteria. I learned a lot: What’s wrong with the law as is; what’s right; that only 34-39% of students have reached proficiency (on state standards) and it’s almost 2014, and how we might fix the law.

Here it is. Your thoughs?

(Obama changes incentives in NCLB)

Let’s hope! I wonder if it’s an overhaul or a reshuffling. If it’s a transformation or a way to move things around. The article’s focus on more inclusion, per se, worrisome. Inclusion is not an educational solution or goal. Like a methodology, inclusion should be encouraged where it works and promotes more learning. Otherwise, other methodologies should be used. Time will tell. Your thoughts?
(NYC to overhaul special education)

I heard David Brook (New York Times columnist) on Meet the Press yesterday, January 31, 2010. He highlighted the fact that the big problem in America is that the public has a distrust of government. Wow. Right on!.

It matters what our kids know. It matters to them and it matters to our nation. An important new study by Professor Eric Hanushek of Stanford and Andreas Schleicher of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development links rise in test scores with a nation’s output. Thank you for that research!

(What kids learn and know matters)

Let’s hope this is widely read on Main Street and in Washington.

(States apply for RTTT funds)

Isn’t it amazing that 40 states have applied for $4.35 billions in the Race to the Top funds…. The states need to demonstrate that their proposals are bold and innovative. Not a rehash of the status quo.

Yet, all states will share in the much larger number, $12.2 billions of additional, NEW moneys added to special education. They do not need to show any innovation or boldness any reform the system. That money goes to support the status quo.

Make sense? Not me me either.

What does David Brooks’ column, “Politics in the Age of Distrust,” have to do with special education? Everything. I am struck by how much it relates to the issues we have in special education.

(Politics in the age of distrust).

So, let’s ask, why do schools and parents have to go through endless meetings, procedures, paperwork, written plans, lawsuits, threats of lawsuits, legal and bureaucratic requirements, due process, documentation ad infinitum in special education? Because, at bottom, the law creates lack of trust between parents and schools. Parents have to fight schools to get services. Etc. Etc. Etc. Most of us know the system is broken–distrust abounds.

But, saddest of all, what do any of these processes and procedures and requirements have to do with improving teaching and learning? Not much, if anything.

The age of distrust of government, including schools, takes us down the wrong path. It is dysfunctional for students, teachers, and parents.

See my book Fixing Special Education–12 Steps to Transform a Broken System. My hope is that it will help get us back on the right path–the mission of educating all children.

Check out this article! http://www.aasa.org/SchoolAdministratorArticle.aspx?id=11122>(Generation X parents)

Fascinating discussion of Gen-X parents (and how they differ from Boomer parents.) Bottom line, in order to be successful in the decades ahead, schools will need to build relations with parents from the get-go, provide data, data, data, “market themselves intelligently to this new generation of parents,” and rebrand themselves. We’re talking about all parents– of regular, special education, gifted, talented, bored, everyone. A fascinating discussion that I hightly recommend.

Today’s Core Knowledge blog picked up an important article from the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel

(character education is at the root of it all).

Thank you for this return to basics and common sense.

Honesty, effort, punctuality, showing up ready to work, getting along with others, putting in consistent effort every day–these are what business needs from schools. As well as, these are what schools need from students–and schools need to foster the reality that these values matter most and underpin everything else.

The article points out that it is not a matter of a new curriculum or new technology. And I will add, it’s not really about new funding. In fact, it’s about the the old basics that are lacking too often.

I have argued that schools should value these core attributes–with specific grades, report cards, honors, and perhaps different diplomas–so that every member of the school community knows how key they are. At the end of the day–these are the attributes that lead to success in business and life.