Schools’ Parent-Teacher Groups Go High-Tech: Reuters

In this Reuters wire story from earlier in the month, parent-teacher groups and their members are turning increasingly to cyberspace to get the word out from bake sales to fundraising to yes…complaining about schools.

Take a look:

“Parents are absolutely more tech-savvy in everything, from making announcements to online fund-raising to connecting more with communities, school administrations, managing calendars and scheduling all kinds of events online,” said Jenni Gaster Sopko, a spokeswoman for the National PTA, which counts 26,000 chartered PTAs around the country among its members.

With PTAs and similar parent-teacher organizations (PTOs) finding more professionals and gadget-friendly parents among their ranks, they have evolved into lean, mean business machines. Their accomplishments include raising tens of thousands of dollars annually, lobbying Congress, championing changes like playground upgrades and new after-school programs, and even taking on some budget-squeezed schools’ administrative functions.

And as this transformation has occurred, various Web-oriented companies have stepped up to meet PTAs’ and other parent groups’ technological and organizational needs.

I especially like this last part of the article:

Another concern is the growing tendency among parents to air complaints and concerns involving their schools and children electronically rather than in person.

“E-mails are not a substitute for face-to-face meetings that ought to take place from time to time. Some things are lost in electronic communications, especially when it comes to matters of children, which can be complicated,” said Vincent Ferrandino, executive director of the National Association of Elementary School Principals.

Sound familiar?

E.C. 🙂

State education board needs true diversity: John Locke Foundation

JLF report says unanimous votes mask need for reform

Contact: Terry Stoops
919-828-3876
tstoops@johnlocke.org

February 27, 2007

RALEIGH – The State Board of Education needs more diverse viewpoints, if North Carolina expects public schools to improve. That’s the assessment offered in a new John Locke Foundation Spotlight report.

Click here to view and here to listen to Terry Stoops discussing this Spotlight report.

Gov. Mike Easley should seek candidates with different ideas about education issues when he fills two seats this year on the 13-member board, said Terry Stoops, JLF Education Policy Analyst.

“With high dropout rates, low graduation rates, and sagging student performance, you would expect vigorous debate about school reform among state board members,” Stoops said. “Instead, the board has retreated into ‘groupthink,’ discouraging the kind of creativity and innovation required to improve public education across the state.”

Stoops analyzed the board’s votes from 2003 to 2006. Excluding housekeeping and ceremonial votes, board members reached unanimous agreement 94 percent of the time. “Regardless of ideological similarities among members, it is unlikely that their ideas and beliefs converge perfectly on nearly every issue,” he said. “This board’s voting history makes you wonder why a board of education is necessary at all.”

The unanimous votes suggest board members have nearly identical views about public education, or they feel uncomfortable airing dissent, Stoops said. New board members could question the status quo. “As North Carolina’s public school students fall behind, you can place the blame on a State Board of Education that’s unwilling to ask tough questions.”

Two board members’ terms expire March 31. Easley will make appointments for new eight-year terms. Those appointments are subject to confirmation votes in the General Assembly. No more appointments are scheduled until 2009. “The state’s public education goals are not attainable under the current board regime,” Stoops said. “Our public schools cannot be competitive and innovative until the State Board of Education demonstrates those same qualities.”

Easley should look beyond the pool of candidates with ties to the education establishment, Stoops said. “A philosophically diverse State Board of Education – including school choice advocates and charter school representatives – would ensure that the majority view no longer suppresses ideas that deviate from the group.”

Parents across the state should pay attention to the appointment process, Stoops said. “This group’s decisions ultimately affect every one of North Carolina’s 1.4 million public school students and 180,000 full-time public school employees across the state,” he said. “Every appointment and reappointment to this board has an immeasurable impact on the state’s national and global competitiveness.”

Easley has the power to change the current system, Stoops said. “All that is required is a governor with courage to admit that the State Board of Education needs affirmative action in its truest form, that is, a diversity of views.”

Terry Stoops’ Spotlight report, “State Board of Repetition: State Board of Repetition,” is available at the JLF web site. For more information, please contact Stoops at (919) 828-3876 or tstoops@johnlocke.org.

 I think the release speaks for itself, for if we continue the status quo in this state with respect to public education, we are doomed to failure. We have to want better in our schools. We have to want better for our children. We have to want better for our children. It is past time that we start putting our children first, put politics aside and start rolling up our sleeves and do what needs to be done to save our schools. This is one of those steps.

As a closure for this post, I was asked over the weekend who I would support for Governor in next year’s election. So far. I like former Justice Bob Orr. I also want to keep an eye out on Bill Graham. But you can bet this much…I will only support candidates who feel strongly about cleaning up the mess and reforming DPI (the state’s Department of Public Instruction).

E.C. 🙂

Volunteers Needed to Fill Crucial Roles: HP Enterprise

In today’s High Point Enterprise, my friend and former colleague Katisha Hayes continues her series on Communities in Schools and the benefits this organization brings into our highly-impacted schools. See companion blog entry here from yesterday.

Hayes writes:

CIS leaders are making a com­munitywide ap­peal for more funding support, but there’s also an overshadow­ing need for vol­unteers who are willing to roll up their sleeves and help students overcome some of the education challenges in the city. “I’d like to see more people turn complaints (about our schools) into advocacy efforts, and I think that CIS does so as an organization,” says vol­unteer Edith Brady, curator of the High Point Museum.

I made mention here before that GCS needs to create a volunteer corps, so that those who want to go into our schools and make a difference can do so with relative ease. See previous blog entry here on the need to create such a corps.

E.C. 🙂

GCS Board Meeting Agenda for the 3/29/07 Meeting

Click here to see the complete agenda. I will begin posting the links to these since this blog is gaining in popularity.

E.C.  🙂

Is It Too Late To Save America’s High Schools?–Book Review

A book review posted on ednews.org says the following:

Consider these sobering national statistics about today’s high school students:

• 7 out of 10 don’t complete courses needed to succeed in college.
• Nearly 50% of African American population, 40% of Latino population and 11% of white population attend schools in which graduation is NOT the norm.
• 1 in 20 students do not finish high school.
• 40% of those entering college need remediation
• 26% of high school graduates who enter four-year schools and 45% who enter two-year schools do not return to school after their first year.
• Nearly 80% of the nation’s high schools identified by a recent Johns Hopkins study as having ‘weak promoting power’ are found in just 15 states
• Five southern states (FL, GA, NC, SC, and TX) lead the nation in total number of schools that serve as the nation’s ‘drop out factories.’

According to author and veteran school reformer Grace Sammon, the American high school is the toughest institution to change.”Reform has become a big buzz word,” says Sammon.”It’s been the focus of many foundations, the federal government and the National Governor’s Association, yet with years of focus, dedication and hard work we simply aren’t seeing the gains we anticipated on a grand scale.So if we’re not properly educating our kids—should high schools exist as they are now?”

Today’s public school teachers and administrators face unprecedented challenges from students and parents as well as from local, state and federal mandates.Sammon outlines the cycle of frustration many educators feel in her new book, “Battling the Hamster Wheel ^TM:Strategies for Making High School Reform Work.”

By aptly comparing the education system’s cycle of reforms to a hamster wheel, she depicts the relentless grind that educators face; always running, running, running but not making the gains they anticipate for their students and schools.

Comments?

E.C. 🙂