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“Don’t Just Talk About It… Be About it!”

February 15th, 2012 · Comments Off on “Don’t Just Talk About It… Be About it!”

Recently on Linkedin, we posted the following:

“Looking for Charter School Practitioners Who Have Opinions About the Politics of Urban Education and School Reform.”

Without disclosing names, we generated the interest of a small group of people who are passionate about and experienced with urban education!  And, this is what we said to them:

“Whether you write a short article, join an online discussion, or even allow us to interview you in one of our future podcasts, I hope you will consider sharing your experiences and expertise. We need to extend your message to others who do not fully understand (or respect) the sociopolitical challenges associated with schooling.”

We are now posting this message on our website in order to extend the invitation to YOU!  If you are of like-mind and want to give voice to your sociopolitical perspective on urban education and school reform,  please join us.  You do not have to be a Linkedin member to get involved!

I would often challenge my students:  “Don’t just talk about it… be about it!”  Lol, now I extend that challenge to you!  🙂  Send your email address to info@pbsdevelopment.com and let’s be about it!!

Comments Off on “Don’t Just Talk About It… Be About it!” Tags: Jobs/Opportunities ·   · · · ·

The Real Fight for Charter Schools

January 25th, 2012 · Comments Off on The Real Fight for Charter Schools

It is unfortunate but there are some charters that mirror traditional schools in that they are only able to reproduce the status quo (socially speaking).  The only difference is that they have changed the financial/political infrastructure… shifting power from the left hand to the right.  And, because they typically serve students who historically have done well in the traditional structure, they can boast about their “achievement scores” and stand in front of others and profess that they have the key to “real” reform!

Interestingly enough, these schools are still maintaining an instructional climate where minority and poor students are yet powerless, disengaged, and under performing.   For these students who need the charter school law the most… this is not reform!

 

The battle in a nutshell…

We need to take advantage of the opportunities provided by state charter school laws that allow for innovation, differentiation, and community based programming.  Instead of alienating students, we need to engage them.  Instead of stigmatizing students, we need to validate them.  Instead of teaching in context to our world, we need to teach in context to theirs!

Simply put, we need charter schools that will offer a different instructional platform for students who have not been adequately served in the past!   Charter schools that can fulfill this end… well, these are the schools for which we should protect!
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Speaking in Context

PSGL used Wisconsin’s charter law to challenge the spiritual state of students who were disenfranchised with learning.  With an instructional platform that allowed learners to flex their intellectual muscles within context to their community and their culture, the school promoted student production, prosperity, and promotional growth for students who had a track record of chronic disengagement.    Even for those students who did not have behavioral or learning challenges, it was the first time they were able to engage in academic scholarship that was rigorous and relevant. Because of the charter school law, 50 students (90% receiving Title I support) were able to attend a school where they could learn.

To learn more about PSGL, please visit http://www.pbsdevelopment.com/the-first-school.php.

Comments Off on The Real Fight for Charter Schools Tags: PSGL/Charter Schools ·   · · · · · ·

Balanced Assessments: Don’t Throw the Baby Out with the Bathwater!

January 19th, 2012 · Comments Off on Balanced Assessments: Don’t Throw the Baby Out with the Bathwater!

Angela Dye’s Response to:  “The Loss of Academic Freedom”
Written By: Peter DeWitt (12/30/2011)
http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/finding_common_ground/2011/12/the_loss_of_academic_freedom.html

 

My grandmother says, “Don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater!”

Peter, I believe this is at the heart of your post.    Balance… keeping what works while getting rid of what doesn’t!

We are in a season where we are required to respond to student diversity and social change.  And, at the same time, we must find ways to hold teachers and schools accountable to academic progress.   It is a pendulum affect where we either individualize instruction on one end with no real results.  Or, we promote results on the other end in a way that standardizes students and compromise their individual strengths.

In more recent years, I have learned to develop and incorporate a scorecard that quantifies student performance by expanding the notion of achievement… promoting a more holistic approach to learning and development.   Through this scorecard, a balanced assessment exists that embraces the full range of cognition (as identified through Bloom’s Taxonomy) and captures the psychosocial dimensions to students and their growth.

I appreciate this post as I believe “balance” will allow us to throw out the bath water and still save the baby!  Thanks for the discussion.

Comments Off on Balanced Assessments: Don’t Throw the Baby Out with the Bathwater! Tags: Commentaries/Responses ·   · · · · ·

Testing and Accountability: Is it a Viable Partnership?

January 18th, 2012 · Comments Off on Testing and Accountability: Is it a Viable Partnership?

Angela Dye’s response to “NEA Stance on Teach for America Continues to Raise Questions”
By Anthony Cody
Published:  January 5, 2012
http://blogs.edweek.org/teachers/living-in-dialogue/2012/01/nea_stance_on_teach_for_americ.html?r=769690200&utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

 

Sorry Anthony, I had to read this post a couple of times to understand your position.  Your cynicism was so thick that you confused me!  (smile)

With this being said, I just want to add a small nugget to the conversation.  As David Orphal (one of your followers) implied … accountability is fine.  As a matter of fact, it is needed!  Good teachers do not have a problem with standing behind their work.  We simply reject the notion that “achievement” is only achievement when it can be captured on a standardized- bubble sheet.

My area of expertise is in meeting the needs of urban, at-risk learners.  For many of my students, it is difficult for their annual progress to register on the district’s standardized test in that a good percentage of them are more than three grade levels behind.   While I tracked an average annual growth rate of 1.2- 1.5 years, my 8th graders who entered our program performing at the 4th grade level still struggled to reach grade level proficiency.  It is unfortunate that their growth is overshadowed by this test, which discredits their academic gains.

It is for this reason that I have created a scorecard that compiles “quantifiable” data of students’ performance and creates a profile for the learner, the teacher, and even the school.  Through this system, we can track and celebrate the progress for all students even those who struggle with academic and behavioral deficiencies.

As you can see, I am all for poking holes in the “testing climate” that has been spearheaded by No Child Left Behind but I also know that we must have a viable alternative.  Public education needs to be held accountable to the public and the one way this is done is by having a system of measuring and reporting.  I agree that we should hold teachers and schools accountable; however let’s just make sure that we have a measuring device that makes room for a broader range of what it means to teach, to learn and to achieve!

I enjoyed the discussion.  I hope you and others will log into Facebook to continue the dialogue!  http://www.facebook.com/pages/Empowerment-Starts-Here/256202634430517

Comments Off on Testing and Accountability: Is it a Viable Partnership? Tags: Commentaries/Responses ·

Upward Social Mobility and the Empowerment Model

January 18th, 2012 · Comments Off on Upward Social Mobility and the Empowerment Model

Angela Dye’s response to “Harder for Americans to Rise From Lower Rungs”
By JASON DePARLE
Published: January 4, 2012
@ http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/05/us/harder-for-americans-to-rise-from-lower-rungs.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all?src=tp

The empowerment instructional framework is about equipping urban students with the thought process and mindset that promotes upward mobility.  With specific goals relating to production, prosperity, and promotional growth, the framework is grounded in a practice that speaks to the spirit as reading, writing, and math speak to the mind.

Many of the students I have worked with suffer from learned helplessness where they have been conditioned by educators, families, and life to disengage from the one resource that could aid them in their advancement… their schooling.  Presenting an academically rigorous learning program is not enough to engage disenfranchised learners in learning.  Instituting more accountability structures for teachers is not enough to engage disenfranchised learners in learning.   And, providing more/new academic standards is not going to engage disenfranchised learners in learning.

Students need an instructional environment where they have the power to use their voice, choice, and dominion; where they can participate in shared accountability; and where they can learn to develop their global efficacy (three of the seven empowerment principles).  The empowerment model helps teachers and school leaders speak the language of achievement in a way where students want to achieve.  Learning should not be a passive endeavor.  The empowerment model shares power with students so they can become active drivers in learning and life long achievement.

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To continue the discussion, please go to Facebook:  http://www.facebook.com/pages/Empowerment-Starts-Here/256202634430517.   

Comments Off on Upward Social Mobility and the Empowerment Model Tags: Commentaries/Responses ·   · · · ·

Changes to NCLB Still Require Innovation for Student Engagement

January 17th, 2012 · Comments Off on Changes to NCLB Still Require Innovation for Student Engagement

Angela Dye’s response to Arne Duncan @
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/escaping-the-constraints-of-no-child-left-behind/2012/01/06/gIQAYmqpfP_story.html

This post written by the Nation’s Secretary of Education provides a fair assessment of No Child Left Behind (NCLB). The strength of the legislation is that it exposes the achievement gap between students of color and of various income levels, English-proficiency levels, and disabilities.

The challenge to the law is that it limits “achievement” to a standardized test. By restricting knowing to what can be remembered and regurgitated, knowledge that can be applied in meaningful ways (relating to the individual learner and the community in which he/she lives) is limited.

While the national government and state leaders are trying to come together to create a way for state education departments to define instruction that is rigorous and relevant, school leaders need to think critically about how to engage students in new systems who have been disenfranchised by older systems.

As already stated, NCLB opens the assessment of learning and achievement to reveal the progress of all learners, especially those who have been historically ignored. Yet, we have not identified an instructional framework that is successful at engaging all learners (at least not at consistent levels).

I would like to urge this conversation to continue and for school leaders and community members to ask tough questions about the unique needs of various student demographics that cannot be addressed by a standardized curriculum. Regardless of the standards, the policies, and even the curriculum, an instructional framework is needed that embraces the psychosocial dimensions of the whole child and effectively connects them to state required standards and assessments.

Take a look at our programs that promote high levels of student engagement:  http://www.pbsdevelopment.com/sbc-programming.php.

Comments Off on Changes to NCLB Still Require Innovation for Student Engagement Tags: Commentaries/Responses ·   · · · · · · ·

Talking Empowerment

January 14th, 2012 · Comments Off on Talking Empowerment

Listen in as the author of the Empowerment Framework talks with the Rockford (IL) community about education, school reform, and student empowerment.

http://rockfordraps.podomatic.com/entry/2012-01-08T04_36_46-08_00

 

Comments Off on Talking Empowerment Tags: Media Presentations ·  

Opportunity: Seeking Empowerment Contributors

January 9th, 2012 · Comments Off on Opportunity: Seeking Empowerment Contributors

An Empowerment Contributor (eContributor) is a writer (messenger) who intimately understands the field of education and is looking for opportunities to expand his/her reach. Ultimately, the eContributor seeks to educate others on opportunities, methodologies, and/or philosophies that promote student empowerment.

 

Requirements

The commitment for an eContributor is three months in which he/she provides three, seven, or ten articles (at 400-700 words each).  While specific timelines for submission will be negotiated, the content of articles is at the discretion of the eContributor (providing that they incorporate a minimum of three principles from the empowerment framework:  http://www.pbsdevelopment.com/empowerment-framework.php).

Note:  All eContributors must meet and maintain minimum qualifications (see below).

Benefits:  eContributors are volunteers seeking to promote their message by tapping into PBS’s network and viewership.  By providing content to the site, eContributors are expanding their reach and strengthening their credibility all while contributing to the empowerment movement: http://www.pbsdevelopment.com/empowerment-network.php.   Because of his/her affiliation with PBS Development, he/she will receive marketing and promotional services.  In addition to increased exposure, eContributors will have access to educational and career resources/opportunities.  Finally, eContributors will receive editorial support for articles that can in return be posted on other sites (with proper citations).

Qualifications:  eContributors must be practitioners or researchers in the education/ human service fields.  It is preferred that eContributors are active writers with a current blog (as cross-posting empowerment articles is strongly encouraged).

Honorariums: While eContributors are volunteers, a small honorarium will be given to contributors who provide 7 or 10 approved articles.  Fifty dollars will be given for a total of seven approved articles and a hundred dollars will be given for a total of ten approved articles.

How to Apply: Please forward a resume along with a short cover letter explaining your interest in the empowerment framework to info@pbsdevelopment.com.   For more information about empowerment and PBS Development, LLC., please visit: www.pbsdevelopment.com.

 

Comments Off on Opportunity: Seeking Empowerment Contributors Tags: Jobs/Opportunities ·   · · · ·