Joe Williams' Blog
June 3, 2008
Superdelegate Courage In Michigan!
Just as it is starting to look like Sen. Hillary Clinton will no doubt win the presidential nomination, two of Michigan's teacher union stalwart/superdelegates made the absolutely courageous decision on principle to throw their support behind the sinking campaign of Sen. Barack Obama.
Even though there is nothing to be gained from it now that everybody knows Clinton will coast to the White House, longtime Michigan Education Association rabblerouser Lou Battiglieri and Joyce Lalonde, a member of the board of directors for the MEA and the National Education Association, turned their backs on self-interest and threw Obama a bone.
If only they had endorsed earlier, perhaps Obama would have had a chance.
Posted by Joe Williams on June 3, 2008 1:47 PM
More Teacher Voice In Denver: Set Us Free!
Teachers at Denver's Montclair Elementary School stormed their union headquarters last week because the union hasn't yet been willing to allow the teachers to "seek freedoms from district and union rules in budgeting, hiring, and scheduling."
Teachers at the school - the third Denver school opting to bolt from the status quo straightjacket - voted 22 to 1 to seek autonomy from a host of rules and regulations, including portions of the union contract.
The union is suggesting it won't grant the teachers' request until after it settles its next contract with the Denver Public Schools, to which principal Shannon Hagerman replied: "Don't use us as your pawn."
Ironically, the union hall was empty when the teacher arrived because union leaders were attending a Teacher Union Reform Network meeting in Vail.
Posted by Joe Williams on June 3, 2008 1:14 PM
June 1, 2008
Time To Lower The Drawbridge in Rhode Island?
When you're talking about education reform in Rhode Island, the reason that the grass always seems greener on the other side of the state line in any direction is that a host of state elected officials have decided that fields of brown, dying grass is good enough for the state's children. Providence Journal education columnist Julia Steiny today notes that politicians are the ones keeping Rhode Island communities from inviting successful school programs to enliven a stale status quo:
Our laws fiercely protect Rhode Island’s educational status quo, as though it were a real treasure like Narragansett Bay or our historical architecture. The protectionist laws make it impossible for outside providers to do business in the state. (One could argue that the state laws make it impossible even for local schools to do business effectively. Certain Rhode Island charter schools are now being crushed by our protectionist culture.)
Take as only one example Rhode Island’s General Law 16-13-6 which cements teacher tenure, seniority and “bumping” into place, leaving Rhode Island administrators little if any control over the quality of their staff. No school providers from saner states can possibly assure us that they can be successful here if they can’t retain the stability of their staff and let ineffective teachers go, when necessary. Longtime Rhode Island residents have been drinking the protectionist Kool-Aid for so long they forget what effective school governance might look like.
Lower the drawbridge and let some of the proven-performers like KIPP, Achievement First, Green Dot, and others come in and liven things up a bit, Steiny writes.
Keep your eye on a group of activist mayors in the state, led by Cumberland Mayor Daniel McKee, who are trying to open the door to innovation. As Steiny notes, they are up against folks who have been "drinking the protectionist Kool-Aid for so long they have forgotten what effective school governance might look like."
Posted by Joe Williams on June 1, 2008 7:53 PM
Guerdon Schmuerdon
Sameer Mishra, of West Lafayette, Ind., took home the top prize in the Scripps National Spelling Bee this weekend, correctly nailing the word "guerdon," meaning reward.
What, you'd like me to use it in a sentence? OK:
If you go over and sign DFER's online Statement of Principles and help support our political action committee you will receive a handsome guerdon as you help us build a movement of reform-minded Democrats.
G-U-E-R-D-O-N, guerdon.
Posted by Joe Williams on June 1, 2008 8:27 AM
May 29, 2008
Edu-Independence In Colorado
Bigtime kudos to Colorado Senate President Peter Groff (featured over on our DFER Heroes page) on the new "rescue public education from its own chilly grip" law - signed yesterday by Gov. Bill Ritter .
Groff and the staff at Denver's Bruce Randolph Middle School took a lot of heat for boldly deciding that business as usual within the system was simply not good for students and for finding educator-friendly ways to give more children what they need.
Amazing that allowing teachers to teach is still considered so controversial among so many school board and dues-collecting employee groups.
Denver Post story on the bill signing is here.
Posted by Joe Williams on May 29, 2008 12:21 PM
Barack To School: Obama Visits MESA
The text of Sen. Obama's education speech in Thornton, Colorado, from the Denver Post:
"It's an honor to be here at Mapleton Expeditionary School of the Arts. Just three years ago, only half of the high school seniors who walked the halls of this building were accepted to college. But today, thanks to the hard work of caring parents, innovative educators and some very committed students, all 44 seniors of this year's class have been accepted to more than 70 colleges and universities across the country.
Continue reading "Barack To School: Obama Visits MESA"....
Posted by Joe Williams on May 29, 2008 11:20 AM
May 27, 2008
'Midterm Grade' For Rhee, Fenty in DC
The Washington Post editorial board, noting that it has been nearly a year since DC Mayor Adrian Fenty became accountable for the "disgrace that generally passes for education in the District" notes that Fenty and his hand-picked Chancellor Michelle Rhee are off to a strong start but they have a long, long way to go.
Absolutely.
Though you have to hope the headline writer is off a bit in calling it a "midterm grade" because that ship is going to take much more than two years to properly turn around.
Posted by Joe Williams on May 27, 2008 11:22 AM
