Joe Williams' Blog
January 21, 2009
Secretary Duncan Visits High Performing DC Charter School
Earlier this week, Education Secretary Arne Duncan visited with students at DC's Thurgood Marshall Academy Charter School, one of the highest-achieving public schools in the district. In all four of the school's graduating classes, EVERY SINGLE student has gone on to college. Duncan (pictured above) visited a workshop for TMA's 59 seniors and their parents on writing applications for college scholarships. For more information on this impressive school, click here. Special thanks to TMA board member Rick Roe and his main squeeze Dianne Piche (a DFER board member) for sending the pics along.
Posted by Joe Williams on January 21, 2009 12:37 PM
January 20, 2009
Kevin Chavous Speaks Out At EEP Event
Remarks of DFER Chair Kevin P. Chavous
Educational Equality Project MLK Day Rally
Washington, DC-January 19, 2009
At this historic time, in this city of our na
tion's founders, on the day designated to honor Dr. Martin Luther King and his legacy, it is fitting that we all stand before you to challenge America. Although this challenge is made out of love and respect, it is a challenge nonetheless.
Quite simply, it is time for our country to stand up for our children. As great as we are, we still are failing our kids. Failing them miserably. When half of the children of color drop out of high school, we are failing our kids; when we offer fewer and fewer AP courses, we are failing our kids; when our world education rankings continue to slide, we are failing our kids; and when we remain committed to a one size fits all model of education service delivery, we are failing our kids. Yes, there are some very good schools in America that provide some children with an excellent education. But that is not good enough and we are still failing our kids.
Continue reading "Kevin Chavous Speaks Out At EEP Event"....
Posted by Joe Williams on January 20, 2009 2:24 PM
America Celebrates Progress
Posted by Joe Williams on January 20, 2009 9:22 AM
January 15, 2009
Rocky Mountain High
Thanks to our friends in Colorado for making the last few days so productive as part of our roll-out for our Rocky Mountain outpost. Special thanks to Van Schoales for graciously hosting the first DFER-CO Happy Hour at his home on Tuesday night, and for the extremely fired-up crowd that turned out for the festivities, including: -- New Denver Superintendent Tom Boasberg
-- Senate President Peter Groff
-- House Speaker Terrance Carroll
-- Lt. Gov. Barbara O'Brien
-- House Education Committee Chairman Mike Merrifield
-- House Education Committee Vice-Chair Judy Solano
-- Senator Chris Romer
-- Rep. Karen Middleton
-- Denver School Board member Jill Conrad
-- State Board of Education member Elaine Berman
-- Obama campaign education advisor Mike Johnston
Stay tuned for more information on upcoming events in the Mile High City.
Posted by Joe Williams on January 15, 2009 12:37 AM
January 14, 2009
Glorified Bellboy? I Don't Think So...
Vanity Fair catches up with Clintonistas from yesteryear, including flashback pics of DFER board member Charlie Ledley. Catch it here.
Posted by Joe Williams on January 14, 2009 11:59 PM
January 12, 2009
Risen Rising: How He Would Have Answered Former Bushie If He Had More Space
Many DFER supporter s read with interest some of the recent profiles of Washington, DC Chancellor Michelle Rhee, including Clay Risen's piece in the November Atlantic Monthly.
The new issue that arrived in the mail the other day carried a letter to the editor by former Bush administration education staffer Susan Neuman (former assistant secretary of elementary and secondary education) arguing that people need to understand there are limits to what schools, teachers, administrators, etc. can accomplish with children.
Neuman, who was tasked with overseeing the federal No Child Left Behind Law when she was a Bushie, these days argues that beyond excellent teachers, students need quality pre-school programs, after-school and summer programs, and programs that help parents become better partners in their children's learning. (She even cites the Bigger, Broader, Bolder approach, one of the dueling manifesto's from 2008.)
After her letter, the author of the original piece, Clay Risen, was offered a chance to provide a truncated response which caught my interest. In it, he argues:
She is undoubtedly correct that improving teacher quality and improving a student's social milieu are not mutually exclusive, and are both important means to improve student outcomes. However, education policy is not made in a vacuum, and cannot be. This is where so much of education policy breaks down: there is, sadly, a broadening gulf between teacher-quality advocates and those aligned with "A Broader, Bolder Approach." Arguably, the answer lies in a mixture of the two. Whether we can find that answer depends much more on improving our education politics than on improving our education policy.
It struck me that Risen probably had a lot more to say about the topic, having been forced to make a coherent argument in such tight space. So yesterday, I reached out to him via email to see if he would expand slightly on his remarks.
His response is below:
Continue reading "Risen Rising: How He Would Have Answered Former Bushie If He Had More Space"....
Posted by Joe Williams on January 12, 2009 6:44 PM
January 11, 2009
Gimme a 'T,' Gimme an 'E,' Gimme an 'S'...
This week is the big English Language Arts test for many New York State school students, which means that since we allegedly ONLY teach to the test, everyone is done reading for the rest of the year (which in NYC, ends on June 26.) Great year everyone...
Lot's of anxiety attached to these tests for sure, not at all from NCLB or the school report cards but from reality. Public school students in NYC need to score high on the tests if they want to be accepted by the best public middle and high schools, so they are taken VERY seriously by many students. (Plenty of parents in my world pay for afterschool tutoring for their kids so that they aren't conscripted to crappy public schools.)
So I know it is considered hip and all to badmouth the tests, but it is kind of interesting to see the enthusiasm that some NY State schools are showing in anticipation of this week's reading exams. One NYC charter school handed out "Slam The Exam" headbands yesterday at their weekly "Saturday Academy."
Another public school, in Buffalo, held a full-fledged pep rally recently where the kids chanted "ELA" and got all fired up about the exams.
In Albany, an all-girls charter school had a pep rally on Friday with hula-hoops, musical chairs, and "Score 4" cheers.
Good luck this week kiddies!
Posted by Joe Williams on January 11, 2009 11:02 AM
