Cue the Dream Sequence- A Visit to McKinley Tech

Alliance President Bob Wise and I had the chance to visit a fascinating high school right here in our own backyard in Washington, DC: McKinley Technology High School. Now schools in the District of Columbia have, of course, experienced many challenges over the decades, but the stunning architecture, amazing views, and impressive brick construction of the school made a great first impression. While appearances matter in schools, they aren’t everything, so I was eager to see what was going on within the walls.

McKinley is a science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM)-focused school that is already making some great uses of digital learning strategies. We had a great discussion with the principal and some staff about policies affecting digital learning and what we’re seeing elsewhere in the country. Everyone agreed on the great potential digital learning has to improve student learning.

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Digital Learning with the NCTAF STEM Learning Studio

The following article comes from Melinda George. Melinda is the Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of the National Commission on Teaching & America’s Future’s (NCTAF). Contact Melinda at mgeorge@nctaf.org.

An algebra teacher, a biology teacher, a media specialist, an English teacher, a social studies teacher, and an engineer are sitting around a table…  Sound like the beginning of a bad joke?  Actually, it is a recipe for ensuring that every student is provided quality teaching in a school organized for success.  Add in robust, targeted technology and you have a learning environment that engages students, professionalizes teaching, and brings about deeper learning for both students and teachers.  This is what the National Commission on Teaching & America’s Future’s (NCTAF) Learning Studios are all about. Learning Studios create a culture of collaboration among teachers across different disciplines with support and resources from community content experts. This purposeful collaboration inspires and engages students and brings positive results in student achievement.

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Afternoon Announcements: December 1, 2011

Happy Not-Quite-Friday-But-Close, also known as Thursday! Hopefully a tardy arrival of afternoon announcements won’t adversely affect our grade and will satisfy your appetite for educational news. Enjoy!

A’s are a good thing, especially when it comes to grading. While the STEM initiative may be receiving good grades, many experts argue it could use an A, for Arts that is. Education Week reports that momentum is growing for the STEM to STEAM initiative, aimed at adding arts to the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics acronym commonly used in education policy dialogue. They argue that integrating the arts with STEM education enhances student learning and draws attention to the often-ignored value of arts education. Of course, it would not be a debate without those who disagree. Education Week talks with both science and arts experts as the move from STEM builds STEAM.

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Afternoon Announcements: November 7, 2011

The Washington Times reports that key lawmakers and educators are growing increasingly pessimistic that Congress can pass a massive overhaul of federal education policy before the 2012 election-year battles doom any hopes for major bipartisan legislation. To that point, Alliance President Bob Wise is quoted, saying, “Education is really about the only issue left that has not managed to make itself totally toxic. If Congress really resents the waiver proposal, then they have an obligation to act now. It’s not fair to states to begin implementing significant changes and then suddenly change all of the rules on them. The longer Congress waits, the more the waivers take effect.”

Gaston Caperton, president of the College Board, writes about education and the 2012 election in a Huffington Post op-ed.

Middle and high school science classes are holding kids’ interests; surveys show the number of college freshmen interested in majoring in a STEM field (science, technology, engineering, and math) is on the rise. But as these new coeds fight their way upstream through a flood of calculus, physics, and chemistry in lecture halls with hundreds of other students, the excitement quickly wanes leaving many swimming for shore. Read more in the New York Times about on why science majors change their minds.

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Afternoon Announcements: October 13, 2011

Education Week reports that the sprawling Elementary and Secondary Education Act reauthorization bill put forward yesterday by the chairman of the Senate education committee envisions major programs both for literacy and STEM education. “This is an important provision, and we are pleased to see it included in the draft bill,” said Phillip Lovell, vice president for federal advocacy at the Alliance for Excellent Education. “This proposal takes a comprehensive approach to strengthening literacy by recognizing that students need literacy support and instruction throughout their education.”

Today, the Washington Post highlights education historian Diane Ravitch’s recent blog post “Why Finland’s schools are great (by doing what we don’t).”

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution writes about the Alliance’s recently released report on improving teacher quality by improving the induction of teachers, citing “In 1987–88, the most common experience level of teachers was 15 years. Twenty years later, it was one year.”

Louisiana leads the nation in high school dropouts, as according to the Public Affairs Research Council of Louisiana, one of every six students in the state fails to make it to graduation. “In Louisiana, which has one of the highest poverty rates in the country, the financial impact of the dropout rate is significant. The Alliance for Excellent Education … estimates that dropouts from Louisiana’s class of 2008 could cost the state roughly $6.9 billion in lost wages over their lifetimes,” says the report. (via WWLTV.com in Louisiana)

According to the Huffington Post, YouTube has a Teacher’s Channel that provides teachers with instructions on how to make and upload videos and how to incorporate existing videos in their classroom instruction.

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Report Round Up: September 30, 2011

Check out this week's education-related reports! Read Entire Post

Stats That Stick: September 28, 2011

States with little to no mention of the American civil rights movement: 35
A new study from the Southern Poverty Law Center has  found ignorance  by American students of the basic history of the civil rights movement has not changed — in fact, it has worsened, according to a new report by the Southern Poverty Law Center. The report says that states’ academic standards for public schools are one major cause of the problem, according to the New York Times. The report assigns letter grades to each state based on how extensively its academic standards address the civil rights movement. Thirty-five states got an F because their standards require little or no mention of the movement, it says. Read Entire Post

Morning Announcements: September 28, 2011

President Obama took his "pass the jobs bill" campaign to the Rocky Mountains of Colorado yesterday, according to USA Today, telling a crowd at a Denver high school that his plan will put people back to work by building roads, bridges, and other projects that include upgraded schools. "There are construction projects like these all across this country just waiting to get started," Obama told a supportive crowd at Abraham Lincoln High School in Denver. "And there are millions of unemployed construction workers who are looking for jobs." And in his message to students at Washington’s Benjamin Banneker Academic High School, Obama delivered  the message that “the nation is counting on you for the future.”  He encouraged students to work hard in their classes, according to the Associated Press.

The New York Times reports on a new study that found ignorance  by American students of the basic history of the civil rights movement has not changed — in fact, it has worsened, according to a new report by the Southern Poverty Law Center. The report says that states’ academic standards for public schools are one major cause of the problem. The report assigns letter grades to each state based on how extensively its academic standards address the civil rights movement. Thirty-five states got an F because their standards require little or no mention of the movement, it says.

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Morning Announcements: September 27, 2011

According to the New York Times, a report that is set to be released on Tuesday shows the percentage of students making it to the finish line at college is barely budging despite ever-increasing enrollment in college. The group, Complete College America, is a nonprofit founded two years ago with financing from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the Lumina Foundation and others. Its report, which had the cooperation of 33 governors, showed how many of the students in states completed their degrees, broken down into different categories, including whether enrollment is full- or part-time, or at a two- or four-year institution.

Over objections from Republicans on Capitol Hill, President Obama is making it clear he will proceed with his blueprint education reform and an overhaul of the Bush-era No Child Left Behind law. And this time, Mr. Obama will have some bipartisan cover, as many Republican governors are backing his approach, according to the Washington Times.

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Morning Announcements: September 14, 2011

Education Week reports that not even half of the school districts in states that have adopted the common standards are taking essential steps to implement them, and most cite inadequate state guidance as a major problem in moving forward. This information come from a new surevey released today by the Center on Education Policy. The report shows districts are also deeply divided about how rigorous the new standards are and how much they demand new curricula and instructional strategies.

According to the New York Times, President Obama visited a high school in the potentially politically crucial state of Ohio Tuesday in order to pitch his jobs bill. His $447 billion proposal, which includes tax cuts and stimulus projects to improve the economy, also calls for billions to be invested in renovating our nation’s schools. Obama said Tuesday the $25 billion for education construction and improvements in the plan would achieve two goals at once: modernizing American schools and putting construction workers back on the job.

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