More Than 14,000 Unite In Support of Strong Public Schools
Forum Presents Petition to Secretary Duncan
We did it!
Four months ago, The Forum for Education & Democracy launched a national web-based campaign and challenged all Americans to transform the optimism of the election season into the promise of collective action to improve public education.
On April 30, as President Obama marked his 100th day in office, we hand-delivered to Education Secretary Arne Duncan the names and personal messages of 14,284 supporters — more than 140 new supporters a day for every day Mr. Obama has been in office — who agreed to join us in urging the administration to honor four promises that must be fulfilled if we are serious about supporting young people and public schools:
- Every child deserves a 21st Century education
- Every community deserves an equal chance
- Every child deserves a well-supported teacher
- Every child deserves high-quality health care
Now, the real work begins.
To help bring those principles to life, we’ve asked people to share the stories of their most meaningful personal experiences in a learning community. Our intention, in the weeks and months ahead, is to use those stories to amplify the voices of parents, practitioners, and young people, so that the insights of educators can become the central data points that shape how future education policies are made — and clarify what purpose they should serve.
What was your transformational learning moment? Share your story with us, so we can demonstrate to the Obama administration what we know to be the most essential attributes of a learning community — and then work to ensure that our public school system is aligned to empower educators to create those types of environments.
Learning Story Spotlight — M. Jamal Fields (Modesto, CA)
"What is that?" the boy asked the old man pointing at a spot in the mud. "Looks like a critter track, I bet you left one too." said the old man, looking around at the muddy footprints on the rocks near the boy. The boy looks at his own tracks in the mud and on the rocks and asks, "Who made these?" "That is a good question, I have a book of prints and maybe we can figure it out." The old man and the boy scurry up the rocks out of the creek and head to the house to get the book to see what left the track in the mud. They find the book and take it back to the creek to compare the track to those in the book and figure out that it was a skunk. "I want to tell my mom about the skunk track!" exclaimed the boy. "Good," The old man replied, "let's write it in our journal so we don't forget to tell her tonight when she gets home." They sit down and the boy tells the old man what to write and they construct a few sentences about what they saw and how they figured out what it was. They read the sentences over a couple of times in writing them and then again when they were done so that the boy would be able to read it later that night. They put the Journal away to read to the boy's mom later that night.
This is an example of learning taking place. Curiosity is met with information and then the information is set through writing and later teaching all in an environment of trust and caring. The old man is my grandfather Frank Van Schaick and I am the little boy from the story. My Grandfather was a teacher and a principal who had retired when I was four years old so that he could help take care of me while my mom worked.This was a very special situation and we cannot think that we should or need to replicate the level of understanding and the personal connection between a boy and his grandfather, in a public school setting. We can and should look to the conditions that made this learning experience meaningful and attempt to foster them in our schools.
In this story I was interested in something and had some information that I wanted to expand upon. I had a knowledgeable person who was paying attention to my interests and provided new information and resources for me to use in satisfying my curiosity. Once I had learned something new I was encouraged to pass the information on and given tools and help in doing so. The teacher was using a real world situation to develop my strengths and to help me to use my mind well in an area of interest to me. These are the attributes of effective teaching and learning. Trusting relationships, interest based, student choice, real world application of knowledge, and connections between the learner and their community. We need to support schools in which these attributes of effective teaching and learning are present and or sought.>
Have a learning story to contribute? Share your voice today!
Forum, Partners Prepare for May 28 Capitol Hill Briefing on Early Childhood
Rethinking Pre-K and Kindergarten Education
On Thursday, May 28, in Washington, DC, The Forum will partner with the Alliance for Childhood for a discussion defining developmentally appropriate early learning. Forum Convener Deborah Meier, will facilitate the discussion with Joan Almon, Executive Director of the Alliance.
Panelists will use the Alliance’s recent report, Crisis in the Kindergarten, as a springboard for discussion around instruction, assessment and elementary school readiness — especially for disadvantaged children.
The Obama administration has placed a high priority on expanding access to early learning and improving its quality. Meanwhile, Congress appears poised to rethink its investment over the summer. This briefing will look at ways to ensure that we offer high quality early learning opportunities as our nation strives to provide access to all children who need it. You can also learn more about the report from a recent column from the New York Times.
The briefing will be held at the Capitol Visitors Center, HVC-215 from 2pm to 4pm. For more information, visit the event site. To reserve a seat, please email pam@allianceforchildhood.org with "RSVP" in the subject line. Seating is limited, so if you cannot participate after sending an RSVP message, please send another with "cancellation" in the subject line so we may provide a seat for someone else.
Coalition of Essential Schools Celebrates National Exhibition Month
For over twenty years, the Coalition of Essential Schools(CES) has been at the forefront of creating and sustaining personalized, equitable, and intellectually challenging schools. Essential schools are places of powerful student learning where all students have the chance to reach their fullest potential.
This month, CES resumes its annual nationwide campaign to promote and celebrate exhibitions as a preferred form of student assessment. Schools and support organizations across the country will engage in activities that make their exhibition work public and advocate for the use of exhibitions in their local contexts.
"It doesn't matter to me if you make adequate yearly progress if the tests are wrong," stated Eva Baker, Co-Director of the National Center for Research on Evaluation, Standards and Student Testing (CRESST), at a Capitol Hill briefing on performance-based assessments sponsored by the Forum for Education and Democracy last October. Baker’s presentation is available for viewing at the Forum’s briefing website, along with others, including high school graduate Kiri Davis, who showed her short film "A Girl Like Me" and described the value performance assessment has had in her education.
To learn more about exhibitions, or to get your school more directly involved, CES has provided a number of things people can do:
- Learn more about Exhibitions from a number of CES resources.
- Read the CES participation guide for a set of suggested activities and to determine the level at which your school or organization can confidently participate.
- View the CES Guide for creating a successful event.
- View a set of Student Guidelines to assist students in preparing for and executing Exhibitions
- View a list of participating schools and activities.
- Send CES a report of your participation, along with photographs or any supporting materials, so that CES can post a summary of activities on its website and in its newsletter, In Common.
- Download a Fact Sheet on National Exhibition Month PDF that you can print out and use in your education and outreach efforts.
For more information on National Exhibition Month, please contact Brett Bradshaw at bbradshaw@essentialschools.org.
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Want to know what The Forum’s Conveners and staff members are reading and thinking about? Check out our blog to get more frequent updates, reflections and questions to consider about public education — and what needs to be done to improve it.