The VillageSpace

“To Discourage Overeating, Junk-Food Consumption, and Sedentary Lifestyles”

Wana Duhart — Mon, 21 May 2012 18:48:20 GMT

This heading describes some of the goals and recommendations from a recent report on obesity authored by the Institute of Medicine. The group confirmed that obesity is indeed an epidemic in America, and particularly among schoolchildren. Unfortunately, the younger generation has been strongly impacted by the bad habits and tendencies of their parents and other grownups they see and interact with daily. Adults’ drastic shifts in food consumption and food preferences have trickled down to our youth, and have resulted in an unimaginable health crisis across age groups.

As adults continue to shift toward the fast food and ready-to-go diet, children and youth are essentially being forced to follow suit. Some kids have no choice because their parents are no longer taking the time (or don’t have the time) to cook a well-balanced meal. Other kids are simply mimicking the dietary choices which they see adults making or what’s being advertised in front of them. Ultimately, the grownups bear the responsibility for the overweight epidemic that has reared its ugly head.

We all are witnesses to the impact of overeating, junk food consumption, and sedentary living on our kids, because we’ve set bad examples for them by being careless and lackadaisical when it comes to what we eat, how much we eat, and taking care of our physical bodies. Because so many grownups are suffering from obesity, they don’t seem to exhibit a real sense of urgency about the effects on youth; this makes it even more difficult to tackle this major health problem. We’ve got to start somewhere, because it’s already beyond what anyone could imagine, and we can’t afford to sit back and watch young people suffer from illnesses and low self esteem – things that are preventable during the early years of a life.

Already, school officials have developed better nutrition plans and choices as a part of their lunch programs. Food and beverage companies, too, are partnering with school districts to play some part in making sure that their product and marketing strategies contribute in the right way to the overall well-being of American schoolchildren. Because children spend so much time in and around school activities, people and organizations across the board are working to do what they can to reduce the sugar and caloric intake by young people, despite the existence of competing financial priorities of private companies that produce and market the food, snacks, and beverages that are so popular across the youth culture.

Large scale obesity prevention will continue to require a combination of healthier eating and physical activity. One sad coincidence surrounding the growth in youth obesity is that physical education continues to be eliminated from too many school budgets. For at least a decade, we’ve seen school officials show little commitment to PE as an integral part of the K-12 academic experience. School leaders don’t seem to appreciate the reality that physical activity, academic productivity, and mental alertness are all connected in a positive way. Any physically active adult will attest to the fact that a regular exercise regiment is the best cure for overeating, consuming too much junk food, and sitting too much.

Uninterested School-Aged Youth Need a Helping Hand

Wana Duhart — Sat, 05 May 2012 23:16:28 GMT

If you drive through some communities during school hours, you might discover that there are too many young boys and girls hanging out in the streets, riding bicycles, playing basketball on public courts, playing video games, and just doing what teenagers do when they get together. If you’re like me, then all kinds of questions enter your mind regarding why these school-aged youth are not in school and why their parents are allowing them to be away from school in the first place.

Were they just bored with school and academics? Did they oversleep? Did they miss the bus? Was the schoolwork too hard? Did they get suspended or expelled? Did they leave school without permission? Did their parents assume they boarded the school bus this morning? Do the parents care enough to check on the child’s school attendance? Did they give up on school altogether? Are their parents working so many jobs that they don’t have the time to check on the kids?

It’s troubling to witness young boys riding around neighborhoods on bicycles, and sometimes in cars, because some of them are in fact looking for something to get into, while others simply don’t know what to do with their time each day. It’s disheartening because some of these boys will in fact end up doing either petty crimes or burglarizing their neighbors or local merchants. We’ve seen the local news reports of young boys in their teens who decide to rob an innocent bystander or break in a home, with the goal of obtaining a few dollars for food or electronic devices that they may have coveted but could not afford.

I’m heartbroken when I see young girls become more interested in skipping school or hanging out in the streets or places they don’t belong. We all know too well how cruel the streets are and that they are no place for a young girl. I’m sickened when I hear of young girls who suffer from low self esteem that has been caused by neglect and abuse in their homes. Too many girls end up finding the love and security they are seeking in the wrong places and in the wrong person’s arms, when they are not loved at home, do not have the proper guidance at home, and are left to make choices they are not capable of making.

Young school-aged girls and boys who do not attend school are likely searching for a sense of themselves, comfort and security, or dreams and aspirations that they can attach themselves to in life. We must remember they are too young to fully understand what they are doing and who they are. They are often imitating something or someone they’ve seen in their homes, communities, or on television. If presented with different choices and models, most of these youngsters would choose different paths, ones that are productive and positive. For those youngsters who may not have adequate role models in their lives, it’s up to other adults in the communities to step in and be guiding and abiding forces for them.

It will take a collaborative effort by families and community organizations that have access to school-aged youth. Churches and other local social service providers can help guide parents who may not know what to do or where to go. Although some school districts have hired truancy officers and others who do check up on students with unusually high absentee rates, it’s not reasonable to expect school officials to be able to oversee and manage the lives of apathetic youngsters. What is reasonable is that we all work together to provide access and opportunities for all youth, especially those who have become uninterested in school altogether.

The Trayvon Martin Case: Hypocrisy Revealed

Wana Duhart — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 20:06:23 GMT

President Obama said that if he had a son, then that son would look like Trayvon Martin. We could say that about most black youth who have been victimized in their neighborhoods and communities. Most of us don’t have to imagine someone like Martin, because he is the likeness of so many young black boys who are being assaulted and killed right in front of us. They’re our sons, brothers, nephews, and neighbors. They’ve washed our cars, mowed our lawns, sold us candy, delivered our newspapers, and made us proud along the way. We’ve witnessed their development from toddlers to teenagers, only to have our hearts broken as they have fallen prey to the irresponsible actions of those who live reckless and heartless lives. We cared deeply about these kids, remembered their smiles, could call them by name, and envisioned the fulfillment of their hopes and dreams. Yet, to a nation that is preoccupied with other matters, these young boys seem to be the invisible ones. Even as it becomes increasingly difficult for teenage males to navigate their terrains at school and beyond, there is still not a sense of urgency when it comes to the life prospects for young black boys.

America is silent when it should be screaming the loudest. We should be offended and outraged when innocent, promising, and law-abiding youth are victimized, precisely because we have preached to them about getting an education, doing the right things, developing a solid work ethic, playing by the rules, obeying the laws, and respecting their elders. Where’s the national outcry over the scores of black teenagers who are victimized daily as they walk home from school, ride public transportation, play in public parks, or attend school sporting events? What about all of the innocent black youth who are being wronged or persecuted everyday because they choose to abide by the rules or choose to mind their own business? These young people live in our homes and neighborhoods, attend our churches, and work in our local grocery stores and eateries, yet, we fail to respond loudly as a nation and as communities when their young lives are threatened or taken away.

Perhaps the saddest reality in the aftermath of the Martin murder is the hypocrisy being revealed by black America itself. I still can’t figure out why black civil rights leaders, black politicians, black radio and television hosts, and black public intellectuals don’t stay enraged and engaged as innocent black boys (and girls) are routinely persecuted in the very communities these leaders represent and advocate for? It is as if black folks only care about black life when it has been taken by someone of another race. It is as if black folks only get excited about a black murder if there is broad mainstream media coverage of the incident. It feels like a sick form of dependence on the very institutions which have historically distorted the truth and the facts about black life.

Black America needs to emerge from its stupor and take a stand concerning the sacredness of young black lives. Black youth deserve national and community leaders who will issue a clarion call that will adequately respond to the risks and challenges that threaten the life prospects of young black kids in small towns and large cities, as well as rural, urban, and suburban communities. We can’t afford to fall asleep until the next Trayvon Martin incident rears its ugly head. America as a whole and black America in particular must rise above their emotional outbursts and start to do the hard and necessary work that can secure the hopes and dreams of young black children everywhere.

“The Education Crisis is a National Security Crisis”

Wana Duhart — Thu, 29 Mar 2012 20:25:04 GMT

We’ve known for a few decades that American elementary and secondary students were falling behind their global peers, and that their mathematical and science aptitudes are truly a major cause for concern. And it’s no secret that school-aged youth do not perform nearly as well as their peers from other industrialized nations when it comes to international assessments. However, we’ve failed to fully appreciate and recognize how critical a highly educated populace is to the strength and competitiveness that we enjoy worldwide. As a global economic and political power, American public education has to keep pace with its international peers, especially if we expect to maintain our prominence and economic strength. Our military, our businesses, our government, and our nonprofits need access to highly talented and intelligent workers. Our national security will rise or fall, depending on what we decide to do about the state of America’s schools.

One of the surest ways of maintaining our global status is to produce graduates, citizens, workers, leaders, and managers who possess the skills necessary for navigating the cultural, technological, economic, political, and demographic shifts taking place around the world. Which means our educators, in partnership with professionals and stakeholders across sectors, must come up with effective tools for dramatically improving student achievement in the traditional math and science fields. These efforts need to be coupled with innovative ways of integrating technology, foreign languages, and cross-cultural learning in classrooms, to broaden the knowledge base of our students. School leaders must partner with their friends in business, engineering, and other scientific and technical fields, as a way to continue the serious school modeling and experimentation going on in K-12 education, so that graduates are highly skilled and prepared to lead our nation and its range of industries and enterprises.

As people and organizations continue to relate the state of our elementary and secondary schools to the leadership and stature of our country globally, perhaps we will begin to witness a real marshaling of our best resources, so that we can see the kind of marked and substantive academic progress we’ve been hoping for from our students and schools. America’s schools need to reflect innovation, creativity, and flexibility, to better respond to the change and uncertainty that is all around us. Now that more stakeholders are weighing in on the nexus between strong educational systems and our national security, maybe the debate about issues such as school choice and teacher competency will be viewed with an even greater sense of urgency. Given that our national security could be at risk, it’s time to really get to work, to resolve a public education crisis that has gone on far too long.

Teacher Performance Assessments: A Private and Professional Matter

Wana Duhart — Fri, 23 Mar 2012 15:18:01 GMT

With so much scrutiny being applied to teacher effectiveness and professional assessment, educators and other stakeholders must be careful not to lose sight of how important it is to maintain a true sense of dignity, integrity and professionalism, as new forms of review and evaluation are being implemented across the profession. While we must be unequivocal in our efforts to elevate teachers through new means of assessment, we must make sure that the tools and systems are being designed primarily to nurture and support their professional development and goals. This means we must be responsible and accountable for how we review the performance of classroom instructors as well as how we interpret the data that is produced by evaluations. This also means that we must not be so cavalier about how we disseminate teacher assessment results and not allow proprietary information to leak into the public square before it is properly vetted.

Ultimately, a classroom teacher’s performance evaluation is a private and professional matter, similar to what is the case for most other professions. I can’t think of any specialized field where it is common practice to circulate the performance evaluation results of its workers. And we certainly don’t want to allow the teaching vocation to establish a new precedent in this regard. In public education, the last thing we need is to create a sense of humiliation in the minds of teachers who are already feeling overwhelmed, overworked, and underappreciated. The profession doesn’t deserve another ounce of public degradation, because the tasks in front of many of them seem almost insurmountable. We owe it to our teachers -- to protect and maintain the integrity of the data and tools being used to evaluate their classroom performance, and to not cave in to public pressures to disseminate assessment information outside of the proper contexts and without the right caveats.

Teaching professionals, like any other specially trained individual, deserve the time and space needed to improve their skills and performance, in the context of their performance assessments and their professional goals. For those of us who are committed to elevating the profession through new incentive and evaluation systems, it is incumbent on us to factor in the impact that new assessment tools and applications can have on a classroom teacher, personally and professionally. We must understand that while we may envision grand ideas about the professionalization of classroom instructors, such large scale change will not occur overnight. Schoolteachers are already inundated with volumes of tasks and paperwork, and we don’t want to add to any feelings of inadequacy or insecurity that may already exist, by imposing our reform ideas about performance assessments.

Students Misbehaving Badly

Wana Duhart — Fri, 16 Mar 2012 14:19:31 GMT

Racial discrimination is not the reason why black students are being “suspended, expelled, and arrested” at higher rates than non-black students. While there are a number of causes for a disproportionately high rate of disciplinary actions among black students, their race is not one of them. Even as we acknowledge that racial discrimination continues to lurk above and beneath the surface, we cannot allow it to be used as sufficient rationale or an excuse for students who are behaving badly. A student’s race is irrelevant if (s)he is a disruptive force in the classroom, not interested in learning, or impeding the teaching and learning of a teaching professional or fellow student. Granted there are certainly instances of unjustifiable suspensions and expulsions, you can almost guarantee that teachers are not removing black students from their classrooms in a discriminatory manner.

There is nothing “fundamentally unfair” about the high levels of dismissals, if students who happen to be black are not behaving in schools. What is fundamentally unfair is the impact of bad behavior on those students who are actually trying to learn and excel academically. Shouldn’t we be more concerned about ensuring orderly and disciplined learning spaces, so that all students can learn? Shouldn’t we be doing our best to assure parents and students that classrooms will be the kinds of academic settings that cultivate young people’s skills, aptitudes, and abilities? All of this would require educators to take whatever steps are necessary to maintain structured and disciplined schools, including the dismissal of bad or disruptive students from their classrooms.

For those who want to pretend that there’s some measure of racial discrimination associated with the higher rates of suspensions, expulsions, and arrests among black students, I would suggest that they are focusing on the wrong issue. Our focus must be placed squarely on how to resolve the student disciplinary problems among the very students who are already lagging behind academically. This is certainly not the time to coddle or pacify students. We need to be sending the correct messages to young people, so that they understand unequivocally that school is for learning and not bad behavior. Because, at the end of the day, we are going to need to redouble our commitment to school discipline, structure, and order, if we are serious about ensuring that schools provide all students with access to high quality education.

Our Schools are a Reflection of Our Communities

Wana Duhart — Wed, 07 Mar 2012 19:56:43 GMT

When we witness school-aged youth shooting and killing schoolmates, it is a reflection of the widespread use and acceptance of violent means to resolve conflicts in big cities and small towns, and by people of all ages. It’s also evidence that the grownups have yet to figure out how to communicate with our youth, so that we are both aware and responsive to the complexities of their needs, fears, and insecurities. When a high school student carries a loaded firearm to school and forces a school lockdown, this signals that we have failed to not only provide a safe and secure learning environment, but also shows how inept we have become in our efforts to ensure that students know definitely what is acceptable when it comes to our expectations of them as students and classmates. Indeed, there was a time when every student who entered a school building understood unequivocally that firearms and violence had no place in schools. As adults, parents, and leaders, we’ve seemingly failed to establish home, school, and community environments that reflect the values, standards, and principles that can lead to academic success and life prosperity for all students. Recent acts of school violence prove how far we have to go toward establishing or reinforcing these parameters.

These incidents are ultimately failures of leadership at school and beyond. Somewhere in the lives of those students who feel inclined to perpetrate violence in schools, they have been failed by the adults in their lives who are responsible for nurturing, teaching, and disciplining them. Somewhere along the way, these students have felt ignored, shunned, or disrespected to the point that the only way they feel they can be heard or taken seriously is to act out their emotions or problems through violent means. These realities are symptoms and extensions of the social and cultural maladies that have evolved as shifts and transitions take place in families, communities, institutions, and governments. The shifting demands on workers, shrinking family resources, cultural mores, and global economic effects are all contributing factors to the stresses and challenges playing out in unusual and sometimes dangerous ways around us every day. New social and economic realities have created new “normals” for a lot of people, which is equating to unexpected tension and unease emotionally and financially for families and communities. And we are seeing the negative impact of these new dynamics in workplaces, schools, and other spheres across our communities.

As these effects continue to trickle down and spread beyond households, and into public institutions such as secondary schools, our challenge continues to be how to respond effectively and in a timely manner, to produce more positive behaviors and attitudes from our youth. We’ve got so much work to do in order to mitigate the spread of impulsive, abusive, and sometimes violent patterns of behavior being displayed by some of our young people. It all starts with how we conduct ourselves and how we relate to each other in front of them -- in our homes, neighborhoods, and communities. We’ve got to stem the tide to prevent innocent kidding around between classmates and simple school pranks from escalating to a point of no return. We don’t have to look very far beyond schoolhouses to understand that the preponderance of acts such as bullying and other serious incidences between students is essentially a microcosm of the disrepute, intolerance, abuse, and violence that are damaging all kinds of interpersonal relationships in public and private domains. Our charge is to make sure that we act before this social and moral deterioration becomes an epidemic in our schools and our communities.

We’re Nothing If We Can’t Protect the Children

Wana Duhart — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 20:52:05 GMT

As we witness the unspeakable revelations about crimes and sins that have been committed against our children and youth over decades, we are all probably feeling some combination of shame, disgust, and sadness, because ultimately these discoveries reflect our inability to protect our young people from the predators of this world. These despicable revelations are an indictment against us as adults because we’ve failed to shield the children when they’ve been most vulnerable. We’ve failed in our capacity to insulate and isolate them from those whose aims are to harm them and stifle their dreams and aspirations. We’ve not fulfilled our mandate to provide the right kind of sanctuaries for them as they engage and discover their talents and abilities in school, at home, and in their surrounding neighborhoods and communities. Whether as parents, guardians, school officials, or adult stewards, the grownups are responsible for creating safe havens for our young people, so that they are not shackled by fears or insecurities associated with an adult who has taken advantage of their trust and innocence.

The range of child abuse cases surfacing over recent years seems to indicate that there’s much work to be done related to how to detect child abuse, how to weed out and eliminate predators from employment, how to monitor adult interaction and behavior in youth-centric contexts, how to help youth understand and report incidences of abuse and abuse-like behaviors, and how to effectively punish offenders. It’s patently clear that the systems, cultures, policies, and procedures of many schools and other facilities occupied by young people need to be overhauled, if the adults intend to get serious about addressing the abusive behaviors that are threatening and seeping into the ranks of schools and related entities. We can’t wait for more incidents to be uncovered, we must act now! We must tune our ears and focus our eyes when we hear and see adult-child interactions and behaviors that appear abusive or inappropriate. Until we can get things right and safeguard our children and youth from the predators lurking around them, we have to be more vigilant, which means we must error on the side of overreaction.

Turning Back the Tides

Wana Duhart — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 20:02:23 GMT

It’s time for Americans to turn back the tides of excess and indifference, and replace them with the prudence and compassion that have historically defined the American spirit during periods of tremendous growth and prosperity as well as during tough economic times. We desperately need a cultural shift so that our individual and corporate values and priorities reflect what made this nation the envy of the world. The undisciplined habits of consumers coupled with the manic practices of too many businesses have created an unhealthy culture of economic dependence over the past decade. Our political discourse has become so jaded until the politicians can’t even focus on the very real challenges facing people of all political stripes. When we decide to regroup as a nation and remember the ideals that made us great, we will begin to recognize that we truly are one nation under God, indivisible.

America’s strength is its moral and industrious foundation. We are a nation that has always been rooted in a commitment to a strong work ethic, individual and social responsibility, and a deep and abiding faith in the human spirit. We did not become a large and prosperous nation by stifling ingenuity or entrepreneurial energy. Instead, we have sustained our preeminence because we have put in place social, economic, and political systems that enable people and organizations to fulfill their goals. While the past decade has created social and economic dysfunction for many families, we must all remind ourselves that our potential to create and innovate is still within us, we just need to change directions so that we can reacquaint ourselves with the dreams and visions that will help us to regain our footing and what was lost.

The immediate task for institutional leaders across all sectors is to ensure that their policies and programs provide frameworks that will continue to allow citizens to discover and develop those ideas that can yield success and satisfaction. A vibrant free market system, advanced educational institutions, globally competitive firms and industries, and judicious public policies are important as people and organizations create, market, and manage their ideas and resources in ways that produce sustainable lives and profitability. Ultimately, as people shift gears and refocus on their unique skills and abilities, we shall witness the reemergence of the true American way – one energized by hard work and a sense of connectedness and concern for the greater good.

America’s role on the global stage is to be a template for other nations, morally, socially and economically. Our responsibility must be to provide an international roadmap for how to inspire citizens, industries, and sectors toward the kinds of creativity, innovation, and entrepreneurialism that can lead to hope and prosperity for the masses, not a select few. America was built on the pillars of freedom, justice, and equality for all. Just as it overcame some of the darkest moments in its history, this nation can once again rise up as a beacon for our global peers to follow. In order to fulfill our mandate as a global leader, we must get serious about reestablishing the personal and shared values and priorities that define the true essence of the American spirit.

Setting the Record Straight

Wana Duhart — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 22:36:55 GMT

We are still a nation that is generous and compassionate at its core. That is our foundation and it will remain our commitment, domestically and abroad. Providing a safety net for the seniors, poor, children, disabled, and other vulnerable citizens will always be a priority for Americans, without regard to political party or ideology. Contrary to the rancor that is dominating some corners of our public square, we are a united nation, not a divided one. Although we have differing views about how to solve our social and economic problems, at the heart of every solution is a commitment to helping those who are less fortunate or can’t help themselves.

Innovation and philanthropy are the heartbeat of America, and each of us has been blessed and endowed with certain inalienable talents and gifts that are designed to enable us to have prosperous and meaningful lives across our lifetimes. Whether we take the steps necessary to discover what our individual gifts are is up to each of us. And, at the end of the day, if we choose not to do anything, then shame on us, and we have no right to judge or condemn the next person because they put themselves in position to be financially successful.

The airwaves and the internet are inundated with discourse that is pitting Americans against one another and causing a level of distrust and resentment that is not characteristic of the American spirit. The public chatter is causing innocent and decent Americans to feel guilty because they’ve worked hard and are now reaping the financial rewards for their labors and sacrifices. The dissonance is even causing some in the wealthy class to vow that they would willingly pay more income taxes to our federal government.

No one is entitled to another person’s hard earned dollars. Each of us is responsible for the choices and decisions we make in life. Sometimes we reap substantial rewards and other times we’re not as lucky. The hypocrisy in the public square is stifling as people complain about the millionaires, billionaires, and the shrinking middle class. We should be most concerned about how to adequately respond to the severity of challenges confronting lower and working class Americans. The public schizophrenia is evident as well because people are only complaining and pointing fingers because they are not the beneficiaries of the financial success.

This type of poisonous environment is being perpetrated by people and entities who make their livings and have built their reputations by creating hostility among classes of people and by encouraging citizens to blame someone else for their misfortune in life. These so-called “advocates” specialize in lies and deception, in order to keep those who are less fortunate from discovering the personal and economic power that they already possess inside of themselves. Instead of encouraging them to want to be self-sufficient and create better lives for themselves and their families, these “advocates” promote dependency and the blame game in place of education and personal enrichment.

The attacks on the wealthiest citizens are peculiar because the “top 1%” is not a new phenomenon. We’ve always had a wealthy class and always will, and the gap may even become wider depending on how average citizens adjust their spending, consumption, and investment habits. We should not be demonizing fellow citizens because they have earned a great living and accumulated wealth, nor should we be blaming them for other people’s individual decisions and choices that had nothing to do with them.

Millionaires and billionaires are not the problem; instead, they will always be a part of the solution, as long as they continue to invest in people, products, markets, and businesses. People are lashing out at a free market system that operates the same today as it did decades ago; the difference now, though, is the esoteric nature and sophistication of the financial instruments and financing schemes. These complexities of our financial markets coupled with the fraud, abuse, waste, cronyism, and corruption across all levels of government are the straws that have broken the backs of the American taxpayer. Everyday people from all walks of life have simply run out of patience and tolerance.

Web 2.0 Has Shifted the Learning Paradigm

Wana Duhart — Sat, 17 Dec 2011 22:47:26 GMT

Web 2.0 has not only changed how we communicate with each other and process information and transactions, it has established a framework for completely transforming how young people learn and teachers teach. With the proliferation of so many new social media and interactive platforms, schools and teachers are maneuvering to try to determine which options make the most sense across grades and ages. The fact that some students learn better when theories and concepts are taught using real life applications is one main reason why educators are anxious to embrace new forms of online simulations as effective teaching tools. The capacity to build virtual networks and classrooms among students who may never be in the same physical space is presenting immense learning opportunities for students. The use of social media to facilitate student exchanges across cultures and other geographical boundaries has elevated the appeal of traditional topics like world history and civics. Our evolving electronic age has dovetailed nicely with educators’ need to develop innovative learning approaches that can lead to much improved academic achievement for students across the learning spectrum.

What we now have is a plethora of online formats that can be employed as traditional and nontraditional pedagogical tools. Something as simple as online research has been useful for introducing young people to the educational benefits of the internet. The integration of social media and other real time venues are promising methods for enhancing the social and communication skills of the next generation, while also exposing them to diverse groups and cultures which they may not have otherwise experienced. With the proper guidance and oversight from their classroom teachers, students are using online formats such as blogs and webinars to enhance their cross-cultural learning. The chance to dialogue with peers from around the world, by blogging and chatting, can serve to enhance the intellectual curiosity of a generation that is basically obsessed with online media. Our task is to make sure that we translate the range of potential across web 2.0, in ways that improve the critical thinking skills of our young people, as well as their capacity to process data and information more effectively. As the adult stewards of the next generation, we owe it to them to adapt and adjust to the prominence of electronic platforms in their academic and personal lives.

The Basics Must Start in the Home

Wana Duhart — Sat, 10 Dec 2011 20:33:20 GMT

Basic respect for authority and discipline must first be taught in the home, primarily so that classroom teachers do not have to spend precious time trying to bring order to their classrooms. Any effective teaching professional will tell you that the last thing they want to be concerned with is unruly and disrespectful students. Justifiably, instructors want to focus on doing what they do best – teach. And so it follows that parents and other adult guardians must do their part to ensure that when the young people arrive at schoolhouses, they are ready to learn. The adults who impact the lives of school-aged youth must instill and teach values and morals that help young people to appreciate and respond appropriately to those in positions of authority as well as the disciplinary structure put forth by teachers and schools. The tone has to be set away from school and we cannot hold teaching professionals accountable for the academic failures of students who either don’t want to learn or don’t respect the rights of fellow students to learn and excel academically. The only way for schoolchildren to appreciate what teachers and educators are trying to do for them, is if they learn important values and the value of education, from someone in the home.

Much has been written about the challenges urban school districts face because so many good and great teachers refuse to teach in urban schools, due to the behavioral and social realities that characterize urban school environments. Even as some of the best teaching professionals choose to work in some of these tough settings, what they find most challenging and seemingly intractable are the routine disruptions and failures that occur when students don’t engage in classroom activities, don’t complete homework assignments, sleep in class, disturb other students, or talk back to teachers. All of these behaviors are mere symptoms that stem from young people not understanding what their responsibilities are as students and not realizing why they are actually in school. If they arrive at school respecting the authority of school officials, then there’s a better chance they can be taught in the classroom. And, if they respect the rules of conduct that apply to their time in schools, then they are more likely to be successful students. The buck begins and stops at home, away from the school building. Parents and other adults, not educators, are primarily responsible for teaching young people about basic respect, order, and discipline.

It’s More Than Academics for Some Young People

Wana Duhart — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 00:28:41 GMT

The “60 Minutes” segment on the daily challenges confronting schoolchildren whose families are homeless and live out of their cars is a stark reminder of how intransigent poverty can be in the lives of even our most vulnerable citizens. We take for granted the extent of the effects of economic hardship on children and youth, in part because we mostly see media images that reflect adult realities like job layoffs, foreclosures, and investment losses. The most heartbreaking consequence of any economic recession is that so many children have to suffer and feel the pain of food shortage, homelessness, and shrinking family resources. Thankfully, America’s most impoverished youth can still count on us to make sure public schools are accessible to them, to at least provide free breakfast and lunch and a sanctuary for learning for at least a good part of a day. And in most communities, there are churches and community organizations that do intervene to fill in the gaps in the lives of local families that do have to live in their cars.

For those of us who have been fortunate enough to escape the struggles associated with the current financial straits facing millions of Americans, we may never truly know what it feels like to have to tell a child that there’s no food for dinner, or no place to sleep for the night or take a hot shower. I salute those parents who are continuing against all odds to provide some semblance of a home environment for their children. It’s a miracle to witness parents and children continue to have hope and faith in the face of dire and threatening family circumstances. The obvious question for those of us who possess good will and a reasonable measure of social and moral responsibility is how do we help fill in the social and economic gaps in the lives of those who are being affected so severely? Are there simple ways to share our own resources in ways that will alleviate the pain and suffering?

What’s most important is that when we do have opportunities to lend a helping hand, we do our very best to make a difference in the lives of our neighbors because we never know when we may need the same spirit of generosity extended on our behalf. You can guarantee that many struggling families never imagined that they would be homeless and sleeping in their cars. We all know how to make cash and food donations to the usual charities and food pantries, but we can do even more to respond to the specific challenges that homeless children and their families are facing – rent or mortgage assistance, permanent work for moms and dads, afterschool childcare. We can partner more closely with local homeless shelters, social service organizations, and churches that house programs dedicated to locating and working with homeless families. These entities tend to have accumulated knowledge and an infrastructure that can facilitate our input. We can also pay attention to our own children, because they know well which of their schoolmates may not have a “home” or may not have things like clothes and school supplies.

So Much to be Thankful For

Wana Duhart — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 02:13:48 GMT

Americans have a lot to be thankful for, even as thousands of people continue to lose homes, retirement savings, and jobs. The loss of material resources and tangible assets must not be the ultimate measure of our security, comfort, and true wealth as individuals, families, or as a country. Families and communities should be comforted by their aggregate capacities to share their resources in ways that can save family members and friends who may have been negatively affected by difficult economic and social times. The current economic challenges that have consumed the lives of so many people for the past few years are an opportunity for all of us to reflect and take inventory of what we do possess spiritually and emotionally. The benefits of life, health, and soundness of mind are priceless privileges that not all people can take for granted. My hope is that we shift our focus away from material losses that are replaceable and toward spiritual and intrinsic values that may not be recaptured or are not at all recoverable at some point along the way.

The United States of America is still a blessed and prosperous nation, and continues to possess the will, spirit, fortitude, and national resources to ensure the dreams and hopes for every American citizen. Because our world has changed dramatically and we are surrounded by evil and uncertain forces that are at once unpredictable and dangerous, we should definitely be thankful for the fact that we are largely safe and secure in our homes, on our jobs, and as we go about our daily routines. For so long, we have been able to take for granted things like the freedom of speech and all sorts of civil and individual liberties, until we have not truly appreciated the restrictions and injustices that hinder so many global citizens. Now is a good time for us to radically shift our energies and priorities so that we exhibit a new sense of humility and thankfulness for what’s truly precious – life, health, freedom, peace, and liberties.

And the Teachers Shall Lead Us

Wana Duhart — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 00:06:35 GMT

Classroom teachers know best what makes them effective and capable of doing their jobs well. These professionals know precisely what tools they need in their classrooms, how much support they need from school officials, and whether evaluation systems are fair and comprehensive enough. In fact, they have never objected to greater innovation and flexibility in classrooms, instead they are the ones who, in many ways, have taught us how to create teaching and learning spaces that are more conducive to student academic success. Effective teachers have been calling for greater parental involvement, improved systems of evaluation and accountability, and professional development programs that support their goals. While the rest of us have been rightfully focusing on the scores of bad and ineffective instructors, the most successful teaching professionals have been perfecting their craft and best practices. Fortunately, the rest of us are finally catching up to them.

After years of observing and consulting with teachers, education stakeholders and entrepreneurs across the spectrum have gained a greater appreciation for the uniqueness and complexities surrounding teacher effectiveness. Even though we’ve known for a long time how difficult it is to replicate the habits, gifts, and practices of great teachers, we are still having a hard time hiring, training, evaluating, and rewarding them sufficiently. Teachers unions, school administrators, and school reformers are finally moving closer to the development of systems and protocols that can yield widespread teacher effectiveness, so that all students can benefit from great teaching. We’re now beginning to understand that it’s critical for evaluation systems to be comprehensive enough so that they allow for the proper rewarding of good teaching and the kinds of supports needed to advance those who are not being successful as instructors.

It’s taken us a long time to truly understand that no progress toward large scale teacher success can occur unless the teaching professionals themselves lead us and teach us what we don’t and cannot know. They’ve taught us that they care about how well they’re doing in front of their students and whether their students are learning at a high level. Just like other professionals, America’s classroom teachers value their craft and expect to be rewarded and corrected based on performance and merit. And they’re open to best practices and systems that have produced results and effectiveness for other professions and professionals. As it turns out, because we have wisely asked our teachers to lead us as we devise better systems of recruitment, training, evaluation, accountability, and rewards, we can see our path forward.

“We Said We Were Doing It On Behalf Of Children, But We Meant On Behalf Of Adults”

Wana Duhart — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 19:21:33 GMT

What a startling admission of truth by an educator who spent decades working in schools as a teachers union member, before she had an epiphany. Those of us who are advocates for full scale public school transformation have known for years that the adults had substituted the academic needs of the students for their own agendas and concerns. It hasn’t been difficult to figure out that the unions and their members were more focused on securing tenure and benefits for all teachers, even at the expense of America’s schoolchildren. No one disagrees that teachers deserve to be treated as professionals and rewarded accordingly; however, it’s been revealing to witness over the past few decades how so many unions have been willing to effectively sacrifice and compromise the educational potential of so many students, in order to gain these advantages. Advocating on behalf of good and effective schoolteachers is both noble and necessary, but many of us have been wondering for years why this can’t be done without jeopardizing the academic success of our young people.

When you read between the lines of statements being made by union leaders and their allies, it is evident that they too recognize that the day of reckoning is upon us. While they may be speaking a language that is nuanced and different from what many education entrepreneurs advance, the issues and critical elements that need to be addressed are the same. For example, there is a real consensus that classroom teachers who are sufficiently competent, trained, compensated, and retained are the key for student academic achievement. Teachers unions and the entire public education establishment know with certainty that we must figure out how to properly evaluate, develop, promote, and incent teaching professionals so that they can be effective in their classrooms. While every stakeholder group acknowledges that teachers must be given the necessary tools and resources for classroom success, each group is approaching the task starting from a different set of assumptions and priorities. This is fine, as long as we all continue to move toward greater coordination and collaboration around those issues that relate primarily to the children and secondarily the adults. If education stakeholders can put aside their bureaucratic allegiances and political loyalties and focus solely on delivering a world class education to students across the learning spectrum, then we know that everything else will fall in place.

Not On My Watch

Wana Duhart — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 17:40:02 GMT

Perhaps the greatest tragedy about American elementary and secondary public education is that the students who live in poverty and come from the toughest neighborhoods and domestic situations are often the victims of some of the worst school environments. Somehow we’ve failed to provide a safe haven and learning sanctuary for talented students who desperately need a place to go where they can feel a sense of value and encouragement. We know that there are scores of gifted young people residing in communities that are saturated by all kinds of negative externalities. And historically, schools had been the one place where many of them discovered and nurtured their gifts and talents to the point that they were able to reach heights that may have been unimaginable. Even today, there are still those students whose academic achievement gives them opportunities in life that exceed their impoverished conditions. However, what’s strikingly different in today’s climate as opposed to just a few decades in the past is that many adults in the room are in no mood to sacrifice on behalf of our students. Whereas you used to be able to take for granted that parents and teachers would do whatever it took to support learning and achievement for our youth, the reality of the 21^st century are the competing agendas and loyalties of the adults in the room.

Despite the selfishness and greed that seem to distract so many adult constituencies in the education arena, there are still enough voices to maintain the volume and accelerate the pace of large scale school reform. Ultimately, parental activism and the broader public concern will elevate and legitimize the efforts of the entrepreneurial movement in public education. It’s time out for playing politics and games when it comes to the education of our youth. Our students deserve better than what a lot of grownups are putting forth. Students can’t learn in physical spaces that are dysfunctional and falling apart, nor can they excel in classrooms where the desks and chairs are broken. Even further, it’s simply not fair to expect learners to meet high academic standards when their instructors condescend toward them and project low expectations of them. We owe America’s students across all income classes, the opportunity to learn in classrooms and schools that reflect not only the highest expectations of them as learners, but also provide the tools and resources that are needed to assist them as they progress. My commitment, along with the cadre of school reformers who make up a wide spectrum of professions, industries, and sectors, is to ensure that every child at least has access to a high quality education at the elementary and secondary levels.

“The Unions Can’t Beat the Parents”

Wana Duhart — Tue, 13 Sep 2011 16:21:05 GMT

As parents focus more and more on the crisis-state of public schooling, they are confronted with the reality that it’s the adults in the room who seem to be confused about their priorities and responsibilities in our schools. Moms and dads are getting to see firsthand how the competing agendas and hidden interests of education stakeholders are major distractions and hindrances to academic achievement for the students. They’re discovering that not all classroom teachers act responsibly or ethically, that some administrators care more about their pay or reputation than the academic success of students.

Parents are also finding out that the elephant in the room may very well be the control and influence that the teachers unions have over the teaching professionals’ freedom in their classrooms. The albatross around the neck of teachers may ultimately prove to be the unions and their political loyalties and agendas. Teachers are being hamstrung by regulations, policies, and procedures that interfere with their daily classroom routines and challenges, as teachers unions focus on issues that effectively hinder the creativity and flexibility of teaching professionals. Classroom teachers certainly expect their union representatives to advocate for them in substantive and useful ways; however, what’s tricky is that the unions promote the interests of the union leadership, as opposed to the priorities of their constituents. Teachers, more than any of us, want to be treated, compensated, and developed as professionals, but not at the expense of less time and space to do what they love to do.

If classroom teachers are not able to keep their union representatives honest and accountable, then we can all be sure that parents won’t get played by the unions. Parents are not conflicted about what’s in the best interests of their children’s education. And moms and dads aren’t obligated to pay any union dues and don’t have to feel stifled by the minutiae of a collective bargaining agreement. What they care about most is placing their children in the learning environment that not only is most suitable for them, but also where the teachers are committed and competent. Unlike the unions, parents want school choices that allow them to choose what’s best for their students. Parents favor teacher evaluations and incentive compensation, as a way of rewarding teaching excellence. At the end of the day, moms and dads could care less about the noise being made by union representatives, especially if the teaching professionals themselves aren’t complaining.

Parents aren’t about to sit back and watch some educators and teachers unions use their students as proxies or pawns in a game, so that the grownups can try to get what they want out of public education, which was never established to serve the grownups in the first place. The rumblings that we’re hearing in communities everywhere are the voices and concerns of moms and dads who are rising up and advocating for new school prototypes and teacher resources and tools that enable the classroom instructors and students to be successful at doing what they do best – teach and learn.

“Overwhelmed, Underappreciated, and Underpaid”

Wana Duhart — Tue, 30 Aug 2011 19:07:00 GMT

These were the comments of a schoolteacher who was deemed to be very successful in the classroom. One wonders if these sentiments are indicative of what most successful and highly effective teaching professionals feel about their jobs. If the education field expects to elevate the teaching profession in ways that attract the highest qualified and highly competent graduates and professionals, then we’ll have to implement incentives, rewards, and systems that support the development and routine activities of classroom teachers so they don’t become so overwhelmed, underappreciated, and underpaid, to a point that they want to quit the profession altogether. The greatest recruiting and training efforts in the world will prove meaningless if school districts and education stakeholders are unable to provide teaching professionals with the tools and pedagogical flexibility necessary for them to be effective in their classrooms.

Instructors deserve to know that administrators and parents alike appreciate and understand the time and teaching constraints that they are confronted with on a daily basis. They must certainly be rewarded and compensated for the seemingly endless schedules they maintain -- planning lessons, responding to parents, evaluating students, and completing the volumes of administrative paperwork. Anyone who has spent time in a classroom knows how easy it is to feel overwhelmed at managing a room full of students who themselves face scores of distractions and choices, inside and outside of school. In an era where there is increased emphasis on accountability and testing, it’s increasingly important that school leaders develop new ways to incentivize the efforts of schoolteachers who are proving to be successful leaders, managers, and instructors of students across the learning spectrum. The changes occurring throughout K-12 public education must be teacher-centric as well as student-centric, especially since these are the two most critical stakeholder groups as it relates to the academic success of students and schools.

Effective Public Schooling: It’s Never Been About the Money

Wana Duhart — Thu, 04 Aug 2011 15:54:05 GMT

Too many people mistakenly blame insufficient funding for the failures and inadequacies of elementary and secondary schooling. The knee jerk reaction to budget cuts in K-12 education is to think that policymakers are shortchanging our schools, when in essence they are doing everyone a favor by challenging school leaders to be more effective and efficient. The education budgets at the federal and state levels reflect the ease with which leaders have been willing to throw billions of dollars at situations that should be addressed by improving efficiencies and cost effectiveness. In American public education, the focus must be on how we are spending money, rather than how much we are shrinking education budgets. We need education stakeholders who are courageous enough to make the kinds of decisions and changes that will lead to a more optimal allocation of dollars between administrative and classroom costs. As we shift the focus from simply increasing expenditures, we will be better positioned to invest in those areas which warrant greater investment -- curriculum upgrades, classroom reengineering, school renovations, new textbooks, teacher incentive pay, and technology.

Not too many decades ago, America’s schools functioned well in many areas, produced graduates across the learning spectrum who were college ready, and were ranked among the best in the world. During that period of time, teachers and administrators did so much more with less, especially when you consider that many schools were still segregated and the allocation of teaching and learning resources were unequal. The passion and commitment of those educators is what stands out in my mind when I reflect upon what worked then as opposed to now. Their resourcefulness and willingness to use what they had, made things work well in the classrooms and the schools. Classroom teachers taught and created, while principals managed and led, utilizing per-pupil expenditures that did not come close to the billions being spent on education in this era. Those educators were passionate about their work and the academic preparation of their students. In fact, many of them excelled despite working in school cultures that did not always support their professional development or the academic success of every student.

The same spirit and passion that existed decades ago is what continues to set apart our best and most effective classroom teachers and school administrators in today’s environment. These professionals perform at a high level in spite of dismal school cultures or funding shortages in critical areas. They do well because they are called to the profession and possess the creativity and flexibility to adapt to less than optimal circumstances. These professional attributes do not cost more professional development dollars. All the money in the world cannot manufacture will, fortitude, and commitment in teachers and school leaders. The American taxpayer has invested enough money into public education; what we need now is a better allocation of those resources by leaders who know how to administer and manage in ways that lead to greater effectiveness and efficiencies in classrooms and schools.

A Line in the Sand: True School Reform vs. Tradition and Old Alliances

Wana Duhart — Thu, 21 Jul 2011 22:12:01 GMT

Traditional civil rights advocates and many of their longtime allies are struggling to justify and explain why they oppose charter schools and other education reform initiatives that largely target and improve the academic prospects for schoolchildren residing in the urban communities that many of these groups profess to care about. It’s no secret that the most effective charter schools across the country serve predominantly non-white students who reside in urban environments. When you examine the performances of the good charter schools, it’s abundantly clear that the academic gains of charter students equal or exceed those of their peers in traditional public schools. These realities beg the question of why anyone who claims to care about access to high quality public education for all children would oppose the development of more charter models.

One reason for the schizophrenia on behalf of civil rights advocates is that many of them ultimately care more about their political and social allegiances than they do about the actual academic success of every child. They are proving that they’re willing to sacrifice the academic achievements of young people in order to maintain their shrinking relevance in a shifting social and political landscape. The fear of change is causing some civil rights groups to take positions that make no sense in the context of student academic progress, e.g. challenging the existence of a charter school based on space sharing agreements that would lead to students eating lunch earlier in the day. This fear is also preventing them from stepping outside of their comfort zones, beyond the grip of the status quo and teachers unions, to embrace innovation and creativity in the delivery of public education.

As fraud, mismanagement, and cheating scandals stifle the progress of a number of urban school systems, parents are gaining a clearer picture of what’s more important to some classroom teachers and school administrators. Educators’ pursuit of job security and personal and professional relevance and stature have led to all kinds of compromise and unethical behavior and practices within their ranks; actions that have hurt the academic prospects for students who are already being poorly served by their schools. As families have gained greater access to school choices and grown impatient with the education establishment, they are not necessarily relying on the judgments and opinions of advocates whose agendas are no longer in sync with the hopes and desires that parents have for their children’s schooling. Families that care about their children’s education have more choices in today’s environment and can choose to relocate their child to a school that is uniquely suitable for that student’s academic needs.

Today’s schools are dramatically different from a half century ago where there was separate and unequal elementary and secondary schools. America’s schools are filled, for the most part, with education professionals who care deeply about the academic success of all students. You can walk in any one of them and marvel at the culture of the schools and classrooms, in comparison to what was the norm fifty years ago. However, there are still low performing and ineffective schools in far too many communities, as evidenced by the low expectations of students, heartbreaking literacy rates, worn out textbooks, and rundown school buildings. Parents, civil rights groups, teachers unions, education entrepreneurs, and educators of all stripes must decide whether they are truly committed to equitable access to high quality education for every child or are they more committed to maintaining allegiances that sacrifice what’s best for students.

Part II: APS Cheating Scandal

Wana Duhart — Thu, 14 Jul 2011 21:49:47 GMT

While it will likely take years to determine the breadth of the consequences and effects from this massive cheating scandal, the most critical outcome is that real damage has been done to the students of the Atlanta Public Schools system. I’m not sure how the administrators and teachers will accomplish the tough task of convincing thousands of K-12 students that the adults actually do care about their academic growth and achievement. Because so many students were aware that teachers willingly gave them test answers from one grade to the next, the school system is tasked with not only changing the culture and expectations surrounding testing, but also instilling hope and confidence in the students’ own perception of their academic potential. There has to be a dramatic shift in the expectations for groups of students who have grown accustomed to teachers who cheat, express little faith in their abilities as learners, and harbor low expectations of them. These young people will need to be re-trained so that they are able to embrace and believe in their own potential for high academic achievement. Every APS student deserves to know that they are not “dumb as hell,” but instead, are endowed with certain gifts and abilities that match their dreams and hopes for school, career choices, and life as a whole.

This marks an ugly chapter in American public education, especially as education stakeholders continue to work so hard at developing solutions and new school models for the multitude of problems in K-12 schools nationwide. Everyone knows that it will take a while to design the kind of comprehensive reform framework that can be adapted based on unique student and school populations. This is why we must continue to exercise patience with the implementation and adaptation of the benchmarks that define the No Child Left Behind legislation. We know that NCLB is not a panacea, but it has given us a good foundation for improving standards and accountability for school-aged youth, their teachers, and schools. In the aftermath of the APS debacle, most people have resisted the temptation to blame the focus on standardized testing for the ethical and moral failures of a segment of classroom instructors and principals. What we can learn from the failures of the APS system is how important it is to design systems, processes, and structures that reward the right actions and maintain a focus on student learning and achievement. The failures of the APS organization expose the risks involved as educators misinterpret and misapply the true goals for raising the standards and improving accountability in our schools nationwide. Education leaders and policymakers never intended for school leaders to employ pressure, fear, and retaliation, as they worked to attain NCLB benchmarks. If we didn’t learn anything else, we learned all over again that teaching professionals and school administrators need more guidance, tools, and resources as they attempt to develop school cultures that match the broader goals for K-12 education.

APS Cheating Scandal: Erasure Parties? Seriously?

Wana Duhart — Thu, 07 Jul 2011 21:36:06 GMT

The investigative results surrounding the standardized test cheating scandal within the Atlanta Public School system cause much hurt and sadness for those of us who care deeply about the education of America’s school aged youth. This is especially true when you consider that the majority of the APS students are from low income groups whose access to meaningful learning options is already limited. The students and parents of the school district have essentially been victimized and failed by almost 200 elementary and middle school teachers and principals who participated in organized and systemic cheating. By any reasonable measure, this is an astounding number of educators to have been involved in this kind of scandal. And to be honest, the whole fiasco feels like organized criminal behavior, like a mob culture in a school district. You simply can’t make this kind of stuff up.

I’ve written about educators cheating when administering student standardized tests in the past, but this one takes the cake. How is it that teachers can plan “erasure parties” that are designed to actually change student test answers? There was a time when standardized test booklets and score sheets were not even supposed to be taken out of the school building by anyone other than those charged with maintaining the integrity and security surrounding the tests. Since when did it become acceptable for teachers to provide students with answers to tests, in place of actually monitoring the students as they complete the tests? Where did we go wrong or better yet, why are so many teachers so willing to compromise the nobility and ethical and moral standards of the profession? Do they not understand or care that they’re actually crippling the students, not helping them, academically?

APS leadership is responsible for allowing a culture that created this kind of organized and systemic cheating across the teacher corps. Whatever pressures, fears, and intimidation that classroom teachers and principals felt related to improving student test scores has to be attributable to an APS culture where integrity, ethics, and morals were not endemic or valued throughout the school system. Leadership failed at the highest level, which means that Dr. Beverly Hall, the outgoing superintendent, is ultimately accountable, even as she denies any involvement or knowledge of what went on in so many of her schools. As the chief executive officer of APS, she should have known. As CEO, her mandate and responsibility are to always have an evaluation or sense for the culture and operations of every school, either through her deputy officials, actual school visits, meetings, or analysis of data and information pertaining to the academic progress of schools.

A few years ago, as Dr. Hall was being recognized as superintendent of the year for the great job she had done in raising the test scores for an urban school district, she accepted the accolades and praise freely and with no noticeable trepidation. In other words, Dr. Hall was given credit for and she accepted responsibility for her work as the leader of APS when student test scores were shown to have improved. However, now that the state of Georgia has uncovered widespread cheating across the majority of APS elementary and middle schools, Dr. Hall is not accepting any responsibility for this tragedy. CEOs are always accountable for the results or performances of their organizations and they should not hide behind the excuse that they were not aware or had no direct knowledge of what was going on. They’re hired and paid to know what is going on across every level of their organizations; their task is to either find out themselves or hire sufficient and competent staff to monitor what’s going on in the trenches and on the ground.

So where do we go from here? One thing for sure is that we don’t give up, because our young people are counting on us to prepare them for productive careers and lives. Parents need to be able to trust educators to do their best to educate their students by applying the highest level of competence, ethics, and professional standards. Unfortunately, in the case of APS, parents must feel as if they can’t win for losing. Many have been led to believe that their children were progressing academically to be ready for grade advancement, based on improved test scores. Now, a whole lot of them are in for a rude awakening as they discover that their children are actually not doing well at all. What’s even more tragic is the fact that students whose scores have been fabricated have been ill-served because they haven’t received the specialized or remedial instruction they need.

The pressures to raise test scores are real and must be addressed as the Congress moves to reauthorize No Child Left Behind. Pressures, fears, and intimidation are real across teacher ranks; however, we must not allow these realities to be used as legitimate excuses for professional educators to engage in cheating schemes. We know for sure that there are excellent teaching professionals all across the nation who would never even think of compromising their students’ education by supplying answers to tests or changing test answers. There are also teachers all over the country who feel the same pressures as those in the APS system, to improve student test scores, but they don’t yield to the pressures to compromise their professional integrity and ethics. These unintended consequences of NCLB must be addressed not only to ensure that the goals for raising academic standards and improving accountability are achieved, but also to make sure that teaching professionals and school administrators are given sufficient tools and resources to prepare students to perform well on standardized tests.

School Leaders Gone Wild

Wana Duhart — Wed, 22 Jun 2011 23:04:00 GMT

When will grownups figure out that public schools exist to serve the students, not the adults? When will school administrators summons the courage and will to make the hard choices related to ideals such as professionalism, accountability, competence, and commitment? Why has the locally elected school board model lost its efficacy to the stench of politics, fraud, and cronyism, largely in districts serving the lowest income students? These are a sampling of the administrative and leadership realities and nightmares that have been brewing beneath the surface for the past few decades, as we’ve watched young people’s education become the sacrificial lamb in this whole fiasco. In the worst performing school systems, there has been a corresponding deterioration of morals, ethics, commitment, and competence among school board members, superintendents, and other administrators, as the academic progress of the respective students has dramatically declined for several decades. It’s not coincidental that the failures and weaknesses in school leadership have led to a point of dysfunction and ineptitude in the schools that so desperately need strong leadership in order to properly educate their students and to survive as places of learning. What it is, though, is a shame and a disgrace that the grownups are too self-consumed to take a stand for the education of our next generation of leaders, managers, citizens, and workers.

I’ve written in the past about the tragedies of leadership and stewardship failures in far too many schools and school systems. And I’m still shocked by recent accounts that detail school leaders who misappropriate funds, perpetrate political and bureaucratic schemes, and engage in corrupt and illegal practices and behaviors that compromise and poison the sacredness of education. It’s beyond comprehension and overwhelmingly amazing that in spite of the severity of consequences facing targeted students and schools, the adults seem to care very little about the academic success of students. Back in the day, you could count on teaching professionals everywhere being good stewards for young people, while they were away from home. You could count on classroom teachers motivating and instructing in ways that nurtured and developed the interests and talents of their students. Principals, superintendents, and school board members used to exhibit an abiding commitment to academic excellence for all students. In the most distressed communities, that level of integrity and commitment may be a thing of the past. The reality of today’s climate is that we’re battling demons in the leadership ranks of K-12 education that threaten the academic, personal, and professional potential for our younger generation.

Bridging the Gap between the School Year and Summer Break

Wana Duhart — Thu, 09 Jun 2011 21:07:57 GMT

As classes draw to a close for the summer across the country this week, parents and students are making their curricular and extracurricular plans with hopes of striking a nice balance between summer fun and summer enrichment. Summertime is not only synonymous with vacations and leisure for our youth, but it has slowly become a strategic time for parents and educators to develop activities for those youth who may need remediation in certain academic areas or for those who choose to pursue advanced and specialized instruction. I’m not sure when the change occurred, but somehow the summer break is being utilized more and more by schools and families to fill gaps in teaching and learning that did not seem to exist in years past. Either teaching professionals were more effective in the past and were able to accomplish their goals and those of their students, or the teacher and student failures that are currently plaguing public education are so bad that it’s taking every school break available just to keep pace. Whatever has happened or changed concerning the effectiveness of teaching and learning during the course of the traditional school year, it’s apparent that the holes and inadequacies that are the result of classroom and school ineffectiveness are being addressed during the summer break.

Even though summer classes and summer tutoring and enrichment have always been a part of the landscape at the K-12 level, today’s public school climate during June, July, and August has taken on a life of its own. This expansion might be attributable to the cultural, social, political, and technological changes occurring globally, or you could simply call it a natural progression for a civilization. Not only have the academic and intellectual requirements increased for 21^st century young people to stay globally competitive, but the incorporation of technology and the cross-disciplinary aspects of learning also warrant new and creative methods of engagement and teaching by classroom professionals. To accommodate this elevation of elementary and secondary education, partnerships among schools, churches, libraries, community centers, businesses, philanthropists, and municipalities are laying the foundation for summer camps and programs that fill the educational gaps in the lives of America’s youth. These collaborations are proving to be critical especially for lower income households that cannot afford the fees that are often associated with the supplementary and remediation programs that are being offered during summer break. The evolution of K-12 teaching and learning coupled with the curriculum downsizing due to budget constraints reinforce the usefulness of summer programs for families and schools, as they pursue the best academic preparation available for their students across the spectrum.

The Global Marketplace: Uncensored and Evolving

Wana Duhart — Fri, 27 May 2011 01:44:01 GMT

On the surface, our globally interconnected marketplace is a great opportunity to exchange products, ideas, and services across continents and industries. However, we have yet to fully interpret the degree of uncertainty, and therefore risk, which is accompanying this global phenomenon. Because there are no established global norms and standards for operating in highly industrialized as well as emerging markets simultaneously, the rules of the game are uneven, unfair, and sometimes unethical. On the one hand, you have countries that customarily subsidize certain industries and accept bribes, and on the other, there are countries which routinely operate with conflicts of interest because they mix public policymaking with private sector interests. These kinds of cultural and political idiosyncrasies make for a real hodge-podge across nations and cultures.

The realities of the global marketplace are forcing all of us to evaluate whether or how much global companies and financial institutions should be socially or ethically responsible for the practices they engage in. The primary focus of most private companies is financial, i.e. profit maximization; however, a good majority of them also hold themselves socially accountable to their internal and external constituencies. The continual evolution of the global free market should self-determine whether companies will gradually respond to a pull to be financially and socially responsible corporate citizens.

The popular reaction, here at home, has been to try and reign in the greed that is rampant on Wall Street, by capping executive compensation and ramping up government regulation of the financial industry. Improving standards for transparency and accountability for Wall Street firms may assuage the fears and hopes of some, but this won’t change human behavior which is rooted in taking and managing all kinds of risk. Policymakers and taxpayers can slow down the perceived fraud, greed, and abuse in the high finance world by not using the services of the investment banks, not patronizing their corporate and institutional clients, and not incurring so much consumer debt. This will dry up that money train quicker than any new government regulation.

Realistically speaking though, our lives and interests are inextricably linked to the products and services that are the result of much of the Wall Street wheeling and dealing—cars, food, travel, homes, electronics, retirement savings, and investments -- you name it, investment bankers finance it somewhere along the way. Policymakers need to resist their knee jerk reaction to always over-legislate or increase regulation when there’s uncertainty, because ultimately, unbridled or inordinate regulation negatively impacts market competitiveness for American firms and industries, at home and abroad, in terms of job creation, implementation costs, and costs to the consumer. Instead, what we need are regulators, policymakers, financiers, and global companies that are committed to interpreting the global market complexities in new and creative ways that produce financially, socially, and ethically responsible global corporate enterprises.

A New American Migration

Wana Duhart — Mon, 09 May 2011 12:16:00 GMT

As many of our nation’s largest metropolitan areas continue on a path toward being overcrowded, overdeveloped, and congested, citizens are losing patience and interest in navigating their daily lives around the challenges that are associated with these realities. People are tired of sitting in rush hour traffic, not only to get to work, but also in their attempts to maybe make it home to have dinner with their families. Even though the cultural, economic, and social options in large urban settings are enticing, they may not be enough to hold people in place. As real estate developers squeeze mixed-use, retail, commercial, and residential projects onto the smallest possible parcels of land, the effect has been a transformation of communities and neighborhoods that used to be livable and viable for the lifestyle patterns of people for generations. The sheer volume of traffic that has begun to overwhelm local streets is not something that has been a welcome sight by residents in these places. Interstate highway systems have also proved not to be sufficient to handle the commuting patterns of workers residing in the suburban towns that are connected to large metropolitan areas. The urban cities that lack a viable commuter rail system are simply going to lose out, because not only are people looking for ways to decrease their dependence on automobile driving and gasoline consumption, but they are also looking to save commuting time and gain a greater peace of mind as they move between home, work, and play.

The original migration of different demographic groups to the larger metro areas has provided enormous economic growth and activity, but there has been a simultaneous strain on the effectiveness of public services and the overall quality of life for many. It’s like a double-edged sword in a lot of ways because while the cities welcome the influx of revenues and economic opportunities for their business community, these same municipalities did not do a great job of planning and allocating resources in ways that accommodated the growth. The poor city planning, lack of foresight, and subsequent poor management of overstretched municipal services has led to overtaxed residents and insufficient services to these same taxpayers. As people have lost patience with an increasing tax burden and dwindling quality of city services, a real shift in the residential preferences of people is occurring. The flight of wealthier taxpayers from urban areas to suburban enclaves and towns is leaving behind a smaller segment of affluent taxpayers to shoulder the fiscal burden along with lower income and less upwardly mobile residents who are becoming the predominant class of urban residents. Unfortunately, what this does is leave an insurmountable financial burden on a group of people who surely cannot afford to finance the level of infrastructure upgrades needed in today’s economy or the previously expanded local city budgets. This reality will undoubtedly lead to insolvent municipalities and scaled down versions of the infrastructure and services that citizens had grown accustomed to.

The shift from the large, urban settings coincides with a growing attraction for the superregional cities that have developed over the past few decades from coast to coast. Families that are seeking the kinds of lifestyle choices that larger cities have offered them are now discovering that medium to large cities are a viable living solution for their needs. These superregional cities have carved out unique niches that feature diversity across their economic and commercial bases, improving school choices, diverse populations, and housing and entertainment options that appeal to upwardly mobile as well as more stable and mature family units. These growing metropolises are also proving to be better positioned to build light rail train systems and other transportation options that bode well for accommodating high levels of growth and migration. The consistent theme in these regional areas is the chance for a higher quality of living that is appealing for the work and leisure interests of a wide ranging population.

School Reform Setbacks? I Don’t Think So!

Wana Duhart — Thu, 21 Apr 2011 20:41:00 GMT

Not in a million years should anyone give credence to the fears and anxiety being conjured up because of recent legislative and political setbacks at the state level, which have not been too favorable toward school choice and reform efforts. This turn of events was surely expected when you consider how deeply systems and structures must be overhauled in order to expose the root of the problems in schools and districts. We’re talking about messes that have lain dormant for decades. We can be almost certain that the plan was for none of the fraud, negligence, and mismanagement to ever be discovered. After all, it has been business as usual for a very long time and no one asked hard questions or offered workable alternatives to the status quo until the real school reformers stepped up a few decades ago. The traditionalists and their cronies are going to fight hard to avoid being exposed for their decisions and actions that can truly be described as criminal when you consider the permanent damage that has been done to the lives and potential of this generation of young people. The millions of dollars being dedicated to the policymaking and political arenas is essentially a testament to the growing strength of the larger school reform movement. If some people could have their way, public education will never return to its glory days, because their primary concerns are basically job security, padding their pockets, and promoting their agendas, never mind educating the students.

We’ve known for a very long time, that real, substantive, and lasting transformation of public education would be a very long and arduous fight. Some people have the scars to prove how tough the fight has been. There are far too many constituencies in K-12 education, and most of them have their own hidden and self-serving agendas. They are not about to allow change to take place without a serious fight to save and protect what they perceive as theirs. Too many education stakeholders are threatened in their psyche and in their careers by reform that they didn’t create or can’t shepherd. In their minds, they have too much to lose. What they are failing to acknowledge is that it is the students who have too much to lose if we maintain the status quo. People are not going to sit back and watch their ideas, pet projects, influence, and financial and career stability be replaced by innovation and creativity, even if it has been proven to benefit students.

At the end of the day, those of us who care deeply about American public education can’t be deterred or distracted by temporary legislative and political defeats. We cannot allow eleventh hour strategies to derail progress, whether it is big or small. Our eyes must stay on the prize, because we are already witnessing the dawning of a new day in K-12 education. The range of success stories is all the evidence we need to gain the public’s confidence in our intentions and our results. The reform genie has been out of the bottle for a long time and the train left the station two decades ago. America’s schools are on their way to something much greater than what we’re witnessing today. It’s going to take endurance to withstand the opposition, fear, and rhetoric whose goals are to distort and confuse the success stories that are emanating from all corners of the landscape. This is the battle that we have chosen to participate in and we must maintain our patience, perseverance, and positivity, because the day of reckoning is closer than we think.

Schools are Anchors for the Students and the Communities

Wana Duhart — Fri, 15 Apr 2011 02:00:00 GMT

Most of the discussion surrounding school improvements relates primarily to the impact that enhanced teaching and learning will have on the academic achievement of students. Rightfully so, our attention and resources are being focused like a laser on ways to elevate classrooms and schools so that all students gain access to a high quality education, in suburban, rural, and urban districts. As cities and states strategize about where to build new schools and how to develop resource and space sharing solutions within shrinking budgets, their property leases and acquisitions are likely creating opportunities for other people, firms, and organizations that want to provide or market goods and services to students and their families. Perhaps unintentionally, school leaders are playing a role in the ultimate development of healthy, productive, and sustainable environments where students and families live, learn, work, and play. School construction efforts are essentially creating atmospheres that are conducive to all kinds of services and retail activity. Educators and their partners are sharing in the revitalization of downtown and urban areas by simply relocating or rebuilding crumbling school buildings in places that had become depressed or suffered due to economic downturns or business relocations.

The elephant in the room is the reality that high performing schools can make or break the appeal and vitality of neighborhoods and communities, in the eyes of parents as well as prospective community stakeholders such as real estate developers, residents, and businesses. As the lowest performing schools face closures, many of the surrounding neighborhoods will undoubtedly suffer as well, because most of the schools have existed for decades and represent stable community institutions for the neighbors. Similar to the loss of retail outlets, grocery stores, libraries, and recreational centers, the closure of a longstanding school can create the kind of void in a community that can almost suck the life out of places where they’re already barely holding on. This explains why members of some communities lobby hard against closing schools in areas that are already struggling to maintain a sense of relevance. The emergence of K-12 schools in distressed areas is one of the best decisions being made by education leaders because of the potential for growth and vitality across so many sectors of a community. This not only benefits the academic needs of the local student population, it also creates environments that attract enterprises like ice cream parlors, dry cleaners, gas stations, and movie theaters, all of which respond to the everyday needs of students and their families.

Philanthropy Without Borders

Wana Duhart — Fri, 01 Apr 2011 20:46:00 GMT

Recent philanthropic announcements remind us that billionaires are just as compassionate and charitable as any average citizen. Some want others to believe that financially prosperous people are not altruistic or caring citizens. For some strange reason, there is this myth that billionaires and the wealthiest among us are all greedy and self-consumed, and could care less about those who happen to be less fortunate or the suffering and hardship that is all around us. There is a tendency to demonize individuals and institutions for their wealth accumulation and how they choose to spend their resources. Legitimate or not, these criticisms cannot be ascribed to wealthy philanthropists who dedicate much of their treasure to causes much greater than themselves and their own circumstances. Contrary to popular belief, our nation has historically been inspired by the willingness and capacity of wealthy elites to donate large portions of their fortunes to needs and organizations that impact people’s lives in profound ways for generations. For people all across the economic spectrum, personal philanthropy choices and decisions are very often grounded in the belief that “unto whom much is given much is required.” This sentiment knows no boundaries and is exhibited by people and organizations that possess large as well as small fortunes. Real, meaningful, and lasting philanthropy originates from the heart and must not be judged or critiqued.

Bill and Melinda Gates, along with Warren Buffett have established a new model and precedent for billionaire philanthropists. Their recent challenge issued to fellow billionaires to donate most of their riches to address the major issues confronting us domestically and abroad is an amazing call to action, especially during an era in which unusual times do warrant unusual sacrifice. This goes well beyond the notion of equal sacrifice. Aside from the fact that the Gates family fortune has been primarily dedicated to very large and seemingly intractable social and public health challenges, this level of giving sets a new standard and displays real philanthropic leadership. These kinds of efforts dispel the myths and criticisms that are so easily hurled at financially prosperous people. The wealthy class of society is no different than any other economic class, meaning some wealthy people and some not so wealthy people are more inclined toward philanthropy. The ties that bind us are our concerns for the conditions around us and a sense of compassion that causes us to share our wealth in ways that respond to human suffering and social needs. Surely we can all rejoice and be glad about a spirit of generosity that leads to the mitigation of suffering for many as well as solutions to social or health problems that have persisted far too long. Ultimately, philanthropy in and of itself is better than none at all, especially if there are no strings attached.

Teaching is a Collaborative Art

Wana Duhart — Thu, 24 Mar 2011 18:39:00 GMT

The beauty of K-12 education is that teaching and learning take place in ways that accommodate collaboration and teamwork among teaching professionals across grades and cohorts. Unlike postsecondary education and beyond, early cognitive learning and maturation occur along a continuum of skills and aptitude development that is not necessarily quantifiable by a certain grade level or attributable to a particular teacher or class. This uniqueness about elementary and secondary education underscores why it will be difficult to devise teacher evaluation methods that focus primarily on the success of the individual classroom teacher. Just as tests are not always good indicators of student achievement, evaluating individual teaching professionals is not the panacea for measuring classroom success. It is true that classroom teachers must be evaluated based on their own competence, preparedness, and professional development, as one critical component of an evaluation process; however, a larger aspect of the assessment process must concentrate on the efficacy of teacher cohorts. The very nature of K-12 teaching requires the kinds of evaluation systems that account for not only individual capability but also the art of collaboration and teamwork among lead teachers and those not as experienced.

Developing teacher evaluation systems that make sense in the context of how teachers teach and students learn is going to be one of the most difficult aspects of elevating the delivery of K-12 public education. Even though most agree that an important element of the evaluation process is student achievement, there is a wide range of opinion about how to isolate and measure the range of factors that affect the teaching and learning that goes on inside and outside of classrooms. Not only is it virtually impossible to identify all of the sources of learning in young people’s lives, it is hard to categorize objective measures of teacher effectiveness because you don’t always know what or to whom to attribute success. For example, is the teacher, parent or personal tutor responsible for the reading progression of a child? It does seem evident that new means for measuring teacher effectiveness will have to incentivize and reward teaching professionals based largely on the work of cohorts. This makes the most sense and it also places the responsibility on school administrators to recruit and train highly competent professionals for their classrooms while also creating school environments that are conducive to the kinds of collaboration and teamwork that produce great teaching and academic success for students across the learning spectrum.

Many of the proposed teacher evaluation systems that are being reviewed don’t even fully account for the fact that student learning and development that is occurring beyond classrooms and schools is not necessarily measurable or even attributable to classroom teachers. A fair amount of student academic success being exhibited on assignments and tests, and expressed in classroom activities is a result of dedicated academic exercises in their homes, private tutoring sessions, or academic initiatives sponsored by community organizations, churches, and other enterprises. These family and community interventions highlight the need for teacher evaluation methods to focus more on teacher cohorts. Placing individual teacher effectiveness at the heart of any evaluation system could unfairly reward individuals for student academic success that may not be to their credit, but could be the result of externally-sponsored enrichment programs and initiatives designed for school-aged youth in targeted schools and communities. It would make more sense to reward an entire teacher corps, as opposed to individual teachers, especially in schools and districts whose students and families are participating in programs and activities that are being funded by outside entities or the families themselves. The efforts of classroom teachers, families, community organizations, and all kinds of stakeholders reveal that teaching is truly an art of collaboration that links everyone who cares about teaching and learning at the K-12 level.

A New Era of Austerity: The Economic Downshift

Wana Duhart — Wed, 16 Mar 2011 20:20:00 GMT

As everyone struggles to come to grips with whether America is still in the midst of an economic downturn, the reality is that there has essentially been an economic downshift. Families, businesses, philanthropists, and governments at every level are redefining how they invest, spend, and save in an environment that is increasingly uncertain and competitive. Economists and pundits are desperately trying to forecast the point at which our economy will kick into overdrive once again, but they’re failing to acknowledge that consumers and investors do not intend to return to the undisciplined and overzealous patterns and behaviors that caused so much financial and personal hardship for families, enterprises, communities, and governments. While financial institutions and retailers are hoping and praying that buyers and sellers have not lost their appetite for greed and excess, people and entities are exhibiting more fear and austerity than anything else. People’s worlds have been turned upside down as their home values and investments have declined dramatically and their upward mobility is not as promising as a few years ago. When you add up the disappearance of personal wealth and equity, you get a populace that is downsizing in every way imaginable. The ripple effect of personal decision-making on growth and profitability in the business sector spells corporate downsizing as well as business dissolutions. Private sector investment, marketing, and distribution strategies are going to have to shift in ways that account for a consumer base that has shifted toward frugality and basic necessities and away from an inclination to overindulge.

As government downsizing reshapes the extent and form of benefits and aid that is provided to recipients, the shock waves are proving to be hard to digest for everyone affected. The impending cuts in entitlement programs and the elimination of targeted government agencies promise to alter the fiscal habits of people across the income spectrum. Even though most people recognize the need for governments to address deficits and debt levels in a substantial way, it becomes real when you realize that there is pain and sacrifice to be felt by practically everyone. This new age of austerity for federal, state, and local governments means that economic and social gaps will have to be filled by citizens, volunteers, communities of faith, nonprofits, and all kinds of firms and organizations who may have the human resources and expertise necessary to respond to the kinds of needs that people are accustomed to receiving from the public sector or purchasing on their own. These are opportunities for entities in every community to create new avenues of relevancy and efficiency in the surrounding areas. There has to be a renewed sense of volunteerism and altruism as we all cope with and adjust to the kinds of cutbacks and setbacks that people and enterprises will continue to experience as America’s economic paradigm shifts.

Equal Sacrifice

Wana Duhart — Tue, 08 Mar 2011 23:07:00 GMT

The day of reckoning has finally arrived as governors and state legislatures struggle to close budgetary gaps that have been mounting for years. Shrinking revenues, underfunded pension liabilities, increasing healthcare costs, and expanding entitlement program costs have blown large holes in the budgets of states large and small. Fiscal watchdogs have been predicting for quite a long while that states would eventually have to make tough decisions which would dramatically impact the expectations and benefits of public employees, retirees, and recipients of social programs. Were it not for the current economic climate, state officials probably would not be so intent on implementing drastic changes in their revenue and cost structures. The economic uncertainty and fragility are perhaps a blessing in disguise because the hard financial decisions must be made sooner rather than later. Some states have already waited too long and passed the buck too many times. Whereas states used to be able to depend on cash infusions from the federal government, that is a thing of the past because our federal coffers are depleted and in the red, and will be for a very long time. These are moments in history that will reflect whether policymakers can summons enough courage to restore the fiscal health of their states to a point that will once again signal prosperity and stability for future generations.

The path toward fiscal soundness at the state level will require equal sacrifices from all public sector beneficiaries as well as a hard and honest review of all public expenditures. The unfortunate realities of the current fiscal crises is that expenditures in areas such as public education will be largely impacted as they account for a large percentage of the overall budgets and have been expanding dramatically for years. Regardless of the shouts for not cutting education spending, states must reign in the waste and inefficiencies that continue to cause too much money to be spent on school administrative costs versus classroom costs. While school infrastructure and curriculum costs do justifiably warrant increased levels of spending, nonessential personnel and excessive overhead costs need a hammer applied to them. We all support funding initiatives that recruit, train, and compensate highly competent classroom teachers, and we fully comprehend the need to elevate how and what students learn. However, most people want honest and open dialogue and negotiations among all education stakeholders about the real costs and benefits of public education finances.

There’s no more time for posturing and politicizing about classroom costs, teacher compensation, and school renovations, to name a few. The timidity that allowed policymakers to procrastinate about making hard and painful cuts in social programs and public employee benefits packages will no longer suffice because everyone’s back is against the wall. Benefits and pay cuts will likely affect existing public employees as well as retirees. Everything’s on the table now – collective bargaining rights for public employees, benefits programs for those who are currently employed and retired, and the accounting for the liabilities which underlie public pension obligations. Across the board scale-backs will be more palatable if the public sees that everyone is sharing in the austerity measures. The challenge for governors and legislators alike is to sacrifice political allegiances and politics for sound fiscal policy decisions. These times demand leaders and decision-makers who can resist the temptation to do nothing substantive but exhibit the kind of boldness necessary to produce fresh new ideas that will transform state fiscal policies.

What is Really Going On?

Wana Duhart — Thu, 10 Feb 2011 20:03:00 GMT

We are still justifiably trying to figure out why so many students are performing so poorly in schools, what we can do to transform teaching and learning, what accounts for the sharp decline in high school graduation rates, and how we can reclaim our nation’s academic prominence at the K-12 levels, just to name a few of our concerns about the state of public schools in America. Did the world change that much over just a couple of decades? Have our culture and priorities shifted in such a way that we’ve forgotten that a strong educational system has been the foundation for our global preeminence? Who dropped the ball? Did our national commitment to educational access and equity for all children change? These are all rhetorical questions that describe the education quagmire that continues to befuddle and mesmerize anyone who is even remotely concerned about the future for the younger generation. It’s not fair to say that our young people are more distracted and care more about being “cool.” Generations of students have always cared about being “cool” and socially acceptable, and distractions are not a new phenomenon. The difference today is that media and technology have provided young people with sophisticated tools for communicating and sharing with each other. What’s also different now is that parents and educators have fallen behind the students in terms of understanding how young people view and organize their academic and social lives. The adults must continue to embrace the positive aspects of social media and networking because there are infinite ways of using these phenomena to more fully educate and train students academically, socially, and culturally.

Are our challenges in public education more a function of the adults’ inability to properly interpret the shifts and changes going on around us all? Are the adults so unwilling to move beyond the status quo and tradition in education that they will fail to embrace the kinds of new teaching and learning methodologies that can be tailored especially for a generation of students who will learn, create, develop, and communicate in an era of technological explosion? Are we missing opportunities to advance elementary and secondary education to levels that reflect the realities of this century? Is it ultimately the grownups in the room who are the ones stunting the academic success of the younger generation, and not the youngsters’ antipathy toward education or the so-called distractions and preponderance of media and technology in their lives? W e know from years past that parents, classroom teachers, school officials, and the larger communities are responsible for role modeling and setting the stage for our youth as they define their priorities and interests in life. This hasn’t changed – we just need to step up to the plate and be honest with ourselves and the young people who we must steward and teach so that they can be successful leaders, citizens, and managers in a world that will be unlike what we have known to date. Our youth deserve courageous leaders who are willing to step aside or step down and allow education innovators and entrepreneurs to come in and implement the kinds of teaching and learning practices that reflect fresh ideas and perspectives. At the end of the day, the guardians of our youth must do the hard work to create the right academic solutions for a generation of students who are indeed gifted and talented, but may only respond academically to innovative teaching and learning that incorporate the tools that have become indispensable to them.

We Can’t Forget About Our Most Vulnerable Students

Wana Duhart — Thu, 03 Feb 2011 11:29:00 GMT

With all the promising school reform initiatives springing up in cities everywhere, one of the unfortunate realities is that many of our lowest academic performers will not be beneficiaries of these innovative efforts for reasons that have nothing to do with the mission of schools. Even as most people understand how critical it is for those at the bottom of the performance ladder to have highly competent and experienced classroom teachers, this truth is being ignored in the most challenged districts. Given the need to supplement in-school time with afterschool tutoring and remediation programs for those groups of students who are not reaching their academic potential, we are discovering that school leaders are rejecting these interventions without substantiation. While research and practice reiterate the importance of what’s essential for basic academic achievement, there are still scores of young people in the lowest performing school environments who may not benefit from the best practices and innovations in teaching and learning that are being implemented in schools that are committed to their mandate. The dysfunctional school cultures and incompetent leadership that are plaguing school systems that are supposed to serve the most vulnerable students and communities leave the casual observer pretty much speechless. There has been no time in this country’s history whereby we have witnessed patterns of apathy, fraud, and irresponsibility among school leaders in underserved communities like we’re seeing now. There is simply a blatant disregard for responsibility in leadership and a gradual deterioration of concern for educating the young people in the most academically challenged school communities.

The school systems that are producing the worst academic performances among student groups are being hamstrung by school boards who make personnel decisions that have nothing to do with the record of a superintendent, principals who care more about job security than exhibiting courageous leadership, and teachers who would rather provide answers to a test than actually teach. Students simply don’t have a fighting chance when the school culture breeds low expectations, cronyism, apathy, and no accountability. It’s unconscionable that so many school officials in the toughest communities seem to be unfazed by the effects of poor academic performance on their students. These realities are absolutely a tragedy that will reverberate in a variety of ways in the young people’s lives, families, and surrounding communities. The kids are victims of their circumstances and are being used as pawns in the games being played by the adults whose mandate is to educate them and provide educational leadership. Just as people all across the nation are recognizing the urgency surrounding the state of public schools, the educational establishment in some of the most vulnerable school districts is essentially making a mockery of its role as educational steward for the young people they are supposed to serve. The only saving grace for the students is that these educators are being exposed and will have to give accounts for their irresponsibility and apathy.

The Power is With the People, Families, and Communities

Wana Duhart — Thu, 20 Jan 2011 11:06:00 GMT

The changing economic landscape, domestically and globally, is creating opportunities for American citizens in particular to reexamine how we govern our individual and family lives, our values and priorities regarding personal consumption, spending, investing, and responsibility, and how and whether we possess the will to hold corporate and governmental institutions accountable and responsible for their fiscal and social decision-making and practices. The real power lies with the individual, their families, and larger communities when it comes to deciding whether or how financial resources are spent and allocated, which companies benefit profit-wise, and how taxpayer dollars are being prioritized. In the marketplace, our power is evident as we choose which companies to purchase from and invest with. In politics, we elect and remove legislators who don’t fulfill their promises to us. Citizen groups reject the expansion efforts of certain retailers into their communities if they deem them to be disruptive or unappealing. Now more than ever, the public at large must refocus and shift away from the undisciplined and irrational habits of recent years. We need to enforce our economic, social, and political capacity to be more responsible and informed consumers, investors, citizens, entrepreneurs, and voters.

While our tendency has been to want to blame someone for our pain, we really need to look in the mirror and examine our roles in creating the economic mess around us. It was individual zeal and greed that fueled the economic frenzy which has left so many consumers feeling duped and angry. We want to throw hot coals at those corporate and financial giants that reaped the financial rewards as a result of the public’s excessive consumption. The fact that so many of these firms are still standing while workers, families, and communities are still reeling from job losses, abandoned and foreclosed homes, and shrinking budgets breeds contempt in the same marketplace whose growth and exuberance was created by intense consumerism and patronage. People fail to realize that you can’t have it both ways -- you either consume more wisely or you suffer the consequences of unbridled spending and investment practices. Contrary to popular belief, the free market is not set up to benefit solely firms and entrepreneurs with large amounts of capital to expand and invest at their leisure. An important cog in the wheel of capitalism is the decisions and choices of the individual and corporate customer that spur economic activity at the lowest levels. The American consumer must exert its economic power in the marketplace and rethink its economic priorities, which will serve as a reminder and clarion call to the companies and financial institutions that rely on our deposits, investments, and purchases to maintain their own profitability and competitiveness.

As families, businesses, institutions, and governments scale back and redefine how they invest, hire, lend, fund, and spend resources, an era of austerity and frugality is being ushered into the American psyche that is long overdue. The irony is that the same companies and banks that produced goods and services, and engaged in marketing and advertising practices which motivated excessive consumer spending are now in a position to help people dial back their spending and consumption habits in ways that should produce moderation and sensibility. The current economic, social, and political challenges in this country should help us all refocus on what we value personally, spiritually, corporately, and as a nation. The shifting global landscape is causing individual firms, global conglomerates, and sovereign nations to adjust to the decisions being made by foreign investors as well as global competitors. The kinds and extent of government intervention that marked the 20^th century are truly a thing of the past, and the sooner people realize it, the better off they’ll be. The chickens may have finally come home to roost as it relates to government spending and the fraud, waste, and abuse that has accompanied too many of our federal government programs. America’s bad habits and fiscal irresponsibility render that kind of government intervention impossible in today’s climate. The politicians who are still trying to force new heights in government economic stimulus are doing so at the expense of our nation’s fiscal soundness and fiscal credibility around the globe. For those who refuse to see these attempts for what they really are or who want to believe otherwise, should only hope they aren’t still living when the ball drops on the American taxpayers. The power to change our bad habits is at hand; our task is to choose to embrace the opportunities to shift our thinking and practices to match our personal and national values and priorities.

Reviving a Culture Where Education is Fundamental

Wana Duhart — Wed, 12 Jan 2011 23:14:00 GMT

I’m not sure when or how we allowed ourselves to slip into complacency regarding the importance of education in this nation, but somewhere along the way the role of academic achievement or advancement has diminished to a level unseen in previous generations. As far back as the eye can see and the mind can remember, a critical element of the American way has always been to strive to enhance one’s basic knowledge, information, and skill set, whether through K-12 education, postsecondary schooling, professional training, continuing education, or even on-the-job training. At a minimum, it was understood that a person would at the very least graduate from high school and either enter the work force or pursue higher education or some other form of training. Dropping out of high school used to be at a minimal level and certainly not even close to the 50% dropout rate that we’re witnessing nationwide. For years, colleges, universities, vocational, technical, and trade schools have offered the gamut of degree programs, licenses, and certifications in practically every profession and vocation imaginable, which has served to accommodate the widest range of academic and career interests. There is literally no excuse for the level of apathy toward educational achievement that we are witnessing, because there is a training and education format available in the marketplace to fit practically everyone’s liking or circumstance. While we can hypothesize about how we got to this place of seeming indifference toward educational success for all students, it seems we must first reestablish our commitment to the critical role that educational achievement has for every young person, regardless of their station in life.

Recent history reminds us that Americans from all walks of life valued education to some extent, as a means toward improving their own marketability/employability and life choices. What we are facing today is a popular culture whose priorities and values ignore the basic principles for how we became a great nation. High performing public schools and strong student academic performance have always been the underpinning to our prominence as one of the most successful industrial nations. America’s commitment to high quality K-12 schooling continues to be the first step toward making sure that we maintain our strong competitive and influential positions around the world in so many spheres. Families, schools, communities, and the government have consistently been critical stakeholders for securing academic success for every child. There used to be a shared responsibility among parents, teachers, and everyone else to fulfill the larger mandate for an educated and informed citizenry. How we got away from such a broad-based commitment is hard to figure out still today. Perhaps adult preoccupation with self-gratification and materialism coupled with an unwillingness to work hard at defining what’s gone wrong in our schools might be at the core. The range of distractions being lobbied at young people today may be making it impossible for certain groups of students to even understand why a basic educational foundation is necessary. The younger generation will be responsible for shepherding in a new era marked by global, economic, and geopolitical shifts like we’ve never seen in our history, and all of us have a part to play in making sure that they are well prepared for the kinds of demands, challenges, and uncertainty forthcoming globally. The whole village has to act like and communicate to all who will listen that education will always be the gateway to ensuring that this country has the highly skilled, informed, and trained leaders, workers, managers, and citizens needed for us to maintain global preeminence across the board.