Schools with access to the Internet can now join an ongoing discussion of Essential school principles, practices, and activities via the Coalition’s Web site at http:// www.ces.brown.edu. The site posts regular reports on actions of the CES National Congress, allows text searches of Coalition documents, and invites participants to contribute to an interactive on-line conversation. No password is required.
“What does it mean to me, personally, to be an anti-racist leader?” asks Glenn Singleton, the president of Pacific Educational Group in Palo Alto, California, who works frequently with California’s Essential schools on issues of equity, leadership, and whole-school reform. To answer that question, he made up the following list: I am abnormal. I do things outside what is seen
Randy Wisehart and his team partner at Hibberd Middle School in Richmond, Indiana ask their eighth-grade Humanities students to suggest and defend their own course grade, using a number of instruments including this final exercise: Please indicate your self-assessed grade of ____, and support your opinion with your work from the nine weeks??specifically, your written work, book reviews, daily assignments,
Principle 10: “The school should demonstrate non-discriminatory and inclusive policies, practices, and pedagogies. It should model democratic practices that involve all who are directly affected by the school. The school should honor diversity and build on the strengths of its communities, deliberately and explicitly challenging all forms of inequity and discrimination.” The room crackled with energy and tension as the
No individual has all the skills–and certainly not the time–to carry out all the complex tasks of contemporary leadership. –John Gardner, On Leadership Coalition principles assert that teaching and learning should be personalized to the maximum feasible extent and that “to capitalize on this personalization, decisions about the details of the course of study, the use of students’ and teachers’
Horace editor Jill Davidson met with four Bay Area educators—Michelle Lau, math teacher at Fremont’s Irvington High School, David Montes de Oca, educational strategist at Oakland’s Urban Promise Academy, Monica Vaughan, teacher-leader at Oakland’s Street Academy, and Michele Dawson, technology coordinator at Daly City’s Jefferson Elementary School District—for a roundtable discussion on leading for equity. All four are current or
Students are too often the forgotten heart of school reform-its whole purpose and its major resource. how can their power be nurtured and tapped as schools work toward more active learning, more personal and decent school climates, and higher standards and expectations? THE KIDS PILED OUT OF VANS into the May splendor of the summer camp nestled in the New
Make a list of your favorite kids among those you teach. Then disaggregate the list, breaking it down by family income or status, by color, by gender, or by any other group traits. Do patterns emerge? Define for yourself what prevents kids in the bottom quartile of your classes from achieving at high level. What specific strategies do you employ
by Bill Johnson, National Re:Learning Faculty Just as a learner’s permit allows students to develop the skills of driving under the tutelage of a responsible adult, this advisory curriculum gives them a framework in which they take gradual responsibility for their own success a system of performance tasks, initially in a coached and guided environment, but finally on their own.
by Bill Johnson, National Re:Learning Faculty Just as a learner’s permit allows students to develop the skills of driving under the tutelage of a responsible adult, this advisory curriculum gives them a framework in which they take gradual responsibility for their own success a system of performance tasks, initially in a coached and guided environment, but finally on their own.
1. The school should focus on helping students learn to use their minds well. This includes helping students to: make connections between subjects; understand instead of memorize; go beyond set expectations (do extra credit work because they want to!); and develop life skills (think critically and logically and communicate clearly). Academics should be the top priority of the school and
Students at the Alternative Community School (ACS) in Ithaca, New York voted in 1998 on a Constitution that designates who makes which kinds of decisions at the school: The ACS staff shall have purview over: Joint student/staff curriculum committee to survey students, design curriculum, with final approval by staff Which teachers teach which classes Requirements and attendance policy of each
Tolerance.org A project of the Southern Poverty Law Center, Tolerance.org features extensive civil rights-related resources for teachers, parents, teens, and younger children. The teachers’ area reflects the work of the Teaching Tolerance project, known outside the web for Teaching Tolerance magazine, and includes information about grant programs for student projects focused on equity, a wide range of anti-bias curricula, an
Center for Social Organization of Schools, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD; (410) 516-8800 (410) 516-8800 . Resources and research on effective schooling of disadvantaged students. Web site: http://scov.csos.jhu.edu/ Education Trust, Education Watch: The Education Trust Community Data Guide provides help to local communities that want to pull together basic data on educational attainment, achievement, and practices. 1725 K Street NW, Suite 200,
Stage 1: The Honeymoon This is terrific; finally somebody cares what we students think. This school is nothing like what I’m used to you have freedom and you can do whatever you want. Do not be lulled by the students’ euphoria. This will not be easy; their joy will not last without some hard work in setting goals and parameters
“I have come to see white privilege as an invisible package of unearned assets which I can count on cashing in each day, but about which I was “meant” to remain oblivious,” wrote Peggy McIntosh in a groundbreaking 1988 essay that laid the foundation for contemporary discussions of privilege systems. McIntosh, who is Associate Director of the Wellesley College Center
Equity Democratic education raises issues of equity and deals with structural inequality. Political engagement Democratic education raises political and social issues and sees the global in the particular Participatory classroom processes Democratic education provides students with choice and authority in the classroom, both individual and collective choice. Community Democratic education is concerned with the nature of relationships in the classroom.
A host of studies have documented the inequities that face students in United States public schools, and the bitter consequences that they produce. Among the most recent research are studies that show: The education of the adults in the family is critical for family income. The proportion of adults who are not in the labor force and the proportion who
In an ethnographic study of a kindergarten class in an inner-city school, Ray Rist showed that within eight days the teacher had grouped the children-not by academic indicators, but according to skin color, behavior, clothing, hygiene, and previous experience with siblings. Subsequent academic placement tests bore out the teacher’s expectations, and by the end of first grade the teacher’s initial