Tag Archive for 'Higher Education'

Who’s To Blame for Bad Schools? Look in the Mirror

Published by Robert Pondiscio on January 27, 2009 in Education Leadership, Education News, Higher Education and Parents. 16 Comments

<a href="http://youtube.com/watch?v=OXQs8ykQ0dg&amp;feature">http://youtube.com/watch?v=OXQs8ykQ0dg&amp;feature</a>

Nevada’s public education system is a “disaster” says the state’s university chancellor, and Nevadans have no one to blame but themselves.  In a remarkable and scathing “State of the System” speech ostensibly to rail against proposed cuts to the state’s education budget, James Rogers calls Nevada’s parents to account.

The state of K-16 education in Nevada is where the public–that is you out there–has allowed it to sink.  Your only relationship with the education system is to ship your unprepared kids to school not with the expectation of success, but with the demand that an education system, inadequately funded, develop and/or repair children that you as a parent did not prepare for school or support while your children attended school.  If you want a competent and productive education system, tell your Governor and legislators to fund it. They do what they think you want them to do.  That’s why they’re called public servants.  It is the public–that means you– that has created this disaster of a public education system. 

It’s a blistering Jeremiad.  Nevadans once hoped to see their kids go to college, but today are satisfied if their children graduate from eighth grade, Rogers says.  And don’t blame educators for the state’s poor schools.  The founder and owner of Sunbelt Communications Company, which owns and operates 16 NBC and FOX affiliate television stations in five western states, Rogers says when he became Nevada’s chancellor five years ago he came to the job with a sense that education was “an overweight, lazy, unproductive massive intellect, with no direction and little desire to get there fast.” 

Well I have looked at the alleged inefficiencies, not only in higher education but in K through 12.  The majority of educators work very hard, are much smarter than their critics, and are far more organized and efficient than their critics.  If they have a shortcoming it is that they are for the most part not aggressive, mean-spirited people, but are instead caring, concerned individuals who want to teach, not fight….and the success of your children is more important than their own success.

Neither are school administrators to blame, according to Rogers.  “I have looked at the administration of the education system,” he notes. ”I find them no less productive than the administrators of the television stations I own or the banks of which I have served as a board member over the last 28 years.”

The state’s Republican party has fired back saying Rogers “owes every caring parent in the state a public apology.  For Chancellor Rogers to blame the failure of the government-run education system on parents is nothing short of outrageous.”

Rogers aired his speech on his Nevada TV stations.  You can watch it in two parts on YouTube, Part I here, Part II here.

White House Full of Teachers

Published by Robert Pondiscio on November 6, 2008 in Higher Education and Teaching. 3 Comments

It’s common knowledge that President-elect Barack Obama taught constitutional law at the University of Chicago Law School for over a decade.  We’ve also read quite about about the career of Jill Biden, the wife of the future V-P, who teaches community college English in Delaware.  But this almost certainly the first time that the President, his Vice-President, and their spouses all have direct experience working in education.  Michelle Obama works for University of Chicago Hospitals, while Joe Biden has also taught constitutional law for many years as an adjunct professor at Widener University School of Law.

What It Takes: Mentors, Motivation, Moxie and Moms

Published by Leanna Landsmann on June 24, 2008 in Education Leadership, Parents and Students. 2 Comments

Every June we’re treated to cap and gowned seniors en route to their high-school graduations, proud families in tow. We smile and give them a ‘thumbs up.’ But we must also pause to see the drop outs as clearly as the graduates.

How did these students persevere when so many with so much more fail? What’s in their secret sauce? Can it be bottled for others?

One million students drop out of high school each year. The literature is packed with reasons: poverty, lack of college-bound culture at home, poor performing schools, low expectations and high pressure to reject academic success, too few great teachers and counselors. What more can the “village” it takes to raise a child do to prevent this?

As board chair of Greatschools.net, an organization that helps parents put their kids on a path to college, I stew about this more than your average Jane. After umpteen decades of ‘school reform,’ I’m angry we’re still slogging in place.

So I look forward each March to a call asking, “Do you want to review scholarship applications again this year?” I drop everything to pour over submissions from high-achieving, low-income New York City seniors who, if chosen, will get a generous four-year free ride to college from a family foundation with a bold-face name. From several hundred applicants, three-dozen are chosen to be interviewed. From that group, the foundation selects 25.

Continue reading ‘What It Takes: Mentors, Motivation, Moxie and Moms’

Healthy, Wealthy and Whitmire

Published by Robert Pondiscio on June 17, 2008 in Research and Reports. 0 Comments

College students who are “morning people” may have a higher chance of graduating near the top of their class according to a new study (Hat Tip: NYC Educator). Researchers at North Texas University found early birds had an average grade point average (GPA) that was a full point higher than night owls: 3.5 vs. 2.5.

Richard Whitmire must have been valedictorian. The USA Today scribe has an interesting new edublog. Check out what time that man has been posting.

All Roads Lead to Early Childhood Ed

Published by Robert Pondiscio on June 12, 2008 in Research and Reports. 0 Comments

Want to know who will have the toughest time passing high school exit exams? Look at 4th grade test scores, grades and classroom behavior. A study Public Policy Institute of California, reported in the L.A. Times, will come as no surprise to 4th grade teachers:

The findings, based on an extensive study of student achievement in San Diego schools, call into question the effectiveness of aiming significant efforts and tens of millions of dollars at struggling high school seniors and older students to help them pass the exam.

The report recommends “moving a portion of these tutoring dollars to struggling students in earlier grades — when the students are still in school — could be a wise choice. An ounce of prevention could indeed be worth a pound of cure.”

Makes perfect sense, intervene early, and the earlier the better. I would wager real money that I could predict today which of my 5th graders are likely to graduate high school with a fairly high degree of accuracy based on their elementary school performance, and in most cases, the die was cast before they walked into my room. The battle is won and lost at an early age.

Update: Joanne Jacobs, who has probably forgotten more about education in California than I’ll ever know, is also on this.