They’ve been called unlikely allies. Polar opposites. A political odd couple. And yet, at the request of President Obama, Newt Gingrich and Reverend Al Sharpton set aside their political differences to join U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan on a national education tour.

Admittedly, I wasn’t quite sure what to make of this unlikely trio when I first reported on the story three months ago. Then last Sunday morning, as I watched them sit down to be interviewed on Meet the Press by host David Gregory, I was pleasantly surprised, and dare I say, more than a little impressed.

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After graduating from college, I spent a year as a teacher’s aide in an elementary school. My purpose was two-fold: to figure out if I wanted to change the direction of my career from psychology to education (the answer was yes), and to spend a year immersed in the day to day life of different classrooms so I could observe various teachers in action.

And observe I did, for hours each day. I remember drawing my own private conclusions about which teachers are “good” and which are “bad,” but if ever asked to explain my assessment, I’m not sure if I would have been able to. What exactly makes some teachers more effective than others? Is it their communication style? The curriculum they use? How well they know their students? And if a particular lesson is not successful, what should that teacher do differently the next time?

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When I was a teenager in high school, we didn’t wear uniforms. At least not officially. Whatever clothing items were most in style at the time is what most kids wore, with one fad sweeping like a wave over the student population only to be replaced by another several weeks later. Of course, the coolest kids were always at the head of the trend while the un-cool kids (like me) either bucked the trend on principle (who would want to wear stone washed jeans anyway?) or caught on a little too late. Violations of the school dress code (i.e. no ripped jeans or t-shirts with inappropriate slogans) were kept to a minimum, and to tell you the truth, I was so uninterested in fashion that I probably would have been happier wearing a school uniform instead.

Apparently, those were simpler times. According to a recent article, school dress code has become a contentious issue as of late with a growing number of teenagers using clothing to express, experiment with, and confound conventional forms of gender identity and sexual orientation.

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We do not need to invent sustainable human communities. We can learn from societies that have lived sustainably for centuries. We can also model communities after nature’s ecosystems, which are sustainable communities of plants, animals, and microorganisms. Since the outstanding characteristic of the biosphere is its inherent ability to sustain life, a sustainable human community must be designed in such a manner that its technologies and social institutions honor, support, and cooperate with nature’s inherent ability to sustain life. - Fritjof Capra, cofounder of Center for Ecoliteracy.

This week (Nov. 9-13) is sustainability education week which promotes the growing movement to teach children in K-12 schools about sustainable living. Read the rest of this entry >>

In recent months, the federal government has made it perfectly clear that one of its key education reform goals is to turn around the nation’s chronically under-performing schools. In fact, President Obama pledged to devote billions of dollars to fund a federal school turnaround program which would close 5,000 of the lowest performing schools in the next five years and reopen them with new principals and teachers.

But as many school districts are finding out, putting the nation’s worst schools on the chopping block is proving to be an arduous and painful process, and the desired results aren’t always achieved.

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There are some non-profit education-based organizations whose mission and programs are so uniquely effective that they become stand-out models for others to emulate. I recently discovered Community of Unity in New York City which is definitely one such program.

Founded in 2001 by Eric Komoroff,  Community of Unity (CofU) aims to help young people discover and develop their unique potential and purpose (their “song”) using seven essential life skills (or “instruments”):  self awareness, self esteem, sense of humor, empathy, integrity, responsibility, and focus. Learning how to use these skills empowers youth to make more positive choices for themselves and transform their own lives.

According to the CofU website:

Community of Unity bases its curriculum on the premise that by building successful peer-to-peer and peer-to-adult relationships over multiple years, youth are provided opportunities for belonging, space to build essential life-skills, and are able to grow their connection to family and community.

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All eyes were on New Haven, Conn. last week when the teachers’ union, in a 21-1 vote, overwhelmingly approved a new contract to go into effect next year.

The contract, which includes changes typically eschewed by unions such as performance pay for teachers and the option to shut down and reorganize failing schools, is being widely hailed as “historic” and “a national model for reform.” In the words of  AFT President Randi Weingarten:

This is both a collective bargaining agreement, as well as a process that should be analyzed through virtually all the public school districts throughout this country as a model of both process and outcome.

And according to U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, the New Haven contract:

shows a willingness to go into areas that used to be seen as untouchable. This shows real courage on the union’s part.

But does the contract actually live up to all of this hype?

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It is with great sadness that I share news of the passing of renowned education reformer Theodore R. Sizer (June 23, 1932 – October 21, 2009).

Ted began his career in education as an English and mathematics teacher in Massachusetts. By age 31, he had already earned his doctorate, published two books, and was named dean of Harvard’s Graduate School of Education. As years went by Ted began to miss teaching, and eager to return to his work in schools, resigned as dean in 1972 and accepted a position as headmaster of Phillips Academy—an historically all-boys school that became co-educational under his leadership.

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I think former Secretary of State Colin Powell put it best when he said:

When more than 1 million students a year drop out of high school, it’s more than a problem, it’s a catastrophe.

Dropout rates across the country, and in major cities especially, have reached epic proportions. According to a recent study, almost half of all public high school students in our nation’s fifty largest cities fail to graduate.

Without a high school diploma, these individuals have a greater chance of experiencing unemployment, becoming dependent on government assistance, and moving in and out of prisons. They earn less money, contribute less to the economy, and wind up costing the country hundreds of thousands of dollars over the course of their lives.

The state of Massachusetts has decided to take the proverbial bull by the horns and launch a multi-pronged attack to cut its dropout rate by at least half. In 2008, a special commission headed by secretary of education Paul Reville was created to develop dropout prevention strategies. One of their proposals: To make dropping out of high school before age 18 illegal.

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Ever since President Obama announced that $100 billion of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) funds would be given to Education, I’ve been following the money trail, month after month, and writing about where it leads.

To that end, I just finished reading a report released jointly by the White House and the Department of Education entitled “Educational Impact of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.”

The 20-page document is a preview of the first official quarterly report, to be posted by the Recovery, Accountability, and Transparency Board on October 30, which will be a detailed account of all expenditures to date.

According to preliminary estimates, 250,000 education jobs were retained or created across the country thanks to ARRA funding. These jobs include teachers, principals, and support staff in elementary and secondary schools, as well as educational, administrative, and support personnel in colleges and universities. (The document mentions that since states are still finalizing their ARRA reports, this initial number is an estimate subject to revision. In fact, according to the New York Post,  the number of teaching jobs saved in New York City is actually 14,000, which is considerably higher than the 4,000 listed.)

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