Archive for December, 2008

Obama’s team seeking ideas

Wednesday, December 31st, 2008

I’ve been impressed with the open government and participatory elements of Obama’s transition team, working off their highly participatory and empowering campaign including my.barackobama.com.  This is a great sign that government may begin to get a bit more open, participatory, and democratic, where members of the public and public officials can share ideas and work together.  While this blog is dedicated to uniting education policy with our democratic values, a good case could be made (and has been by such thinkers and doers as Francis Moore Lappe, Noam Chomsky, and Howard Zinn, among others) that our government itself is not always a beacon of democracy.  So in this context it is especially exciting to follow the President-elect’s transition to the Presidency.

On it’s transition website, Change.gov, the Obama team has set up several forums and tools to solicit comments and feedback from the public, including their Open for Questions (submit and rate questions to the transition team), Your Seat at the Table (where you can read and submit detailed policy proposals), and Discuss tools. Take a look and take part.  This is democratic education at the broad public and political scale!

Numerous organizations and websites are out there supporting open and participatory government.  One that I go to quite a bit and whose blog I subscribe to, techPresident, is a great one for insightful analysis of the link between technology, politics, and open government.

Another, Change.org (not to be confused with the Obama transition website, something I found myself guilty of when initially writing this post!) has created an open interactive website for brainstorming, discussion, and the bubbling up of the most popular ideas and suggestions to improve society.  From their site:

Today as citizens of the world, we face a daunting array of social and environmental problems ranging from health care and education to global warming and economic inequality. For each of these issues, whether local or global in scope, there are millions of people who care passionately about working for change but lack the information and opportunities necessary to translate their interest into effective action.

Change.org aims to address this need by serving as the central platform informing and empowering movements for social change around the most important issues of our time.

I only recently discovered that Change.org was soliciting ideas from the general public across a broad array of topic areas.  Users could submit and vote on ideas, with the top 3 in each category going to a final round and then the top 10 overall being presented at a Change.org press conference in January.  Each of those 10 will also be supported by a national advocacy campaign.   Pretty exciting!

The first round has ended, but the final round voting begins on January 5th.  Unfortunately, I only learned about this a day or two ago and submitted my idea only hours before the first round deadline.  You can still see it here:

Education Guided by Democratic Values

Another idea I was excited about,  Replace No Child Left Behind With a Strong Education Policy, was number 4 in Education, meaning (I think) that it will not make it to the next round.   It finished so close with 2027 votes to the 2058 of the 3rd place winner, Mobilize mentors, tutors, and “citizen teachers” to help kids succeed.  Supporting young people to be able to spend time with caring, mentoring adults is a great “idea” as well, and so I encourage people to consider jumping back on Change.org in a few days and voting to make that idea one of the top 10.

Let’s hope the U.S. government with Obama at the head, and education policy with former Chicago schools  chief Arne Duncan, continues this degree of participation as we go forward into 2009 and beyond.

Happy New Year!

Posted in Democratic Education, Education Advocacy, Education Policy, Obama and Education | No Comments »

Parent-teacher-STUDENT conferences

Sunday, December 28th, 2008

I had the pleasure of waking up to The New York Times this morning in Minnesota, where I am for the holidays.  My in-laws receive the Times on Sundays, along with their great local paper, Pioneer Press.  But being from New York, I do admit to a special connection with the Times, a paper I have subscribed to when I lived in Michigan, Albany, NY, as well as summers in Minnesota.

Amidst other year-end news, I was happily surprised to find in the National section an article entitled, “The Parent-Teacher Talk Gains a New Participant.”  The subtitle is even more provocative: “Schools Bring Students Into the Process.”  Here’s a blurb:

Student-led conferences are gaining ground at elementary and middle schools nationwide, said Patti Kinney, an associate director for middle-level services at the National Association of Secondary School Principals in Virginia.

Although researchers have long hailed the benefits of such conferences — anointing students as the main stakeholders in their education, accountable for their performance during the school day and responsible for their academic future — their popularity appears to be increasing in part because of the rapidly shifting demographics at public schools nationwide.

The article describes how in several communities with large numbers of immigrant and working-class families, student-led conferences bring more parents into the schools.   That’s a laudable goal, and one I applaud in and of itself in terms of engaging families in the process of education who may not otherwise feel comfortable in educational conversations or meeting one-on-one with a teacher.   Young people’s familiarity with their teachers and schools can be an important bridge to engaging their parents in dialogue about education and their children’s lives at school.

I thought this was an excellent article, one that highlights the significance of the voices of young people and their parents.  There are pearls of wisdom sprinkled throughout the piece, such as:

“…a true dialogue concerning a student’s academic progress is impossible without both the child and the parent engaged and present,”

…and this quote from a mother who attends a school that involves students as leaders of conferences: “‘My daughter is learning that the teacher is not responsible for her learning. Cierra knows that she is responsible for her own success.’”

There is also a reference to other members of families being invited to attend conferences at some schools, including grandparents, siblings, and aunts and uncles.  That made me think of powerful forms of authentic assessment in which students give presentations and defenses of their learning to the school community and family members, such as what goes on at the New York State Performance Standards Consortium schools, or at democratic schools such as The New School in Delaware and Jefferson County Open School in Colorado.

It is just a short leap from involving students in conferences with parents and teachers to involving students in designing and presenting assessments of learning (in fact conventional wisdom, something I find myself parting from more often than not, might sooner support greater voice for older students, which is why this article particularly caught my eye).   And perhaps just another couple of small steps to involving students in other realms such as conflict resolution, curriculum development, school-wide decision-making processes, and educational policy-making forums.

We can begin to climb these steps together if we open the educational dialogue with this key principle noted in the NY Times article: “students as the main stakeholders in their education.”  Start there and the rest follows suit.

A final note – what’s especially exciting to me is that this article discussed a practice of deep, genuine student voice in a completely natural and comfortable way that the broad public can appreciate and rally behind.  I believe there’s something there to learn from in terms of how to advocate successfully for youth voice and democratic education.  Let’s take note.

Posted in Democratic Education, General Education News, Youth Voice/Youth Rights | No Comments »

“Edupunk”

Sunday, December 21st, 2008

The term “edupunk” made it into the New York Times list of 2008 buzzwords.  Here’s their description of the term:

 Edupunk: A style of hands-on self-education that benefits the student without concern for curriculums or the interests of schools, corporations or governments. In other words, an autodidactic approach that spurns commercialism, mass-market approaches and top-down goal-setting. Coined by Jim Groom, an “instructional technologist” at the University of Mary Washington in Fredericksburg, Va.

Check out Wikipedia’s entry for Edupunk, and consider expanding the article.  It could use some references to educational philosophies that have been around for decades or even centuries: democratic education (that Wikipedia article needs to be created and not just re-directed to democratic schools, but that’s another conversation), libertarian education, Summerhill School, self-directed learning, student-centered education, unschooling, and more.

I especially like the Wikipedia list of autodidacts.  It includes Mark Twain, whose notable quote I just saw on an Eco-Pack cereal bag from Nature’s Path, namely: “I have never let my schooling interfere with my education.”  (Sorry for the corporate reference, though an organic cereal – among other products – company that uses eco bags for packaging is not such a bad company to highlight, is it?)

Anyone interested in helping to flesh out Wikipedia’s articles on education and democratic education-related issues?  Let me know.

Posted in Democratic Education, General Education News | No Comments »

Student Action at The New School

Thursday, December 18th, 2008

Students at The New School are taking action as I write this (Thursday evening, December 18, 2008) to raise the profile of their objections to The New School President Bob Kerrey and other university leaders, and to call for greater student voice in decision-making.  The students have taken residence in the school cafeteria and have quickly put together a website called New School in Exile,” a New School in Exile blog (which is being updated several times an hour), a Facebook group, and a document (PDF) outlining their position and what they are seeking.  Students are apparently coming and joining from other institutions as well.

I’m still trying to learn the background to this situation and what the issues are.  I’ve generally thought highly of Bob Kerrey, the little I knew of him as a politician and President of The New School.  And while I can’t say I support all the various wishes of the students without learning more, those advocating for democratic education can strongly identify with those that call for greater student voice and socially responsible actions, specifically:

Students, faculty, and staff elect the president, EVP, and Provost.

Students are part of the interim committee to hire a provost.

Intelligible transparency and disclosure of the university budget and investments.

The creation of a committee on socially responsible investments.

Money towards the creation of an autonomous student space.

Money towards scholarships and reducing tuition.

Money for the library and student life generally.

Rich Gibson of The Rouge Forum provides some interesting perspective in an email message sent out this evening as an “extra edition” to the regular Rouge Forum Update:

Students at the New School in New York City seized their buildings and are holding out for the demands listed below.

This direct action follows student uprisings in Greece and France in the last ten days and parallels the sit-down action by workers at Chicago’s Republic Works.

The building seizure is precisely along the lines that the Rouge Forum urged for a decade and shows, once again, that student action can spark social resistance–and reasoned analysis– involving poor and working people who hold the power to bring real transformation.

You can find links to coverage and videos of The New School in Exile group at their site and blog, and I’ll look to add updates here as they come.

Update December 19, 9am:

Students with The New School in Exile appear to have received a response from administration at The New School that agrees to several of the points the students sought, including greater student voice at the university by having voting status on Provost and President search committees and representation at the Board of Trustees meetings, as well as the establishment of a Socially Responsible Investing committee for the university’s endowment. Full report on this response on the students’ blog.

Posted in NYC Education, Youth Voice/Youth Rights | No Comments »

Critical Friendship in Schools

Tuesday, December 16th, 2008

Over the past few years I’ve had the opportunity to learn about the concept of “critical friendship” in schools, as a way in which to bring people together in open conversation, examine our assumptions, and re-think how we do things to improve education and better support young people.  Many books and resources advocate for dialogue-based school reform, often with the term “professional learning communities.”

One of the leaders promoting critical friendship and open dialogue in schools is the National School Reform Faculty, based at the Harmony School in Bloomington, Indiana, and it is through attending several workshops and NSRF-led events that I have gained a great deal of respect and appreciation for this approach.    From NSRF’s website:

The mission of the National School Reform Faculty is to foster educational and social equity by empowering all people involved with schools to work collaboratively in reflective democratic communities that create and support powerful learning experiences for everyone. …

At the heart of NSRF’s program are the concepts of Facilitative Leadership and Critical Friendship. We have learned that Critical Friendship, an essential ingredient for learning communities, is best achieved through providing deliberate time and structures to promote adult growth that is directly linked to student learning. Facilitative Leadership skills are needed to engage school communities in this practice, and are valuable for all leaders—school leaders, classroom teachers and district administrators.

Specifically, NSRF promotes protocols and critical friends groups (CFGs) as conversation structures that support people to release their egos and listen deeply to the dilemmas and comments of others.  After some experience with these protocols, I have found how incredibly rare that kind of conversation is, as most people, including myself, often try to dispense advice from our own perspective without really understanding the context of another’s issue.  Not only do these structures help us better listen, it forces us to step back from the habitual patterns of our own thinking and look out with new eyes. And for that, the value of CFGs and this type of open dialogue cannot be under-estimated.

Here’s a link to an Educational Horizons interview in PDF with Daniel Baron, former co-executive director of NSRF.  It’s an excellent and thorough introduction to the theory and practice of NSRF.

Still, coming from my belief in the importance of youth involvement in educational discussions and school change, I must also admit that professional learning communities in general and specifically NSRF’s approach initially struck me as unfortunately missing the voices of young people, focusing mainly on empowering dialogue among teachers.  And while I haven’t dropped that critique, I realize that it is important to consider NSRF’s work in relation to the current structure of schools and education policy, which largely leave out not only students but also teachers (and parents and community members).  What NSRF has created is an entry-point that all schools, public and private, can connect with: increasing dialogue among teachers seems basic and a no-brainer while also holding the seeds for deep reflection and change.  Moreover, if the principles of democratic education and youth engagement are to find greater play in U.S. education, advocates need to embrace diverse approaches that come at the same goals from varying directions.  In my view, NSRF’s critical friendship is an important part of that broad movement for democratic educational change: all schools could benefit from critical friendship-style conversation about what they do.

There are direct and indirect ways in which the critical friendship inherent in NSRF’s approach can have a powerful impact on the lives of young people.  The direct way is that through critical friendship, teachers hear new ideas about teaching and learning and may potentially re-think their assumptions about education and young people.  Just recently I participated in a protocol discussion at an NSRF workshop in NYC in which a teacher was seeking ways to respond to student work so as to build trust with her students.  After asking clarifying questions about her class and assignments, the group gave the teacher warm and cool feedback about what she has previously done, and then engaged in an open dialogue about what would help her in her situation to build relationships with students.  A good discussion that brought out many helpful ideas.

Indirectly, CFGs are based on the idea that everyone is an expert, that everyone brings knowledge and wisdom to the table – including students.  I’ve had discussions with various facilitators of NSRF work and teachers who are part of CFGs, and many knowledge (with positivity and support) the notion that the principles and practices of CFGs can and frequently are brought to and with students, to engage young people in the same kind of open dialogue.

Here’s one example: I had the honor to be part of a group facilitating a Teen Summit in Mississippi in early 2008 to address drop-out issues.  Leading this effort were several facilitators and youth engagement leaders connected wih NSRF and the Education Commission of the States, who used NSRF-style protocols to engage the 1000-plus students (and teachers from their schools) in dialogue covering the reasons why young people drop-out and what can be done to change this.  Most excitedly, youth on the State Superintendent of Education Hank Bounds’ Youth Advisory Board co-facilitated the event.  Through the structure of the protocols, young people delved into these questions and gave the Mississippi Education Department and other state leaders powerful insights (PDF) into the culture of schools that further disengagement and drop-out, and how schools and society can change to be relevant and engaging to students.

Participating in that event in Mississippi demonstrated the power of engaging diverse groups of people through tools such as NSRF and CFGs and that such engagement is a key piece of democratic educational change, especially when teachers and young people come together to hear each other openly and equally.

Posted in Democratic Education, NYC Education | No Comments »

Education and Human Rights Day

Wednesday, December 10th, 2008

I’ve been thinking about the concept of human rights since realizing late last night that today, December 10, is International Human Rights Day, honoring the UN General Assembly’s adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.  And in fact this year is the 60th Anniversary of that historic document.

(As an aside, I find it interesting that it was a random email message from a friend that drew my attention to this day – that’s likely a sign of my own lack of awareness, but perhaps also indicating a general lack of attention to the significance of human rights in society.  I was also surprised to see no mention of the day and anniversary in today’s New York Times, although the “Call in gay” event taking place today has received a good deal of press and was built to coincide with Human Rights Day).

In browsing for mentions of Human Rights Day on blogs and news sites, I came across a post entitled “Respecting Human Rights” from regular DailyKos diarist, teacherken, who frequently writes there and elsewhere about education from a progressive student-centered perspective.  In that post, or diary in DailyKos-speak, he describes the various ways in which the current (almost former) administration and the United States has disregarded the Declaration of Human Rights.  Among other issues, teacherken mentions Article 26 on the Right to Education and how our education policy has “forgetten (sic) about the full development of the human personality in our narrowing of the curriculum because of our overemphasis on test scores.   It IS a human rights issue.”

To repeat and quote teacherken, education “IS a human rights issue.”

I’m copying here my comment to teacherken’s diary:

Great diary.  As a fellow educator, I wanted to highlight your citing the education article in the UDHR, especially it’s focus on “the full development of the human personality.”

It is deeply disturbing that while we claim to be a democratic society based on universal rights, there is a wide disconnect between those values and our educational practice.  Young people live in a school-world of standardization and competition, yet where is the “full development of the human personality” and the support of each unique individual?  Where is the respect for young people as human beings deserving of these rights (and those in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child)?  How can young people live to create a more democratic and human rights-based world if their schools are so un-democratic and disrespectful of human rights?

I echo Teacherken’s words: “I hope we do take the time to consider how much better our behavior and the world as whole might be were we to take the lead in promoting the priciples of this document,” and think that if we truly wish to live as a democracy with human rights, then we must think especially of how we treat young people and education.

I wish for everyone a peaceful and inspiring International Human Rights Day, and send out the hope that our schools and education system will one day reflect the democratic values and human rights that we as individuals and a society hold as foundational to our country and to our existence as human beings.

Posted in Democratic Education, International News, Youth Voice/Youth Rights | No Comments »

NYC Education Activism

Friday, December 5th, 2008

In the past couple of weeks I’ve had the opportunity to get to know folks from the NYC Student Union, a student-run group advocating for greater youth voice in the New York City education scene.  They meet weekly, and have several exciting projects in the works (check their website and blog for more information).  One of their project ideas is to connect the various education activist groups in the city so that they can know about each other and work collaboratively.  It’s a great project, and it made me want to sit down and try to draft a list of some of the great NYC education activist groups working out there.

So, here is my list of NYC Education Activist groups (admittedly this list focuses largely on groups that take a progressive, democratic, and justice-based approach to educational change):

Youth-led:

  • New York City Student Union: A completely student run organization whose missions are: To act as a powerful, collective voice for New York City students that can defend the rights we are so often deprived of due to lack of organization; To give students a voice in the decisions made about our own education…; and To provide communication between students from all ends of the city.
  • Sistas and Brothas United: SBU’s mission is to develop the leadership of youth in the Northwest Bronx community who are concerned with the conditions in their neighborhood, interested in developing creative ways to address these problems in concrete ways, and believe in their own ability to build people power to hold all public officials accountable for the decisions they make.
  • Urban Youth Collaborative: Brings New York City youth together to fight for change through local and citywide organizing strategies. We strive for social and economic justice throughout our communities—overcoming obstacles to make sure youth voices are heard and youth empowerment is emphasized.
  • Youth Researchers for a New Education System: A diverse group from all over New York City (NYC) who have come together for a common goal: to be instruments of change in the NYC public school system. Because of our experiences as public school students and now researchers on public schools, we are yaerning for something enormous: radical change within the NYC public education system.

Teacher-led:

  • New York Core of Radical Educators (NYCORE):  A group of public school educators committed to fighting for social justice in our school system and society at large, by organizing and mobilizing teachers, developing curriculum, and working with community, parent, and student organizations.
  • Teachers Unite: Seeks to redefine public education by rebuilding the relationship between teachers, students, families and communities as partners in the struggle for social and educational justice.

Adult and Youth-led:

  • Fertile Grounds Project: FGP’s mission is to provide young people with the space, tools, and support they need to take control over their own educations and build an identity in a world where they can belong.
  • Future Voters of America: A multi-cultural, nonpartisan organization incorporated in 1995 as a 501(c)3 non-profit. We propel the youth voice forward by empowering young people to set an informed and responsible political agenda.

Community-led (multi-generational):

  • Make the Road New York: Promotes economic justice, equity and opportunity for all New Yorkers through community and electoral organizing, strategic policy advocacy, leadership development, youth and adult education, and high quality legal and support services. Make the Road New York has centers in Bushwick, Brooklyn, Woodside and Jackson Heights, Queens and Port Richmond, Staten Island. Our membership comes largely from these and neighboring communities, but our advocacy work has citywide reach.

Adult-led:

  • Class Size Matters: A non-profit organization of parents and concerned citizens dedicated to achieving smaller classes in New York City and in the nation as a whole.
  • CUNY Graduate Center Participatory Action Research Collective: The PAR Collective dreams wildly about critical inquiry, social theory and the politics of social justice for youth. With the craft of PAR, our projects seek to reveal theoretically and empirically the contours of injustice and resistance while we challenge the very bases upon which traditional conceptions of “expert knowledge” sit.
  • iCOPE: A volunteer, citywide collective and the founding organization of the Education is a Human Right campaign. iCOPE believes that system transformation based on Human Rights principles, not merely a change in governance, is needed to create schools that meet the needs of every child and place greater power in the hands of parents, students, educators and school communities.
  • National Economic and Social Rights Initiative – Human Right to Education Program: Works with education advocates and organizers to promote policy change in public education using human rights standards and strategies. NESRI believes that human rights offer a framework for how to transform our public schools based on internationally recognized standards of equality, accountability, dignity and community participation.
  • Time Out From Testing: Time Out From Testing is a statewide coalition of parent, educator, business, community, and civil rights organizations in New York State committed to a “time-out” from excessive and high stakes exams.

Parent-led:

That’s at least a start.  What groups have I missed?  Post your comments and suggestions.

Posted in Democratic Education, Education Advocacy, NYC Education, Youth Voice/Youth Rights | 2 Comments »