MI-LIFE

Instructional Coherence, Culture and Capacity

Each piece of a jigsaw puzzle has a small part of a picture on it and when the puzzle pieces are fit together they produce a complete picture.  The jigsaw puzzle is a metaphor for the three courses of the Instructional Leadership Unit--Coherence, Culture and Capacity--and their impact on the "big picture," student achievement. No one piece is more important than the other; without all three pieces in place, student achievement can be compromised.

In what ways are these three pieces interdependent?  What happens if one piece of the puzzle doesn't fit with the others?  What are the corner pieces that need to be in place to ensure that the puzzle fits?  Comment on the interdependence of instructional coherence, school culture, and building capacity.

Extreme Makeover - School Edition

The original Extreme Makeover was a television program from ABC in which individuals volunteer to receive an extensive makeover in Hollywood involving plastic surgery, exercise, new hairdos and wardrobes. Extreme Makeover: Home Edition began broadcasting in 2004 as a regular TV series in which a family's house, including all rooms, exterior and landscaping, is made over by a team of builders and designers in seven days while the family goes off on vacation.

The idea behind EM: Home Edition is to put together a very run-down house, a deserving family, a team leader and several opinionated designers to build a new house, all in a race against time. The end result is that the lives of the lucky families are forever changed.

I am advocating for a spin-off of this series titled Extreme Makeover: School Edition where the makeover doesn't just change faces or facilities, it pushes the limits of what's possible in transforming education and the lives of the lucky students are forever changed.

We have all the necessary "ingredients" to validate the need for Extreme Makeover: School Edition -- outdated systems and deserving kids. We also have a ton of experienced (and, yes, opinionated) educators. And we certainly are in a race against time. Graduation rates are falling, we are losing our edge internationally, and evidence suggests that schools are a long way from leveraging technology's potential.

Our current system of education is not meeting the needs of our students. Statistics show that students dropping out of school don't do so because they are failing; they do so because they are disengaged, disinterested, and see their time spent in school as irrelevant.

We are in a state of urgency to provide 21st century solutions so our children can successfully compete in a new global economy. Here’s my challenge: If you could contribute to the new series, Extreme Makeover: School Edition, what would you recommend for the next-generation school and why?

--Marion Ginopolis

Cross-posted on LeaderTalk

Technorati Tags: school_reform Extreme_Makeover_School graduation_rates dropout_rates

Laptops vs. Librarians

In a recent 2 Cents Worth blog posting, David Warlick expresses his outrage, "They are laying off librarians in Michigan, and BUYING LAPTOPS!" citing his source as one Michigan librarian with whom he talked, who as it turns out, is the president-elect for MAME, the Michigan Association for Media in Education, at whose October 27-28 conference Warlick was a presenter. MAME is a professional association of library media specialists.

What is misleading here is the implication that Michigan prioritizes the purchasing of things over the retention of critical staff positions. Further, it implies that there's a correlation between buying laptops and laying off librarians and that this is a cause and effect relationship. (Actually, classroom teachers are being laid off also here in Michigan.)

Nothing could be further from the truth! The funding for staff positions and Michigan's 1:1 Laptop initiative, Freedom to Learn, are from two completely different sources; the first from the school district's general fund and the second from federal and state allocations that are specifically dedicated to this initiative. In other words, the money to purchase laptops can not be used to pay for staff positions.

The importance of librarians is not my issue here. I certainly support Warlick's contention that "both are important." In fact I believe both are critical and I'm sure there is more current research to support the importance of school librarians than the 14-year old citations in his posting.

My concern is misleading information from which readers draw inaccurate conclusions and, in this case, negatively view our state and perpetuate dissatisfaction with the "system." Perhaps the culprit in this instance is the school district for not properly communicating with staff the reason for layoffs and clarifying the differences in funding sources for equipment purchases and personnel.

Regardless, as educators, we continually whine about the media dragging us down with misinformation, partial truths, and negative press. I would hope that our valuable educational blogs don't begin to do the same.

--Marion Ginopolis

Technorati tag: warlick

Agnotology and Accountability

Here's a new word which came across our desk from the October issue of eSchool News--agnotology...the cultural production of ignorance.

Well, maybe the word isn't that new. As a matter of fact, Stanford University hosted a conference last October on the use of agnotology in medicine, biomedical ethics, geography, and the history of science. Robert Proctor, a professor from Stanford, explained in the Stanford Report published just before the conference that we know quite a bit about how we know, but very little about why we don't know, explaining that ignorance is frequently created or maintained, sometimes purposefully or not. Proctor uses the example of the tobacco industry which, because of its lack of publicized research about the cancerous effects of smoking, managed to create doubt in the minds of the public about the connection between cigarettes and lung cancer. The telling image below is from the cover of the conference brochure.

Londa Schiebinger, in her book, Plants and Empire Colonial Bioprospecting in the Atlantic World, studies the cultural basis of agnotology, specifically focusing on the withholding of knowledge of the abortion-producing faculties of the peacock flower, discovered in the West Indies, even though that flower, commonly known as poinciana, became very popular in Europe as an ornamental shrub.

These are all examples of purposeful agnotology caused by cultural, military, or commercial concerns.

Gregg Downey's article in eSchool News, titled "Ignorant on purpose," creates a connection, in our view, with agnotology and accountability. As an example, he offers the case of the 5000 moisture-ridden SAT exams which last year received incorrect scores as a result of their dampness. An expensive study conducted by Booz Allen Hamilton as a result of this scoring problem recommended better scanning software and increased training for test center personnel, but failed to ever identify WHY the tests got wet in the first place. Patrick Houston, a Booz Allen VP, skillfully employed agnotology in his 'explanatory' statement:

Whether the papers were wet because of rain, or because of someone’s sweat, is not important. However the water got there, if you have the process and controls in place to pick up the problem and identify it and go back and score it in the proper manner, that’s what’s important.

It seems to us that what is important here is accountability, and where agnotology is employed, accountability disappears. Can you think of examples where agnotology was employed to avoid accountability?

Technorati links: agnotology, accountability

--Jane Perzyk