HML Notes Spring 2005

In this issue:

Public Schools as a Public Good: A Question of Values.
Horace Mann League website
Corporate Partners
Horace Mann League Poster
An Interesting Book
Annual Meeting/Luncheon

Horace Mann League Notes

Published three times per year by the Horace Mann League of the USA.

Jack McKay, Editor

61D N. Chandler, Port Ludlow, WA 98365

Printed by The Printery, Port Townsend, WA

Public Schools as Public Good: a question of values

By Paul Shaker and Peter Grimmett of Simon Fraser University. (Edited version)

The rapid pace of change in the last thirty years has contributed to confusion, fragmentation and disorientation that have affected all of society's institutions, including schools. The last two decades have brought economic and cultural restructuring, guided by a neo-conservative worldview emphasizing individual enterprise and free-market competition. Civic discourse has given way to the language of commercialism, privatization, and deregulation, and any sense of agency (individual, professional, or social) is defined by market-driven notions of individualism, competition, and consumption. In this changing society, education is increasingly regarded as a commodity, not a public good.

But this new market-driven world is characterized by continual and relentless disequilibrium. The traditional boundaries between home and work, between children and adults, between public and private, between home and institution, and between teaching and parenting have become porous.(1) Widespread societal change has been accompanied by frustration and cynicism. In public life, there is profound distrust of politicians and experts. New government initiatives have resulted in devolution of budgets (but weakening financial provision) and devolution of responsibility (but new forms of accountability and performance indicators - narrowly understood in education as high-stakes testing).

Amid widespread change, one question remains uppermost in the minds of educators and parents: What makes a "good" public school?

We see schools both as public goods and as autonomous spheres for the development of a critical and productive democratic citizenry. We maintain that the best reason for supporting public education lies not in the services it performs but in the values it represents.

What, then, are the values that frame our understanding of the kind of schools that have such an important place in Canadian society? We offer the following as a beginning basis for discussion.

Values of a "Good" School

- A good school is clear about its mission, vision and goals, which arise from a collective soul-searching with the relevant constituencies of the school. A good school has ideals, wears its heart on its sleeve, and is a force for individual and community advancement.

- A good school arises out of a caring, supportive community. Although schools are a highly visible manifestation of their communities, they are not autonomous or independent of their social context. Good schools are dependent on the social capital of their communities.

- A good school organizes itself to engage in dialogue with its community, realizing that external communication is too important to leave to chance. A good school is pro-active in fostering input from the widening circles of parents, students, and citizens who have an interest in it.

- Education at its best appeals to our higher callings, and good schools reflect states of aspiration, intellect, community, healthfulness, and freedom. A good school also engenders feelings of safety and security. Good schools promote the rise of socially conscious individuals who strike the balance between self-expression and concern for others and the environment. They thrive on diversity and see diversity as a cultural and intellectual enrichment for all.

- A good school is sensitive to its architecture. The physical presence of a school can be an ally in the quest for quality education. The condition and aesthetics of the school are a statement to all who come about the school's image of itself and the depth of its relationship with its neighborhood. Images speak as loudly as words; the design, landscape, and maintenance quality of a good school effectively embody its mission.

- Within a good school, the lines of communication among faculty, students, staff, and administration are open and focused on a common vision. The school is a human service institution arising from several of society's finest and most generous motives, and in a good school all members of the school community interact in ways sympathetic to this calling.

- A good school advocates for children and youth. It operates in loco parentis, presuming the best about the parental bond. Students are seen in a professional light, not an economic or material one.

- A good school reflects the values and ideas of its teachers - they are its essence. This band of educators is assembled to manifest the school's curriculum, broadly conceived. The school arises in the community from a dialogue among concerned parties.

- The curriculum of a good school is honest and authentic. It presents both sides of issues and places them in widening contexts. The curriculum is constructed with attention to the cognitive processes of students, including attention to differences in learning style and cultural origins. The scale of the curriculum is realistic in terms of the student time and energy available to study. The curriculum spans the needs of learners: cognitive, affective, and somatic.

- Instruction in a good school is developed in a cycle of recurrent feed-back from learners. As a profound medium of communication, the quality of instruction is determined by its effectiveness in changing behaviour and attitudes. Learning is an active pursuit, and effective instruction engages students with the focus of their full attention. Excellence in method works to turn the group setting of schools to advantage, since individual tutoring is a rarity in schools, just as curriculum is something more complex than simply "content" or disciplinary knowledge, instruction is more than telling or talking.

- In a good school, testing is an aid to learning; it is not punitive in character. Standardized testing, particularly, is justified as one resource to aid learning and should not be mistaken for a comprehensive verdict on learning or school quality. Today, the abuse of standardized testing has become one of the central threats to good schools. The use of high stakes tests to evaluate students and teachers has encouraged the abandonment of comprehensive goals for schools and the lamentable practice of "teaching to the test." This reductionist view of schools encourages public education to single out a few "winners" who are adept at a narrow range of performance while negatively labeling others with false certainty. Teaching a group of persons together and attending to their individual needs is in itself an act of limitless complexity.

- Evaluation is vital to creating and maintaining a good school and is understood to involve a range of data gathering and a substantial element of professional peer input. As with any creative endeavour, teaching is practised with a wide range of technique. Evaluation is among the subtlest of intellectual endeavours, just as public mass education is among one of our most ambitious pursuits. The false certitude of reductionist measures is misleading and destructive of good schools.

- A good school is a civilizing force to all around it. It is a purveyor of the arts, aesthetics in general, humanism, egalitarianism, respect for individuals and diversity, the triumph of reason over force, and democracy. Humanism includes qualities such as empathy, compassion, appreciation of individuality and the desirability of freedom, and the sanctity of human relationships. Humanism also implies a commitment to liberal education, that is, an education that frees the individual from narrow egotism and encourages an attitude of openness and inquiry in contemplating experience. Liberally educated individuals can appreciate the meaning of ideas and behaviors that are alien to them and derive value from these experiences without fear or prejudice.

- A good school imitates a better society, populated with persons who have aspired to the highest human purposes. Good schools are central in creating a new social order of greater justice, compassion, and health. The alleviation of suffering, an appreciation of nature, and the continuing, vital search for new knowledge all characterize the better society that good schools will foster.

PAUL SHAKER is the Dean of the Faculty of Education, Simon Fraser University.

PETER GRIMMETT is Associate Dean and Professor of Education in the Faculty of Education

Full Text of Public schools as public good: a question of values. Shaker, Paul, Grimmett, Peter. Education Canada. Toronto: Summer 2004.Vol.44, Iss. 3; pg. 29

Corporate Partners

The corporate partners of the Horace Mann League are:

The Plato Learning Corporation

The Apple Computer Company

The Advanced Learning Company

The Learning Together Company

The Pearson Education School Companies

These companies support public education and the goals of the Horace Mann League – to strengthen public schools across the nation.

Horace Mann Poster

The Horace Mann poster (24 x 36 inches) is suitable for framing. The framed poster is an excellent gift of appreciation to community organizations and businesses that support public schools.

Ordering information ($20/poster)

Email: jmckay@mail.unomaha.edu

FAX: 360 437 0641

Phone: 360 437 1186

Mail orders to:

Dr. Jack McKay, Exec. Director

Horace Mann League

61D N. Chandler Court

Port Ludlow, WA 98365

Horace Mann League Annual Awards

Annually, the Horace Mann League presents three major awards. Recipients are nominated by members and selected by the Board of Directors.

The Outstanding Friend of Public Education Award is presented to an individual or organization that has made a significant contribution to the improvement of public education at the state or national level.

The Outstanding Public Educator Award is presented to a public educator who has made a significant contribution to the improvement of public education at the state or national level.

The Ambassador Award is presented to individuals who recruited ten or more new Horace Mann League members..

Awards are presented to recipients at the annual meeting, held in conjunction with the AASA National meeting.

Past recipients of the Horace Mann League awards can be found on the League's website at: www.hmleague.org

An Interesting Book

Democracy and Intolerance: Christian School Curricula, School Choice, and Public Policy by Francis Paterson. Published by Phi Delta Kappa. 2003.

“The secularization of public schools has stimulated the rise of Christian school and home schooling based on conservative religious and political views. Such schools are a growing force in American Education. In some ways, the emergence of these conservative, religious-political education alternatives mirrors the 19^th century rise of the common school and diminished influence of church schools. In the 21^st century, it is the public schools that are in danger of being disestablished.

Comments about improving services.

About a third of the comments relate to the need to improve the communications with members. The second most often suggested area for improvement was in presenting a strong voice for public education. When combining the most frequent concerns, it would be communications amongst the members and between the League and the public.

Table 1. Suggestions for improving the Horace Mann League.

Ranking (from most to least frequent suggestion)	Suggestions for Improving the Horace Mann League
1^st (most frequently suggestion) (30 to 40%)	A strong and clear voice about purpose of the Horace Mann League
2^nd(10 to 20%)	Increase visibility at national conventions, collaboration with other professional meetings.
3rd (5 to 10%)	Be the “Champion of Public Education.” Be the advocacy group for public education
4^th (5 to 10%)	Continue existing with the current priorities. Stay focused on current mission
5th (2 to 5%)	Create regional, state, and local events hosted by the Horace Mann League
6^th (2 to 5%)	Increase the frequency of newsletters and other publications about the importance of public education
7th (1 to 2%)	Increase efforts to take on the Federal government’s excessive involvement in public education.

Texas School Funding Case

The Horace Mann League is contributing to the support of the Texas school funding case, West Orange Cove v. Neeley

Following years of prior school finance litigation and the Texas imposition of a $1.50 tax rate "cap" on property values, a large number of school districts came together to argue that the system's inability to provide sufficient revenue to fund a basic education had fallen to a level that should be deemed unconstitutional and unacceptable.

Unlike past school finance cases, the District Court did not find that the structure of the Texas school finance system had failed, but rather, that the levels of funding and service delivery did not meet the requirements of the Texas Constitution. The plaintiffs contended, and Judge Dietz agreed, that tax rates had risen to be so close to the $1.50 statutory cap that districts no longer had any meaningful discretion in setting those rates. The result, wrote Dietz, is that the tax cap has become a de facto statewide property tax (something prohibited by the state's constitution). Even more important than the Judge's finding that the tax structure had exceeded the constitutional limit, was his analysis of the state constitution's requirement that the system of public education must provide each student with "a general diffusion of knowledge."

The State's defense of the system rested on the academic accreditation system used to determine student mastery of essential knowledge in core subject areas. If districts meet the minimum passing rates established by the State, then a district is considered to be "academically acceptable." Judge Dietz concluded that this is a flawed and inconsistent argument and wrote:

[t]hese passing rates were not set to constitute a minimum level of adequacy but rather to ensure that most districts and campuses fell upon the "academically acceptable" side of the line, which is consistent with longstanding practice in Texas. The State cannot on one hand draw the "academically acceptable" line with specific intention of ensuring that the vast majority (if not all) of the districts in Texas fall on the "right" side of it, and on the other hand claim that this line is the measure of adequacy.

Officers

President: : John Simpson, Superintendent in Residence Stupski Foundation, Norfolk, VA President-elect

President-elect: Walt Warfield, Executive Director, Illinois Assoc. of School Administrators, Springfield, IL

Vice President: Colleen Wilcox, Superintendent, Santa Clara County Office of Education, San Jose, CA

Past President: Spike Jorgensen, Educational Consultant, Tok, AK,

Board of Directors:

James Anderson, Supt. Los Alamos Public Schools, Los Alamos, NM

Richard Christie Supt. Council Bluffs Community Schools, Council Bluffs, IA

George Garcia, Supt., Boulder Valley School District, Boulder, CO

Mark Edwards, Dean, College of Education, Northern Alabama Univ., Florence, AL

Fred Hartmeister, Assoc. Dean, Grad. Educ., Texas Tech. Univ., Lubbock, TX

Barry Lynn, Exec. Director, Americans United for Separation of Church & State, Wash. DC

Vern Moore, Superintendent, University City Public Schools, University City, MO

Gary Marx, President, Center for Public Outreach, Vienna, VA

Douglas Otto, Supt., Plano Independent School District, Plano, TX

Susan Purser, Supt., Moore Co. Public Schools, Carthage, NC

Steve Rasmussen, Supt., Franklin Pierce School District, Tacoma, WA

Jerry Sellentin , Exec. Director, Nebraska Council of School Admin., Lincoln, NE

Colleen Wilcox, Supt., Santa Clara County Office of Education, San Jose, CA

Executive Director

Jack McKay, Professor Emeritus, Educ. Admin., University of Nebraska at Omaha

Mailing: 61D N. Chandler Court

Port Ludlow, WA 98365

jmckay@mail.unomaha.edu

(402) 855/17/050 0034 (cellphone)

(360) 437 116 (phone)

(360) 437 0641(FAX)

Horace Mann League of the USA website

http://www.hmleague.org

5/17/05

The Friend of Public Education Presented to the Stupski Foundation and Larry and Joyce Stupski	The Outstanding Educator Award Presented to Linda Darling-Hammond
Joyce Stupski, Larry Stupski, and Jane Hammond	Linda Darling-Hammond and Colleen Wilcox
The Horace Mann League Friend of the Horace Mann League Award Presented to	The Horace Mann League President’s Award Presented to
Spike Jorgensen and Jack and Judy McKay	\| Spike Jorgensen and Larry Dlugosh
Report on Legal Issues	2005 President of the Horace Mann League
Fred Hartmeister	John Simpson