Tune in tonight to watch the film Paramount Duty
Posted on 16. Nov, 2009 by Mike.
How does Washington’s education system stack up against other states? Does money really matter? Is early learning the key to improving outcomes for students?
See and hear the faces of our public education system as they comment on these questions in the film Paramount Duty, which debuts today and airs through Nov. 22 on the Seattle Channel–Cable 21. The film by director Peter J. Vogt and LEV co-founder and president Nick Hanauer takes a look inside the schools of Washington State to document the challenges facing this generation of teachers, students and administrators.
The film interviews key leaders of a movement to rescue education from apathy and neglect. Tune in to hear Bill Gates Sr., University of Washington President Mark Emmert, and Governor Christine Gregoire address the pressing need for social and financial commitment to our future through educational reform.
You can watch Paramount Duty on the Seattle Channel-Cable 21 on these dates:
Monday, November 16, 2009 8:00 p.m.
Tuesday, November 17, 2009 10:00 a.m.
Wednesday, November 18, 2009 1:00 a.m.
Wednesday, November 18, 2009 2:00 p.m.
Wednesday, November 18, 2009 7:00 p.m.
Thursday, November 19, 2009 6:00 a.m.
Thursday, November 19, 2009 1:00 p.m.
Friday, November 20, 2009 1:00 a.m.
Friday, November 20, 2009 11:00 a.m.
Friday, November 20, 2009 5:00 p.m.
Saturday, November 21, 2009 3:00 a.m.
Saturday, November 21, 2009 11:00 a.m.
Sunday, November 22, 2009 9:00 a.m.
Sunday, November 22, 2009 4:00 p.m.
Sunday, November 22, 2009 11:00 p.m.
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Weekly roundup of education news from LEV
Posted on 16. Nov, 2009 by Mike.
The state Supreme Court’s decision and release of the final Race to the Top guidelines have made it a busy last few days in local and national education news. Here’s a roundup of stories from our blog and the media that will continue to shape the education debate for days and weeks ahead.
News from LEV
The Supreme Court issues a problematic decision in the Federal Way suit
LEV’s vice president, Steve Miller, reacts to the Supreme Court’s decision in Federal Way School District v. State of Washington.
Dweck Townhall: Maximizing Your Child’s Potential
Last Thursday, education activists and parents were treated to a provocative presentation about how praising your child can be good-if it’s done the right way-or how it can have long-term negative effects if it’s not.
What our early learning town hall meetings accomplished
In the past two weeks, hundreds of parents in Seattle, Tacoma, Bellingham and Kirkland met with early learning policymakers to talk about the challenges they face as they care for and educate their young children.
Paramount Duty film debuts on the Seattle Channel
The film Paramount Duty looks inside the schools of Washington State to document the challenges facing this generation of teachers, students and administrators.
Other Voices: Election Viewpoint From The Left
George Cheung, director of Win/Win Network, writes how those who lean to the left view the November 3rd election results.
Other Voices: Election Viewpoint From The Right
Alex Hays, executive director of the Mainstream Republicans of Washington, writes about the national and local significance of the November 3rd election for those who lean to the right.
News from the media
Column: High court passed up chance to help fix school funding problems
The Tacoma News Tribune’s Peter Callaghan writes about the implications of the state Supreme Court’s ruling on the Federal Way lawsuit.
Editorial: Race to the top in education? Who, us?
The Tacoma News Tribune Editorial Board says it would be a shame if state policymakers do not strive to win federal dollars to fund our kids and schools.
Washington in race for federal education funds
The Seattle Times interviews policymakers about what needs to be done to win Race to the Top dollars.
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Dweck Townhall: Maximizing Your Child’s Potential
Posted on 16. Nov, 2009 by Jen.
(This post is by Melinda Mann, LEV’s Development Director, who organized the event.)
Last Thursday, education activists and parents were treated to a provocative presentation about how praising your child can be good - if it’s done the right way or how it can have long-term negative effects if it’s not.
Dr. Carol Dweck, renowned psychologist and author of Mindset: The New Psychology of Success was joined at LEV’s event by Lisa Brummel, senior vice president for human resources at Microsoft, and Kristin Rowe Finkbeiner, founder of MomsRising.
Two decades following the self esteem movement, Dr. Dweck’s research shows that saying ‘good job’ to our kids from birth builds an addiction to empty praise and a subsequent inability to deal with the inevitable obstacle that arises in life, whether it’s a crumbling block tower or a sticky math problem.
Those kids are being saddled with a “fixed mindset” where they think their intellect and ability is something they are born with versus something that can be developed. Instead, making observations such as “Wow, you must have worked really hard to build that so tall, or gee, I can tell you really concentrated on that drawing” would help kids develop a “growth mindset” where they see that what they put into something can make a difference.
Unfortunately, we live in a world that values good grades in many cases, over effort. Does anyone here have a middle schooler or high schooler who can’t stop looking at the Source, the electronic record of grades in Seattle Public Schools? I do and it’s all about making sure the grade chart is green for ‘A’, or blue for ‘B’, but not, god forbid, orange for ‘C’ and you can imagine what colors D and E are!
As Dr. Dweck emphasized, we need to let kids know from the earliest age possible that talent is a boat without a motor and that the motor is effort. It doesn’t go anywhere without the added energy.
But there’s hope for those of us who have a fixed mindset (and maybe didn’t even know it). We can evolve and learn to send messages to our kids about the importance of hard work and effort. We can let them know that mistakes — and even failure — are just pieces of information that can be used to make adjustments and can actually help you to succeed if you let them.
Lisa Brummel, who is in charge of hiring at Microsoft, says she cares less about how quickly someone can solve a complex problem, than she does about whether they can converse about the texture of it. Wow, think about that. At one of the most driving companies in the world, hiring is based not on raw talent or genius, but whether someone is willing to meander through a valley that could include pitfalls and unseen obstacles, but also unrealized opportunities, to get to the other side.
Kristen Row-Finkbeiner, whose national grass roots advocacy organization, MomsRising, has to be able to turn on a dime adjust to quickly changing political winds, says that as a growth-minded organization, they throw a lot of spaghetti at the wall to find out which one sticks – and that while messy — it works.
Dr. Dweck has turned her attention recently to the conflict in the Middle East, trying to determine whether participants in the peace process have a fixed or growth mindset and how that may affect negotiations.
So, from preschool to the global political stage — what we as parents and teachers say to our kids when they hand us a crayon drawing can affect our world for generations to come.
LEV Foundation, like many people, has both: a fixed mindset about what is good for kids – excellent teachers and challenging classes that get them ready for college, work and life, and a growth mindset about how to get there — making long overdue changes in funding and teacher support, growing public engagement, using evidence-based advocacy and lots of data.
So, the education reform movement is growing, making progress and riding the waves of change – stay with us.
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The Supreme Court’s decision in Federal Way School District v. State of Washington is problematic
Posted on 16. Nov, 2009 by Mike.
(This post is written by Steve Miller, who is vice president and founding board member of the League of Education Voters and wrote statewide Initiative 728 and 884. He is a lawyer, vice chair of the Board of Trustees for Bellevue Community College, and previously served for 10 years as a school board member for Bellevue School District.)
The Supreme Court’s decision in Federal Way School District v. State of Washington is problematic. The ruling dealt with both sections of Article 9 of the Washington state constitution making education the state’s paramount duty: Section 2, the uniformity clause and Section 1, the ampleness clause.
Federal Way had won a superior court judgment and the State appealed. The trial court ruled that the State violated Section 2, the uniformity clause because it funded school salaries giving more to the employees of some districts than Federal Way, based on the grandfathering old local salary schedules in effect at the time of the adoption of the Basic Education Act of 1977. Federal Way argued successfully at the trial court that there was no basis for continuing these distinctions inherited from a system that was found to be unconstitutional.
The Washington Supreme Court decision limits its application of the uniformity requirement to the provision of an education program. The uniformity clause Article 9, Sec. 2 requires “uniformity in the educational program provided not minutiae of the funding. Such details- unless specifically mandated by the constitution- are the province of the legislative branch.” [Emphasis added] The Supreme justifies its conclusion implicitly by noting the differences in teacher pay to be a mere 4.9% less than the cost of living differences between different areas and down from 150%. It also says that Federal Way is trying to mandate “uniform salary figures statewide”, which was not an argument they made in either the trial court or on appeal. The characterization of the differences as minutiae and details made it easy to reach the conclusion that Federal Way did not prove their case beyond a reasonable doubt. The Supreme Court breezed past the larger differences in administrative and classified funding or the cumulative result of a shortfall that adds ups to millions of dollars. And the Supreme Court ignores the absence of any rational basis for disparities in funding formulas, and merely concludes that Federal Way failed to prove that the funding formula disparities violated Sec. 2.
The court further held that Sec. 1 requirement of “sufficient funding” required by “a single passage” in the landmark Seattle school funding case [Doran decision] does not require uniform allocations or uniform formulas to be “constitutionally sufficient”.
The failure of the court to be even slightly concerned with the realities and real consequences of funding inequities in Washington public schools is unsettling. The hostility apparent in Justice Jim Johnson’s decision signed by all his colleagues was manifest in imposing possible new roadblocks to future challenges of education funding by individuals in an unnecessary and stringent analysis of standing.
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Lobbying Legislators - Tips from Rep. Ross Hunter
Posted on 16. Nov, 2009 by Kelly.
Kudos to Stand for Children for a very informative, useful workshop this Saturday! Rep. Ross Hunter gave a really informative session on “How to Lobby Your Legislators”, he thought he didn’t have an hour worth of material! (Those of you who know Rep. Hunter are laughing right now). I wanted to share his thoughts, for some of you, most of this is old news, but there is stuff in here worth repeating and a few things were new to me.
Build a relationship with your legislators. They will listen more, are more likely to read your email, and are more influenced by people they know. (Just like us…we listen to the people we trust)
Communicate primarily when the legislators are not in session. During the session they get to meet with people in 15 minute slots at best, they are lucky to remember your name and your main issue at the end of the day. The legislator can meet with you easily outside of the session, 2-4 meetings a week they usually have, it’s much more personal, and there is much more time to really understand the issues.
Rep. Hunter receives roughly 20-30 emails a week outside of the legislative session. But during the session he receives hundreds, thousands. He can’t read them all, so they tally them based on what the “ask” is. During the session, if he can read any email at all, he will read email from those he already has a relationship with.
“Ask” for what you want. Don’t make him guess; he needs to know what it is you want. Don’t be afraid to ask, everyone else will.
Be polite. Don’t do all caps in email, don’t do all lowercase, make it easy to read otherwise. Don’t yell, don’t get mad. This is about relationships; try to get him to understand with facts, stories.
The Gateway to the legislator is through their Legislative Assistant. The Legislative Assistant makes the appointments, discusses issues with the legislators is basically the force that keeps the legislator on task, focused and informed. Always be polite and respectful, they can be incredibly helpful to you.
Thank them! This is a great way to build the relationship. Take the time to tell them that you appreciated what they did and tried to do. Thank yous will influence the relationship.
Keep working with legislators you don’t agree with. This is hard, but important to do. (I personally have to work on this with my own Senator – because we have such different views, I’ve kind of given up. I need to keep trying)
Letters/cards are very effective. They are more difficult to handle, how to respond, have to open, bulky. So, they make more of an impression.
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“Meet the Press” discusses education reform
Posted on 16. Nov, 2009 by Jen.
A cast of unlikely characters - Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, Fmr. House Speaker Newt Gingrich, R-Ga., and civil rights leader Rev. Al Sharpton - discuss graduation rates, charter schools, Race to the Top…and their plans to improve the quality of education in this country. Required viewing.
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