Hi! Come on in.

Many thanks to the Linda Borg and the ProJo for pointing out this blog today. For those of you who have arrived here as a result, welcome! This post is just that, a welcome mat and an invitation in for a cup of coffee to suggest ideas, topics, and questions appropriate to this blog, or just to say hi. The comments are open below for just that (click on the link at the end of this post that indicates the number of comments that have been made, and have at it).

A couple of notes:

1. A slight clarification: the ProJo article says, "Davidson joined the PTO, which became instrumental in bringing additional resources to the school and bringing more parents into the fold." Actually, the PTO was very much already, for many years prior to the day that I showed up and asked what I could do, very much instrumental and integral to King's successes. The school benefits from a PTO that's been established for a long time, at least 25 years. Someday, I really need to take some time to understand this particular organization's history. I've met lots of people who were active in the PTO whose kids are in high school, college, and beyond, and along with the whole MLK community, I am grateful for all they did to establish a strong school-family partnership. If you want to know more about King's PTO or contact its current leadership, please visit www.mlkpto.org.


2. Tuttle SVC, written by Tom Hoffman, also focuses on public schools in Providence and Rhode Island. Definitely check it out for another perspective. How about others? Am I missing other blogs focused the the schools and school systems that serve young people and their communities in Providence and Rhode Island? Tell me and I'll link to them over on the right.

Welcome, tell me what you think, and please stay a while.

The Powers and Limits of Cookies

Today, in one of those random chitchats on the way to school, I said to my kids, "There are two things I know really well: education and cookies." Actually, there's a third thing I know fairly well: my limits. So I'm going to focus on cookies today--especially today, when many education opinionators from near and far are spouting off about Central Falls High School. I am not going to do that, other than to say that I want desperately for all of Central Falls' young people to get the education and support that they need and deserve, and that I wish the community of Central Falls the grace, strength, good will, commitment and determination to make that happen. I'll leave it at that, and write about cookies instead.

Yesterday, I wrote about how my kids and I are going to make holiday cookies to give as gifts to teachers and others. Tonight we're getting started, and as it turns out, there's a lot of thinking involved with cookie-making. Today, we're focusing on the mathematical properties of cookie baking. The guys are figuring out:

1. how many plates of cookies we're going to give as gifts (bonus extra: thinking about who is important in your life requires a focus on interpersonal relations)
2. how many cookies will go on each plate
3. how many total cookies we will need
4. how many different kinds of cookies we're going to make (bonus extras: this requires much intense cookbook scrutiny--reading!--and collaborative decision making--communication and learning to work in a group!)
5. what are the ingredient totals, so that we know how much butter, sugar, flour, eggs, and other components to buy
6. how much time we will need for each batch of cookies
7. when we will make the cookies over the course of the coming week (bonus extra: time management!)

(Yes, I we're actually charting all of this. On chart paper. In the kitchen. What I really want is a kitchen with walls of whiteboard, but until then, this will have to do.)

Including the kids in the planning, before we even fire up the KitchenAid, is a key part of the process; it's the kind of informal, context-based, real-world teaching that many families take advantage of all the time, and for which we always need to be on the lookout. Yes, it would be easier to do most of the planning myself, but the kids would miss an awesome authentic learning opportunity and would be far less invested in the process.

The math ought to be fairly accessible to my kids--at least the older two--but the collaborative decision making? Oy. Not so easy. But all the more reason to brave it. They need to figure out ways to work together across differences, even if those differences extend only to the relative merits/horrors of walnuts, coconut, and raisins.

I have a mighty faith in the power of cookies, but even I know their limits. It's going to take a lot more than cookies to break through the barriers that students, teachers, families, and administrators are facing in Central Falls and in other troubled districts. But it would help, we would bake cookies for Central Falls' education and community stakeholders every day as a gesture of sweetness and belief in adults to overcome differences to do the right thing for young people and their community in a troubled and bitter situation.

Holiday Gift Giving to Teachers from Families

Last year, I shared some thoughts on Kidoinfo about holiday gift-giving for teachers. My kids and are starting to think about what we plan to give teachers this year, so I went back to reread it, and thought it might be useful for others! So here's Holiday Gift Giving to Teachers: Notes from the Field.

Definitely read the comments, too--great ideas there, especially the reminder to remember school staff members beyond classroom teachers. We usually bring in big plates of cookies for the kitchen staff, custodial staff, bus monitors, and office staff.

I have contemplated organizing class gifts to teachers, asking families to give what they can. This is what the very competent Early Childhood Committee does at the JCC, where all of my boys went or currently go to preschool. At King, neither I nor most other family members have been able to achieve anything close to the necessary level of organization to get this done.

Even if we did use our capacities for organizing and persuasion to their fullest potential for the purpose of collecting donations for a class gift,  I have hesitation on two fronts. First, donating money for a big gift has the potential to detract from the personal effort and thoughtfulness that means a lot to teachers and families. Second, I am frankly reluctant to hit up families yet again for money for something school related, even if it's option, especially at this time of year when money is always tight. I am bothered, as always, by the equity issues. Experience tells me that while many cannot give, or might give even if it really hurts, others will give big, according to their means, and it all works out. But I am resistant to creating yet another circumstance when we're asking families for money, even if it's optional and even when it's for such a clearly useful reason.

So collecting money from class families for a group gift hasn't happened at King, at least not initiated by me. I'd love to hear about what your family does to recognize teachers at this time of year, and teachers - tell us what you appreciate!

NEASC Accreditation for 2 Providence High Schools

Congratulations to Providence Academy of International Studies (PAIS) and E-3 Academy for receiving accreditation from the New England Association of Schools and Colleges, known as NEASC. Here's the Pro Jo coverage. PAIS and E-3 join Hope High School, Mt. Pleasant High School, and Classical High School as NEASC accredited schools in the district.

NEASC accreditation is a big deal, as outlined here on its website, requiring intense scrutiny through self-study and visits from NEASC committee members to determine what's happening in all aspects of school design, pedagogy, outcomes, culture, and other elements of school life. It's intended to demonstrate that the school meets high standards and to give school staff members tools and structures to continually assess and improve to maintain quality programs.

While I haven't yet visited E-3, I've spent a bit of time at PAIS; I'm working in the school with Rhode Island After School Plus Allinace to support the planning and implementation of Expanded Learning Opportunities (this links to a PDF description of Expanded Learning Opportunities in Rhode Island). I think that its principal, Janelle Clarke--now also principal of Cooley Health and Science Technology High School, which shares a facility with PAIS--is a powerful leader, super-smart and visionary. The staff members that I've met are focused and dedicated, and the students that I've spent time with are thoughtful, clear about their purpose as learners, and excited about PAIS's curriculum and what they're learning. 

Tours/Info Sessions at Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Elementary School

Here's the schedule of tours/info sessions that we've planned at Dr. Martin Luther King Elementary School. Click on the flier below for a bigger version.

Here are the dates/times:

Friday, 12/17, 9:30am
Friday, 1/7, 9:30am
Friday, 1/21, 9:30am
Friday, 2/4, 9:30am
Tuesday, 2/15, 6:30pm
Friday, 3/4, 9:30am
Friday, 3/18, 9:30am

Please call 456-9398 or email mlkpto@gmail.com to RSVP.

The tour will be led by parents (often me!) and students, followed by an information session with MLK principal Derrick Ciesla. We hope you join us--all are welcome, even if your children are not about to enter kindergarten; we are often joined by families with younger children who wish to know more about King. Please join us and please help spread the word.

If you want to know more about the process of registering your child as a Providence Public Schools student, including the registration schedule, see today's earlier Providence Schools post on the subject and visit PPSD's registration page.

PS - Other elementary schools: send me info about your upcoming tours/open houses and I'll share it here!

PPSD Elementary School Registration Calendar for 2011

Providence Public Schools has released the elementary school registration calendar for students planning to enter the system in 2011. Here it is, below--click to get a bigger version, or click here to download the PDF from PPSD's website (the PDF also includes a Spanish version).

PPSD's registration page has links to school choice and student policies, the documents you need to register your child, and much more. There's contact info there for your questions; I'll repeat the advice I offered on Friday to families in the midst of middle school registration:

Note to those who call: have this page handy on your web browser in case you get the automated voice mail that asks you to dial an extension. My experience is that it takes quite a while to get an actual live human on the line. Keep trying. Try them all if the person you think you want isn't reachable. Don't give up!

And here's a link to a guide to registering your child in the Providence Public Schools that PPSD parent Kira Greene and I wrote last year for Kidoinfo. It holds up well as a good overview of the process.

As the weeks go on, I'll be posting much more about elementary school registration, both out of the desire to be helpful and because I am enrolling my youngest son in kindergarten next year. I'd love to hear in the comments from other families with incoming kindergartners. What schools are you looking at? Where have you visited (related to that: see the next post for a calendar of tours/info sessions at Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Elementary School. If the school you're involved with has tours scheduled, let me know so I can share the info!) How's your research/information gathering going? What questions or concerns do you have? Let's talk!

Children's Union?

Education Week's State Ed Watch blog reports that Deborah Gist, RI's state education commissioner, has joined with her peers from Florida, Virginia, Louisiana, and Indiana to form "Chiefs for Change" to focus on advocating for policies that support their mutual agendas, namely school choice (decoded: increased charters) and performance-based evaluations for principals and teachers. Here's a bit more from the Ed Watch blog:

Unveiling the new group, "Chiefs for Change," were its founding members: Tony Bennett, of Indiana; Deborah Gist, of Rhode Island; Paul Pastorek, of Louisiana; Gerard Robinson, of Virginia; and Eric Smith, of Florida. They were gathered here in Washington for the national summit of the Foundation for Excellence in Education, the reform group headed by former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush. The new chiefs group came together in conversation with Gov. Bush, who has agreed to provide it with financial and staffing support.

The five chiefs said that even though they work on important policy issues through the Council of Chief State School Officers, they felt the need to push a subset of policies through a separate group. Pastorek said the five want to "set ourselves apart and pursue a much more aggressive path toward success." It's not a partisan agenda, he said, but a "cutting-edge, pushing-the-envelope way of putting children at the top of all of our decisions." Bennett said the five have "kind of started our own union, a children's union," in which the interests of students trump those of adults.

Leaving aside several temptingly discussable details, I want to focus on this "children's union" notion, a phrase that Indiana's Tony Bennett has used before, as a quick Google search reveals. I wonder if Indiana's commitment toward a children's union has involved any actual children and their families. I am thinking, nope, not so much--though any Indianan reading this, please let me know if, in fact, I am wrong! Such news would be delightful, and I want to know what such meaningful family partnerships and respectful attention to young people's voices looks like.

Now that Rhode Island is a part of this direction, I wish to ask Commissioner Gist to avoid repeating Bennet's "children's union" reference--unless, of course, she intends to work systematically within communities to have children's needs and demands drive the discussion and work toward changing our education policies and practices. That would be a powerful and remarkable effort--but it is clearly not what's happening. What seems to be happening with Chiefs for Change is one more step toward aggressive promotion of charter schools not for the betterment of all schools but for the privatization of our public school systems. Don't attempt to harness the political will of my kids to justify that unless they, and I, demand it.

In Friday's Huffington Post, Sam Chaltain made a similar argument in relation to Michelle Rhee's new Students First venture, which similarly claims to stand for children's interests in the service of particular policies and practices that have a clear political agenda that don't clearly correspond to what students and their families may want. Sam's point:

To this end, Rhee intends to build an army of one million supporters and raise a total of one billion dollars -- in a year. Clearly, this is not someone unwilling to think big and in that sense, all of us need to match her sense of urgency and passion.

The danger, however, is if that urgency, passion and power gets deployed in the service of a myopic set of well-intentioned, misaligned ends. And based on what I can see from the website and gauge from her interviews, Michelle Rhee still believes the current way we're evaluating the success of our students, teachers and schools is sufficient for the brave new world of education she hopes to help usher in.

Adults in education leadership positions need to align their decision-making toward what's best for young people, and because historically, some have not done so, all now need to justify their direction in terms of what's best for kids. That the Michelle Rhee or the Chiefs for Change group are doing so isn't remarkable. But moving from that stance to claiming to directly represent the will of the majority of kids without doing the real work of determining what they want is disturbingly disingenuous, insulting to the very idea of a union, and a manipulative way of promoting dubious policies and positions.