Tag Archives: education policy

Student Success Podcast

No B.S. from J.P.: what makes a good teacher?

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st-johns_brother-martinNo B.S. from J.P.: what makes a good teacher?

Student Success Podcast No. 8, Nov. 13, 2013

Today’s Guest: J.P. Cassagnol

Now that he’s about to graduate from college, JP discusses his experiences in K-12 and college and how it all fits together to make him the student and person he is. J.P. cuts through the B.S. with excellent critiques of his K-8 and 9th-12 Catholic education, and what worked, what didn’t and, most importantly, what makes a great teacher.  In J.P.’s case, those teachers are Brother Martin and Prof. Carlander, teachers who inspired, pushed, and turned JP into a real student with real learning.

An important challenge J.P. brings to education is his K-8 experience, which he found entirely lacking once he came upon Brother Martin’s 9th grade Honors English class. Are we underserving our K-8 children? And what of those kids who didn’t get into Brother Martin’s class?

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Guest Biography

J.P. Cassignol is a senior at Salisbury University, Eastern Shore, MD, with a concentration in History. J.P. Graduated from St. John’s College High School in Washington, D.C., and prior to that was enrolled in a Catholic school K-8 program. J.P. loves history and literature, and he works as a tutor in those and other subjects.

Topics Discussed

  • St. Johns College High School: what’s the “college” thing about?
  • JP was not prepared for 9th grade
    • his K-8 did not prepare him
    • never had written anything more than a few paragraphs
    •  9th grade: what do kids bring to it?
    • why are elementary schools all so different?
    • why should 9th grade be so much harder?
    • Elementary: seeking universal standards
    • JPs 9th grade was challenging
    • Big gap between elementary and high school
    • are we pushing kids hard enough in K-8?
    •  “Excellence Gap” study by Dr. Jonathan Plucker
  • J.P.’s school competitive?
    • Catholic school admissions: an incestual orgy? (lol)
  •  Public school kids more prepared?
    • depends on the demographic
    • are outcomes defined by zip codes?
    • Rte 50 / Univ Blvd: the dividing lines
    •  do charter schools drain talent?
    • lowest common denominator v. the cream of the crop
  • Was his high school worth the money? maybe not
    • Would rather have gone to college twice
    • But he did go there, it is who he is
    • What if he had gone to public school?
    • would have lost all the expereinces of a catholic school
  • Brother Martin: English teacher
    • heavy workload
    • read a book a week
    • not reading in class… taking turns lol
    • depth of analysis that he had never encountered
    • English class was no longer about structure, was about literature
    • then next year, teacher was back to reading out loud in class
  • so teachers matter?
    • should any teacher be able to teach anything?
    • JPs definition of a good teacher?  Hope Brother Martin is listenng to this
    • the difference between a teacher who knows everything but can’t teach and a teacher who may not know everything but can teach and lead you to where you need to go
    • why do some kids like certain teachers and others not?
    • kids look for easy teachers = business major etiquette
    • but they won’t remember those teachers
  • a good assignment is powerful
    • has assignments from high school that he still thinks about
  • Bromley’s best teacher: Prof Wright who threatened to fail him Senior year of college: 1st teacher who ever “kicked my ass”
  • Dr. Carlander at Salisbury: they’d get into for 3 hours .. he’d rip up his paper … they’d argue with each other.. inspiring!
    • always read the prof’s book!
    • knows his stuff: and “a real teacher”
    • Prof got JP to write a grant application: got it & went to a national conference >> all because of a real teacher
  • What make a good teacher:
    • learning is supposed to be rigorous
    • “no pressure no diamond”
    • teachers who earned respect, who mentor, who respect kids
    • unlike teachers who just put notes on the board
    • good teachers: challenge, drag, empower
    • learning is a fight! “I’m a 13 year old kid, what do I give a shit about Julius Caesar?”
    • You could see it in Brother Martin’s brow lines … but patient and caring … loved his students

Resources

Credits

Host: Michael L. Bromley
Original Music by Christopher Bromley (copyright 2011, 2013)
Background snoring: by Stella
Best Dogs Ever: by Puck & Stella

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Happy dogs with new beds!

 

 

 

 
Here for Puck & Stella slideshow

 

The A+ Club from School4Schools.com LLC, based in Arlington, VA, is dedicated to helping students across the U.S.A. meet their goals and find the academic success the want and deserve. Contact us here or call now  to (703) 271-5334 to see how we can help.

College, Jobs & Careers, Parents, Students

Finally, a buyers market for college

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coins_MH900305770Oh, my, colleges are suffering from low enrollment. At $40K a year, ya think?

The Wall Street Journal ran this article today,

From 2010 through 2012, freshman enrollment at more than a quarter of U.S. private four-year schools declined 10% or more, according to federal data The Wall Street Journal analyzed. From 2006 through 2009, fewer than one in five experienced a similar decline.

The trajectory reflects demographic and technological changes, along with questions about a college degree’s value that are challenging centuries-old business models. The impact is uneven: Some wealthy, selective private colleges are flourishing, while many others suffer.

Schools on the losing end are responding with closures, layoffs, cutbacks, mergers and new recruitment strategies. Many see these as the first signs of a shakeout that will reorder the industry.

Please read this with glee.  I do, especially after paying $45,000 a year for my daughter’s school in Boston. My son started at the very expensive music school, Berkley College in Boston, and decided not to return, telling me “it’s a waste of money.”. You don’t hear that line from your kids very often, but according to him it was. My daughter’s school, Simmons College, also in Boston, she and I both agree is worth every cent. But that’s a lot of cents.

Here’s the ugly truth about college expenses

  1. College costs have risen significantly faster than other cost-of-living increases in the last twenty years.
    1. Why?
      1. administrative bloat
      2. Federal rules and regulations
      3. People have been willing to pay these ludicrous costs, myself included
  2. College costs are subsidized by the wealthy and high school under-achievers who don’t qualify for scholarships or need-based discounts
    1. My uneducated guess is that 20% of students pay full tuition, 40% pay mostly full tuition, and those 60% subsidize the other 40% who are on scholarships or are heavily subsidized.
  3. Undergraduate college degrees do not guarantee a good job
  4. College graduation does not guarantee learning
    1. Our society has yet to decide whether or not college is a “life experience” or an education.
    2. High school education has been so dumber-down that much college education is remedial
  5. Post-graduate success is predicted more accurately by college admission than by college graduation.

Sorry to be cynical here, but let’s speak the truth here. But let’s also be glad that what goes around comes around, and the “college bubble” has hit a top. Enjoy the crash, and make sure you’re taking advantage, finally, of the new buyers market in education.

– Michael

The A+ Club from School4Schools.com LLC, based in Arlington, VA, is dedicated to helping students across the U.S.A. meet their goals and find the academic success the want and deserve. Contact us here or call now  to (703) 271-5334 to see how we can help.

Education Policy, Student Success Podcast

Talent on the Sidelines: the Excellence Gap with Dr. Jonathan Plucker

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Excellence-Gap-10-18-13Talent on the Sidelines: the Excellence Gap with Dr. Jonathan Plucker

Show Notes
Student Success Podcast No. 5, Oct 24, 2013

** Please also listen to the follow-up interview with Prof. Plucker, March 1, 2014:  Excellence Gaps and the national imperative for equity AND excellence **

Today’s Guest:  Prof. Jonathan Plucker, University of Connecticut

Prof. Jonathan Plucker discusses the just released study “Talent on the Sidelines:  Excellence Gaps and America’s Persistent Talent Underclass.” Prof Plucker shares his amazing insight on the need for educators and policy to address both equity and achievement for our students, as today’s focus on equity has left us with a tremendous “Excellence Gap” between socioeconomic and racial groups, and has left behind untapped talent among our lower performing groups.

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Guest Biography: Dr. Plucker received his bachelor’s degree in chemistry from The University of Connecticut in 1991, where he also received a master’s degree in educational psychology in 1992. After briefly serving as an elementary school teacher, he attended the University of Virginia, where he received his doctorate in educational psychology in 1995. After briefly teaching for two years at the University of Maine, he arrived at Indiana University in 1997 as a visiting assistant professor. He become a tenure-track assistant professor in 1998, with promotion to associate professor in 2001 and full professor in 2006.

Dr. Plucker has received a number of honors for his work. For his creativity work, he has received the Daniel E. Berlyne Award for outstanding research by a junior scholar (2001) and the Rudolf Arnheim Award for outstanding research by a senior scholar (2012) from Division 10 of the American Psychological Association, and the 2007 E. Paul Torrance Award for creativity research from the National Association of Gifted Children. For his gifted education research, he has received the NAGC Early Scholar Award (1998) and two awards from the Mensa Education & Research Foundation Award for Excellence in Research (1997 & 2000). For his education policy work, he was ranked in 2011 as one of the Top 100 most influential academics working in education policy.

Dr. Plucker is a fellow of the American Psychological Association (2009) and was named a Fellow of the American Associate for the Advancement of Science in 2011 “for distinguished contributions to the science of creativity and the creation of research-supported education policy.”

Topics Discussed

  • Achievement gaps: but minimum competency gaps
  • Minimal achievement is not helping — still losing talent
  • 2010 Report the product of these questions: is anyone really considering wasted potential?
  • 3 years work for this new report
  • Early years demonstrated excellence, but by 8th grade loses all advances
  • “Excellence gap” = measurement of differences in high level performance between
    across minority groups: 2% achieve excellences… unfathomable… yet, this was an increase over previous measurements
  • Means huge pool of wasted talent
  • Critics impugn that these studies claim that excellence gaps are more important to close than minimum competency gaps: not so! : moral and ethical requirement to assist the lowest levels, but minimal competency should not be the sole policy focus
  • “Free and reduced lunch” defined
  • Impact of poverty on education
  • Opportunity gaps v. achievement gaps
  • Untapped talent
  • Not equity v. excellence: this is equity AND excellence
  • Bias towards reporting or testing results towards minimum competency and avoiding excellence gaps
  • Laws of unintended consequence
  • Example of special education: can be followed for excellence gap in policy
  • How to get more students performing at the highest level?
  • Next study: looking at state k-12 accountability and how each treats excellence. Currently , they either ignore excellence or implicitly penalize it.  And these systems drive priorities for instruction
  • add straight forward-indicators on excellence to promote awareness and action on driving excellence.
  • Excellence is an American value, should be imnportant. We can achieve equity and excellence.
  • We don’t limit achievement in extracurricular activities so why in academics?

Additional Resources and Links

Credits

Host: Michael L. Bromley
Original Music by Christopher Bromley (copyright 2011, 2013)
Background snoring: by Stella
Best Dogs Ever: by Puck & Stella

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Stella and Bromley selfie

Here for Puck & Stella slideshow


The A+ Club from School4Schools.com LLC, based in Arlington, VA, is dedicated to helping students across the U.S.A. meet their goals and find the academic success the want and deserve. Contact us here or call now  to (703) 271-5334 to see how we can help.