Welcome to Reality CheckED

It has been said that the Internet is the most democratic of all forms of media. And, increasingly, the “blogosphere” seems to be where people who are passionate about issues are going to find their electronic soapbox on the modern public square.

Alas, the education blog universe is so disparate and diffuse, if it were an actual town square, it would be a hundred miles across with randomly placed soapboxes, each topped by a single speaker without a microphone – and nary an audience member to be found.

 

 Considering the great many hotly debated issues in education policy debate today, there don’t seem to be many blog sites that are popular gathering places for open discussion. So we thought, who better than Public Agenda to create an online space for discussion of education issues that promotes thoughtful dialogue that is firmly grounded in the public perspective?

We at Public Agenda are big champions of democracy and a stronger public voice. We have also, over the past 20 years, become regarded as reliable, unbiased interpreters of the public’s thinking on education issues. Whether it’s the opinions of principals, teachers, superintendents, parents, students, average citizens, employers or any other group invested in education issues, Public Agenda has asked probing, thoughtful questions and presented the results with even-handed and provocative reporting. We’ve also become rather adept at taking what we hear from the public and making it heard in the media and within policy circles.

This new “RealityCheckED” blog aims to bring the same level of dialogue we’ve contributed to national policy debates to the blogosphere.  We plan to introduce key facts and discussion points as daily events occur in education news and ask readers to contribute their own knowledge. Our hope is that this blog can be a resource for those who want to learn about education issues as well as a place for those who care about those issues to state their cases.

And so, the “RealityCheckED” blog won’t be a Public Agenda soapbox, instead it will be more like the public forums we conduct in communities across America in our public engagement work. Here, like in our forums, we will present topics, lay out the pros and cons in the most balanced manner possible, and invite informed commentary from the public. Our public engagement work has proven again and again just how thoughtful people can be when given the opportunity to weigh trade-offs and consequences of various policies, and we think this blog can bring the same level of discourse on education issues to the internet.

-- Michael Remaley

Comments

[Seth]

First off lets take a look at our crime rate poverty rate and all those familys that are smoking up or shooting drugs. FACT most of these families are minorities. so what does this alone tell us about the attitude our minority youth has going into school. i shouldnt need to tell you that it is horrible. but so what lets forget everything about where the kids live or what their family life is like. what about all those kids even at a younger age of 10-12 that are walking and talking like they are from the rough streets of NewYork or Chicago and acting like gun shots and reenactments of Rodney King are an everyday part of their life. Sure does random acts of violence actually happen toward minorities yes. Well maybe.The truth is random acts of violence happen everyday even to white people. however you see a pattern of minorities and white families that have absolutely nothing gooing on for them in life sit there and bitch about how crapy the school system is. sure not all schools are perfect but the same people that bitch about this will be complaining about something else and all the way till they die. why because thats what they choose for themselves. Instead of making decisions for themselves it becomes a race issue and a self pitty issue on why someone didnt hold my hand. yes there are bad school systems but this is blown way to big.

[Will]

Always happy to see a new blog around, will be checking in from time to time. But wanted to mention that this body text is really hard to read. Please consider a san-serif font and closing the line spacing. The lines are too open creating too much white space, and computer screen resolution is much too low to support the details of serif fonts. I know the nytimes likes to use a serif font, but they are wrong in that choice.

Best,
W

[Thomas Camiolo]

What kind of World will the Kindergarden student of today be facing graduating in the year 2020?

What will the skill set for Educators needed to cope with this enviroment?

What will the skill set for Parents needed to cope with this enviroment?

Who will be establishing the criteria necessary to graduate High School?

Will we be able to compete in the New Global society?

Well I hope I have enticed you to ask and try to answer the tough questions of the future.

[Thomas Camiolo]

What kind of World will the Kindergarden student of today be facing graduating in the year 2020?

What will the skill set for Educators needed to cope with this enviroment?

What will the skill set for Parents needed to cope with this enviroment?

Who will be establishing the criteria necessary to graduate High School?

Will we be able to compete in the New Global society?

Well I hope I have enticed you to ask and try to answer the tough questions of the future.

[fmanheim]

THREE CRITERIA FOR SOUND LEARNING - THAT PROBABLY HAVEN'T CHANGED IN 2500 YEARS OF HISTORY

The below principles were present at the education of the Classic Greeks who produced some of the most extraordinary intellectual, artistic, and political achievements in history (around 500 BC).

The same educational principles were active in Dunbar High School. This was the black high school in Washington D.C.that regularly outscored DC white high schools on standardized tests for over 50 years prior to the 1960s.

Those qualities can usually be found active in underachieving schools that, with arrival of special leadership, come to blossom with outstanding achievement.

New research on high schools prior to the 1960s suggests that the same three factors -with some twists - routinely produced educated Americans - even under disadvantaged circumstances.

The three criteria are:

1) Well qualified and dedicated teachers
2) Insistence on, and support for student performance.
3) A school environment that respects teachers and the educational process

Little known among younger Americans, limitations or injustices sometimes furthered educational quality in the past. For example, high school teachers in the 1950s and earlier were often unmarried women with high abilities - for whom opportunities were were more limited than now. Discrimination was still more severe against qualified black graduates of colleges and universities - who could not get jobs in the white establishment. Primary and secondary black schools were often their only opportunities.

But as a result of their presence, notwithstanding severe disadvantages, we are discovering black high schools that performed at astonishing levels - and produced graduates who distinguished themselves in later careers.

Impacted urban schools whose current condition makes them poorly competitive for recruiting top quality teachers and administrators face a big problem. The good news is that communities who do whatever it takes to land good educational leadership, and support them properly, are likely to get extraordinary rewards in seeing a transformation in their children and their communities.