The judges said...

Our KnowledgeWorks Foundation project earned a Gold Award in the 2008 Council on Foundation annual awards. You can learn more here or read my piece of the story on Cleveland Heights High School beginning here.

One of the judges gave us a perfect score.

* “The reports are well written, informative and reveal the compassion and dedication of the educators. Fantastic insights… The visuals balance the text. The handwritten quotes or stories bring the reader in to the human side of the story. Excellent initiative and strategy. The organization is connected to its audience and clearly cares about the future of each student.”

* “This material is outstanding. Beautifully written, simply designed, relevant and compelling content… Great use of spot color, big b&w photos, clean. This is impressive. If I lived in Ohio, I would support it.”

* “Great stories highlighting individual teachers. Interesting to have multiple freelance writers and their take on the story. There is a lot to read – will people read all of them? Pictures are good at reiterating & telling the story. Good response but seems like an expensive project.”

We produced five books in total and I think that last judge's comments were geared toward the expanse of work. All told, this was a fantastic project. I was glad to be a part of it.

Voices of the Uninsured Forum is tomorrow

Who are the uninsured persons in Greater Cleveland? We'll hear firsthand tomorrow at the "Voices of the Uninsured Forum" beginning at 8:30 a.m. at The Intercontinental Hotel on the Cleveland Clinic campus as 250 people gather for a frank discussion.

This important event brings together uninsured persons and medical respresentatives from all four health systems (yes, there are four)--Cleveland Clinic, MetroHealth, Sisters of Charity Health System and University Hospitals. Participants also include staff from Neighborhood Family Practice and The Free Clinic. Planning included particpation of UHCAN Ohio, Community Advocate, NEON, Cleveland Jobs with Justice, Ohio Association for Community Health Center and the May Dugan Center.

Free and open to the public, this forum explores the challenges and opportunities in access to health care in Greater Cleveland, health care reform efforts, facts and myths about Medicaid and the biennial state budget implications on Medicaid and the importance of finding a "medical home."

Keynote speaker is Cincinnati City Councilman John Cranley who lead the efforts on CincyCare, a pilot program to provide low-cost health care to residents who live and work in the city, don't qualify for government health care programs and who lack employer-sponsored health care.

This event is sponsored by We Are the Uninsured, which is funded by the Sisters of Charity Foundation of Cleveland, and Neighborhood Family Practice.

EDGE subcommittee IDs skills and knowledge for future

The state Subcommittee on Education in a Global Environment (EDGE) researched the skills, knowledge and behaviors that businesses believe students will need to be successful in the global economy. Here's the top 10 list posted on Ohio Department of Education list. Public can add feedback here.

Top 10 List of Findings

The following is a Top 10 list of findings from the EDGE subcommittee research
on the most important skills, knowledge and behaviors students will need to
provide Ohio with competitive advantages in the new global economy:

1. Critical thinking, problem-solving skills, and applied knowledge for practical results

2. Mastery of rigorous academic content, especially in literacy, mathematics, and information technologies

3. Innovative and creative thinking, including entrepreneurial skills

4. Communication skills, both oral and written

5. Team learning and work, relationship building, and interpersonal social skills

6. Alignment of education with the needs of economic development, including better communications and cooperation between educators and business people*

7. Personal responsibility, including good work habits, work ethic, knowing how to be flexible and continue learning, and financial literacy

8. Global awareness, languages, and understanding other cultures (including history, economics and geography)

9. Communications and better interfaces between K-12 public education and post-secondary/higher education to make high school graduates better prepared for the next stages of their education and lives*

10. Teacher education, preparation, and professional development to support content mastery and skill development, including applied learning (or problem-based learning) across disciplines in a global context*

*While these items are not necessarily knowledge, skills or behaviors, they were among the top 10 responses and address changes needed in Ohio's education system

Monday odds and ends

I'm trying to keep my Mondays and Fridays as "office" days so I can sift through the myriad items requiring constant follow up. I spent the weekend proofing pages for a book project so my tired eyeballs could really use a break.

In addition to following up with folks I haven't seen in a while (thanks to the SPJ DSA), I'm also going through my reviewer checklists for fall titles from publishers, getting my writer's group submission together and setting up interviews for upcoming story assignments. Once the mail arrives, I'm also hoping to update my May receivables.

Meanwhile, I found an interesting contradiction in today's Plain Dealer that I thought I'd toss out for your reading and commenting pleasure. Did you happen to see the full-page ad on the back of the A-section for St. Martin de Porres High School? The ad states that every one of the 50 seniors of this private school for those of modest means was accepted into at least one college or university. Cool, huh?

There's no story in the paper on this school, but there IS a cover Arts & Life story on idol nonsense. Are you kidding? It's not as if "American Idol" is some new phenomenon sweeping the nation. It's a tired TV show with sinking viewership. WHY give valuable editorial space to Idol when the achievements of students at an alternative inner-city school are reduced to having sponsors (Forest City) buy ads for them?

If Idol is deemed such a cool story by the editors, throw it up on the web, where the cool "Idol" fans are anyway. I highly doubt they are reading the print version of the paper.

A new kind of urban school, committed to transforming students and preparing them for college deserves better than an ad.

This Catholic college-prep school is not run by the Diocese of Cleveland, but is one of 19 schools across the country in the Cristo Rey Network. Check out the 60 Minutes video about Cristo Rey in Chicago and tell me if you could get through the last 30 seconds without tears. Students, some of whom lack supportive home environments, are in school four days a week for a longer period of time during the day and then work one day at local companies, such as Forest City and even The Plain Dealer!

It's founding supporters are: The Detroit Province of the Society of Jesus, The Sisters of the Humility of Mary, The Cassin Educational Initiative Foundation, and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

I spoke with Kim Mantia, associate director of advancement for St. Martin de Porres, who tells me that she scheduled a college signing day with the top 11 students in the class of 2008 (the school's first graduating seniors) and no one from media showed. Now if this involved athletic scholarships, you can bet the city's sportswriters would be there.

A PD photographer who was covering the school during its first year in 2004 did come and he admitted it had been a while since he saw the students (as freshmen), when the paper was committed to observing and writing about its efforts. I certainly hope the PD plans to follow up because if you have any inkling of how difficult education reform is, you'll realize that success of this kind is truly inspirational and contagious.

Regardless of what they do, I plan to write about St. Martin de Porres because I happen to know a little something about education reform efforts. And the school's success is a BIG deal.

Word of the day
dichotomy: a division into two especially mutually exclusive or contradictory groups or entities

Education reform is...

From Washington Post:

Reform "is like a bus -- you're either going to be on it [as a passenger] or you're going to be driving it," Greg Ahrnsbrak, a Denver teacher whose middle school received autonomy from the school system, told a crowd of educators at the Capital Hilton in downtown Washington today.

"I see no policy, as far as reform goes, from my union," he added. "We need people out there willing to take risks and do bold and imaginative things."

Education Sector, an independent think tank focused on better student outcomes, recently released a report on teacher views on reform, evolving profession and unions. Called Waiting to Be Won Over, the report contains these findings among others:

-- Three out of four teachers said they think too many burned-out veteran teachers refuse to leave because of the benefits and tenure.

-- Fifty-five percent said the process for removing ineffective teachers in their school systems is "very difficult and time-consuming."

-- Sixty-eight percent said they thought giving principals and teachers more control over schools would be better for students.

-- Twenty-five percent of the teachers said they would be willing to trade tenure for a $5,000 raise, while 29 percent said they would prefer to hold onto tenure.

Here's more educational food for thought this morning.

Should U.S. education be guaranteed?

As NCLB discussion heats up poll shows Americans increasingly concerned

House education leaders yesterday released a draft of a plan to reauthorize N0 Child Left Behind and are actively seeking input on the draft.

According to a letter to education stakeholders from House Education and Labor Committee Chairmen Rep. George Miller (D-California), Rep. Dale E. Kildee (D-Michigan), Rep. Howard P. "Buck" McKeon (R-California) and Rep. Michael Castle (R-Delaware) , "This draft is a work in progress, subject to change over the coming weeks as the Committee moves a bill through the legislative process. [snip] If you would like to offer comments, please send them to ESEAComments@mail.house.gov and include your name and/or organization, the page and line numbers of suggested changes to legislative language by September 5, 2007."

A new poll out this week from Phi Delta Kappa International and Gallup shows that the more Americans know about NCLB the less they like about the sweeping law. Read through the data and the findings because there's ample fodder for discussion here. Parents and public school advocates need to make their voices heard on this issue. Poll results shows that Americans are resisting the idea that passage of one test on one day is the only measure of student progress and that despite its good intentions, NCLB promotes teaching to the test at the expense of other critical skills.

Here's an interesting commentary that shows that the more people get to know their local districts, the more favorable view they have of its work and direction.

Schools Have Stepped Up

Like politics, all education is local. Despite what detractors say about "the nation's schools," the closer the public gets to its local public schools, the more it likes them, and this continuing trend reflects well on those who lead schools.

The public's satisfaction with local schools reflects the schools' fulfillment of the diverse mandate given to them. While NCLB counts only that which can be counted, two-thirds of the public calls on its schools to see to its children's social and emotional needs in addition to their academic needs, and, if poll numbers are any indication, the schools have stepped up. School leaders can be proud of what they've accomplished, but we still have work to do. Forty percent of the public remains unconvinced that students leave high school ready for college, and only about half believe that students leave high school adequately prepared to do skilled work.

But it's interesting to note that the public doesn't see a solution in NCLB. In fact, the more the public learns about the law, the less it likes it, with 43% pointing to an overemphasis on standardized testing and more than a quarter of those polled asserting the law is actually hurting our children. Further, the public continues to recognize a lack of financial support as, by far, the leading challenge facing its schools.

Policy makers have done an impressive job of ignoring the voice of educators for the past several years. Perhaps the public that puts them in office will have better luck delivering the message: reform NCLB now to emphasize testing less and promote learning more, and provide schools the flexibility and funding they need to fulfill their mission. -- Gerald N. Tirozzi, executive director, National Association of Secondary School Principals, Reston, Va. (Bold is mine.)