Recently added articles from Phi Delta Kappan:
Looks deceive.(THE EDITOR'S PAGE)(schools' expectations from students)
Jun 01, 2009 ... If you somehow managed to miss Susan Boyle's performance on Britain's Got Talent in April, pause now and check the YouTube video today. Take a Kleenex with you when you do. Susan Boyle is the frumpy, 47-year-old Scottish spinster who entered herself into the ...
Summing up a career.(WASHINGTON COMMENTARY)
Jun 01, 2009; ... The big decisions being made in Washington and state houses inspired me to look back, all the way to my first Washington Commentary. It was in September 1982 during President Reagan's first year in office, and I bluntly declared that the benign U.S. Department of Education had been turned ...
Cool stuff from the states.(STATELINE)
Jun 01, 2009; ... Colleagues recently referred to me as "geek of staff" (smile), and I really don't mind, particularly since it's so accurate. I am a policy wonk. As such, I'm always on the lookout for interesting policy actions by legislatures. Here are some samples from 2009. Some reflect a "cool" factor; ...
Balancing students' constitutional rights: school officials have considerable latitude in maintaining a school environment conducive to learning. But they must also honor students' rights in the process.
Jun 01, 2009; ... Students must learn how to become responsible citizens, and few places are more significant in developing those skills of citizenship than the public schools. However, if students are going to learn to become responsible citizens in a democracy, they must be able to exercise their ...
Beyond the wall of separation: church-state concerns in public schools: religion has been one of the most contentious issues in public schools, and there are no signs that the disputes will disappear. Educators must know which activities are prohibited and which are protected by law.
Jun 01, 2009; ... Few controversies involving public schools have been more volatile than those pertaining to religious issues. Since the mid-20th century, schools have been the setting for some major church-state decisions rendered by the U.S. Supreme Court. The First Amendment to the U.S ....
The big picture: five legal issues have changed the face of public schooling in the United States. While federal courts led the way in the earlier cases, the key players now are state courts, state legislatures, and Congress.
Jun 01, 2009; ... The last half-century has seen dramatic changes in the legal landscape for schools. It is a daunting task, and one that requires some subjective judgments, to generate a list of the most important legal developments. However, five legal developments have had, or will soon have, the most ...
Constitutional cases involving teachers: teachers' workplace rights have been shrinking in the past few decades. In some cases, teachers can even be fired for doing what they are paid to do.
Jun 01, 2009; ... The law of public employment has come a long way since 1892. That's when Oliver Wendell Holmes made his infamous statement, "The petitioner may have a constitutional right to talk politics, but he has no constitutional right to be a policeman." (1) Back then, public employment was seen as ...
Public school law: what does it mean in the trenches? Being reasonable and prudent isn't enough to keep educators out of court these days. But the many legal developments in school law provide us with opportunity and incentive to better serve our students.
Jun 01, 2009; ... When I entered the field of education 34 years ago, prudent and reasonable educators usually could rest assured that they wouldn't end up in court. That's no longer the case. Their risk of litigation has grown as our society has turned increasingly litigious and school populations have ...
From black armbands to Bong Hits for Jesus: the 40th anniversary of Tinker: John Tinker and Kenneth W. Starr share their divergent views about limitations on the freedom of speech in schools.(Interview)
Jun 01, 2009; ... 2009 marks the 40th anniversary of the landmark Supreme Court case, Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District. That case established that students, as well as teachers, do not "shed their constitutional right to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate." The ...
A meaningful high school diploma: creating a meaningful high school diploma will expose students to the full range of adult options, which will enable them to shape their high school education in a way that connects to their current interests and stimulates the growth of new ones.
Jun 01, 2009; ... A war is being waged over what knowledge is most important and who is best qualified to teach it to students in grades 6 through 12. The board of education in my state of Washington chose "meaningful" as the one word to describe its mission in re-examining graduation ...
Tinkering change vs. system change: without the willingness to make courageous, transformative changes, public education risks the likelihood that its many small changes will lead to no change at all.
Jun 01, 2009; ... At an education conference, John Holt, author, educator, and home schooler, responded to a question about home schooling by saying that he had given up hope for public education. He no longer--this was in the 1970s--believed that school systems could be reformed. He opined that reforms ...
Following the script: when schools and school systems are exploring scripted literacy programs, educators should consider four questions before embracing that approach to teaching.
Jun 01, 2009; ... Title I schools that want desperately to raise student scores on high-stakes tests often have found it hard to resist the lure of scripted literacy programs, especially in the face of pressure from No Child Left Behind to raise test scores. In recent years, many high-poverty elementary ...
Beyond special education: a new vision of academic support: a Massachusetts high school demonstrates that a mainstream academic support program for students with mild learning problems can help motivate students to learn and improve their academic performance as well as promise long-term financial savings at a time when special education budgets are increasing dramatically.(ookline High School's tutorial program)
Jun 01, 2009; ... "I am going to college because of the Brookline High School Tutorial. The program saved my academic life; it's as simple as that." --Danny Unfocused and distracted, Danny was diagnosed with a learning disability during middle school. That diagnosis meant that Danny ...
Visiting Room 501: middle-class Latino students in the United States negotiate life as transnational citizens, developing an identity and a culture that translate their contemporary, lived experiences and highlight within-group variances.(Report)
Jun 01, 2009; ... If you are in trouble, if you need money, I will help you. You are my favorite cousin," wrote Sammy as part of a "friendly letter" assignment in Room 501. Why did Sammy, a 5th grader in an American elementary school, offer such support to his Mexican cousin? "People living in ...
Prepared for what? Why teaching "everyday science" makes sense: teaching everyday science would require a shift in priorities, but it may be the best way to provide a science education that truly prepares students for good citizenship and daily decision making.(Report)
Jun 01, 2009; ... American science education is plagued by a fundamental confusion--a mismatch between goals we claim to value and the strategies we use to achieve them. This confusion is rooted in the seemingly simple idea that science education should prepare students for the future. For some, ...
Paranormal tribune atoms vs. a three-legged woman? The "science" of the paranormal offers what the grind of scientific research does not: immediate gratification, pat explanations, and the reduction of complex matters to fleeting sounds and images. But such easy and ready answers are poor preparation for a scientific vocation.(International)
Jun 01, 2009; ... In my college course in introductory biology, I include a few lectures on the structure of the atom as a basis for understanding the chemistry of living things. To convey how incredibly small these particles are, I point out that Danish physicist Niels Bohr described the modern atomic ...
These kids today.(THOUGHTS ON TEACHING)
Jun 01, 2009; ... Long ago and in what seems like a galaxy far, far away, I was new to teaching. In those early days, I taught in the elementary school I'd attended as a child--not something I would recommend, especially for students with ... well ... "spotty" records. But I did. And so often in those days, ...
Identify and observe effective teacher behaviors.(RESEARCH)(Report)
Jun 01, 2009; ... With all, it was now clear that among say eight kids all supposed to be at 4.5-4.8 reading level, making errors A, B, and D (but not C), there were in fact eight kids some of whom were reading all kinds of stuff, some who would only read the newspaper, some who would only read Mad magazine ...
Stacy Reeves.(Emerging Leader)(Interview)
Jun 01, 2009 ... Stacy Reeves is changing the lives of children across the world. Reeves, an associate professor at the University of Southern Mississippi and a member of PDK's 2007-08 Class of Emerging Leaders, has worked with orphans abroad, as well as helped children in her own state. ...
PDK scholarship winners.(PDK working for you)(PDK Educational Foundation)(Awards list)
Jun 01, 2009 ... The PDK Educational Foundation annually awards scholarships to prospective educators who have a connection to PDK or who qualify under particular endowed scholarship criteria. 2009 scholarship recipients are listed below. Applications for the 2010 Prospective Educator Scholarships will be ...