Welcome to an exceptionally exciting and important moment in our chapter's evolution--as well as that of Phi Delta Kappa world wide! With this meeting our own peer-reviewed educational journal, the Journal of Educational Practice and Social Change, will be launched! This prestigious accomplishment will represent all our scholarly members, and belongs to YOU...so let's gather 'round and get to know it, ask questions, and develop it to fit everyone's goals and visions. Please jump in with any and all of your thoughts and contributions throughout the meeting! You will be the founders of something representing a huge milestone in PDK history--and you can get PUBLISHED in the process! Join in and find out more!
We we also be exploring the recent publication of the 38th Annual PDK Gallup Poll that searches for the pulse of the public's attitudes about public schools. This one is the "best poll we've ever done in terms of content and significance" according to PDK International's Bill Bushaw and the PDK poll director, Lowell Rose. Find out what questions were central to the discussion, and what implications and impact this major investigation holds for educators and students! Then, add your voice to the discussion!
Everyone who joins in ANY of our fascinating exchanges (Program-wise or ANY aspect of the meeting) will be automatically registered in the Door Prize drawing. The promised copper lantern from last meeting will be awarded at last, and additionally a beautiful Fall candle centerpiece will be sent to this meeting's lucky winner. Check your email for more details soon!
View the JEPSC here.
Archived Discussion
The comments below were posted during the Fall 2006 meeting:
| Name | Comment |
|---|---|
| Jenny | The creation of the JEPSC certainly ushers in the beginning of a new chapter for our PDK and for Walden students generally! The hard work we devote to making our KAMs and dissertations top-rate--and consequently changing the world for the better through education--now can be reflected in published journal article versions of our papers, and shared by the world. I feel that the addition of this journal to our chapter's repertoire of opportunities for members is phenomenal. Our editor, Jarek Janio, has done a stellar job in seeing this project to being a reality for us all. I can't wait to hear what everyone envisions its role to be for individuals as scholars/writers/educators for social change. What questions come to mind? Let's run with this thing! |
| Jarek | Thank you Jenny for the kind words. None of this would have been completed without everyone's involvement. I think we have a great group to make the JEPSC a great publication. The next task would be to make the journal known throughout the Walden community so that it truly becomes an outlet for the creativity of practicing Walden scholars. I believe we can make it happen. |
| Gay | I'd like to thank Doris Sweeney, who has been a long supporter of the journal project, a "prime mover". She is currently serving as reader for the journal. Doris, your consistent dedication to the journal idea has certainly helped it more forward and become a reality. |
| Jenny | Not to confuse topics, but I wanted to be sure to start discussing the fascinating results of the 38th Annual PDK Gallup Poll early in this meeting. The current poll's findings suggest that The No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB)is not favored by the public, even though they believe that its goals are "praiseworthy". Since 2003 the polls have indicated that the public is behind the basic premise of not leaving a single child "behind", but the impacts this act has had on schools, such as relying on a single test to determine students' achivements, is incurring some impassioned responses from the public. The PDK response to the NCLB situation is "Fix it or it will implode" (as discovered in the conversation between PDK President Bill Bradshaw & PDK Poll Director Lowell Rose in their DVD presenting the poll). Check this highly-charged report out at www.pdkintl.org This topic is central to many of the issues the public was polled about. Share your experiences as an educator here, and compare them with public perceptions about NCLB! |
| Doris E. Sweeney, Ph.D. | Hi everyone, The journal looks great. I"m hoping we can add many other features as we move forward with it. Regarding NCLB--it leaves all of us in public education behind--especially those of us in Title One schools as we do not have the resources nor the facilities to adequately meet the needs of our diverse population. Winegard Elementary currently sits at 85% free/reduced lunch and a diminished enrollment of 650 students (give or take a few). We continue to be an "A" school, yet because our enrollment slipped about 100 students, we lost over $400,000, two teachers, three paras, and several positions that we not filled. It is heatbreaking to see my co-workers work so hard and dilligently, and yet we "beg" for supplies and materials. The majority of our technology (computers, are P 2's) and the collective age of our media collection is about 1989. We had plans to upgrade some of our computers, but with our funds being so tight, we might just have enough money to cover paper products and the bare basics. The media budget also took a major hit, so it will be difficult to bring the age of the collection up even a few years, but we continue to try. With the efforts of PDK last year, we were able to revitalize the arts section of non-fiction. It's all a work in progress. I've just returned from a three day conference fo FAME (Florida Association of Media Educators). The theme was "No one left behind." We're going to keep trying, of course, but it will be very, very difficult. |
| Marion | The journal is, of course, nothing short of fabulous for our members and those in the school of education. I believe it can and will raise to great heights in the publishing world with the wealth of new research we can share, and my! How wonderful for our people to be published. It certainly brings them a step upwards in the world, also. As for NCLB, we wouldn't be teachers if we felt we should leave someone behind. There's not a soul anywhere who would want that, but we must face it, some children will be left behind. They are left due to physical/mental impairments, multiple moves, lack of support at home for whatever reason, and often by the high school level, lack of desire to learn. To punish a school for having students in it that are behind, such as Doris' school, is uncalled for. What the Gov't. needs to do is to support those schools monetarily, not punish them. Our HS English classes just reached 85% passing, of which we are very proud, but in reality, can anyone ever reach a perfect 100%? Some very wealthy areas may do so, but we are demanded to raise by at least 5% every year or the paddle falls. I do wish that the law makers had to spend even one semester teaching somewhere-everyone of them in a different type of situation-and then go back as a group to discuss the laws regarding schools. |
| Andre Elliott | The No Child Left Behind law has an outstanding goal as announced by the U.S. secretary of education, Margaret Spellings in April, 2006. "With this law, we set a historic goal for our country: every child learning on grade level by 2014. This is the first in a series of departmental summits—public discussions to help educators and administrators ensure our students reach that goal. I'm looking forward to future events on other topics... including how to serve more students more effectively... and how to close the achievement gap between children from different races, backgrounds, and ZIP codes." It would be a remarkable achievement, indeed. |
| Marion | Research shows that the greatest gains in any subject area are met by time on task. The more time spent on that subject, the greater the learning curve climbs. It must be done sequentially, breaking down the subject matter into smaller levels & testing to ensure you are reaching the benchmarks. If they don't reach them, you go back & reteach until they have it. Peer tutoring works great, as long as time is spent on task. 80% is considered mastery over a long term. Depending on the mental level of the child, they can often grow 4 years in one year - my learning disabled & emotionally disturbed students did so regularly, and my retaded students could gain 2 years in a year if in the higher learning bracket (55-60 IQ). Break up some of the harder tasks using the arts to draw what you are studying, or write poetry, or sing the words to a popular tune. Of course, most of you probably know that already. This is an elite group. |
| Marion | PS - Our migrant workers, well known to move often, have special academic folders that follow them on each move. It lists a series of benchmarks to be reached for each subject in each grade. Each school then knows where to pick up right away and to spend time on what is needed, not re-invent the wheel on each move. Pretty neat, I'd say. |
| Jenny | It's a pleasure to hear about actual strategies for leaving no child behind from the people who are on the frontline of the cause, educators. More of my poor, inner-city students have been "left behind" since the initiation of the NCLB act than ever before, due to its narrow defintions of achievement. I am thrilled that the PDK survey is pinpointing the disparities between the noble intentions of NCLB and the realities of our public schools and students. It simply means that the NCLB policies for ensuring success for all students missed their target, and need to be adjusted. Punishing dedicated educators and schools with the stigma of being "failing" schools based on unrealistic test score standards is not the answer--the solutions can be found in programs and approaches such as those offered in Doris's and Marion's submissions! |
| Marilyn K. Simon | I have recently become involved with a group called Responsibility. This is the brain child of one teacher from NYC, David Lynch, who became aware that there are hundreds of children who live in and near Tijuana's vast municipal garbage dumps, have no formal education and no hopes for the future. Many were third and fourth generation "dump dwellers." Children as young as two were picking glass out of garbage to help their families exist. Responsibility volunteers have built schools, a medical/dental clinic, and 45 homes for the destitute. They are in the process of building shelters for the homeless around the dump, with neighborhood leaders deciding who has the most need. Those assisted are usually the elderly, handicapped, or widows with children. I was at the responsibility charity dinner last week. Lynch's philosophy is in accord with PDK: Give them some rice and they eat for a week, give them a tree and they have shade for decades, give them education and they can affect positive social change for eternity. To learn more, please check out: http://www.responsibilityonline.org/learnmore/index.htm |
| David Kenneth Waldman | The Journal is a great addition and we need to market it throughout the Walden Community including the alumni. Do we have a ISSN and what are the guidelines and scope of articles that are being selected. Are we looking to the Journal as a peer review journal? I ask these questions as it is a great tool for new members, existing members, potential members and a possibility for raising funds. Journals can be sold for a subscribtion and we can sell advertising to organizations like educational publishers that would pay us money for advertising space. Anyway I have over 20 years experience publishing and would be happy to help if asked. My work is in creating sustainable educational development opportunities for the girl child in the developing world. With 60 million girl children not in school (UNICEF) my NGO To Love Children (www.tolovechildren.org) has created a resource center and library in a war zone in Uganda so the most vulnerable children have opportunity and resources to learn and their mothers a way to get micro loans to improve their lives. No Child Left Behind Act is not child centered but focused on standardized tests. I think we as a PDK chapter need to educate on the broader implications of no child left behind and the international implications if our children do not get the training in civics, community service, critical thinking and problem solving skills, and other needed educational curriculum to better engage in civil society as opposed to reaching arbitary levels of achievement that is measured by standardized testing. The good of NCLB is the focus of including all children, the disabled and Title I at risk children. We need to take the research and the voice of educators along with the intention of NCLB and come to the middle including and creating curriculum and methodologies based on reality and not on policy alone which is politically oriented. WE all agree no child should be left behind. We need to come out with a statement on our views and our Journal is the perfect vehicle to create a stronger dialogue and discussion that moves teachers and support staff closer to working together than to produce teachers teaching to a test. |
| Andre Elliott | I call on all officers and members of our chapter to advocate for the most vulnerable children that they may have resources and opportunities to learn. I urge your dedication to provide trees for the children who have been left behind that they may have shade for decades. Dr. Simon and David Kenneth Waldman, thanks for sharing these splendid ideas regarding pathways in which we can be service to humanity. These ideas were in my heart ten years ago when I joined a coterie of scholars to give birth to Walden Phi Delta Cyberspace. Let's provide shade for decades for the most vulnerable children. |
| Jenny | HAPPY THANKSGIVING TO ONE AND ALL!!!! I count among my many blessings the fellowship that we share here as a group of caring human beings. We will undoubtedly nurture many "seedlings" into shade trees for our precious children through our efforts together, as Andre so eloquently summarized. Holiday happiness to everyone! |