Any interested teachers, please read! On Model School League

The VERY short version of this is that Dr. Stan Maynard is looking to have model school programs with more schools.  They will get all sort of support, like what is going on at Kellogg now (see http://www.marshall.edu/coe/jhc/projects/modelschool/ ).   They will use some things developed specially for local schools, along with State Superintendent Steve Paine’s 21st Century skills stuff, Effective Schools stuff, Invitational Schools stuff.

In order for a school to participate, someone has to get in contact with Dr. Maynard (he is going to be inviting schools to join at this meeting at Stonewall Jackson resort that I’m trying to get details on) and if 65% of the school faculty is willing to do the development and follow the program, the school can be a model school and in this “League” for “from Blue Ribbon to Gold Medal” schools.

So, my current thing is to spread the word, to get teachers and administrators at local schools (especially those that my children will attend!) to buy into this.

Larry Lezotte quotes Ron Edmunds:

We can, whenever and wherever we choose, successfully teach all children whose schooling is of interest to us. We already know more than we need to do that. Whether or not we do it must finally depend on how we feel about the fact that we haven’t so far. 

http://www.effectiveschools.com/downloads/RevEv.pdf 

I know that many teachers do wonderful things with lots of students, but from looking at our achievement results (compared internationally, by NAEP, for example) and graduation rates, I think that there is still room to improve with some of our students.  Dr. Maynard is suggesting some new approaches that have their bases in current educational research, and, personally, I cannot see how improving the engagement of the students can do anything but raise their actual achievement and learning.  I’m sure that some of it will be more, work, at least in the short term, but with the added support of the MU program, this might not be such a painful way to make a change.

 

Focus on the “League of Schools” model schools?

I met with Dr. Stan Maynard (MU, June Harless Center) this morning to ask him about the “model” school at Kellogg Elementary and about the possibility of getting OUR schools to be included in his program.  So, first, if you don’t know about it, MU has already had a “practice” model school for the 21st Century program for k-2 at Kellogg Elementary (Wayne County, Westmoreland) for the last couple of years.  Everyone says it is great.  They are expanding that program to k-5 and soon to k-8.  Dr. Maynard told me all about the different components of it (see them via the Harless Center link), which include each grade learning in depth about a different continent (so that by the end of 5th grade they have learned REAL stuff about all of the continents, including meeting a college student from there and doing email/podcasts with children in a school there);  foreign language instruction for 90-minutes per week with all the k-5 kids;  REAL science with a special new curriculum custom-designed by a high school science teacher;  an adapted math curriculum using real world applications, including GPS;  community partnerships that include afterschool clubs in areas like LEGOs, social skills, economics, astronomy, violin lessons, webpage design…  He referred to the Invitational School concept of William Purkey (see link) and the Effective Schools movement (see link) of Larry Lazotte being sortof the context for all this academic work. He will be making an invitation to the public schools around WV to join his “League of Schools” and to make Blue Ribbon Schools into Gold Medal Schools–making the schools not just good for West Virginia, but able to compete internationally (like on the NAEP test scores–see more links).  I will try to get more information about it from him, but he is issuing the invitations at the Center for Professional Development meeting in a couple of weeks at Stonewall Jackson retreat.  Someone from the school needs to express an interest in joining and then 65-70% of the faculty will need to buy-in and agree to do the training & development necessary to put the model program in place. Dr. Maynard is hoping to get 100 schools interested in modeling and has plans for quantitative and qualitative assessments of the schools and the program.  The participants in the League will then meet once or twice a year to have national speakers and breakout sessions to share how the program is working for them, how they have tweaked it, etc.  I did ask Dr. Maynard specifically about this school I’d like to have opened in the Miller building and if he had suggestions for us about it.  He thinks that if we can get the schools that we have now to participate in the League, we may be able to get the small high school opened by the BOE as the program grows.  It sounded like he may have spoken briefly with Superintendent Smith about my proposal and it was not completely rejected.  The “drag” thing is that the model for the League schools is very much on a k-8 configuration (which I love), but I fear Cabell County has sortof written this off already with their new, consolidated middle school and plans to consolidate Enslow & Beverly Hills.  The feet follow the money, right?  Anyhow, Dr. Maynard said that the schools do not HAVE to be k-8 in one building, provided that some kids can go all the way up from k to 8 using the same sort of educational model.  But, I am not sure where that leaves a 6-12 school.  I told him that honestly, 6-12 isn’t the grade configuration I would have picked, but I don’t want my kids to have to go to either the middle or high schools the way they are, so that was what I suggested.  Anyhow, when I get more info about the League, I’ll be sure to pass it on.  It would be great if we could bug ALL of the teachers and administrators that we know about getting into the League, so that our kids could all be in great programs like they are planning for Kellogg.  It is my plan to get started with the Southside Elementary and Huntington Middle people ASAP.  Anyone know “people” at HMS??