“A Failure of Education Leadership.”

A new documentary, "Race to Nowhere," discusses the prevalence of high school students doctoring their resumes and college entrance essays to look better than they really are. Parents are supporting this practice, and high schools seem to have lost control of what goes into these essays. For students whose parents have been through the college essay, the pain and desperation of their own works may drive the support of embellishment, but how can a student with no home experience and no school guidance compete with this process?

Previously, I've posted articles and others' blogs reporting on ghost writers for papers, college entrance and class essays, and even dissertations. Is this cheating? Are we encouraging academic dishonesty? Are both high schools and universities really trying to eradicate academic and personal dishonesty? Where are we headed as a nation? Where are we headed for our former place of academic leadership among the world's modern governments and trade powers? This article, first brought to my attention by a former high school English teacher, is more noteworthy for what it does not say than for what it says.

Read the post below from The New York Times and post back your thoughts on it. I'd like to know what your think.

Documentary on Pressures of School

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Adolescent Online Bullying--What Can Parents Do?

How prevalent is online bullying? Do you think your child is being bullied online? Do you know that your child is being bullied online? What can you do as a parent when the schools are denying responsibility and the internet providers and site administrators make it difficult to help you find the culprits? Read the story below from the New York Times, and learn a few lessons that can help you and your child maintain online safety.


Read the NY Times article.

Turning Schools Around: 40 Years and Still No Answers

Back in the early 1970s, when I was doing work toward teacher certification, one of the top problems under discussion was improving schools in poverty-stricken communities--especially among inner city schools. Forty years later, the discussions are still going on, with apparently no new answers. However, there are grants available to impoverished schools who are trying to make a difference. In all, I think this is a great idea. But I see no new answers coming for improving schools that are not receiving such grants, or that don't have personnel still motivated to try new things.

This item appeared on the US DOE's blog site today.

http://www.ed.gov/blog/2010/12/duncan-van-roekel-and-hite-discuss-strategies-to-turn-around-low-performing-schools/

Are the continuing talks and federally funded grants going to help all our schools? Will the findings be generalizable to all impoverished schools? Or will the funding and research be chiefly applicable only to the schools receiving the grants?

Besides, how will we test overall improvement in the future?

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