Post 16 in a series. We often say, and mostly rightly, that work should come before play. That’s true for school, too: study and homework typically comes before play. Sometimes, however, play is a kind of study, and has educational value. Microsoft’s Minecraft (Education Edition) is a video game that’s more than a game: A hundred schools…
Education
Education, Good Ideas
Asking About a Student’s Day
by JOHN ADAMS •
Post 15 in a series. Every parent wants to know how a child’s day went at school – what he or she learned, experienced, and thought about the day. Sometimes, however, the obvious question (“how was school today?”) doesn’t elicit more than a brief, unspecific answer. An NBC news story online, offers suggestions from a parent on…
Education, School District
Variations in Spending
by JOHN ADAMS •
Post 14 in a series. National Public Radio, and twenty of its radio stations, have completed a project to see how much each public school district in America spends, per pupil on education. See, Why America’s Schools Have A Money Problem @ NPR. The study focused on spending per pupil, and found wide disparities, even when adjusted…
Education
Avoiding Others’ Missteps
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Post 12 in a series. Two weeks ago, I wrote that I would say a bit more about how not to go about a school budget referendum. The post had Milton, Wisconsin’s many mistakes in mind, but I held off posting on the subject because it seemed that the situation there would get worse, offering even more missteps…
Education, Government Spending, School District
Assumptions on Referenda
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Post 11 in a weekly series. There’s a theory – in Whitewater and other places – that good policy comes from having as many ‘adults in the room’ (that is, as many established & mature people) as possible. I’d say that’s necessary, but insufficient. Relying only on the established & mature, without specific consideration of discernment and…
Education, University, UW System
Tenure
by JOHN ADAMS • • 2 Comments
Post 10 in a weekly series. The UW System Board of Regents recently adopted a tenure policy, about which much has been said statewide. How it will change day-to-day prospects for faculty I’ve no idea. The UW System changes from March 10th are only part of a process in which local campuses will have their own tenure…
Education
Describing Kenesh Shorukov’s Day
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Post 9 in a weekly series. Most people don’t ride horses to work; in a nation like ours, of 323,000,000, it would be impossible. So, I’m not posting a video of a teacher riding to work on a horse because I think that American teachers should commute to work on horseback, nor am I suggesting that teachers here…
Education
Borsuk on Testing
by JOHN ADAMS • • 3 Comments
Post 8 in a weekly series. In January, Alan Borsuk, a senior fellow in law and public policy at Marquette University Law School, wrote an essay in the Journal Sentinel about Wisconsin’s mercurial standardized-testing regime. See, Wisconsin grades as proficient in standardized testing chaos. Borsuk observes the scene over the last few years: The standardized tests a few hundred thousand…
Education, School District, University, UW System
A Theory About the Diverging Futures of the Whitewater Schools and UW-Whitewater
by JOHN ADAMS • • 3 Comments
Post 7 in a weekly series. Before I begin today’s post, I’ll mention that there is now an announcement at the Whitewater Unified School District’s webpage about academic success at one of our schools despite economic hardship. It’s a prominent mention, and that’s a good decision – we should lead with what we have truly done. For…
Education, Poverty, School District
Whitewater’s True and Worthy Success
by JOHN ADAMS • • 1 Comment
Post 6 in a weekly series. I posted last week about a State of the Schools presentation, and planned to follow this week with an assessment of that presentation, but there’s a more recent development that should – and so does – take precedence. On February 10th, one of Whitewater’s schools, Washington School, was named a Title…
Education, School District
The State of the Schools Presentation at Whitewater’s Common Council
by JOHN ADAMS • • 2 Comments
Post 5 in a weekly series. State of the Schools @ Whitewater’s Common Council 020216 from John Adams on Vimeo. I’ve embedded a 2.2.16 ‘State of the Schools’ presentation to Whitewater’s Common Council, and a pdf of a brochure that school district representatives distributed at the meeting (and that is available on the school district’s website). It’s…
Education
Roaring or Yawning
by JOHN ADAMS • • 4 Comments
Education, School District
Video & Liveliness
by JOHN ADAMS • • 2 Comments
Post 3 in a weekly series. There’s an unfortunate, unnecessary gap in our schools between the liveliness of students (and many teachers) and the way in which local print media present those lively people. Although I’m opposed to being too close to a subject, the encounters that I have concerning our schools unfailingly remind of this gap.…
Education, School District
The Better Way on Standardized Scores
by JOHN ADAMS • • 5 Comments
Post 2 in a weekly series. I’ve written previously about our schools’ touting of ACT scores based on a selective presentation of those standardized test results. There’s an irony in this: I consider standardized scores an imperfect measure of actual learning, and have written about them mostly in response to others’ repeated and superficial twisting of the…