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…
School District
School District
On Eric Runez, District Administrator
by JOHN ADAMS •
Post 13 in a series. Eric Runez has been the Whitewater Unified School District’s administrator since 2011 (and immediately before that was the principal at Whitewater Middle School). He’s now given notice that he’ll be leaving that position for a superintendent’s post in the DeForest School District. Many school administrators serve in more than one district during their careers.…
City, Elections, School District, Walworth County
Local Election Recap
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Local elections affecting Whitewater went about as one might have expected. I’d guess there were, in the end, no surprises. There were three uncontested races for Common Council (Allen, Binnie, Langness), and two for the Whitewater Unified School District (Brunner, Stewart). That leaves two contested races in the immediate area: a Common Council race between…
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, 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…
City, Culture, Local Government, Newspapers, School District, University
Whitewater’s Mentoring Gap
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Looking back ten years (or nine in the case of UW-Whitewater), one finds at the helm of Whitewater’s public institutions leaders who so very much embodied Old Whitewater: Steinhaus, Brunner, Coan, Telfer (beginning in ’07). They were the perfect representatives of Old Whitewater, where Old Whitewater is an attitude, not an age: narrow, grandiose, mediocre, producing…
Blogging, City, Culture, New Media, Newspapers, Press, School District, University
Revisiting Kozloff’s ‘Dark, Futile Dream’
by JOHN ADAMS • • 2 Comments
About a year ago, I wrote a post on an off-campus meeting at which local notables and a search consultant (Jessica Kozloff) discussed a replacement for Richard Telfer. A story on that meeting, published in the Daily Union, is one of the best accounts of insiders’ thinking. See, from that newspaper, UW-Whitewater chancellor session held, http://www.dailyunion.com/news/article_f042575e-a63a-11e4-bcd8-939679ffcc09.html.…
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, 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…
School District, Sports, University
The Value of Sports
by JOHN ADAMS • • 5 Comments
Whitewater has had athletic successes in our district and on campus. Our high school and local university have witnessed impressive state & national accomplishments. Few cities have done so well. It’s been my pleasure to attend and cheer for Whitewater’s high school and college teams. I was graduated from another school, but like so many…
Education, School District
A New Weekly Series: The Education Post
by JOHN ADAMS • • 10 Comments
Post 1 in weekly series. I promised recently that I would begin a new, weekly feature. This is the first installment in fulfillment of that promise: a weekly education post. These are not easy times for education. Perhaps the truest statement is that there are no easy times: school can be difficult even in comfortable…
School District
The Next-Best Thing
by JOHN ADAMS • • 12 Comments
Understandably, the best outcome for any public body is to have good candidates, who become good incumbents, who then produce good policy. This should be obvious to anyone: candidates, residents, bloggers, etc. A next-best outcome would be the opportunity to draw clear contrasts between good policy and bad, so much the better to illustrate alternatives.…