Media Literacy Now

Twenty years ago, when my eldest of three was in elementary school, I became an outspoken advocate for commercial-free schools and classrooms. I learned about efforts in Massachusetts and across the country to limit the impact of commercialism in our schools and I carried the issue forward with PTAs at local, state, and national levels. I met good folks then with whom I now interact on the broader issue of media literacy and I am a proud member of Media Literacy Now.

Today, literacy means

media literacy.

The need for media literacy in our schools is more important than ever because we live in a 24/7 media environment. Children's future well-being depends not only on their literacy, but that they have the media literacy skills necessary to navigate, analyze, and respond to all forms of media.

Whereas my eldest is in that first generation of digitally socialized people who entered school at the dawn of the internet age and adopted computerized technologies in elementary school and facebook and twitter while still in high school, my rising high school senior is a digital native who has been accessing online curriculum content since elementary school, came through facebook and twitter and beyond, with access to personalized on-screen edu-tainment.

Classrooms today are learning labs where students prepare for the world beyond school walls, equipped with the skills necessary: Communication, empathy, critical-thinking, and global citizenship. Schools continue to add and improve technological access to curricula across all grades yet there is little coordination to ensure media literacy skills acquisition. We must empower our children to be critical thinkers who analyze content in print and can navigate media in all of its forms to become informed digital citizens.

The internet is not going away. Our children must move beyond being media consumers to become media creators. Their future - and our democracy - depends on it.

Public Hearing on PARCC

The Board of ESE will hold it's fifth and final Public Hearing on PARCC - I look forward to attending:

Tuesday, July 7, 2015
Springfield Technical Community College
Top of Our City Conference Center
4:00-7:00 PM

If you have not had a chance to attend and comment in person, or to offer written testimony, please consider doing so. I am grateful to all who have submitted their thoughtful commentary, written and oral. Over the Summer I will be reflecting on all of the comments received.

Resources about PARCC have been posted to the Department's website.

Public Hearings on PARCC

The Board of Elementary and Secondary Education heard testimony from the Public at its first Public Hearing on the Partnership for Assessment on Readiness for College and Career statewide assessments (PARCC). It is anticipated that the Board will vote to decide to move from MCAS to PARCC assessments later this year (fall). Resources and information about the PARCC have been posted to a page on the Department's website HERE.

In the coming months, the Board will be holding several forums to hear comments from the public on the PARCC assessments:

Monday, May 18, 2015, Bunker Hill Community College, A300 Auditorium, 5:00-8:00 PM (in lieu of the Board's Special Meeting)

Wednesday, June 10, 2015, Bridgewater State University, Rondileau Campus Center Ballroom, 5:00-8:00 PM

Monday, June 22, 2015, North Shore Community College - Lynn Campus, Gymnasium, 4:00-7:00 PM (in lieu of the Board's Special Meeting)

Tuesday, July 7, 2015, Springfield Technical Community College, Top of Our City Conference Center, 4:00-7:00 PM

Tuesday, April 28, 2015: Fitchburg State University, Hammond Hall, 3:00-6:00 PM

MASC/MASS

Here's a quick post, languishing in drafts since the Conference last fall...

Images are from the breakout portion of the session I presented at the MASC/MASS Annual Joint Conference with Margaret Driscoll of the Melrose School Committee and Kim Savery Hunt of the Plymouth School Committee.

We opened the session with thoughts on how School Committees can use family engagement in their three priority areas of budget process, policy development, and evaluation of the superintendent. Then, we broke the large attending group into three smaller groups so they could turn and talk, providing the info captured below. 

OneWord

In the last days of 2014, my PLN challenged me to reflect on OneWord of purpose for the coming year. (More about the OneWord spark from PLN colleague Ted Huff here). And my initial reflection brought many good words of purpose to mind:

courage - strength - vision - soul - authentic - thrive - desire - passion - dream - inspire - essential - hope - imagine - persevere - reflect 

I carefully considered each one, ultimately deciding that these very good words were better suited as foundation words from which to build and support my OneWord choice. I wondered: Could my OneWord sum up all that I hoped for in my vision of purpose and interaction with people, things, time? It is to lead, persist, and inspire with soul, yes, and to lead from the truth of who I am.

The word I claimed for myself is, BOLD. In the past few months of living with the word, I have come to understand that to focus on it is to arrive at what is most essential; a word of purpose and commitment that is applicable personally, professionally, and in my public life.

"Change is easy - you go first."

We know that change is hard. One thing I like about the OneWord concept is that it enhances who I already am. This isn't to say that adopting my word has been easy, but it has been illuminating. PLN colleague, P.A. Cormeny noted that when one begins to focus on one's word, one sees it exhibited in others (see her OneWord blogpost). I also like the way her post included quotes in support of her word and so I offer the following:

One must be bold, at the risk of having been deceived and making mistakes.
~ Camille Pissarro

Freedom lies in being bold.
~ Robert Frost

Even as far back as between 29 and 19 BCE, Virgil provides: Fortune favours the bold.

Themes of Justice and Mercy, Virtue and Sin predominate in Shakespeare's Measure for Measure, where we find: Virtue is bold, and goodness never fearful.

Reflecting on a good use of the word for public service, Thomas Jefferson said: I was bold in the pursuit of knowledge, never fearing to follow truth and reason to whatever results they led, and bearding every authority which stood in their way.

Be bold. Be dynamic. Be unafraid. And continue to make this the #BestYearEver.

#Storify: 9Cs

Our state budget reflects the choices we make to strengthen communities, support vulnerable populations, and build a thriving economy.

This past Tuesday, February 3, 2015, Governor Charlie Baker announced a series of reductions to the FY15 Budget in an effort to close a $768M projected budget deficit.

I created a storify story by pulling together some tweets and other resources related to the recent 9Cs - view my storify story embedded below.

Delivery & Content

Contents of this month's Board Book Mailing
(photo credit: mas)

Two weekends before a Regular Board of ESE Meeting, I receive a UPS delivery of the Board Meeting Book.

The delivery also contains a packet of any mail sent to me c/o the Department in Malden.

Since my first meeting in September, the Board Book has varied in size from 1" to 2.5". This month, as we enter "Charter School Season", the contents of my delivery included a 3.5" Book, replete with anticipated agenda, back up, reports, and recommendations relevant for discussion and/or action at the Special Meeting (Monday, January 26) and the Regular Meeting (Tuesday, January 27), and four pieces of mail.

Some Charter materials have been distributed electronically. Items in the Book pertaining to Charters this month include:

• Information on (4) New Charter Applicants (for initial discussion). By statute the Board votes approval of new charter schools at its February meeting. In November 2014, the Department received final applications to establish four charter schools. The Department provided an overview of the process for reviewing and granting new charters and a summary of the charter applications that are pending.

• Proposed Amendments for UP Academy Boston Charter School, Salem Academy Charter School, Hampden Charter School of Science, and KIPP Academy Lynn Charter School (discussion and vote)

• Martin Luther King, Jr. Charter School of Excellence: Report on Conditions and Commissioner's Recommendation for Probation (discussion and vote)

• Boston Renaissance Charter Public School: Report on Probation and Commissioner's Recommendation for Renewal (discussion and vote)

It's a lot of reading, to be sure. Presentations will be distributed at the Special and Regular Meetings, too, and there is room for them in the Book. Several Tabs do not have material (Minutes of the December Board Meetings, State Graduation and Dropout Results for 2013-14, Update on PARCC, i.e.), which I find most challenging; it is difficult to bring intelligent discussion to the table when materials are distributed the night before the meeting, or, at the meeting.

The four pieces of mail that were forwarded by the Department are:

• Season's Greetings from the Nashoba Valley Technical High School Committee, Administration, and Staff (of Westford MA), stamped by the Department "received December 17, 2014"

• Season's Greetings and a 2015 desk calendar from SABIS Educational Systems, Inc (Eden Prairie MN), no date stamp

• Western MA Education Leaders Coalition (WMELC) Position Statement of December 3, 2014, with Cover Letter and List of WMELC Member Districts and Educational Collaboratives, sent January 14, 2015 (stamped January 16, 2015) from the office of Superintendent of Ludlow Public Schools, Todd H. Gazda on behalf of the WMELC, and signed by Michael J. Kelliher, Chairman on behalf of the Ludlow School Committee; Todd H. Gazda, Superintendent of Schools; and Brian Bylicki on behalf of the Ludlow Education Association. (An email containing the same information was sent to Board members on Friday, January 16, 2015).
• The 3-page WMELC Position Statement expresses concerns about:
1. Amount, Pace and Cost of Unfunded Mandates
2. Validity, reliability and implementation of PARCC exam
3. Amount, Frequency and Cost of Standardized Testing
• WMELC Member Districts and Educational Collaboratives include:
• Agawam Public Schools
• Collaborative for Educational Services
• East Longmeadow Public Schools
• Hadley Public Schools
• Lower Pioneer Valley Educational Collaborative
• Ludlow Public Schools
• Monson Public Schools
• Palmer Public Schools
• Southwick Tolland Granville Regional School District
• West Springfield Public Schools

• A booklet, with Cover Letter, entitled "Fitchburg Public Schools Perspective" sent from the Office of the Superintendent (Fitchburg MA). The letter is signed by Andre Ravenelle, Superintendent of Schools. The booklet contains "letters of support, transcripts of testimony presented at the public hearing as well as a number of artifacts" believed to help give Board Members "a detailed, yet broad perspective of the work of the Fitchburg Public Schools."