The future of libraries?

Is there a future for public and school libraries?  There will be if the people who currently work in libraries become the change that is needed.  Joyce Valenza over at the Never Ending Search reminds all of this in her post today.   If you love libraries or work in libraries, this is your clarion call to be the change!

Joyce wrote today:  “I am a huge fan of Seth Godin.  Seth…

• writes the most popular marketing blog in the world;
• is the author of the bestselling marketing books of the last decade;
• speaks to large groups on marketing, new media and what’s next;
• and is the founder of Squidoo.com, a fast-growing recommendation website.

Seth’s brief blog post this morning on the Future of the Library certainly got my attention:

What should libraries do to become relevant in the digital age? They can’t survive as community-funded repositories for books that individuals don’t want to own (or for reference books we can’t afford to own.) More librarians are telling me (unhappily) that the number one thing they deliver to their patrons is free DVD rentals. That’s not a long-term strategy, nor is it particularly an uplifting use of our tax dollars.

Here’s my proposal: train people to take intellectual initiative. Once again, the net turns things upside down. The information is free now. No need to pool tax money to buy reference books. What we need to spend the money on are leaders, sherpas and teachers who will push everyone from kids to seniors to get very aggressive in finding and using information and in connecting with and leading others.”

And then, she added a comment from leading library expert  Mike Eisenberg who said:

“It keeps me up at night too – but to me it’s not will the librarians be in a position to be a logical choice, but rather will librarians grab the opportunity. Any librarian employed today IS in the position! They need to embrace a role that focuses on meeting people’s information needs through any and all media, systems, formats, and approaches.

And Joyce concludes:

“Many of you are out there leading change. The revolution can happen.  And it can happen in our blogs, through our tweets, in our libraries. It will not happen if we are asleep at the wheel.  It will not happen if we do not assume responsibility for our own retooling.

This is the year of redefinition.  Frankly, it’s definition or death.  Some of you thought I was cold when I suggested that folks lead, follow, or get out of the way.  I know many of you are out there are working hard.   But it is not about working hard. It is about working smart. It is about marketing. It is about redefining. Before it is too late.  This is the year.”

This is it…
lead, follow or get out of the way!

Online school and importance of parents

It has been five months since the opening of the Clovis Online School which serves students of Central California.  You’re welcome to read the day-to-day events on the Clovis Online School blog, but recently, my interaction with parents of the school has helped our school to improve.  It has been frustrating for me and the teachers in the online school to watch students who do not complete their work that leads to not passing courses.  And parents are equally frustrated with their children.

What I have learned overall is that parent involvement with students in an online school is essential for student success.  Completing coursework in an online school is different than a traditional school and parents are the ones that have to help their children to be organized,  to manage their time, and  to complete work in their online coursework.  Most students do not automatically have these organizational skills!  It is only through ongoing interaction between teachers, students and parents that our online school continues to improve.  We now have monthly parent club meetings that are face-to-face.  At our last two meetings we have talked about the things that are working and the things that are not working in our online school.  I thought the list may be helpful to others.

Things that are working in the online school/reasons for attending the online school

• Don’t want to feel like a number
• More control over my child’s education
• Focus on academics/ability to attend a Clovis school from a distance
• Fewer distractions in online school
• More involvement in learning by the students
• Less drama, less anxiety about going to school
• Able to work ahead in work or catch up as needed
• Flexibility of completing work
• Adapting to needs of students
• Flexibility
• Engaging curriculum
• Parent Involvement
• Leadership Summits
• Able to work from anywhere
• Efficiency
• Students learning how to learn
• Variety of textbooks
• Students learning about web tools that will carry them through the rest of their lives.

Things that need improvement in the online school

• Consistent communication methods
• More email communication needed from teachers to parents
• Standardization of courses needed so that every course is arranged in the same way to make it easier for students and parents to know where to look.
• Common format very important for ease of learning
• More visual tools used, ways to graph projects/progress at a glance
• Some way for students to track their progress
• Emails not always received back from teachers in timely manner
• More career planning needed
• Content needs to be more printer friendly
• Ongoing planning for graduation from counselors needed
• Some classes require students to take pictures of assignments…everyone doesn’t have a camera to do this
• Common grading system needed
• Elluminate session dates and times need to better advertised

New dropout report

This study shows how much money would have been gained if students had graduated from high school.  See the city by city analysis.  Here was the press release (Nov. 19):

If just half of the dropouts in an average year graduated, additional tax revenues and increased wages would substantially buoy the local economies of the nation’s fifty largest cities

(For more information and specific numbers for each of the cities listed above, please visit the Alliance’s website at http://www.all4ed.org/publication_material/EconMSA)

Washington, D.C. – New game-changing research conducted by the Alliance for Excellent Education (The Alliance) released today shows that the U.S. economy would grow significantly if the number of high school dropouts was cut in half.

Nearly 600,000 students dropped out of the high school class of 2008 in the nation’s fifty largest cities and the surrounding areas. The Alliance’s research shows that, if just half of those students had graduated, on average, they would have earned more than $4.1 billion in additional income every year. In addition, in these areas, state and local tax revenues in an average year would jump by a total of nearly $536 million.

“In these lean economic times, local businesses and governments are looking for any way they can to improve their financial situation,” said former West Virginia Governor and Alliance for Excellent Education President Bob Wise. “These numbers demonstrate clearly that every consumer, business, and taxpayer benefits dramatically when we do what it takes to increase the number of students who graduate from high school with the skills they need to succeed in life. Indeed, the best economic stimulus is a high school diploma.”

The AEE study also found that 65 percent of the additional high school graduates would continue their education with many earning a PhD or other professional degree.

“As a business leader I’m committed to a quality education for all children and to strengthening the vitality of our communities,” said Edward B. Rust Jr., Chairman and CEO of State Farm®. “The new Alliance for Excellent Education model conclusively demonstrates that graduating from high school has significant positive economic and financial consequences for the business community and not just for the individual getting the education. Assuring that all of our students graduate from high school with the skills necessary to compete in a global economy is something all businesses-small and large-should see as a priority.”

While it is impossible to forecast precise values of economic benefits, the Alliance is confident that these figures fall within the range of benefits that each region could expect to see. The economic model used to estimate these economic benefits was developed by the Alliance for Excellent Education with the generous support of State Farm® and in partnership with Economic Modeling Specialists, Inc.

The model is based on graduation rates calculated by Editorial Projects in Education and projects the economic benefits for U.S. Census-defined metropolitan statistical areas (MSA), which consist of a central urban area and the surrounding geographic area if it has strong social and economic ties to that city. The 45 MSAs include the 50 largest cities in the country. Five of these cities share a region with another.

The 4,900 high schools located within these MSAs have an average graduation rate of 69.8 percent. Over 900 of these are considered “dropout factories,” that is, schools where fewer than 60 percent of freshman progress to their senior year on time.

The cities in the research include: Albuquerque, Atlanta, Austin, Baltimore, Boston, Charlotte, Chicago, Cleveland, Colorado Springs, Columbus, Dallas-Ft. Worth-Arlington, Denver, Detroit, El Paso, Fresno, Honolulu, Houston, Indianapolis, Jacksonville, Kansas City, Las Vegas, Los Angeles-Long Beach, Louisville, Memphis, Miami, Milwaukee, Minneapolis, Nashville, New York City, Oklahoma City, Omaha, Philadelphia, Phoenix-Mesa, Portland, Sacramento, San Antonio, San Diego, San Francisco-Oakland, San Jose, Seattle, Tucson, Tulsa, Virginia Beach, Washington, D.C., Wichita.

For more information and specific numbers for each of the cities listed above, please visit the Alliance’s website at http://www.all4ed.org/publication_material/EconMSA.

NOTE: In January, the Alliance will release additional economic and financial benefits of reducing dropout rates in these 50 cities, including additional spending and investment, job and economic growth, and home and auto sales.

The student dropout crisis really bugs me

In researching studies about online learning, charter schools and students at risk of dropping out of school, I continue to come across more and more case studies and reports that show the education gap that exists across the United States.

This recent report (2009, pdf), “Gaining Ground on High School Graduation Rates...” from the Southern Regional Education Board shows that there is a 74% graduation rate (which means 26% do not graduate and do not earn a high school diploma).  Among African American and Hispanic students, the graduation rate is 55%.  This report is based on data from the most recent NCES report (2009) entitled, “High School DropOut and Graduation Rates: 2007.”

This morning, a related NPR story caught my attention.  The story, “Racial achievement gap still plagues schools“  lead me to the website, “Mind the Gap“,  a yearlong study completed by Nancy Solomon.  The study shows the racial differences of students who attend Columbia High School in New Jersey.  And how white and black students are treated differently…not just at this school, but at every high school like this across America.

The dropout crisis is complicated and complex.  Every person in every city needs to be working together to change this direction throughout the United States.

I meet the faces of some of these students from Central California every day in the charter online school for which I am the principal.   The faces are Asian, white, Hispanic, African American, Filipino and all races.  All students want to learn, want to connect with teachers, want to engage in learning, and want to earn a high school diploma.  Some students are frustrated with traditional school, some students want different options for learning, and some students have had many negative school experiences.

We need to work together in all of our communities to improve the graduation rate for all high school students in America.

Dissertation: Preliminary Defense Over

I just completed one of the “rites of passage” for those seeking a doctorate.  This rite of passage is called the “Preliminary Defense.”  Not many people write or talk about the actual preliminary defense meeting.   The doctoral regulations governing the doctorate at CSU Fresno gives mention of it, but does not explain the process, but says you need to do it and to file a bunch of forms once it is completed.  It appears this is the way it is for most doctoral programs.

As with other doctoral “passages”, the process leading up to the event is more rigorous than the event itself.  I found the preliminary defense discussion to be helpful in further focusing my topic and direction.  I prepared a two page document for my committee members, but few of them seemed to looked at it.  I also prepared a PowerPoint presentation, complete with pictures (just text gets soooo boring) that shared the background of my topic a little review of the literature and the plan for my study (also called the “methodology”).

I had prepared the room to include bottles of water and some chocolate for my committee members.  When the committee assembled, they had me leave the room and then invited me back in.  I proceeded with my presentation via PowerPoint and committee members asked questions throughout.  I had included a “question or ideas or clarification” slides throughout my presentation which helped to direct the conversation.   Throughout the presentation, there were questions and clarifications that helped me to better refine my study.  At the end, they asked me to leave the room so they could talk.  They then invited me back in and said, “Congratulations!”    Entire process took about 60 minutes.

Then, filing the paper work (which took me about two hours to prepare) was the next step and now, that is over!

My current dissertation title is:   Are at-risk students more successful in online charter high schools than in traditional high schools?

And my research questions are:

1. Are there a disproportionate number of at-risk students attending online charter schools as compared to traditional high schools?
2. Are at-risk students more successful in online charter high schools than they are in traditional high schools?

Now, the exciting work begins!