 | MESPA Home > Resources for Principal Leadership > INVESTMN public relations materials | | Bits'n Pieces, Winter 2009
Just the Facts
Good News
• Minnesota received a B+ rating (compared to C+ nationally) for children’s Chance-for-Success based on 13 indicators that span childhood through adulthood. The index examines the role of education at each stage of a person’s life. (EPE Research Center, Quality Counts 2009, Grading the States, Education Week)
• Parents’ positive perception of the school attended by their oldest child is at a 15-year high with 72% assigning the school an A or B.
Did You Know?
• Research shows that family participation in education is twice as predictive of students’ academic success as family socioeconomic status. (Eleven Tips for Savvy Superintendents, National School Public Relations Association (NSPRA), February 2008)
• In most communities 75 to 80% of households have no school-age children. (Eleven Tips for Savvy Superintendents, NSPRA, February 2008)
• Lack of communication expertise is the main reason superintendents lose their jobs. (How Strong Communication Helps Superintendents Get and Keep Their Jobs, NSPRA, 2004)
• Almost 6 in 10 Americans agree that the senior year of high school is not academically productive. (40th Annual PDK/Gallup Poll, 2008)
• Minnesota’s overall grade state grade was a C. C is also the national average. . (EPE Research Center, Quality Counts 2009, Grading the States, Education Week)
Parent Involvement (Taken from Parent Involvement in Education, Northwest Regional Education Laboratory)
• Children of involved parents made significantly greater academic gains than children of noninvolved parents. (School-Based Family Socialization and Reading Achievement in the Inner City, Walberg, Bole, Wasman, Psychology in the Schools 17, 1980
• Research overwhelmingly supports parent involvement in instruction. (Synthesis of Recent Research on Parent Participation in Children’s Education, Education Leadership 40, 1982)
• There is a strong and positive relationship between parent involvement and affective outcomes such as student attitudes toward school and subject areas, self-concept, classroom behavior, time spent on homework, expectations for one’s future, absenteeism, motivation, and retention.
• Parent attitudes toward school and improved parent self-concepts result when parents become involved in their children’s learning.
• Parent involvement reduces mistaken assumptions parents and school people may hold about one another’s motives, attitudes, intentions and abilities.
• Parents’ ability to serve as resources for the academic, social and psychological development of their children increases with parent involvement.
• With their involvement, parents’ own skills and confidence improve, sometimes furthering their own educations and upgrading parents’ jobs, thus providing improved role models for children.
• Involved parents are more likely to serve as advocates for the schools through the community.
Community Engagement
• Public Agenda’s community engagement model may be summarized as follows: (based on Public Engagement: A Primer from Public Agenda, No. 01, 2008)
• Nonpartisan sponsors/organizers
• Diverse cross section of participants
• Small, diverse dialogue groups
• Nonpartisan discussion materials that introduce citizens to the fundamentals of an issue and help them weigh alternative solutions
• Trained, nonpartisan moderators and recorders
• Careful forum follow-up
• When writing to achieve community engagement, strive to do the following: (taken from Communications, Nora Carr, American School Board Journal, November 2008)
• Keep writing jargon-free
• Understand and write for the specific audience you want to engage
• Pay attention to accuracy and details
• Match your style and tone to the audience
Cause for Pause
• The following information has been released as part of Education Week’s –Grading the States 2009. Quality Counts—Grading the states, 2009.
• Minnesota receives a C+ for in the school finance category.
• Minnesota’s actual spending on schools is only 91.8% of what is required to bring all students to the median level.
• Minnesota is slightly below the national average in per-pupil expenditures after adjusting for regional cost differences.
• Only 40% of Minnesota’s students are in districts with per-pupil spending at or above the national average.
Looking Ahead (taken from STATELINE, Kathy Christie, Phi Delta Kappan, January 2009)
• Top 10 issues that will be addressed by state governments this year include:
1. Ensure job opportunities and workforce with the right skills
2. Reduce the number of dropouts
3. Ensure course quality and learning
4. Seek world-class status
5. Align information-rich systems from pre-k through 20.
6. Increase capacity for assisting schools that need it most
7. Raise the bar for leadership and teaching
8. Extend time for learning
9. Ensure quality from pre-k through grade three
10. Make dollars go farther
Red Flags
• “The impetus for change built into NCLB was to effectively ‘shame’ schools into improvement. We now see that the shame game is flawed.” – Susan B. Neuman, professor and former assistant secretary for elementary and secondary education during NCLB’s passage and initial implementation.
Quotes and Quotables
Leadership
• “As American classrooms grow increasingly diverse, the attitudes and beliefs of educators play a crucial role in ensuring quality education for all.” – Phi Delta Kappan, January, 2009
• “It’s not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change.” – Charles Darwin
Progress
• “The change I believe in begins with me.” – Joan Richardson, Editor-in-Chief, Phi Delta Kappan
• “Strategic planning is not a term — or process — that ignites passions and fires hearts with inspiration. However, it is work that is essential to creating and sustaining an organization. As the old adage goes: ‘If you fail to plan you plan to fail.’” – Joann Knuth, Executive Director, The Minnesota Association of Secondary School Principals
• “The important thing is not to stop questioning.” – Albert Einstein
• “I dream my painting, and then I paint my dream.” – Vincent Van-Gogh
• “Faith is taking the first step even when you don’t see the whole staircase.” – Martin Luther King, Jr.
• “You are never too old to set a new goal or dream a new dream.” – C.S. Lewis
• “Have no fear of perfection—you'll never reach it.” – Salvador Dali
Education
• “…children will have to know and be able to do much more than their parents, because of fundamental changes in the dynamics of the global economy.” – Marc Tucker, President, National Center on Education and the Economy.
• “The incredible power of America is the opportunity it offers for everyone who lives here to achieve great results for themselves and their families. The foundation for that opportunity for success is secured by our public schools.” – Dennis Peterson, Minnesota Superintendent of the Year
• “A broader, bolder approach also needs high-quality, out-of-school support.” – Susan B. Neuman, professor in educational studies specializing in early literacy development at the University of Michigan.
Communication
• “Real people don’t talk about rubrics, manipulatives, and non-negotiables. They don’t call kids TD, EC, or ESL. But tell them you’re making a difference in kids’ lives against incredible odds, and they’ll be spellbound.” – Ann Helms, education reporter with the Charlotte Observer
• “One kind word can warm three winter months.” – Japanese Proverb
Just for Fun
• “There are two different kinds of people in this world: those who finish what they start, and” – Brad Ramsey
• “Nothing is so embarrassing as watching someone do something that you said couldn't be done.” – Sam Ewing
• “If you think something small can't make a difference, try going to sleep with a mosquito in the room.” – Unknown
• “One of the hardest things to imagine is that you are not smarter than average.” – Jonathan Fuerbringer
• “English is a funny language--that explains why we park our car on the driveway and drive our car on the parkway.” – Mark Grasso
• “I told my psychiatrist that everyone hates me. He said I was being ridiculous - everyone hasn't met me yet.” – Rodney Dangerfield
• “To err is human, but to really foul things up you need a computer.” – Paul Ehrlich.
• “USA Today has come out with a new survey: Apparently three out of four people make up 75 percent of the population.” – David Letterman.
• “We're going to have the best-educated American people in the world.” – Dan Quayle.
• “When I was a boy of fourteen, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be twenty-one, I was astonished by how much he'd learned in seven years.” – Mark Twain
• “If everything seems under control, you're just not going fast enough.”– Mario Andretti.
• “You can observe a lot by just watching.” – Yogi Berra
• “If we don’t succeed, we run the risk of failure.” – Dan Quayle
Bits_n_Pieces_winter_09.pdf
|
| |
| Contest: win a copy of "Sparks" | Be the first to find the grammatical errors in this bonus quote
(altered for this activity) and submit an accurate correction to
sprest@arkassoc.com and you will receive a copy of Sparks, a new book
by Dr. Peter Benson of the Search Institute. "Each newborn child
arrives on earth with a message too deliver to mankind. Clenched in his
little fist is some particle of yet unrevealed truth, some missing
clue, which may solve the enigma of mans destiny. He has a limited
amount of time to fulfill his mission and he will never get a second
chance—nor will we. He may be, our last hope. He must be treated as top
sacred.” – Sam Levenson, Everything but Money, 1966
|
| Formatted copy for printing | To download a formatted copy of these Bits'n Pieces that can be photocopied, scroll to the bottom of the page.
|
|
|
