Scholarship Spotlight: Microsoft Scholarships

Amount of the Scholarship: Depends on the scholarship

Deadline: February 1st

Criteria:

• Displayed interest in the software industry
• Commitment to leadership
• Financial need
• Full time student
• Satisfactory progress toward an undergraduate degree in computer science, computer engineering, or a related technical discipline such as electrical engineering, math, or physics�and that you demonstrate an interest in computer science.
• Maintain a 3.0 cumulative grade point average out of a possible 4.0
• Quality of application
  

Additional Information: https://careers.microsoft.com/careers/en/us/collegescholarship.aspx
http://www.microsoft.com/college/ss_overview.mspx/
http://www.microsoft.com/college/ss_reqs.mspx
http://www.microsoft.com/college/ss_howtoapply.mspx
http://www.microsoft.com/

Contact:
1 Microsoft Way, Redmond, WA 98052
Phone: (425) 882-8080
Email: scholars@microsoft.com.

Find the Pattern, Ignore the Contraditions, Only Learn When Challenged

When experimental results appear that can't be explained, they're often discounted as being useless. The researchers might say that the experiment was designed badly, the equipment faulty, and so on.

It may indeed be the case the faults occurred, but it could also be the case when consistent information emerges, but these possibilities are rarely investigated when the data agrees with pre-existing assumptions, leading to possible biases in how data is interpreted.

. . . .

I was particularly interested to read that breakthroughs were most likely to come from group discussions:

"While the scientific process is typically seen as a lonely pursuit � researchers solve problems by themselves � Dunbar found that most new scientific ideas emerged from lab meetings, those weekly sessions in which people publicly present their data. Interestingly, the most important element of the lab meeting wasn�t the presentation � it was the debate that followed. Dunbar observed that the skeptical (and sometimes heated) questions asked during a group session frequently triggered breakthroughs, as the scientists were forced to reconsider data they�d previously ignored. The new theory was a product of spontaneous conversation, not solitude; a single bracing query was enough to turn scientists into temporary outsiders, able to look anew at their own work."

Although it turns out that discussion with people from a diverse range of people is most important - having a room full of people who share assumptions and expertise tends not to lead to creative scientific insights.

Let's face it, science is boring

This is why I bailed out of biology after completing the degree (okay, mostly). Fascinating to know. Stultifying to do.

It is now time to come clean. This glittering depiction of the quest for knowledge is... well, perhaps not an outright lie, but certainly a highly edited version of the truth. Science is not a whirlwind dance of excitement, illuminated by the brilliant strobe light of insight. It is a long, plodding journey through a dim maze of dead ends. It is painstaking data collection followed by repetitious calculation. It is revision, confusion, frustration, bureaucracy and bad coffee. In a word, science can be boring.

My own brief and undistinguished research career included its share of mind-numbing tasks, notably the months of data processing which revealed that a large and expensive orbiting gamma-ray telescope had fixed its eye on the exploding heart of a distant galaxy and seen... nothing. I tip my hat, though, to New Scientist's San Francisco bureau chief, who spent nearly three years watching mice sniff each other in a room dimly lit by a red bulb. "It achieved little," he confesses, "apart from making my clothes smell of mouse urine." And the office prize for research ennui has to go to the editor of NewScientist.com. "I once spent four weeks essentially turning one screw backwards and forwards," he says. "It was about that time that I decided I didn't want to be a working scientist."

However . . .

Boredom, it seems, is very much in the eye of the beholder. Scientists at the top of their game rarely become jaded, possibly because it is only the most tenacious individuals who ever succeed in research. Those with shorter attention spans - and you may pass your own judgement on the New Scientist staff mentioned earlier - are soon weeded out.

It's not all natural obsessiveness, though; there's an element of nurture too. Sulston points out that the most repetitious stuff happens only after years of working around a problem, trying to find a way in. By the time you are "strictly turning the handle", as he puts it, you may be the most skilled person at your chosen technique. Sulston ranked among the best in the world at keeping a close eye on slimy, grey microscopic worms, so using this skill became a pleasure.

Scholarship Spotlight: A. Patrick Charnon Memorial Scholarship

A. Patrick Charnon Memorial Scholarship

Amount of scholarship: $1,500 per year

Deadline: March 31

$1,500 scholarships awarded to full-time undergraduate students who have demonstrated their commitments to building communities. Each scholarship will be for $1,500 per academic year, prorated and awarded at the beginning of each academic term (for example, semester or quarter). Recipients may re-apply each year for up to four years, provided they continue to meet the requirements of the award.

Requirements
Recipients must be admitted or enrolled in a full-time undergraduate program of study in an accredited four-year college or university in the United States. They must maintain good academic standing and make progress toward a degree. The Charnon Scholarship Review Committee will decide whether applicants fulfill the requirements of the award. The selection committee looks for candidates who value tolerance, compassion and respect for all people in their communities, and who have demonstrated their commitments to these values by their actions.

Applications must be postmarked by March 31st for the academic year beginning in August or September. Recipients will be notified of their award in early August, and a profile of the recipient will be posted on The Center website.

In addition to the application form, you need to submit a 2-4 page essay (typed, double-spaced) explaining how community service experiences have shaped your life and how you will use your college educations to build communities in a manner consistent with Pat Charnon's values of compassion, tolerance, generosity and respect. An official transcript from your high school or college and three letters of reference are also required.

Additional Information:
http://www.cesresources.org/charnon.html#become
http://www.cesresources.org/apply.html
http://www.cesresources.org/Application.pdf

Contact:
A. Patrick Charnon Memorial Scholarship
The Center for Education Solutions
Box 208
San Francisco, California 94104-0208

Ritalin Cures Next Picasso

WORCESTER, MA�Area 7-year-old Douglas Castellano's unbridled energy and creativity are no longer a problem thanks to Ritalin, doctors for the child announced Monday. "After years of failed attempts to stop Douglas' uncontrollable bouts of self-expression, we have finally found success with Ritalin," Dr. Irwin Schraeger said. "For the first time in his life, Douglas can actually sit down and not think about lots of things at once." Castellano's parents reported that the cured child no longer tries to draw on everything in sight, calming down enough to show an interest in television.

Have a Problem, Kid? Here, Take This Anti-Psychotic

New federally financed drug research reveals a stark disparity: children covered by Medicaid are given powerful antipsychotic medicines at a rate four times higher than children whose parents have private insurance. And the Medicaid children are more likely to receive the drugs for less severe conditions than their middle-class counterparts, the data shows.

Those findings, by a team from Rutgers and Columbia, are almost certain to add fuel to a long-running debate. Do too many children from poor families receive powerful psychiatric drugs not because they actually need them � but because it is deemed the most efficient and cost-effective way to control problems that may be handled much differently for middle-class children?

Scholarship Spotlight

Elie Wiesel Prize in Ethics

The Elie Wiesel Prize in Ethics Essay Contest is an annual competition designed to challenge college students to analyze the urgent ethical issues confronting them in today's complex world. Students are encouraged to write thought-provoking personal essays that raise questions, single out issues and are rational arguments for ethical action.

Amount of the Scholarship:
First Prize - $ 5,000
Second Prize - $ 2,500
Third Prize - $ 1,500
Two Honorable Mentions - $ 500 each

Deadline: January 8, 2010

Requirements:
Students are eligible to enter the 2010 contest if:1)They are registered undergraduate full-time juniors or seniors at accredited four-year colleges or universities in the United States during the fall 2009 semester, or 2)They fulfill the guideline requirements and are studying abroad during the 2009-2010 school year, as long as they are registered as full-time juniors or seniors at their home schools in the U.S., or 3)They are international or non-citizen students who fill the guideline requirements and are attending schools in the U.S.

Essay:
The Foundation receives many inquiries regarding what students may write about in their essays. The topics provided by the Foundation each year are merely suggested topics - students may feel free to write about any topic as long as it pertains to ethics.

Faculty Sponsor:
Students entering the contest are required to have a Faculty Sponsor review their essay and sign the Entry Form. Faculty members should only endorse thought-provoking, well-written essays that fall within the contest guidelines. Any interested professor at the student's school may act as a Faculty Sponsor.

Additional Information:
http://www.eliewieselfoundation.org/prizeinethics.aspx
http://www.eliewieselfoundation.org/information.aspx

Contact:
The Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanity
555 Madison Avenue
20th Floor
New York, NY 10022
Fax: 212-490-6006
Tel: 212-490-7788

Creating Your Brand Statement: Putting it all together

In previous posts about the importance of a personal brand, we concentrated on how to create a personal brand using web tools such as Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter. Now it�s time to create your own personal brand statement. A brand statement will help your cover letter or resume stand out from thousands of others! In the next several blog postings, I will share information with you taken from leading personal branding expert and career advancement coach, Robert Allen Paul, and his �Company Of One� presentation at Buena Vista University. I would recommend his valuable message to every student. (Part I: Your Brand Part II: Core Competencies Part III: Brand Attributes Part IV: Brand Identity Part V: Brand Promise
Part VI: Brand Vision Part VII: Brand Loyalty + Brand Equity Part VIII: Brand Statement); Part IX: Putting It All Together:

Putting it all together�
If you want to create a cover letter that actually compels prospective employers to open and review your resume, you can apply the principles you�ve learned, incorporate the brand components you�ve developed, and try something like this:

Dear Mr. Roberts:

You don�t know me. We�ve never met. But your niece, Jenny Jenson, thinks we should. As a junior at Acme University, I�ve begun exploring career opportunities and requesting informational interviews. Jenny really respects your experience, so I�m reaching out to request your guidance.

Over the past twenty years, I�ve developed a talent for concise, critical thinking. I�m inquisitive, strategic and self-motivated, so I believe I can offer the right company an opportunity to maximize project results with a minimum of supervision.

My objective is to eventually earn a role as the chief marketing analyst for a category-leading packaged goods company. Jenny and I think that sounds a lot like Central Foods, so I�m wondering: Am I on the right track?

If you could spare thirty minutes anytime on March 9 or 10, I would sincerely appreciate it. Unless I hear from you beforehand, I�ll call during the week of February 27 to discover your interest.

Thank you for your consideration.

In case you haven�t realized it yet, Robert Allen Paul�s �Company Of One� is not just another �you can be whoever you want to be and succeed� program. It�s a �you can be exactly who you are and succeed� program. It doesn�t take a genius. It doesn�t take a marketing degree. All it takes is a clear understanding of who you really are, what you really do, how you do it differently from everyone else, and the benefits of that difference to your customers.

You are already unique. You are already a power to be reckoned with.

You are a Company Of One.

Robert Allen Paul has graciously shared his contact information with me to post in this blog. If you would like more information, or sample letters, send an email (linked below), and mention my name, Denise Beebe. You can also purchase his book, or the e-version of his book that contains a workbook through his website, linked above.

Robert Allan Paul
PresidentCOO, Inc
8242 Turtle Creek Boulevard
Minneapolis, MN 55375
612.636.4554
Robert@CoOfOne.com

In Job Hunt, College Degree Can�t Close Racial Gap

Black joblessness has long far outstripped that of whites. And strikingly, the disparity for the first 10 months of this year, as the recession has dragged on, has been even more pronounced for those with college degrees, compared with those without. Education, it seems, does not level the playing field � in fact, it appears to have made it more uneven.

College-educated black men, especially, have struggled relative to their white counterparts in this downturn, according to figures from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The unemployment rate for black male college graduates 25 and older in 2009 has been nearly twice that of white male college graduates � 8.4 percent compared with 4.4 percent.

Creating Your Brand Statement: Brand Statement

In previous posts about the importance of a personal brand, we concentrated on how to create a personal brand using web tools such as Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter. Now it�s time to create your own personal brand statement. A brand statement will help your cover letter or resume stand out from thousands of others! In the next several blog postings, I will share information with you taken from leading personal branding expert and career advancement coach, Robert Allen Paul, and his �Company Of One� presentation at Buena Vista University. I would recommend his valuable message to every student. (Part I: Your Brand Part II: Core Competencies Part III: Brand Attributes Part IV: Brand Identity Part V: Brand Promise
Part VI: Brand Vision Part VII: Brand Loyalty + Brand Equity) Part VII: Brand Statement

What Do You Say?
Congratulations! You�re now one of the fortunate few who understand who they really are, what they really do, how they do it differently from everyone else and the benefits of that difference to prospective employers. You even have a practical understanding of the principles that will get you in front of those key contacts. The only question is: What do you say?

Maybe we should start with what not to say. There are plenty of examples out there. Most of us will spend a lot of time fine tuning our resumes, but when it�s time to introduce ourselves, we just generate something generic like this:

Hi, Robert.

My name is John Johnson and I am, as the subject line suggests, inquiring into possible careers at Cuneo. I am a recent college collegegraduate from Acme University with a specialization in internet, television, film and new media marketing. If you have an entry level positions available at all, I would love to chat with you. I have included my resume, so please review it and let me know what you think. Thanks for you time and I hope to hear more from you soon.

This is an actual excerpt from an email Robert Allen Paul received from a graduate of a Big Ten school. Only the names have been changed. Here�s what he had to say:

�Aside from all the typographical and grammatical errors, there�s nothing terribly wrong with this introduction. But there�s nothing really right about it either. Certainly nothing interesting or insightful or enlightening or engaging. Is he really interested in any entry level position I might have? Does he really think I�m going to open and review his resume? And does he really want to know what I think? I don�t think so.�

Do you remember �back at the beginning of this blog �when I told you the first step in developing a career is differentiating yourself from everyone else? And that differentiating yourself begins with developing a summary statement that helps prospective employers recognize your personal strengths and their professional applications? The email above isn�t it.

So, what do you say? You already know!

This is where we bring it all together. This is where we combine all the results of your hard work.

Begin by copying the elements you�ve created in previous blogs into the appropriate blanks below. Now read them aloud, in the order that you�ve written them, as if they comprise one, cohesive paragraph. Because they do.

(Brand) I AM_______________________________________________

(Core competency) AND I HAVE A TALENT FOR ___________________________________________________________________________________________________.

(Brand Vision) MY OBJECTIVE IS TO
___________________________________________________________________________________________________.

(Brand Attributes) I AM _____________, ______________ AND ___________.

(Brand Promise) AS A RESULT, I CAN OFFER THE RIGHT COMPANY
__________________________________________________________________________________________________.

An example might be something like this:

I am John Johnson and I have a talent for critical thinking. My objective is to eventually earn a position as the chief marketing analyst for a category-leading consumer packaged goods company. I�m inquisitive, strategic and self-motivated. As a result, I can offer the right company an opportunity to maximize project results with a minimum of supervision.

Read yours again. What you have is something that most people �and many companies �don�t have. You have a comprehensive Brand Statement. Your brand statement isn�t meant to be cast in bronze or carved in stone. It�s a living document that is meant to be reread and reworked and rewritten regularly.

Next up - Creating your brand statement: Putting it all together.

Thanks for lives past and present

crossposted from Daily Kos

I was, perhaps appropriately, listening to a recording of the Brahms Requiem when I saw the email: Greg Kannerstein had passed away. Let me quote two paragraphs from Haverford College President Steve Emerson's ('74) email:

A mentor, student, teacher, colleague, coach and friend to thousands, Greg recently stepped down from his role as our Dean of the College after a 41-year career marked by boundless enthusiasm for Haverford. He had begun work on his new appointment as a Special Advisor to Institutional Advancement and Lecturer in General Programs when emerging health issues forced him to take a medical leave last month. His illness was diagnosed only weeks ago.

My heart aches at the thought of losing Greg. I believe it is fair to say that every Haverfordian who has passed through the College since 1968 has been touched by Greg�s spirit. Whether in his role as coach, teacher, Athletic Director, Dean of Admissions, or Dean of the College, Greg was always there for Haverford, and for everyone in the greater Haverford family.

And that got me thinking about the thanks I want to offer -

Greg and I did not overlap as students at Haverford - he was class of '63 and my original class was '67. But when I returned in the Fall of '71 he was already back as a fixture on the campus he loved, and where he would spend the rest of his life. Greg was a friend for almost 4 decades. Two others I did not know as well also passed recently, Gerald Bracey and Ted Sizer. I knew both through their writings, Jerry much better through electronic exchanges over more than a decade and the occasional phone conversation, and Ted through one long conversation several years ago in Providence when we were both there for a conference on education.

Bracey could be acerbic. He was a brilliant man, and did not tolerate fools and idiots when it came to matters of educational policy. He could totally devastate the kind of sloppy thinking that has unfortunately so shaped our educational policy in recent years. His writings over the year pointed me in the direction of research I needed to absorb. Our last exchange is when he arranged for me to get a copy of his final book, Education Hell: Rhetoric versus Reality, which may be the best single book on education policy I have read in several years. I did not get around to writing an online review before Jerry passed, but I was so impressed I bought a number of copies to give to Members of the House interested in education with my strong recommendation that they read it. As part of my thanks for his life and work, I promise I will review that book here before the end of the year.

Ted Sizer was one of the most generous spirits I have ever encountered. He was a consummate educator, usually of other educators. His book Horace's Compromise: The Dilemma of the American High School laid out clearly one of the real crises in American education. That and his subsequent work led to some of the most meaningful reforms in American education: The Coalition of Essential Schools, which is largely based on his insights and work, and the Forum for Education and Democracy, of which he was a Convener, are illustrative of his positive influence.

I am thankful for men such as Greg, Jerry and Ted, who cared deeply for others, for education, and who served as mentors and inspirations for so many.

Which makes me realize how thankful I am for something else - the students with which I am blessed each and every day. The inspiration I received from Jerry and Ted would have far less meaning were I not able to live it, to pass it on to others. The model of service to others that Greg lived similarly is something I feel honor-bound to pass on by attempting myself to live it. And I am blessed because each day I enter my classroom I am presented with a multitude of opportunities through the lives of the young people before me.

I am thankful that they are willing to trust, to allow themselves to be challenged, push, provoked, and that they trust me not to abandon them, to encourage them, to comfort them when they struggle. That requires me to go outside of myself, and certainly makes me more humane, or if you prefer, allows me to begin to realize my own humanity.

There will be many other things for which I will offer thanks, today, tomorrow and for the rest of the year.

Greg's death reminded me of the importance of thanking him for sharing his life with so many of us, and that I need to say the same of Jerry and Ted.

There is an ancient Buddhist saying that when the student is ready, the teacher will appear. So perhaps it was for me when I got to know Greg - who was very much a teacher, not only as a coach, but in the classes he also occasionally taught, having himself seriously studied literature at the graduate level. And certainly reading and later knowing Jerry and Ted helped shape my own teaching.

Realistically, one only teaches with the cooperation of the student. So for me, when the student appears and is willing to travel down the road of mutual exploration and learning, that is when the teaching begins. Without the students I am not a teacher.

Thanks for these lives, the three recently passed, and the 180 currently on my roles who represent present and future, and the several hundred still in our building who have previously shared the experience of learning with me.

I am truly blessed.

Peace.

Creating a Democratic Learning Community

is the focus of a new book by Sam Chaltain, National Director of the Forum for Education and Democracy. Sam previously worked with the First Amendment Schools Project, an experience that helped shaped this book. He is also founding director of the Five Freedoms Project, which is a community educators, students and citizens committed to First Amendment Freedoms, democratic schools, and the idea that students should be seen and heard (and of which I am a member).

American Schools: The Art of Creating a Democratic Learning Community has a Foreword by former Justice Sandra Day O�Connor - herself long committed to a revitalization of civic education - and is valuable both as something to read to provoke one�s thinking, and as a resource for further exploration of the topic, especially for anyone concerned about preparing our students to learn to be citizens of a democracy.

While I want to concentrate on what Chaltain himself has written, it is worth noting a brief part of the Foreword by O�Connor. She writes on pp. xvii-xviii:

Ensuring that young people acquire the skills democracy imposes on us will require a concerted effort in school districts, at statehouses, and by the federal government. The pending congressional reauthorization of NCLB and the inauguration of our forty-fourth president make this an ideal time for American Schools to arrive, and for us all to remember that the primary purpose of public schools in America has been to help produce citizens who have the knowledge, the skills, and the values needed to sustain our centuries-old experiment in liberty.
As Sam Chaltain makes clear in the pages that follow, we can�t expect our schools to become more democratic if our school leaders don�t understand how to create more equitable school environments. And we can�t expect our democracy to perform well if our students do not learn about basic concepts of government or receive meaningful opportunities to exercise their rights responsibly.
Knowledge about our government is not handed down through the gene [ool. Every generation has to learn it, and we all learn best by doing.

In his own introduction, Chaltain equates being an American with the word Freedom and then tells us on his very first page

In that one word we capture the historic, partly fulfilled promise of the United States. And we name an irresistible, universal human impulse - to be in control of our own destiny, to feel visible to others, and to have a say in determining the shape of the world around us.

Those three ideas - control of our destiny, being visible to others, and having a say - are key ideas that run throughout the book, and undergird Chaltain�s understanding of the purpose of education, and hence how it should be structured.

He acknowledges the need for different degrees of freedom and the need for structure, but reminds us of the need to be attuned to the different degrees of freedom so that

we create the types of schools that confer not just academic diplomas, but also �degrees� of individual freedom, of civic responsibility, and of shared respect for the power and uniqueness of each person�s voice.

The book begins with the aforementioned forward and Introduction, those two sections bracketing a brief list of acknowledgements. It also contians a Prologue with the title �Ways of Seeing (and of Being Seen): The Art of the Democratic Learning Community� in which Chaltain shares some of his own teaching experiences, both in China and in a large public New York City high sc hool. From these experiences he offers what is for him an essential lesson if our learning environments are to be democratic, that the students feel that they are visible. From my standpoint as a classroom teacher in his 1ifteenth year of public school teaching, I found myself nodding my head at his criticisms of a structure of school that dissuades the development of long-term teacher-student relationships, and his recognition that a result can be that teachers and other leaders wind up not trusting, not having �opportunites to recognize the true worth and potential of the fellow human beings we are supposed to serve� because �we manage each other as we would manage inanimate things.� (p.6). One other passage from that Prologue also struck me, on the following page, where he writes

...if there is only one thing I would want schoosl to guarantee, it would be to help all young people acquire the skills and self-confidence they need to be visibie in the world.

The rest of the book has two main divisions. The first is labeled THEORY and includes chapters with titles that can be condensed each to one or two words: Reflect, Connect, Create, Equip, and Let Come. Each of these is parenthetically expanded, for example:

Connect (or, make the connections that let you �see the whole board�)

Each of these chapters thoroughly albeit briefly explores the concept and how it applies to the school setting , is well documented from the literature and often from schools Chaltain has visited, and offers resources to further help one explore the concept.

The second section is labeled PRACTICE and explores three schools Chaltain got to know from his days working with First Amendment Schools, a chapter each on Fairview Elemenatry in Modesto, CA; Nursery Road Elemnetary in Irmo, SC; and Mondanock Community Connections School in Swanzey, NH. We learn from the extended experiences of the three schools, which also gave Chaltain access to internal communications, contemporary news coverage, and a variety of other resources that enables the reader to go beyond Chaltain�s description and make her own evaluation of the experience of each school. For anyone contemplating making a commitment to making one�s own school more democratic, this represents an invaluable collection of experiences.

Finally, there is an Epilogue of about a half dozen pages. It has the title Ways of Seeing (Teec Nos Pos, Arizona) and is based on Chaltain�s visit to a schoo on the sprawling (almost 27,000 square miles) Navaho Reservation in the Four Corners region of the American Southwest. My first encounter with the book was at a book party at the home of Charles Haynes of the First Amendment Center, with whom Chaltain has served as a co-author and who served as both boss and mentor for him. Chaltaiin chose to read from the Epilogue at the event, which after reading the entire book I can say was an appropriate choice. The brief pages present quite clearly the issues of democracy and freedom in our school settings, and will challenge most readers with the implications of what it means to be in a democratic learning community.

The material in the book covers only bit more than 150 pages. It is not a long read, but it is certainly worthwhile. There will be parts that you will want to ponder. Perhaps you will encounter passages that will make you want to argue - I found a few, and thus my copy is quite marked up with margin notes as I wrestle with the ideas. I have not yet fully explored even those of the resources that would be most applicable to be as a classroom teacher, one of more than 150 in a large suburban high schools. It is comforting to know that I can return to the book and explore ideas as occasion may warrant, even though I did choose read through the entire book in the two days after I purchased it at the book party, an event that included many people whose professional lives have connected with Chaltain�s, including a well-known Congressman and his spouse.


I�d like to offer a smattering of some the quotes that caught my attention as I read this work. (the page numbers are in parenthesis at the end of each blockquote).

Whether we teach, run a business, or make art, the work we do - if it is to be truly fulfilling - must connect in some way to a larger vision we find meaningful. (18)

Nothing undermines the creative and participative processes more than the naive belief that all a good vision needs is implementation and rollout. (18)

.. my daily goal is to model the behavior I want to see in others. (18)

Until implicit goals are recognized, any change or reform effort is essentially doomed to fail. Implicit goals are almost always a vivid reflection of the quality (or lack thereof) of relationships among the people who make up an organization. (44)

... for meaningful change to occur, the organization�s shared vision should not be seen as the property of any one person. (58)

The fact that so many schools struggle to change core behaviors or processes is particularly troubling when one considers that in essence, learning itself is change. But the greater truth is that people don�t resist change. They resist being changed. (70)

Having given you both a sense of the structure and a taste of the author�s thinking (and Chaltain has told me that the quotes I selected are a fair representation of his key ideas). let me explore a couple of points in a bit more depth.

Besides the descriptions of the three schools that Chaltain gives us in Part II, in Chapter Four (�Equip�) he presents us with a hypothetical 5-year case study of school taking on the process of change to a more democratic learning environment. This is one of the most useful sections of the book: Chaltain provides outside resources that can be used in such a process and shows how they might apply. As he tells us on p. 82,

Although the specific story of Roger Williams Middle school is fictional, all of its insights and challenges come from real schools that achieved real improvement in student learning using a similar approach to whole-school improvement.,

This section helps provide us with a framework to see how it all can piece together, and school leaders can begin to change the culture of their schools to something that is more reinforcing of the democracy that should be a principal part of the purpose of our public schools.

Chaltain makes reference to the work of the great Chilean educator Paolo Freire, who as much as anyone is responsible for our understanding that education is not merely a question of peeling back the scalp of a student and pouring in the knowledge, what Freire referred to as the banking model of education. Chatian notes that Freire believed educators were �particularly burdened� by the idea of change, in large part because of what he saw as the fear of freedom. On p. 88 Chaltain notes

What unnerves us most about freedom is the same thing generations of scientists were unconsciously ignoring about the universe - its unpredictability and capacity for disorder. In the classroom, this fear of the unknown has misled many of us into thinking that the relationship between freedom and structure is an either/or proposition. As educators, we�re either providing good, structured instruction, or we�re refereeing spitball fights. But here�s a difference between being authoritative and being authoritarian...

and he notes that Freire explores this issue, as does contemporary American scholar Linda Darling-Hammond (who is a Convener) of the Forum for Education and Democracy, for which Chaltain serves as National Director). Chaltain quotes her:

�The middle ground between permissiveness and authoritarianism,� she says, �is authoritative practice. Authoritative treamtent sets limits and consequences withing a context that fosters dialogue, explicit teaching about how to assume responsibility, and democratic decision-makings.�

Let�s consider for a moment that the creative tension described applies generally in American society. It was certainly a part of the 1960s, and again was part of the context of the past administration in a time of international conflict and fear of further attack. It should not be a surprise that it also occurs within the context of school as well.

The distinction between authoritative and authoritarian is crucial. An insistence upon order at all costs is crushing of the democratic spirit in our politics. It is even more so of any attempt to develop the skills to be a participating citizen of that democracy when it supersedes the kinds of explorations necessary for students to develop the skills expected of such a citizen. As a teacher I would argue that it is equally crushing of real learning, in which the student must at some point find a way of connecting the material with himself, of assuming responsibility to some degree for his own learning.

There are other ideas in the book well worth pondering. In a review of this length I can only hope to give you a sense, to whet your intellectual appetite and to invite you to explore further on your own. As I hope I have made clear, I found it a more than useful read, and expect to return to it with some regularity as I continue to reflect upon ideas that matter to me, which intersects with my own concerns about the shape of American education as it is now, and work to help reshape it to something I think would be more productive and effective for our students and for our society.

It is worth noting that Chaltain explores the use of systems thinking. In the chapter titled �CONNECT� there is a section titled SEEING THE WHOLE BOARD: SYSTEMS THINKING which begins with words from Peter Senge about how we are taught to break apart problems, �to fragment the world.� Chaltain immediately offers us this:

This reflex makes complex tasks seem more approachable. But the truth is we all pay a price for deluding ourselves into thinking that everything can be broken down into cause and effect, accurately measured, and sufficiently addressed. Indeed, in the same way a reassembled broken mirror cannot yield an accurate reflection, �we can no longer see the consequences of our actions.� Absent that capacity, �we lose our intrinsic sense of connection to a larger whole.� (pp 37-38 - the additional quoted material is also from Senge)

Chaltain warns us that the tendency cited by Senge can too often lead to seeking a solution to address symptoms rather than addressing the whole within the concept of system. One paragraph clearly illustrates the dangers of this:

In fact, NCLB is an archetypal system structure that arises whenever people treat symptoms of a problem and then become increasingly dependent upon their own �symptomatic solutions.� Rather than tackle the myriad issues that exacerbate the achievement gap between high-income and low-income students (an extremely worthy goal). what we�ve done instead is isolate one easily visible symptom of �school success� - in this case, student test scores and schoolwide annual yearly progress (AYP) reports - and then prescribe a a cure: an increased emphasis on testing and accountability. But just as we must resist the urge to solve new problems with old thinking, we must beware of the symptomatic solution. (42-43)

For those who, like Justice O�Connor, consider preparing our students to be participants in a democratic republic, there is little doubt that we need to rethink how we do our schooling. For those who have not yet reached that conclusion, perhaps if you would read and consider what Chaltain offers in this book, you will also begin to move in that direction. I certainly hope so.

Wherever you may be on that issue now, I can assure you that reading this volume will be time and effort well spent. You will have a better understanding of some key issues in education, and will experiience an effective way of addressing them.

I strongly recommend this book. But then, considering how much of the words of Chaltain I have already shared, my high opinion of the volume should be apparent. I hope that after you read it you will agree.


Peace.

Creating Your Brand Statement: Brand Loyalty + Brand Equity

In previous posts about the importance of a personal brand, we concentrated on how to create a personal brand using web tools such as Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter. Now it�s time to create your own personal brand statement. A brand statement will help your cover letter or resume stand out from thousands of others! In the next several blog postings, I will share information with you taken from leading personal branding expert and career advancement coach, Robert Allen Paul, and his �Company Of One� presentation at Buena Vista University. I would recommend his valuable message to every student. (Part I: Your Brand Part II: Core Competencies Part III: Brand Attributes Part IV: Brand Identity Part V: Brand Promise
Part VI: Brand Vision) Part VII: Brand Loyalty + Brand Equity


What Will You Do To Attract and Keep Customers?
By now, you probably have a pretty clear understanding of what you do, how you do it and the benefits to your potential �customers.� The only thing left to do is to go out and there and get them!

This is where the principles of Brand Loyalty and Brand Equity come into play. Both are critical in attracting the attention of prospective employers. Both are instrumental in securing interviews. Both are invaluable in launching and advancing your career. But while both relate to the way you manage your professional relationships, in some ways, they are polar opposites.

Brand Loyalty vs. Brand Equity
We can all think of a simple definition of the word �loyalty.� But how would you define �equity�? It�s not a word you hear that often, but when you do, it�s usually in financial circles. That�s because equity refers to a sense or condition of ownership; ownership resulting from some sort of investment.

And that is the defining difference between Brand Loyalty and Brand Equity. Brand Loyalty is a measure of how willing the customer is to do business with you again. Brand Equity is a measure of how much the customer is willing to invest �in time, thought, effort or money� in order to do business with you.

Brand equity is the ultimate goal of every smart marketer (and every job hunter).

How can you apply these two principles in order to attract the attention of potential employers and advance your personal career? It�s actually easier and more common than you think. Let�s start with Brand Loyalty.

Brand Loyalty
There are a million customer loyalty programs out there and most of them fail. Because most of them aren�t based on any understanding of customers or loyalty. Contrary to popular practice, you don�t build loyalty by getting customers to invest more in your brand. You build brand loyalty by investing in your customer. No one understands this better than your average non-profit organization, so we will use one to help illustrate this point.

Frequent Flyer Miles vs. Free Address Labels
Free fares and class upgrades can be pretty appealing if you do a lot of traveling. Frequent Flyer programs are pretty much alike � they allow you to earn points for every mile you fly with them. After you�ve flown about 35,000 miles (and spent several thousand dollars), you get one free round-trip ticket anywhere they fly (as long as you don�t want to fly anytime that normal people would want to fly).

Now, there�s nothing really wrong with this loyalty program. Unless you count the fact that it doesn�t inspire loyalty. Are you any more likely to choose that particular airline for your next trip than any other airline with a similar program? Of course not. Because instead of earning your loyalty, they are forcing you to earn their reward. And by the time they deliver, you�ll probably feel like they owe you much more.

Compare that complicated program to the simple solicitations we all get from organizations like the American Lung Association. Once a year, I open my mailbox to find a fat, little envelope from the ALA. Inside is a letter about all the good they are doing �and some address labels with my name.

Why? You already know why. Because donations from consumers who receive some little trinket first are about five times that of consumers who get the letter alone. That�s why.

Most human beings are hardwired to seek balance and order. If someone gives you something �if someone invests in you �then, more often than not, you feel a need to reciprocate. When I get those cute little address labels, I can�t resist the urge to write a check. Even if it�s just for five dollars. Even if I�ll never actually use the address labels.

What�s true for fund raising is also true for job hunting. If you want a better return on your investment, then you must first invest in the prospect. How?

Start by doing your homework. Learn a little about the person you are approaching, the company you are pursuing, and the challenges they are facing. Then include that knowledge in your cover letter.

Which reminds me: Put it on paper. In an age when most candidates just click the Apply button and transmit an e-copy of their online profile, printing and mailing a real, live letter and resume can really help you stand out! Employers receive dozens of resumes every week, but do you know how many of them come via US Mail? Maybe half a dozen per year.

If you do nothing more than upload your resume to a corporate website, it doesn�t show much interest on your part. But if you take the time to learn a name, study the company, read the job posting, write a letter, print it on paper and pay for a postage stamp, then you have made a real investment in the position �and you might be owed something in return.

That doesn�t necessarily mean you will get the job. But it may mean someone will be more likely to pick up the phone when you make your follow up call. And that is when you start building Brand Equity.

Brand Equity
As was said before, you develop Brand Loyalty by investing in the customer, but you build Brand Equity by getting the customer to invest in you. The tricky part is figuring out how to earn that investment. There are three basic methods: You can require it, you can request it or you can borrow it. If you are job hunting, you are most likely to employ the last two, but we will cover appropriate applications for all three approaches.

Require It
Depending upon how much chutzpah (nerve) you have, you can always develop brand equity by simply demanding it.

Even if you haven�t been shopping for cars, you are probably familiar with both Hyundai and Toyota. If so, you probably know that the average Hyundai costs considerably less than the average Toyota. But did you know that many Hyundai vehicles have more features and options than their Toyota counterparts? Did you know that Hyundai has won just as many awards? Or that Hyundai vehicles also come with a longer warranty? It�s all true. So, why does Toyota outsell Hyundai by such a huge margin? Maybe Hyundais just don�t cost enough.

Remember the Two-Thirds Rule for developing brand attributes? You can�t be all things to all people. When Hyundai promotes Quality, Reliability and Value, consumers think it�s too good to be true �and start looking for reasons not to buy. On the other hand, Toyota focuses its marketing on Quality and Reliability. Period. Even during their annual Toyotathon events, advertising rarely features specific pricing. They figure if you want quality and reliability, you know you�ll have to pay for it. And you do.

So, requiring someone to invest more in your services often leads them to believe they are worth more.

This approach isn�t just about pricing, it�s just as applicable to other capital your consumers can invest. If you force a prospective employer to rearrange their schedule or drive half way across town for an interview, it implies that you are in demand and they may feel fortunate to be included in your schedule.

Of course, if you are a recent college graduate seeking your first career position, you may not possess the credentials (or confidence) to require that prospective employers make a major investment in recruiting you. In fact, in today�s economic climate, if you are an experienced superstar, you still might not have the daring to draw a line in the sand. But at some point this approach may become more appropriate, so it�s important that you understand the underlying principles.

Request It
One of the easiest ways to get others to invest in you and help you advance you career is to simply asking them to invest a little time and assist you in your career planning. And one of your best tactics is the Informational Interview.

Asking professionals in your chosen field to discuss key issues and ideas not only uncovers clues to the future and potential opportunities, but requires them to spend a fair amount of time and effort explaining themselves and educating you. Having made that kind of personal investment, they don�t want to see it go to waste and will be more likely to choose you over others if a position presents itself. It�s why so many of the college graduates hired by major employers are prior participants in their internship programs.

When your informational interview is drawing to a close, don�t forget to ask them to invest just a little more by providing you with a professional referral. Thank you so much. This has been very insightful. Is there anyone else you think I should meet? If they actually refer you to a professional associate, they become a personal reference for you �and that�s the first step in borrowing brand equity.

Borrow It
If neither of the first two approaches seems to work for you, your third option may be to borrow some brand equity.

If you happen to work for a recognizable organization, its reputation is automatically transferred onto you, and in most cases, it�s a blessing. The instant credibility that working for a good company creates is usually far greater than any you could earn on your own.

If you don�t work for a well-known or well-respected company (and as a student or new college grad, you probably don�t), you can still borrow brand equity from others -whether other people or institutions (like your college and its alumni). The credibility established through a personal recommendation or association trumps the credibility of even the largest corporation.

When we talk about �borrowing brand equity,� what we are really talking about is networking. I don�t mean networking in a personal, passive, Facebook sort-of-way. I mean networking in a professional, proactive, productive sort-of-way.

Even today, in the age of the Internet, experts estimate that about 80%of all available positions are filled through networking and referral. Your friends and family are still four times more powerful than any website (including Monster.com). Start by asking everyone you know if they know anyone else in your chosen field. It doesn�t matter what company or position that second person might be in, as long as they are employed in your field. You won�t believe how many people you know actually know someone else you ought to know.

Ask the person you know for the contact info of the person they know and if it�s okay to mention their name. They�ll say �yes,� of course.

Now sit down at your laptop and type up a quick letter of introduction to request an informational interview. Since this person doesn�t know you, you will want to establish a little credibility up front by borrowing the brand equity of the person who referred you. Maybe something like �You don�t know me. We�ve never met. But your niece, Jenny Jenson, thinks we should.�

Then you can share some of the personal branding info you�ve already developed, including your career objective and a request to discuss your options when they have time. Since your new contact is already vested in a relationship with the person who referred you, they are much more likely to invest a few minutes in meeting (and helping) you.

If you will remember to ask for another referral at the conclusion of all of your referral conversations, you will be on your way to dozens of meetings and building a real business network. Before you know it, one of those interviews will turn into a real opportunity and that opportunity will turn into a real career.

Best of all, you won�t have to do it alone. Instead of just posting your resume a hundred times and hoping for the best, you will have a hundred people invested in you and doing their best to help you find your way.

These are just a few of the ways you can develop personal brand equity with career contacts and prospective employers. I am sure you can think of many more. Just remember: Your ultimate goal is to promote such extreme loyalty they wouldn�t dream of doing business with anyone else.

Next up: Creating Your Brand Statement: Brand Statement

Feeling Technical?

I have an enormous problem communicating with the academic liberals--particularly the social scientists. I'm not talking about the sociologists who have creative, seminal minds like David Riesman or Robert Park. I'm talking about the ones who are just sort of electronic accessories to computers. They suffer from verbal diarrhea and mental constipation--I don't know any other way to describe it politely.
--Saul Alinsky, Quoted in Horwitt

Someone close to me is in a Ph.D. program that essentially drives their students into the ground with work (50-60 hours a week). The stats classes are actually a class and a half squeezed into one without any pretense of actual pedagogy. ("Here's another powerpoint, and another, and yes another. See how they relate? Good. Moving on . . . .) This is the usual approach of many in lower-level universities (like mine) that have to prove their mojo by making their students suffer.

Seems to me like this is likely to produce technicians, not scholars.

Another reason why social foundations are important: to defend the world against academics created in programs like this.

Talk amongst yourselves . . .

Creating Your Brand Statement: Brand Vision

In previous posts about the importance of a personal brand, we concentrated on how to create a personal brand using web tools such as Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter. Now it�s time to create your own personal brand statement. A brand statement will help your cover letter or resume stand out from thousands of others! In the next several blog postings, I will share information with you taken from leading personal branding expert and career advancement coach, Robert Allen Paul, and his �Company Of One� presentation at Buena Vista University. I would recommend his valuable message to every student. (Part I: Your Brand Part II: Core Competencies Part III: Brand Attributes Part IV: Brand Identity Part V: Brand Promise)
Part VI: Brand Vision:

Who Do You Want To Be?
So far, the focus has been almost exclusively on who you are and what you do. But who do you want to be? What do you want to do? And who would you like to do it for? Some will tell you to �begin with the end in mind.� Marketers will tell you it�s the beginning of your Brand Vision. The first few steps of this personal branding process are usually the most difficult because we�re never taught to think about ourselves or our careers in this way. Yet, almost all of us have been told to �follow our dreams,� so imagining who we could be is almost second nature.

This is the stage of the branding process when you get to stare into space. Because this is the stage where you�ll gaze into the future and develop your brand vision. Some companies refer to it as their mission statement. You might call it your career objective. You want it to be comprehensive and expansive and instructive. But you also want it something you can remember and reflect on every day in order to keep your performance in line.

In short, a mission statement isn�t a map that tells you exactly how to get where you�re going. It�s a compass that lets you know if you�re veering off course.

But regardless of whether you�re a �map� or �compass� person, the one thing you need � is a specific destination. Which brings me to the primary point of this exercise.

Too many resumes include a mission (or objective) like the following:

�To secure a position that will allow me to utilize my skills and contribute to the overall growth organization.�

Sound familiar? Of course it does. Because we�ve all been copying the same objective statement for years. And that might not be so tragic if it actually stated an objective, but this generic waste of space doesn�t tell anyone anything. In fact, the only thing this objective indicates is you don�t care enough about your career to think about it.

So, let�s think about it. Let�s think about what you want to be, and where you want to be, and maybe even when you want to be there. Let�s imagine a specific position in a specific division in a specific type of company. Most importantly, let�s try to focus on the future instead of just the first job, so both you and your prospective employers can gain some perspective.

There is no need to develop a �10-Year Plan� or anything else that detailed. Any plan you might work up is probably going to change ten weeks after you are in the workforce anyway. But if you want your career to have any sense of direction, you need to begin with a well-defined destination. For example:

�To eventually earn a position as the chief marketing analyst at a category-leading consumer packaged goods company.�

That is an objective. That is a mission statement. That is a compass to help keep your career on course. And every day you will be able to measure your journey and judge if you are any closer to your destination.

But your objective doesn�t just provide direction for you; it also provides direction for prospective employers. An objective like the one above doesn�t just tell an employer you�ve got aspirations and a destination, it also tells them what they�ve got to do to help get you there. If they have a good idea of where you would �eventually� like to be, they have a better idea of where to put you now.

Needless to say, you can (and probably should) adjust your career objective according to the company to whom it�s addressed �as long as it�s still specific. The truth is, providing a more detailed objective actually creates more opportunities, not less, because it helps employers match you to more positions than just those for which you applied.

So, I will ask again: Who do you want to be? What do you want to do? This is the fun part, so don�t be afraid to daydream a little. Create your own mission statement. My Brand Vision: My Objective is to ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________


Next up: Creating Your Brand Statement: Brand Loyalty + Brand Equity

An open letter to President Obama on schools, education and teaching

Dear Mr. President,

I am writing to you as a National Board Certified Social Studies Teacher who voted for your as President even despite my concerns about your approach to educational policy. You were not my first choice, precisely because I, like many educators I know, were concerned both about your approach to some educational issues and some of the people advising you. Nevertheless, we all enthusiastically supported your candidacy, in many cases before you clinched the nomination.

I will not speak for anyone except myself. Others are also writing open letters, as you can see at this website.

My focus will be on this - that the educational policy being promulgated by your administration is being created both without meaningful input from teachers and in contradiction with what much of the available research has to inform us. Of greater importance, it misses the mark on what really matters - what is best for our children.

Let me start with teacher voices. Your Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan, was never an educator. Most of those closely advising him also were never teachers. While there is value to having the expertise of policy wonks and economists as well as those who understand administrative requirements, it is insufficient, because the success or failure of any endeavor to improve the education of our children will rest primarily with the classroom teachers, and if we do not include their perspectives, we will risk making policy decisions that are simply not capable of being implemented as designed, as any competent classroom teacher could tell you.

There are many teachers prepared to take on the additional responsibilities beyond their own classroom teaching. Many of us write on-line, participate in professional discussion groups, try to offer advice to politicians and school boards, yet far too often our voices are not part of the discussion because we are not at the table when policies are being decided. It is well and good to have a few resident teachers at the Department of Education, but it is insufficient if they are not included at all stages of policy development. Perhaps that is why a number of us are now resorting to writing open letters like this, and like those to which I have referred.

I realize that the current attempts at common standards are not being driven by your Department of Education, but since so many states are participating, what evolves from those efforts will function as de facto national standards. Yet in the two key panels there is only one former classroom teacher. There are multiple representatives of testing companies. Somehow looking at the makeup of those panels does not give me as a classroom great confidence in what they are producing. If your administration truly values the voices of teachers, I would hope that we would here - at least from your Secretary of Education if not directly from you - that such efforts should not proceed without more complete involvement from classroom teachers. It is not acceptable to pretend that it is happening without the acquiescence of the Department of Education, because if Secretary Duncan or you objected, it would be rather easy to so indicate.

Your education department seems hell-bent on insisting upon tying teacher pay to student scores on external tests, despite the inherent problems with such an approach. Let me list only a few.

1. Snapshot tests of student performance at or near the end of a course do not indicate what the student has learned, since there is no control for prior knowledge.

2.Most tests currently available do a poor job of assessing higher level thinking skills.

3. Those who argue for value-added assessment often want to measure from Spring to Spring, yet such measurement gives results confounded by the well-documented summer learning loss that hits more heavily in lower socioeconomic groups than in middle class and above, where often there are learning and enrichment opportunities during the summer. Your own educational proposals during the campaign recognized this - you proposed putting funding into offering summer programs to offset that learning loss.

4. While such assessments are available for most core-area subjects, they are not currently part of the instruction for courses such as music, art, physical education, etc. If we are concerned about education the whole child, as you have often said that you are, how can we take an approach to teacher compensation that devalues the work of teachers in these curricular areas, especially when they are often the people most responsible for some children persisting in school when they are struggling?

5. Such tests in no way inform and improve instruction. They provide no feedback to current instruction. Even benchmarking along the way too often degenerates into repetition of the material most likely to be tested (often because it is easiest to measure) at the expense of deeper understanding).

6. The overemphasis on such tests informs students that all that matters is their performance on same. Some will shut down once the tests are done, others who do not do well on such assessments but who actually have the underlying skills and knowledge will feel devalued. In either case, neither set of students is well served by such results, and it should be the students who matter most.

It is interesting that neither you nor Secretary Duncan went to a public high school. Both of you attended prestigious private schools. Your wife attended an outstanding public school, but one that functioned as a magnet and could screen the students it accepted. Your children have gone to the same Lab School founded by John Dewey that Secretary Duncan attended, and now attend Sidwell Friends. As a Quaker myself, I am quite familiar with Sidwell, the former headmaster Earl Harrison having been a friend. I wonder how you can be insisting on a set of mandates for public school that is totally antithetical to the kind of education you have sought for your daughters. Are not all children entitled to the quality of education your daughters are receiving? If so, how does what you propose with respect to teaching truly give other children anything close to that?

I know Secretary Duncan has chosen to have his children attend public schools in Arlington VA, where I also live, and in whose schools I have also taught. Our community has made a major commitment to public education, spending well over $20,000 for each student. This has enabled the school system to keep class sizes small, to retain good teachers by offering good salary, benefits and working conditions. You saw the difference this could make when you visited Wakefield High School. Yet most public school systems spend far less per student than Arlington, have much larger class sizes, do not have the stability of teaching staff that is important for a successful school, and do not devote the resources to staff development. And even with all that, Arlington still has to spend time and resources responding to mandated state tests whose quality is not spectacular, and whose scaled scores do not really inform about the quality of teaching and learning.

You often use the rhetoric of international educational comparisons. As a teacher and former doctoral student in educational policy, this bothers me. The conclusions you and many draw from those comparisons are flawed and often based on misunderstanding the nature of what the data represents. This has been demonstrated by the work of the late Gerald Bracey, that of Iris Rotberg, and by many other analyses. We are comparing unlike populations, unlike schooling situations, and do not test comparably. Some people will attempt to compare us unfavorably to Finland, yet that nation has almost no language learners, and the role of administrators is to support teachers, something very different than the approach in much of American public education.

As a citizen old enough to remember earlier scares about the condition of American schools, going back to the 1950's and reoccurring with regularity, I am concerned that you seem to accept the flawed rhetoric offered by those whose intent is to devalue and delegitimize America's public schools, for political and personal reasons. Thus I have a real problem with your education department insisting upon major expansion of charter schools when the research on those charters that exist is at best mixed - in general, when all factors are controlled, they perform no better than the public schools from which they draw students, and too often they are used as a means of breaking union protections for teachers.

All of this preface.

There is a basic question which I do not hear being addressed. What is the purpose of our having public schools? For me, it is to educate the whole person, to prepare our students to learn how to learn, to participate as citizens in a liberal democracy, to develop as persons, to be able to develop the skills that matter to them.

There are skills that employers will need, that we hope our children will develop. Might I suggest that being able to select the least worst from four or five choices on a multiple choice test is not high on the priorities of most employers? Are not things like the ability to work cooperatively, to learn to overcome differences, to persist, to come up with new approaches that might involve thinking outside the box, are all of greater value to almost every employer who wants anything other than a drone? Should not our schools reflect that in how they are structured, in how we teach?

Most of my students are 10th graders. Some are taking College level government in the sophomore years. Each year they have arrived in my classroom with less and less background, a direct outcome of the strictures of No Child Left Behind, which emphasized testing on reading and math, which because those scores were used to evaluate schools increasingly meant a narrowing of their educational experience. Many are frustrated with school, and have not learned how to develop ideas in speaking or in writing - these are not tested, therefore they are not valued. Tying teacher compensation mainly to test scores will only serve to exacerbate this problem.

I teach government. I had hoped that your administration would work to restore a proper balance between the branches of government. I compliment you on your willingness to let Congress fulfill its role in the development of an approach to health care. But I do not see that in education: Secretary Duncan is using his control over the funds currently available to make major changes in educational policy that the Congress had not been given a chance to examine. And because the Congress has been cut out, we have not had the opportunity for those with concerns about the approach to properly express those concerns before the country is steered perhaps irrevocably in the direction of policies that may be counterproductive to the best interests of our students.

I am a National Board Certified Teacher. To obtain that designation, I underwent a rigorous process, only one small part of which was being tested on my content-area knowledge, and that testing contained NO multiple choice items, only essays. Most of the assessment was of portfolio items: videotaping my teaching, offering artifacts such as communication with parents, samples of student writing, and professional development and participation. For each item submitted, I was required to reflect, with the primary concern being how this particular item benefited the learning of my students. The only people evaluating what I submitted were themselves current classroom teachers.

Many states and school systems offer an ongoing additional stipend for those of us with National Board Certification. In my case, I receive an additional $7,000 a year, which as a teacher is a substantial amount. I mention the amount not to brag, but to set a context: these states and school systems value that certification, which is awarded by teachers to other teachers, with no multiple choice testing, by the evaluation of portfolio materials, the focus of which is always the best interest of the students as perceived by teachers.

Why is not something like that part of the approach of your Education Department? Why instead do we see arguments about tying teacher compensation to (largely multiple choice) student test scores, to increasing the number of charter schools? Why are the arguments that are made economic, the interests of employers, and not the best interests of the students? How might this be different were the voices of teachers more prominent in the designing and implementation of educational policy?

Your daughters are very lucky in the school they attend. I know teachers at Sidwell. I know how committed to their students they are - were they not, they would not still be at Sidwell. Perhaps you can ask the teachers of your daughters how they would like to be subject to the mandates your Education Department and Secretary Duncan are promoting. I would be very surprised if they were in agreement with such an approach.

This is the statement of one public school teacher. While I know the words I offer will resonate with others like me, I do not claim to speak for anyone except myself. I supported your candidacy. I support your presidency. You are doing much good, and have a great deal on which you must focus.

But if you can, please step back and consider what I - and so many other teachers - are saying to you. Please reconsider how your administration is proceeding with reshaping educational policy before it is too late, before you commit the nation to a course that will not benefit our children the way it should.

Wishing you the best, and hoping that you are successful in meeting the many challenges before you.

Peace.

Kenneth J. Bernstein

Creating Your Brand Statement: Brand Promise

In previous posts about the importance of a personal brand, we concentrated on how to create a personal brand using web tools such as Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter. Now it�s time to create your own personal brand statement. A brand statement will help your cover letter or resume stand out from thousands of others! In the next several blog postings, I will share information with you taken from leading personal branding expert and career advancement coach, Robert Allen Paul, and his �Company Of One� presentation at Buena Vista University. I would recommend his valuable message to every student. (Part I: Your Brand Part II: Core Competencies Part III: Brand Attributes Part IV: Brand Identity) Part V: Brand Promise:

What Will You Do For Me?
The problem with trying to build your brand identity by managing word-of-mouth is that it simply takes too long. You don�t have 30 years to do it the way Sony did. You may not even have 30 months. So, what do you do? You think about what you want consumers to say and then teach them how to say it. Marketers call this your Brand Promise, but it�s really just a statement of benefits.

The first step in developing a benefits statement is determining what those benefits might be. Since benefits are usually tied to features, we will define your features as your Brand Attributes. So, once you�ve established those, you will just have to attach some relevant benefits to the back end. Put another way, after you have told me how you do what you do, you will have to tell me what that will do for me.

You may already have an opinion regarding the benefits you provide prospective �customers� (i.e., employers), but by now, you also know it is not your opinion that really matters. What do your current �customers� say? Have you asked them? They�re the only ones who really know what it�s like to work with you, and most of them will be happy to share their thoughts. In fact, most will be delighted you even asked. Asking also helps you develop a little Brand Equity (which will be critical when you start networking).

So ask them. Reach out to your professors and past employers for a quick, simple benefits assessment. Based on your experience with me, what do you like best about the way I work? What are the biggest benefits to you? You may be surprised by the insights you gather �and how different they are from what you had expected.

When you discover your customer benefits from the customer�s point-of-view, you may also be surprised by how naturally they relate to your brand attributes. For instance, if you are majoring in marketing, and you tend to be �analytical, inventive and aggressive� well, as a result, your employer might benefit from �marketing programs that are on target, on time and on purpose.�

Let�s say you have decided the brand attributes that best describe you are �inquisitive, strategic and self-motivated.� What could the resulting benefits of employing such a person be from the employer�s point-of-view? Perhaps you can offer the right company �an opportunity to maximize project results with a minimum of supervision.�

Aside from ensuring your benefits are related to your attributes, the only other key to developing an effective brand promise is to keep it as simple as possible. Remember you want consumers to remember it. So, choose the most common benefits expressed by your �customers,� summarize them in one simple sentence and then include it in everything you do.

It doesn�t have to be catchy. It doesn�t have to be clever. It just has to be crystal clear. Clear enough that both you and your prospective customers can repeat it. Again and again.

Make a list of your customer benefits, and then create a simple brand promise that communicates the most important ones. That sentence should probably begin with the words �I offer the right company� and, once again, be followed by some sort of active verb phrase (�an opportunity to maximize project results,� etc.). Once you�re satisfied with your new brand promise, write it down. My Brand Promise: As a result, I offer the right company _____________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________

Next up: Creating Your Brand Statement: Brand Vision

Creating Your Brand Statement: Brand Identity

In previous posts about the importance of a personal brand, we concentrated on how to create a personal brand using web tools such as Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter. Now it�s time to create your own personal brand statement. A brand statement will help your cover letter or resume stand out from thousands of others! In the next several blog postings, I will share information with you taken from leading personal branding expert and career advancement coach, Robert Allen Paul, and his �Company Of One� presentation at Buena Vista University. I would recommend his valuable message to every student. (Part I: Your Brand Part II: Core Competencies Part III: Brand Attributes): Part IV: Brand Identity:

Who Are Your Customers? What Do They Think You Do?
Understanding what you really do and how you do it differently provides you with an advantage when it comes to communicating key benefits to your �customers�. But who are your customers?

Traditionally, a customer �or consumer �is usually defined as anyone who uses or could possibly use your product or service. But in branding, the definition of a consumer also includes all of those who couldn�t or wouldn�t. Because even those consumers who are unlikely to become your customer (or employer) have some influence over those who might. They all participate in creating what marketers refer to as your Brand Identity; which is something different from simple Brand Recognition.

Brand Identity vs. Brand Recognition
What is the difference between Brand Recognition and Brand Identity? Let�s use a party analogy. You go to a party, you see an attractive person, and you walk up to them and introduce yourself with some Brand Advertising: �Hi, I�m (name) and I�m an awesome date.� So they say, �Hmmm. (Name)? I think I�ve heard of you.� That�s Brand Recognition. Now imagine you go to a party, you see an attractive person, you walk up to them and say �Hi, I�m (name).�
Then they say �Oh? You�re (name)? I hear you�re an awesome date.� That�s Brand Identity.

See the difference? Brand Identity isn�t based on what you say about yourself, but on what the consumer is likely to say about you. And, just as with brand positioning, your brand identity isn�t built in the marketplace. It�s built in the mind of the consumer. It consists of more than just the ability to recall your brand name. It consists of the consumer�s 360 degrees experience with your brand �personally and otherwise. In fact, it�s possible to develop a brand identity with all sorts of consumers who�ve never done business with you.

Every year, the Harris organization conducts what they call their Best Brand Survey. It�s a national poll of approximately 3,500 consumers that consists of just one question:
�We would like you to think about brands or names of products and services you know. Considering everything, which three brands do you consider the best?�

Can you guess which brand tops the list? According to American consumers, the best brand in America was Sony. For seven years running. That�s impressive performance by any standard. But what�s even more impressive is that there were years in which the percentage of consumers who named Sony as a best brand was greater than the percentage of consumers who actually own any Sony product.

In other words, you don�t have to have personal experience with a brand to have a definite opinion about that brand.
It can be disturbing to discover that people you don�t know �and who don�t know you �may still have an opinion of you. But that�s the way brand identity works; one impression or observation or interpretation at a time.

If I cut my hair or lose weight. If I�m ten minutes early or two minutes late. The clothes I wear. The car I drive. The way I answer the phone. The way I sign my emails. The way I treat my colleagues or my mother or the students in my class. Every little thing I say or do �or don�t say or don�t do �all make a little deposit in the identity account that exists in the mind of my consumer.

So, to those who might tell you the little things don�t matter, I�d say the little things do matter. More often than not, building positive brand identity is a matter of managing impressions and word-of-mouth.

Next up: Creating Your Brand Statement: Brand Promise

Alternatives to Employment for College Entry Level

New college graduates can a face particularly tough time because of the recession. The growth of anticipated new hires, which is measured twice a year by the National Association of Colleges and Employers, slowed as it reached a high in the spring of 2007, nearly flat, falling in autumn. The figures for the spring 2009 show that for the first time in years, companies expect to hire even fewer graduates this year than last-22 percent less in fact. According to The Boston Globe, the business and financial sector have an even Bleaker prospects, as well as the northeastern region of the United States.

With this setting, dim picture in his head, soon-to-be graduates are looking at alternatives to the traditional workforce. Additional training, teaching, scholarship programs and volunteer work all popular. If you are a student completed staring into the face, note the earlier start and more competition for the research and application of, rather than later.

Graduate programs, including even those offered by business schools to see an increasing application as many students either their entry into the labor force delay or push-up to choose their long-term plans to graduate school. Students can potentially excellent land full-tuition scholarships or assistantships and generous scholarship. Many graduate degrees can be competitive receivers when they enter the working world, even if the economy is again significant.

Similarly, Teacher Certification programs, such as the popular Teach for America, as an increase in applicants. These programs offer a stipend, as well as teacher certification, and in some cases a master's degree in education, in exchange for a commitment from one or two years as a teacher at a school with low income or a high-need subject. Other programs are available with similar services, including educational scholarships in several large cities like New York and Chicago. College students or young professionals who want to teach, but do not want to pay more for the school to consider these possibilities.

Other volunteer programs like Americorps and the Peace Corps, also see more candidates. Such programs are often put off by a stipend or living allowance, as well as student loans or even cancellation or repayment of the loan benefits. Students can also participate in many of these programs, while still in college or graduate degrees while tracking. If you opt for an alternative to the post-college rat race are interested, there is no better time to start considering your options.

Reconsidering school scholarships based on merit

Although the needs of financial aid has remained stable in most schools, some schools are looking for scholarship programs of excellence that the next place to reduce, if budgets continue to decline. Merit-based scholarships, which often see the need, based on GPA and standardized test scores as measures of student achievement and potential for excellence at the university level.

One criticism was that the scholarships are awarded disproportionately to students from wealthy families who may have the means to better prepare for testing and support outside the classroom. However, cuts in merit scholarship programs can also affect the middle class, a group of students who can not receive any funding, but because of all the income of your parents receive more loans Bursaries ', grants, compared to low-income applicants. That may be how it should work, but middle-class families with stable incomes, do not always have surplus resources to contribute significantly to savings accounts for college than 529 plans, especially in a tough economy.

In case of merit-based scholarships while also considering a degree of necessity before the release? An article published this week in The Chronicle of Higher Education describes several schools looking to cut merit-based scholarship programs, especially those dependent on state funding to exist. In Florida Bright Futures scholarship program will establish the total public funding college tuition for a set amount based on credit hours. In West Virginia Promise Scholarship max out scholarships at $ 4,750 instead of the old walking track. In Michigan, a state that has been hit particularly hard in this economy, its own program of scholarships promised in May to cut completely. The University of Texas recently announced it would no longer sponsor National Merit, a popular program of national scholarships for qualified students based on standardized test scores. The students had not received $ 13,000 in four years. The university promised an increase in need-based financial aid to help students who had received help from the National Merit, but also qualified for many need-based federal programs for financial assistance.

With a limited amount of state funds and federal level, schools must determine how best to address funding. The trend has been to give greater emphasis to the need, as the fundamental reason is that many students who received merit-based scholarships would be able to afford college anyway, or are eligible to Graduate Fellowships, to leave. And those who have requested need-based financial aid before the recession just need more help now.

One school takes the approach of the Good Samaritan. At Pennsylvania State University Schreyer Honors College, parents and College Bound forms of financial aid not complete, but all credit received $ 3500 scholarships based on admission to the honors college are invited to examine the distribution of this money instead of students admitted to a greater financial need. In short, the money goes to students who really need it. Should be more complicated than that?

It offers students free textbooks

In recent years, universities have begun experimenting with a variety of techniques to make it cheaper for textbooks and more will be purchased by students. On demand printing of textbooks from the University of Michigan campus in textbooks and online rental options at the national level, it seems that at least two or three turns of the price of textbooks each deployment year. But this year's Williams College in Massachusetts, are trying to do something completely different: to provide free schoolbooks.

Starting this fall, students receiving financial aid Williams in the position to their textbooks to their accounts Download Save option for students from many universities, the University will be awarded on the amount of its purchase of textbooks based school will receive, since the Authorities know Williams is a unique offering of the campus. The textbook program and the reasons for its imposition have been recently highlighted in a blog entry to university in the New York Times blog, The Choice.

Williams had to be economically disadvantaged students, the book offered a payment of $ 400 per semester, but found that some students still do not buy all the necessary textbooks, because they believed that the money spent on books continue to come from his own pocket. A program in the amount of textbooks through the library is used to supplement, but there is concern that students might not fully used books will be borrowed. To mark the students and host to enable books and references in the following semesters, the university has decided to buy students are able to take all necessary texts. Thus, the current program was born in Grant Williams officials expect about the same cost as the combination of grant and loan programs for libraries, but to serve more learners comprehensively and efficiently.

Little things like free text books can go a long way towards compensating the students in their pursuit of higher education. Whatever college you attend, you may want to textbooks in their search for scholarships factor, too. While the manual is not how much an individual to care if the costs are included, groups can become an important part of the costs for college students. For many students pay for textbooks out of pocket, you can quickly have a problem with money management, increasing workload, the balances of credit card debt or student loans.

Racism and Education Reform

A question for all you foundations experts.

On another blog we were having a discussion about the relationship between racism/classism and the belief that education reform is the key to social and economic change for the poor. I wondered whether a focus on education reform is a PC way for liberals to sublimate their racist/classist assumptions, consciously or not. And I wondered whether this association helps explain the incredible unresponsiveness of liberals to basic facts about education reform (like the fact that evaluating academic achievement in poor schools with standardized tests is deadly).

Are education reform in its current form and the "education gospel" more generally, representative of a kind of new "white person's burden" and imperialism?

In a sense, focusing on education as the "solution" to anything at least partly entails "blaming the victim." If education is the solution, then there must be something about someone that is inadequate and needs to be "fixed." A focus on education inherently implies that the "problem" is with those who are being educated (and can't seem to learn).

Who has talked about this?

Some relevant data from the discussion:

But the General Social Survey asks about 4 different explanations for why blacks are less successful economically. . . . [T]hose who give all internal explanations (blaming blacks for their lack of success) tend to blame lack of education less than 1/3 of the time: 28.1% to 71.9%. But those who give all external explanations (blaming discrimination, not blaming "lack of will") blame lack of education 3/4ths of the time: 75.0% to 25.0%.

--Paul Rosenberg (scroll down)