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Fifty percent of high school seniors who express no interest in any form of higher education eventually end up in traditional colleges, community colleges, and technical schools within eight years of graduating. This finding, courtesy of a report released this week by the William T. Grant Foundation, offers another important reason why we must provide all of our children with the college-preparatory curricula they need so they can choose their own path to lifelong success.
As Dropout Nation has documented over the past few years — especially in critiques of the Pathways to Prosperity report offered up by Harvard University as well as the arguments of Andrew Hacker and Thomas B. Fordham Institute President Michael Petrilli — many traditionalists and even some reformers think that providing all children with college preparatory learning (or what they derisively call college for all) is somehow unnecessary. From where they sit, providing all middle-schoolers with Algebra 1 courses and every high school student with Advanced Placement courses is harmful to them because students struggling in school (including dropouts and those who will barely graduate from high school) aren't going to head to college. Those kids, they say, aren't college material and probably don't want higher education anyway.
They think those children they don't consider to be college material should be shunted into vocational high school programs. Your editor has pointed out numerous reasons why their thinking is so shortsighted. One of the most-important: The fact that few high schoolers really don't know what careers suit them until they enter the workforce; what may be an ideal fit in theory (or based on a brief internship) often turns out not to be in the bright light of day. This is why only 30 percent of kids in vocational courses spend any time working in their chosen fields, according to education policy consultant Richard C. Seder. Sooner or later, they will end up seeking higher education; so it is a mistake to assume that those who don't immediately enroll in college won't eventually do so.
This is the reality the Grant Foundation highlights in its latest study. Looking at data for high school sophomores followed in the federal Educational Longitudinal Survey who graduated in 2004, a Grant Foundation research team led by James Rosenbaum of Northwestern University found that 86 percent of high school graduates eventually attends some form of higher education. This includes those high school grads who expressed no interest in any kind of higher education — the very children that the likes of the Pathways to Prosperity crowd (along with Hacker and Petrilli) argue don't need college-preparatory curricula.
The percentages of high school grads attending higher ed doesn't vary based on their academic performance: Seventy-three percent of high school grads who performed at low levels on their 10th-grade exams eventually took up some form of higher education within eight years as did 87 percent of peers performing at average levels and 95 percent of those who were top-performing. This was also true regardless of socioeconomic status, with 75 percent of low-income high school grads, 86 percent of middle-income peers, and 95 percent of higher-income counterparts eventually going to college.
Yet there are clouds in these silver linings. Most of those high school grads will end up with a workforce certificate, associate degree, baccalaureate, or graduate credential. But 46 percent of those first enrolling in community colleges and 23 percent of those first enrolling in four-year universities attained no credential at all. While their economic prospects are certainly better than high school dropouts, Rosenbaum and his team found that they were less likely to be employed than those who left higher ed with credentials. The earnings of a high school grad with some higher education, on average, was at least 10 percent lower than that for peers graduating with a certificate, associate degree, baccalaureate or graduate-level degree.
The lack of completion is especially problematic for high school grads from the poorest homes who proceeded on to higher education. Thirty-six percent of low-income high school grads who first attended a four-year university failed to attain a higher ed credential; this is only true for 26 percent of middle-income peers and 15 percent of counterparts from wealthier homes. It is also quite troublesome for any high school grad who first starts out their higher ed path in a community college, with one out of every two high school grads from poor and middle-income households, along with two out of every five wealthier peers, failing to attain a higher ed credential. And it can be an arduous challenge for high school grads who are the first in their families to attend some form of higher ed: Just 51 percent of those kids eventually attain a higher ed credential.
Certainly one problem lies with the challenges faced first-generation higher ed students, many of whom come from poor and minority households, is part of the problem. Because they lack parents and caregivers familiar with navigating the complexities of staying in college (including annually filling out federal financial aid forms) and lack the financial cushion to deal with emergencies such as when Pell Grants come in too late to pay for room-and-board, these students often find themselves struggling to survive in environments for which neither school nor home ever prepared them. That community colleges, which are the higher education institutions of choice for most students (and the key lynchpins in workforce training efforts for nearly every industry), fail mightily at both supporting low-income students and in providing high-quality higher ed is also a problem. This, by the way, is another reason why the Obama Administration's plan to subsidize community college tuition for those with a 2.5 grade-point-average should probably go back to the drawing board.
Yet the biggest problem lies with failure of American public education to provide college-preparatory curricula and guidance to kids so they can be successful after they leave high school.
College-preparatory curricula is critical to helping kids graduate from high school and complete higher ed. Yet few children, especially those from poor and minority households along with first-generation collegians of all backgrounds, are provided academically-nourishing curricula. Just 13 percent of American high school students of all socioeconomic backgrounds were taking comprehensive college-preparatory courses while the rest were taking less-rigorous curricula, according to the National Assessment of Educational Progress' 2009 high school transcript study. As Dropout Nation reported in its analysis of federal data, just 21 percent of middle-schoolers in seven states that mandate Algebra 1 in seventh and eighth grade were provided those courses in 2009-2010. The consequences can be seen when kids enter higher ed, especially community colleges and public universities that devote little to supporting students in college completion. Just one out of every 10 community college students in remedial ed programs graduate within three years, according to Complete College America in a 2012 study.
The problem begins long before secondary education. As a team led by Amy Claessens of the University of Chicago determined in a study released last year on the effects of academic content on the learning of kindergarteners, "all children benefit from exposure to advanced content in reading and mathematics". In this case, advanced mathematics for kindergarteners included advanced number concepts, and basic arithmetic such as addition and subtraction usually taught in first grade. Yet few children are provided high-quality content in math. And as your editor continually points out, the low quality of reading curricula and instruction in the early grades all but ensures that far too many kids are functionally illiterate or reading at just basic levels by the time they walk into high schools.
Another problem: Traditional school discipline and the overuse of out-of-school suspensions. As Robert Balfanz of Johns Hopkins University determined in his studies, sixth-graders who are marked unsatisfactory for behavior (and likely suspended) have little chance of graduating high school. But the consequences of overusing suspensions — along with the fact that they hide the failures of traditional districts to address underlying literacy and other learning issues — extends even to those few kids who do graduate from high school. Just 31 percent of high school grads who get in trouble three or more times as high school sophomores attain a certificate, associate degree, baccalaureate or graduate credential according to Rosenbaum and his team. This is likely because of the misbehavior that manifests in kids by fifth grade as a result of literacy and other learning issues that are almost never addressed.
But it isn't just about academic failures. As Dropout Nation detailed four years ago in a profile on the efforts of the See Forever Foundation's Maya Angelou charter schools to help ex-dropouts complete higher education, traditional districts fail mightily in helping students stay on the path to success in higher ed. The very scale that should allow districts to help children stay on the path to educational and economic success is of little use in an age in which ensuring all children get a high-quality education is more-important than how many students attend in the first place.
Benjamin L. Castleman of the University of Virginia and Lindsay C. Page of the University of Pittsburgh determined in a 2013 study that simply sending students text messages reminding kids to fill out college applications and other forms increases the likelihood of attending college by seven percentage points. Yet traditional districts, with their struggles on the technology front, are unlikely to undertake such efforts or partner with organizations that can. Districts barely keep tabs on where students go after they graduate high school; offering the kind of alumni services to graduates (including helping them apply to college a few years after they finish high school) almost never happens.
Guidance counselors can help kids think through their career paths; particularly for first-generation collegians, counselors can help them go through the college application and financial aid processes as well as figure out what resources are on campuses they can use once they go to college. Yet because of the bureaucratic scale-oriented nature of the traditional district model, and collective bargaining agreements with affiliates of the National Education Association and American Federation of Teachers, few districts hire enough guidance counselors to do the job — and almost always lay them off first during periods of belt-tightening. Nor do districts hire enough mental health workers — or even contract and partner with organizations that can do such work — to help either traditional students or ex-dropouts get ready for the emotional challenges of higher ed.
Yet there is no reason why we don't help all children gain the knowledge and support they need to choose their own paths to success in adulthood. In fact, there are a number of critical steps that reformers can take to help our children to get the high-quality education they need and deserve.
This starts with implementing high-quality curricula standards, especially continue putting in place Common Core reading and math standards. But this isn't enough. Providing kids with college-prep curricula that aligns with the standards is key to making the promise of high-quality content a reality. It also means ending the rationing of learning — including gatekeeping gifted-and-talented classes that are key to children getting on the path to higher ed completion — that are a legacy of early 20th-century thinking that only some kids (namely those who are white and middle-class) deserve college prep learning. This means reformers must build upon efforts such as Project Bright Idea in North Carolina as well as the work of the St. Charles Parish district in Louisiana, who are essentially declaring that every class for every child should be a gifted-and-talented course.
The work of providing kids with high-quality education must begin early. This includes providing intensive reading remediation to the 40 percent of children who will enter K-12 with literacy issues regardless of what parents do at home. It also means using tools such as Response to Intervention to identify those struggling kids and providing them with such remediation. Meanwhile kindergarten classes must provide intensive math instruction, especially on helping kids understand that numbers represent quantities, as well as basic arithmetic, in order to get them on the path to success. This certainly means overhauling how we train aspiring teachers as well.
Then there is stemming the overuse of the harshest school discipline, which is especially important given that few suspensions are ever meted out for violent behavior. Addressing the underlying literacy and learning issues, along with implementing restorative justice approaches to discipline that would help children understand the consequences of their behavior, would go a long way toward helping them become college graduates.
The final step lies with moving away from the traditional district model. Moving to what Dropout Nation calls the Hollywood Model of Education, in which a variety of schools — including independent public schools, public charters, private schools, online outfits, DIY schools launched by families and communities, parochial school operations, and charter management organization-managed schoolhouses — can help all kids. This means expanding school choice — from high-quality charter schools to voucher programs and tax-credit initiatives — as well as passing Parent Trigger laws that allow families to take over and overhaul failing schools in their own communities.
The Grant Foundation study once again shows that is a mistake to think that only some children deserve college-preparatory learning. Which means we must continue transforming American public education to help all of them gain the knowledge they need and deserve.
There were plenty of responses to last week's pieces tearing apart Rick Hess' and Michael Petrilli's op-ed accusing fellow school reformers of race-baiting for raising concerns about efforts by congressional Republican powers John Kline and Lamar Alexander to eviscerate the No Child Left Behind Act's accountability provisions. Certainly many of them were supportive of your editor's argument — as well as that of other reformers — that the two erstwhile reformers failed to make their case against their colleagues in the movement.
But a few were annoyed with the essays. Why? Because I had essentially claimed that the arguments Hess or Petrilli have offered on No Child reauthorizaions and other issues displayed their myopia on race and lack of concern for the futures of children from poor and minority backgrounds. From where they sit, your editor failed to show mutual respect and goodwill to them and their arguments. And this view extends to my treatment of the proposals offered up by Kline and Alexander (the latter of whom is holding hearings today on No Child reauthorization).
Certainly your editor understands why they make this argument. After all, folks within Beltway policy and educational research circles tend to embrace what I call the Goodwill Presupposition of Debate. That is, the assumption in any discussion, especially those related to battles over the reform of American public education, that everyone involved are men and women of goodwill, whose ideas and policy positions reflect their desire for to provide children, along with the families and communities in which they live, the best they deserve. Based on that theory, we should be less-strident in our criticism of those with whom we disagree, and in fact, give their ideas the benefit of doubt.
All of this is well and good if you want to believe it. But there are myriad problems with the Goodwill Presupposition as a guiding principle in rhetoric and debate, especially when it comes to matters that affect the futures of children.
The first is that the Goodwill Presupposition assumes that all ideas and policies as morally equal. This isn't true. As with intellectual consideration of issues, some ideas and practices can be proven as morally inferior to others based on the historical record, on data and evidence, and on the moral codes, Judeo-Christian-Muslim as well as humanist and atheist, that are at the heart of our world.
Outside of education policy discussions, for example, we would not assume that state-sanctioned segregation — from America's Jim Crow, to South Africa's Apartheid, to the separatism practiced in Israel against native Arabs — is morally equal to equality for all people under law. This is because history, along with the Golden Rule, has shown us that no law that treats some people as inferior to others has any moral standing to the idea that all men are granted inalienable rights by God and mankind.
The second problem with the Goodwill Presupposition is that it assumes that the consequences of ideas, policies, and practices are morally equal and valid. If ideas can be found invalid intellectually based on empirical evidence, why can't they be found morally unsound?
As we have learned over the past century, practices such as ability-tracking have been proven to do little to improve the quality of education for children, especially for those from poor and minority backgrounds Just as importantly, decades of evidence has shown that the consequences of ability-tracking have been dire for the futures kids already denied opportunities for high-quality teaching and curricula. There is no more reason to treat ability-tracking as an morally- and intellectually-equal practice to expanding school choice.
Thirdly, by assuming that everyone involved in debates and political battles all share the same good intentions, the Goodwill Supposition demands that we ignore evidence that shows otherwise. Certainly you can't know the heart and mind of an opponent. But to assume that all are people of goodwill, even amid evidence otherwise, is to give some people greater credence than they deserve — especially if the morality and moral consequences of that for which they advocate are inferior and in fact, damaging to their fellow men and women.
For example, I don't know American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten's heart and mind. But I can argue that her defense of near-lifetime employment and teacher dismissal policies that keep criminally abusive teachers in classrooms to harm children is morally as well as intellectually indefensible. As both a moral being and an intellectually-reasonable person, there is more than enough evidence for me to be skeptical of Weingarten and her advocacy.
Finally, the Goodwill Supposition is a form of moral relativism that neither Jesus nor Socrates would find tolerable. If some ideas and their consequences are immoral and their consequences violate all codes of morality, then you cannot regard them as equals to those which are morally valid both in theory and result.
If we give all ideas, policies, and practices equal moral footing regardless of evidence and precept, we are essentially saying that lies are equal to honesty, fabrication is akin to objective facts, and that propaganda is no different than evidence. What is the point of scholarly inquiry or discussion if everything has validity?
But the consequences of this thinking extend beyond debate: What is the point of doing the right thing when doing wrong is just as good? Why should you advocate for bending the arc of history toward progress when regressive ideas and practices have equal validity? Particularly for reformers, unquestioned practice of the Goodwill Presupposition can harm the movement's moral mission.
Put simply, neither the plans to eviscerate No Child offered by Kline and Alexander, nor the defenses of them by Hess and Petrilli, deserve to be given equal moral or intellectual weight to either the current law or the arguments defending it. This is because the policy proposals of the former are morally, as well as empirically, inferior to the latter. This isn't to say that any of these men are terrible people. It is to say this: The call by Kline and Alexander (along with Hess and Petrilli) to end subgroup accountability measures that expose how poorly states, school operators, and those who work within them are educating our most-vulnerable children, who are the least of us Christ called us to look after is a violation of our moral obligation as Americans and as human beings.
This isn't to say that we shouldn't be principled and respectful in our debates and disagreements with our opponents. Such decorum is not only necessary, but demanded of us as children of God and members of the family of man. It also doesn't mean that we can't get along; after all, as Jesus would command, we can hate the argument and still love the people who make it, especially since we are all fallible. It doesn't even mean that every debate involves moral considerations; this is certainly true when it comes to discussions over what policies will be most-effective in expanding choice or improving teacher quality. Any belief otherwise is an embrace of thoughtless and counterproductive dogmatism.
But it does mean in those debates that do involve moral issues, giving all arguments equal weight is absolutely senseless. Especially because public policy is a clear communication of our moral expectations as citizens. Just as importantly, expecting people to not call things as they are based on both evidence and morality is simply unacceptable.
Chances are that you don't think that New York City Patrolman's Benevolent Association President Patrick Lynch has much in common with Randi Weingarten of the American Federation of Teachers. In fact, after Lynch sparred earlier this year with Weingarten protégé Michael Mulgrew, the president of the union's United Federation of Teachers local, over the unit's collaboration with Rev. Al Sharpton's National Action Network on stemming police brutality, you wouldn't think Lynch and Weingarten share anything in common at all other than being heads of two influential public-sector unions.
But in their respective reactions over the past few months to criticism and less-than-sterling coverage from politicians and media outlets, both Lynch and Weingarten, along with many of their members in their respective rank-and-file, have plenty in common. They have embraced the kind of solidarity mindset that stifle important efforts to transform America's criminal justice and public education systems that our children and communities need.
As you already know, Lynch and the PBA accused Big Apple Mayor Bill de Blasio and advocates for reforming criminal justice systems nationwide of having "blood" on their "hands" this past weekend after tragic murders of police officers Wenjian Liu and Rafael Ramos by Ismaaiyl Brinsley (who had come to town after a rampage that included critically wounding his ex-girlfriend). Why? Because de Blasio dared to sympathize with advocates who are righteously outraged over a grand jury's decision earlier this month to not indict one of the PBA's rank-and-file, Dan Pantaleo, for murdering Eric Garner this past July.
Lynch and the PBA were already incensed at de Blasio over protracted negotiations for a new collective bargaining agreement, annoyed with the mayor's move to formally end a police practice called stop-and-frisk (which criminal justice reformers say has been used disproportionately and abusively against young black men), and looking to weaken him by convincing New York Governor Andrew Cuomo to sign a bill passed by the legislature that would allow the PBA to all but stifle any efforts by the city to discipline corrupt and incompetent cops. But Lynch went ballistic, accusing de Blasio of throwing officers "under the bus" after the mayor, who is married to a black woman, commented immediately after the verdict that he advises his son, Dante (who is both black and white) to be careful when dealing with law enforcement. As far as Lynch and the activists in control of PBA's rank-and-file are concerned, de Blasio's statement of sympathy with advocates against police brutality was an affront to all of the Big Apple's police officers because he didn't have their back. Some of the rank-and-file echoed those sentiments when they turned their backs on de Blasio when he walked into a press conference to address the murders of the two officers.
But Lynch isn't just mad at de Blasio. As far as the police union boss is concerned, criminal justice reformers are wrong in criticizing Pantaleo's state-sanctioned murder of Garner as well as criticizing those in the rank-and-file who are engaged in abusing citizens and other forms of corruption. From where he and PBA sit, protests held in the city since the grand jury verdict should be stamped out altogether. The public should be in solidarity with police officers, not calling out bad cops or demanding reforms of laws governing use-of-deadly-force rules that allow rogue officers to get away with murder. [As you would expect, an amen corner that includes congressman-turned-MSNBC host Joe Scarborough and Daily News columnist Mike Lupica, are cheering him on.]
Lynch isn't saying anything that hasn't been echoed by his fellow police union bosses over the past few weeks amid protests over the Garner verdict, the decision last month by a St. Louis grand jury to not indict now-former Ferguson police officer Dan Wilson for slaying Michael Brown, and the murders of 12-year-old Tamir Rice and 22-year-old John Crawford by officers too quick to pull out guns (and too scared of unarmed young black men to take less-drastic action). Earlier this month, the St. Louis Police Officers Association demanded the National Football League to punish players for the Rams franchise for engaging in an "inflammatory" display that insulted cops everywhere. What, pray tell, was that nastiness? Walking out onto the field of Edward Jones Dome doing the "hands up, don't shoot" sign that has become a protest symbol for criminal justice reformers everywhere. [The NFL reminded the union that its players have freedom of speech — other than when it wants them to appear before mandatory press conferences.]
Around that same time, the police union in Cleveland went into uproar after Browns wide receiver Andrew Hawkins wore a T-shirt emblazoned with the names of Rice and Crawford as well as a call for justice on their behalf; the union demanded the NFL franchise to apologize for the football player's supposed affront to men and women in blue. [The Browns refused to do so as did Hawkins, who noted how he was driven to protest by concern for his own two-year-old son.] Now, with the sad murders of Liu and Ramos, police unions and their allies are accusing protestors of endangering the lives of police officers by, well, exercising their First Amendment rights. You can expect similar statements from the police union in Milwaukee today after criminal justice advocates began protesting the decision of District Attorney John Chisholm to not indict former cop Christopher Manney for allegedly slaying Dontre Hamilton this past April.
Lynch's rhetorical charlatanism sounds quite familiar to those of us in the school reform movement. It should. After all, it is no different than defensive statements against criticism of traditional teacher compensation and other failed practices within American public education made over the past few years by Weingarten and her colleagues within both the AFT and the National Education Association.
The latest round came in October after Time came out with a story on Vergara v. California and the sparring between reformers and the Big Two unions over teacher quality reform that featured the headline Rotten Apples and included a cover photo of an apple about to be smashed by a judge's gavel. Weingarten was so incensed by it that the union rounded up signatures from some 80,000 teachers and other supporters demanding the magazine to "Apologize to teachers." [Time defended the piece and the cover.] Four months earlier, Weingarten demanded that U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan to back down from his mild praise of the California superior court judge's ruling in the case to abolish near-lifetime employment and dismissal rules, complaining that he was adding to the "polarization" of debates over education policy. Duncan's refusal to do so — and, in fact, move to double down on his original comments — led the AFT as well as the NEA to pass resolutions at their respective conventions demanding the Obama Administration to fire him. As you already know, that's not happening.
In fact, when it comes to constantly being outraged, no public-sector union leader is as good at it as Weingarten and her fellow NEA and AFT leaders. And education traditionalists have defenders of existing law enforcement practices beat when it comes to being insulted by any criticism of the established order. There's AFT honcho-turned-Albert Shanker Institute boss Leo Casey, who tossed an Reductio ad Hitlerum-like statement against Steve Brill three years ago after the Class Warfare writer accused the AFT and other traditionalists of being "deniers" of the underlying causes of the nation's education crisis. Casey would go on the next year to accuse news anchor-turned-teacher quality reform activist Campbell Brown (along with several other reformers) of committing "the equivalent of a blood libel" against teachers for daring to expose the complicity of the AFT's Big Apple local (and that of the national union) in keeping criminally abusive teachers on the city's payroll. [Casey never apologized for his incivility.]
Based on all the data on the depths of the nation's education crisis — including the fact that three out of every 10 fourth-graders are functionally illiterate as well as how traditional policies and practices keep laggard teachers in classrooms — you would think valid criticism, internal and external, would be welcomed. But it isn't. Dare any reformer mention how tenure protects laggard and criminally-abusive teachers from being sacked from classrooms and you will see NEA and AFT bosses, along with traditionalists in their amen corner, accusing that person of hating teachers and not respecting their hard work. This is also true for teachers who dare break the thin chalk line and challenge unions and their colleagues.
But why so little tolerance for criticism in both sectors — and so much faux outrage from both Lynch, Weingarten, and their colleagues? Chalk it up to the solidarity mindset, legacy of the old industrial union model (and its mindset of employees as being little more than mules who can only perform singular tasks ad nauseam) borrowed by both police and teachers' unions that continues to pervade both the law enforcement and teaching professions.
Because unions, by their very nature, thrive on the idea that the rank-and-file are in bitter struggle, they emphasize unity and common cause over and above everything else. Disagreements within the rank-and-file over a policy direction? Treasonous disloyalty that must be squelched. Questioning of longstanding practices by outsiders? Insulting, and therefore, unacceptable. Criticism from within and opposition from without? Hatred of the hard-working people who dedicate their lives to serving others.
Yet the solidarity mindset is problematic for both professions — and for the children, families and communities for who they work.
For one, by placing unity unchallenged above everything else, the solidarity mindset leads to those who bear it failing to do high-quality work for the people they serve. This is because blind loyalty keeps people from thinking clearly about matters before them and engaging issues thoughtfully. For police officers in an age of community-oriented policing (and the Broken Windows Theory that is a key aspect of it), the solidarity mindset can keep them from making smart short- and long-term decision on their own. For teachers, whose jobs are increasingly challenging, the solidarity mindset can keep them from diagnosing and addressing the learning issues of the children in their care.
Secondly, because the solidarity mindset prizes the collective (and group cohesion) over anything else, it keeps those blinded by it from viewing others outside their ranks as their fellow men and women. Outsiders aren't worthy of respect or consideration because they are outsiders. [It can also exacerbate the bigotries of those in the ranks, as well as the shoddy thinking they may have of people from backgrounds different than their own.] This is problematic in law enforcement because police officers must earn the trust of the citizens who they protect (and are dependent on for the taxes used to provide them compensation) in order to preserve law and order. It is also problematic in American public education because teachers are trusted with the futures of children for who they must have empathy and concern, and must work with families of backgrounds who are the rightful lead decision-makers for them. In both cases, solidarity thinking makes it difficult for them to comprehend and empathize with concern families and communities have for their children and each other — and leads to loss of trust from those they serve, as well as increased scrutiny from media and activists.
Thirdly, because the solidarity mindset exacerbates the cultism — be it blue walls of silence or thin chalk lines — that can be a problematic feature of any culture or profession, it enables and protects those who are incompetent, corrupt, even abusive and criminally venal. Those burdened by solidarity thinking cannot accept any statement by colleagues and outsiders other than "all professionals within my sector are hard-working, dedicated, and therefore, competent at their jobs", or "if not for some outside force such as poverty or bad parents, we could be successful at our jobs." When coupled with bad policies and practices that govern professions — be they use-of-force laws and dismissal processes in law enforcement, or near-lifetime employment rules and subjective teacher quality evaluation regimes in education — as well as the legacies of the state-sanctioned bigotries that are America's Original Sins, the damages to both professions, peoples, and communities are devastating. Especially in both professions, the works of those who are honorable and high-quality are marred by the incompetence and evil of those who shouldn't work with them.
Finally, the solidarity mindset gets in the way of mature professionalism. One of the hallmarks of a mature profession, be it law or medicine or journalism, is that criticism within it of institutions, practices, even people is not only the norm, it is expected. This acceptance of external criticism and productive conflict, a key part of lifelong learning, leads to improvements for the profession, for the people who are in it, and the sector in which it works. Such isn't the case for a profession burdened by the solidarity mindset. By being unwilling to broach conflict and criticism, professions burdened by solidarity thinking (and those who are its members) end up being ill-equipped to deal with evolutions in sector that challenge it. Part of the decline in influence for AFT and NEA can be attributed to the failures of the two unions to ditch their outdated industrial union model, which is, in turn, partly results from the solidarity mindset plaguing its leaders.
For school reformers and criminal justice reform advocates, tackling the solidarity mindsets of the teaching and law enforcement professions is critical to the systemic overhauls of both sectors. Both are already taking the first step of challenging such thinking with data, advocacy, and action. At the same time, both must address some of the key obstacles to stemming the prevalence of solidarity thinking.
One obstacle lies with the dismissal policies within both sectors that keep rogue cops and bad teachers in their jobs. School reformers, especially Parent Power and teacher quality advocates, have been actively challenging those policies, especially through the launch of lawsuits such as Vergara. Criminal justice reformers should build upon those efforts, while school reformers must press harder on what they are doing so far. In New York, this means demanding Gov. Cuomo to veto the bill effectively giving the PBA control over the process for firing rogue and incompetent cops.
Another obstacle lies with public-sector unions whose coffers and political influence benefit from solidarity thinking. This is another area in which school reformers have led the way, from the successful efforts by governors such as Scott Walker in Wisconsin to end the ability of those unions to forcibly collect dues from teachers regardless of their desire to be members, as well as the development of professional association alternatives such as Educators4Excellence who represent younger teachers who want to elevate their profession. Again, school reformers must work harder on these fronts, while criminal justice reform advocates should work on such efforts within law enforcement. Weakening the PBA, for example, would do wonders for civil liberties.
No matter what reformers in both sectors do, they need to understand the solidarity mindset that pervades the teaching and law enforcement professions. And they must challenge it successfully on behalf of our children, their families, and their communities.
School reformers need to read more than just op-eds and magazine pieces on education policy. After all, as it has been discussed over the past two weeks alone, the nation's education crisis feeds into the social, economic, and political issues facing our nation and world; this means we must break out of specialization and become interdisciplinary in our thinking. There's also the fact that as parents and caregivers, we must continually practice what we preach to children every day: Read books and be lifelong learners.
This is why Dropout Nation offers its help with the 2014 edition of The Top Eight Books That School Reformers Should Read. Culled from more than 100 books, the selections include a look at how the legendary James Meredith's march through Mississippi helped splinter the Civil Rights Movement of the last century; political scientist Francis Fukuyama's treatise on modern government; and an analysis of how the Salvation Army and other religious groups transform civic society. There are also chronicles on reform from school choice pioneer Howard Fuller and former New York City Chancellor Joel Klein.
As with every edition of the Top Eight, the selections met five important criteria: Does it have a strong narrative or polemical power (also known as "is it well-written")? Are the lessons relevant to the reform of American public education? Is the book thought-provoking (or does it offer new arguments or new thinking on familiar issues)? When research is involved in the narrative, does it stand up to scrutiny? And would you pay at least $14 to put it on your tablet (or, for those of you still reading traditional books, pay at least $20 for the paperback or hardcover)?
Below are this year's selections. Offer your own suggestions in the comments. And just read, read, read.
Down to the Crossroads: Civil Rights, Black Power, and the Meredith March Against Fear: There are plenty of reasons why reformers should pick Aram Goudsouzian's book on the 1966 March Against Fear, the last great protest of the 20th century Civil Rights Era. For one, it offers fascinating profiles in activist leadership. This includes Martin Luther King's calm resolve in spite of sniping from Thurgood Marshall and other rivals; Stokely Carmichael's penchant for fiery rhetoric and shoddy strategizing, the clever machine politicking of Charles Evers; the organizing genius of Ella Baker; and the near-messianic spirit of James Meredith, who originally organized the march before being shot on the first day of it. More importantly, in detailing how the Civil Rights Movement fell apart just a year after achieving such policy successes (including Civil Rights Act, the Voting Rights Act, and the Elementary and Secondary Education Act), Down the Crossroads offers important lessons on how movements can fall apart in the face of diverging priorities, clashes of egos, struggles in collaboration, and sparse financial and manpower resources. At a time in which the school reform movement is in transition, reformers of all stripes should read this book in order to learn how to keep history from repeating.
Political Order and Political Decay: From the Industrial Revolution to the Globalization of Democracy: Francis Fukuyama is probably the greatest political scientist of his generation in part because he combines crisp writing with strong, prescient analysis on how politics can shape society. All of his talents are on full display in his latest polemic what makes for good government (and why it rarely becomes reality in much of the world). As Fukuyama details the evolution of American government and those in Africa and Asia, he shows how accountable is key to ensuring that citizens are protected from fiscal and social harm, he offers lessons to those reformers who doubt the importance of the No Child Left Behind Act and its strong accountability provisions. At the same time, by noting how the United States' own system of checks and balances often leads to a "vetocracy" in which political interests can impede good ideas along with the bad (as well as how "intellectual rigidity" can lead to crises such as the global financial meltdown) Fukuyama also reminds reformers that we must also balance strong accountability with enough room for the kind of innovation and policies needed to ensure the common good in American public education. Your editor doesn't agree with all of Fukuyama's conclusions, especially on whether American-style democracy is workable in all nations. But Political Order and Political Decay deserves to be on your bookshelf.
No Struggle No Progress: A Warrior s Life from Black Power to Education Reform: From teaming up with the late Polly Williams and former Milwaukee Mayor John Norquist to launch the nation's first school choice initiative, to his willingness to speak truth to traditionalists and reformers alike, the aforementioned Fuller deserves his place as one of the nation's foremost school reformers. In discussing his evolution from civil rights activism in the 1960s to his role guiding the leadership of Black Alliance for Educational Options, Fuller shows how reformers can advance systemic reform for our children through strong grassroots activism, cannily navigating the corridors of policymaking, and agitating within institutions. At the same time, Fuller's story shows reformers that they must recognize the interconnections between what happens inside our schools and what happens outside of them. Any reformer who hasn't read this book yet should do so. Now.
Claiming Society for God: Religious Movements and Social Welfare: There are plenty of reasons why reformers should pick up Nancy J. Davis' and Robert V. Robinson's sociological study of how religious groups such as the Salvation Army and the Muslim Brotherhood succeed in becoming influential players in the societies in which they reside. The most important: Because it offers reformers a blueprint for how to sustain systemic reform. Davis and Robinson show how these groups gain credibility and support for their visions of what society and government should be by addressing the needs of the communities — especially those of poor and minority backgrounds — in which they work. This includes becoming the substitutes for the welfare state role played by governments in their respective countries, and engaging in the kind of grassroots activism that wins them critical support on the ground. For a school reform movement that needs to have a stronger grassroots presence in order to advance its efforts, Claiming Society for God is book that will help it get there.
Lessons of Hope: How to Fix Our Schools: Along with former Boston Superintendent Tom Payzant, the aforementioned Klein is the most-successful reform-minded traditional district leader of this generation. Thanks to his book, reformers can now learn what it took for him and his onetime boss, former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, to improve student achievement for Big Apple children, as well as understand the obstacles to implementing systemic reform that remain. From vivid accounts of his battles with the American Federation of Teachers' Big Apple local over simply conversing with teachers on the district's staff, to conceding how his inattention to curricula may have limited the successes the Big Apple could have had in improving student achievement, to his battles to increase the array of school choices for kids and their families, Klein offers important examples of how institutional-oriented players can achieve the kind of changes that help more children attain the high-quality education they deserve.
The Reckoning: Financial Accountability and the Making and Breaking of Nations: Amid all the efforts over the past few years to weaken No Child's Adequate Yearly Progress accountability provisions, reformers should take time to read Jacob Soll's exhaustive historical survey of what happens when nations weaken checks and balances in financial affairs. As he details how double-entry bookkeeping and other accounting innovations led to the rise of nation-states, as well as how retreats on checks and balances (as well as transparency) have led to crises such as the global financial meltdown of the last decade, Soll offers reformers new reasons why they must resist efforts to weaken accountability by traditional districts and even institutional players within their own ranks (including charter school operators and private schools that benefit financially from the expansion of choice). Soll also shows how inattention to the details of accountability (which can easily be seen in the education policy arena through the Obama Administration's No Child waiver gambit) can lead to disaster. Advocates for reforming traditional teacher compensation (including busted defined-benefit pensions) can also learn plenty from Soll's book.
A Light Shines in Harlem: New York's First Charter School and the Movement It Led: Mary C. Bounds story about the Sisulu-Walker charter school offers an eye-opening chronicle of how difficult it can be to take one aspect of systemic reform: Launching and sustaining schools that can provide our children with cultures of genius. There is plenty to learn from the steps (and missteps) financier-turned-educator Steve Klinsky and his teammates (including civil rights activist Wyatt Tee Walker) made when they took the arduous step of launching the Big Apple's first charter school. This includes the importance of being passionate about building schools fit for the futures of children, as well as the willingness to change direction (in the form of moving away from Sisulu-Walker's initial use of the low-quality Direct Instruction approach to teaching) when it is clear it won't work. Particularly for Parent Power activists looking to launch their own schools and take over failing operations, this is a book they should read.
Building a Better Teacher: How Teaching Works (and How to Teach it to Everyone): Folks such as Brookings Institution's Tom Loveless have criticized Elizabeth Green's book as an exercise in edu-tourism. DN Editor RiShawn Biddle offers a far more-substantial critique: That Green's general disdain for the teacher training efforts of Doug Lemov (whose follow-up to Teach Like a Champion was a Top Eight selection in 2012), especially in dismissing its focus on matters such as classroom management, ignore the reality that it has proven empirically to be superior in effectiveness in improving student achievement than the approach developed by University of Michigan's Deborah Ball (which Green champions). [Update: Green disagrees with DN's comments, noting that she doesn't disdain his approach and arguing that the review didn't mention aspects of Lemov's training that he is looking to improve. The editors stand by the assessment.] Yet Green's book deserves to be on your bookshelf because it is an important chronicle of the struggles reformers and others have had in overhauling how America recruits and trains its teachers. Just as importantly, Green's book is also a clarion call for bringing greater attention to developing alternative teacher training programs as well as reforming the nation's low-quality ed schools.
As always, there are a number of books that are deserve praise, but didn't make the cut. This Next Eight includes On the Rocketship, Richard Whitmire's profile of the blended-learning charter school operator; The Bill of the Century, New York Times editorialist Clay Risen's narrative on the politicking that led to the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964; Slavery by Another Name, Douglas A. Blackmon's account of how Jim Crow segregationists and companies teamed up to use criminal codes to put blacks into virtual slavery; Jonathan Darman's LBJ and Ronald Reagan at the Dawn of a New America, which details how the 1964 election season sowed the seeds of destruction and success for two legendary politicians; British politico Boris Johnson's The Churchill Factor, which profiles the legendary statesman's leadership long-ranging impact on world affairs; Unreasonable Men, Michael Wolraich's chronicle of how tensions between Theodore Roosevelt and Robert La Follette led to the rise — and fall — of early 20th-century progressive politics; Teachers Versus the Public by Paul Peterson, Michael Henderson, and Martin West, which focuses on the divergent views of teachers and the people who pay their salaries; and Putting Education to Work, Mega Sweas' profile of the Cristo Rey collection of Catholic schools.
While Dropout Nation doesn't place books written by contributors on this list, it would be remiss to not mention The Black Poverty Cycle and How to End It, Contributing Editor Michael Holzman's treatise on how the black children are harmed by the intersection of the nation's education crisis and the drug war.
As Dropout Nation hinted on Wednesday, there is nothing just or moral about the decision by a New York City grand jury to not indict police officer Daniel Pantaleo for the murder of Eric Garner. As with last week's grand jury decision in Ferguson over Michael Brown's slaying, we have all been rudely reminded that state-sanctioned murder of black men is at the heart of the racial bigotry that is America's Original Sin. Just as importantly, we are once again warned about the consequences of militarizing law enforcement agencies as well as giving them too much carte blanch in how they patrol our communities.
Yet one of the more-positive developments from the Garner grand jury's appalling act of injustice is that it once again shines light on how state laws and the cultism among those wearing the badge often act to protects corrupt, even murderous police officers from being removed from beats. School reformers and criminal justice reform advocates can come together to help each other get rid of professionals who shouldn't be trusted with our kids or with protecting our neighborhoods.
The fact that Pantaleo managed to escape even an indictment on a lower level charge such as manslaughter or criminally-negligent homicide is certainly shocking. This is because 83 percent of 98 homicides by officers led to charges of murder or manslaughter, according to a recent study from Bowling Green State University. But even if Pantaleo was indicted, past cases of homicide-by-cop — including the 2006 murder of Sean Bell by a New York Police Department undercover squad who mistakenly thought he was a suspect in a case they were investigating — serve as grim reminders that he (along with former Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson) wouldn't have likely been convicted. Just one-in-three officers charged with a crime were convicted while a mere 12 percent of them (or one-in-eight) ever served time, according to data released in 2010 by the Police Misconduct Reporting Project; both are, respectively, two and four times lower than for indicted suspects in the general population.
Certainly the natural sympathy among the public outside of black and Latino communities for what can be dangerous work of policing is one reason why bad cops such as Pantaleo and Wilson are often allowed to kill with impunity; even though the number of cops slain in the line of duty (along with other crimes) have declined for most of the past three decades (and are at their lowest levels in more than a century), it is easy to understand why officers will have to pull out their weapons in order to protect communities and themselves. But as the reaction of even more law-and-order oriented movement conservatives such as New York Times columnist Ross Douthat shows, even those sympathies fall by the wayside when video clearly shows an unarmed citizen such as the 43-year-old Garner being choked to death by Pantaleo with so much malice. Add in the video of Cleveland police officer Timothy Loehmann shooting to death 12-year-old Tamir Rice for playing with a toy gun, and the trust that the legendary Sir Robert Peel argued was key to support for law enforcement falls away.
But the more-important reasons why bad cops get away with corruption or worse have to do with state laws and court rulings, police evaluation structures that fail to weed out bad apples, and the proverbial thin blue line of silence (and support) from fellow police officers who are often willing to defend even the worst of their allies.
Beginning in 1985 with the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling in Garner v. Tennessee, state laws such as Article 35 of New York State's Penal Code and Chapter 563 of the Missouri Revised Statutes have given officers wide leeway in how they use deadly force in stopping criminal activity. Officers can shoot to kill if they "objectively reasonable" probably cause to "believe that the suspect poses a significant threat of death or serious physical injury to the officer or others". The problem is that it is almost impossible to determine what is objective or reasonable, and thus, objective becomes subjective and unreliable. More often than not, if a police officer says he fears for his life (as Wilson did in his testimony to the St. Louis grand jury), than he is let off the hook. Since state laws rarely require the objective standard to be based on physical evidence, even a videotape isn't enough to lead to an indictment, much less a conviction.
Then there are the shoddy processes for selecting police officers and evaluating their performance. Police departments generally use a process that includes filling out a job application, passing a physical, going through criminal background checks, and polygraph examinations. When done properly, this process can weed out aspiring officers who are too out-of-shape to chase down robbers on foot or have past convictions; when not, (as seen in Miami during the Cocaine Cowboys crime wave era of the 1980s), this can lead to spectacular corruption. But it doesn't actually do much to determine if they have the proper temperament and judgement needed to do the job. This is especially problematic in community-oriented policing, in which officers have to be trusted with making short- and long-term judgments on their own.
Even worse, as in the case of Loehmann (who was sacked by the Independence, Ohio, police department for dismal gun handling before becoming a Cleveland cop), officers forced to leave other departments because of past misbehavior or incompetence can end up back on the job with another police agency. As the Ohio Office of Criminal Justice Services noted in a 2008 study, "law enforcement agencies have been unable to successfully develop a system that can identify… which individuals will become the most effective officers."
Adding further complication is the reality that police officers often view themselves as bands of brothers who will protect each other even at cost to the integrity of their profession. Famed police detective Frank Serpico — who carries a bullet in his head as a result of his decision to shed light on the Big Apple's drug war-driven police corruption in the 1970s (which led to the famed Knapp Commission cleanup of the police department) — forcefully pointed out this reality in a piece on Ferguson in Politico Magazine. Not only will officers do nothing to help weed out the worst (and even merely bad) within their ranks, they will shun (and even endanger) those few brave officers who dare to break the Blue Wall of Silence. This was clear Wednesday after the Garner grand jury decision to not indict Pantaleo, when participants on one police bulletin board cheered it.
But the culture extends beyond the precinct walls. Police unions such as New York City's Patrolmen Benevolent Association as well as affiliates of the International Union of Police Associations work overtime to keep even the worst officers on the job. This includes termination processes that can often stretch out for years. [Update: The Daily News touched on the role of unions in protecting bad cops when it reported that one rookie NYPD officer, Peter Liang, immediately texted his union representative after he shot and killed 28-year-old Akai Gurley.]
As seen in the cases of Pantaleo and Wilson, prosecutors mindful of the importance police union endorsements in winning and keeping office (as well as maintaining an image of being tough on crime) will often do all they can to not obtain indictments or convictions. Particularly in the case of St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Bob McCulloch, his, well, unorthodox approach to presenting his case to the grand jury investigating Wilson's murder of Brown has been widely criticized for essentially making it easy for the now-former officer to walk away scot-free from human justice.
As a result, few bad cops ever get sacked. Just 1.9 percent of NYPD's men in blue were dismissed between 1975 and 1996, according to a 2005 study by James Fyfe of City University of New York's John Jay College and Robert Kane of American University. Those who remain on the job can often end up walking the beat even in the departments where they committed offenses. Michael Carey, one of four officers who shot 41 bullets into the body of Amadou Diallo in 1999, got his gun back to patrol Big Apple streets just two years ago. For all citizens, especially for poor and minority communities with long memories of state-sanctioned murder, the presence of bad cops means immediate danger to their lives and civil liberties.
If any of this sounds familiar to those of us in the school reform movement, it should. Because the ways bad cops are protected and enabled are parallel to how American public education keep laggard and criminally abusive teachers in classrooms.
As with laws governing deadly force, state laws granting near-lifetime employment in the form of tenure all but ensure that teachers remain on the job regardless of performance. Thanks to the fact that all but eight states allow teachers to attain tenure in less than five years — and in the case of California, within two — laggard teachers end up getting into jobs regardless of their performance. Adding to the burden are teacher dismissal laws such as those of California (which can cause firing processes to last seven years and cost a district as much as $7 million), that make it difficult to toss even the criminally abusive out of classrooms.
Just like police departments, the nation's university schools of education do a shoddy job of recruiting and training aspiring teachers. As your editor noted last month, this was made clear again by the National Council of Teacher Quality in the latest of its reports on the low quality of ed school preparation. Thanks to both bureaucratic incompetence as well as state laws that have, until recently, restricted the use of test score growth data in teacher evaluations (and have only allowed subjective observation-based evaluations that don't actually measure how teachers improve student achievement), districts have failed miserably in evaluating and managing classroom instructors. Just 40 percent of veteran teachers and 70 percent of new hires were evaluated by Los Angeles Unified School District during the 2009-2010 school year, according to NCTQ in a 2011 report.
Meanwhile the cultism that pervades police departments can also be found in teachers; lounges in traditional public schools. Like the Blue Wall of Silence, the Thin Chalk Line not only keeps good and great teachers from calling out the incompetents in their midst, it (along with near-lifetime employment) also lead otherwise-honorable teachers to protect the criminally-abusive among them. This was clear in the sexual abuse scandal still enveloping L.A. Unified; former Miramonte Elementary School teacher Mark Berndt's "lewd conduct" against children in the school went unreported by his colleagues. In some cases, teachers will even defend the worst apples among them. One example can be seen in Rochester, N.Y., where teachers at School 19 rallied failed to cooperate in the investigation of Matthew LoMaglio for second degree sexual conduct an eight-year-old boy, they even wrote letters to a judge begging for leniency on his behalf.
But as with the Blue Wall, the Thin Chalk Line extends beyond teachers' lounges. Thanks to affiliates of the National Education Association and the American Federation of Teachers, removing laggard and criminally abusive teachers can be too onerous for districts to undertake. Because the two unions are the biggest players in school board races and, thanks to state laws, can force districts into bargaining, they have worked closely with administrators to structure contracts that keep principals from removing laggards or stop those with seniority from bumping out better performing-yet-less senior counterparts. At the same time, low-performing school leaders in school buildings, who couldn't even get jobs checking coats at a Ruth's Chris Steakhouse, often do such a terrible job of managing teaching staffs as well as even aid and abet laggard teachers through practices such as overusing harsh school discipline.
As a result, few laggard and criminally-abusive teachers are ever tossed out of classrooms. In New York City, cases such as that of Steven Ostrin, who was found guilty of sexually harassing students, yet he was only given a six-month suspension and a reprimand, have become commonplace. Overall, just 1.4 percent of tenured teachers were removed for poor performance, while less than seven-tenths of one percent of newly-hired instructors are ever fired. And like bad cops, bad teachers damage the futures of communities, especially those black and brown, and the lives of the children who are forced to sit in their classrooms.
But unlike criminal justice reformers, school reform advocates can say that they are making some headway on addressing teacher quality issues. From the teacher evaluations using objective test score growth data in measuring performance, to efforts such as the lawsuits inspired by the Vergara v. California (in which a state court judge tossed out the Golden State's tenure and dismissal laws), to efforts by districts such as New York City to aggressively evaluate newly-hired teachers before they attain tenure, small positive steps are being made to provide all children with the high-quality teachers they deserve.
What this means is that reformers can team up with criminal justice reform advocates are share lessons on how to address their parallel issues. After all, reformers have taken some of the more-successful aspects of policing — including the development of early warning systems based on the Broken Windows Theory used to great success in the Big Apple — in systemic reform efforts. More importantly, it is important for reformers to be concerned about what happens outside of schoolhouses, especially since the nation's education crisis fuels the crises that happen daily on our streets. Just because criminal justice reform isn't a primary focus of transforming public education doesn't mean it shouldn't be a concern.
One way school reformers and criminal justice reform advocates can work together is on police recruiting and training. Criminal justice reformers, for example, could apply some version of the teacher recruiting model developed by Teach For America, which has not only helped provide kids with high-quality teachers, but has also led to diversity in the teaching ranks. One can imagine how a Teach For America-style corps for police officers could help stem police brutality as well as build trust between law enforcement agencies and black communities.
The Garner grand jury decision, along with that in Ferguson, once again offer reformers an opportunity to stand up and be counted for the very communities of the children for who we advocate. Sharing lessons with counterparts working to end police corruption and brutality will help our kids and their families outside of classrooms as well as in them.
On this day, Heavenly Father, we thank You for Your Blessings upon our lives.
More importantly, we thank You for the mighty men and women who work for brighter futures for all of our children.
We are thankful for how You sustain the good and great teachers who work in our classrooms, to the talented school leaders who help them do powerful work in our classrooms.
We are grateful for how You support the Parent Power activists, the policy thinkers, and the builders of cultures of genius that nurture the futures of our kids.
We appreciate how You protect the activists who fight each day so that every child, no matter who they are or where they live, have opportunities for better lives.
We are filled with gratitude over how You give all of us the strength and bounty each day to stand for the children and communities who need our support the most.
As we thank You on this day, we also come to you with the burdens of our hearts, and to aid us on behalf of every boy and girl.
We petition You, Lord, to protect every child who goes without, to provide to every parent struggling to give their kin all they need, to bring transformers for children to every neighborhood.
We ask You, Creator, to give peace beyond understanding to every mother and father who is grieving, to bring hope and light to every place beset by the tears and sorrow brought by evil.
We request from You, Father, the wisdom and energy to continue bending the arc of history toward progress, to help America live up to its place as the City Upon a Hill, to honestly address the ills of the past so everyone can move forward.
We beseech You, God, to help us be the shepherds to our youth that You are to us, to be more like Your Son in every word and deed, to sacrifice as You and Christ did so long ago to grant us salvation from our sins.
And each day, we remember the prayer that Your Son taught us long ago…
Our Father, thou art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.
Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive them that trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation. But deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory.
For ever and ever.


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Michael Dawson
Michael Dawson News
News on Michael Dawson continually updated from thousands of sources around the net.
West Brom boss Tony Pulis demands video technology for referees...
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Tru Def Shows His Inner Royalty
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Why You Should Be Excited About Dallas Music
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Daniel Markham's Pretty Bitchin'
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Americans Under 30 the Most Cynical Bunch Ever
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By Lauren Drewes Daniels
But inside our heads, there are other questions floating around, questions that would break a PR rep's heart. Here are the questions reporters wish they could ask, but can't:
5) How much do your titties weigh?
Yes, you, with your big, giant titties that are the size of my head, how much do those puppies weigh exactly? Can you sleep on your back or would they crush your rib cage?
4) Couldn't you tell s/he was marrying you for your money?
Come on, Britney. Be honest. You know he was after your dollars, don't be ashamed.
Have you ever seen Chris Rock's wife? She is beautiful, and no way she would be with that scrawny loudmouth if he wasn't pulling down the big bucks.
3) Who told you that you could sing?
Could somebody please tell Jamie Foxx that he was just acting like Ray Charles and that the movie is over? And Ashlee Simpson, who erroneously told you that you could sing? They lied. You can't. So, please, just stop.
2) Why is all your stuff hanging out?
When Lil' Kim went on the 1999 MTV Awards, her outfit exposed her left breast. A sequined pastie covered her nipple, but other than that it was pretty much just hanging out there. Even Diana Ross had to cop a feel, and she cupped Lil' Kim's titty. That wasn't the start of the trend, but it did seem to kick things into high gear, and since then, women artists have been wearing increasingly smaller outfits, see-through tops, shorter skirts and skinnier thongs. Why? It usually ain't pretty. Whatever we can see, we can smell. And nobody wants to see/smell your ass. For real.
1) Where do you buy your hair?
Solange Knowles, girlfriend, if on Tuesday your hair is shoulder-length while on Friday it is halfway down your back, we know you went out and bought it. And really, that's cool, but hey, don't keep it a secret. Some of us might need some new hair too. Spill. Where did you buy that silky, Korean imitation human hair, and who sewed it to your head?
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Schofield Moves, Red Sky, Magness, Last Chance for Matt Cox Band
Matt Schofield Show Moved to Union Pizzeria
The gig by English guitar phenom Matt Schofield has moved to the Union Pizzeria, 14th & Cuming downtown, on Thursday, July 21. This is a FREE show and starts at 6:30 p.m. Blues Society President Terry O'Halloran hopes to get folks already in the area for the blues-oriented Thursday of Red Sky Music Festival to come by and enjoy Schofield's amazing talents.
Live Reviews: Omaha Girls Rock and Playing With Fire
I can only imagine what it was like backstage at the Omaha Girls Rock (OGR) showcase moments before the night's first band, The Jellybeans, took the stage. Utter chaos? Faces gripped in panic-fear? Tears? Nervous laughter?
For most of the 24 girls who took part in the inaugural OGR band camp, it would be their first time on any stage. Many had never held an instrument before signing up. Now here they were,...
Baby Tears named Nebraska's best new band
* Against the Grain, fresh off a tour supporting legendary hardcore band The Meatmen, will play Tuesday, July 26 at Brothers Lounge, 3812 Farnam St. The Detroit band will be joined by local punk band the F**king Party, who just returned from their own summer tour. The show is $5 and starts at 9:30 p.m.
* Baby Tears have spread their notorious name all the way east to Beantown. Alternative weekly the Boston...
Playing With Fire, Travelling Mercies, Sunday Roadhouse
This week's big event is the Playing With Fire concert Saturday, July 16. It's set for Stinson Park at Aksarben Village. Missouri River flood waters washed out the Lewis & Clark Landing and threatened the proposed second site. A lot of people seem uncertain about where Stinson Park is. It is the park on the Center Street side of the old Aksarben property. Stinson Park is located at 67th & Center in what is now...
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I meant to make "pistachio and rosewater meringues" but what came out were beautiful clouds of edible soap. They are awful. Any good ideas for how to turn them (crushed, buried, pureed) into something marvelous? I hate to just throw them away.
HalfPint is a trusted home cook.
Make a semifreddo by sweetened whipping cream and mixing in crushed meringues, then freeze.
hardlikearmour is a trusted home cook.
If they are awful it may just be best to toss them. Better that than spend extra time and potentially end up with another dish that is awful.
I agree--if the taste ismthat bad, you won't be able to cover it up.
When you say 'soap', is it an off taste from the rosewater? There could be too much or the rosewater you used isn't to your expectations.
Hi All, OP here. Thanks for the help. There was no hope for the meringues. The rosewater flavor (Nielsen-Massey brand) was just too strong. I liked the semifreddo idea, but couldn't work out a flavor for the whipped cream that would complement the rosewater. I remade the meringues using raspberry flavoring and they were fabulous.
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How to get ground hog to move on
Hi! We have a ground hog under the chicken coop. What's the best method to get him to move on?
put a stick of juicy friut gum in each tunnnel..
have a heart animal traps
shoot them
heard castor oil or ammonia poured on the holes works
plant mint (is hard to get rid of once established).
stick something in the ground that vibrates. itrritates them
Never tried it on groundhogs, myself, but I agree with Sheila - used kitty litter is great stuff! I've used it to encourage rats and rabbits to move on.
Anybody know how to get rid of armadillos? Must be the dry weather, this year they are destroying my yard and trying their darndest to break my ankle!
found another thread on grounhogs. lots of ideas
Here is a link that might be useful: maybe this will help
I also have groundhogs living under my chicken house and shed. So far they have not caused a lot of trouble. I did plant some green pole beans to grow on the chicken fence on one side and they ate those to the ground as soon as they came up, but nothing else much. They haven't found our veggie garden. It's on the other side of the property so I hope it's safe from the groundhogs. I'm doubtful about the racoons, though. The only thing in my flower garden that they eat are the weeds and are welcome to them.
I thought maybe they would prevent something more dangerous to the chickens from taking up residence there, like a weasle, mink, skunk, fox, etc. etc. so I have left them alone. My dogs sure are interested in them, though!
Will a couple of big cats keep groundhogs away? These are huge groundhogs! Will the cats bother the chickens and chicks and eggs? I have considered getting a couple of big guard cats, if they will happily co-exist with the chickens, chicks and eggs, which are in a covered run but I would like to let them out to free range, occasionally.
I have also considered getting a big free ranging dog but need to do some containment fencing first. Will a big dog wreck the veggie garden chasing away racoons? (I do have a couple of indoor "guard" shi tzus lol!)
Call me crazy but I had a GH wandering around scaring my wife, and making me nervous because my kids are young (as is my now barren parsley), so I peed all over the entry to his burrow (under my porch), and into all of his hidey holes around the yard, and haven't seen him in 4 or 5 days. This may be temporary but I've got my fingers crossed.
I recently got an email from my brother on the subject of canines and moles, I have no verification for this, but apparently if you fill the entry to the burrowing rodents hole with fresh Canine excrement (a commodity not difficult to come by, especially for dog owners) and sprinkle some dirt on top of that you can quickly discourage the animals from continued residence with out creating a stink so to speak. If it does work for moles I would imagine that it would also work for groundhogs. If you are very good with animals you could even train your dogs to poop in holes in the lawn.


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Ken Block and the Hoonicorn Mustang Present Gymkhana 7
While Ken Block is one of the best rally racers in the universe, limited viewing access has made Block better known among the general public for his fast paced Gymkhana videos.
While Ken Block is one of the best rally racers in the universe, limited viewing access has made Block better known among the general public for his fast paced Gymkhana videos.
I think that we have been talking about the possible arrival of a new Ford Mustang Shelby GT350 for almost a year now.
Ford Motor Company has been teasing us over the past two weeks with the promise of a new performance car on November 17th – one which I still believe is the 2016 Ford Shelby GT350 Mustang.
While there are skeptics who believe that Ford's move to an aluminum body will be a bad choice, the automaker expects the new 2015 F150 to be very, very popular.
When it was announced a few weeks back that Henrik Fisker would be introducing a new American muscle car at the 2014 Los Angeles Auto Show, it raised a great many questions.
The third teaser video for the unknown Ford performance car has hit the internet and based on what we can see in the latest video, it is even more likely to be the 2016 Mustang Shelby GT350.
When Ford Motor Company introduced the 2015 F150 pickup at the 2014 North American International Auto Show in Detroit, the automotive world took notice more than any new pickup in the past.
Ford is one of those companies that not only talks the talk, but also walks the walk when it comes to a commitment to sustainability.
I should start by saying that there is no guarantee that this video – or the first video that we looked at last week – pertains to the 2016 Ford Mustang Shelby GT350.
In the world of high performance Ford Mustangs, Steeda is best known for their suspension components, but more recently, Steeda has gotten into creating whole high performance packages for the migh
While the vast majority of the vehicles at the 2014 SEMA Show are clad in one-off components and parts that manufacturers are considering for production, the 2015 Ford Mustang King Cobra is very di
The Chevrolet Camaro has been the bestselling performance car in America for each of the past 4 calendar years, beating both the Ford Mustang and Dodge Challenger soundly far more often than not si
Ford Racing shook up the performance world during the previous generation of the Mustang when the tuning division rolled out their supercharger package that lifted the output of the 2011-2014 Musta
Since the Chevrolet Volt and Nissan LEAF were introduced in late 2010, plug-in vehicles improved monthly year-over-year sales for 46 months in a row.
This is the era of the recall and with millions of vehicles being recalled each year for things as simple as an incorrectly spelled information sticker under the hood, these new 2014 Ford F150 reca
Ken Block is best known for showing off his high speed driving maneuvers in an all-wheel drive Ford Fiesta, but at the 2014 SEMA Show in Las Vegas, Block has rolled out an incredible all-wheel driv


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Odd/Even Parking is in effect from November 1 to April 1
Park on odd-numbered address side of the street on odd-numbered calendar days and even-numbered address side of the street on even-numbered calendar days. When parking for the evening, park for the next calendar day.
Crime Stoppers
On the early morning hours of March 11, 2013 an unknown suspect damaged several residences and a vehicle using a golf club. Damage was reported in the 100 blk of 9th St Se to a 2008 Chevy Colbalt, someone smashed out the driver side window. Damage was also reported at 700 2nd Ave Se where someone used a golf club to shatter two windows in a garage. Damage was also done to a residential fence about a block away. If anyone has information on this crime or any other crime you are encouraged to contact Crime Stoppers.
Anyone with information about these or any other crimes
Plymouth County Crime Stoppers
Road Condition Links and Phone Numbers
Iowa 800-288-1047


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"I just had hernia surgery...so I was only jumping up and down in my mind."
5 Gift Themes to Build On Each Year
Figuring out the right gift for those near and dear is difficult enough—then you get to those hard-to-shop-for people on your list. What's a good gift for your cubicle-mate? What's appropriate for your kid's teacher? What would your in-laws be impressed with? Well, worry no more! We've rounded up possible presents for seven of your most stumping gift-giving situations.
If your boss's sticky-note to-do lists are getting a little out of hand (and lost on her messy desk), help her out with a write-on glass mug or tumbler. Each includes a mini-pencil with an eraser so she can erase a task once it's been done. Write-On Glassware, $16; FredFlare.com


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Related post:
Mixed-media illustrations by Sydney artist Danilo Brandao
Share your favourite cultural finds with the Lost At E Minor community and become famous in the process. Well, kinda.
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Don't show this again - I already like Lost At E Minor


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If you suffer from high blood pressure and have been looking around the Internet for alternative cures there's a very good chance you have come across Christian Goodman's
3 Easy Exercises To Drop Your Blood Pressure
"High Blood Pressure?
3 easy exercise drop blood pressure
below 120/80 in as little as a week
I downloaded and started using Christian Goodman 3 exercises on the 8th of April 2009.
The program is delivered in both audio and transcript formats – complimenting each other – although just performing the exercises while listening to the audio is best.
- This exercise is based on a kind of rhythmic walking for 10 minutes that can be performed indoors on the spot or during a stroll outside. (Of course just the exercise of walking is good for you and can help reduce your blood pressure over time.)
- This exercise is an 'emotional release exercise' that involves regulated breathing and experiencing emotional states (and release). Lasts about 20 minutes. This is someting like a mix between yoga, breathing exercises and meditation.
- This exercise is also about 20 minutes and focuses on breathing and muscle relaxation. This exercise is best performed just before you're ready to go to sleep (because you won't feel like getting up after it). In fact, it's not easy to finish the exercise as chances are you'll fall into a deep relaxing sleep first.
All exercises are easy and don't take up too much time.
I did notice that my blood pressure began to fall after following these exercises for three weeks or so. But I should also mention that I was also following a more healthy lifestyle in regards to diet and exercise at the same time.
The bottom line is that Christian Goodman's 3 exercises are designed to help relax the mind and body and lower the blood pressure in tandem. They certainly are effective in that regard.
These three exercises are aimed at lowering blood pressure through stress reduction and they are good at doing just that. However stress isn't the only cause of high blood pressure in everyone. There are also factors such as diet, lack of exercise, and genetic makeup that can play a factor.
So my advice to you if you need to lower your blood pressure is try these exercises but don't expect them to be a cure-all for everybody.
If stress is the central cause of your elevated blood pressure levels then these exercises, done regularly, may be all you need. For many of us however, we would also need to incorporate additional measures – like diet and exercise – to provide a sufficient and lasting cure without recourse to hypertension medications.
Link to Christian Goodman's 3 exercises: www.highbloodpressure.ws
– – –
A more effective way to reduce blood pressure through de-stressing exercises is slow breathing. Just 15 minutes a day of relaxed slow breathing exericses have shown to be effective in lowering stress-based high blood pressure.
If you suffer from too much stress in your life then you owe it to yourself to check out this technique. Audio tracks are available to assist you in slow breathing area available here: http://breathe-slow.com/sound-samples/
– – –
Also, for a compete approach to lowering blood pressure naturally, you should also check out this guide to healthy living for lower blood pressure. It is easy to follow yset covers all bases of natural blood pressure reduction.
Lower Your Blood Pressure Naturally – The Complete 9 Step Guide
Just click on the link for more information. A free sample is available.


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There are lots of online courses ranging from some that are incredibly compelling to others that, well, that are just plain boring. One of the problems with online learning is that it takes more than just aiming a video camera at a lecturer to create a compelling class. Sure, YouTube is full of videos […]
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Teachers: Create your own online courses with Versal
A conversation with Esther Wojcicki on 'Moonshots in Education'
Esther Wojcicki is an award winning journalism teacher and the author of a new book on education called Moonshots in Education: Launching Blended Learning in the Classroom. The book explores digital and online learning with models and examples from schools that are already implementing digital learning. Moonshots is an approachable book that's part Wojcicki philiophy […]
Banning Yik Yak from colleges is counterproductive
No doubt about it: There are some vile posts on Yik Yak and other social media platforms. But just because some people use these platforms to intimidate and spread hate is not justification to ban them from college campuses — Instead, people should (and often do) use the same platforms to condemn bigotry and spread […]
'Tread carefully' before regulating Internet of Things
I was not surprised to learn that the Senate is looking into the Internet of Things. Senators are concerned about safety, privacy and security issues now that the tech industry is focusing on ways to connect devices to the Internet and to each other. There are just over seven billion people on the planet and, […]
'Revenge porn' is about betrayal, not pornography
Sharing explicit pictures or videos with an intimate partner is not always a harmful practice, but it can be devastating if those images get into the wrong hands — like those of Kevin Bollaert. In the first criminal prosecution using a new California law targeting "revenge porn," San Diego-based Bollaert, 28, was convicted Monday on […]
Safer Internet Day With Sheryl Sandberg, Kamala D. Harris and the Spirit of Martin Luther King Jr
In 2004, a project of the European Commission launched "Safer Internet Day," which became an annual event held on the second Tuesday of February. This year represents the 11th Safer Internet Day, which is now being celebrated in more than 100 countries, including the United States. Last year, ConnectSafely.org, the nonprofit Internet safety organization that […]
Ford CEO Mark Fields on mobility, connected cars & teen safety
It may seem odd for an Internet safety organization like ConnectSafely to be featuring an interview with the CEO of a car company, but cars are no longer just motor vehicles. They're connected computers on wheels. And Ford is no longer just in the car and truck business. As you walk around the parking lot, garage […]
ClassDojo app offers students & parents words of encouragement
I wish the ClassDojo app had been around when I was in elementary, middle and high school. Back then, about the only feedback I ever got from my teachers was about my lousy handwriting or that I "wasn't working up to my potential." OK, I admit it. Even though I wound up eventually earning a […]
Social media still growing, with Instagram leading the way
A lot of people scratched their heads when Facebook invested a billion dollars to buy Instagram in 2012. But, based on the results of a recent survey from Pew Research, it now looks like quite a bargain. In retrospect, I wish I had bought it, though I'm afraid my check would have bounced. The Pew […]
Facebook to carry Amber Alerts — exclusive interview with John Walsh
Facebook and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) are teaming up to put Amber Alerts about missing children on Facebook News Feeds, but only for Facebook members in the targeted search area for an abducted child. A game changer John Walsh, the founder of NCMEC, former host of America's Most Wanted and host […]
Safer Internet Day 2105
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video highlights and our press coverage
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Windows fix
Hi all,
There is a fixed to the Microsoft window's metafile problem that Margaret informed us about yesterday. You can either go to www.microsoft.com or the direct link is at the bottom:
Here is a link that might be useful: Window's Metafile Patch
Hi all,
With this Window's metafile patch I think trouble with the security portion of garden web. I'm not sure what the problem as but I thought I would let everyone know what I am experiencing. Does not seem to be able to recognize me as a paying member. I'm getting pop-ups. It also has trouble with my birthday.
So, I'm not sure what to say. I think it's important to put the Microsoft patch on my computer but something with garden web seems to have trouble with the patch.
Just so you know.
It appears that everyone is having trouble with Gardenweb and pop-ups. It has nothing to do with the Windows metafile patch. I was just over one the comments and suggestions and this is a problem that iVillage is quite aware of and are trying to fix.
This is only a garden web problem. I have been to numerous message boards and even eBay and have not had any trouble.
Larry, I don't think it is the patch causing the GW problem. Late last night the GW did some serious work on the site and things have been out of wack since. There are people who have had to start new accounts to post, because they can't log in under their old accounts. Also you may have noticed member names are lacking capital letters today. What ever the GW was working on has mucked up the whole system. The GW has posted on the Suggestions and Comments forum that they are working on the problem.
Thanks for letting us know about the patch.