Smart Communities

Amarillo Gets a Down Payment on its Future

Exciting news out of Amarillo, TX where a $40,000 grant has been established to help communities invest right the first time based on a Smart Communities seminar we did in Amarillo in January.  The funding for the grant came from a (generous) donation by a private citizen named Richard Ware.

The grant is aimed at funding projects (up to $10,000 each) that match Panhandle Twenty/20’s areas of interest including health, the economy, civic engagement, education, and quality of life.  As Twenty/20 Board Chair Anette Carlisle told the Amarillo Globe News, "I can't imagine anything that wouldn't fit into one of those [categories.]  It may provide the seed capital for a project that could really help impact the community."

I’m really happy to see how Amarillo has taken the initiative and is working to provide the kind of support needed for significant growth further down the road. To the people of Amarillo, keep up the good work – the commitment you're making to your future is exciting to watch.

Teach for America Exports Ideas

On March 4th the British newspaper The Telegraph ran an interesting article on a new program in London and Manchester called Teach First.  The program  recruits the cream-of-the-crop graduates from top universities, gives them a six-week course in the principles of teaching, and then places them in schools in need of real help. The program was recently expanded to incorporate successful private sector employees into the schools as well.

For Americans, this will sound all too familiar. Launched in 2002 and inspired by our own Teach for America, this program is matching the best and the brightest with corporate sponsors to provide schools that have at least a third of the students from severely deprived backgrounds with enthusiastic new teachers. Called a "scheme" (as in "plan", no negative connotation here) in the British press, Teach for America’s founder Wendy Kopp deserves another round of applause for her commitment to this "scheme" in the States. There are more than 4,000 teachers in the U.S. program who are making a real difference. The British program selects 200 teachers a year from an applicant pool of 1,000 so they have room to grow and develop. As Education Editor John Clare writes, "Teach First is a brilliant idea because everybody wins."

We agree. This kind of entrepreneurial "scheme" on both sides of the Atlantic is a viable way to make inroads into improving public education. For the American part of this, we need to expand this program beyond its current levels and encourage a whole generation of teachers and advocates for the public schools.

Reclaiming Public Education by Reclaiming our Democracy

David Mathews, president of the Kettering Foundation, has captured an important theme for public education in his new book. He makes a powerful and persuasive case that the public (all of us) have abdicated our sense of ownership for the public schools. In his words, "Many educators don't see a responsible public capable of taking collective ownership in education because, in fact, there isn't one." The notion that people in a community, with or without school-age children, might refer to "our" school is almost an anachronism in today's lingo. But Mathews gives us some hope. He believes that the there are things that could improve the situation. First, he suggests that the public and educators be involved in "naming and framing" issues around education. Engage the public in understanding school issues in public terms. Second, he suggests that communities look at how decisions are made. Are the issues surrounding the schools symptomatic of the ways that democracy is practiced in a community? Third, get the community and professional educators to think about education beyond schooling. That is, how can the community be mobilized to teach children in new and innovative ways? Pioneered by former Teacher's College president and Pulitzer Prize winning historian Lawrence Cremin, citizens are encouraged to broaden their vision of what an educational strategy might be beyond a traditional school board with the set responsibilities of hiring a superintendent and attending to policies. Cremin and Mathews suggest a broader notion of the "educators" in a community than just professionals.

This book provides some fresh ideas about reconnecting the public schools with democracy. As Mathews writes, "The mission of the public schools should grow out of the broad objectives of our democracy. And the first job of citizens is deciding on those objectives or purposes." It is time for the public to weigh in or reweigh in on the public schools. Blame and finger pointing should be left at the door and we need to collectively answer these questions: How can the public schools create the kind of democracy that we need and want? What needs to happen nationally and locally to realize that vision? What is my responsibility as a citizen? This new book will help all of us think through our answers.

What the Arts Teach Us

Last week we blogged about the importance of the arts to the education of students. In some places across the country the arts are seen as an expendable line item when dollars get tight. We think just the opposite.

The arts teach skills that are critically important to an educated person. A book by Elliot Eisner, The Arts and the Creation of the Mind, drives that point home. According to Eisner, there are ten lessons that the arts teach.  They teach good judgment about qualitative relationships; they teach children that problems can have more than one solution and can be approached from multiple perspectives; they teach children to look for unanticipated possibilities and solutions; they show and teach the limits of language as the primary cognitive skill; they show the importance of subtleties; they teach children to think through and within a material so that images become real; they help children learn to say and experience what cannot be said or easily described by encouraging them to articulate their feelings and reactions; and finally, an investment in the arts sends a signal about what adults believe is important.  This book gives real ammunition to those who are defending the arts budget in their district or school. Can we have comprehensive learning without the arts? We think not.

For more information on the importance of the arts to educational success check out the website for the National Art Education Association.

Education Really is Everyone's Responsibility

A few weeks ago I had the privilege of attending a seminar in Washington, DC on the public’s role in public education co-hosted by Public Agenda and the Kettering Foundation. The occasion was the launching of a new book by David Mathews, president of the Kettering Foundation.  The book, Reclaiming Public Education by Reclaiming our Democracy, will be reviewed in a series of blogs next week. I want to set the stage for that by focusing today on remarks by one of the panelists at the seminar, Wendy Purifoy, president of the Public Education Network. The gist of her message was this: Public education is the most important public institution in a democracy and we must insure that every child has access to a quality education. While she and others cited the importance of teachers, school leaders, adequate funding, etc., an ingredient that must be present is public responsibility.

She listed a number of ways for the public to be more involved both actively and passively. We can vote for candidates that support education and equitable access. Elected officials can think about the long haul and not short-term expediency and live up to their campaign promises. School personnel can implement ways of organizing schools and teaching that allow all children to learn and thrive. The community at large can provide resources, help support families, and mentor. In a word, there is more that we all can and must do. Ms. Purifoy sees all of this through the lens of democracy. She sees quality, accessible public education as a powerful engine of democratic principles and progress that must be reclaimed, revitalized, and re-invested in but everyone in a community. We at the Pew Partnership for Civic Change agree wholeheartedly.