Here are the most recent, disconnected, half-baked, astute or irrelevant observations that may or may not bear up under the light of day, as posted at any time of the day by those involved in this site.

• Past, present, or…
  1/30/17: Children represent 23% of the present U.S. population and 100% of our collective future.
• How will we respond?
  1-29-17: “We can, whenever and wherever we choose, successfully teach all children whose schooling is of interest to us. We already know more than we need to do that. Whether or not we do it must finally depend on how we feel about the fact we haven’t so far.” – Ronald Edmonds (May 24, 1935- July 15, ...
• Opportunities abound
  12-28-16: At its Oct. 25 meeting the CMS Board of Education approved a bunch of construction contracts, mostly for heating and air conditioning work. They are listed here in descending order of percentage participation by minority, women and small business enterprises. 34.74% Providence High HVAC Controls 1.5% Harding High chiller 0% Cornelius Elementary chiller 0% J.T. Williams HVAC controls 0% ...
• Break the cycle
  8-21-15: Who gets the leg up from pre-K programs? In 2013 about half of the children of adults with graduate or professional degrees were enrolled. But only about a quarter of the children of adults with less than a high school education were enrolled. Let’s break the cycle right there! Data from The Condition of ...
• Gains are not sticky
  5-30-15: “NAEP long-term trend results indicate that the average reading and mathematics achievement of 9- and 13-year-olds improved between the early 1970s and 2012; however, only 13-year-olds made score gains from 2008 to 2012, and they did so in both subject areas. Average reading and mathematics achievement for 17-year-olds did not change significantly between the ...
• Pursue the obvious
  5-8-15: It’s connect-the-dots time: What if the read-by-third-grade advocates followed each newborn home from the hospital and tested  the  crib and the  apartment for any lead exposure that will doom that child to developmental delays and permanent brain damage???
• What priorities?
  5-4-15: If research shows us that education in the first four years of life is the most important, why is it we don’t we have per-child spending in the first four years of life rivaling the spending in the college years? Is it because there’s no alumni association – or no football team?
• What part of ‘all’ don’t they understand?
  3-18-15: “No matter how many times the Court has issued Notices of Hearings and Orders regarding unacceptable academic performance, and even after the North Carolina Supreme Court plainly stated that the mandates of Leandro remain ‘in full force and effect’ many adults involved in education, educators and school board members and others, still seem unable ...
• Fixing the achievement gap
  3-16-15: “Real equity is about having ALL our children prepared for school when they enter kindergarten.  Until such becomes a reality, the achievement gap will prove virtually impossible to close.” – John Tate at his last State Board of Education meeting March 5. Full text.
• Electronic distractions
  3-5-15: “A recent study at Michigan State University tracked 500 students in an introductory psychology class and found that the more they used the Internet for nonacademic purposes such as reading Facebook during class, the lower their test scores in that course were. That was true ‘regardless of intellectual ability’ measured by entrance exams taken during high ...
• ‘The Common Good’
  3-2-15: “If policy makers were to listen to educators – and to students and parents – they would hear that the real crisis in public education is the loss of our collective commitment to the common good. If we continue to make the kinds of choices that steer resources away from our neediest students, the ...
• Get out more
  1-22-15: “If you truly believe you could work full time and support a family on less than $15,000 a year, go try it.” – President Obama to Congress, Jan. 20, 2015, via E.J. Dionne
• Educating poor children
  1-17-15: “We have to give them quality teachers, small class sizes, up-to-date equipment. But in addition, if we’re serious, we have to do things that overcome the damages of poverty. We have to meet their health needs, their mental health needs, after-school programs, summer programs, parent engagement, early-childhood services. These are the so- called wraparound ...
• Reading too soon hurts?
  1-15-15: “Rebecca Marcon found negative effects of overly-directed preschool instruction on later school performance in a study of three different curricula, described as either ‘academically oriented’ or ‘child-initiated.’ By third grade, her group of 343 students — 96% African American with 75% of the children qualifying for subsidized school lunch — displayed few differences in ...
• Seeking answers
  1-9-15: “I don’t understand what youth are dealing with in their schools every day. I didn’t realize. My daughter, who’s a senior at Harding, says they see fights on the regular. I mean, growing up, I didn’t understand when she came home and said ‘There was a fight today’ that it happened in front of ...
• Strong families
  1-8-15: “Students from first- and second-generation immigrant families are more likely than their peers from non-immigrant families to have strengths such as parents who remain married and households where multiple generations of relatives may live. ‘These children are more likely to live in intact, extended families. That’s a positive for them and one that can ...
• Economic engine
  1-3-15: “Now I can make a very powerful case to a parent about the opportunities they want for a child that they love. But I can make a business case to you about the opportunities you want to develop the most powerful economic driver that any community, any state, any nation can imagine – the ...
• Be part of something big
  1-1-15: Heads up, adults: Monday begins the next year of young people’s school lives. Are you constructively engaged?
• Resolutions
  12-30-14: Tal Gross, a Columbia University assistant professor, making a New Year’s resolution, in the Washington Post, to ban electronics from his classroom: “We are becoming a distracted nation, constantly alt-tabbing to our e-mail and peeking at our phones. We should not be so quick to throw out our pens and pencils.”
• Taking action
  12-27-14: Messages left by Empty Stocking Fund donors this year included this: “As an example for the young set by Granna.” Just so.
• Wisdom of the salon
  12-24-14: What does it take to ensure that children read by third grade? “Read to them,” said the hair stylist mom. Don’t cut back on that. Holidays are the perfect time to renew the habit if it has lapsed.
• Happy Holidays!
  12-19-14: Time to say goodbye to fish sandwiches and rotini with meat sauce until Jan. 5. Stay healthy, dear children. Run from the TV and curl up with a blanket and a book. Happy Holidays!
• Virtually nuts
  12-18-14: We all entered primary school as cut-ups and left it as social beings. What part of a virtual K-12 schoolhouse prepares our children to live and work with one another?
• Leaky system
  12-10-14: The LIFT project was sold as a feeder-area system, where focused work with elementary students would yield big gains later at West Charlotte High. The Year 2 consultant’s report, however, notes that many children at LIFT elementaries and middle schools don’t end up at WCHS. In fact, 89% of Allenbrook’s 2012-13 rising sixth-graders went ...
• Awakening the blog…
  12-10-14: Lorem ipsum dolar sit amet, consectetur adipscing elit, set do liumsmod tempor incidididunt ut labore et dolare magna aliqua.