The 10 Common Principles Learning to use one's mind well Less is more, depth over coverage Goals apply to all students Personalization Student-as-worker, teacher-as-coach Demonstration of mastery Tone of decency and trust Commitment to entire school Resources dedicated to teaching and learning Democracy and Equity

Home | Newsletter | Calendar Of Events | Contact Mid-Atlantic Connections The Newsletter of the Mid-Atlantic Coalition of Essential Schools, Inc. December 2004 Message from the CES national on the 20th anniversary of the founding of the Coalition of Essential Schools Equitable Schools for a New Democracy By Theodore R. Sizer "Equitable" for us Americans-at least as I believe CES National is using the word-clearly does not imply a single, rigid, precise standard for all situations, with every school to be precisely the same as every other, equal to every other as if a clone, equal schools for a new democracy. Place and circumstance reasonably affect both the character of equity and thus the immediate practical expression of the word. It is in this sense that the word equitable begins to have practical shadings. This is neither a surprise nor a sin. Most important ideas are subject to different interpretations or applications, in different settings and at different moments. Equity for you may not take exactly the same form as equity for me; both your and my actions must be situationally equitable; the expression of equity in your community may poorly serve my community; places will differ even if goals do not. The word equitable and the idea it represents provide us a consequential standard: fundamental fairness to and for all. However we choose practically to express the concept, we must meet that demanding norm, albeit in the way most appropriate for our settings. To assure equity, we must offer equitable schools that reflect informed, principled variety. Overly literal people may find this a paradox. In fact it is strength. At CES' twenty-year mark, we must look carefully not only at the meanings of the word "equitable" but also how its representation might take practical form. It is here that the word democracy is crucial. Education in the United States is assumed by the federal government, mandated by the states, and, in most places, left for execution to local or regional authorities. For a variety of political reasons (some of them ugly, some unavoidable), this division of labor is not consistently respected. The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, for example, makes detailed national demands on states and localities, whether they like it or not. So (perhaps ironically) do federal and state civil rights laws. Mandates from state and federal levels profoundly affect the tax policies and thus the budgets of local communities. A town may have the right to tax its citizens in any way it wants, but it must-as a first obligation-meet revenue need assessed on it by higher authorities. An individual school may say that it will function as "a democracy," but at the same time it is expected to meet regulations from local, state, and federal governments, which severely restrict its ability to be a reasonable self-governing democracy. Thus is the concept "Government by the People" a mare's nest of complications and contradictions. As most of us CES colleagues work at the bottom of the political hierarchy, we are forced to live with the worst of that condition, one that has dramatically deteriorated over the last half decade. It should not be so. There should be a principled balance among local, regional, state, and federal governments- and respect for individuals and families. Where might a counter-offensive on behalf of equitable schools in a democracy start, indeed the invention of a new democracy for elementary and secondary schools? Hopefully with CES affiliate schools, your voices can be heard. Theodore R. Sizer is the founder and Chairman Emeritus of the Coalition of Essential Schools. University Professor Emeritus at Brown University, and Visiting Professor of Education at Brandeis University and Harvard University. Sizer was a founder and acting co-principal of the Francis W. Parker Charter Essential School in Devens, Massachusetts, a convener of the Forum for Education and Democracy, and the author of many books, including Horace's Compromise: The Dilemma of the American High School, and most recently Keeping School: Letters to Families from Principals of Two Small Schools co-authored with Deborah Meier and Nancy Faust Sizer and The Real Pencil: Convictions from Experience. Message from the MACES Executive Director The 20th annual Fall Forum was an exciting and meaningful event following the 2004 Presidential election. Messages from the national CES organization and from the keynote speaker, Lani Guinier, resonated with angst and commitment to leading advocacy for political reform. The central focus of Fall Forum was on "democracy as a means to equity": should it be considered a gateway or a hurdle? The Forum included 500 sessions which focused on essential questions about equitable schools for a new democracy. In the last decade, the achievement gap between student populations nationally appears to have widened, with schools becoming increasingly segregated. Many proponents of equity contend that progressive, democratic models of reform do not go far enough in ensuring equitable out- comes for students on a broad scale. By contrast, proponents of decentralized governance contend that genuine democracy is the best guarantor for high-quality, personalized, and equitable education, regardless of its inefficiencies and messiness. Can decentralized, democratically-run schools really bring about the improvements in instruction that will help all students achieve at high levels? Or does the route to equity require strong centralized mandates from districts, states, or the federal government? How do we reconcile the potential tension between equity and democracy in an era when low achievement for certain student populations has significant civil rights implications? Is democracy a luxury we ultimately can't afford when it comes to doing something about the achievement gap between rich and poor, white and black or brown? These are haunting questions we must continue pondering. To that end, we will be revisiting these questions during the upcoming Winter Forum, our annual mid-year Trek to the Dupont Hotel, Wilmington, Delaware, on Friday, January 28, 2005 and Saturday, January 29, 2005. Schools are encouraged to send teams to focus on these questions and how they apply to individual schools. Winter Forum will also provide sessions on Personalization: Making Schools Feel More Intimate; and Advisory Programs; Making Connections That Matter and Endure. (See attached flier for specific details and deadlines). ****************************** I also want to take this opportunity to wish Terri Clark good luck in her new position with LaSalle University. Terri provided wonderful support to MACES for the last 2 years and we will miss her steadfast commitment and warm personal touch. We are fortunate to welcome Adeline Mackler as the new office administrator. Adeline comes with 30+ years of experience in the Philadelphia School District which helps to make this transition seamless. Please introduce yourself to Adeline when you call the office. Collaborative Dinners We have had 2 successful collaborative dinner meetings: Classroom Practice: Raising Student Achievement Equitably and School Design: Creating Small Schools This year has featured shared practices that are relevant to professionals who work in K-5, middle and high schools. We are pleased to report significant involvement of high school participants in attending, presenting and sharing. The next collaborative session is scheduled for: Thursday, February 10, 2005. The topic will be: Leadership: Teachers who Demonstrate Leadership and Learning. The flyer for this dinner will be mailed in mid-January. Be sure to reserve space. Student/Parent Trek The first student/parent Trek of the 04-05 year took place at Cook-Wissahickon. Cook-Wiss., the latest "affirmed" CES school, was a gracious host to students and parents from grades K-12. We continue learning from each other and hope that every affiliate school will take advantage of the Student/Parent Trek opportunity scheduled for early spring at Cooke Middle School. K-16 Colloquium MACES, in partnership with Drexel University, hosted the first in a series of discussions about the "disconnect" between K-12 and post secondary education. The following universities participated along with high school principals and regional superintendents: Drexel, Lehigh, Temple, Penn and Rutgers. Dr. Michelle Fine, distinguished professor of education at CUNY, facilitated the first session. Stay tuned for ongoing plans for this collaboration. Affiliation We have attached our Affiliation Form for January 1 - June 30, 2005. Please mail this back along with your check for $250.00 ASAP so that you can receive all of our upcoming mailings and participate in all events. (Click here to access the form online.) Partnership MACES has entered into a formal partnership with Rosemont College. This partnership will allow us to develop and offer continuing education courses and credits throughout the school year. We are producing a catalog of course offerings that will be forthcoming this spring. Final Thoughts and Words "It is discontent with the present that leads clever minds to extend the frontiers of human imagination." - James D. Watson Teachers need time and space for thoughtful reflection and for struggles with their own beliefs, ideas and practices against their particular backdrop of student achievement and school experience. This work rarely happens in isolation. Teachers need to be in meaningful and ongoing conversation with colleagues about the specific gaps of underserved students, high-leverage curricular standards, the habits of mind the community values, and the biases teachers hold that impact our perceptions of our students. We fear that too often educators focus limited energy and time on democratic processes for adults that don't change results for students. It is only when time and space for conversation and reflection about classroom practice is protected that a professional community can develop the environment of expectation and trust that all people need to do their best learning and work. A truly democratic school supports teachers to find their voice so they can make public their questions, struggles and passions about their practice and they can support each other to identify and ask for what they need in order to take meaningful and effective action for equity. The more deeply we understand each other's practice, the more we are equipped and compelled to support each other while simultaneously holding each other accountable to the school vision of equity. We risk everything when we deny young people the right to question their circumstances, challenge their school-keepers, and object in all the exasperating ways they can devise. Like people kept down throughout history, they usually know us better than we know them. Liberated, their voices could empower the revolution in teaching and learning that essential school people have been seeking for all these years. Happy and Healthy Holidays to All!