An article to read

My intentions with this blog was to relay all the positive activities and progress at my neighborhood school John Story Jenks Elementary School in Chestnut Hill, Philadelphia.  I now have 2 kids in the school and we have been there 5 years. The experience has been positive, although no situation is perfect the energy and enthusiasm of the faculty, staff, students, administration and parents during these times of education reform has been very..................... educational. 

I have been following on twitter local reporters on education (Kristen Graham, Inquirer), local parent groups (Helen Gym, Parents United) and national leaders (Diane Ravitch). At times the conversation depresses me, it has become polarized, many times being simplified into a problem that could be solved with one simple solution since it has one simple cause: unions, bad teachers, underfunding depending on your "side" of the issue.

So I enjoyed reading an article in Mother Jones by Kristina Rizga http://www.motherjones.com/media/2012/08/mission-high-false-low-performing-school  

Education of our children, ALL our children, is complex and changes constantly as new ideas are tried and theories evolve. But we all seem to want evidence that our school is "the best" and test scores seem to be the variable "du joir" at this point. But I find in many other arenas in life many people don't value "the evidence" so as always we are human and very nuanced and not very consistent and it would do us all well to read the article and sit back and think. Then go support your local school!

Kristen Graham

@newskag

Education reporter, Pulitzer Prize winner covering Philadelphia schools for the Inquirer & philly.com. Obsessed w/the Phillies. Tips? kgraham@phillynews.com.

Helen Gym

@ParentsUnitedPA

Parents United is an independent all-volunteer collective of public schools parents making sure the District's budget puts kids and classrooms FIRST.

Philly of course · http://www.thenotebook.org/blogs/helen-gym  

Diane Ravitch

@DianeRavitch

I write about education. I blog at Bridging Differences at Education Week.

Brooklyn · http://dianeravitch.com

 

Target supports Schools

Support J.S. Jenks via Target on Facebook.  If you haven't voted yet, time is running out. 

Please go to Facebook and search "Give With Target." 

You'll have to enter Jenks for the school and 19118 for our zip code.  We only have 200 votes.  For every 25 votes we get a $25 gift card!  Target will continue to donate to schools up to $2.5 million.  They are already donating $2.4. 

You can vote once a week.

Local Parent's Comment to a NY Times Op Ed

Rebecca Poyourow's letter is all over Twitter so I wanted to keep it circulating. Rebecca is an extraordinary parent activist and we are lucky to have her passion in Philly.

http://dianeravitch.net/2012/08/19/a-parents-letter-to-frank-bruni-of-the-new-york-times/

The Op Ed is linked here
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/19/opinion/sunday/bruni-teachers-on-the-defensive.html?_r=1&ref=frankbruni