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PDK Prestige Membership honors the best of the best educators
Late in 2024, PDK International introduced its newest membership category: the PDK Prestige Membership. This complimentary membership is available to individuals who have been honored with an “of the year” award from any organization. The goal is to recognize those who exemplify PDK International’s core values of excellence and leadership, particularly those who may not have discovered PDK in a collegiate or professional setting.
From the CEO: Education priorities now and in the future
This edition of Kappan features an interview with former Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona. He gives an insider’s perspective about the national landscape of education as he experienced it during his time serving in the Joe Biden administration.
Listening to students: Rebuilding classroom culture in a post-COVID world
As we navigate the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, the importance of a positive classroom culture has never been more pronounced. The pandemic reshaped our educational landscape, highlighting the need for schools to foster environments where students feel valued, supported, and engaged. As an advocate for student-led assessment, I have written extensively about our understanding of how class culture and the grades intersect with student commitment to learning.
Engaging English learners in SEL
Q: One of the teachers I coach is teaching a social-emotional learning class that meets once per week. She’s using a canned curriculum she purchased; this is her first time in the classroom. Most of the class are English learners, but they have different language backgrounds and degrees of need. She worries about those new to the language and fears some lessons won’t transfer across language barriers. What can I do to support her?
Math, mindset, and identity
Back in the 1990s, Mattel released Teen Talk Barbie. Each doll was programmed to say four phrases, randomly selected from a list of 270. Alongside comments about shopping, clothes, friends, and pizza was the phrase “Math class is hard.” Controversy ensued. Critics believed that this statement fed into stereotypes that girls can’t do math. Mattel listened and removed the phrase from the possible selections for future versions of the doll. In the grand scheme of things, this may seem trivial.
Browsing: The math education students need
Bring on the games! That’s the message Alice P. Wakefield, an associate professor of early childhood education, shared with Kappan readers in her 1997 article on encouraging numeracy in the early grades. “Dice, cards, and board games offer perfect opportunities for children to practice adding small numbers together repeatedly without growing bored,” Wakefield notes.
Book recommendation: Troublemakers
Troublemakers: Lessons in Freedom from Young Children at School, written by former teacher Carla Shalaby, presents the stories of four young children who have been labeled by their teachers, parents, and schools as “troublemakers.” Shalaby shares poignant moments that highlight the wit, brilliance, and desire of each of these children to be seen and heard. She challenges our perceptions of what leads children to be viewed as willful, outspoken, or attention-seeking in the classroom.
Book Recommendation: Threshold Concepts
I have wide-ranging professional interests and curiosities. Each time I begin exploring a new academic area, I always return to Threshold Concepts within the Disciplines to help me make sense of the new intellectual terrain. The learning theory this book offers — the “threshold concept” — is straightforward: In each academic discipline, there exist ideas or concepts that serve as portals into the discipline.
How do we teach honesty in a dishonest world?
Given the struggles in our political world today, schools need to encourage students to become truth-seekers and truth-tellers. Honesty matters. Whenever citizens must work together to reach a decision or even just figure out how to live together, we engage in civic reasoning. To reason together well, we must seek and tell the truth. But in a world swirling with competing political groups shouting conflicting facts, citizens are left unsure of what is true.
How do we help students overcome the “I Can’ts”?
Q: I coach an art teacher who is struggling with students that have the “I suck at art” mentality. He says they aren’t motivated because they think they can’t do it. They only produce the bare minimum. What can he do to help them make more of an effort? Signed, Coach Who Knows Kids Can A: As an instructional coach, seeing students hindered by self-doubt can be disheartening, especially in a field that thrives on creativity and expression. The “I suck ” mentality is not uncommon in any subject.
No one-size-fits-all solution to chronic absenteeism
The sharp and sustained rise in chronic absenteeism among U.S. students is arguably the most striking and unanticipated challenge of our ongoing academic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. Many strategies are available to meet the challenge of improving school attendance. However, credible evidence on the impact of these approaches is uneven. Also, growing financial constraints limit the capacity of many schools to implement the often-costly reforms.
Why come to school?
We asked our Educators Rising students what motivates them to come to school each day, what they think keeps some students from coming to school, and how they’ll encourage students to come to school when they become teachers. Growing relationships What makes me come to school is the opportunity to socialize and seeing the teacher and student relationships that are being built. It’s always fascinating to see the connection grow.
Employing school librarians: What decision-makers tell us
For over a decade, school librarians have been gradually disappearing from K-12 schools. In 2009-10, the 50 states and the District of Columbia reported more than 52,500 full-time equivalents (FTEs) of school librarians; by 2022-23, those FTEs had dropped to just over 39,300 — a 25% decrease (National Center for Education Statistics, n.d.). By 2022-23, more than a third of local school districts reported having no school librarians.
Recommendation: Suddenly Diverse
Erica Turner’s Suddenly Diverse offers a compelling analysis of how school districts grapple with increasing racial and socioeconomic diversity. Through an ethnographic study of two Midwestern districts, Turner sheds light on the complex interplay among educational leadership, policy, and community dynamics.
Where are the teachers of color? Getting cut out and lured away.
We desperately need teachers of color. But throughout the U.S., we have not gotten them, despite decades of knowing this and making massive investments to attract them. Teachers have remained predominantly white, with the national average hovering around 80% as the percentage of students of color in our schools steadily rises.
Book recommendation: The Ignorant Schoolmaster
While reading The Ignorant Schoolmaster, I kept thinking: This is either the most brilliant or the most ridiculous book on education I’ve read. Rancière builds his argument on the experiences of Joseph Jacotot, a 19th-century French teacher who taught Dutch students French without knowing any Dutch himself. Jacotot discovered he could successfully teach French without being able to explain in Dutch anything about French grammar or literature.
FROM THE CEO: A future-focused fall
This fall has been exciting, with some national exposure for our Educators Rising program in Pennsylvania. Thanks are due to the Pennsylvania State Education Association, which has taken the lead to address the teacher shortage in the state by establishing more Grow Your Own programs in districts, using Educators Rising. A three-year $750,000 grant from the National Education Association is helping to establish new chapters across the commonwealth.
Educator wonders when and how to begin a leadership journey
Q: I absolutely love being in the classroom with my students, and I’ve been encouraged by my principal to consider a pathway into educational leadership. I don’t know where to start! What things should I be considering for a leadership pathway? How do I select an institution for a degree? Which degree should I get? How do I set myself up for success down the road? How do I not lose touch with who I am as an educator?
The network path to mastery learning
There is no clearer, more authentic assessment than a learner saying, “I can do this” or “I know this,” and proving it through actions. This original human system of engaging in and evaluating learning can transform today’s schools. Yet despite the simplicity of such mastery-based learning, adopting it remains a challenge to the time-bound competitive models embedded in our schools.
Taking HOMies from the classroom to the whole school
Demetrius Fuller developed the HOMies to promote a strong work ethic, curiosity, and risk-taking among his students at the Sokolowski Elementary School in Chelsea, Massachusetts. The Sokolowski School is an urban elementary school serving grades 1 through 4. Of its more than 500 students, 70% speak English as a second language, 90% qualify for free and reduced-price lunch, and 85% identify as Latinx.
FROM THE CEO: Supporting the education leaders of tomorrow, today
Back-to-school season was an exciting time for us at PDK International with the release of the 56th annual PDK Poll. As you no doubt saw in our September issue, Americans have expressed interest in several education initiatives that resonate across party lines. And one of those issues resonates with us a lot — the need to recruit and retain high-quality teachers in our schools. In 1969, our poll revealed that 75% of Americans would encourage their children to pursue a career in teaching.
Book recommendation: Meditations
Readers might be surprised to see a recommendation for a book by a Roman emperor, Marcus Aurelius, who lived almost 2,000 years ago. Aurelius’ Meditations are a series of personal writings that essentially captured this Stoic philosophers’ private thoughts. Despite the passage of time, his ideas still resonate for me in my life as an education professor. But what can a Roman emperor and Stoic philosopher offer an educator living in today’s vastly different world?
Book recommendation: Writing Without Teachers
My time in K-12 teaching and academia has honed my critical thinking, making me skeptical and evidence-driven. I passed this on to my students, coaching them to question, critique, and debate. In short, I coached them into a culture of doubt. Doubt is powerful and important; it inspires deep thinking, careful analysis, and passionate defense. However, the shortcoming of doubt is that it can stifle a willingness to welcome new ideas and perspectives and hinder social and intellectual empathy.
What do adults know about public education?
Understanding what the U.S. population thinks, experiences, and believes related to our education system is critical to supporting children. Adults’ beliefs about education inform politicians’ platforms; local, state, and federal elections; the development and passage of legislation; and district operating decisions. For the past four years, our research team at the University of Southern California has surveyed U.S. households about many education-related topics.
Connecting over cursive
A few days ago, some of my Facebook friends got into a conversation about the teaching of cursive in school. It’s a conversation that comes up periodically among my Facebook friends (and I suspect yours, too). Those of us old enough to have worked our way through multiple handwriting workbooks have a lot of opinions about what the possible demise of cursive says about our schools, our children, and ourselves.
Book Recommendation: Becoming - Kappan Online
Becoming, a memoir by Michelle Obama, is about much more than education. Yet more than five years after reading it, what stays with me still today are Michelle’s stories about her mother, Marian Robinson, and her relentless pursuit of a quality education for her daughter. Marian Robinson stands out as a testament to the power of parental involvement in education.
FROM THE CEO: New energy for a new year
There’s an energy I know families and educators alike feel about each new school year. This month, I’d like to capitalize upon this theme to bring you news about our organization. First, our staff and the PDK board have been involved in a monthslong strategic planning process. Thinking about what the future holds for our organization and the impact we can have always energizes me. This plan will be complete before year’s end, and we will have an updated set of core values and major goals.
What people should know about schools
We asked our Educators Rising members what they wish the public knew about schools. When discussing the challenges schools face, it’s easy to overlook a vital element: the role of families in a child’s education. Many people think it’s solely up to teachers and school staff, but education starts at home. From an early age, children learn essential skills and values from their families. Parents are their first teachers, instilling lessons in language, behavior, and social skills.
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