Franklin Schargel’s Blog

I am delighted to announce the publication of my latest book, Schools Where Teachers Lead:  What Successful Schools Do.  The book will be published on January 23, 2011.  John Bell took the lead in this book and it is the third book in the series of three.  The first dealt with leadership; the second with school culture.  Go to the “books” section on top of the home page for more information and for some excerpts from the book.

Develop shared leadership and teacher leadership in your school with the
real-world, on-the-job ideas in this book. Principals and other leaders will
embrace the practical Lead Now and Do Now strategies as they improve their
own skills and promote shared leadership among their staff.

Shared leadership is a process in which multiple staff members lead the
learning within a school. With the knowledge that instructional leadership
is the primary engine behind teacher effectiveness, the authors demonstrate
how to support classroom practices that raise student achievement.

Contents include:
-The Foundation: Instructional Leadership -Developing Shared Leadership
-Leadership: Does Anyone Ask the Teachers?
-Sharing the Leadership with Teachers ““ Can You Get There?

When educators work together to improve instruction, they make a notable
difference in the lives of students. This book offers strategies for
incorporating shared instructional leadership into the structure of your
school.

Readers of my new book, 162 Keys to School Success know how impressed I am with the Khan Academy.  Students who are ill, or schools unable to offer Advanced Placement classes, or students who do not understand math or science lessons can access this free website.  For those of you who do not know about the Khan Academy https://www khanacademy.org,

Salman Khan is the only teacher and is by any measure the most popular educational site on the web with Khan’s playlist of over 1.800 tutorials (at last count) are now seen an average of 70,000 times a day — nearly double the student body at Harvard and Stanford combined. Since he began his tutorials in late 2006, Khan Academy has delivered 33,655,609 lessons worldwide. Most page views come from the U.S., followed by Canada, England, Australia, and India. In any given month, Khan says, he’s reached about 200,000 students.

Khan is a Harvard MBA and former hedge fund manager.  Khan has developed 10- to 15-minute Khan Academy tutorials. These online lessons on math, science, and a range of other subjects that have made him a web sensation

His low-tech, conversational tutorials — Khan’s face never appears, and viewers see only his unadorned step-by-step doodles and diagrams on an electronic blackboard — are more than merely another example of viral media distributed at negligible cost to the universe. Khan Academy holds the promise of a virtual school: an educational transformation that de-emphasizes classrooms, campus and administrative infrastructure, and even brand-name instructors.

What’s remarkable about Khan Academy is that it’s free and prizes brevity. In less than 15 minutes Khan gets to the essence of the topics he’s carved out. Students don’t learn calculus in one session — the subject is divided into 191 parts, which doesn’t include 32 more in pre calculus. He covers an astonishing number of subjects. There are the core subjects in math — arithmetic, geometry, algebra, trigonometry, calculus, and statistics — and the de rigueur science offerings, like biology, chemistry, and physics. But Khan also gives lessons in Economics of a Cupcake Factory, the Napoleonic Wars, and the Alien Abduction Brain Teaser.

“Unless we change the law (No Child Left Behind) it’ll label every school in the country a failure” said Secretary of Education Arne Duncan.  “It doesn’t matter who I’m talking to – everybody has complaints about N.C.L.B.”

In spite of this many people in Washington do not believe that the law will be revised.  A previous attempt at a major revision failed in 2007.  No Child has been updated or reauthorized, several times.  But the incoming, more conservative and financially strapped Republican House of Representatives  are not enthusiastic about changing some of the more controversial provisions.  John Kline, a Minnesota Republican who will be the chairman of the House Education Committee stated, he was opposed to any additional funding for the Obama Administration’s Race for the Top Program. The administration has requested $1.35 billion to continue the program.

Readers of my book, 162 Keys to School Success, know that 46% of teachers leave the field of education within 5 years. Where will we get the teachers to replace those who leave?

How will get the funding to hire and train them?  Stay tuned – it should be an interesting battle!

An Associated Press-Stanford University study on education found that 68 percent of adults believe that parents deserve heavy blame for what’s wrong with the U.S. education system – more than school administrators, the government or teachers unions.  Only 35 percent of those surveyed agree that teachers deserve a great deal of blame.  Females were more likely to blame parents than men were. (72% to 61%.)  The women cited a lack of student discipline and low expectations for students as the problems.

That message did not reach Sharlonda Buckman, CEO of the Detroit Parent Network who told 400 Detroit parents, “Somebody needs to pay for this (low student performance).  Somebody needs to go to jail, and it shouldn’t be the kids.”

According to the Detroit News, 69 percent of fourth-graders scored below the basic level in math, and 77 percent of eighth graders scored below the basic level as well.

While parents are overwhelmed with the demands of work and raising children, many of the children entering schools have not been adequately prepared for school.  They have not been taught the letters in the alphabet or the numbers from 1-10.  While educators have a responsibility – it is a shared responsibility.  Expecting educators to do it all is insane.  Teachers cannot be held responsible to bring up children.  Nor can they be held responsible if parents do not monitor childrens’ TV watching, doing homework, teen pregnancy.

Be Successful with Dropout Interventions with Franklin Schargel

Early one morning, a mother went in to wake up her son. “Wake up, son. It’s time to go to school!”
“But why, Mom? I don’t want to go.”
“Give me two reasons why you don’t want to go.”
“Well, the kids hate me for one, and the teachers hate me, too!”
“Oh, that’s no reason not to go to school. Come on now and get ready.”
“Give me two reasons why I should go to school.”
“Well, for one, you’re 52-years-old. And for another, you’re the Principal!”
~ Teacher Planet

Dropout Prevention Resources from Franklin Schargel: https://schargel.com/books/

RAPSA Collabinars
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Dynamic, innovative, engaging
conversations for your professional development

Transitioning Students from At-Risk to At-Promise ““ What Educators Need to Know to Be Successful with Dropout Interventions

Facilitated by Franklin Schargel

Wednesday, January 19, 2011

11:00 a.m. ““ 12:00 p.m. (Pacific Time)

REGISTER TODAY!

The Dropout Crisis is a result of education policy failing to recognize the simple truth that students who  dropout don’t fit the model of students who are successful in traditional school.  Education policies that fail to provide alternative curriculum delivery, alternative pedagogies, and alternative assessments continue to adhere to Einstein’s admonition that the definition of crazy is continuing to do the same thing and expect different results.  Join one of RAPSA’s best received presenters, Franklin Schargel, as we discuss what educators and policy makers need to know to be successful with dropout interventions.

Franklin Schargel is the author of ten well-received books focused on successful strategies for dropout prevention and dropout recovery as well as many articles published in the leading educational journals and business magazines.

Franklin’s success in dramatically enhancing the learning process in his school, expanding parental involvement, increasing post-secondary school attendance and significantly lowering the students’ dropout rate, has been documented in multiple books, newspaper and magazine articles and internationally released videos. The strategies developed by the National Dropout Prevention Center at Clemson University in association with Mr. Schargel have been recognized by the United States Department of Education as “the most effective strategies to help solve our school dropout problem.”

Join Franklin and your colleagues from around the country in this RAPSA Collabinar to explore details of strategies critical to the success of dropout intervention:
·         How  alternative education programs can meet the needs of former dropouts
·         What curriculum delivery modifications serve the most at risk students
·         Why alternative schools need alternative assessments
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WHAT ARE RAPSA Collabinars?

RAPSA Collabinars are a unique way to share ideas and practices. The conversations will be moderated by the presenter and will be a chance to learn more about the concepts and ideas and to share them with your colleagues around the country.

Participate in these conversations as a team or individually.   Either way””you’re sure to leave the session with ideas that help spark your teaching and learning.

When the Collabinar is over and you still want to share ideas and practices, join us in the RAPSA Ning where the conversations will continue.

The best part?  All of these discussions are FREE!!  RAPSA provides these resources and more for your work with at-promise youth.

REGISTER TODAY

More than one quarter of middle and high school students say gangs and drugs are present in their schools according to a survey released by the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University.

Forty-six percent of the respondents report gangs at their public school.  Forty-seven percent of public school students said drugs are used, stored or sold at their school.

The annual survey was based on response from more than 2,000 students and 456 parents from across the country.

If the report is accurate, than parents and school officials need to take some pro-active measures to insure the safety of students who attend school.  According to the FBI’s “School Shooter Report” 161,000 students do not come to school because they are afraid.

The National Center for Educational Statistics released its latest report on High School Dropout and Completion Rates in December, 2010.  The title of the report is “Trends in High School Dropout and Completion Rates in the United States: 1972-2008.”

The figures used here by the show graduation and dropout rates by states.