Friday, April 29, 2005
Peter E. Pflaum & Mary Anne Watkins
225 Robinson Road
New Smyrna Beach , 32169
386 428 9609
pflaump@ucnsb.net
Tuesday, April 26, 2005
http://www.wiredbrain.com/ap.htm
Advanced Placement Teachers Organization (APTO)
To set up and then run the grants program
Local chapters - national organization - $25.00 membership fee - $15 for the local and $10 for the national - members have national certification as AP teachers - and work together to promote the program, scholarships and incentive grants. A journal with news of the AP program, a free web site for each local, and other benefits such as in other national associations.
RE: Using funds for High Impact: Smarting up vs. dumbing down
Thinking about how private, foundation or public funds could have the most impact on the American Society. The question as in business, return on investment (ROI), is how to get the most bangs for the bucks. This is not an easy question since there are an infinite number of options and ROI is hard to measure for social action.
My suggestion involves the Advanced Placement Program (AP) at the educational testing service (ETS). I can’t think of any investment that has a higher ROI than education from a personal or social point of view. Better educated and smarter people make a smarter and better culture in the short and long run. Human resources are the most important infrastructure for our economy, our national defense, our civil society and our general welfare and happiness as well as helping improve the whole world. (I am serious)
The founding fathers often stressed the point of a valid civic culture being required for a democratic society, it is not possible to be both ignorant and free. (A lesson in international relations)
The AP program is the most important and maybe the only important reform in American Education since Horace Mann who promoted the concept of "public" schools and the public school movement, the land grant program Morrill Acts of 1862 and 1890 and A&M colleges, the blackboard, the school bus, and the GIs sent to college after WWII. AP sets a new tone and encourages academic performance in an anti-intellectual sports driven secondary school system. The high school curriculum was set in the Carnegie Commission in the 1890’s, Harvard's Eliot "Committee of Ten, appointed in 1892 by the National Education Association" and then run by textbook publishers and teachers colleges and in general been dumbed down for decades.
Colleges now teach high school classes and remedial classes because the kids lack basic skills and knowledge when high school graduation does not assume basic literacy. The “No child left behind” is a useful stick but there needs to be more carrots. The school cultures need to change from just getting along with the lowest common dominator to true efforts at excellence. The example of Bronx Science is how a high quality program can make a major contribution to our civilization, not to mention Philips Academy , Horace Mann, Hunter College , etc.
First, teachers of these classes should first and foremost pass the exams in their subjects at the 5 level. They should have 18 hours of college level work at 3.0 or better in the subject. They should get a nice supplement of 10% or more of their base salary. There is a critical shortage of math and science teachers who should get extra supplements. Since the teacher’s union will not allow this an external gift becomes necessary. The grant or gift could be tax free as a grant and tied to the number of AP classes taught and the number of student who actually pass the subject. http://nces.ed.gov/
Of the roughly 15 million high school students only 6.5% are candidates for AP or a million in 50,000 classes with about an limit of 50,000 AP teachers – with a supplement or grant of $5,000 per class or teacher who qualifies (has passed the exam themselves, where 75% of their students get 3 or better, and have 18hrs in their subject) is $250 million, not an impossible number.
Setting up APTO (Advanced Placement Teachers Organization) apto.org a non-profit to promote than run the grant program -
Strategy:
Crystallizing Public Opinion by Edward L. Bernays one of the founders of Public Relations and Advertising learned from his uncle Freud that the purely rational approach needed a hook or emotional catch to motivate people to action. If we just say this is a good idea and take the traditional academic approach maybe we get a pilot project or research grant. What we need is a movement or the appearance of a motivated organized group of true believers. In doing that there are professional experienced firms that know how to do what needs to be done, to get it moving, while most academics and educational administrators do not. The phonics movement has been at it for decades, with 1000’s of projects, tons of research and has made some progress. There has to be a better way.
I suggest several million (Gates, Carnegie, Ford The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation the usual suspects) for a public campaign to improve our economic competitiveness, our national security, and our social, political and cultural civilization. Most of the students in hard sciences graduate and undergraduate are foreigners and Orientals or both. While there is unemployment business has to recruit foreigners to fill critical technical and scientific jobs. These are emotional and political hooks that appeal across the conservative – liberal divide. The fact that quality education is elitist based on the fact that some students are better at hard academic subjects than others, some are more motivated and these students tend to come from families and communities with a tradition of professionalism. There are a few Booker T. Washington was born into slavery or George Washington Carver was born on a Missouri farm or Justice Thomas from the Pinpoint community, near Savannah, Georgia and much should be done to find and encourage talent from deprived communities, these exceptional individuals will be a minority of outstanding students. We need a lot more of Jaime Escalante, an immigrant from Bolivia who is now 75, gained fame through the 1988 movie ''Stand and Deliver.''
As party of an organized campaign leading school superintends, great city schools, leading states and dynamic individuals should be identified for demonstration projects. They have to get agreement or bypass the NEA’s AFT’s objections to free labor markets, merit pay and radical reform in general. By making the incentive a grant or tax free gift it does not involve contract negotiations. Leading teachers are invited to summer workshops in pairs as used in the NSF National Defense education program after sputnik. Having the right kind of opposition can be a positive –
Small central management (me) around $100,000 including expenses
P.R. contract for a few million to top firm or firms (they need to develop their own proposals)
Demonstration contracts for a few million to high profile schools -
National and regional meeting of critical actors in association with the Governors and State legislative conferences, committee members and staff in congress, media events, paid academics for papers and reports, think tanks – both left and right – talk radio – NPR and PPS – ETS – etc. etc…
info@cypressmedia.net editor@prwatch.org newsmush@causecommunications.com toso@causecommunications.com
info@reveilleltd.com madeline.baggett@ed.gov hsalliance@iel.org staff@heritage.org
office-secretary@fordfound.org edinfo@gatesfoundation.org info@gatesfoundation.org
Karl Rove & the Spectre of Freud's Nephew
February 4th 2005
“The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society. Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country… We are governed, our minds molded, our tastes formed, our ideas suggested, largely by men we have never heard of. This is a logical result of the way in which our democratic society is organized…”
So opens Propaganda (1928), one of several strikingly frank analyses of western social psychology written by Edward Bernays. This nephew of Sigmund Freud founded the public relations industry in the United States .
http://www.americanidealism.com/articles/karl-rove-and-the-spectre-of-freuds-nephew.html
http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=17791
Teachers Unions: Merit Pay is "Crazy"
225 Robinson Road
New Smyrna Beach , 32169
386 428 9609
pflaump@ucnsb.net
Tuesday, April 26, 2005
http://www.wiredbrain.com/ap.htm
Advanced Placement Teachers Organization (APTO)
To set up and then run the grants program
Local chapters - national organization - $25.00 membership fee - $15 for the local and $10 for the national - members have national certification as AP teachers - and work together to promote the program, scholarships and incentive grants. A journal with news of the AP program, a free web site for each local, and other benefits such as in other national associations.
RE: Using funds for High Impact: Smarting up vs. dumbing down
Thinking about how private, foundation or public funds could have the most impact on the American Society. The question as in business, return on investment (ROI), is how to get the most bangs for the bucks. This is not an easy question since there are an infinite number of options and ROI is hard to measure for social action.
My suggestion involves the Advanced Placement Program (AP) at the educational testing service (ETS). I can’t think of any investment that has a higher ROI than education from a personal or social point of view. Better educated and smarter people make a smarter and better culture in the short and long run. Human resources are the most important infrastructure for our economy, our national defense, our civil society and our general welfare and happiness as well as helping improve the whole world. (I am serious)
The founding fathers often stressed the point of a valid civic culture being required for a democratic society, it is not possible to be both ignorant and free. (A lesson in international relations)
The AP program is the most important and maybe the only important reform in American Education since Horace Mann who promoted the concept of "public" schools and the public school movement, the land grant program Morrill Acts of 1862 and 1890 and A&M colleges, the blackboard, the school bus, and the GIs sent to college after WWII. AP sets a new tone and encourages academic performance in an anti-intellectual sports driven secondary school system. The high school curriculum was set in the Carnegie Commission in the 1890’s, Harvard's Eliot "Committee of Ten, appointed in 1892 by the National Education Association" and then run by textbook publishers and teachers colleges and in general been dumbed down for decades.
Colleges now teach high school classes and remedial classes because the kids lack basic skills and knowledge when high school graduation does not assume basic literacy. The “No child left behind” is a useful stick but there needs to be more carrots. The school cultures need to change from just getting along with the lowest common dominator to true efforts at excellence. The example of Bronx Science is how a high quality program can make a major contribution to our civilization, not to mention Philips Academy , Horace Mann, Hunter College , etc.
First, teachers of these classes should first and foremost pass the exams in their subjects at the 5 level. They should have 18 hours of college level work at 3.0 or better in the subject. They should get a nice supplement of 10% or more of their base salary. There is a critical shortage of math and science teachers who should get extra supplements. Since the teacher’s union will not allow this an external gift becomes necessary. The grant or gift could be tax free as a grant and tied to the number of AP classes taught and the number of student who actually pass the subject. http://nces.ed.gov/
Of the roughly 15 million high school students only 6.5% are candidates for AP or a million in 50,000 classes with about an limit of 50,000 AP teachers – with a supplement or grant of $5,000 per class or teacher who qualifies (has passed the exam themselves, where 75% of their students get 3 or better, and have 18hrs in their subject) is $250 million, not an impossible number.
Setting up APTO (Advanced Placement Teachers Organization) apto.org a non-profit to promote than run the grant program -
Strategy:
Crystallizing Public Opinion by Edward L. Bernays one of the founders of Public Relations and Advertising learned from his uncle Freud that the purely rational approach needed a hook or emotional catch to motivate people to action. If we just say this is a good idea and take the traditional academic approach maybe we get a pilot project or research grant. What we need is a movement or the appearance of a motivated organized group of true believers. In doing that there are professional experienced firms that know how to do what needs to be done, to get it moving, while most academics and educational administrators do not. The phonics movement has been at it for decades, with 1000’s of projects, tons of research and has made some progress. There has to be a better way.
I suggest several million (Gates, Carnegie, Ford The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation the usual suspects) for a public campaign to improve our economic competitiveness, our national security, and our social, political and cultural civilization. Most of the students in hard sciences graduate and undergraduate are foreigners and Orientals or both. While there is unemployment business has to recruit foreigners to fill critical technical and scientific jobs. These are emotional and political hooks that appeal across the conservative – liberal divide. The fact that quality education is elitist based on the fact that some students are better at hard academic subjects than others, some are more motivated and these students tend to come from families and communities with a tradition of professionalism. There are a few Booker T. Washington was born into slavery or George Washington Carver was born on a Missouri farm or Justice Thomas from the Pinpoint community, near Savannah, Georgia and much should be done to find and encourage talent from deprived communities, these exceptional individuals will be a minority of outstanding students. We need a lot more of Jaime Escalante, an immigrant from Bolivia who is now 75, gained fame through the 1988 movie ''Stand and Deliver.''
As party of an organized campaign leading school superintends, great city schools, leading states and dynamic individuals should be identified for demonstration projects. They have to get agreement or bypass the NEA’s AFT’s objections to free labor markets, merit pay and radical reform in general. By making the incentive a grant or tax free gift it does not involve contract negotiations. Leading teachers are invited to summer workshops in pairs as used in the NSF National Defense education program after sputnik. Having the right kind of opposition can be a positive –
Small central management (me) around $100,000 including expenses
P.R. contract for a few million to top firm or firms (they need to develop their own proposals)
Demonstration contracts for a few million to high profile schools -
National and regional meeting of critical actors in association with the Governors and State legislative conferences, committee members and staff in congress, media events, paid academics for papers and reports, think tanks – both left and right – talk radio – NPR and PPS – ETS – etc. etc…
info@cypressmedia.net editor@prwatch.org newsmush@causecommunications.com toso@causecommunications.com
info@reveilleltd.com madeline.baggett@ed.gov hsalliance@iel.org staff@heritage.org
office-secretary@fordfound.org edinfo@gatesfoundation.org info@gatesfoundation.org
Karl Rove & the Spectre of Freud's Nephew
February 4th 2005
“The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society. Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country… We are governed, our minds molded, our tastes formed, our ideas suggested, largely by men we have never heard of. This is a logical result of the way in which our democratic society is organized…”
So opens Propaganda (1928), one of several strikingly frank analyses of western social psychology written by Edward Bernays. This nephew of Sigmund Freud founded the public relations industry in the United States .
http://www.americanidealism.com/articles/karl-rove-and-the-spectre-of-freuds-nephew.html
http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=17791
Teachers Unions: Merit Pay is "Crazy"
