"El Milagro" Weblog

One of my teachers said: ”When you first came here you were all about kids. lately, it seems that all you talk about is test scores.” Sometimes we have to have someone else hold up the mirror for us. In the climate of NCLB, it is so easy to Read More...

( NOTE: As the Annual Yearly Progress (AYP) goals continue to accelerate, more and more US schools will be categorized by the pejorative brand: “Program Improvement School”. NCLB’s kiss of death. By 2014 as many as 90% of America’s schools could be categorized Read More...

(NOTE: As the Annual Yearly Progress (AYP) goals continue to accelerate, more and more US schools will be categorized by the pejorative brand: “Program Improvement School”. NCLB’s kiss of death. By 2014 as many as 90% of America’s schools could be categorized Read More...

(NOTE: As the Annual Yearly Progress (AYP) goals continue to accelerate, more and more US schools will be categorized by the pejorative brand: “Program Improvement School”. NCLB’s kiss of death. By 2014 as many as 90% of America’s schools could be categorized Read More...

I stood in line four times last week and each time I wondered why. Four times. Once in the morning when the line from Apple wrapped around the corner of Fashion Valley, past a jewelry store that no doubt appreciated the new IPhone roll-out, and all the Read More...

My daughter stood in the very tracks of Claude Monet on the outskirts of Paris. She took one look at the famous lily pond and declared that if she lived here– she would paint too. Do you get it? My Kira, high school graduate from 21st Century, suburban Read More...

(NOTE: As the Annual Yearly Progress (AYP) goals continue to accelerate, more and more US schools will be categorized by the pejorative brand: “Program Improvement School”. NCLB’s kiss of death. By 2014 as many as 90% of America’s schools could be categorized Read More...

As the Annual Yearly Progress (AYP) goals continue to accelerate, more and more US schools will be categorized by the pejorative brand: “Program Improvement School”. NCLB’s kiss of death. By 2014 as many as 90% of America’s schools could be categorized as underperforming “Program Improvement” schools. Perhaps it provides a handy label for politicians to rail on public education in general… but inside our schools, where we know our children’s names and faces, it is a different story. This is the FIRST POST IN A SERIES as Mueller Charter School awaits its test results from the 2007-08 school year. It is called BOX SCORE and it can be viewed on my blog (which I haven't figured out how to conect here!): http://kriley19.wordpress.com/

I started reading the publication “Fast Company” when my wife brought it home from a business trip 7 or 8 years ago. She is an executive at Intuit (Quick Books, Turbo Tax, Quicken, etc.) and someone gave her a copy because Intuit was featured in an article that particular month. ”Fast Company” refers to organizations that are agile– that are quick to adjust to new and ever-shifting market realities. These places change and thrive and grow and make their employees and customers and communities better. They are FAST. Like Intuit. And you have to hustle if you want to stay up with them. So I decided I wanted to stay up with them. I decided it would be good for a modestly performing charter school in Chula Vista, California to aspire to be “fast”. So now I read “Fast Company” and learn about organizational development through their consistent themes of innovation, change, community building, collaboration and leadership (http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/archives/2008). There are more similarities than differences between a non-profit, public, charter school and a behemoth for-profit software developer. At least when it comes to organizational excellence. Somewhere I gathered this list of “25 Insights on Leadership” and stored it for an occasion just such as this. Whether you are the principal of a charter school, or the CEO of a company that makes jet ski engines, or the Captain of a US Navy ship, or the director of a health clinic, or the president of your senior class, or a battalion chief out preventing Big Sur from burning to the ground, or the king of some obscenely wealthy oil kingdom… you can learn from the collective wisdom contained in these… 25 LEADERSHIP INSIGHTS FROM FAST COMPANY. To see all 25 Insights go to my blog at http://kriley19.wordpress.com/ and leave a comment!!!

I started reading the publication “Fast Company” when my wife brought it home from a business trip 7 or 8 years ago. She is an executive at Intuit ( Quick Books, Turbo Tax, Quicken , etc.) and someone gave her a copy because Intuit was featured Read More...

OK... I give up!!! I'm stressed. I'm bummed. It is the fourth of July and I have the most appropriate Fourth of July post but I can't get it to work here. It is about authentic patriotism and Patrick Tillman and what educators can learn from him about "intrinsic motivation." I don't know if i can do this... but if you are interested in reading my Fourth of July blog called "Patriot in Cardinal Red" please go to my blog at http://kriley19.wordpress.com/. Let me know what you think.

It’s the Fourth of July and while so many otherwise respectable people are arguing over whether a $2 flag pin shoved awkwardly into the thin *** panel of a Tommy Bahama shirt before the barbecue is really an act of patriotism… I wanted to Read More...

I thought Las Vegas was crazy, but it is nothing compared to the French Quarter in New Orleans. Now granted, there are a lot more people in Vegas and you could fit the entire French Quarter in the lobby of one of the mega-casinos on the Strip… but you cannot deny the authenticity and music and culture of Bourbon Street. I returned home last week from the 8th Annual National Charter Schools Conference that was held in NOLA. While I was there, I learned some stuff about the Voodoo Queen, and Preservation Hall, and Cajun cooking, and an historic old city that has slowly risen from the destruction of Katrina. I noticed that the local people talked about Katrina everywhere and I wondered if they are aware of how deeply scarred some of their neighbors are. I overheard a young waitress tell a co-worker that she still feels traumatized and that she thinks she needs therapy. Her co-worker just laughed at her. ”Try spending three nights on a bridge like I did.” I think they both need therapy and they are not alone. Virtually every article in the local section of the Times-Picayune this morning mentioned Katrina at some point: like the story about the lady who is suing a couple in Texas because they rescued her dog “Jazz” and now they don’t want to give her back. During the crisis the Texas couple wanted to help so they agreed to be foster parents to displaced animals. They took in Jazz, renamed her “Hope” and then got real attached to her. Meanwhile, her original owner dried out the house, recovered what possessions she could and then started to look for Jazz. She never gave up hope that she would find Jazz and bring her home. The truth is Jazz probably doesn’t care what her name is or where she lives as long as it is with these humans that will go to extraordinary lengths to love her. And as long as the floodwaters don’t carry her away again. There is probably a metaphor in there somewhere to apply to the National Charter Schools Conference. Or maybe not. Maybe it’s enough to just say we can learn something, every day, about resiliency and post-traumatic stress disorder and how these events outside of school profoundly affect children. And maybe we should listen to our kids when they tell us that they are in crisis and that they hurt inside and they don’t even know why. ”After all,” the waitress said, “that damn flood happened three years ago!” And maybe when our dog floats away we should just go find her. In looking for Jazz…we might find Hope.

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