Business woman LYDIA DOBYNS is president of NEW TECH NETWORK a progressive organization in California working across the country on implementing Project Based Learning (PBL). I am not quite sure if Dobyns has ever taught in the classroom. New Tech Network is working along side others progressive companies and educators in hopes of radically changing our education system as we know it. Ms. Doybys states the following in her bio “New Tech is emerging as one of the fastest-growing approaches to transforming high school education in the U.S”. Sound familiar? Sadly So!
Manor New Technology High School outside of Austin, Texas welcomed his truly President Obama in early May. Ms. Dobyns must of flown in for this heart felt moment and later wrote about it in the Huffington Post. WAKE UP TEXAS PARENTS, TAXPAYERS!!! Do you want your Texas School System TRANSFORMED?
Lydia Dobyns
No one loves a happy ending more than me. Today was a personal once-in-a-lifetime movie moment: I welcomed President Obama to Manor New Technology High School. Before the president spent 45 minutes with students showing off Project Based Learning, I got to engage in a conversation with him about the kind of innovation taking place in 100+ public school districts across New Tech Network.
It was no accident that Manor was selected for its transformative educational methods and focus on Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM). The faculty and founding principal Steve Zipkes epitomize the persistence, vision and creativity needed to re-imagine a high school that truly prepares learners to be the innovators of tomorrow. They did not achieve this remarkable success on their own or overnight.
At New Tech schools, we have found a way to close the achievement gap regardless of whether students reside in urban, suburban, rural or underserved areas. Our 2013 Student Outcomes Report offers compelling evidence that the vision we have to transform schools within public school districts is being realized.
The President said about Manor New Tech, “Every day this school is proving that every child has the potential to learn the real-world skills they need to succeed in college and beyond. You’re doing things a little differently around here than a lot of high schools, and it’s working.” He went on to say: “We also have to make sure we help every student get the skills like they do here at Manor New Tech to compete in a high tech economy.”
Back to my fervent hope for a happy ending. The President today called again for support for the $300 Million High School Redesign he proposed in the State of the Union speech. He also reiterated that he wants to see universal access to quality public pre-school and to make college more affordable. For my happy ending to come true, three things have to happen. Congress and the White House have to agree on the best ways to invest in education innovation. State policy-makers and the business communities around this country have to come together to provide financial and material support in K-12 education innovation. And school district leaders need to move from asking, “should we innovate?” to “how do we find the funds to invest in innovation”? Should all three of these things happen, I will get my wish. And children everywhere will be able to experience the kind of education that enables them to thrive in ways we can’t even imagine.
As President Obama said today, “Every young person in America deserves a world-class education.”
I wholeheartedly agree. Let’s do this and do it now.
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The following is an except from the 2012 TASA/TASB Convention program. You will see that TASA and TASB are working along side other progressive organization on implementing their radical progressive Agenda through ‘ Visioning Network”. I have highlighted some of the “buzz words”.
The Obama is working deligently to transform the political landscape of America and they are doing it though our Education System as you will see in the Article below
May 9, 2013 Bloomberg
Obama Austin Tech Tour Raises Democrat Profile in Texas
President Barack Obama urged lawmakers to approve more federal spending for technology education, training and jobs, holding up the Austin, Texas, area’s economic boom as an example for the rest of the country.
The Texas visit today was one of a series of events across the country that the administration says are meant to build pressure on Congress to adopt economic ideas laid out in Obama’s State of the Union address this year.
“We’re poised for a time of progress, if we’re willing to seize it,” Obama said in an address to executives and workers at Applied Materials Inc. (AMAT), which makes products for the semiconductor, display panel and solar industries worldwide.
Obama met with students, local residents, investors and entrepreneurs as he made his way across the city. He announced competitions for three manufacturing innovation centers and an executive order requiring government data to be released in a form that entrepreneurs and researchers can use to generate applications and new services.
Obama blamed political posturing in Congress for blocking his proposals, which he said would foster research that benefits technology companies and help train workers for those industries.
Sending Message
Obama told company workers that when they talk to their elected officials, “You’ve got to remind them, we don’t want government to do everything for us but it’s got a role to play” on infrastructure and research funding.
Addressing a group of “angel investors” during an earlier stop at an incubator for technology startups, Obama said government can play a “beneficial” role in helping the private sector spur job creation.
He said he was concerned about the impact of the automatic, across-the-board federal spending cuts known as sequestration. The cuts are “effectively freezing basic research” spending over the next one to two years.
“We could end up losing our edge” to economic competitors in Asia, he said.
Obama said Austin is an example of the kind of cooperation between government and business that can foster innovation.
Austin Economy
The metropolitan area centered by the state capital, which has about 820,600 residents, had a March jobless rate of 5.3 percent, compared with 7.6 percent nationwide. Computer manufacturer Dell Inc. (DELL) is based in nearby Round Rock, and Apple Inc. (AAPL) has announced plans to double the size of its 3,500-employee customer-support center in Austin over the next decade.
“I’ve come to listen and learn and highlight some of the good work that’s being done,” Obama said at Manor New Technology High School in the Austin suburb of East Manor, where he inspected solar and robotic projects developed by students. “Folks around here are doing something right.”
Education Secretary Arne Duncan in 2010 cited the school as boosting opportunities for low-income and minority youth. Of the school’s 341 students last year, 46 percent were economically disadvantaged, 48 percent were Latino, 25 percent were white and 21 percent were black, according to data provided by the school district.
TAXPAYERS & PARENTS WAKE UP AND GET INVOLVED
