An Open Letter to Mark Zuckerberg
May 15, 2012, by Joseph DiSalvo Business, Culture Comments (1)
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is making the rounds for his company’s IPO expected to to occur later this week. (Photo by Mathieu Thouvenin via Flickr)
Dear Mr. Zuckerberg: I humbly write to you today as one elected trustee of the Santa Clara County Board of Education. Yes, I know this is one extraordinary week in your life, and the time to read this blog is most likely very limited. However, I thought I would attempt to connect with you anyway. Please forgive the brazen request I’m about to make, but we need your generosity here and now.
A Simple List to Improve Public Education
May 08, 2012, by Joseph DiSalvo Politics, Culture Comments (2)
Last week, the New Schools Venture Fund-Aspen Institute Summit in Burlingame provided another example of the incredible work being done across this nation by educators, thinkers, academics and entrepreneurs. There is absolutely no doubt that if jaw-dropping increases in academic achievement can happen in Denver, New York and Houston, they can also happen here in the Valley of Hearts Delight, irrespective of income or the color of a child’s skin. The list of tenets that will help us reach the goal of SJ/SV2020 is actually embarrassing simple.
S.O.S.: Save Our Schools
May 01, 2012, by Joseph DiSalvo Politics, Business, Culture Comments (3)
SOS (…- - -…) is the commonly known Morse code distress symbol, not an acronym. That said, many think of “save our ship” or “save our souls when the term is used. During my tenure as a principal, school board member and SJI columnist, I have a different distress signal. If I could, I would tap out the code “Save Our Schools” every single hour of every day in all cities across Silicon Valley.
Tough Talk on No Child Left Behind
Apr 24, 2012, by Joseph DiSalvo Politics, Culture Comments (3)
At the National School Boards Association conference in Boston on Saturday, NSBA President Mary Broderick sent a tersely worded letter to President Obama urging him to work hand in hand with Congress to abandon the current “command-and-control” federal education oversight of the No Child Left Behind Act. Unfortunately, I have no hope that the NCLB/ Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) will be reauthorized during the 2012 election year, therefore no change in the law will occur.
Cristo Rey Offers New School Model
Apr 17, 2012, by Joseph DiSalvo Politics, Business, Culture Comments (2)
Recently, I was asked to take part in a community stakeholder interview for Cristo Rey High School in San Jose, which is currently going through a feasibility study. The landscape of public and private schools in Silicon Valley looks the same to many as it did in 1980. However, in reality, the new scene is vastly different and rapid change is occurring. One of these changes is a focus on corporate work-study programs.
How to Get America Back on Track
Apr 10, 2012, by Joseph DiSalvo Business, Culture Comments (5)
I tuned in to the Master’s golf tournament Sunday and was struck by the ExxonMobile commercials urging the country to work toward improving our declining global rank in math and science education. The narrator of one of the many commercial spots says, “Today we rank 25th in mathematics. There’s no medal for that. Let’s train more teachers. Let’s inspire our students. Let’s get America back on track.” Easy for ExxonMobile to say, but enormously difficult to do—particularly in California, where we are continuing to disinvest in education in apocalyptic ways.
Suspensions Fail Students, Trayvon Martin
Apr 03, 2012, by Joseph DiSalvo Politics, Culture Comments (15)
Trayvon Martin was a high school student killed in a shooting that many people across the country believe was unjustified and motivated by racism.
Trayvon Martin’s death on Feb. 26 in Sanford, Florida, is a tragedy of epic proportions. I strongly believe Trayvon would still be alive today and attending school in his Miami-Dade County high school if alternative suspension strategies had been the norm in his school district. Every school in every district should take this opportunity to reexamine disciplinary policies that are historically ineffective.
A Plan to Boost HS Graduation Rates
Mar 20, 2012, by Joseph DiSalvo Politics, Culture Comments (3)
California, we should be embarrassed. Our disinvestment in public education is taking its toll on our state based on new data. We find ourselves in a deepening crisis that screams out for a strategic plan to support a change in course. Approximately 100,000 students fail to graduate high school in this state every year, and more than 50 percent of these people are students of color. But there are strategies we can use to boost graduation rates.
Mercury News Sensationalizes Supe Pay
Mar 13, 2012, by Joseph DiSalvo Politics, Culture, Media Comments (8)
It is common practice for superintendents in counties with district budgets over $100 million dollars to receive well over $200,000 in salary. The position of superintendent is incredibly complex, especially under the current economic conditions. So, if I am at all responsible for the Santa Clara County school board’s negative grade in “Who’s Up & Down” in Sunday’s Internal Affairs column in the Mercury News, I am deeply sorry. But, my quote in reporter Sharon Noguchi’s article last Thursday, which detailed the salary for new county Superintendent Xavier De La Torre, was taken completely out of the context intended.
Standardized Tests Distort Rankings
Mar 06, 2012, by Joseph DiSalvo Politics, Culture Comments (0)
Last month, public education in this country continued to slip into the abyss. New York City became the epicenter of school reform and the second major U.S. city—Los Angeles Times published individual teacher scores last school year—to implement a public dissemination of individual teacher value-added scores. Value-added scores are a teacher’s rating predicated on the progress each of their elementary or middle school students makes on standardized tests in one school year.
Disclaimer: All views expressed on this site are solely the opinion of the individual writer.
Comment Policy: Please read our comment policy before posting.
© 2012 Virtual Valley Inc.
