Staying Informed

April 13, 2009 by MikeMcMahonAUSD
Filed under: Community Engagement 

As School Board members we need get constantly get better about staying informed about the public education issues and concerns. However, it is a challenge to find the time to keep with our own local issues. Below are 10 high leverage ways I use to stay inform. What are the most effective methods you use to stay informed?

Local Focus

  1. Local Newspapers – Following the news coverage of your Board meeting and Letters to the Editor is a good place to start to measure the pulse of our community.
  2. Local Blogs – An emerging trend is citizens who start a blog to cover local issues including local schools. For example in Alameda, we have five blogs that will post stories about the Alameda school district. Alameda even has a site (Alamedans.com ) where multiple blogs are tracked.
  3. Google Groups/Yahoo Groups – At school site level, numerous schools are using Yahoo Groups and Google groups as a form of communicate with parents. In addition, groups are started around areas of interest including special education, arts in the schools and issues like kindergarten enrollment practices. By posting comments on these sites, you take community engagement to a new level.
  4. PTA Council – By having someone from the Board attending the monthly PTA council, we can hear first hand some of issues facing our schools on a day to day basis.
  5. DELAC/Cultural Groups – Each community faces the challenges of language and its impact on parental involvement. Your District English Language Advisory Committee meetings are a good place to connect with this community.

State & Federal Focus

  1. FCMAT – FCMAT has a daily news aggregator about school district related news stories around the state.
  2. Rough Tumble – Rough & Tumble is a news aggregation service that tracks major news stories about politics, education, health care, energy and the economy around the state.
  3. Public Education Network – Public Education Network is a weekly newsletter that tracks public education stories for the country. You can subscribe to a weekly news blast via Email.
  4. Education Week – Education Week is news site devoted exclusively to public education. Online access to articles cost approximately $70 a year.
  5. Education Blogs – Teachers, administrators and parents maintain blogs about the public education experience. So if you have a particular area of interest within education like nutrition, the arts or parental involvement you can find individuals who are blogging about it. You can start your search here: Alltop Education .


 

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One Comment on Staying Informed

  1. TrainyBrainy » Blog Archive » Posts about Special Education as of April 13, 2009 on Mon, 13th Apr 2009 11:20 am

    2. [...] teaches special education in the South San Francisco Unified School District. You can explore Staying Informed – mikemcmahon.info 04/13/2009 As School Board members we need get constantly get better about [...]

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