Ethan Demme

Thoughts and Policy for Building a Better Pennsylvania

  • Education Reform
  • Parental Engagement
  • Public Policy
  • Lifelong Learning
  • Lancaster County

February 4, 2015

#FaceTheStrain: A New Report

#FaceTheStrain
#FaceTheStrain

Matthew Ladner, Senior Advisor, Foundation for Excellence in Education, has a new report entitled Turn And Face The Strain: Age Demographic Change And The Near Future of American Education. This report highlights a coming social policy crisis. By 2030, all Baby Boomers will have reached the retirement age of 65 and at the same time there will be a dramatic increase in the K-12 population.

This means that state funding will be even more limited as two large (and important groups) – elderly and k-12 -will be in need of state funds. Matthew Ladner writes that:

The Baby Boom generation is retiring and, at the same time, sending their grandchildren to school. State governments are not prepared to deal with either phenomenon, much less both.

The report goes on to talk about age dependency ratios.

“Economists use “age dependency ratios” as a measure of societal strain. The ratio adds people old enough to exit the workforce with those too young to have entered it, and divides the sum by the number of working age people. Young and elderly people depend upon public spending for education and health care, respectively. High total age dependency ratios lead to slower economic and tax revenue growth while creating higher demands for public health and education spending.

The Census Bureau projects age dependency ratios to increase in all 50 states. In 2010, the age dependency ratio of the United States stood at 59 people elderly or young for every 100 working age people. In 2030, the Census Bureau projects the cart to carry 76 people for every 100 pushing it. Some states will have much larger challenges than others.”

While this is a formidable challenge, the report is not without hope. Matthew Ladner discusses school choice as one option to help address the issues our country will face in the next 15 years. Under this heading of school choice, he lists:

  • Digital Blended Learning
  • Outcome-Based Funding
  • Charter Schools
  • Education Savings Accounts

These are, of course, just a few topics under the umbrella of school choice (which also includes private school, homeschool, and more!) Ladner identifies empowering parents as a priority, writing:
An obvious priority is customizing education in a way that empowers parents with a marketplace of education choices, allowing parents to pick the best options for their children. The resulting competition will improve results and incentivize cost savings”

In other words, #trustparents.

To read the whole report or to see the policy brief, click here.

So remember the words of the lyrical poet David Bowie,

Pretty soon now you’re gonna get a little older
Time may change me
But I can’t trace time

Filed Under: Education Reform Tagged With: demographics, education, parents

January 29, 2015

Embrace Awkward: How Awkward Online Parents Can Save the World

One of the talks I give is entitled “Embrace Awkward: How Awkward Online Parents can Save the World”. The main premise is that parents are very concerned about their kids living in an online world but don’t feel like they have the skills to teach kids how to be good digital citizens. The reality is that parents are not only the best qualified to teach digital citizenship they are the only ones who have the time to. Read below to see a description of the talk and some of the slides or check out my digital citizenship blog series over at the Demme Learning Blog.

Talk description

Facebook, bullies, and sexts, oh my! Talking with kids about using the internet is about as awkward as talking to them about the birds and the bees. Come learn why, when it comes to teaching digital citizenship to kids, parents matter more and can have a greater impact than peers or educators. Let’s make it easier for parents to be parents online and encourage them to embrace the awkwardness of teaching kids about the digital birds and bees. #EmbraceAwkward

Talk Slides

If you are interested in inviting me to speak on this or any of my other topics just email speaking@ethandemme.com

Filed Under: Parental Engagement Tagged With: digital citizenship, education, embrace awkward, home, parents

January 29, 2014

#beautyis The Power of Parents

#beautyis

If you haven’t seen it you should take a few minutes to watch the new mini documentary from Dove called “Selfie”

The campaign builds off of Dove’s ongoing conversation about what #beautyis. What jumped out to me in this movie was when they engaged the parents and had the moms work with their daughters to take selfies together.

The professional photographer, Michael Cook, gives a talk about beauty and says, “oftentimes mothers pass along their insecurities to their children.” She then brings in the parents saying “You’re mom can redefine beauty just like you can”.

At the end one mom says, “Since we’ve had this experience together I have realized that she (her daughter) is fine just the way she is.”

It is amazing the power parents have when it comes to communicating values, such as self image and beauty to their kids. This video is a reminder that involving parents in education can yield great results.


YouTube Link (8min)

Filed Under: Parental Engagement Tagged With: beauty, dove, parents

August 1, 2012

What Parents Search for in Edu Ipad Apps – Kindertown

Want actual date on what criteria parents use when searching for education apps? Well look no further Kindertown (the educational app store for parents) has opened up and shared data from over 120,000 recent searches. Head on over and see the results. A piece of data that jumped out to me showed that language and math apps are the most searched for although the market in that category is much more competitive.

Type as a Search Criteria

  • Language is the most popular subject (35%) followed by Math (34.2%)
  • Pre-Reading, Number Sense, Reading, and Geometry (which includes Shapes) are the most popular categories within those subjects.
  • Developers should refrain from assuming it’s a great idea to target the most popular areas. These are often (if not always) the most competitive app markets too.

 

Filed Under: Parental Engagement Tagged With: #edtech, app, data, education, ipad, iphone, kindertown, parents

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