September has been a month filled with events. With back to school for many of our nation’s students and a variety of holiday celebrations, this month has been filled to capacity. However, this month ends with a holiday that--during this season and in this climate-- needs to be celebrated because of its focus on the building of communities and the strengthening of bonds between individual citizens. This is none other than National Good Neighbor Day, and on September 28, 2020, we pause to celebrate and hopefully participate in this holiday. A Brief History of Good Neighbor Day National Good Neighbor Day...

We can take your business to the next level What is International Literacy Day?  International Literacy Day is an international holiday celebrated each year on September 8. This holiday was conceived in 1966 by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). This holiday’s founding premise is to bring awareness to the challenges of literacy and allow for local community ownership and activism in the eradication of illiteracy.    MS Community Supports International Literacy Day Local citizens in a small town in northeast Mississippi, are also working to support International Literacy Day and to improve literacy within their community throughout the year.   The Okolona Book Nook Project has existed for roughly 40 years and is currently spear-headed by Barbara Carouthers, the local bookmobile librarian who is a graduate...

Back to School The return to school for the 2020-21 school year has not been business as usual for educators around the nation.  Gone are the days of cheerful conversations, spirited welcome back rallies, and keynote addresses provided by district superintendents. This year’s return for educators is unprecedented and extremely stressful for all parties involved in the decision-making process.  As the news updates pour in regarding COVID-19 and as mandates are being established by the day or hour, public school leaders find themselves pondering many difficult questions. However, educating students is essential, and these leaders are working long days and...

The year 2020 has forced many Americans to reflect on equity in our country especially as it relates to law enforcement. Current times can easily be compared with the Civil Rights Movement, which began in the 1940s and continued into the 1960s. The unrest of that time culminated with then President Johnson signing into law the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Fast forward fifty-six years and the cries of the people can be heard yet again. This time the outcry concerns the treatment of minorities as it relates to law enforcement officers. The senseless killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Minnesota...

Welcome to online learning… Discussion board posts due in multiple classes; Paper packets filled with work from multiple teachers; No physical interaction with peers; No teacher physically present to assist or clarify misconceptions; “Are we using Zoom or Google Meets for this lesson today?” This is learning now. This has become the new normal. A Bright Screen The only tangible resource for learning this spring that students have had access to---in equitable situations---has been a lonely electronic device with a bright screen that details how caught up or far behind they have been in all classes. This was online learning...

PPS  authored a chapter in the 2019 book, The Ripple Effect in Action: What 7 Parent Leadership Programs Learned from Participatory Evaluation. The project was coordinated by New York University’s Metropolitan Center for Research on Equity and the Transformation of Schools.   Methods A team of Parents for Public Schools parent leaders and staff joined with parent leadership organizations nationwide to form the Parent Leadership Evaluation Network (PLEN). PLEN members received extensive training and coaching from Dialogues in Action in a participatory, qualitative evaluation process designed to elicit evidence of transformative impacts. Evaluation questions included: What kind and quality of...