Thanks for putting this together and thanks to K. Jarrett for sharing with his Twitter PLN. I will definitely be adding soon :)

I, too, say thank you, and I, too, got here via Kevin Jarrett's blog.

Hi Carol,
I found your wiki through Kevin Jarett's blog, too. I am a NYC GCT - '07 cohort. What an honor to be included in a select group of teachers speaking to Arne Duncan! I think that in order for education to change, we need to allow our students a voice. I plan to set up a blog for my students and have them answer the question: "If you could talk to Mr. Duncan, what would you like to say?" I will then link to the blog from here.
Thanks for setting up this wiki.

I've been trying to add some responses to the topics on the right, but still can't figure that out, so I"m going to put much info as comment.
I'm a senior staff member at an education advocacy group in San Antonio TX and I"m going to first drop in the overall institutional change framework we operate from. Because of the 2000 limit I'm going to do it in several sections.
Quality Schools Action Framework : IDRA’s Quality Schools Action Framework shows how we can strengthen public education for all students. The framework – or theory of change – is grounded in school reform research and practice. Developed by IDRA executive director Dr. María “Cuca” Robledo Montecel, it asserts that:Coalition-building and community capacity-building are critical, though often neglected, change strategies in improving graduation rates. One hundred percent graduation and preparation for sucess should be our goals for all children and the measure of our success. While critical for students who are at immediate risk of dropping out, discrete dropout prevention programs cannot change the systems that give rise to risk in the first place.
Definitions
Fair Funding – Availability of funds in a school district to support a quality educational program for all students.
Governance Efficacy – The capacity of administrative and supervisory personnel to deliver quality educational services to all students, along with the policymaking and pro-active support of a school board to hold on to every student.
Parent and Community Engagement – Creating partnerships based on respect and a shared goal of academic success and integrating parents and community members into the decisionmaking processes of the school.
Student Engagement – School environment and activities that value students and incorporate them into the learning process and other social activities within the school with academic achievement as a result.

(It left out the graphic) so to see the whole thing go to: http://www.idra.org/School_Holding_Power/Quality_Schools_Action_Framework/

Teaching Quality – The preparation of teachers and the placement of teachers in their fields of study. Teaching is informed by continual professional development. Also the practices that teachers use in the classroom to deliver comprehensible instruction that prepares all students to meet academic goals and ensures that no child is left behind or drops out of school.
Curriculum Quality and Access – The educational programs of study, materials and other learning resources such as technology and their accessibility to all students. Also relates to assessment and accountability – the school practices related to fair and unbiased assessment of students and degree that schools take responsibility for the academic success of all students.

At IDRA, I direct a Parent Information Resource Center for Texas. I'm especially conncerned about Family Leadership in Education. I would like the new ESEA regs to increase the parent involvement $$$ and also to support greater consultation and have districts document effective outreach to all families and engagement of families in all key aspects of the academic work of the schools. See my blog Parent Leadership in Education http://parentleadershipined.blogspot.com/

Key principles to consider in recommendations for funding parent involvement activities:
IDRA Family Leadership in Education – Principles

Principle 1: Families can be their children’s strongest advocates.

Principle 2: Families of different race, ethnicity, language and class are equally valuable.

Principle 3: Families care about their children’s education and are to be treated with respect, dignity and value.

Principle 4: Within families, many individuals play a role in the children’s education.

Principle 5: Family leadership is most powerful at improving education for all children when collective efforts create solutions for the common good.

Principle 6: Families, schools, and communities, when drawn together, become a strong, sustainable voice to protect the rights of all children.

My wishlist blog entry of Jan 2 http://parentleadershipined.blogspot.com/2009/01/wish-list-to-obama-for-public-education.html
It is based on our experience in supporting family leadership in education and also our view of institutional transformation.

VISTA-CHIPS (Volunteers in Service to America’s Children in Public Schools) Teachers for Family& Student Leadership working with schools, student leadership & parent leadership in education -- campus based but also community-organization connected.

Parents-in-Education (PIE-ChIPS) Outreach Workers
Tech-savvy promotoras (community outreach workers) with a dual school and community organizational base. Primary tasks: 1) to conduct home-visits, 2) identify and nurture emerging parent leaders & 3) identify & mobilize neighborhood and school feeder-pattern assets in support of the academic achievement of all students.

Community Technology Centers for Children in Public Schools (CTC/ ChIPS) Partnering Community Based Organizations, Public Schools, & Businesses into partnerships that support excellent neighborhood public schools for all children.

Community Technology Center - Community Technology Access Projects CTCs partner with existing public school computer labs and also provide new community center labs to facilitate and increase computer & internet use by the communities that have limited access to computers and the internet. These new CTCs would be staffed by the Parent-Leadership in Education outreach workers listed above.

MOre recommendation in the next comment

Barrios in Technology / Children in Public Schools
(BIT-ChIPS) Parent Leadership Project Providing technology in homes without computers and internet access – Multi-pronged project, managed out of new & improved Community Technology Centers, to identify computer presence in Title 1-school feeding- pattern neighborhoods, provide computers and fast internet access in homes, not just based on lack of technology but as a reciprocal offering to documented family leadership in education and support of student academic success in the home.

My organization, IDRA, was established over 35 years ago with a single educational change purpose: to inform the people of Texas that we had an inequitable and unjust system of funding our public schools. We have expanded beyond the original objectives but have kept the same vision: to make public schools work for all children.
With the new administration and congress we have an opportunity to take what we have learned about educational transformation, including what worked and what didn't work with NCLB, and accelerate the transformation of our schools without using punitive measures with students and supporting our best and brightest educators.
One NCLB issue that is important to us: disaggregation of student test scores and achievement levels. Schools must continue to be accountable for all students and present data clearly and transparently to the community.

I am recently retired after teaching English in high school and community college for 38 years. The current aim in American education seems to be "Educate all to the same level," although the level is not specified and the effort, though massive, is not succeeding.
I would like the aim to be "Educate all students to their greatest INDIVIDUAL potential." A colleague put it this way: Advance Individual Human Potential, or acronymically, AIHP.
In order to do this -- and it can be done -- with differing populations of students, American teachers need LESS government control in the form of regulation, oversight, and standardization of testing and curricula. Education is at the opposite end from the financial sector which needs more oversight and more regulation with enforcement.
American teachers, to work effectively with their students, need what this country is all about: Freedom to be and do their best. A little trust and independence would go a long way toward bringing about change we can believe in.

Hi Dixie - Wow - 38 years - those were the days... when students wanted to learn. "Educate all students to their greatest INDIVIDUAL potential." What a beautiful thing - whether it's music, art, or academics - everyone marches to a different beat of the drum - "mulitple intelligences". It's too bad the govenment doesn't see it the same way we do - instead they create programs that make us regress and work towards a goal we've always worked towards.