Updates and Information Provided by NEA
School Administrators In Two Maryland Districts Allow At-Risk Seniors To Take Graduation Exams Early.
The Washington Post (12/18, B1, Hernandez, De Vise) reports that the state of Maryland requires high school students “to complete four courses before taking the corresponding graduation exams. But new pressure to get seniors to graduate on time has driven administrators in Montgomery and Prince George’s counties to” allow schools to give “state tests to some at-risk seniors several months before they finish the classes and again, if necessary, to give them a better shot at getting a diploma.” According to the Post, “one of every six seniors statewide [are] in jeopardy of not graduating because they’ve failed or missed one or more of the tests.” On Wednesday, “Superintendent of Schools Nancy S. Grasmick made public a plan to allow some students to apply for a waiver to the testing requirement if they were not given enough chances for extra instructional help or if they face certain other hardships. The state Board of Education is expected to vote on the plan today.”
According to the Baltimore Sun (12/18, Bowie), At a meeting on Wednesday, state board members “requested some small changes” to Grasmick’s proposal. “Their intent is to give parents and guardians the greatest chance to state their cases in an appeal process that begins with the student’s principal.” They “agreed that the local superintendent and the state superintendent would be given a list of all students who met a set of criteria for the waiver.” If approved, “The process would begin in February when parents would be notified that their children have not met the graduation requirements. By May, the principals would give local superintendents a list of names of students who should receive the waiver. Shortly afterward, the local superintendent will make a decision. The student and their parents can appeal the decision to Grasmick.”
In the Classroom
Schools In Florida District See Increase In Family Assistance, Decrease In Donations This Year.
The St. Petersburg Times (12/18, Solochek) reports, “Every December, before students get out for winter break, Pasco schools try to give the neediest among them a little holiday joy by providing gifts and food through the Assist, Believe and Care program. This year…the need has grown while the donations have not.” For example, Sunray Elementary School has a record 45 families who have “requested help for the holidays.” And Cox Elementary in Dade City “has gotten about six or eight inquiries monthly for help paying home utilities, up from the more common one or two.” Principal Leila Mizer said that teachers lend support to help fill such inquires, and “the school has been fortunate to get help from schools in wealthier areas” and from community groups. “But some of the donations that have come in previous years have not appeared this year, Mizer noted.”
Digital Screens Seen As Replacing Chalk Boards.
The Austin (TX) American-Statesman (12/18, Banta) reports, “The old-fashioned classroom blackboard with its eraser dust and chalked lessons…is slowly giving way to digital screens.” The screens are about “49 inches tall by 66 inches wide and less than two inches thick,” and they “look like large computer screens. They can take students on virtual tours of foreign countries, explain math processes, present scientific concepts, and display how much each student has learned that day.” The boards can be “mounted on the walls of a classroom. Teachers use a battery-free, wireless pen to call up photos, numerals, animations and blocks of text for the students to see, hear and manipulate.” And students “can interact with information on the board in various ways, including answering questions with hand-held devices that resemble TV remotes.”
Students At Elementary Schools In Alabama, China “Adopt” Elephants From Kenya.
The Montgomery (AL) Advertiser (12/18) reports, “Students at Carver Elementary Magnet School have teamed with” Alabama State University’s Helping Elephants Live Project (HELP) “program to learn about elephant conservation.” HELP “is a wildlife conservation curriculum that focuses on the African elephant. … The curriculum consists of three 45-minute instructional sessions containing information about the African elephant and strategies to prevent its extinction.” Carver students, along with students from Xinghai Elementary School in China, adopted “two orphaned baby elephants at an elephant orphanage in Nairobi, Kenya. Both groups of students spent two months raising money for the elephants by contributing pennies — or yuan — in coin banks in their classrooms.” The students receive live “updates on the elephants” via a blog written by the “elephant caretaker in Kenya.”
On the Job
Tennessee DOE Launches Electronic Learning Center.
The Murfreesboro (TN) Post (12/18) reports, “The Tennessee Department of Education announced the launch of its electronic learning center (ELC) to give students, parents and educators access to learning and professional development resources anytime, anywhere.” The ELC will provide “access to more than 280 curriculum-based audio and video tracks developed by the Tennessee Department of Education.” Students are able to “access curriculum-based lessons in language arts, and study skills, with math to be added this month.” Teachers, meanwhile, “view training sessions on Tennessee’s new academic standards, School-wide Positive Behavior, reading and other teaching resources. Additional podcasts will be developed and added on an ongoing basis.” In addition, “the ELC has a dedicated site on iTunes U, an area of the iTunes site that provides free education content,” made possible “through a partnership with Apple, Inc. and the Tennessee Board of Regents.”
School Trustees In Texas District To Consider Extending Instruction Time At High Schools.
The Tyler (TX) Morning Telegraph (12/18, Middleton) reports that Tyler Independent School District (TISD) “high school students could be in for some changes in the future — from a possible extra 30 minutes added to their school day to a possible change in how they receive credit for courses.” Trustees will consider “modifying the high school block schedule and lengthening the school day by 30 minutes.” A modified block schedule is expected to “increase the amount of instructional time available for students and minimize single-section conflicts between advanced course offerings and fine arts and athletics. The proposed modified block schedule has a regular one-hour class at either end of the day, so instead of a four-period day, students will have five periods where the first and fifth hours are single one-hour classes that meet every day.” TISD trustees “will also discuss awarding high school credit by averaging together the two semesters of a course” on Thursday.
Virginia District Surveys Elementary Principals To Determine Teachers’ Planning Needs.
The Washington Post (12/18, LZ1, Birnbaum) reports that “Loudoun County (VA) elementary school teachers who feel overworked might soon have some official data to bolster their claims.” The School Board “is surveying the county’s elementary principals to see whether too many demands are being placed on teachers during the school day.” Personnel Services Committee Chairman Tom Marshall said, “The biggest complaint I’ve heard from elementary school teachers is that they don’t have any time to do any planning. … A lot of time that supposedly could be used for planning, is it being taken away by principals?” he asked. According to the Post, Loudoun “allows elementary teachers one class period a day, or about 40 minutes, for planning work.” Based on the results of the committee’s survey, “the School Board might set a policy on the need for teacher planning time during the school day. Or…central office staff members might try to address the issues on a case-by-case basis.”
Law & Policy
Most States Do Not Have Laws Regarding Use Of Seclusion Rooms In Schools.
On its website, CNN (12/18) reports that “seclusion rooms, sometimes called time-out rooms, are used across the nation, generally for special needs children. Critics say that…many mentally disabled and autistic children have been injured or traumatized” after spending time in seclusion rooms. “Seclusion is intended as a last resort when other attempts to calm a child have failed or when a student is hurting himself or others.” Although “24 states have written guidelines” regarding the use of time-out rooms, “few states have laws” on the matter, “according to a 2007 study conducted by a Clemson University researcher. Texas, which was included in that study, has stopped using seclusion and restraint. Georgia has just begun to draft guidelines.” In Michigan, “a child held in seclusion [must] have constant supervision from an instructor trained specifically in special education, and…confinement” must “not exceed 15 minutes.”
Indiana Lawmaker To Propose That State Education Board Establish School Air Quality Guidelines.
The Indianapolis Star (12/18, Evans) reports that Indiana’s Board of Education “would be required to establish guidelines for indoor and outdoor air quality at new or expanding school sites under legislation expected to be proposed for debate in the Statehouse next year.” Rep. John Barnes (D-Indianapolis) “said he was prompted to act after a recent Indianapolis Star report revealed potential air pollution problems near schools in Indiana and other states. The story noted no agency in Indiana tracks outdoor air quality at school sites.” Barnes’s proposal “requires officials to check water and indoor and outdoor air quality at school sites.”
Safety & Security
More Than 1,000 Serious Incidents Of Misconduct Reported At Philadelphia Schools In Two-Month Period.
The Philadelphia Inquirer (12/18, Graham) reports that according to Philadelphia school officials, “In the first two months of this school year, 1,048 serious incidents of student misconduct…were recorded inside city public schools.” Of the reported incidents, “11 involved cases where a gun was brought to school; 91 were for drug or alcohol offenses; 460 cases were for assaults on staff; [and] 486 involved incidents where students ganged up on other students.” Thirty-two of the students involved in such incidents “were withdrawn from the district before any action was taken. Of the total who remained, 32 percent were transferred to disciplinary schools,” and “Twenty-three percent were classified as having special needs, and a determination was being made whether a transfer to disciplinary school is appropriate.” Eight percent of the incidents “were handled by transferring kindergarten, first- and second-grade pupils laterally to other schools or keeping them in the same school.”
Facilities
Installation Of Air Conditioning Units In Baltimore County High Schools May Take Up To 10 Years.
Following a story reported yesterday in the Baltimore Sun regarding “the possible inclusion of air conditioning in” Baltimore County’s high school renovation program, the Baltimore Sun (12/18, Gencer) reports, “Installing air-conditioning systems in Baltimore County schools that lack them could take seven to 10 years at current funding levels,” according to the district’s executive director of physical facilities. He explained that an “engineering analysis and site surveys…to retrofit slightly more than half of the 171 school, center, and program buildings that do not have air conditioning” would be required prior to beginning the project.
Also in the News
USA Today Hails NCLB, Offers Other Education Reform Ideas.
The USA Today (12/18) editorializes that Don Shalvey, who runs Aspire, “one of the nation’s most successful charter school networks,” says he “needs inexpensive financing to launch high-quality schools.” US Secretary of Education-designate Arne Duncan “needs low-cost ideas to improve education in tough economic times. By guaranteeing Shalvey’s construction loans, the Education Department could lower his cost of borrowing a few percentage points and improve educational options” in South Central Los Angeles. USA Today also calls for the renewal of NCLB, as the law “has worked. States such as Massachusetts, which drew up the most rigorous standards and accountability, have gotten the biggest payoffs.” Though NCLB “does have flaws. … Fix what needs to be fixed, and move on.” Among other recommendations, USA Today also calls for extending “accountability to higher education. Bush’s Education secretary, Margaret Spellings, has been working to provide more information about graduation rates and how much students learn at various institutions. That’s not popular in academia, but with soaring tuition and fees, it makes sense.”
NCLB Viewed As Transforming Schools Into “Test-Prep Factories.” In an opposing view in USA Today (12/18), author Alfie Cohn writes, “Our children can’t take much more education ‘reform.’ Oddly, that word has come to signify a continuation, or intensification, of the current disastrous approach exemplified by [NCLB].” According to Cohn, “Our schools — and particularly those in the inner city — are being turned into test-prep factories. The last thing we need is more of the same.” Also, NCLB “has provided no new information about which schools need help, nor has it provided that help. Instead — in the name of ‘accountability’ — it has created pressure to ratchet up the least valuable forms of instruction.”
Florida Middle School Offers Service-Oriented Elective Class To Sixth Graders.
The St. Petersburg Times (12/19, Rader) reports on the new Think, Learn, and Serve elective class that is being “offered for a trial period” to “Sixth-grade students at Randall Middle School” in Lithia, FL. “Think, Learn and Serve, teaches critical thinking through service learning. The idea stemmed from sixth-grade teacher Kristi Verdi’s after-school service-learning council that started last year. Service learning integrates community service and learning with the goal of teaching civic responsibility.” According to the St. Petersburg Times, “If Verdi’s trial class draws enough interest, students may be able to take the class for the full second semester. There’s also the possibility that it could get a permanent spot as an elective for middle and high school students.”
In the Classroom
Program Shows Fifth-Graders In Alabama Link Between Basketball, Academics.
The Tuscaloosa (AL) News (12/19, Reeves) reports that on Wednesday, “2,400 fifth-graders from schools” throughout Tuscaloosa watched a University of Alabama (UA) women’s basketball game to observe the correlation between their classroom lessons and “the basketball court.” The event was “part of a program called ‘5th Grade Fastbreak — Educating Children Through Collegiate Athletics.’” In its second year, “5th Grade Fastbreak is a collaboration between the UA women’s basketball team, UA’s Alabama Consortium for Educational Renewal and Tuscaloosa city and county schools. The program’s goal is to take traditional academic lessons in English, language arts, mathematics, spelling, science, social studies and character education and relate them to sports — in particular, basketball.” At Huntington Elementary School, for instance, fifth-graders “recently studied the human circulatory system and as part of their lessons spent time dribbling basketballs and then gauging how that affected their pulse rates.”
Students At Missouri Elementary School Learn About Kwanzaa.
The Columbia (MO) Tribune (12/18, Shrubshell) reported, “Against a Santa-themed backdrop,” guest speaker Dee Campbell-Carter “spent half an hour with students at Rock Bridge” Elementary School Wednesday “giving them a glimpse of Kwanzaa, first started in 1966 by social activist Maulana Karenga.” Campbell-Carter told the students that “The winter holiday emphasizes values such as unity, self-determination, responsibility, and faith in oneself.” She also gave all the students “original Swahili names,” and taught them “a catchy tune that, by the second round, seemed as familiar to the children as ‘Jingle Bells.’” The Columbia Tribune explained that “Kwanzaa begins the day after Christmas, and for seven days, observers spend time with family and friends reflecting on their values, singing songs, making crafts and learning from one another’s backgrounds. On the seventh day, recycled or handmade gifts are exchanged.”
Students At West Virginia Elementary School Study Cultural Christmas Traditions. West Virginia’s Register-Herald (12/19, Ayers) reports that students in Judy Caldwell’s fifth grade class at Hollywood Elementary School are learning about holiday traditions of people in other countries through “their ‘Christmas Around the World’ project. In November, students chose a country, and then studied its Christmas traditions and customs, and presented their findings to classmates.” Caldwell, who “incorporated the Christmas project into her curriculum 25 year ago,” said that “a lot of students chose countries of their own heritage to study.”
Salt Lake County, Utah Mayor Teaches Elementary Students Financial Lesson.
The Salt Lake Tribune (12/19, House) reports on a financial lesson presented to students from Ensign Elementary School in Salt Lake City. Salt Lake County Mayor Peter Corroon (D) prefaced the lesson by asking the students which financial option they would pick if they had to choose between receiving $1 million “or starting with a penny and doubling the amount every day for a month. … About half of the 100 students from Ensign Elementary School in Salt Lake City chose the penny financial package — which would have netted each of them $5.3 million in the make-believe Junior Achievement City at Discovery Gateway in Salt Lake City.” Corroon told the students “added that if more Americans saved, the nation wouldn’t be in the financial mess it’s in right now.” The Salt Lake Tribune notes that “the city at The Gateway is part of Junior Achievement of Utah, a nonprofit organization that provides financial lessons to more than 60,000 students annually.”
Eighth-Graders In New York Study History Of U.S. Immigration.
The Ithaca (NY) Journal (12/18, Lawyer) reported that some eighth-graders at DeWitt Middle School spent a month “studying the history of immigration in the United States.” And on Wednesday night, the students “presented their research projects…at an open house.” For the projects, “students interviewed the children of relatives who came from outside the United States in a previous generation. Others interviewed relatives or friends who were immigrants themselves, or were matched up with volunteers from the community or through English as a Second Language classes.” According to DeWitt social studies teacher Andrea Volckmar, “the immigration projects were a collaboration between social studies, English and technology classes. … Students studied the history and read about immigrants in their social studies and English classes and learned how to edit photos to make posters in technology classes.”
On the Job
Teaching Fellows In Connecticut Develop Curriculum Units In Collaboration With Yale Faculty.
The New Haven (CT) Independent (12/19, Brown) reports, “The curriculum units New Haven Public School teachers from 22 schools developed as Fellows in 2008, the 31st year of Yale-New Haven Teachers Institute seminars, are [now] available, along with material from previous years, at this website” The fellows wrote the “new volumes of curricular resources… in collaboration with Yale faculty members in the humanities and the sciences.” In addition to containing “appendices with explicit references to academic standards they address in the teaching of reading, writing, mathematics, science, social studies, art, health and languages,” many of the online versions of the resources also include images online “that Fellows included in the printed versions.” The New Haven Independent provides a detailed description of each unit.
Law & Policy
Maryland School Administrators Granted Permission To Waive Graduation Requirements For Some Students.
The Baltimore Sun (12/19, Bowie) reports, “With 4,000 high school seniors in Maryland still failing to meet new graduation requirements, the state school board [Thursday] decided to allow principals and local superintendents to waive the requirements for students with extenuating circumstances.” The new regulation, “which passed unanimously, is designed for those students who can’t meet the requirements ‘through no fault of their own,’” says state schools chief Nancy S. Grasmick. “It is not designed, state officials said, for students who have refused the extra help after school or on Saturdays and who lack motivation to pass the classes.” The Baltimore Sun adds that “In order for students to be eligible for the waiver, they would have to have taken all four” high school assessments, “be on track to complete their high school course requirements, and have taken advantage of any remedial or extra help that was offered to them by their school to help them pass the tests.”
According to the Washington Post (12/19, B6, Hernandez, De Vise), “Originally, students had to earn a minimum score on each test to graduate.” Now, they “have a variety of routes around that. They can earn a minimum combined score on all four tests, meaning a student who scores very well in one subject can make up for a poor score in another. If a student fails a test twice, he or she can complete a project as a substitute for showing mastery of a subject. And [now], some students will now be able to qualify for waivers.”
Teachers’ Perspectives Critical To Education Reform, Former U.S. Education Secretary Says.
In an editorial for the Houston Chronicle (12/19), Rod Paige, “a former secretary of education and former superintendent of the Houston Independent School System,” writes that in the “25 years since the landmark report, ‘A Nation at Risk’ sounded the warning alarm that America was slipping into educational mediocrity and a troubled future,” there has been “a lot of money spent, a lot of theories advanced, and a lot of new requirements at the local school — but not much progress.” According to Paige, “Teachers at [the] most successful schools create policies that fit their student population because they understand the students at these schools and because they understand what will actually work in the classroom.” Yet, “education policy at the state and national level is largely missing the local practitioner’s perspective. Paige concludes, “Change is needed in the public school system but we must first close the policy/practitioner gap so that future reforms reflect both what we desire in educational outcomes and the means to achieve those results.”
School Finance
DISD Will Compensate Teachers Who Missed Out On Federal Grants For Student Achievement.
The Dallas Morning News (12/19, Hobbs) reports, “Dallas Independent School District trustees voted Thursday to use $397,000 from the district’s central office budget to pay…116 teachers” who were qualified for federal grants based on student achievement, but did not receive the “grant money because their principals didn’t follow the rules.” The principals “failed to comply with grant requirements by not providing a second classroom observation or sufficiently documenting that one had occurred.” At the meeting on Thursday, “Trustees had a lengthy discussion on which fund the money would come from. It initially was proposed that general funds would be used to pay the awards, but trustee Lew Blackburn recommended that the money come from the central office budget, which also houses the board’s budget.” Meanwhile, Trustee Nancy Bingham suggested that “principals should be held responsible for not following the rules. ‘I do think that these principals need to have reprimands put in their files or wherever it can be noticed,’ she said.”
Officials In Florida District Discuss Fewer Work Days For School Employees.
The St. Petersburg Times (12/19, Tobin) reports, “Pinellas school officials said Thursday they have discussed the possibility of furloughs for all district employees to save money on the district’s biggest expense: salaries.” One idea presented “at a School Board workshop” was for employees to “work four fewer days next school year, saving $12.8 million.”
Fairfax County, VA School Board Suspends Pay-Cut Protection Policy.
The Washington Post (12/19, B2, Chandler) reports, “The Fairfax County School Board paved the way for employee salary reductions [Thursday] night, voting to suspend a policy that would have protected many from pay cuts next year.” The move is expected to save the district as much as “$3.3 million in fiscal 2010 as [school officials] redesign programs, eliminate positions, and offer some employees shorter or lower-paying contracts. More than 1,000 employees could be affected,” the Post notes.
Also in the News
New York Dual-Language School Ranks Among Best High Schools In The U.S.
New York’s Downtown Express (12/19) reports that The Dual Language and Asian Studies High School, “whose graduates speak both Mandarin and English,” was ranked as the No. 31 school in the country “on the U.S. News & World Report’s list of…top high schools.” According to the Downtown Express, “The school does have a large English as a Second Language (ESL) program for Chinese students, but it is the first dual language high school in the city, meaning it also…teaches English-speaking students to speak Chinese.” Principal Li Yan said that he “was not shocked to see his five-year-old school make the list.” Many students at the school demonstrate their dedication to learning by showing up at the school “for a half-day on Saturdays, for [ESL] classes or SAT prep,” and “some students also take weekend classes at New York University.” In order to graduate, students all “must pass both the English and Chinese Regents exams.”
“Picture A President” Contest Taps High Student Interest In 2008 Race.
USA Today (12/19, Toppo) reports 10-year-old Helena Bundy’s pastel and charcoal portrait of former President Woodrow Wilson “edged out thousands of others this week to win Scholastic’s first ‘Picture a President’ contest, in which kids were asked how they envisioned the presidents. Helena wins a free trip for two to the nation’s capital; 10 finalists win collections of books about the presidents.” According to USA Today, the contest “was designed to tap into children’s fascination with the 2008 election. … For the nation’s youngest schoolchildren, the election and its aftermath have spanned most of their school careers.”
NEA in the News
Obama Pick For Agriculture Secretary Was Once NEA Lobbyist.
The New York Times /AP (12/19) reports that former Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack, “Barack Obama’s pick for agriculture secretary,” was “registered to lobby for the country’s largest teacher union, whose issues include nutrition programs overseen by the Agriculture Department.” Between May 2007 and March 2008, Vilsack was a registered lobbyist “for the National Education Association (NEA) through the law and lobbying firm Dorsey and Whitney in Des Moines, Iowa, where he is a partner.” An overhaul of school nutrition programs as a part of a No Child Left Behind “has been one of the association’s priorities,” according to the AP.