Updates and Information provided by NEA
Many Teachers In Wichita, Kansas Plan To Incorporate Inauguration Into Daily Lessons.
The Wichita (KS) Eagle (1/15, Tobias) reports, “Most suburban districts are in session Tuesday, and many teachers say they plan to use the” inauguration of Barack Obama “in daily lessons.” Meanwhile, “Wichita teachers, including LaCosse, say they plan to talk about it when students return Wednesday.” The Wichita Eagle lists several suggestions by area teachers for making “Inauguration Day a teaching moment for youngsters.” Joel Schaefer, head of social studies at Andover High School, suggested that children “go online to find Martin Luther King Jr.’ s Letter from Birmingham Jail and Barack Obama’s speech on race, which he delivered in Philadelphia during the campaign last spring.” Schaefer said, “Reading those two, you can see connections between the promise of the civil rights movement and the progress we’ve made. … Talk about what’s been done and what more needs to be done,” he added. Other suggestions were to “talk about civil rights” and “discuss the oath of office.” The Wichita Eagle notes that the National Education Association (NEA) has “developed lesson plans and suggested reading lists related to Inauguration Day.”
Elementary School Counselor Teaches Character Through Book About President-Elect Obama. The De Soto (KS) Explorer (1/15, Kieler) reports, “The lesson Starside [Elementary School] students are learning as school counselor, Paula Henderson, read each class the book Barack is that character counts.” The book tells about the life of president-elect Barack Obama. “‘I’m using it for character education,’ Henderson said. ‘I’ll read them the book and we’ll talk about what characters we saw in the book.’” She also noted that “the pillars of caring and citizenship were obvious in the book,” and that lessons from the book “fit perfectly with the inauguration next week.” After reading Barack to a fourth-grade class this week, Henderson spoke with the students “about Obama’s work caring for those less fortunate in Chicago and his sense of citizenship by stepping up and accepting the positions that he had.”
In the Classroom
R.A.D. Program Teaches Students Middle School In Washington How To Protect Themselves.
KIMA-TV Yakima, WA (1/15, Malloy) reports, “Keeping the girls safe at Washington Middle School is what the” Resist Aggression, Defensively (R.A.D.) “class is all about.” R.A.D. is “a free, four day after-school program taught by off duty” police officers in which students learn “how to protect their heads and say ‘stay back’, basic skills that should give them enough time to get away if their ever in a dangerous situation,” KIMA notes. R.A.D. “is paid for by the 21st Century Grant that helps students struggling with the” state standardized test. In addition to self defense, the Yakima School District also offers “science, math and reading classes.”
Educators At Massachusetts Elementary School Developing Marine Science Program.
Massachusetts’s Daily Item (1/15) reports, that educators at Johnson Elementary School are working with the Northeastern University Marine Science Center to put together a marine science curriculum. Johnson Principal Diane Mulcahy said that students enjoy participating in the school’s marine science program “because it is very hands on.” For instance, students in most “grades take a walking trip to the beach.” And “this week, the Northeastern Marine Science Center is visiting the Johnson School with marine touch tanks, which allow the students the opportunity to handle and observe marine creatures from tide pools.” School Committee member Christine Kendall said that “All of the teachers and grades [at Johnson Elementary] have integrated marine biology into this year’s science curriculum.”
UPS Donates Truck Engines To New York Automotive High School.
The New York Times (1/15, A30, Hughes) reports that on Wednesday, United Parcel Service (UPS) worker Ed Planas, an alumnus of the Automotive High School, in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, “presented his alma mater with a pair of six-cylinder, fuel-injected engines.” Automotive High School “prepares its 1,023 students for careers in auto trades by giving them hands-on experience with machines of this type.” The engines, a gift from UPS, were “a cut above previous donations… because [they] involved truck engines, which are generally tough to obtain,” according to Automotive Principal Melissa Silverman.
On the Job
Teachers at Five Failing Schools In Dallas Face Termination.
The Dallas Morning News (1/15, Hobbs) reports, “Teachers at five Dallas schools are facing termination or transfer to other campuses because their schools were rated academically unacceptable for at least two years in a row.” A campus intervention team at each school will determine “which staff members will leave the campus. … The teams are meeting this week before making their final decisions. Principals will notify the affected staff members at the end of this month.” The teams, composed of “educators from within and outside the school district,” will evaluate teachers based on “on how their students score on the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills” and by looking at “the district’s Classroom Effectiveness Index.”
Ninety-Nine Percent Of Core-Course Teachers In Tennessee District Are ‘Highly Qualified.’
Tennessee’s Leaf Chronicle (1/14, Wallace) reported that in the Clarksville-Montgomery County School System, “99.84 percent of…teachers were ranked as ‘highly qualified’” during the 2007-08 school year. This compares to 97.6 percent of “academic core classes taught across the state…taught by teachers who have achieved the ‘highly qualified’ status.” According to the Tennessee State Department of Education, a “highly qualified teacher” is “any public elementary or secondary school teacher who holds at least a bachelor’s degree, is fully-licensed in Tennessee, and submits the required documents to demonstrate competency in the content area(s) being taught.”
Colorado District Only Hires ‘Highly Qualified’ Teachers.
The Coloradoan (1/14, Woods) reported that “only six percent of Poudre School District course sections are not taught by ‘highly qualified’ teachers under the No Child Left Behind legislation, according to 2006-2007 data.” Three years ago, the district “implemented a mandate…to hire only teachers deemed highly qualified.” The Coloradoan noted that Colorado has not yet met the No Child Left Behind that requires “all core content teachers — teachers in math, science, social studies, language arts, foreign languages and the arts…to be highly qualified.
Law & Policy
Some Principals Will Not Hire Teachers Certified Under New Missouri Law, Critics Say.
KOLR-TV Springfield, MO (1/15, Richardson) reports, “Last year, legislators passed [a] new certification law,” which allows “anyone with a college degree can become a state certified teacher without going back to school.” Those seeking certification must, however, “pass teaching and subject area exams, as well as complete 60 contact hours in the classroom.” But “Critics of the program say people who are looking at this as a career changer could be in for a harsh reality. Certifiers say principals they’ve talked with across the state will not hire these newly certified teachers.”
Safety & Security
ID-Scan Security System Helps Keep Sex Offender Out Of High School In North Carolina.
The Raleigh News & Observer (1/14) reported that “a convicted sex offender tried to visit a Wake County high school last week but was stopped in the office by a security system that conducts criminal background checks on all visitors.” Marcus Jermaine Johnson “went to Athens Drive High School on Jan. 7 to visit someone.” After Johnson swiped “his driver’s license through a LobbyGuard machine, which is linked to criminal databases across the nation,” the system “immediately alerted” school officials “that Johnson had been convicted of a sex offense.” He was then “escorted off campus.” Moreover, “the school has since sent him a letter saying he could be convicted of trespassing if he returns to the campus.” A spokesman for the Wake County school system said that “19 of 156 Wake County schools have” the LobbyGuard “security system in place.”
School Officials In Wisconsin Use Wind Chill Calculator To Determine When To Close Schools.
Wisconsin’s The Reporter (1/14, Roznik) reported that “With arctic temperatures headed” toward Wisconsin, “school officials turn to the National Weather Service and a wind chill calculator” to determine “how cold is too cold to conduct school.” Fond du Lac School Superintendent Jim Gryzwa said that the wind chill “formula is based on air temperature and the wind chill factor and the time it takes skin to freeze.” In addition to the wind chill calculator, “medical providers in the school district also give advice on how cold is too cold.” Campbellsport Superintendent Dan Olson said, “My greatest concern with the cold weather is the amount of time our students are exposed to the cold while waiting at bus stops, especially if buses are delayed and running behind schedule. … Wind chill temperatures between 35 and 40 below would warrant serious consideration for school closing.”
Facilities
North Carolina District To Build Elementary School On Environmentally Sensitive Watershed.
The Raleigh News & Observer (1/14, Hui, Eisley) reported that “a new Wake County elementary school is planned for Falls Lake’s environmentally sensitive watershed, a move which Raleigh officials oppose.” According to the News & Observer, “The site drains into Upper Barton Creek about a mile from Falls Lake, which supplies drinking water to Raleigh and other Wake towns. The proposed school likely would need to use private water and a septic system because of its location in the watershed, where municipal water and sewer lines typically are prohibited.” Last week, the “Wake school board agreed…to offer $2.47 million for 30 acres” of the land. City Manager Russell Allen said that “school administrators did not ask city officials for input before pursuing the land purchase, nor have they sought a response since.”
Also in the News
Milwaukee Public School Board May Encourage Schools To Suspend Normal Curriculum On Inauguration Day.
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (1/15, Borsuk) reports that Milwaukee School Board President Peter Blewett “called a special meeting of the board” on Wednesday night “to consider a resolution he is proposing that would encourage each school in” the system “to suspend the use of its normal curriculum and encourage teachers to develop appropriate activities and lessons focused on presidential inauguration activities” next Tuesday. The Journal Sentinel points out that while “some school districts, including Baltimore, are telling teachers to go about their regular business and not allow students to watch the ceremony on television,” some schools in the Milwaukee area “are planning celebrations.” Blewett wrote that “Milwaukee Public Schools should instill in its students a keen awareness of the importance of the presidential inauguration as a sign of continuity or the peaceful transfer of power in our democracy and encourage active participation of schools in emphasizing the importance and historical significance of the Inauguration.”
High School In Texas To Host “Day Of Service” On Martin Luther King Day.
The Marlin (TX) Democrat (1/14) reported that “on Monday, January 19, the members of the Marlin High School Agricultural Department will host a “Day of Service” in honor of Martin Luther Ding Jr.’s birthday observance. Volunteers will assist the agricultural department “in refurbishing their own little community garden at the Marlin High School Greenhouse.” Joy L. Rogerson, an Agriculture, Career, and Technology instructor for the Marlin school district said “This will be a day that students, families and members of the community will be able to honor the dream, be great and volunteer.”
Mentoring Program At North Carolina School Offers Lessons In Self Esteem.
TWEAN – TV Asheville, NC (1/14) reported on a new mentoring program at Bellamy Elementary School in Wilmington, which “offers lessons on self esteem, student achievement, and more for fifth grade girls and their parents.” Mentoring sessions will be “held once a month until the end of the school year. Organizers say they hope to expand the program to other schools and more students next year.”
NEA in the News
Missouri State Exams Will Count Toward High School Students’ Final Grades.
The St. Louis Dispatch (1/15, Hahn) reports that “Under [a] new system” in Missouri, “state exams, now called end-of-course exams, will be part of semester finals for many [high school] classes.” The state recommends that districts “make exams count for at least 10 percent but no more than 25 percent of a student’s final class grade.” According to the St. Louis Dispatch, “State education officials and St. Louis area school administrators applaud the move as a way to invest students in a state school assessment.” According to Ann Jarrett, teaching and learning director with the Missouri National Education Association, the tests help increase transparency so that “if a particular teacher or school gets especially good results, others can learn why — though schools shouldn’t use the scores to evaluate teachers.”
Texas District Reverses Stance On Teachers Showing Inauguration In Class After Complaints.
The Fort Worth Star Telegram (1/15, Brown) reports, “Spurred by complaints from parents and community members, Keller school officials reversed course Wednesday and said students in kindergarten through 12th grades can watch Tuesday’s presidential inauguration live as part of [the] social studies curriculum.” An announcement issued by the district Wednesday morning said, “The administration believed the community would want the district to maintain its focus on our approved curriculum. … It was never the intent of the district to suggest that the inauguration was not a historical event.” According to the Fort Worth Star telegram, “District officials did not have a similar policy in place four years ago, when Texan George W. Bush was sworn into his second term as president.” In an email, Barbara Kapinus, a senior policy analyst for the National Education Association (NEA) wrote, “There is a great deal to be gained by watching the inauguration with classmates and exchanging comments and responses.”
Stimulus To Include Testing, Teacher Quality Stipulations.
USA Today (1/20, Toppo) reports that public schools “are scheduled to receive nearly $142 billion over the next two years” under “Congress’ $825 billion economic stimulus plan unveiled last week.” That amount exceeds the funds designated for “health care, energy, or infrastructure projects.” But in order to receive the money, schools must spend at “least a portion of it on” developing “high-quality educational tests…ways to recruit and retain top teachers in hard-to-staff schools,” and “longitudinal data systems that let schools track long-term progress.” While some hail the plan’s “requirement that states spend a portion of the stimulus cash attracting their best teachers to schools that serve low-income and minority students,” others expect that states will not “do much to change how they hire teachers,” but will receive funding, nonetheless.
In the Classroom
New Mexico To Offer 20 New High School Courses Through Online Education Program.
The AP (1/20) reports that during “the fall semester, more than 870 students from 46 school districts, nine charter schools, three private schools, and a juvenile justice center signed up for courses on” New Mexico’s Innovative Digital Education and Learning online system.” Currently, “thirty-six courses are available,” and “twenty more courses are in development for next school year.”
Some Ninth-Graders In California District Taught To Mentor Younger Students.
The Fresno (CA) Bee (1/17) reported on a mentoring program in the Fresno Unified School District that “connects teens and fourth-graders. … Relationships develop as the older students help youngsters complete homework assignments.” On Saturday, the ninth-graders attended a conference, organized by the non-profit group Encourage Tomorrow, to learn “how to guide and inspire nine-year-olds.” The mentoring program is being funded by a federal grant, which “provides $200,000 annually for three years.”
Mentoring Programs In Janesville, Wisconsin Schools Aimed At Minority Students.
The Janesville (WI) Gazette (1/18, Schultz) reports that even as the student population in the Janesville school district becomes more diverse, educators in the district “remain almost all white.” Currently, “The district is on notice from the state to do something about the disproportionate number of black youths identified as emotionally disturbed.” In an effort to turn those numbers around, the district has “recently started [mentoring] programs for black students:” Brothers Reaching Out (BRO) and Sisters Empowering Sisters (SES). Janesville has hired three African-American men and one African-American woman to serve as mentors to the students. “None of the four has a degree in teaching or social work. But all have skills as communicators, records of accomplishment and dedication to doing all they can for the kids.” The programs aim “to make black students feel a part of their schools-something that research suggests is a key to academic success. The clubs also serve as places students can sound off about problems at school.”
Teachers At Some California Schools Put Regular Lessons Aside For Inauguration.
The Los Angeles Times (1/20, Rivera) reports, “Many educators find a teachable moment, though some will have to decide if the historic event should interfere with finals or course work.” For example, “final exams were delayed a day for the high school students” at the Crossroads School in Santa Monica “so that the students can “watch the swearing-in of the nation’s 44th president today on 9-foot by 12-foot projection screens.” At another school, fifth-grade students will take “notes during incoming President Barack Obama’s speech to compare it to President Lincoln’s second inaugural address, and they will also study the different crises faced by these two young senators from Illinois.” The Times notes that “more than any inauguration in recent memory, educators said, schools in Los Angeles and across the country are mounting ambitious efforts to let students not only witness the historical event but also use it as an educational experience.”
Cluster Programs Promoted As Better Alternative To Pull-Out Programs For Gifted Students.
In an opinion piece for the Arizona Republic (1/18), Carol Peck, president and CEO of the Rodel Foundation of Arizona wrote about gifted-education programs targeted at students in kindergarten through second grade, arguing that “pull-out programs are not always ideal for the younger students,” so “many schools have turned to a ‘cluster’ model to serve the youngest gifted students without pulling them out of their classrooms.” In cluster programs, “students who are identified as gifted are clustered together in a homeroom with a diverse population of students and a teacher specially trained to enrich their instruction.” According to Peck, the “Glendale Elementary District has found the cluster program to be less expensive than pull-out programs and a more effective way to identify minority children, who have been historically underrepresented.”
On the Job
Staff At Three Cincinnati Schools To Be Replaced.
WLWT-TV Cincinnati (1/18) reported that “All staff members at three Cincinnati Public Schools have been notified that their jobs have been terminated.” The district will replace the educators at Mount Air School, Rothenberg Preparatory School, and South Avondale School because students at those schools “have fallen short of standards for adequate yearly progress under the federal No Child Left Behind Act for five or more years.” However, they “may reapply for their positions if they wish to remain, and union officials said they would be encouraged to do so.”
All Teachers In Salem County, New Jersey Districts Meet “Highly Qualified” Mandate.
New Jersey’s Today’s Sunbeam (1/17, Clark) reported that “each of the 15 school districts in Salem County has recently reported meeting the” NCLB mandate that all “teachers be highly qualified by national definition.” According to the Sunbeam, “this means all of the county’s estimated 850 teachers have college degrees in their areas of expertise, have passed rigorous written tests like the Praxis and are certified by the state: Or they have proven themselves professionally over many years in the classroom.” Despite meeting the “highly qualified” mandate, “seven county schools failed to make Adequate Yearly Progress last year, a benchmark measured through their students standardized test scores.”
Law & Policy
Supreme Court To Hear School Strip-Search Case.
The AP (1/16, Sherman) reports that “the Supreme Court agreed Friday to decide whether a 13-year-old girl’s constitutional rights were violated when school officials strip-searched her for a prescription-strength pain reliever.” Last year, the San Francisco federal appeals court “ruled…in favor of Savana Redding, who was subjected to a strip search based on a classmate’s uncorroborated accusation that she was hiding the prescription-strength ibuprofen pills.” It also decided that “Vice Principal Kerry Wilson was financially responsible for violating Redding’s civil rights.” School officials maintain that they were being cautious because “in an earlier incident, a student had to be hospitalized after taking a prescription drug he had been given by a classmate.” They “argued that the search was reasonable because pills had been found on campus and another student linked them to Redding.”
Federal Aid For Abstinence-Only Education Seen As At Risk.
The AP (1/18, Crary) reports, “With the exit of the Bush administration, critics of abstinence-only sex education will be making an aggressive push to cut off federal funding for what they consider an ineffective, sometimes harmful program.” Critics say that “several major studies — including a federally funded review — have found no evidence that the abstinence-only approach works in deterring teen sex.” But “even if federal funding is halted, some states — such as Georgia — are determined to keep abstinence programs going on their own, ensuring that this front in the culture wars will remain active.” The AP points out that “Obama is considered an advocate of comprehensive sex education, which…includes advice to young people about using contraceptives if they do engage in sexual activity.” Still, “supporters of abstinence education…have appealed to Obama to preserve some federal funding for their programs.”
Consolidation May Cause Some Rural Districts In Maine To Lose Federal Grants.
The Morning Sentinel (1/18, Stone) reports that “Maine’s rural schools risk losing access to some federal grants once they consolidate into larger, regional school systems to comply with state law.” This school year, about “100 schools in Maine” have “received $3.6 million from the” Rural Education Achievement Program. And, about “half of the rural grant funds are aimed at school districts with 600 or fewer students. … But Maine’s school-district consolidation mandate — an effort to reduce school administrative expenses by reducing the number of districts — requires that merged districts enroll at least 1,200 students.” Consequently, “school districts merging with others to become regional school units…would be disqualified from grants geared to districts with fewer than 600 students,” according to Dennis Kunces, the rural education grant director at the Maine Department of Education. They may, however, “qualify for other Rural Education Achievement Program grants…if poverty rates meet a particular threshold, he said.”
New York City Department Of Education Moves Girls’ Soccer To Fall.
The New York Times (1/17, A30, Hernandez) reports that “for 28 years, girls in New York City have had to wait until spring to take out their soccer cleats,” but, the New York City Department of Education has recently “agreed to move the girls’ soccer season to the fall.” The decision came about after the New York Civil Liberties Union “threatened last month to sue the Department of Education, claiming the current schedule discriminated against women athletes and violated Title IX, the law covering equity in education.” Although “the department said it believed the girls had been treated equally” it “agreed this week to move the season, starting next school year, to avoid litigation.”
Special Needs
Indiana District Fires Teacher Who Put Duct Tape Over Student’s Mouth.
The AP (1/20) reports that last week, the school board of Indiana’s Tippecanoe School Corp. canceled the contract of an eighth grade teacher “who placed duct tape over the mouth of a special-needs student to keep him from talking in class.” The board reasoned that the teacher “failed to implement the student’s program for special needs and that she returned to the school after being told to leave.” Meanwhile, Superintendent Scott Hanback said that the “taping incident ‘cannot be tolerated.’”
Safety & Security
Streetlights To Be Installed At Several Bus Stops In Florida District.
The St. Petersburg Times (1/20) reports that “at least a dozen school bus stops” in Hernando County “will soon become safer for children waiting for their rides in the pre-dawn darkness.” The County Commission “approved funding for streetlights at the stops and for four of the stops to have 10-foot-square concrete pads where students can stand at a safe distance from traffic while waiting for their buses to arrive.” The move comes several months after a middle school student was struck and killed at one of the stops by a pickup truck. “After the tragedy, school and county officials vowed to find ways to lessen the hazards that children face while waiting for buses in the dark.” Although bus drivers recommended improvements for 50 bus stops, “the county decided to focus at this point on the 12 busiest sites.”
Facilities
Cost Of Changing Iowa High School To Junior High Estimated At $26 Million.
The Des Moines (IA) Register (1/20, Kielsmeier) reports that “the total project cost to renovate the current Southeast Polk High School into a junior high has been estimated at more than $26 million.” Included in “the primary improvements to the existing schematic design” are “more natural lighting, better handicap access, technology upgrades, additional locker rooms and safer bus loading and unloading areas.” In addition, “The main entry and administrative offices would be relocated to allow for easier access. A music department with two instrumental music rooms, two vocal music rooms, two fine arts rooms and a space for an orchestra program would be located where the high school industrial technology classes have been held.” The district plans “the facility ready for junior high use by fall 2010.” Meanwhile, “the high school is slated to open this fall, a year behind schedule.”
School Finance
Chicago Officials Announce Plan To Close 16 Schools, Reorganize Six Others.
The Chicago Tribune (1/17, Sadovi) reported that the leaders of Chicago Public Schools (CPS) “want to close 16 schools…because of low enrollment or sub-par buildings.” On Friday, CPS announced a plan that, in addition to closing the 16 schools, would turn “six other schools” into “turnaround schools, in an effort to achieve better academic results.” Under the proposal, students at the turnaround schools would stay, but “all faculty and staff members must reapply for their jobs.” According to the Tribune, “the plan marks one of the last major decisions outgoing district CEO Arne Duncan will make before leaving to become U.S. education secretary for President-elect Barack Obama.” Following public hearings, the school board may vote on the plan “as early as Feb. 25.”
Utah BOE Will Consider Shortened School Weeks In “Extreme Circumstances.”
The AP (1/19) reported that the Utah State Board of Education (BOE) “is telling school districts…that it doesn’t want them applying to shorten their school weeks unless there are extreme circumstances that warrant it.” State Board member Denis Morrill said that the BOE’s decision to “only consider waiver requests in ‘extreme circumstances of distance, isolation, and small school size’” is intended “to save time and energy for districts that probably wouldn’t receive a waiver.”
Washington Lawmakers May Counter Governor’s Education Cuts With Tax Increases.
The AP (1/20, Blankinship) lists some of the priorities of Washington state lawmakers. They include “taking another look at the Washington Assessment of Student Learning, figuring out how to improve the way the state pays for K-12 education, helping school districts remain stable during the economic downturn, and working on the achievement gap between rich and poor children of different races.” Gov. Chris Gregoire’s “proposed state budget for 2009-2011 biennium would strike $8.5 million from early learning programs, $800 million from kindergarten through 12th grade spending, and $375.7 million from higher education.” But “lawmakers may counter” those “cuts is with ‘revenue enhancements,’ more commonly known as tax increases.”