REMINDER: Board Meeting, 08/12/08

Reminder... there is a Board Meeting Tuesday, August 12th. Can't attend...you can watch it live on Channel 96. It will also be re-broadcast on Wednesdays at 6 p.m.; Fridays at 9 a.m.; and Saturdays and Sundays at 2 p.m. . To view the full agenda and the various reports, please visit BoardDocs.

CHANGED MEETING TIMES, FOR COST SAVING SUMMER INITIATIVE!!

9:30 - Executive Session
11:00 - Board Meeting begins
3:30 - Public Forum

REPORT - Superintendent - (no report available)
REPORT - Board Members - What Counts Update; Board Priorities Sub-Committee
REPORT - EACC - (no report available)
REPORT - Deputy Superintendent - Preparation for Fall Sports (no report available)
REPORT - CIP - (no report available)
REPORT - State CIP 2010 - (no report available)
REPORT - Curriculum - SY09 Master Plan Annual Update; Summer Opportunities; HSA Bridge Plan Summer Program (no report available)
REPORT - Budget - Classified Pension Plan Documents (no report available)
REPORT - Human Resources - Staffing (no report available)
REPORT - Recurring Resolutions - Report

UNFINISHED BUSINESS -

NEW BUSINESS -

FUTURE AGENDA ITEMS -

PUBLIC FORUM - Rules

ACTION - Draft minutes of the June 10, 2008, regular Board meeting and the June 23, 2008, work session; Motions
ACTION - Personnel
ACTION - Ethics Regulation Amendment

For Many Student Athletes, Game Over

By WINNIE HU
Published: July 28, 2008

MOUNT VERNON, N.Y. — Student athletes in maroon and gold uniforms filled their water coolers with more than $19,000 in donations last weekend by standing on street corners here to ask friends, neighbors and strangers alike to help revive the school district’s $1.1 million athletic program, which was eliminated last month in budget cuts.

On Long Island, a group of parents started a charitable corporation, Wantagh S O S (Save Our Students), to collect money for nearly 100 sports teams and extracurricular clubs that were dropped from the school district’s budget last month. The group has raised more than $334,000, about half of its goal, through dinner parties, car washes, a lacrosse tournament and a walk-a-thon at Jones Beach.

And come fall, middle school students in Dearborn, Mich., will have to settle for fewer games after every team’s season was cut by a quarter, or about two weeks, to save $130,000 annually on busing and coaching. The district trimmed the schedules after students and parents opposed its plan to replace the sports teams with an intramural program, in which students would not have competed against other schools.

Read more HERE

Cyberbullying

The below is an excerpt from an email I received from Mr. John Halligan regarding a very serious problem among todays youth. Please take a moment to view his web page and video clips. http://www.ryanpatrickhalligan.org/

"On October 7, 2003 I lost my son Ryan to suicide. After a searching his computer's hard drive and logging onto his AOL instant message account, it became clear that my son was bullied and cyber bullied by his middle school peers beyond his capacity to cope. Unfortunately, Ryan did not show his inner pain to his family or to school faculty. None of us had > any idea of his unbearable torment. You probably have heard or read of Ryan's story by now. It was most recently featured on a PBS Frontline episode titled "Growing Up On-line." If you search the web, you will find countless references to our tragic loss. But none, including the Frontline piece tell the complete story."

Open Thread Sunday!

"Open Thread" is a place for you to tell me what you would like to see on this site. What can I do to make it more user-friendly, topics you would like to see discussed in the future, questions or concerns. If I missed your questions on another thread, please direct me to them here.

So here you go, give me your feedback.

The Four Day School Week

A scheduling strategy that has been adopted by some rural school districts is to drop the fifth day of instruction by adding time to the remaining four weekdays (Yarbrough and Gilman, 2006). A few hundred districts in Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Kansas, Louisiana, New Mexico, Oregon, South Dakota, Wisconsin, and Wyoming have implemented this schedule, primarily for fiscal reasons (cutting down on transportation costs). An unforeseen bonus is that the schedule has unexpected educational and morale benefits for both students and staff.

In Colorado, 52 of the state’s 178 districts have adopted the four-day model. Most of the districts using this calendar were small, serving only one percent of Colorado’s public school students. The Colorado Department of Education found that students, parents, and teachers overwhelmingly favored the shorter week (Dam, 2004). The Colorado study concluded that the effects on student achievement were not as substantial as the financial gain—transportation and food service costs were reduced by 20 percent—with test scores showing that students do “no worse” than those on the traditional five-day schedule (Dam, 2004).

The four-day school week works best in states that allow the option of counting hours and days when meeting the minimum school requirements. Arkansas, Illinois, Minnesota, and Virginia have legislative provisions that specifically allow for this schedule.

Read more HERE

With No Frills or Tuition, a College Draws Notice

By TAMAR LEWIN
Published: July 21, 2008

BEREA, Ky. — Berea College, founded 150 years ago to educate freed slaves and “poor white mountaineers,” accepts only applicants from low-income families, and it charges no tuition.

“You can literally come to Berea with nothing but what you can carry, and graduate debt free,” said Joseph P. Bagnoli Jr., the associate provost for enrollment management. “We call it the best education money can’t buy.”

Actually, what buys that education is Berea’s $1.1 billion endowment, which puts the college among the nation’s wealthiest. But unlike most well-endowed colleges, Berea has no football team, coed dorms, hot tubs or climbing walls. Instead, it has a no-frills budget, with food from the college farm, handmade furniture from the college crafts workshops, and 10-hour-a-week campus jobs for every student.

Berea’s approach provides an unusual perspective on the growing debate over whether the wealthiest universities are doing enough for the public good to warrant their tax exemption, or simply hoarding money to serve an elite few. As many elite universities scramble to recruit more low-income students, Berea’s no-tuition model has attracted increasing attention.

Read more HERE

Where the Girls Aren’t

By Leonard Sax

What the media missed in the AAUW's report on gender equity.

In May, the American Association of University Women announced the good news that the much-ballyhooed “boys crisis” is a myth. In its study, entitled "Where the Girls Are: The Facts About Gender Equity in Education," the AAUW reports that both girls and boys are doing better in American schools compared with 30 years ago. Gender gaps in academic achievement are generally small and getting smaller, according to the association. The report has received prominent coverage in all major American media, including Education Week, and the coverage has been almost universally positive. ("AAUW Sees No Educational Crisis for Boys," June 4, 2008.)

But there are substantial holes in the picture the AAUW is trying to paint. Over the past seven years, I have personally visited more than 200 schools around the United States, usually as a provider of professional development related to gender issues. I believe the AAUW report missed the point. There is a real gender gap, and it’s growing rapidly, but that gap has little to do with graduation rates or college-entrance rates, parameters that are given great emphasis in the report. The real gender gap is not in ability but in motivation—not in what girls and boys can do, but in what girls and boys want to do: specifically, in what they want to learn, and how they want to learn it.

Read more HERE

Districts and Partners Coordinate on Arts Education

By Kathleen Kennedy Manzo

With an array of classes in such novel genres as ballroom dancing and slam poetry, as well as those geared to more traditional visual art and music lessons, arts education in Chicago appears to be holding its own, and in some cases thriving, amid budgetary and curricular constraints. Keeping those programs going in the 409,000-student district, however, has long depended on partnerships with local organizations and support from private funders.

More than 250 local arts organizations and 200 foundations in Chicago ally themselves with schools to provide professional development, teaching materials, visiting artists, and after-school programs. Now, some of those outside groups are working more closely with the school system to bring greater coordination between school- and community-managed programs and ensure their sustainability over time.

“It’s incumbent on us to all be speaking the same language” and striving toward similar goals, said David Roche, the director of arts education for the district’s 600 schools.

Mr. Roche’s position was created nearly two years ago, primarily with funding from more than a dozen foundations, to help organize arts education throughout the city. His office is mapping out a detailed K-12 curriculum to help guide core arts classes and supplementary programs.

Read more HERE

Virtual Access Levels AP Classes

I would be happy to just get it system-wide :)

Montgomery, Ala.

All Alabama high schools will soon be outfitted with technology that enables a student in one end of the state to take classes being taught in the other end.

Beginning in the 2009-10 school year it won't matter as much whether a high school is in a rural Alabama district struggling to employ enough teachers or if it's in a bustling metropolis — the playing field will be a bit more level all around.

State Superintendent of Education Joe Morton and Gov. Bob Riley announced the updated expansion plan for the ACCESS Distance Learning program on Tuesday, noting that the move comes a year ahead of schedule.

The speedup was made possible by $11 million the state education department received from last year's $1 billion bond issue.

The program, which allows students to take classes online and through video conferencing, removes boundaries of economics and distance by providing the chance to take classes beyond students' physical schools — classes like Advanced Placement Macroeconomics and Mandarin Chinese II that can be taught on the Web.

"You can go to the smallest high school in Alabama, the most rural part in Alabama and you can take the highest level courses offered in any high school in Alabama," Morton said.

About half of the state's high schools have advanced placement courses now but once ACCESS is fully implemented, each high school will be able to offer eight AP classes, Riley said.

Along with providing students with classes that aren't offered at their schools, distance learning has also helped fill the gap for schools that couldn't find teachers for basic courses, technology initiative director Melinda Maddox said.

Read more HERE

Better-Qualified Teachers

Published: June 23, 2008

The United States has a long and dishonorable history of dumping the least-qualified teachers into schools that serve poor and minority students. This shameful practice has persisted nationally, despite the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, which required the states to place “highly qualified” teachers in every classroom.

The picture has improved significantly, however, in New York City, where state law has abolished temporary licenses for uncertified teachers, raised standards in teacher preparation programs and spawned innovative strategies for recruiting better teachers.

A new study by the nonpartisan National Bureau of Economic Research shows that the teacher qualification gap between poor and well-to-do schools in New York City narrowed considerably between 2000 and 2005. The qualification index took into account several factors, including certification, experience, the teacher’s SAT scores and the rank of the undergraduate college the teacher attended.

In the poorest schools, the better-qualified teachers have driven modest improvements in student achievement. It may be that right now the city is doing as well as it can with the current applicant pool. And there is certainly more to teaching than SAT scores and other credentials. Still, the study shows that the city could substantially improve performance in fourth and fifth grade math by hiring more people with strong credentials.

Read more HERE

Open Thread Sunday!

"Open Thread" is a place for you to tell me what you would like to see on this site. What can I do to make it more user-friendly, topics you would like to see discussed in the future, questions or concerns. If I missed your questions on another thread, please direct me to them here.

So here you go, give me your feedback.

Career Programs Stress College, Too, and Give Students a Leg Up, Study Says

By ERIK ECKHOLM
Published: June 26, 2008

Forget the old-fashioned “vocational ed” classes that sent students on a decidedly noncollege track. Over the last quarter-century, a new kind of high school program known as a career academy has proliferated, especially in low-income districts, that combines job placement, college preparation and classes beyond the vocational trades, from accounting to health care.

Now, a long-term and rigorous evaluation of nine career academies across the country, to be released in Washington on Friday, has found that eight years after graduation, participants had significantly higher employment and earnings than similar students in a control group.

Poverty experts called the findings encouraging because few interventions with low-income teenagers, especially blacks and Hispanics, have shown significant and lasting effects, and they come at a time when young minority men, especially, are losing ground disastrously in the job market.

Career academies offer students experience in the workplace, and help them get paying jobs while they pursue standard academic coursework. When the study, by the Manpower Demonstration Research Corporation, began 15 years ago, there were fewer than 500 career academies in the United States. Today there are more than 2,500, and the new findings are likely to spur more growth, several experts said.

The participants were mainly Hispanic and black, and the schools had emphases including business, tourism, health care and electronics, with students enrolled for three or four years.

Read more HERE

Holding Back Young Students: Is Program a Gift or a Stigma?

In New York...

By WINNIE HU
Published: June 25, 2008

SPRING VALLEY, N.Y. — With the increasing emphasis on standardized testing over the past decade, large urban school systems have famously declared an end to so-called social promotion among youngsters lacking basic skills. Last year, New York flunked 6 percent of its first graders, and Chicago 7.7 percent.

Now the 8,400-student East Ramapo school district in this verdant stretch west of the Palisades is going further, having revived a controversial retention practice widely denounced in the 1980s to not only hold back nearly 12 percent of its first graders this spring but to segregate them in a separate classroom come fall.

The special classes, which are limited to 15 students and follow a pared-down curriculum of reading, writing and arithmetic, are called the Gift of Time and come with extras like tutoring and field trips to a local farm.

School officials say that adding resources — about $2,000 per child, in a district whose average general-education spending per pupil is about $13,000 — and tailoring the lessons for low-performers works. Nearly 80 percent of the 54 first graders and 47 second graders in Gift of Time classes this past school year now read at grade level (although they are, of course, a year behind their age group); at least 30 percent of the younger group and 11 percent of the older group are above grade level, according to district evaluations performed last month.

Iraida Hada, the principal of Hempstead Elementary here, said that merely holding

Read more HERE

Testing and Learning

Editorial
New York Times
Published: June 19, 2008

To get the well-educated, highly skilled workers that the country needs, states must strengthen public school curriculums, especially in math and science. States also need to adopt high-quality tests that show how students are performing from year to year.

Still there is a danger when schools focus too much attention on test preparation at the expense of high-quality classroom instruction. A disturbing new study from an influential research institute at the University of Chicago shows that that is happening far too often in Chicago schools — and likely in many others across the country.

The study, conducted by the Consortium on Chicago School Research, looked at how Chicago high schools dealt with the ACT, the well-known college-entry examination that Illinois students are required to take as a part of the state’s testing regime.

The ACT is a curriculum-based achievement test that measures what students learn at school and how well they are prepared for the first year of college. This is not a test that is easy to game. Performance depends on what students have been taught and the strength of their skills.

Read more HERE

Two Million Minutes

What can you do in two million minutes? "Two Million Minutes" is how long a student has in his/her high school career, what did you do? What will your child do? How do we Americans, compare to other countries? How do we CCPS students compare?

THE DOCUMENTARY
Regardless of nationality, as soon as a student completes the 8th grade, the clock starts ticking. From that very moment the child has approximately -

…Two Million Minutes until high school graduation…Two Million Minutes to build their intellectual foundation…Two Million Minutes to prepare for college and ultimately career…Two Million Minutes to go from a teenager to an adult

How a student spends their Two Million Minutes - in class, at home studying, playing sports, working, sleeping, socializing or just goofing off -- will affect their economic prospects for the rest of their lives.

How do most American high school students spend this time? What about students in the rest of the world? How do family, friends and society influence a student's choices for time allocation? What implications do their choices have on their future and on a country's economic future?

This film takes a deeper look at how the three superpowers of the 21st Century - China, India and the United States - are preparing their students for the future. As we follow two students - a boy and a girl - from each of these countries, we compose a global snapshot of education, from the viewpoint of kids preparing for their future.

Our goal is to tell the broader story of the universal importance of education today, and address what many are calling a crisis for U.S. schools regarding chronically low scores in math and science indicators.

Read more HERE

View a trailer

Technology reshapes America's classrooms

By Jason Szep
Reuters
Monday, July 7, 2008; 10:42 AM

BOSTON, Massachusetts (Reuters) - From online courses to kid-friendly laptops and virtual teachers, technology is spreading in America's classrooms, reducing the need for textbooks, notepads, paper and in some cases even the schools themselves.

Just ask 11-year-old Jemella Chambers.

She is one of 650 students who receive an Apple Inc laptop each day at a state-funded school in Boston. From the second row of her classroom, she taps out math assignments on animated education software that she likens to a video game.

"It's comfortable," she said of Scholastic Corp's (SCHL.O) FASTT Math software in which she and other students compete for high scores by completing mathematical equations. "This makes me learn better. It's like playing a game," she said.

Read more HERE

Top Students Said to Stagnate Under NCLB

By Debra Viadero

While the nation’s poorest-performing students have made academic progress under the federal No Child Left Behind Act, the brightest students appear to be languishing for lack of attention, according to a report released today by a Washington think tank.

“People have been complaining ever since NCLB passed that focusing resources on the bottom students would come at the expense of high-achieving students,” said Tom Loveless, one of the authors of the report. “There hasn’t been any Robin Hood effect, but the high achievers haven’t been gaining, either.”

Titled “High-Achieving Students in the Era of NCLB,” the report from the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation draws on national test-score data and results from a nationwide survey of 900 public school teachers in grades 3-12 to paint a portrait of a generation of high achievers left to fend for themselves as schools and teachers shift their time and resources toward educational strategies aimed more at bringing the bottom up than on raising achievement for all children.

The data show, for instance, that from 2000 to 2007, the scores of the top 10 percent of students essentially held steady on National Assessment of Educational Progress tests in reading and math. The scores for the bottom 10 percent of students, meanwhile, rose by 18 points on the 4th grade reading test and 13 points in 8th grade math—the equivalent of about a year’s worth of learning by Mr. Loveless’ calculations. (One exception to that pattern was in 8th grade reading, where low-achieving students' scores declined and the achievement gap widened slightly.)

Read more HERE

Reading First program could be on its last legs

By Greg Toppo, USA TODAY

WASHINGTON — Is the federal government getting out of the reading business?
The Senate Appropriations Committee voted last week to eliminate funding for Reading First, the groundbreaking but controversial Bush administration program that has given states $1 billion a year since 2002 to teach low-income elementary schoolers to read. A House committee also had voted to eliminate funding; if money is not restored before the federal budget is approved in the fall, the program could end.

Democrats in Congress say the program was an unproven magnet for corruption. House hearings last year focused on financial ties between its top advisers and major textbook publishers, who account for a large share of materials schools use. A U.S. Justice Department investigation, begun last year, is still pending.

But many educators say the money — about $17.7 million per state in 2007 — was a godsend, allowing them to train teachers in scientifically based reading methods, buy quality supplies and help an estimated 1.8 million children learn to read.

"It has been really good for many of our teachers, many of our schools and many of our children," says Michele Goady, Maryland's Reading First director.

Read more HERE

Open Thread Sunday!

"Open Thread" is a place for you to tell me what you would like to see on this site. What can I do to make it more user-friendly, topics you would like to see discussed in the future, questions or concerns. If I missed your questions on another thread, please direct me to them here.

So here you go, give me your feedback.

School rules eased for Md.

U.S. won't force big changes if most pass tests

By Liz Bowie Sun reporter
7:00 PM EDT, July 1, 2008

Maryland schools with only a small group of students who can't pass state tests will no longer be labeled as failing and be forced to make draconian changes under a plan approved Tuesday by the U.S. Department of Education.

Maryland was one of six states given permission to use a new way of classifying their schools when they don't meet No Child Left Behind standards.

The highly technical changes are likely to have sweeping ramifications for schools in the state that don't meet standards, particularly as the standards rise in the coming years until the school year 2013-2014, when all children in the nation will be expected to pass the tests.

"There is no question that the bar is being raised all the time and that more schools are going to be in these categories," said Maryland schools chief Nancy S. Grasmick, who sought the change from the federal government.

Last year, 233 of the state's schools were labeled as not making adequate progress, and 40 percent of those just barely failed.

Increasingly, schools were penalized when a high percentage of the student body could meet standards, but when the pass rate wasn't also high enough among one or two groups, such as special education students.

"The very best schools can have some challenges with a subgroup," said Grasmick.

Read more HERE

Experts Urge Longer Day to Raise Scores

By Nelson Hernandez
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, June 25, 2008; Page B06

To improve middle schools, a Maryland education panel proposed yesterday giving students more class time, ensuring they are ready to complete algebra by eighth grade and enrolling them in a foreign language course by sixth grade.

The Maryland Middle School Steering Committee, a 55-member panel of experts that was launched in 2006, delivered 16 recommendations to the state Board of Education to solve long-standing academic challenges reflected in local initiatives and test scores.

In Maryland, about 81 percent of third-graders show proficiency or better on state-sponsored reading tests and 79 percent in math. Among eighth-graders, 68 percent score at least proficient in reading and 57 percent in math. Educators said they think that students who have trouble in middle school are also at greater risk of dropping out when they reach high school.

Other committee proposals to raise academic performance include providing all students with instruction in fine arts; giving students more practical experience with science, technology, engineering and math; and giving teachers more time for collaboration and planning.

The report's suggestions were broad and included no cost estimates.

Read more HERE

Educators get together for green summit

Wednesday, June 25, 2008
By ERICA MITRANO
Staff writer

Educators from around the state got a jump start on the next school year last week at a forum on environmental education that had them discussing the theory and practice of increasing youngsters’ ecological awareness.

The Schoolyard Habitat and Green School Summit, held June 18 at Kings Landing Park in Huntingtown, brought teachers and others together to share strategies for making nature come alive to students.

At one ‘‘roundtable discussion” representatives from schools and environmental education groups traded tips while enjoying the shade of a couple of cedar trees on the park’s front lawn.

The moderator, Steve Heacock of the Carroll County Outdoor School, gave participants advice on keeping their programs open during a time of budget cuts and the ‘‘institutional anxiety — maybe institutional psychosis, institutional insanity” about standardized tests and other new graduation requirements.

Read more HERE

Conversion Plan Would Meet Demand for Specialty Schools

Now this is interesting! Too bad we (CCPS) don't have any "under-enrolled" schools that we could turn into academies.

By Nelson Hernandez
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, July 3, 2008; Page PG03

The Prince George's County Board of Education endorsed a plan last week to convert five underenrolled schools into specialized academies to create more space for its popular language immersion and Montessori programs.

The move is an attempt to relieve pressure on the long waiting lists that have formed for admission to academically successful programs such as the Robert Goddard and John Hanson French immersion and Montessori programs. In a presentation Thursday night, Superintendent John E. Deasy said the school system was able to meet 25 percent of the demand for language immersion programs and 10 percent of the demand for studio, visual and performing arts programs.

In May, the specialty schools were the focus of a debate over the "tag along" policy, under which siblings are automatically admitted to a school once a family wins the admissions lottery. Proponents say the policy helps keep siblings together; opponents say it unfairly restricts admission to the programs to a few lucky families. The school board sidestepped a decision by asking Deasy to come back with options that would make more seats available for the programs.

Read more HERE

Schools continue improvement on Maryland School Assessment

UPDATE: HERE IS A LINK TO THE INDY ARTICLE

ALSO, AFTER REVIEWING THE SCORES MORE CLOSELY, I'M GLAD WE ARE CONTINUING TO IMPROVE, BUT....(LEAVE IT TO ME TO BE THE PARTY POOPER) OUR COUNTY AVERAGES ARE STILL BELOW THE STATE AVERAGES :)

ORIGINAL POST:
CCPS Press release

Charles County Public Schools' reading and mathematics scores on the Maryland School Assessment (MSA) continue to improve, according to results released this week by the Maryland State Department of Education. Not included in the data is information about Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP), which is expected to be completed sometime during the summer. High school data will be released later this summer.

Scores are reported for a total of 12 tests, six reading and six math, taken in April by students in grades three through eight. Scores are expressed as the percentage of CCPS students who scored at or above the proficiency levels set when the exams started in 2003.

Systemwide, the most significant gains were in reading, where increases ranged from two to 14 points across the grades. Math scores also increased at every level with the exception of fifth-grade, which dropped two-tenths of a percentage point. As a county, all grades continued to score above the yearly benchmark, or the annual measurable objective (AMO), established by the state for school systems to meet their goals by 2014.

Additionally, Charles County Public Schools (CCPS) continues to make progress on closing the achievement gap between races and socioeconomic subgroups. Since 2003, CCPS has narrowed the gap between African-American and White students' scores at each level and in each subject. The achievement gap in elementary reading has narrowed from 25.7 points in 2003 to 10.4 points in 2008; the difference in elementary math scores has narrowed from 27 points to 13.9 points; middle school reading score gaps have closed from 24.9 to 15.2 points and math score differences have lowered from 28.2 to 22.2 points. "Eliminating the achievement gap between students of different races, ethnicities and socioeconomic status is part of our mission. It is essential for all groups of students to improve for us to continue our path to becoming a top-rated school system. I am pleased that our students are improving and that the achievement gap continues to narrow. We are not where we need to be, but we are seeing progress," said Superintendent James E. Richmond.

At the middle school level, students in grades six through eight increased reading scores over last year. Sixth-graders' scores increased from 76.6 percent to 82.4 percent; seventh-grade students' scores jumped from 69 percent to 83.5 percent; and eighth-grade scores went from 70.9 percent to 74 percent. Math scores in grades six through eight also increased. Sixth-grade scores went from 73.9 to 75.4 percent; seventh-grade scores increased from 60.8 percent to 68.3 percent; and eighth-grade scores went from 57.4 percent to 60.5 percent. Reading scores increased across all elementary grades. Third graders increased scores from 78.1 percent to 81.1 percent. Fourth-grade student scores increased from 85.2 percent to 87.3 percent and fifth-grade scores jumped from 74.5 percent to 85 percent with 46.2 percent, nearly half of the fifth grade, scoring at the advanced reading level. Third and fourth graders also increased math scores. Third-grade scores rose from 74.4 percent to 79.8 percent and fourth-grade scores went from 83.6 percent to 87.7 percent. Fifth-grade scores remained about the same, dipping from 75.3 percent to 75.1 percent.

Richmond said he continues to be pleased with student progress, increases in scores and the marked improvement in the performance of students since 2003. "The continued progress of our students is a direct result of the hard work of our students and teachers in the classroom and consistent instructional programs and support. I commend all of our employees for working with all students to help them succeed."

Statewide, system, and local school data are now available on the Maryland State Department of Education's report card, www.mdreportcard.org.

The MSA exams are given to third- through eighth-grade students in reading and mathematics, as well as to high school students in English and algebra courses. This initial round of data is used to meet federal No Child Left Behind (NCLB) requirements. Under NCLB goals, all students must score at proficient levels on state tests by 2014.

In the coming months, the Maryland State Department of Education will release algebra and English II data, High School Assessment scores, AYP and attendance and graduation numbers.

NCLB charts the progress of the overall student population in the grades tested, as well as for students receiving three categories of special services: Free and/or Reduced Price Meals (FARMS), Special Education and Limited English Proficient. It also follows the success of students in five racial subgroups: American Indian/Alaskan Native, Asian/Pacific Islander, African-American, White, and Hispanic.

See all results HERE.

Md. Scores In Reading, Math Show Big Strides

By Daniel de Vise and Nelson Hernandez
Washington Post Staff Writers
Tuesday, July 15, 2008; Page A01

Maryland's march toward the goal of having all students reach grade level in reading and math gained momentum today with the release of test scores that show surprisingly strong gains in those subjects, especially among disadvantaged students.

The results, educators said, inspire fresh hope of closing achievement gaps, a primary focus of the federal No Child Left Behind law.

From 2007 to 2008, the share of students statewide who were judged proficient or better rose six percentage points in reading and four points in math, to 82 percent and 76 percent, respectively, on the Maryland School Assessments. The results in grades 3 through 8 show some of the strongest improvements since the first years of testing under the 2002 federal law and ease doubts across the education community about progress on the exams, which had slowed in recent years.

Read more HERE

Stephen Wallis: Schools should not tolerate violent, disruptive students

Mr. Wallis is also the Principal at Harper's Choice Middle School in Howard County(MD) Public School System. He is a forwad thinking individual that has demonstrated and proven time and again that his nurturingly aggressive, No-Excuses approach works to bring out the best in a school system's students, staff, parents, and community. One very lucky school system will be snatching him up for Superintendent in the very near future. Keep your eyes on him!

by Stephen Wallis, The Examiner
Jun 19, 2008 3:00 AM

BALTIMORE (Map, News) - Recent reports in The Examiner on the disruptive and violent culture of Baltimore and surrounding schools are not unlike those outlined daily in national periodicals on the disgraceful conditions of too many of this country’s schools.

It is mind-numbing that those responsible for our schools still fail to understand a fundamental fact: Any schoolhouse — urban, suburban, rural — devoid of civility, self-discipline and character simply cannot exercise its primary, essential duty of providing to the citizenry a professional learning community — one that values its teaching staff and furnishes its youngsters with a meaningful education.

Educators, parents and business community representatives openly comment that officials responsible for disruptive schools don’t even pretend learning is at the heart of their mission; should we continue to tolerate such nonsense, we will do so at our own peril.

The answer to this mayhem lies in a comprehensive, multipronged approach. The education of youngsters requires the shared partnership of school and family. However, where the supportive parent/guardian component is absent, school leaders must have the intestinal fortitude to rid the schoolhouse of disruptive, violent behavior. Many benighted school officials and board of education members pay lip service to the idea of having safe schools, but they regularly fail to exercise their fiduciary responsibility of operating in loco parentis, initiating an assertive plan to make a school safe and inviting for its staff and students, as well as providing an alternative for the disruptive youngster’s education.

Read more HERE

Digital Divide

This is absurd! I would be more than happy to even include the media on my emails to my ccboe account. (Barring student, personnel, and legal information). I think they would find it's rather cumbersome and benign. As for the government charging the outrageous fee...that sounds like a lot of hogwash and someone doesn't want someone else reading their emails (which by the way or public anyway.) Possibly a private citizen could request those email (instead of a media outlet). I wonder if the fee would be the same? And if it is, I wonder if that private citizen could then argue that outrageous fee and bring charges (appeals, lawsuits) against the government for not really making the emails public. Just thinking...

Friday, July 11, 2008
By JAY FRIESS
Staff writer

Though governments’ e-mails are public records, local policies are all over the map

Those who want to know what their government has been up to lately should prepare to put up some cash.

As e-mail and the World Wide Web have become technologies fundamental to government communications and largely replaced postal and interoffice ‘‘snail mail” as the chief means of communication between Southern Maryland’s governments and their citizens, the rules on government transparency have been slow to catch up.

There is a wall growing between the increasing number of official e-mail communications and the ability of the public and the news media to monitor those communications. But government officials say that the wall needs to be higher in order to prevent them from being swamped by information requests.

Read more HERE

Learning, In Deed (WHAT A JOKE)

YOU'VE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME. THE BELOW ARTICLEWAS PUT OUT BY THE NATIONAL EDUCATION ASSOCIATION (NEA)...DID THE AUTHOR DO ANY RESEARCH? LACKEY HIGH SCHOOL IN PRINCE GEORGE'S COUNTY? CRIME, DRUGS AND POVERTY AND LACKEY HIGH SCHOOL....HMMMMM, I FOR ONE AM INSULTED AT THE LACK OF RESEARCH!


By Cindy Long

NEA Today Service Learning Projects Help Students Grow

Henry E. Lackey High School sits in Prince George’s County, Maryland -- one of the lowest socio-economic areas of the country – where crime, drugs, and poverty are very much a part of life for kids growing up in this Washington, D.C. suburb. But despite the obstacles -- or maybe because of them -- students at Lackey High are making a positive difference in their communities.

Charlene Haynie, a psychology and sociology teacher, is the school’s service learning coordinator. “The students and I take a look at the community and determine what’s needed, and then they choose their own projects,” she says. “Many of them are already active in the community – some are volunteer firefighters and emergency medical technicians, others are active within their religious organizations.”

Read more HERE

Open Thread Sunday!

"Open Thread" is a place for you to tell me what you would like to see on this site. What can I do to make it more user-friendly, topics you would like to see discussed in the future, questions or concerns. If I missed your questions on another thread, please direct me to them here.

So here you go, give me your feedback.

Teacher pay set by the results

By Liz Bowie Sun reporter
July 6, 2008

From rural Washington County to suburban Prince George's County, school systems around the state are beginning to wade into a promising but controversial topic in education: pay for performance.

School officials are starting to offer teachers and principals extra pay or bonuses when they take on challenging assignments or raise test scores.

So a Prince George's County teacher could earn a bonus of up to $10,000 a year, and a Baltimore principal might someday get an extra 10 percent for exemplary work.

The move toward pay for performance, driven by increasing pressure for schools to improve student achievement as well as by shortages of teachers, comes despite the influence of Maryland's powerful teachers union.

Read more HERE

Open Thread Sunday!

"Open Thread" is a place for you to tell me what you would like to see on this site. What can I do to make it more user-friendly, topics you would like to see discussed in the future, questions or concerns. If I missed your questions on another thread, please direct me to them here.

So here you go, give me your feedback.

State Testing Mandates Swell Summer School Ranks

Thousands in Georgia, elsewhere take classes to help gain promotion.
By Linda Jacobson

Thousands of incoming middle and high school students in Georgia will spend some of their summer vacations sitting at desks in hopes of earning a passing score when they take another crack at a challenging state math test.

The disappointing scores of 5th and 9th graders on tests they must pass before moving to the next grade are an example of the struggle some states are having as they try to meet the requirements of the federal No Child Left Behind Act while raising their academic standards.

And Georgia is among a number of states where students often end up attending district-administered summer school programs because they didn’t meet academic standards set by the state.

Texas is one of several states in which summer remediation programs are specifically targeted to elementary school pupils who have not met reading targets by the end of 3rd grade.

“Our scores were pretty good this year,” said DeEtta Culbertson, a spokeswoman for the Texas Education Agency. Results show that 93 percent of 3rd graders passed the state test. Still, that leaves more than 24,000 students who will need to retake the test to enter 4th grade this coming fall. The tests are being given next month.

In Georgia, the pressure for summer school enrollment has been especially intense this year because of the new Criterion-Referenced Competency Test, or CRCT, in mathematics. Fifth graders must pass the test to move to middle school, and 8th graders must pass it to advance to the 9th grade.

Almost 38 percent of 8th graders and about 28 percent of 5th graders didn’t pass the tests for their levels. That’s about 82,000 students for the two grades.

Students have been urged to register for summer school, which will be held at different times throughout the vacation months.

The 159,000-student Gwinnett County school system, the state’s largest district, was expecting this year’s enrollment to top last summer’s figure of 3,500 middle school students and 8,000 elementary school students.

Read more HERE

Working Toward College, a True Juggling Act

By DAMIEN CAVE
Published: June 15, 2008

KEY WEST, Fla. — Some teenagers flip burgers as a summer job. Others mow lawns. Reid Fierheller-Conklin juggles fire by the water at sunset, competing for crowds with a tightrope-walking dog, a sword-swallower, acrobats and Catman (don’t ask).

He has been performing here since he was 12, and at 16, with a voice still cracking and an A average in high school, Reid has put together a show that earns him more in 20 minutes than many teenagers make in a day. “A crowd draws a crowd, and if you’re entertaining, the crowd will stay,” he said. “And if you’re really good, you can actually convince the crowd to pay you.”

Key West over the years has nurtured all kinds of creativity, including public turtle races and Ernest Hemingway’s novels. But in an island habitat now dominated by tourists and aging hippies, Reid has become a sign of Key West’s transformation from a freewheeling party mecca to a clean-cut family getaway.

Read more HERE

Open Thread Sunday!

"Open Thread" is a place for you to tell me what you would like to see on this site. What can I do to make it more user-friendly, topics you would like to see discussed in the future, questions or concerns. If I missed your questions on another thread, please direct me to them here.

So here you go, give me your feedback.

Teachers Achieving 'Highly Qualified' Status on the Rise

Poorer schools still not getting their share, state data shows

By Vaishali Honawar

Teachers meeting the “highly qualified” standard their states set were teaching core subjects in 94 percent of the nation’s classrooms in the 2006-07 school year, but poorer schools were still less likely than their wealthier counterparts to employ them.

That year, 96 percent of core-subject classes in low-poverty schools were taught by highly qualified teachers, compared with 91 percent in high-poverty schools, according to the U.S. Department of Education, which recently released the data (requires Microsoft Excel) that states are required to submit to the federal agency.

In some states, the gap was glaring. In Maryland, 95 percent of elementary classes in low-poverty schools were staffed with highly qualified teachers, compared with only 66 percent in poorer schools.

But the overall picture showed progress. According to the data, there was an increase of 7 percentage points in the total number of highly qualified teachers nationwide who were teaching core-subject classes since 2003-04.

The “highly qualified” teacher requirement is a provision of the 6-year-old No Child Left Behind Act. All states must report annually the percentage of core-subject classes taught by highly qualified teachers and break down the numbers for classes in high-poverty and low-poverty schools.

Only one state—North Dakota—met last year’s deadline to have highly qualified teachers in 100 percent of its core-subject classes.

Read more HERE

Out of Sight

By BOB HERBERT
Published: June 10, 2008

When the dismal unemployment numbers were released on Friday (at the same time that oil prices were surging to record highs), I thought about the young people at the bottom of the employment ladder.

Below the bottom, actually.

A shudder went through the markets when the Labor Department reported that the official jobless rate had jumped one-half a percentage point in May to 5.5 percent — the sharpest spike in 22 years.

The young people I’m talking about wouldn’t have noticed. These are the teenagers and young adults — roughly 16 to 24 years old — who are not in school and basically have no hope of finding work. The bureaucrats compiling the official unemployment rate don’t even bother counting these young people. They are no one’s constituency. They might as well not exist.

Except that they do exist. There are four million or more of these so-called disconnected youths across the country. They hang out on street corners in cities large and small — and increasingly in suburban and rural areas.

If you ask how they survive from day to day, the most likely response is: “I hustle,” which could mean anything from giving haircuts in a basement to washing a neighbor’s car to running the occasional errand.

Or it could mean petty thievery or drug dealing or prostitution or worse.

This is the flip side of the American dream. The United States economy, which has trouble producing enough jobs to keep the middle class intact, has left these youngsters all-but-completely behind.

Read more HERE

Proposed ELL Guidelines Criticized as Too Rigid

By Mary Ann Zehr

Education officials in several states with large English-language-learner populations are bristling at a proposal by the U.S. Department of Education that they say would curb their flexibility in deciding when children are fluent in English and if they still need special services for ells.

The comment period closed June 2 on the proposed “interpretation” of Title III of the No Child Left Behind Act, the main conduit of federal funds for English-language-acquisition programs, generating a two-inch stack of responses to the proposal published in the Federal Register on May 2. ("Consistent ELL Guides Proposed," May 14, 2006.)

The responses include critical or skeptical comments from officials in states with some of the largest populations of English-learners, particularly California, Florida, Illinois, and Texas.

Education Department officials have said that a goal of the proposed interpretation is to create more consistency in how the federal education law is implemented for English-language learners. If made final as now written, the guidance is intended to reduce some variations among states, and among school districts within states in how they report the progress of students in learning English.

Read more HERE

Nurses' Offices Overburdened

As Caseloads Multiply and Budgets Shrink, Many Area Schools Stretched

By Michael Alison Chandler
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, June 25, 2008; Page B01

Caseloads for school nurses exceed federal guidelines in much of the Washington region at a time when campus clinics serve growing numbers of students with severe disabilities or chronic conditions such as diabetes and asthma.

As health-care needs multiply, school nurses are struggling to keep up and finding less time for preventive education on public-health issues such as childhood obesity or substance abuse. Many still dispense bandages and bags of ice, but they also counsel pregnant teens and manage complex medical plans for children with seizure disorders or feeding tubes. Schools often hire unlicensed aides for help.

"Children today come to school with conditions and treatments that would have kept them at home or in the hospital years ago," said Amy Garcia, executive director of the National Association of School Nurses. "We are concerned about the safety of these children and their ability to be ready to learn."

Read more HERE

Candidates Are at Odds Over K-12

But McCain and Obama Both Back NCLB Goals
By Alyson Klein and David J. Hoff

The presumed November matchup produced by the long presidential-primary season that ended last week offers contrasting approaches to K-12 policy, along with some common ground on the basics of the No Child Left Behind Act.

Sen. John McCain of Arizona, the presumptive Republican nominee, and Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois, who last week secured enough delegates to claim the Democratic nomination, both express support for the NCLB law’s goals and its use of testing to measure schools’ success.

But Sen. McCain would promote market forces as a way to spur school improvement, and would likely seek to freeze education spending as part of a review of the effectiveness of federal programs.

Sen. Obama, meanwhile, promises to search for new ways of assessing students and to invest significantly in efforts to improve teacher quality.

Although education wasn’t a prominent issue in the Democratic or Republican primaries, it could emerge more clearly in the general-election campaign, one political scientist said last week. He pointed particularly to the potential for a sharper focus on where the candidates stand on the requirements for testing and accountability under the NCLB law.

In the past two presidential elections, the Democratic and Republican nominees supported the idea that the efforts to improve schools should include regular assessment of student progress and measures to hold schools accountable for increases in student achievement, said Patrick J. McGuinn, an assistant professor of political science at Drew University in Madison, N.J., who has written extensively about the politics of the NCLB law.

“The country hasn’t had a great debate about the costs and benefits of test-driven accountability,” Mr. McGuinn said. “We’re ripe for it right now.”

Read more HERE

School Allocation Cycle

Board Docs -

Charles County Commissioners’ Meeting

Wednesday, June 25, 2008

2.02 [2:00 p.m.] July School Allocation Cycle (Mr. Zak Kreback, PGM/Board of Education Members)

JulySchoolAllocationCycle.pdf

Principal, vice principal appointments and transfers approved

Two Charles County Public Schools vice principals, Evelyn Arnold and Wilhelmina Pugh, were appointed by the Board of Education on Monday, June 23, as principals. Arnold is the new principal at La Plata High School and Pugh is principal of Malcolm Elementary School.

Arnold, who is a vice principal at La Plata, is moving up to the spot being vacated by Garth Bowling who is retiring from Charles County Public Schools and accepting a principal position in St. Mary's County. Arnold has been with Charles County Public Schools since 1992 when she started as a teacher. She taught both middle school social studies and high school history before being promoted to an administrative assistant position at Maurice J. McDonough High School in 1999. Arnold has served as a vice principal at La Plata since 2000.

Pugh moves to Malcolm from her position as vice principal of Daniel of St. Thomas Jenifer Elementary School. She replaces Sandra Brehon, who announced her retirement last week. Pugh started with Charles County Public Schools in 1980 as a speech language pathologist. Since 1999, she has served as vice principal at Dr. Samuel A. Mudd Elementary School, Dr. Thomas L. Higdon Elementary School and Jenifer.

The Board also approved a number of vice principal appointments, which include the following:

• Cynthia Panizzi-Williams, a reading resource teacher at J.C. Parks Elementary School, to vice principal at C. Paul Barnhart Elementary School;
• Monique Moore, a teacher in Prince George's County, to vice principal at Dr. James Craik Elementary School;
• Karen Lewis, a vice principal in Washington, D.C., to vice principal at Daniel of St. Thomas Jenifer Elementary School;
• Jean Ritter, IEP facilitator at Barnhart and North Point, to vice principal at Mary H. Matula Elementary School;
• Desann Manzano-Lee, sixth-grade administrator in Prince George's County, to vice principal at Mary B. Neal Elementary School;
• Tynika Lytle, reading resource teacher at Theodore G. Davis Middle School, to vice principal at J.C. Park Elementary School;
• Debra L. Calvert, coordinator of middle school instruction, to vice principal at Mattawoman Middle School; and
• Richard Conley, administrative assistant at Westlake High School, to vice principal at Henry E. Lackey High School.

Superintendent James E. Richmond also approved the following vice principal transfers:

• Michael Simms, vice principal at Mattawoman, to vice principal at North Point High School;
• Terri St. Clair, vice principal at Lackey, to vice principal at Maurice J. McDonough High School; and
• Curry Werkheiser, principal at Lackey, to vice principal at La Plata. Werkheiser requested a transfer from the principal position.

All appointments and transfers are effective July 1.

Black-White Gap Widens Faster for High Achievers

By Debra Viadero

New research into what is commonly called the black-white “achievement gap” suggests that the students who lose the most ground academically in U.S. public schools may be the brightest African-American children.

As black students move through elementary and middle school, these studies show, the test-score gaps that separate them from their better-performing white counterparts grow fastest among the most able students and the most slowly for those who start out with below-average academic skills.

“We care about achievement gaps because of their implications for labor-market and socioeconomic-status issues down the line,” said Lindsay C. Page, a Harvard University researcher, commenting on the studies. “It’s disconcerting if the gap is growing particularly high among high-achieving black and white students.”

Disconcerting, but not surprising, said researchers who have studied achievement gaps. Studies have long shown, for instance, that African-American students are underrepresented among the top scorers on standardized tests, such as the National Assessment of Educational Progress. Fewer studies, though, have traced the growth of those gaps among high and low achievers.

The reasons why achievement gaps are wider at the upper end of the achievement scale are still unclear. But some experts believe the patterns have something to do with the fact that African-American children tend to be taught in predominantly black schools, where test scores are lower on average, teachers are less experienced, and high-achieving peers are harder to find.

The two new working papers, which were presented at last month’s annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association in New York City, use different test data and research designs to tackle that question. Yet both arrive at similar conclusions.

Read more HERE

Internet Safety

Parent's Guide to Internet Safety

Geeks On Call

DATE: Monday July 7, 2008 Wednesday July 9, 2008
TIME: 6:45 PM to 9:00 PM
LOCATION: Waldorf Jaycee Hall
3090 Crain Hwy-Waldorf MD

We will be giving away a free 2 GB flash drive
and a copy of CA Internet Security Suite
(total value $100) to the first 10 people that arrive.

Alex Bleam
Franchise Owner – Southern Maryland
1 800 905 GEEK ext 2350
Fax: (301) 843-7622
http://www.1800905geek.com/

REMINDER: Board Work Session, 6/23/08

Reminder... there is a Board Work Session on Monday, Jun 23rd.

This meeting will be held at McDonough High School and will NOT be televised.

NO PUBLIC FORUM

To view the full agenda and the various reports, please visit BoardDocs.

ACTION ITEMS

• Schematics for FDK additions/renovations for Brown, Indian Head, Middleton and Turner
• FY2009 Budget Adjustment
• Draft minutes of the regular Board meeting of June 10, 2008;

EXECUTIVE SESSION

Plugged in, zoned out

By Liz Bowie Sun reporter
June 8, 2008

As teens' reliance on technology soars, parents and teachers scramble to limit usage

When River Hill High School 10th-grader Kelsey Balimtas sits down to do her homework, her cell phone and computer are always right in front of her. She would like to stay completely focused on the textbook, but honestly, she says, she just can't.

Her cell phone calls to her with an irresistible buzz she can't ignore. She bounces from homework to text message to Facebook and back to homework. "I think the quality of my homework is decreased," she admitted.

And so do college professors and high school teachers, who say this constantly plugged-in generation is less able to focus on subjects that take deep concentration. They see students who are smart but can't write long papers very well; students who have more trouble paying attention in longer class periods and students who are disorganized. Their observations are supported by more than just anecdotes from the classroom; brain research shows that it is difficult to do many things at the same time.

"They are constantly jumping from one thing to another. They can't sit still long enough," said Ilona McGuiness, dean of first-year students and academic services at Loyola College. "You can't think through problems. You can't process. You can't develop the deep thinking skills."

Read more HERE

Open Thread Sunday!

"Open Thread" is a place for you to tell me what you would like to see on this site. What can I do to make it more user-friendly, topics you would like to see discussed in the future, questions or concerns. If I missed your questions on another thread, please direct me to them here.

So here you go, give me your feedback.

States eye uniform graduation rate reporting

By DONNA GORDON BLANKINSHIP, Associated Press Writer
12:45 AM PDT, June 18, 2008

SEATTLE -- Comparing graduation rates from state to state, or even school to school, can be difficult because all kinds of methods are used to determine them.

Federal officials have a solution that could make that process easier -- and more accurate -- within the next five years.

U.S. Education Secretary Margaret Spellings in April proposed new rules requiring states to assign students a unique ID number to track the individual from ninth grade through graduation, or until that student drops out.

The proposal, which mirrors an agreement states made with the National Governors Association, would provide every district with a more scientific graduation rate.

Washington state assigned a unique ID to every student four years ago. The class of 2008 will be the first with a graduation rate based on the method Spellings wants mandated for all states.

State officials don't know if the new method will help or hurt Washington's steady 70 percent on-time graduation rate, said Joe Willhoft, director of assessment for the Washington Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction.

But the point is to come up with a true number, Willhoft said.

The federal government has offered grants to state education departments to improve their data systems, and the money may be used to pay for a system to track students by unique IDs, said U.S. Education Department spokesman Chad Colby. The government gave a total of $62.2 million to 13 states in 2007 for data systems.

New York is in the process of adopting the new approach. State officials expect the more accurate numbers will be significantly lower in some cases, because many schools used an index that didn't account for students who dropped out in ninth and 10th grades.

Read more HERE

Transformation Schools

Taking place in Baltimore City...
In a nutshell, it is small schools combining middle and high schools with a singular college and/or career focus with a unique curriculum or career focus.

Please read more about this at the link provided below and provide me with your feedback.

Read more HERE

Bush Loyalist Fights Foes of ‘No Child’ Law

By SHERYL GAY STOLBERG
Published: June 12, 2008

NEWPORT, Ky. — Margaret Spellings is not running for office — at least, not yet. But in the waning days of the Bush presidency, she is running one last campaign.

On a cold and soggy morning in March, Ms. Spellings, the relentlessly cheery and sometimes sassy United States secretary of education, turned up here, at a little brick elementary school across the Ohio River from Cincinnati. She had been on the road for months, promoting President Bush’s beleaguered education initiative, No Child Left Behind, delivering one sales pitch after another.

“I’m pretty sure that the new president, whoever it is, will not show up and work on George Bush’s domestic achievement on Day 1,” she told a group of civic leaders and educators, promising to do “everything in my power” to improve the law before the White House changes hands.

For Ms. Spellings, a longtime and exceedingly loyal member of the Bush inner circle, it was a startling, if tacit, admission that the president’s education legacy is in danger. No Child Left Behind — the signature domestic achievement, beyond tax cuts, of the entire Bush presidency — has changed the lives of millions of American students, parents, teachers and school administrators. Yet its future is in grave doubt.

Adopted by Congress on a wave of bipartisan unity that followed the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, the law imposed unprecedented testing requirements and tough expectations on the nation’s nearly 99,000 public schools. But despite rising test scores, there is no hard-and-fast evidence, most experts say, that it is actually improving student achievement.

Read more HERE

Schools experiment with paying kids

June 13, 2008 - 7:25am
By NANCY ZUCKERBROD
Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) - Friday is payday at KIPP DC: KEY Academy, and some sixth-grade girls gather at the makeshift school store trying to decide how to spend their hard-earned money.

They received paychecks for behaving well, doing their homework or making academic gains. The money is pretend. But it can be used at the store for genuine items such as pens capped with fluffy feathers, pencil cases shaped like animals and colorful erasers.

Schools, under pressure to boost student achievement, are offering incentives _ field trips and cash, for example _ to motivate students.

At KEY Academy, a public charter school serving low-income, minority students in the nation's capital, Cherise Johnson Wallace proudly clutched a pencil case she bought at the school store. She was glad to have the trinket, but even happier about what it represented.

"It shows how I work very hard to earn good grades," she said, flashing a smile as she rattled off the A's she had earned.

Read more HERE

Mandated Tutoring Not Helping Md., Va. Scores

By Maria Glod
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, June 13, 2008; Page B01

Several States Find 'No Child' Provision Does Little to Improve Test Results

Free tutoring that federal law prescribes to help students at struggling schools has yielded little or no positive effect on student test scores in Virginia, Maryland and several other states, according to early evaluations.

Under the six-year-old No Child Left Behind law, certain schools in which too many students fail math or reading exams must use federal funds to offer after-school or weekend tutoring to students from low-income families. In the 2006-07 school year, $595 million went to the fast-growing industry of for-profit and nonprofit tutoring providers. But it remains unclear whether or how much those extra lessons are boosting student performance, even though the law envisions them as a key way to narrow achievement gaps.

In Virginia, researchers compared the performance last year of students with identical or very similar math scores in 2006 and found that those who were tutored did no better than their peers, according to an analysis the state Department of Education released in April. In a similar comparison of reading scores, students who were tutored lagged behind those who weren't.

A Closer Look at Graduation Rates

By Daniel de Vise
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, June 15, 2008; Page SM05

Higher Test Scores Might Not Mean More Diplomas

Although high schools in the Washington region are showing steady improvement on measures such as Advanced Placement testing and end-of-course exams, that success might not be translating to higher graduation rates, according to the latest data from a Bethesda nonprofit group that is a leading authority on high school completion rates.

The official graduation rates published by states and school systems are widely regarded as inflated and unreliable. Many in the field have come to rely instead on the annual Diplomas Count report from Editorial Projects in Education, publisher of the trade newspaper Education Week.

The report estimates how many students in ninth grade graduate on time with their class, using a series of calculations that measure attrition from one grade level to the next.

The group's latest report, released this month, showed graduation rates among local school systems range from a high of 93 percent in affluent Loudoun County to a low of 57 percent in high-poverty Prince George's County. The report uses enrollment figures to estimate the graduation rate, not for current graduates but for the Class of 2005, the most recent data available from the federal government.

Read more HERE

Notes from Board Meeting, 6/10/08

The Board Meeting Tuesday, Jun 10th will be re-broadcast on Channel 96 on Wednesdays at 6 p.m.; Fridays at 9 a.m.; and Saturdays and Sundays at 2 p.m. . To view the full agenda and the various reports, please visit BoardDocs.

The below notes are my personal notes and are not intended to be all-inclusive or official minutes for the Board of Education meetings and are provided as a request from my supporters and the general public in a personal effort to be more transparent. Although I have diligently tried to make these notes as unbiased and accurate as possible, I am only human and do make mistakes.

PUBLIC FORUM

• Male - Wineland...$130M for new HS last yer... sounds reasonable for state of the art school. Remove all the amenities and it isn't worth it. Don't try to keep up with North Point...try to keep up with Montgomery county, etc. Early childhood - Reading First funding not available for Charles, why? Why isn't COMAR used for CC for Kindergarten entrance
• Female - Spec. Ed. Asst. in CCPS. 3 children in CCPS with autism (brought two). are intending school in an inclusive closed room school. Now being moved to in-zone open classroom school. Environment not conducive for autism learning. Lack of support staff for inclusive teachers. Provide funding for instructional assistants, additional planning time to complete IEP's etc.

REPORT - Superintendent - Russian Civics Mosaic Project

• Russian partnership - grant funded by U.S. Dept. of Education. Westlake, Stone, & LaPlata will be participating in this Part II of the program. future teleconference.
• 2,030 seniors/ $27.2M in scholarships
• AC fixed at Somers

REPORT - Board Members Updates - (no report available)

• Pedersen - Blue Ribbon - Education Committee would like to get together with us
• Carrington - ROTC recognition

REPORT - EACC - Update

• Thank you for salary enhancements
• watch county commissioners ACTUAL revenues
• salutes retiring teachers
• teacher workload
• regulation changes proposed at state level
• send letter to MSDE opposing regulation changes

Motion by Wise, second by Pedersen for the Board to send letter opposing regulation changes
PASSED UNANIMOUSLY

REPORT - Deputy Supt. - Crime Solvers; Graduation

• in all high schools and middle schools
• Abell - false leads a problem---NO
• Abell - place statistics on Board Docs
• Pedersen - concerned about disseminating the information to the public. Public perception
• Richmond - disagrees. community problem. can't solve alone
• Abell - disagree also. Public meeting = public information = public document

REPORT - CIP - Update

• Neal received occupancy and use permit
• Somers completely finished by start of school year
• Craik finished
• TC Martin portable classroom complete
• Lackey - duplex
• North Point - relocatables on schedule
• All day Kindergarten at Barnhart awarded to Mattingly
• New high school

Pedersen motioned, second by Wise to send a letter to the commissioners requesting architect to continue on design. Clear direction
PASSED UNANIMOUSLY

REPORT - Schematics for FDK additions/renovations for Brown, Indian Head, Middleton and Turner

• Presentation

REPORT - Legislative Update - Ethics Regulations 8160

• Allows ethics panel to review annual ethics forms
• Abell - Why/how did this come about? (This was brought up before by a board member and it was never acted upon). Were we in violation?
• Schwartz - Our audit this year - staff recommended this to prevent future audits

REPORT - Curriculum Update - Bridge Plan

• See presentation
• Not passing HSA's, Bridge project classes over summer and during school year

REPORT - Financial Update - May Financials

• Abell - Questioned unexplained balances on individual schools...perception by some that if the principals do not spend all of their allocated funds and return a large portion at the end of the year, they will receive a kick back. Please clarify.
• Wade - how would the public know about the individual school balances, they shouldn't see the accounts
• Abell - The individual school balances are in the report and are public information
• Richmond - upset and very defensive. Rumors are NOT true. Principals do not receive any kick-backs for unspent balances.

UNFINISHED BUSINESS

• Pedersen - What counts committee needs to meet. 9/4/08

NEW BUSINESS - FY2009 Budget Adjustment

• See presentation. Needed to adjust budget based on # given by commissioners.

NEW BUSINESS

• Carrington - CCSO to put on agenda for career in law enforcement

ACTION - EACC/ AFSME Contract Signing

ACTION - Draft minutes of the regular Board meeting of May 13, 2008; the executive session minutes of April 8, 2008; April 21, 2008; May 8, 2008; and, May 13, 2008.

PASSED UNANIMOUSLY

ACTION - Personnel

PASSED UNANIMOUSLY

ACTION - Out-of-County Tuition Rates

PASSED UNANIMOUSLY

ACTION - Educational Facilities Master Plan

PASSED UNANIMOUSLY

ACTION - 2009 - 2010 Calendar

PASSED UNANIMOUSLY

ACTION - Textbook: Career & Technology (CTE)

PASSED UNANIMOUSLY

Algebra I stumping high school freshmen

Class of 2011 confronts tougher state requirements
BY LORI HIGGINS • FREE PRESS EDUCATION WRITER • May 27, 2008

Thousands of high school freshmen across Michigan are failing Algebra I, the first of four math courses this class of students must take and pass to fulfill what are among the toughest graduation requirements in the nation.

The failure rate -- estimated at 20% to 30% of about 113,000 freshmen -- has some predicting a crisis by the time these students are juniors and must take Algebra II.

In Macomb County after the first semester of this school year, the failure rate was around 28%.

"We have enough data to think this is going to continue to be a problem," said Gayle Green, assistant superintendent with the Macomb Intermediate School District. Failure rates for Oakland and Wayne counties haven't been compiled but officials there are concerned, too.

The alarms are ringing statewide. Lawmakers are searching for solutions that won't water down the tough mandates that sailed through the Legislature and were signed into law by Gov. Jennifer Granholm in 2006. The requirements call for the Class of 2011 to take four years of math, including Algebra I, geometry and Algebra II.

Read more HERE

The Childhood Obesity Numbers

It is a sad commentary on the health of American youngsters that we are cheering a leveling off of childhood obesity rates. Far too many children and teenagers are still overweight.

Tens of millions of young people will be at risk of illness and death unless this country commits to reversing, not just stabilizing, the epidemic.

The prevalence of obese and overweight children and teenagers has soared since 1980, and the heaviest children have added the most poundage. Now the upsurge appears to have paused, judging from some encouraging findings reported by federal health officials in The Journal of the American Medical Association.

Their analysis concluded that childhood obesity hit a plateau from 1999 to 2006. Even so, a dismaying 32 percent of young people aged 2 through 19 were still judged overweight or obese as measured by body mass index, with roughly half falling into each of those categories. Their excess weight increases their risk of developing diabetes, heart disease and other ailments.

Read more HERE

REMINDER: Board Meeting, June 10, 2008

Reminder... there is a Board Meeting Tuesday, Jun 10th. Can't attend...you can watch it live on Channel 96. It will also be re-broadcast on Wednesdays at 6 p.m.; Fridays at 9 a.m.; and Saturdays and Sundays at 2 p.m. . To view the full agenda and the various reports, please visit BoardDocs.

MEETING TIMES!!

12:00 - Executive Session
1:00 - Board Meeting begins
4:30 - Recognition
6:00 - Public Forum (Must sign-up prior to 6:00)

Reports

• Superintendent - Russian Civics Mosaic Project
• Board Members Updates - (no report available)
• EACC - Update
• Deputy Supt. - Crime Solvers
• CIP - Update
• Schematics for FDK additions/renovations for Brown, Indian Head, Middleton and Turner
• Legislative Update - Ethics Regulations 8160
• Curriculum Update - Bridge Plan
• Financial Update - May Financials

NEW BUSINESS

• FY2009 Budget Adjustment

ACTION ITEMS

• EACC/ AFSME Contract Signing
• Draft minutes of the regular Board meeting of May 13, 2008; the executive session minutes of April 8, 2008; April 21, 2008; May 8, 2008; and, May 13, 2008.
• Personnel
• Out-of-County Tuition Rates
• Educational Facilities Master Plan
• 2009 - 2010 Calendar
• Textbook: Career & Technology (CTE)

MARYLAND: Officials meet for school safety summit

CATONSVILLE, Md. — Educators, community leaders, police and religious leaders are meeting in Baltimore County for a summit on school safety.


Today's gathering was organized by State School Superintendent Nancy Grasmick and Congressman Elijah Cummings.

It comes just two months after a high school art teacher in Baltimore was attacked by a student. The attack was recorded on a camera phone.

Grasmick hopes the summit will create uniform standards for behavior and uniform procedures to collect data. Currently, Grasmick says each system has its own procedures.

Cummings says parents are an important component to ending school violence.

Cummings says there is only so much that can be legislated or created by policy to deal with the violence.

Opponents of Evolution Adopting a New Strategy

By LAURA BEIL
Published: June 4, 2008

DALLAS — Opponents of teaching evolution, in a natural selection of sorts, have gradually shed those strategies that have not survived the courts. Over the last decade, creationism has given rise to “creation science,” which became “intelligent design,” which in 2005 was banned from the public school curriculum in Pennsylvania by a federal judge.

Now a battle looms in Texas over science textbooks that teach evolution, and the wrestle for control seizes on three words. None of them are “creationism” or “intelligent design” or even “creator.”

The words are “strengths and weaknesses.”

Starting this summer, the state education board will determine the curriculum for the next decade and decide whether the “strengths and weaknesses” of evolution should be taught. The benign-sounding phrase, some argue, is a reasonable effort at balance. But critics say it is a new strategy taking shape across the nation to undermine the teaching of evolution, a way for students to hear religious objections under the heading of scientific discourse.

Already, legislators in a half-dozen states — Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, Michigan, Missouri and South Carolina — have tried to require that classrooms be open to “views about the scientific strengths and weaknesses of Darwinian theory,” according to a petition from the Discovery Institute, the Seattle-based strategic center of the intelligent design movement.

Read more HERE

New Schools Chief Stays on Front Line

By Theresa Vargas
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, June 4, 2008; Page B01

He began the article: "Dear Tom Cruise: I want you to meet my daughter."

Morton Sherman described a popular, active girl who struggled with depression and tried to kill herself at 15. He wrote that even as a school superintendent married to a special education teacher, he and his wife could not stop the sophomore. They wondered what they had done wrong.

"When a child breaks a leg, we put a cast on it. When we have a headache, we take aspirin. When the flu season starts to break out, we all run for shots," Sherman wrote. "So must it be for the mental health of our children."

A personal appeal to those like Cruise -- who has criticized psychiatry and the use of antidepressants -- Sherman's 2006 article in an American Association of School Administrators magazine gives insight into the New Jersey schools chief named Monday as Alexandria's superintendent. His criticism of the education system's ability to deal with mental health fits with his reputation as an administrator who jumps to the front lines of issues.

Alexandria School Board member Yvonne A. Folkerts interviewed 40 people in Tenafly, N.J., about Sherman before he was hired.

"They said to me, 'I hope you guys are ready,' " she said. "They said, 'The only thing we had to ask him was to slow down a little bit because we couldn't keep up.' "

In a unanimous vote, the board awarded Sherman, 58, a contract for $250,000 a year through June 2012. He replaces Rebecca L. Perry, who left in January. Sherman begins Aug. 15.

Read more HERE

PROJECT GRADUATION

Just a reminder, and sorry it's late notice...

Project graduation will be taking place tonight (last night was very successful) at the College of SOuthern Maryland Gymansium from 9:00 pm - 2:00 am.