Seattle High School Student Walkout and March Against Budget Cuts

This from Seattle Education:

After the arrest of Jesse Hagopian, a teacher at Garfield High School, on Monday, November 28th, the students at Garfield organized a march to Seattle City Hall in response to their teacher’s arrest and to his demands to fully fund education in the state of Washington...

The students of Garfield High School issued a statement on their Facebook page. It goes as follows:

We are Washington State Public Schools students tired of the constant cuts to our education. We are the people who have been affected most by these cuts, and we are showing that we care. For too long, this stat…e’s budget has been balanced on the backs of its students. Apparently, our representatives in Olympia have forgotten that the Washington Constitution says that funding education is this state’s “paramount duty”. This is a student voice reminding our legislature of that fact. And also of this one: We are this country’s future. We will vote. And we will hold them accountable.

We will walk out of school on Wednesday the 30th of November at 12:30 PM to march to City Hall and tell the world that we are fed up with this lack of funding for education. Although we acknowledge the irony of missing a free education in order to protest, we realize that sometimes unorthodox methods must be utilized in order to gain attention. To all Garfield students and students from any other Seattle schools, public and private, we hope you will join us tomorrow as we stand up against a constant barrage of cuts and mistreatment, and converge upon City Hall to make our voices heard.

We have two primary goals we hope to accomplish:

-We want to stop the constant cuts to education that have hurt our school and other schools in the state.

-We want to insert a student voice into the political discourse in issues regarding education.

Following are our grievances, things that have already happened as a result of past cuts:

-Students who want full schedules have been denied them due to a lack of teachers. Many seniors were denied a science class due to a complete lack of state science funding.

-Other academic courses, such as advanced math classes, have been repeatedly cut from our school.

-The removal of summer school and night school has removed resources that allowed many students to graduate on time, therefore effectively increasing the amount the state must spend on those students.

The King County Superior Court ruled that Washington State is already failing to fulfill its constitutional obligations to fully fund public education. As Will Rogers said: “when you find yourself in a hole, stop digging.”

Cuts to the State’s education budget haven’t helped in the past, and they can only hurt for the future.

Quick Hits

Should arts-based learning be part of STEM education?:  Support appears to be growing for efforts to incorporate the arts into science, technology, engineering and math teaching, transforming STEM into STEAM. The concept is being considered at both the federal and local levels, with some advocates saying art and design can help drive innovation in STEM fields. "We believe there is a powerful opportunity here to use the arts and arts-based learning to spark transformational change in science education," said Harvey Seifter, director of the Art of Science Learning. (Education Week)

Turnaround efforts are paying off for once-failing N.C. school:  The once-struggling Cochrane Middle School in North Carolina has been transformed over the past five years through an intense turnaround process that has included a new focus on professional development for teachers and a commitment to higher standards for students. Teachers at the school crafted 10 classroom techniques, now known as the Cochrane Non-Negotiables, and a partnership with Texas Instruments has led to increased math scores among students. (David Markus' blog)

 

Relationships matter: In the never-ending discussion around school improvement and reform, the role of relationships rarely gets a mention. However the role relationships play -- as research shows us and children tell us -- is key. Whether it be inside the classroom, outside the school, between peers, teachers or families, relationships are key to student success and growth. Relationships matter. They matter not only for grades, but for engagement. They matter not only for understanding but for providing meaning and context. They matter not only for reducing risk-taking behavior but for connectedness and belonging. They matter not only for attendance but for reducing dropout. They matter not only for minority students but for all students. They matter not only for students but for staff. They matter not only for schools but for communities. Relationships matter and the sooner we appreciate it the better off our children, schools and communities will be. Relationships matter. (Huffington Post)

More schools are teaching students about digital citizenship:  More schools in the U.S. are incorporating digital citizenship and Internet safety into classroom lessons as students' use of technology continues to grow. Among other things, schools now are teaching students about the importance of their digital footprint. "All of the drama, all of the growing up, all of the growing pains, all of the things we know happen in high school now also happen digitally," said principal Chris Lehmann of the Science Leadership Academy in Philadelphia. (USA TODAY)

Majority of school districts have students enrolled in distance learning:  Roughly 55% of public-school districts in the U.S. report having students enrolled in some form of distance-learning courses, according to data from the National Center for Education Statistics. However, about 75% of respondents said the distance-learning programs in use were organized by outside groups, independent of the districts themselves, the NCES report found. (T.H.E. Journal)

Do common core standards focus too little on social sciences?:  Some experts believe the Common Core State Standards being implemented in many states do not give enough priority to social, economic and behavioral-science subjects. Increasing focus on math and language arts as part of No Child Left Behind and, now, as part of the standards leaves little time for such subjects as anthropology, sociology, geography and civics. Some argue these types of social sciences can help students connect lessons in subjects, such as math and reading, to real-life applications. (Education Week)

Caught Between Common Standards and Assessments: When it comes to common standards, we are pretty much past Adoption Season. (Remember? That was a period of about a year and half in which all but four states adopted the standards.) Now we're in Implementation Season. But if states' and districts' next step is putting the standards into practice, that work isn't exactly flowing across the nation in a rolling wave. To be clear, there is some very aggressive work going on out there to implement the new standards. But we're also seeing a good number of questions, hesitations, dilemmas, and delays about implementation. A recent case in point was a study by the Center on Education Policy, which found roughly half of school districts reporting that they aren't really moving ahead in key areas—for a variety of reasons—when it comes to common-standards implementation. (Curriculum Matters)

Report finds lower teacher salaries in poor schools:  Teacher salaries are lower in thousands of high-poverty U.S. schools, compared with those in more affluent districts, according to a new report from the U.S. Education Department. "Low-income students need extra support and resources to succeed, but in far too many places, policies for assigning teachers and allocating resources are perpetuating the problem rather than solving it," Education Secretary Arne Duncan said. (The New York Times) 

Middle-school interventions may reduce sexual harassment, violence:  A new study funded by the Justice Department suggests a number of low-cost education programs that may help reduce dating violence and peer-to-peer sexual harassment in middle schools. The most effective methods included a combination of classroom-based and building-wide interventions, from student discussions about personal boundaries to poster campaigns throughout the school. "The importance of this work is that we have scientific evidence that early intervention lessens later violence," the study's co-author Bruce Taylor said. (Harvard Education Letter)

Teacher involvement remains important, even in virtual schools: Tennessee online teacher Kevin Dockery teaches Advanced Placement government and U.S. history from a laptop computer at his home. Though he no longer deals with school fights or the logistics of the school copy machine, Dockery still logs time tracking students' progress and helping students stay on course. "Just like it's not for every student, it's not for every teacher," virtual-school coordinator Barbra Thoeming said. "They have to have a high level of involvement -- which may sound odd because you don't see your students that often." (The Tennessean)

Public, school libraries embrace noise, technology:  A new breed of public and school libraries aims to engage teens by using the latest technology tools, from game consoles to multimedia music- and video-production software. Amid budget cuts, the new, cacophonous spaces seek to keep libraries relevant for students and, in the school setting, teach them to use digital media to better understand academic topics. "People are uncomfortable because it's a 'big C' change, but I don't think there's any stopping it," said school librarian Jennifer Hubert Swan. (The Hechinger Report), (Education Week)

What's next as Kansas City, Mo., schools prepare to lose accreditation:  The long-struggling Kansas City, Mo., school district is set to lose its state accreditation on Jan. 1, with many surrounding school districts poised to possibly manage an influx of new students who leave their former schools. Meanwhile, the question of how soon students will be permitted to transfer into other districts -- and whether the Kansas City schools will be responsible for their tuition costs -- is being considered by the courts. (Education Week)

Hundreds of N.Y. principals oppose use of test scores in evaluations:  In New York, at least 658 principals have signed a letter opposing the state's use of students' standardized test scores to evaluate teachers and principals. Part of New York's successful bid for Race to the Top funding involved new evaluations, of which 20% to 40% is based on state tests. Principals and others argue that the evaluations were rushed and state testing data is unreliable. (The New York Times)

Why some principals signed the petition against the N.Y. evaluation system: New York principals offer their reasons for signing a petition against using student test scores in teacher and principal evaluations. Many question the adoption of an approach they argue has not been tested adequately or proven to be an effective way to ensure accountability. "Test scores are not the true identity of a student nor should they be used to determine the ability of a teacher," writes Neil Connolly, principal at Carle Place Middle/High School. (SchoolBook blog)

Teach for America establishes roots in New Orleans:  Former Teach for America personnel hold many important education positions in New Orleans, this article details. They hold not only positions in teaching, but also in administration and policy-making. Most TFA alumni do not have formal education training, and some in Louisiana question whether schools rely too heavily on the organization. (The Times-Picayune)

Education system in Finland shows where America lags:  Finland mixes student-teacher collaboration and rigorous evaluation for an education system regarded as a global model, and the U.S. can learn from it, according to this article. Finnish students consistently score high on international exams, with a small achievement gap, despite spending less money per student. The U.S. also could learn from Finland's teacher recruitment and retention policies, the article notes. (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel)

Silberman Goes One to One

"I think we're going to get to a point

where we have to say 'enough is enough'

on the reductions for our kids...

We have to figure out new revenue streams

...just to bring us back to where we were.

-- Stu Silberman

New Prichard Committee honcho Stu Silberman sat down with Bill Goodman on KET last week. Among other topics, he took on funding.

Silberman is the former superintendent of Daviess County and Fayette County Public Schools, and has recently been named the executive director of the Prichard Committee for Academic Excellence. He grew up
in Long Island, NY attended college at U T Chattanooga and taught chemistry and physics in Chattanooga before becoming the Daviess Co Supt for 9 years. He became Fayette's County's 5th Superintendent in a 3 year period and completed 7 years of a ten year commitment before retiring. He brought with him what he called his mantra, "It's about Kids."He shares his views on Kentucky education and what would he like to accomplish in his new post.

Snippets:


"We wouldn't be where we are today ...if it wasn't for the Prichard Committee"


"the umbrella of poverty covers the achievement gap"

"We have to figure out a way to support teachers in [closing the achievement gap]"

Funding is definitely an issue.

"As much as our governor and our legislators have tried to protect[schools] in the reductions, schools have been hit hard." The base has stayed the same but the supports around our teachers and our kids ...are eroding away."

We're going to pay the price for lack of funding in preschool.

Kentucky has had no textbooks money for 3 years.


"At some point in the near future, we're going to have to take another look at the SEEK Formula. The SEEK Formula really did its job to bring some equity to funding across our state, and its gotten to a point where we are going to have to revisit that.  However, I think the bigger issue is the adequacy issue."

"The SEEK Formula does a pretty good job of assuring there's equity, but if there's no money to go around the places that don't have a local tax base really get hurt the hardest."

Peggy and Dennis

Remember this Guy?

Sure you do.

That's former NBA star Dennis Rodman, the poster child for the Competence-Deviance Hypothesis. In a nutshell, the premise is that the more competent an individual is, the more deviance will be tolerated in him or her by others. So in the case of Dennis Rodman, Detroit, San Antonio, Chicago and others all tolerated, at some expense, Dennis's proclivities for flamboyant stylings - even those that were a big departure from the expectations placed on others.

Why? There was a lot Dennis could not do; like shoot freethrows or hit a 3-pointer.

The reason lies in what Dennis could do. He could rebound. He could rebound a lot. Over a 14-year career Rodman pulled down an average of 13.1 rebounds a night. 18 per game in his prime at Detroit in 91-92 when he gathered more than thousand for the season.

Given so much competence in a critical area - Dennis was allowed to be deviant in others.

This was essentially the argument made by Superintendent Stu Silberman and the Fayette County school directors who evaluated former BTWA Principal Peggy Petrilli as they try to explain to the jury how anyone could rack up such a significant list of management problems - a list that would place lesser beings squarely in the cross hairs - and not have a one of them show up on her evaluations.

Catch us tomorrow morning and I'll share today's testimony as Petrilli's attorney bore down.

In the meantime...here are a few tweets: Read 'em from the bottom up.

Reday000Court in recess until Monday morning.about 1 hour ago from mobile web

Reday000Jurors indicate to Judge that they all can continue to serve next week.about 1 hour ago from mobile web

Reday000Plaintiff rests.about 1 hour ago from mobile web

Reday000Judge says it looks like another long day Monday...possible Tuesday.about 2 hours ago from mobile web

Reday000 Golden calls Brenda Allen. Court rules Allen does not have to appear due to attorney client privilege.about 2 hours ago from mobile web

Reday000Judge confers with attorneys on remainder of trial.about 2 hours ago from mobile web

Reday000Silberman excused.about 2 hours ago from mobile web

Reday000Golden: "Wasn't the goal to send Carmen & Fabio out to her house, to pressure her to resign.about 2 hours ago from mobile web

Reday000Golden bears down on Silberman.about 2 hours ago from mobile web

Reday000Stu: That's the bottom line on this whole situation. I did not make Peggy leave.about 2 hours ago from mobile web

Reday000"Did you throw Peggy under the bus? Stu "Oh no. Peggy made the decision to leave."about 2 hours ago from mobile web

Reday000Court resumes. Stu still on the stand.about 3 hours ago from mobile web
 
Reday000After side bar...McNeilll begins cross.about 4 hours ago from mobile web

Reday000Golden: "Didn't you decide it would just be easier to turn your back on Peggy?" Stu: "That is just not true."about 4 hours ago from mobile web

Reday000Golden concludes. McNeil reserves right to recall Silberman. Does not cross.about 4 hours ago from mobile web

Reday000Stu: Peggy could have gone back to BTWA.about 4 hours ago from mobile web

Reday000Stu is back on the stand. Lisa Stone is probably next.about 5 hours ago from mobile web

Reday000Trial resumes.about 5 hours ago from mobile web

Reday000McNeilll's client is Stu but it's also the Board. Is that the thing? ? ? ?about 5 hours ago from mobile web

Reday000Doesn't Stu own the privilege? Can't he waive it at will? Hummmm.about 5 hours ago from mobile web

Reday000...but he didn't say everything he wanted to citing priv. My question is....about 5 hours ago from mobile web

Reday000...attny/client priv. Stu told the jury he wanted to answer and that "it was critical." ...about 5 hours ago from mobile web

Reday000Is there a lawyer in the house? Before lunch Golden asked Stu a question involving the board attorney. McNeilll cautioned Stu about ...about 5 hours ago from mobile web

Reday000This AM: Ishmael admonished attorneys "Remember Rule # 1...Attnys ask...Witnesses answer...and can explain.about 5 hours ago from mobile web

Reday000Stu said: I knew her to be an outstanding instructional leader...had a significant issue with management...relationshipsabout 6 hours ago from mobile web

Reday000Court in recess until 1PMabout 6 hours ago from mobile web

Reday000Stu: Sir, There was nothing more that I wanted than for Peggy Petrilli to succeedabout 6 hours ago from mobile web

Reday000Stu on Aug 22 Mtg:I thought it was just one more thing that Peggy had gotten us into. I was there to smooth things out.about 7 hours ago from mobile web

Super Super

Jessamine schools chief Lu Young

Kentucky superintendent of the year

This from H-L:

Jessamine County Schools Superintendent Lu Young was named the 2012 Kentucky school superintendent of the year on Wednesday by the Kentucky Association of School Administrators.

Association executive director Wayne Young and other officials surprised Young with the award Wednesday afternoon at the Jessamine County Career and Technology Center.

Young, 51, joined the Jessamine County Schools as a teacher in 1983. She became superintendent in 2004, and she has been highly regarded among school superintendents statewide.

Last summer, Young was one of three finalists for superintendent of Fayette County Schools. Tom Shelton, who formerly headed the Daviess County Public Schools, got the job. Young and Shelton, who attended Wednesday's announcement, are close friends...

Georgia’s Shorter University tells workers to sign pledge they are not gay

This from the Washington Post :

To better ensure its staff follows the school’s biblical mandate, Georgia's Shorter University told its 200 employees late last month to sign a “Personal Lifestyle Statement” rejecting homosexuality, adultery and premarital sex.

The New York Daily News reports that those who don’t sign the pledge may lose their jobs.

The pledge also bans teachers and administrators at the conservative Christian university from drinking alcohol in front of students and requires they be active in local churches.

A gay university employee told the Georgia Voice that the pledge has many employees fearing witchhunts. “We now will live in fear that someone who doesn't like us personally or someone who has had a bad day will report that we've been drinking or that we are suspected of being gay,” he said.

The employee, who chose to remain anonymous for fear of repercussion by the school, said that while students don’t have to sign the pledge, they, too, are worried about how they might be affected next.

Tamara King Henderson, a student at Shorter who says she is bisexual, commented on the Georgia Voice story that she was concerned the pledge could impact her education. “This could hurt the University’s ability to attract the best and the brightest professors available... [and] ability to receive federal funds.”

Henderson also quoted anti-Nazi theologian and Lutheran pastor Martin Niemöller, who said: “ First they came for the communists, and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a communist. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a trade unionist. Then they came for the Jews, and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a Jew. Then they came for me and there was no one left to speak out for me.”

“Will the students be next?” she asked.

“They (employees) must be transparent,” Shorter President Donald Dowless (photo) told the Rome News-Tribune. “The rules are already in place and we have set up fair expectations up front. It is not unusual for any company to have a code of conduct.”

More Parents Accused Of Wrongly Sending Kids To Oldham Schools

This from WLKY:

At Least 12 More Cases Under Investigation

Three more parents have been charged in the ongoing investigation into students illegally attending classes in the Oldham County school district. 

Court papers said Jim McGuire used his Oldham County address to enroll his child when the child's primary residence was in Jefferson County with his mother, Cheryl McGuire. 

Dawne Grigsby, of Shelby County, is accused of using her mother's Oldham County address to enroll her two children.Investigators said the children actually live with their father in Henry County. 

The McGuires and Grigsby are all charged with theft by deception of less than $10,000. 

According to court paperwork, they listed their actual home addresses on emergency contact forms.Two parents previously had been accused of lying to the Oldham County school district in order to enroll their children...