Autism helper dog allowed in class, judge rules

By The Associated Press

November 11, 2009, 3:55AM

 A judge has ruled that a first-grader in central Illinois gets to keep his autism helper dog in school.
Associated Press archiveKaleb Drew, 6, and his autism service dog, Chewey, wait to be taken out of the car after Kaleb’s first day of school in Villa Grove, Ill. Judge Chris Freese sided Tuesday with the family of Kaleb Drew. 
They argued that the boy’s yellow Labrador retriever is a service animal allowed in schools under Illinois law, and helps keep him safe and calm in class.

The Villa Grove school district had argued the dog isn’t a true service animal.

REST OF STORY: HERE.

Happy Veterans Day.

Thank you to all Veterans.

States Mold School Policies to Win Federal Money

DENVER — Colorado’s lieutenant governor, Barbara O’Brien, has been parsing every public statement by Education Secretary Arne Duncan for nuances that could help her position the state as a winner in the $4 billion competition for federal school dollars known as Race to the Top.

Lt. Gov. Barbara O’Brien of Colorado, at the Skyview Academy in Thornton, is leading the state’s efforts on improving schools.

And officials in dozens of other states have been doing the same, said Gene Wilhoit, executive director of the Council of Chief State School Officers, a nonpartisan association of state superintendents of education….

Rest of article: HERE.

Board Meeting 11/10/09.

Public debate on Agenda Item: CLEAR review.

At issue: weather or not to expend $350,000 of ARRA funds to hire consultants to define our capacities in a collaborative manner so as to focus our strategic plan and administration’s efforts at making Christina the best district possible.

Spirited debate: yes.

Vote: 5 YES, 2NO.

I voted no for a variety of reasons that I expressed in public tonight but 2 stand out: expectation that all constituencies were/are involved in the process of this determination of need and the use ARRA monies to purchase services from a company headquartered in England. My international concerns are not rooted whatsoever in any amount of xenophobia, but rather in the appropriateness of the “spirit” of ARRA in my independent judgment. I failed to get an answer to the question of whether this use of funds was “cleared/approved” by any regulatory agency (Lt. Gov Denn / OIG for Education) that satisfactorily quelled my concerns after asking publicly.

As with any and all Board approved items, I have the sincerest hope that the CLEAR review is successful in spite of my sincere, ardent, honest and principled opposition.

The Bracey Report On the Condition of Public Education, 2009

Chicago’s Daley has run the schools for 13 years, with Duncan as CEO for
the last seven. Mayor Bloomberg and his Chancellor, Joel Klein, have had the
reins of the New York schools for seven years, since 2002; recently, the New
York legislature agreed to let Bloomberg run for a third term in 2009, and it authorized
mayoral control of schools through at least 2015.
Is there evidence that over these seven-year periods the schools have improved?
Test scores comprise the most readily accessible, if limited, evidence.
Scores on New York’s two state tests suggest there has been improvement, but results
from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) suggest just
the opposite. There are reasons to believe the state test results do not report accurate
outcomes.

The Bracey Report 2009

The one reason Duncan’s ‘Race to the Top’ will fail…..

“Experts” who see more rigor, more tests, more international comparisons, more “data-driven decision-making,” more math and science, more school closings, more Washington-initiated, top-down reform policy as the primary cure for education’s ills, are amateurs. And policymakers who can’t see the perversity of simultaneously spending billions on innovation and billions on standardization should consider finding other work…..

Rest of article HERE

ARRA Guidance and request for applications for SFSF funds.

Secretary of Education Arne Duncan today announced that application requirements for the final $11.5 billion in State Fiscal Stabilization Funds under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of 2009 are now available. In exchange for this unprecedented funding boost, the department is asking states to provide some basic information on teacher distribution, the collection and use of data, standards and assessments, and support for struggling schools.

Rest of release: HERE

Wow. Great Catch.

Best Catch Ever?! – Morgan State Player Makes Unreal Catch!

Total BS coming from Joel Klein in NYC….amazing stuff.

The Education Department blew almost $375,000 on a New Age management consultant who brags about being a master hypnotherapist and earning a degree from an online university.

William Howatt was hired to boost productivity and improve morale among the department’s middle managers – but the department wouldn’t say if he even accomplished that much.

Howatt consulted for Bear Stearns and “initiated an ethics curriculum” – before the firm crashed because of shoddy lending practices.

He was hired by the Education Department to save money and was charged with improving employees’ “ability to adapt to change.”

Howatt, who also promotes his credentials as a certified handwriting analyst and an “advanced” mediator, was based in Nova Scotia while working for the DOE.

Howatt was brought aboard in November 2008 by another Bear Stearns refugee, former Managing Director George Raab 3rd, who was hired by Chancellor Joel Klein after the firm crashed. Howatt was paid about $68,000 from November 2008 through January 2009.

Beginning in January, Howatt no longer collected checks directly. The DOE wired him an additional $306,000 through a fast-track contract.

The DOE got around a more rigorous bidding process by listing him as an employee of a company that provides the department with computer techs.

“It’s the kind of conduct that gives the education bureaucracy a bad name,” said Susan Lerner, executive director of Common Cause.

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/education/2009/11/06/2009-11-06_new_age_guru_cost_doe_374g.html#ixzz0W58JwRMF

Courage sometimes comes disguised as crazy…..

Lousiana School Boards Say ‘No Thanks’ On Race to the Top

The Louisiana School Boards Associations thinks it would be fiscally irresponsible for the state to go after a slice of the $4 billion in Race to the Top program grants, according to this Associated Press Story.

The boards are worried that the program will eventually amount to an unfunded mandate, in which districts will be expected to keep up with the new activities financed by the grant even after the infusion of federal cash goes away in two years. (One superintendent I talked to in Colorado for this story had similar concerns).

Louisiana School Boards go against the grain, are they right or wrong?

BACKGROUND ON THE PRESIDENT’S TRIP TO MADISON, WISCONSIN

A NATIONAL RESPONSE

 

In
July, the U.S. Department of Education issued a notice of proposed priorities
under the Race to the Top, and has received more than 3,700 comments from
approximately 1,200 respondents on the various components of the program,
including comments from 9 Governors, 20 State Education Officials, and over 200
education associations and organizations.  All comments to the Race to the
Top are available on http://www.ed.gov/programs/racetothetop/index.html

 

States
and communities across the nation have recently undertaken efforts designed to
promote education reforms that are consistent with the principles reflected
under the Race to the Top. 

 

Missouri became the 48^th
state, along with the District of Columbia, to join a national partnership led
by the National Governors Association and the Chief State School Officers to
develop a common core of new, rigorous college and career-ready standards in
reading and math.

 

California recently enacted
legislation to enable student achievement data to be linked to teacher and
principal performance.  Indiana now permits the use of
student performance data for teacher evaluation and Wisconsin,
with the support of the state teachers union, has recently introduced
and is considering legislation to do the same.  New York is also
considering similar legislation.

 

Illinois,
Louisiana, and Tennessee have all recently altered laws or policies
affecting public charter schools to enable their expansion and success.  Connecticut,
Delaware, Indiana, Ohio and Rhode Island have recently advanced
policies to preserve and strengthen public charter schools.  Similar
efforts are being considered in California, Idaho, New York,
Massachusetts, Michigan and North Carolina. 

 

Delaware
has recently
developed a new system of teacher evaluation which incorporates student
achievement and sets classroom goals for teachers evaluated through various measures
of student learning and growth. The system allows teachers, principals, and
school administrators to engage in a process focused on improving teacher
practice and increasing student success.

We did?

27.

Wow. Congratulations to the New York Yankees. I’m a Dodgers fan, so this is not my team, but they played harder and better than the boys from Philly. Well deserved.

NIH Awards More than 50 Grants to Boost Search for Causes, Improve Treatments for Autism

NIH Awards More than 50 Grants to Boost Search for Causes, Improve Treatments for Autism
Recovery Act Funds Support Strategic Goals for Autism Research

The National Institutes of Health has awarded more than 50 autism research grants, totaling more than $65 million, which will be supported with American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funds. These grants are the result of the largest funding opportunity for research on autism spectrum disorders (ASD) to date (http://www.nimh.nih.gov/science-news/2009/rising-to-the-challenge-nih-will-use-60-million-in-recovery-act-funds-to-support-strategic-autism-research.shtml), announced in March 2009.

Rest of Press release: here.

Groupthink.

“Groupthink is a type of thought exhibited by group members who try to minimize conflict and reach consensus without critically testing, analyzing, and evaluating ideas. Individual creativity, uniqueness, and independent thinking are lost in the pursuit of group cohesiveness, as are the advantages of reasonable balance in choice and thought that might normally be obtained by making decisions as a group.^[1] During groupthink, members of the group avoid promoting viewpoints outside the comfort zone of consensus thinking. A variety of motives for this may exist such as a desire to avoid being seen as foolish, or a desire to avoid embarrassing or angering other members of the group. Groupthink may cause groups to make hasty, irrational decisions, where individual doubts are set aside, for fear of upsetting the group’s balance.“

In my life, I am against this.

Open Meetings.

§ 10004. Open meetings.

(a) Every meeting of all public bodies shall be open to the public except those closed pursuant to subsections (b), (c), (d) and (h) of this section.

(b) A public body may call for an executive session closed to the public pursuant to subsections (c) and (e) of this section, but only for the following purposes:

(1) Discussion of an individual citizen’s qualifications to hold a job or pursue training unless the citizen requests that such a meeting be open. This provision shall not apply to the discussion by a licensing board or commission which is subject to the provisions of § 8735 of this title, of an individual citizen’s qualifications to pursue any profession or occupation for which a license must be issued by the public body in accordance with Delaware law;

(2) Preliminary discussions on site acquisitions for any publicly funded capital improvements;

(3) Activities of any law-enforcement agency in its efforts to collect information leading to criminal apprehension;

(4) Strategy sessions, including those involving legal advice or opinion from an attorney-at-law, with respect to collective bargaining or pending or potential litigation, but only when an open meeting would have an adverse effect on the bargaining or litigation position of the public body;

(5) Discussions which would disclose the identity of the contributor of a bona fide and lawful charitable contribution to the public body whenever public anonymity has been requested of the public body with respect to said contribution by the contributor;

(6) Discussion of the content of documents, excluded from the definition of “public record” in § 10002 of this title where such discussion may disclose the contents of such documents;

(7) The hearing of student disciplinary cases unless the student requests a public hearing;

(8) The hearing of employee disciplinary or dismissal cases unless the employee requests a public hearing;

(9) Personnel matters in which the names, competency and abilities of individual employees or students are discussed, unless the employee or student requests that such a meeting be open.

(c) A public body may hold an executive session closed to the public upon affirmative vote of a majority of members present at a meeting of the public body. The vote on the question of holding an executive session shall take place at a meeting of the public body which shall be open to the public, and the results of the vote shall be made public and shall be recorded in the minutes. The purpose of such executive sessions shall be set forth in the agenda and shall be limited to the purposes listed in subsection (b) of this section. Executive sessions may be held only for the discussion of public business, and all voting on public business must take place at a public meeting and the results of the vote made public.

8 Reasons to not link student testing data to teacher evaluations…..

This is tricky stuff indeed….

A Policy Brief on linking testing to teacher evaluations.

As you know, one of the big-ticket items on the Obama agenda is a proposal to evaluate teachers by looking at changes in their students’ test scores. As I explain in my forthcoming book, this idea comes out of studies by various economists who say that credentials and experience count for nothing, and that if we value improvements in student performance, we should judge teachers by their students’ scores. If the scores go up, the teacher is “effective,” and if they don’t go up, the teacher is a loser….

Rest of Article: HERE.

Practice makes perfect they say….

Here is a federal guide for School Turnarounds.

Federal Officials Are Pushing Similar ‘Turnaround’ Policy

By Dakarai I. Aarons

Premium article access courtesy of Edweek.org.

Read more FREE content!

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A majority of Chicago students affected by school closings were sent to schools that were low-performing, just like those they left behind—moves that had no significant impact on performance for most students, a study released last week finds.

The lack of academic improvement raises questions about a strategy that’s part of U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan’s spotlight on changing the nation’s lowest-performing schools.

Rest of Article: HERE.

School Visit Schedule.

As a new Board Member, I have been touring our schools. Here is the schedule I have been following and will follow the rest of the school year.

John

Sterck	31-Aug-09		Brookside	8-Feb-10
Bayard	14-Sep-09		Downes	22-Feb-10
Pulaski	21-Sep-09		Gallaher	1-Mar-10
Douglass	5-Oct-09		Jones	8-Mar-10
REACH	19-Oct-09		Keene	22-Mar-10
Stubbs	26-Oct-09		Leasure	29-Mar-10
Sarah Pyle	2-Nov-09		Maclary	12-Apr-10
Bancroft	9-Nov-09		Marshall	19-Apr-10
Elbert/Palmer	16-Nov-09		McVey	26-Apr-10
Christiana	30-Nov-09		Porter Road	3-May-10
Glasgow	7-Dec-09		Smith	10-May-10
Newark	14-Dec-09		West Park	17-May-10
Gauger-Cobbs	21-Dec-09		Wilson	24-May-10
Brennen	4-Jan-10		Shue-Medill	25-Jan-10
Kirk	11-Jan-10		Brader	1-Feb-10

Parents aren’t supporting alternative school | Delawareonline.com | The News Journal

Thank you for your article regarding the Douglass Alternative School. To those parents who call it a reform school, wouldn’t you like your child to have a 4-1 student-to-teacher ratio? Do you like the mentoring there? A child learns right from wrong. Maybe those parents who stand up and speak falsehoods about the Christina School District need to visit Douglass. Maybe some board members need a visit as well.

Rest of Letter: Click Below.

Parents aren’t supporting alternative school | Delawareonline.com | The News Journal

I agree Steve, and as a new Board Member I enjoyed my visit with Principal Ingram and his team on October 5th very much.

Leadership style fail, DCPS chancellor Rhee.

The future of the District’s school system may well be decided by whether Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee’s forceful reform campaign becomes mired in a swamp of her own self-defeating hubris.

A lively, dramatic D.C. Council hearing Thursday illustrated again the need for Rhee to temper her autocratic approach, especially by communicating and collaborating better with the body that approves her budget.

Rest of Article: HERE

NAEP study on standards…..

WASHINGTON, Oct. 29 /PRNewswire/ — States vary widely in where they set their
student proficiency standards in 4th and 8th grade reading and mathematics,
according to a new report released today by the National Center for Education
Statistics. The report compares proficiency standards of states using the
National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) as the common metric.“The study gives policymakers, educators and parents a way to view state
proficiency standards using a common yardstick,” said John Q. Easton, Director
of the Institute of Education Sciences (IES). “It shows that a student seen
as proficient in one state might be seen as not proficient in another.”

Rest of Article: HERE

Race to the Top Summit at UD 10.27.09

Selected speeches

more about "Race to the Top Summit at UD 10.27.09", posted with vodpod

Books are dying…..

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, one of the oldest publishers in the United States, plans to unveil today the biggest deal in its history: a $40 million, multi-year contract with Detroit public schools. But this is not the typical agreement to sell a textbook to every student.

Instead, Houghton will be providing a computer-based teaching system it developed with Microsoft Corp. that will connect teachers, students, and administrators. It’s a radical shift away from the classic textbook publishing model and represents an industry transformation, as technology supplants books.

Rest of the story: HERE

The tactic of closing schools: right, wrong, good, or bad?

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

Secretary of Education Arne Duncan presided over the closing of dozens of failing schools when he was chief executive of the Chicago public schools from 2001 until last December. In his new post, he has drawn on those experiences, putting school turnaround efforts at the center of the nation’s education reform agenda.

 

Now a study by researchers at the University of Chicago concludes that most students in schools that closed in the first five years of Mr. Duncan’s tenure in Chicago saw little benefit.

Rest of article: HERE.

UD Education Conference 10/27/09.

I attended.

U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan said during a presentation Tuesday, Oct. 27, at the University of Delaware that he believes the current economic crisis is as good a time as any for leaders at the state and national levels to make long-term positive changes to America’s educational system.

“This is an amazing time to be working in education in this country,” Duncan said. “We are going through a crisis, we have the worst economy since the Depression, we are fighting a couple of wars and we also are fighting an educational crisis.”

Rest of article: here

Altered transcripts point to Bronx high school under pressure | GothamSchools

This disturbing news from New York is outrageous….report HERE.

more about “ Altered transcripts point to Bronx…“, posted with vodpod

America’s teaching corps is made up of three groups with distinct attitudes about their profession, which has implications for policymakers.

Two out of five of America’s 4 million K-12 teachers appear disheartened and disappointed about their jobs, while others express a variety of reasons for contentment with teaching and their current school environments, new
research by Public Agenda and Learning Point Associates shows. The nationwide study, “Teaching for a Living: How Teachers See the Profession Today,” whose results are being reported here for the first time, offers a comprehensive and nuanced look at how teachers differ in their perspectives on their profession, why they entered teaching, the atmosphere and leadership in their schools, the problems they face, their students and student outcomes, and ideas for reform. Taking a closer look at the nation’s teacher corps based on educators’ attitudes and motivations for teaching could provide some notable implications for how to identify, retain, and support the
most effective teachers, according to the researchers.

See rest of article: HERE.

Christina School District is now on Twitter.

Forward progress. Communication. Recognition of social media. Reaching out. Trying new things.

LOVE IT.

Go Christina….follow my district: HERE!

Having regrets….DCPS style.

Schools Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee, facing a showdown Thursday with the D.C. Council over layoffs and budget cuts, has asked principals what she can do to “regain the trust” of the school system’s teachers, some principals say.

Rhee posed the question last week during the monthly meeting of her school leadership at Gallaudet University’s Kellogg Conference Center, according to two participants and a third source who was briefed later by others who attended. The two principals, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were discussing internal deliberations, said Rhee expressed concern that even her best teachers have been shaken by the turmoil surrounding the Oct. 2 layoffs of 266 educators and the introduction of a rigorous evaluation system.

Not quite an emotional plea……..but maybe the beginnings of trying to show the world she has a soul.