Division I regional track finals
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Dayton Daily News education reporter Scott Elliott writes about schools, kids, teaching and learning.
Home > Blogs > Get on the Bus > Archives > 2007 > January
January 2007
Profile of a sex offending teacher
(Letourneau and LaFave)
If you have a 15-year-old son, live in Florida or California and your son’s teacher is a 31-year-old woman named Pamela, Nicole or Amy you might have a reason to worry.
That’s because my review of 79 cases of sex offending women teachers in the U.S. suggests this is the typical circumstance in which misbehavior occurs.
Last week, I got an e-mail from the website WorldNetDaily, which has something of a fascination with sex offending women teachers. The site has been writing about such teachers for some time and arguing that there is an “epidemic” of women teachers having sex with teen-aged boys across the country. Among the high profile cases we all remember are Mary Kay Letourneau in Washington and Debra LaFave in Florida.
The typical case of an teacher-child sex offense, in most of our minds, involves an adult male offender. But in the news there seems to more and more cases of women teachers as the offender over the past couple of years. Is this because there is an actual trend of more sex offenses by women teachers? Or is it just that we hear about them more?
Well, WorldNetDaily did an interesting thing — it compiled every media report it could find online about sex offending women teachers.
I have to say, I found the list pretty amazing. I also typed some basic info from each case into an Excel spreadsheet and ran some numbers. I threw out cases outside the U.S. and non-teacher cases such as bus drivers and teachers’ aides. Here’s what I found:
—There were 79 total cases. The oldest (the infamous Pamela Smart) was from 1993 and the newest was from 2007. A huge 70 percent (56) of the cases WorldNetDaily found came to light since the start of 2005.
—The biggest states for these cases are Florida and California with eight cases, followed by New York (7), Texas (7) and New Jersey (6). No big surprise there as all are among the most populous states. Ohio, also a large state, has perhaps fewer cases than might be expected with three, including Huber Heights teacher Celeste Emerick.
—The average age of the victim in these cases is 15 and victims on the list range in age from 12 to 17.
—Pamela, Nicole and Amy were the most common first names of offending teachers, but with just three cases for each name.
—Eight cases involved teacher misbehavior with multiple boys and eight cases involved misconduct by women teachers with young girls.
I was surprised by the pure number of these sorts of cases since 2005. I am doubtful that this is a growing trend as opposed to one we are just noticing more, but I have to admit this made me re-think my view. I was also surprised by how young the average victim was. I would have guessed 16 or 17.
What jumps out at you from these stats?
Permalink | Comments (27) | Categories: My Favorite Posts, Student Health and Safety
School levy: Board goes all in
I’m not a big gambler, but I like to play from time to time. Especially now, in Catholic fish fry season. I’ll take a set amount with me — never more than $30 — and plan on giving it all away for the cause. If I walk out of there with a few bucks, well, just lucky that time I guess. I’ll give it back next time. That’s my whole strategy and not carrying more cash than I planned to lose helps limit my risk of a big loss.
I’ve been thinking about gambling this week, and not just because I’ve been to two fish frys already this month.
On Thursday, we watched as the Dayton school board made a huge wager. Together the board members pushed all their chips to the center of the table and and went “all in” for the May 8 primary election.
Most of the debate here at Get on the Bus since the news of the 16 mill levy broke has been about what the board has or has not accomplished and whether it deserves voter support. For a moment, lets put aside those questions.
Let’s accept for the sake of argument that everything the board says is correct — that its done a good job improving student learning over the past five years, that it has managed the district’s finances with all appropriate care and that it truly needs the 16 mills it is asking. Let’s even agree with Gail Littlejohn’s assertion that passing this levy would make a measurable difference in the workforce skills of the city in the near future.
Suppose all that is true, everything the school board is arguing. There’s still a sticky question about this levy that remains. Was a 16 mill levy the right move?
Or is it too much? That is the single biggest question I’ve been asked over the past week.
There was another way the school board could have gone. It could have asked for a smaller levy, perhaps on the order of 9 or 10 mills. This would have required cuts and perhaps meant another levy in a couple years. And some observers wonder if it would not have been easier for voters to stomach.
But the board decided to be bold. A budget of $182 million is what Superintendent Percy Mack said it takes to keep their program intact. That meant $30 million a year and 16 mills additional taxes — $490 more a year for a $100,000 house.
And with that, the board pushed all its chips to the center of the table.
That’s because the May 8 levy MUST pass if the district is to avoid deep cuts. How deep? Take a look at this list from October. Even after all those cuts, the board would still have to find $12 million more cuts! Other possible targets — eliminating more sports and extra curriculars, fewer high school electives, dropping high school busing and all but eliminating elementary music programs and adjunct music and art instructors at Stivers School for the Arts.
If the May levy fails, the board have would seek a levy again, probably in November. Assuming that levy passes, the money would come too late to have much impact in 2007-08. The upcoming school year threatens to become a lost year.
So that’s the risk the board has taken. Is it a good risk? That depends on the politics and its very hard to say.
Asking voters for what is really needed takes guts and I’ve seen a lot of other districts try to take the shortcut with a smaller than needed levy and pay for it down the line. If this levy passes, the district should be financially secure for the next five years with a program the school board believes can make a real difference to kids and, ultimately, for the city’s workforce.
But even if all that is true, a levy of this size could still be the wrong move if it simply is too much for voters to punch the yes button. Board members have a little more than 90 days to persuade voters in two ways — that the levy is worth it because the schools need and deserve the money and that, yes, you can afford to give this much.
(Image credit: www.pokerplayernewspaper.com)
Permalink | Comments (15) | Categories: Dayton Public Schools
Asking tough questions
Here’s a nice compliment to Get on the Bus readers. If you have a hard copy of today’s DDN, go to the editorial page. You’ll find a long editorial about the proposed levy and included with it they grabbed some of the best questions about the levy that have been asked here on this blog over the past week. Take a look if you have the paper.
After you read the editorial, come back here and answer this question: Could Gov. Ted Strickland play a useful role in resolving Dayton’s school crisis?
The editorial calls on on Strickland to bring the state employee relations board — a group charged with resolving labor disputes — to Dayton to help.
This is obviously not a labor dispute, but the editorial hints Strickland and SERB could negotiate on the labor front, perhaps forging the groundwork for future contracts that would be less costly to the district over time.
Strickland could certainly bring pressure and attention by getting involved in Dayton’s school finance crisis. But beyond rhetoric, I’m not sure how much power he has to make change here. He doesn’t have the power to do what is needed most — allocate more money in Dayton.
What is your reaction to the DDN’s calll for Strickland to get involved? Are there concrete steps he could take to actually make change here? The call for SERB suggests labor costs are a major factor in the crisis. Do you believe that is the root of the financial trouble?
Post your reactions here in in the comments.
Permalink | Comments (11) | Categories: Dayton Public Schools, Journalism
What you got for $44 million
The school board formally approved a resolution to place a 16-mill levy on the May 8 ballot Thursday night.
It was an unusually emotional meeting, with board members Gail Littlejohn talking about the sacrifice her grandparents made to send her to college, Stacy Thompson recalling her mother’s reminder that somebody picked up the tab for her public school education and Yvonne Isaacs referencing the impoverished one-room schoolhouse where she began her education in her native Jamaica.
But beyond appealing to the community’s affection for its children and touting the power of educational opportunity to changes lives, the board argued that it had been good stewards of the public’s money. Board members said they eliminated waste and spent carefully and effectively.
The district’s big operating expense over the past five years has been its academic reform program, which cost about $44 million. What did they spend the money on? Here is Stan Lucas’ detailing of the elements of the academic reform program and their price tags:
Expenses for academic reforms 2003 to 2006
1. Improving literacy and math instruction
Textbook upgrades $6,655,946
Test development $156,300
High school teacher review $40,140
Kindergarten to eighth grade review $80,280
Professional development $117,368
Terra Nova testing $1,593,358
Total: $8,643,392
2. Expanding professional development of teachers and administrators
New teacher training $372,046
Teacher training, summer $708,355
Teacher training, school year $453,622
Instructor cost $132,362
Intervention teachers $6,772,332
Reading and math coaches $11,491,369
Total: 19,558,310
3. Improving student behavior and family involvement
Resource center staff $1,242,356
Resource center instructional materials $1,951,000
Alternative school social services $870,611
Alternative school teachers $1,943,618
4. Total: $6,007,585
Creating better learning conditions
Pre-K teachers $1,024,435
Pre-K aides $462,338
K-6 teachers $8,350,132
Total: $9,836,905
Grand total: $44,046,192
Permalink | Comments (34) | Categories: Dayton Public Schools
Breaking News: District to seek 16 mills
The Dayton school board will vote Thursday to place a larger than expected five-year, 16-mill emergency levy on the May ballot. It will raise $30 million annually, which Superintendent Percy Mack said will hold the district’s “core” budget constant at about the $180 million the district has been spending since 2003.
The levy is considerably larger than the initial projection, which was for 9.75 mills.
That’s because district revenues are in a sharp decline, Treasurer Stan Lucas said. Cash flow has slowed for a variety of reasons, but school officials largely blamed the state. Lucas cited $12 million annually lost just to state changes in how it calculates each district’s charter school enrollment, cost of doing business and parity aid.
This will be the district’s first operating levy since 1992. If it passes, the levy will cost the owner of a $100,000 home about $490 annually.
About $30 million in cuts will be needed on July 1 if the levy fails, which Mack and Lucas said would effectively gut the district’s academic program and reduce its services to bare bones in most areas.
School leaders said they will argue to voters that the district cannot take a step back from the progress its made since 2002. Dayton this year jumped two spots on the state’s rating system to “continuous improvement.” It was the first time since the state began rating districts eight years ago that Dayton was not in the bottom category of “academic emergency.”
This progress toward improving the school system is Dayton’s best chance in some time to “break the cycle of poverty for this generation,” board member Gail Littlejohn said.
“I’ve seen people around this community and they’re excited to finally see some movement from our school district,” Mack said. “We can’t go back.”
But school officials also acknowledged that they are asking a lot from voters.
“They’ve done all we’ve asked,” Mack said. “Its been a great community effort. Now we’re asking for one more round here.”
UPDATE: Here are links to today’s stories on the proposed levy.
Permalink | Comments (46) | Categories: Dayton Public Schools
A school in Triangle Park?
Triangle Park in summer
A bunch of angry people showed up at the Dayton school board meeting Tuesday to protest a plan to build the district’s new Montessori elementary school in Triangle Park. They were outraged that the city commission would vote on the sale or lease of the land for the school in emergency action early Wednesday morning.
There was just one problem. There isn’t even a hint of a plan for a new school in Triangle park from either the city commission or the school board.
At least not yet.
The district’s plan for some time has been to consolidate the three Montessori schools it currently operates at one school site where the Patterson Career Academy now stands at 441 River Corridor Drive.
That plan was complicated last year when a development group announced a plan for a massive project of housing and shopping around nearby Fifth Third Field. The development plan required the city to obtain the Patterson site so it could be included in the development.
That ruffled a few feathers over at the school district, where administrators viewed the River Corridor site as one of its premium properties and an idea site for the Montessori school, which they hoped might draw new families into the district by catering to parents who work downtown.
Even so, preliminary discussions began about the Patterson property. One of the key questions was where else the Montessori school might go.
At Tuesday’s meeting, board member Mario Gallin acknowledged that the city had taken a group of Montessori parents on a tour of other properties. Some were commercial spaces. Two were on part of the Kettering Fields park land. But she admitted the group visited Triangle and was taken with the site there.
But that’s as far as it went, she said. City officials warned that neighborhood meetings would be needed before any other discussion of Triangle Park could go forward.
City Commissioner Nan Whaley confirmed late Tuesday that there is no plan for a school in Triangle Park and she is not aware of any plan for the commission to vote on anything related to the park Wednesday. None of the commissioners have even been briefed yet on the idea of a school in the park.
So there you have it. There appears to be some interest in the park as a school site on both sides, but nothing is imminent.
A few other interesting notes from the school board meeting:
—There was no action with regard to Kiser Elementary School’s principal job, as had been expected. But Superintendent Percy Mack said after the meeting that former district administrator Cheryl Johnson will be named principal soon for the remainder of the school year.
—The district’s operations manager, Larry Hoskins, said his department is purchasing a few GPS tracking devices for vehicles. The devices can be stuck to any vehicle with a magnet and they collect information on where the vehicle travels for up to four days, but the data cannot be tracked in real time. Hoskins said the devices cost about $300 a piece and will not be placed on all vehicles. They will be used only to investigate complaints or concerns about misuse of district vehicles.
—Bus driver Kelvin Holiday expressed concern that there was not enough supervsion in the transportation department and he was concerned that slow response time from supervisors could create a dangerous situation in an emergency. Superintendent Percy Mack suggested he raise the concern with managers in transportation and with the union-management committee.
(Image credit: Jan Underwood, DDN)
Permalink | Comments (10) | Categories: Dayton Public Schools
Remembering Hrant Dink
(Hrant Dink (in sport coat) speaks to Knight-Wallace Journalism Fellows in 2005)
This is a bit off topic for this forum and so I’ve hesitated to write about it here to this point. But I just can’t get the story of Hrant Dink, the Turkish-Armenian journalist who was shot and killed outside his office last week, off my mind. Today his funeral prompted a demonstration in favor of free speech and tolerance in Turkey.
In 2005, I met Dink in Istanbul when I was traveling with a group of international journalists as part of the Knight Wallace Journalism Fellowships through the University of Michigan.
Our group of about 16 journalists, including 12 Americans, met Dink for lunch at a wonderful rooftop restaurant with a spectacular sun-washed view of the amazing city of Istanbul. Turkey is a unique country in that it is Muslim but not Arab. Istanbul has a very European feel to it, but much of the country is rural and more typically middle eastern.
The nation has been working toward European Union membership and modernizing in many ways. But like the U.S. and other nations, it has had a troubled past in its dealings with ethnic minorities within its own borders.
Dink, a newspaper editor, believed straight talk about the past was the key to a better future for Turkey. He was an ethnic Armenian, a minority group historically oppressed in Turkey. In one of the nation’s darkest chapters, more than a million ethnic Armenians died around the time of World War I in Turkey in what many historians now say was primarily an incident of genocide. The Turkish government’s official version of events denies this.
By writing about the genocide and incidents of minority oppression, Dink exposed another of Turkey’s challenges — a tradition of discomfort with free speech. Turkish law prohibits speech that insults the state, and Dink was among several writers who have been prosecuted for simply writing their conscience.
Our group’s meeting with Dink was one of the highlights of a week in Turkey. He was brilliant and passionate and deeply committed to his cause and to journalistic freedom. His funeral brought an outpouring of sentiment for greater freedoms of speech and against violence.
It’s very easy to be a journalist in Dayton, Ohio. But elsewhere around the world, this can be a dangerous job. People like Dink, who know the dangers but write anyway because they believe their ideas are important, have tremendous courage.
It seems some good could result from Dink’s death if it means Turkey will be forced to truly confront these problems. I’m just sorry the world has to be deprived of a man like Dink for important change to occur.
(Image credit: Stephanie Reitz)
Permalink | Comments (1) | Categories: Journalism
Tweens: Stuck in the middle (school)
(Sixth graders in a cooperation exercise as part of orientation at Centerville’s Tower Heights Middle School in 2005)
Today’s New York Times had a good look at the growing national effort to destroy middle school and the debate over what to two with “tweens” (pre-teen or middle school age kids).
We had our own little deabte about the value of middle school here at Get on the Bus recently. The Times goes over the statistics that are driving the argument that middle schools harm kids educationally.
Take a look and share your reaction here in the comments.
(Image Credit: Jan Underwood, DDN)
Kidd out as Kiser principal
(Principal Sandra Kidd in the library of the new Kiser Elementary School before its grand opening last summer)
Rumors were flying Friday that Sandra Kidd, the well-liked principal of Kiser Elementary School, had been removed from her post. When we checked on this late Friday afternoon, the district maintained that Kidd was still principal.
Apparently that changed just hours later.
Superintendent Percy Mack said Sunday that the decision to move Kidd to an administrative job in the district’s school assignment office had been made late Friday. He said the matter was a personnel issue that he could not discuss further.
Mack has not yet picked a replacement and is not certain how much information can be shared with the school’s staff or families, a few of whom were clamoring for information Friday about the rumor that this was about to happen.
“There’s just so much you can say when you’re dealing with personnel situations,” Mack said. “We understand the sensitivity of the staff, but sometimes decisions just have to be handled cautiously.”
Kidd, 58, is a 35-year district employee and was principal of Webster Elementary School for 15 years prior to taking the reins at Kiser.
When it debuted in July, Kiser was the first new school to open under the district’s 10-year construction program. Many of the school’s students came from now closed Webster, and Kidd went with them to the sparkling new school.
There could be an announcement of a new principal for Kiser early this week, Mack said. Check Monday’s Dayton Daily News for more information.
(Image credit: Ed Roberts, DDN)
NOTE: I correct a grammar mistake in the cutline noticed by OldProf
Permalink | Comments (24) | Categories: Dayton Public Schools
Photo banned at school
(The photo banned by St. Francis High School near Minneapolis)
In the photo above, the student lead in a school play tears bunting in a scene that portrayed a fictional tearing of the American flag. The play is a Cold War era story of the conquest of the U.S. by a Soviet-like foreign power.
The question is — would you be comfortable if the student paper at your child’s school ran this photo on its front page? If you were the principal, would you ban the paper from using this photo?
The Minneapolis Star-Tribune writes that the school’s principal banned the student paper from using this shot, saying it was potentially offensive. The ACLU ripped the decision, but acknowledged it was likely legal. First Amendment protection extends to publishers and the school in this case is the publisher of the student paper. So it can decide what does and does not appear in the student paper.
This photo had previously hung on the wall in the school for some time. And there was apparently no controversy about the show being performed.
So what’s your call? Did the principal go to far?
(Image credit: The Star-Tribune)
School Funding: Welcome to Wyoming
Make no mistake about it — Wednesday’s proposed constitutional amendment would be a radical change for Ohio. If the amendment makes it to the ballot and is passed, it will make Ohio one of the few states that will determine how much money goes to schools based solely on the “actual” cost of educating kids, as determined by a new statewide committee.
(Here is today’s main story on the proposal.)
But the amendment goes farther than that, establishing a student’s constitutional right to a “high quality public education.” That is a far higher standard for the legislature to maintain than what the constitution currently requires — that lawmakers maintain a “thorough and efficient system” of schools.
And it also makes profound structural changes in the way the state’s political structure manages its education systems and its budget process.
Perhaps the best model for what Ohio wants to try is Wyoming, but even that state’s system wouldn’t match Ohio for uniqueness.
Wyoming’s system resulted from a court order to change that state’s funding system, which the state’s top court found both inequitable and underfunded. To determine adequate funding, the state turned to economist Richard Rothstein and a colleague for a plan.
The result is known as the “basket of educational goods.” State officials routinely go through a process of determining the attributes of a “model school” — determining, for instance, how many teachers are needed based on a “standard” class size and deciding, say, whether the model elementary school should have auxiliary staff, like nurses, counselors, etc.
Once the attributes of the model school are decided, state officials set a cost for those services by looking at data from Wyoming and neighboring states. That “actual cost” of education then becomes the basis for funding schools.
This is where critics of Ohio’s plan will say the potential is there for an escalation in costs.
Right now, the legislature considers many factors to decide how much to set aside for schools. But the conversation begins like this — “How much have we got and what can we afford?”
Under the proposed amendment, the state board of education and a new “Education Advisory Commission” will follow the Wyoming model — determining the attributes of a quality education, setting a per student cost for that and presenting that dollar figure to the legislature for funding.
There is a good chance the funding level using this method will be more, since it is based on what is needed to educate kids rather than on how much money the state has and what lawmakers decide they can afford to set aside for schools.
But the legislature can only override the new funding level if a three-fifths majority in both houses agree — a high standard. And even if that happened, the state supreme court would have to sign off on the legislature’s new figure — verifying that it is adequate to fund the model school.
Education also must be funded first under the amendment, leaving lawmakers to figure out how to fund other state services with the money that is leftover.
What made even supporters of public schools — such as the state’s big city mayors — back off from the plan was that it has the potential to raise state spending but does not provide for any new revenue. Many, including Dayton Superintendent Percy Mack, expected a 1 percent sales tax to be part of the amendment, assuring new money for new costs.
Why was the new tax left out? Perhaps because, as some supporters said, tax policy is best left to elected officials and kept out of the constitution. Or perhaps promoters of the amendment thought it would be harder to pass with a tax attached. Gov. Ted Strickland and legislative leaders also are wary of the proposal, as it takes much control for budgeting away from them.
Assuming the amendment makes it to the voters as a ballot amendment in November, it will be a complicated measure to explain to voters.
What do you think of this proposed change to school funding in Ohio?
(Image credit: http://www.oars.com/)
Permalink | Comments (11) | Categories: School Funding
No. 2 in Dayton or No. 1 in Toledo?
Debra Brathwaite
I was planning to write a blog update last night on the big school funding proposal, but then just as I was trying to go home I got a call from a reporter at the Toledo Blade.
He wanted to know about Dayton’s Deputy Superintendent Debra Brathwaite who was a candidate for the top job in Toledo.
Not to worry, though. I tracked down Dayton Superintendent Percy Mack who said Brathwaite decided Wednesday to pull out of the running. Mack said Brathwaite, who runs the daily operation of district’s academic programs, would make a great superintendent in the right situation. Apparently, Toledo turned out not to be that situation. Mack also noted that she made this decision without an offer of a pay raise to stay.
Losing Brathwaite would have made Mack’s job a lot harder. The district had a difficult time finding a qualty No. 2 administrator. In fact, Prior to Brathwaite, then-Superintendent Jerrie Bascome McGill never was able to hire anyone for this post.
And Brathwaite has become a key player on Mack’s leadership team. She’s been building the experience and qualifications necessary to be a superintendent. I think at least some board members see her as a likely first option to replace Mack should he ever move on from Dayton.
At least for now, she’s staying put. But the board may want to take notice that she is looking around.
(Image credit: www.lovettandlovett.com)
Permalink | Comments (1) | Categories: Dayton Public Schools
Proposal: Change constitution to help schools
Any major proposal to make changes in the way schools are funded would spark a controversy in most states, but a plan announced today to amend Ohio’s constitution in a way that would fundamentally change school finance at an unknown cost is sure to fire people up.
Already, the state’s big city mayors, who helped spark the talks that led to this proposal, have backed away from the final plan.
More about this story later today, but for now here is the press release from a group called The Campaign for Ohio’s Future:
EDUCATION ADVOCATES VOW TO GET IT RIGHT FOR OHIO’S FUTURE Consortium takes first step toward Ohio constitutional amendment to fix school funding
COLUMBUS, Ohio - A consortium dedicated to strengthening education and economic opportunities in Ohio submitted to Attorney General Marc Dann today a proposed constitutional amendment to establish a high-quality education as a fundamental right for Ohio’s children through the implementation of a new school funding model. The consortium consists of 12 statewide education groups.
The proposed amendment campaign, Getting It Right for Ohio’s Future, supports developing a well-educated work force to help stimulate good jobs and restore Ohio’s competitiveness. It also would establish a new accountability structure at the state level to ensure high-quality educational opportunities are available across Ohio in a cost-effective manner.
“The Ohio Supreme Court has ruled four times that Ohio’s school funding formula is unconstitutional,” said Jim Betts, spokesperson for the Campaign for Ohio’s Future, representing the consortium of grassroots and professional education organizations. “Getting It Right for Ohio’s Future puts Ohio’s children first by creating a system that determines what a high-quality education would cost based on student need and paying for that education without an unfair reliance on property taxes.”
Because Ohio’s current school funding formula relies heavily on property taxes, it frequently forces local districts to go back to the ballot to keep school programs intact. Getting It Right for Ohio’s Future reduces reliance on property taxes and decreases the need for local levies.
Getting It Right for Ohio’s Future would:
Amend the Ohio Constitution to establish that a high-quality education is a fundamental right for every Ohio child
Determine levels of funding based on student need for all types of students, including special education, vocational education, gifted or economically disadvantaged
Eliminate “phantom revenue” of untaxed property value calculations by the state, thereby reducing the need for local tax levies
Exempt Ohio seniors and disabled citizens from property taxes on the first $40,000 of the market value of their homes
Create an independent commission appointed by Ohio’s top elected leaders - the governor, speaker of the House and Senate president - that monitors districts to ensure that high-quality educational opportunities are available to students in a cost-effective manner
Direct the independent commission to report annually to the governor, General Assembly, State Board of Education and the public
Create and maintain a permanent local government fund to support police and fire departments, libraries and other local government services that support Ohio schools, our citizens and Ohio’s ability to compete for jobs
Establish a system that ensures total state funding for Ohio’s public institutions of higher education receive no less than the amount provided in 2007 and increases annually based on the state’s personal income percentage.
The attorney general’s office will have 10 days to respond to the petition Getting It Right for Ohio’s Future submits, ruling whether it accurately reflects the proposed amendment. Once the attorney general approves the petition language submitted today, and the Ohio Ballot Board certifies the petition for distribution, the consortium will kick off a vigorous petition campaign across Ohio to collect enough valid signatures to put the measure on the statewide November 2007 ballot.
“Getting It Right for Ohio’s Future is a win for Ohio’s students and schools, it’s a win for our communities and it’s a win for our business owners who need to hire the best and brightest to stay competitive in the marketplace,” said Betts. “I urge all Ohioans to help us spread the word about this critical constitutional amendment that will ensure stronger schools, a stronger economy and a better quality of life in Ohio.”
For more information about Getting It Right for Ohio’s Future, please visit www.rightforohio.org.
Permalink | Comments (7) | Categories: School Funding
Safety expert: Small details save lives
Kenneth Trump on 20/20
We’ve been on a bit of a safety kick here at Get on the Bus lately, and it continues tonight as I attended a seminar for school leaders at the University of Dayton featuring Kenneth Trump, perhaps the nation’s most quoted school safety expert.
The event was co-sponsored by UD’s school of education and the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation. Other speakers included Dayton Superintendent Percy Mack, Dayton police Lt. Robert Chabali and Centerville High School Principal Eileen Booher.
Trump had two main messages for schools:
—Train everybody
—Pay attention to details
Some of of his suggestions were such common sense, and yet you can see how schools overlook them.
Trump is a former Cleveland school safety officer, author of a book on school safety and president of National School Safety and Security Services. His overarching message was that schools that talk about safety procedures with everyone — students, teachers, staff, parents, law enforcement, the community — are often the ones that spot trouble before it happens.
But is other theme was that small details can make a difference. Here are some of his safety tips for schools:
—Plain talk. Don’t use euphemisms. Talk directly about violence with students and staff.
—Safety plans. Review safety plans regularly. Trump said he often consults at schools where the safety plans are years old and include contact names of folks who retired years ago.
—Lockdowns. Schools often are too quick to lockdown and have unrealistic expectations for law enforcement response.
—Procedures. Procedures are sometimes too confusing or cumbersome. For instance, schools sometimes have an emergency code word or sentence. That code should be understandable, Trump said, citing one school that used the code “A red Corvette is parked out front.” Trump said this code would be confusing to many students and anyone not trained, which often includes non-teaching staff.
—Leadership. Procedures often require too many decision to be made by one person, often the principal. Trump noted that the principal could be injured, inaccessible or even off campus.
—Furniture. Design office spaces to impede attackers and facilitate escape.
—Grounds. Trim trees and bushes around the school to increase visibility.
—The Internet. Review websites to be sure they don’t offer too much information. Trump cited one district that showed its entire bus route on the Web, including pickup and drop off times and lists of students who ride each bus.
—Blueprints. Make sure floor plans of the school and information about building controls (electrical, plumbing, etc.) are accessible.
—Drills. Hold lockdown drills and “table top” safety brainstorming sessions for staff.
Permalink | Comments (10) | Categories: My Favorite Posts, Student Health and Safety
Jewish Union = championships!
I’ve unraveled the mystery of Ohio State’s improbable implosion in the college football championship, thanks to a well-timed press release.
It turns out the problem was not enough orthodox Jewish fellowship on campus in Columbus. Jon Stewart could have a field day with this on the Daily Show.
Seriously, I received this press release via E-mail:
For Immediate Release
ORTHODOX UNION CAMPUS PROGRAM GOES HAND AND HAND WITH CHAMPIONSHIPS, THANKS TO PROWESS OF UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA
Ho hum! It’s happened again. For the second time in 10 months, the Orthodox Union’s Jewish Learning Initiative on Campus (JLIC) program is part of college life at the NCAA champion of a major sport, just as it was last spring following the “March Madness” basketball tournament. Of course, the University of Florida’s athletic prowess has something to do with it.
When Florida defeated Ohio State last night in the B.C.S. championship football game, it joined with the school’s basketball team, which defeated UCLA in the Final Four, to be crowned National Champion. In that tournament, both Florida and UCLA were JLIC schools.
What is JLIC and why does it have a seemingly mystical hold over prestigious athletic championships?
LIC is a program, in coordination with Hillel: the Foundation for Jewish Student Life, to create an Orthodox environment on secular campuses. It is found at 13 major colleges nationwide. The program is dedicated to the enhancement of Orthodox communities on campus by promoting positive growth and identity among Jewish students through a variety of activities, including study of ancient texts and the holding of religious services. At the University of Florida campus in Gainesville, Rabbi Yonah and Allison Schiller run the program, with a large following of students.
Come March, JLIC will be back again trying for another championship. Florida and UCLA are certain to be in the basketball tournament, perhaps to be joined by the University of Illinois, the University of Maryland, Rutgers, the University of Massachusetts/Amherst (Julius Erving’s alma mater), Yale, Princeton, Cornell or the University of Pennsylvania, other JLIC campuses. (The program is also found at Brandeis, New York University, and Brooklyn College, which compete at a more minor level athletically.)
And the championships? There is no rational explanation but as Rabbi Menachem Schrader, the founder of JLIC, declared following the latest University of Florida triumph, “I am happy for all JLIC university campuses to succeed in every possible legitimate way, including sports competitions. It’s easier for me to root for one of them when they are not competing with each other!”
The Orthodox Union, now in its second century of service to the Jewish community of North America and beyond, is a world leader in community and synagogue services, adult education, youth work through NCSY, political action through the IPA, and advocacy for persons with disabilities through Yachad and Our Way. Its kosher supervision label, the , is the world’s most recognized kosher symbol and can be found on over 409,000 products manufactured in 83 countries around the globe.
(Image credit: AP)
Permalink | Comments (2) | Categories: Sports and Athletics
Kids, safety and traffic
(The scene of a 13-year-old hit by a truck in Harrison Twp. in 2005)
In th course of writing last week about how parents are overly fearful for their children to the point where some won’t even let the kids out to play, I called a group known as Safe Routes To School, a California outfit that has taken its model for encouraging kids to walk or bike to school national.
Safe Routes’ program director Wendi Kallins and I didn’t talk in time for her comments to be included in the story or blog posts I wrote last week, but when we did talk I found much of what she had to say pretty interesting.
I’ve been interested in the idea of kids walking to school ever since parents reacted so negatively in August to my blog post suggestion that perhaps my young kids could walk to school by themselves.
Many of the commenters discouraged the idea for safety reasons, citing the danger that the kids could either be kidnapped or hit by cars while walking the short half-mile route to school without an adult.
I challenged those arguments, and at least with regard to the kidnapping idea, the numbers appeared to back me up. Kidnapping off the streets is exceedingly rare. Your kids are more likely to be hit by lightning on the way to school.
Kallins agreed with my assessment on that issue, adding that the kidnapping statistics over time had not changed much in 30 years. About 100 kids a year are kidnapped nationwide — a number that has been steady for decades, she said. Which means that the percentage of U.S. kids who are kidnapped has actually fallen as the number of children in the country has grown.
But then we got around to traffic, and here Kallins has a different view. Traffic danger, she said, really HAS increased significantly over time.
Why? Well my initial observation — that nearly all parents these days seem to drive their kids to school — is part of the answer. All those extra cars on the road at school drop-off and pick-up times have made injuries from traffic accidents an increasing danger for kids.
“Traffic is really different than we were growing up, partly because of so many people are driving their kids to schools,” Kallins said.
Whereas kids in our day often walked or biked to school in groups, today’s kids are most often dropped by a parent who is late, rushing, distracted and driving too fast. Kallins said some studies have shown parents on their way to drop kids at school are the second most dangerous subset of drivers after teen-agers. School drop-off and pick-up times are among the most dangerous times of day to be on the road.
The Safe Routes effort began in San Francisco’s Marin County, where Kallins’ group started working with local schools to encourage more families to have their kids walk or bike to school. The group took a comprehensive approach — doing everything from scouting the walking routes around the school to address physical safety problems and traffic flow issues to promoting car pooling or use of public transit to educational programs for parents about the dangers associated with their driving behavior on the way to school.
The program now had 40 schools and is expanding nationwide.
“Our goal is to decrease traffic and increase the number of kids walking or biking to school,” Kallins said. “We’re interested in promoting livable communities.”
I admit that on days when I drop the kids off in the car I am often rushing and probably drive too fast. My kids’ school redesigned its drop-off and pick-up procedure this year, trying to improve safety, and some at the school mentioned how rude and angry parents were on the first week of school to find their familiar routines disrupted. Some tried to drop off in the old spot anyway or made other unhelpful maneuvers, creating new traffic dangers.
Think about your own situation. Is there a safety concern at your school or the school your kids attend?
(Image credit: Ed Roberts, DDN)
Permalink | | Categories: My Favorite Posts, Student Health and Safety
DPS junkies: Read this story
Why did Gail Littlejohn really step down (maybe)?
Who is running for school board in November?
Will there be an anti-Kids First team running in the fall?
Answers to these questions and more in my story which appeared in today’s Dayton Daily News.
Permalink | Comments (8) | Categories: Dayton Public Schools
Meet Yvonne Isaacs
Yvonne Isaacs
The Kids First team, four women who boldly declared in 2001 their plan to take over the Dayton Board of Education and then proceeded to win all four open board seats, had been in place for for just a couple months when I asked then board member Tony Hill what he thought of his new colleagues.
Hill gave me his early impressions of the new crew, and he had a pretty upbeat view of things. Then the discussion came around to Yvonne Isaacs.
“There’s your next school board president,” he said.
It was an interesting prediction, both because Gail Littlejohn — who had assumed the presidency immediately — had made it clear she was in charge and because Isaacs, who was the only Kids First team member not endorsed by the Dayton Daily News during the 2001 campaign, was viewed by some as perhaps the team’s weak link.
But from the get-go, Hill was impressed by Isaacs. He said she was smart and engaged, showing an intense interest in the education issues and a deep commitment to the community. And she had leadership skills. Isaacs, Hill predicted, would thrive as a board member.
On Tuesday, Hill was proven correct. Of the original four Kids First members, just two are left. And when Gail Littlejohn stepped down this week, Isaacs did, indeed, become board president.
Back in 2001, when Littlejohn assembled Kids First, she was looking for a particular type — professionals with diverse skills. Littlejohn and Doniece Gatliff were already friends. Isaacs was a looser acquaintance and Tracy Rusch they connected with through professional contacts.
On the surface, Isaacs seemed to be the least professionally accomplished. Littlejohn was a high powered attorney in the upper echelon of a major company, Gatliff was human resource manager for Appleton Papers and Tracy Rush had a PhD in education. Isaacs was a then a customer service manager a Mead. (She’s now a supervisor at NewPage.)
Perhaps this played into the decision by the DDN editorial board not to endorse her. They don’t consult me on those sorts of decisions, but it was clear they were taken at the time with active parent and Montessori champion Jeff Hardenbrook. Endorsing Hardenbrook meant leaving one Kids First member off. Isaacs was the one left out.
By 2005, Isaacs earned endorsement for re-election. She had become a key player on the board. Just one example is an effort, conceived by Isaacs, to rebuild the district’s music program. The district began seeking donations of quality used instruments that could be re-used by students. The program has since brought in a pile of instruments for DPS students.
Now Isaacs takes the lead on the board. Philosophically, not much is likely to change. She and Littlejohn have a closely matched view of most of the major issues facing the district. And Littlejohn’s significant influence still looms.
But stylistically, there will be a change. Isaacs is widely considered a friendlier public face for the board. She doesn’t carry as much baggage as Littlejohn, who’s had to lead the way in the board’s battles over the past five years and become the focus for criticism from those who dislike the Kids First approach.
The first big challenge of 2007, and it’s coming fast, is the May levy. That is a quick, and crucial, test of the board’s new leadership. It will be interesting to see how it unfolds.
Permalink | Comments (8) | Categories: Dayton Public Schools, My Favorite Posts
Breaking the T.V. spell
There was some good news about today’s kids and parents in the Census survey results we wrote about Thursday.
For one thing, we’re getting tougher with kids about their television watching habits. Here are a few other tidbits from the survey from my colleague, Ken McCall:
Parents imposing more TV restrictions: The Census Bureau asked parents about three kinds of rules on TV watching: what shows children can watch, when they can watch and how long they can watch. The study found two thirds of children between 3 and 5 years of age had all three rules in 2003, compared to 54 percent in 1994.
“That was a pretty big increase,”; said Jane Lawler Dye, a family demographer with the Census Bureau and co-author of the report. “We thought of that as parents being more engaged.”
Interestingly, Dye said, black children in the 6 to 11 age group had the highest share with all three rules: 74 percent, compared to 67 percent for non-Hispanic white and Hispanic children.
Kids staying at grade level: Three quarters of children 12 to 17 were on-track at school for their age in 2003, up from 69 percent in 1994.
Poor children participating more in extracurricular activities: Both sports participation and out of school lessons increased for children in poverty from 1994. Sports participation increased 6 percentage points to 26 percent in 2003, while children taking lessons increased by 8 percentage points to 19 percent in 2003.
(Image credit: http://www.red-ice.net/)
Permalink | Comments (6) | Categories: Teaching and Learning
Parents: We are afraid
The depth of this problem first became obvious to me reading the comments under this post about kids walking to school alone.
The problem? Parents are terrified. And for the most part, their fears are overblown.
Even so, there are real dangers. And thus, each parent’s approach to their child’s safety is a difficult balancing act. Take a look at today’s paper.
Ken McCall and I wrote about a new U.S. Census survey of parents with lots of fascinating results, much of it upbeat, about the role parent assume in the lives of the children.
But one statistic in the study jumped out at us as startling — about one in five parents keeps their children indoors “as much as possible” to protect them from harm. High numbers on this issue were evident across all types of neighborhoods.
Our story on this issue was trimmed some for space, so here is a more detailed look at the question — are those fears justified?
First of all, there can be no arguing the fact that better awareness that there are people in the world who would harm children given the opportunity is a good thing. There are dangers. Just look at this story from today’s local page about a guy trying to lure high schoolers into a truck.
Kids absolutely must be taught that there are dangers to be on the look out for and what to do in a dangerous situation. But are the dangers truly so great that kids should be mostly kept indoors?
I’d argue no, and the statistics back me up. From the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children comes an ominous statistic — on average 2,185 children are reported missing each day. That sounds terrifying until you read further. Nearly all of those kids are quickly found. And of those who are truly abducted, the vast majority are taken by a family member. Often these incidents are custody or family disputes.
The center does track what it calls “stereotypical kidnappings,” incidents in which children are taken by strangers for more than a day, taken far from home or killed. The average is 115 kids a year who are kidnapped in this way in the U.S., a nation that is home to 75 million children.
If my math is right (please check me) that means the chance of any child being kidnapped in an average year is roughly 1 in 750,000. By comparison, the chance a person will be hit by lightning in an average year is 1 in 700,000. Using the comparison I made in the walking to school post, the chance that person will die in a plane crash in an average year is 1 in 391,581.
Recently, I was speaking with a basketball loving editor here at the paper about the humorous chaos of my six-year-old daughter’s kindergarten basketball games. Kindergarten is probably too young to play organized basketball, we agreed. I started playing organized ball at age 10. The editor had a similar experience.
“Yeah, but long before I was playing pick up games down the street, with the neighborhood kids,” he said. “That just doesn’t happen anymore.”
How true. It makes me a little sad that my kids may never play pick up basketball, sandlot baseball, hopscotch or jump rope with the neighborhood kids. Our kids do play outside in our yard and around our suburban cul-de-sac. They swing on the swing set in our yard alone.
The other kids are out there, I know. We saw them on Halloween, exchanging, “Oh, we didn’t know you lived so close” plesantries with their moms and dads in tow. But at play time, those kids’ voices don’t carry down the street. The basketball doesn’t clang in the driveway.
The kids have all been locked away.
Permalink | Comments (4) | Categories: My Favorite Posts, Student Health and Safety
The changing school board
Here are links to today’s stories on Dayton’s change in board president and on the plan for 61 job cuts to be announced in detail next week.
Here are some other notes and observations from Tuesday’s school board meeting:
—Joining new school board president Yvonne Isaacs as part of the new leadership team are Lee Massoud as vice president and Joe Lacey as parlimentarian. Massoud, a finance manager at Miller Valentine who replaced Tony Hill on the board in 2005, has served as the board’s finance committee chair. Lacey, an accountant for the county treasurer’s office who defeated Doniece Gatliff to earn a board seat in 2005, will be the board’s expert in its own rules as parlimentarian.
—Three of the current board members — Massoud, Stacy Thompson and Ronald Jackson — are appointed members who have never been elected. All three, along with Mario Gallin, must be elected in November to retain their seats. All execpt Mario have said they will seek election. Mario told me last month she is still mulling a run for re-election.
—The rest of the board presented Littlejohn with a giant plant as a thank you for her work as board president. The plant was paid for by the other board members.
—The district has added concrete barriers near Germantown Street in front of Wogaman Elementary School. This was in response to an incident in the fall, while the school was still under construction, in which a stolen car crashed through the windows and landed in auditorium/cafeteria. The car thief, who left a trail of blood as he fled the scene, was never caught.
—-Two elementary schools will get new names when they are rebuilt. McNary Elementary School is moving from 2400 Hoover Ave. to be rebuilt in Westwood Park and will carry the name Westwood Elementary School. The former Fairport Middle School, will move from 1952 Fairport Ave. to a site near Gettysburg Avenue and Kings Highway, where it likely will be named Rosa Parks Elementary School if the school receives permission from the Parks family.
—The district’s official enrollment for the current school year was announced at 15,871, a drop of just 162, or about 1 percent, from last year’s 16,033. That is the smallest enrollment decline in more than seven years. Dayton had an enrollment of 24,823 when I began covering the district in 1999. The 36 percent drop (nearly 9,000 students) over that period is stunning, fueled by an explosion of more than 30 charter schools onto the city’s education scene.
Permalink | Comments (20) | Categories: Dayton Public Schools
Littlejohn out as board president
Littlejohn and Issacs
Gail Littlejohn stepped down as school board president at tonight’s meeting as the board elected Yvonne Isaacs to replace her.
Littlejohn said she decided not to seek the presidency again for several reasons. First, she said five years was a long time for one person to lead the board. Second, she said she felt her 2001 goals were achieved — gettting the bond issue passed, seeing the district rise out of academic emergency and professionalizing the school board. Third, she plans to devote full time energy to leading the board’s leffort to pass the upcoming May tax levy.
Finally, she said this: “I really believe the community needs to see the board and administration is not based on one person’s leadership. It’s important in terms of community having confidence in the institution.”
I asked her if this was at least partly a result of her having become something of a lightning rod for critics of the board and administration, but she said those slings and arrows come with the territory in any leadership role and she expects Isaacs will experience much the same.
So, at least in one sense, the Littlejohn era is over for Dayton schools. Any thoughts on her accomplishments as board president? Please respond in the comments.
On the job cuts front, Superintendent Percy Mack said 61 positions are being cut in a cost-cutting move, including 31 teaching jobs.
Permalink | Comments (16) | Categories: Dayton Public Schools
Dayton’s school cuts
I tried, mostly unsuccessfully, to nail down on Monday what’s going on with Dayton’s cuts, that are expected this week. I found a pre-vacation voicemail from Board President Gail Littlejohn, answering my questions about why the cuts announcement has been repeatedly put off. She said they held off on final decisions until after the teachers union contract was settled in December, and then they decided not to announce anything before the holidays because they thought pink-slipping people before Christmas was inappropriate.
On Monday, I tried but failed to reach a busy Superintendent Percy Mack but a spokeswoman told me final decisions on the cuts still were being worked out this week and no announcement was imminent. But the rumor is that officials have begun to inform folks of layoffs out in the schools. Under union rules, the board must give 30 days notice before making a layoff, so these folks will hold their jobs until early February if they get notified this week.
If, in fact, layoff notices are going out, this would dash hopes that recent events might help the district avoid job cuts this year altogether.
There have been whispers that a recent tax lien windfall and the modest union contract, coupled with an effort to push non-academic cuts scheduled for next year forward, might allow the district to stand pat until its expected levy goes to the polls in May.
If the board ultimately does cut jobs anyway, it will have to explain why it couldn’t make it from February to June with current expenses, given those recent instances of financial good fortune. Critics of the proposed cuts have said the 70 or so jobs on the line could be saved with non-academic cuts in administration or support services.
The school board meets tonight for its annual organization meeting, during which it decides it meeting dates and times, assigns committees, etc. I’ll be asking a lot of questions of the board and Mack.
So what have you heard? Have people in your school been informed they will be laid off? Let us know in the comments.
UPDATE: Anticipating a likely question, I thought I’d mention the board meeting is at 6 p.m. at Jackson Center, 329 Abbey Ave.
Permalink | Comments (12) | Categories: Dayton Public Schools
What to do with kids in the middle?
There’s been some interesting back and forth in the comments under my recent post that mentioned the problem of middle schools.
Many districts, Dayton included, have decided middle schools are unsalvagable. Dayton is building new schools designed to keep kids in elementary schools until eighth grade.
The question is whether this is a good idea.
Dayton long ago began a program of closing down middle schools gradually. In my eight years covering the district, they’ve shut down Fairport, McFarlane, Roth and Kiser middle schools, redistributing the kids to other schools.
At least in Dayton it’s hard to argue with the district’s approach.
When I started covering Dayton schools in 1999, the district’s middle schools had an awful reputation — so bad that many families moved to the suburbs or transferred their kids to private schools when they left elementary school.
From what I saw, the reputation was deserved. On an early visit to Fairport, a former elementary school that was poorly suited for a middle school anyway, kids told me they detested the school and were glad it had been identified for closing. That was before the principal threw me off the property. Later I covered racial strife at Kiser. When Roth closed, it was the staff that was sentimental for the old school. The kids couldn’t have cared less.
But nothing compared with the day I spent following an A student through his day at McFarlane Middle School in 2000. I watched as he and his friends spent the day desperately trying to remain unnoticed in rowdy hallways, playgrounds and lunchrooms. In one class, a well meaning teacher gave up after 15 minutes of begging misbehaving kids to come to order. In another class, a teacher who had off-handedly described Nelson Mandela as a “terroist” handed out mind-numbing worksheet after worksheet. In another, kids spent a whole class watching the lamest video drama I’ve ever seen. In other words, very little instruction was evident during my visit. Was it any wonder why many of those kids later flunked state exams and dropped out?
With the exception of Stivers (the competition to get into that 7-12 school for the arts is extreme), the rest of the middle schools in Dayton were among the city’s worst.
For some, the instinct is to blame the kids at this age as unmanageable. I think middle school kids get a bad rap in that regard. For more than a decade I coached youth baseball and I alway preferred the middle school age kids. Unlike very young kids, they were smart and mature enough to actually execute what was taught but less obnoxious than high schoolers, who sometimes think they already know it all. And middle school kids are goofy, but fun.
As some commenters pointed out, K-8 schools are an old idea that has worked in the past. I tend to buy the argument that a small group of older kids in an elementary school are more likely to take up leadership roles in the school than they would if they were just thrown in with a few hundred other kids with similarly raging hormones.
Somewhere I read a critic of middle schools deriding the whole idea of walling off kids at this age as they go through their most difficult physical and emotional changes, arguing that this is the time when they need to be exposed to others outside their peer group. Otherwise they end up in their own sort of tweener bizzaro world.
Are the younger kids placed at greater risk? In most K-8 schools, the older kids are kept pretty segregated from little kids most of the time. Dayton’s new elementary school designs place them in entirely separate wings across the school from each other.
It’s been noticable that there was little sorrow for the middle schools as they closed. Perhaps that, too, suggests support for the board’s move. It will be interesting to see if the move brings the desired effects in terms of better retention of students and higher test scores.
Permalink | Comments (2) | Categories: Teaching and Learning
Kettering’s weirdness
Sorry for the light posting the last couple days. Because of Kettering’s weird school calendar this year, my kids don’t return from their holiday break until Monday while many other districts were back in session by the middle of this week. This required me to take some extra days off to be home with them. And the three of them tend to keep me busy. I do have some thoughts on some of the issues being discussed in the comments under the last post that I will try to write up later today.
Permalink | Comments (3) | Categories: Teaching and Learning
Learn or die, literally
The New York Times is off to a strong start for 2007 when it comes to education related stories. First there was Tuesday’s stories about libraries throwing kids out after school.
Today, the Times tells us two more interesting education-related stories and I noticed all three of these stories are in the top 10 most E-mailed Times stories today.
The most intriguing storyline of this new year? If you don’t want to die young you better stay in school.
That’s right. The most consistent predictor of long life is the amount education a person receives. It’s a stronger correlation than how rich you are, whether or not you have health insurance or a host of other factors. Not surprisingly, this story is the most E-mailed of all the NY Times.com stories.
A second, unrelated story in the Times tooday focuses on middle schools and how school districts across the country don’t know what to do with those tweener kids. Many are now coming to see the traditional middle school or junior high school as a bad idea.
Dayton is among the districts that have decided to junk middle school altogether, building new elementary schools that run to eighth grade.
Please read these stories and share your thoughts. Do you buy the “education equals longer life” theory? Do you like the idea of dumping middle school?
UPDATE: I fixed the link to the Times story on education and lifespan.
Permalink | Comments (10) | Categories: Teaching and Learning
Get the kids out of the library!
There would seem to be no better place for kids to go after school than the library, right?
Then why has the New York Times identified a mini-trend of libraries, even in affluent communities, closing up to keep kids out during after school hours?
Apparently, libraries in places like Maplewood, NJ, and Wicliffe and Euclid, Ohio, can’t find a better way to control rowdy middle schoolers who show up after school. So they’re actually closing public libraries in those and other towns from 2 to 5 p.m. to keep kids out of the library.
My reaction is simple — there’s got to be a better way.
Maybe it’s simplistic, but couldn’t these libraries just strictly enforce the rules? Throw kids out who are unruly. Make a list of banned kids and keep them out. Coordinate with the school. Perhaps the library could require students to turn in their school IDs to gain access to the library. Those who misbehave can have their IDs turned over to the school for discipline.
There’s GOT to be a better solution than just closing up the library and banning all kids. Right?
Permalink | Comments (9) | Categories: Teaching and Learning
Education predictions for 2007?
It’s a new year, and time for predictions. What do you think will happen on these education fronts:
Dayton area
Will Roosevelt High School be torn down?
Will Dayton’s expected levy in May pass?
Will Dayton and other area districts who moved up to Continuous Improvement on the state’s rating scale stay there, keep moving up or fall back?
Ohio
Will there be an actual, significant change to the state’s funding system?
Will changes to the voucher rules result in all 14,000 being used?
Will Ohio’s new high school course requirements raise student achievement?
U.S.
Will No Child Left Behind emerge from reauthorizaton largely intact or significantly changed?
Will the Democratic majority in Congress make education a priority or an afterthought?
Will George Bush and Margaret Spellings have any sort of final push for their education legacies?
Post your answers in the comments or post predictions on any other education topic.
(Image credit: ginacobb.typepad.com)
Permalink | Comments (6) | Categories: Teaching and Learning
