School Information System
Newsletter Sign Up | Send Ideas | Directory | | Sponsorships

December 31, 2005

"School Candidates Face Tough Issues"

WSJ Editorial:

Now they need to offer specific ideas for helping the district meet its many difficult challenges, such as:

The projected $6 million to $8 million gap in the 2006-2007 budget. How will the candidates keep educa tion levels high and costs low? What will be their priorities?

Shifting demographics. Many schools on the West and South sides, and some on the East Side, are crowded. Do the candidates agree with a task force's preliminary options, including expanding Leopold and Chavez elementary schools and constructing a school on the far West Side?

More on the candidates here.

I wonder where these priorities came from?

The WSJ's editorial is rather light on what I see as the most important issue for the Board: curriculum. The District's curriculum strategy should drive all decisions, including budget, staffing, schedule, training and technology. It appears that I am not alone in this view as this site's curriculum links are among the 10 most popular articles for 2005.

Posted by Jim Zellmer at 5:12 PM Subscribe to this site via RSS/Atom: Newsletter signup | Send us your ideas

December 30, 2005

New York City's Big Donors Find New Cause: Public Schools

David M. Herszenhorn writes:

In the context of the system's regular budget of about $15 billion a year, $311 million might seem insignificant. But the tax dollars come with so many strings that the administration has viewed private money as crucial for research and development and an array of experimental programs.

"You are able to do it without saying this is money that is going to come out of the classroom," Mr. Klein said in an interview.

So far, the mayor's and the chancellor's collections include more than $117 million to start new small schools; nearly $70 million to open an academy for principal training; $41 million for the nonprofit center supporting charter schools; $11.5 million to renovate libraries; $8.3 million to refurbish playgrounds; and $5.7 million to reshape troubled high schools.

New money or old, donors have been enthusiastic enough to write seven- and eight-figure checks. As a result, the school system has been the largest beneficiary in a mayoralty that has reached to the private sector, strategically and aggressively, for all sorts of support.
Donors to the schools, many of whom have been attending black-tie benefits together for years, said the mayor and the chancellor have transformed the way the school system relates to gift-givers, by improving communication and creating a sense of professionalism.

"I come from the business world; I'm used to a world where there is freedom and accountability and that never seemed to exist in the world of public education," Mr. Reich said.

"The very notion of a dynamic entrepreneur is that they want to make something happen," he continued, sipping from a demitasse of espresso served by an aide in chef's whites. "They want to be part of a movement. As mayor he believes in the ideal of these public-private partnerships."

After becoming chancellor in 2002, Mr. Klein created an Office of Strategic Partnerships and imposed on his wife's college friend, Caroline Kennedy, to serve as its chief executive. Mr. Klein made the pitch while visiting Ms. Kennedy and her husband, Edwin A. Schlossberg, on Martha's Vineyard.

Posted by at 8:34 PM Subscribe to this site via RSS/Atom: Newsletter signup | Send us your ideas

Healthy Children, Healthy Planet

For a couple of years now, with the support of Madison Community Foundation, Sustain Dane, a local non-profit organization, has been organizing and facilitating community discussion groups. “Healthy Children, Healthy Planet” is the newest program and is just being launched.

The “Healthy Children, Healthy Planet” is a seven session program designed to create awareness, heighten motivation and support parents, families or anyone who is concerned about the lives of children, and help them understand the pressures and offer antidotes to creating healthy environments for children.

At least eight new “Healthy Children, Healthy Planet” groups are set to begin meeting in January in local libraries, centers of faith, and other community and work spaces. Registration is free and limited to twelve participants per course. The accompanying discussion book is available through Sustain Dane for twenty dollars.

In the program, small groups of participants openly share ideas and concerns on such isuees as: creating more meaningful family time, fostering creativity, exploring nature, and encouraging healthy lifestyles. Topics covered in seven sessions include: Cultural Pressures, Family Rituals & Celebrations, Advertising, Food & Health, Time & Creativity, Technology & the Media, and Exploring Nature.

Ruth Shelly, Executive Director of the Madison Children’s Museum, recently participated in the “Healthy Children, Healthy Planet” course with other Madison Children’s Museum staff. “The program was great in that there was no judgment--it celebrated the small steps our family had already taken, and gave us encouragement to do a little more,” said Shelly.

Sarah Kissel, a Madison mother two young children, recently hosted a course in her home with seven other community members who she had not known before the course began. The course had a significant impact on Kissel’s sense of responsibility: “It (the course) has made many goals I had for me and my children seem not only possible, but also necessary. I am experiencing a renewed feeling of conviction that we can live our lives according to our values and we don’t have to give in to peer pressure or commercials.”

For a complete listing of upcoming courses, visit the Sustain Dane website or for more information or to register, interested participants should contact Sustain Dane at 608.819.0689.

Posted by Bryant Moroder at 3:05 PM Subscribe to this site via RSS/Atom: Newsletter signup | Send us your ideas

Bill Lueder's 2005 "Cheap Shots" Awards

Bill Lueders:

Most Secretive Public Entity:
Madison Schools
This summer, the school board announced plans to meet in closed session to discuss teacher bennies, until this was deemed improper. In fall, the district suppressed a report that criticized school officials over the stun-gunning of a 14-year-old student on grounds that there was “pending litigation” — which of course means the litigants had certain access. It also cut a secret deal to buy land for a new school on the city’s southwest side, with board members refusing to delay final approval for even one week to allow for public input. What might voters do the next time the schools come seeking more money? Shhh! It’s a secret!

Posted by Jim Zellmer at 3:00 PM Subscribe to this site via RSS/Atom: Newsletter signup | Send us your ideas

Procrastination

Two timely and useful essays:

  • Paul Graham: Good and Bad Procrastination:
    The most dangerous form of procrastination is unacknowledged type-B procrastination, because it doesn't feel like procrastination. You're "getting things done." Just the wrong things.

    Any advice about procrastination that concentrates on crossing things off your to-do list is not only incomplete, but positively misleading, if it doesn't consider the possibility that the to-do list is itself a form of type-B procrastination. In fact, possibility is too weak a word. Nearly everyone's is. Unless you're working on the biggest things you could be working on, you're type-B procrastinating, no matter how much you're getting done.

  • Richard Hamming: You and Your Research:
    1. What are the most important problems in your field?
    2. Are you working on one of them?
    3. Why not?

Posted by Jim Zellmer at 6:42 AM Subscribe to this site via RSS/Atom: Newsletter signup | Send us your ideas

December 29, 2005

AP Courses Gain Ground in High Schools (DC)

Jay Matthews:

The D.C. public school system's college-level test participation rate increased slightly in 2005, with the largest high school, Wilson, making the greatest gain, according to The Washington Post Challenge Index survey of area schools.

The participation rate for D.C. schools, calculated as the number of college-level tests per graduating senior, went from 0.776 in 2004 to 0.820 in 2005, an increase of almost 6 percent

Posted by Jim Zellmer at 9:09 PM Subscribe to this site via RSS/Atom: Newsletter signup | Send us your ideas

Raising Expectations in Watts

Lance Izumi:

One place where such heroic work is taking place is the Watts Learning Center (WLC) charter school, one of the most improved charter schools in California.

From 2000 to 2005, the WLC rose from a low test-score ranking to a level near the state’s proficiency target score of 800. The K-5 charter school was able to defy low expectations and accomplish this feat with a student population nearly all African American and low income. In an example of what the President called “the soft bigotry of low expectations,” these two factors are too often considered indicators of educational failure. WLC charter school proved defied that expectation.

Gene Fisher, founder and president of WLC, says that the school’s mission is to create a culture of learning and high expectations for students, parents, faculty and staff. He points out that, "The job of our teachers includes an emphasis on a proven curriculum while also reinforcing these high expectations – a belief that students can and will succeed."

The school uses the structured phonics-based Open Court reading program. WLC chose Open Court before the Los Angeles Unified School District adopted the same program. Open Court emphasizes continuous review and practice of already learned material. Sandra Fisher, the school’s executive director, says that it is important that the curriculum be structured because so many students lack structure in their lives.

Links: via Joanne

Posted by Jim Zellmer at 1:51 PM Subscribe to this site via RSS/Atom: Newsletter signup | Send us your ideas

Rationing Milwaukee's Vouchers

Alan Borsuk:

A rationing plan for enrolling students in more than 120 schools in Milwaukee's private school voucher program will be imposed for the 2006-'07 school year, the state Department of Public Instruction said Tuesday in a letter to administrators of those schools.

Key advocates for the voucher program said if the rationing is imposed, hundreds, if not thousands, of students in voucher schools would be unable to continue in or to enroll in schools in the program, and substantial damage would be done to some of the schools.

DPI Letter [pdf]

Posted by Jim Zellmer at 7:46 AM Subscribe to this site via RSS/Atom: Newsletter signup | Send us your ideas

The Graduates: What Happens After Young Disabled Adults Leave School

Jeff Zaslow:

Ms. Stautz can't walk or talk, but she misses her old school, says her mother, Janice. Every day at High Point, she socialized with classmates and got encouragement from teachers. Now, she spends mornings in bed, "watching lights and colors on TV," says Janice. Later, her wheelchair is pushed into the living room, where she is switched into a recliner. Ms. Stautz is on a waiting list for a county day-care program, but her family doesn't know when or if she'll get in.

"I try to keep her stimulated, but there's only so much I can do," says Janice, who recently bought Holly a puppy for company.

Posted by Jim Zellmer at 6:40 AM Subscribe to this site via RSS/Atom: Newsletter signup | Send us your ideas

December 28, 2005

NewsHour: Turnaround Education Specialist

The Online NewsHour:

The second report in a series by education correspondent John Merrow tracks one principal's efforts to reform a troubled inner-city school in Richmond, Virginia on the state's warning list.
More NewsHour education stories.

Posted by Jim Zellmer at 10:17 PM Subscribe to this site via RSS/Atom: Newsletter signup | Send us your ideas

Disintegrating District: Los Angeles

Evan George writing in LA Alternative:

But on November 15th, Jefferson saw a new kind of disruption: a march organized by the students and parents of Small Schools Alliance, to protest what they see as indifference to the inadequate learning environment at Jefferson. More than 500 marchers converged on LAUSD headquarters with a petition of 10,000 signatures calling for the district to relinquish control of Jefferson High School and transform it into six independent charter schools to be operated by Green Dot Public Schools, a local, non-profit charter school developer, created by former Democratic party activist—and Rock the Vote founder—Steve Barr.

Green Dot, which currently operates five high schools in the Los Angeles area, has vied for control of Jefferson High School for nearly a year and a half. Charter school critics—and there are many—have long decried Romer's own association with the Charter School Movement. As reported in this paper back in February of 2003, Romer then supported a contentious bill aimed at resurrecting the controversial Belmont Learning Center as a risky charter school program.

“I think the Left, which I'm a member of, has to pull our heads out of our xxxxx and come up with some solutions, and stop defending failed systems. Especially un-democratic, centralized bureaucracies that are not effective,” says Barr in an interview with L.A. Alternative. “We have no answers for the education issue. Our answer is to give more money to a failed centralized system?”

Here is an eduprediction: One way or another, things are going to change at Jefferson, Barr has let the genie out of the bottle and it's not going back in. And that is his endgame anyway, improving things. Those parents want fresh ground now that they know it's out there.

Barr has this old fashioned notion that the public schools are supposed to be a way up the economic ladder a few rungs -- for the kids not the adults.

via Eduwonk

Posted by Jim Zellmer at 7:40 AM Subscribe to this site via RSS/Atom: Newsletter signup | Send us your ideas

December 27, 2005

Gifted Students and Equity Discussion

Eduwonk posts a variety of responses to Susan Goodkin's OP-ED on gifted children and No Child Left Behind:

Not surprisingly, with the entire curriculum geared to ensuring that every last child reaches grade-level proficiency, there is precious little attention paid to the many children who master the standards early in the year and are ready to move on to more challenging work. What are these children supposed to do while their teachers struggle to help the lowest-performing students? Rather than acknowledging the need to provide a more advanced curriculum for high-ability children, some schools mask the problem by dishonestly grading students as below proficiency until the final report card, regardless of their actual performance.
More:
As a matter of pure politics, how can you expect to retain public support for a school reform regime that short-changes high-achieving students, whose parents, whether rich or poor, are likely to be more politically engaged and influential than the parents of low-performing students?

Posted by Jim Zellmer at 4:57 PM Subscribe to this site via RSS/Atom: Newsletter signup | Send us your ideas

Public Not Welcome at MMSD Talks about Future Health Insurance Costs

Last August, MMSD parent KJ Jakobson asked "whether the new joint district-union task force for investigating health insurance costs be a truly collaborative effort to solve a very costly problem? Or will it instead end up being a collusion to maintain the status quo?" Collaboration or collusion: What should the public expect from MMSD-MTI Task Force on Health Insurance Costs?

Her question remains an important one. If the task force of representatives of the school district and Madison Teachers , Inc. identifies future cost savings from changes in health insurance providers, the district could save million of dollars per year after 2007. Although the savings would go to higher wages for teachers during the 2005-07 collective bargaining agreement, there would be possible savings for the district budget in future years. The district now pays about $37 M per year for health insurance for its employees.

Unfortunately, the history of the task force to date suggests that Ms. Jakobson's fears were well-grounded.

The deadline for determining whether savings are possible is February 2006. There were no meetings of the task force between the June ratification of the collective bargaining agreement that created the task force and the end of 2005. There has been no board discussion of the meetings or our goals for the task force.

At first, Board President Carol Carstensen publicly announced that the meetings would be closed. When the attorney for the school board corrected her, she conceded that the meetings to look for savings, rather than negotiate changes in the collective bargaining agreement, would be open.

How open? Not very.

If you go to the MMSD web site, then to Board of Education, then to Board calendar, then to January 2006, you will find two scheduled meetings of the task force, one on January 11 and one on January 25. Both meetings are at 1 p.m., during work hours for most people, including board members, who might want to observe the discussions. There is no location listed for the meetings except "MTI". So you need to go to the phone book to find out that Madison Teachers, Inc. is located at 821 Williamson Street in Madison [Map]. There is no information about the room. BOE calendar for January 2006

I asked President Carstensen to move the meetings to the Doyle building and to change the times of day to make the meetings more accessible. She declined to do either. I then asked that the district video-tape the meetings and broadcast them. After conferring with the superintendent, Ms. Carstensen told me that there would be video-tapes. Apparently broadcasting these meetings was out of the question.

So, stay tuned to this blog if you want information about these financially important task force meetings. I will post the videotapes as soon as I receive them.

As for what to expect, a recent Isthmus article reported that the task force will discuss the status quo health providers at the first meeting and others at the second meeting.

Posted by Ruth Robarts at 3:40 PM Subscribe to this site via RSS/Atom: Newsletter signup | Send us your ideas

West Area Attendance Task Force Minutes (12/20/2005)

Minutes from the 12/20/2005 West Attendance Area Task force meetings. [PDF version] January 5, 2006 Agenda [PDF version]

Posted by Jim Zellmer at 11:29 AM Subscribe to this site via RSS/Atom: Newsletter signup | Send us your ideas

In Middle Class, Signs of Anxiety on School Efforts

The NYTimes examines middle-class unease with changes to curriculum and admission requirements to TAG programs:

"Randi Weingarten, the president of the teachers' union, faulted the administration for using a "Robin Hood" approach. "You have to simultaneously work to help your struggling students in particular schools and keep your middle class - you have to do both these things at the same time," she said.

"When you do one at the expense of the other, you get the rebellion and revolt you see in District 3," she said, referring to the Upper West Side, where some parents have complained that their children were suddenly being shut out of admission to top public school programs.

Part of the sense of grievance in the middle class comes from how much energy those parents typically pour into searching for schools and then, once their children are accepted, into working to support the schools. They organize libraries. They donate toilet paper and crayons and cash. And when there's not enough, they raise funds for more."

Posted by at 9:40 AM Subscribe to this site via RSS/Atom: Newsletter signup | Send us your ideas

"In Middle Class, Signs of Anxiety on School Efforts"

Susan Saulny:

Some of the very changes that Chancellor Joel I. Klein has made his hallmark - uniform programs in reading and math for most schools; drilling that helped produce citywide gains last spring on standardized tests; changes in rules for admission to programs for the gifted and talented, designed to make them more equitable - have caused unease among that important constituency.

Many parents say, however, that there are extremely limited public school options in the middle school years, and some chafe at how the new rules for gifted programs in the elementary schools and for certain select schools have made competition for admission stiffer.

City officials say that judging by the number of children eligible for free lunch, the class divide in the system remains stable: About 80 percent of the children are poor, with no increase in middle class flight.

Yet Emily Glickman, a consultant who advises parents in the city on winning admission for their children to private schools, said, "The last two years the interest in private schools has exploded, as I see it with people coming to me."

Posted by Jim Zellmer at 6:11 AM Subscribe to this site via RSS/Atom: Newsletter signup | Send us your ideas

December 26, 2005

Why is the MMSD Afraid to Have a General Discussion of Their Mathematics Program?

A year ago the Jefferson PTO planned to have a mathematics night, with a discussion of their math program. I was asked if I would appear and said yes. The Madison Metropolitan School District was asked and they refused to send anyone, saying that they did not want to do this school by school. but district wide. When Mary Ramberg was asked when this would be done, she said they had no plans to do this.

Here is part of the report from 1882 from the State Superintendent about textbooks. At this time changes in textbooks had to be approved by the State Superintendent. The following should be done:

  • 3d. That regard shall be had to the merits of the books, and that if the change is sought to be made in the interests of better books, the superior merits of the books proposed to be introduced shall be stated.
  • 4th. That the change shall not be against the pronounced public opinion of the locality interested.

Why is the MMSD afraid to have a general discussion of their mathematics program?

Posted by Richard Askey at 10:41 PM Subscribe to this site via RSS/Atom: Newsletter signup | Send us your ideas

Fairfax: Rocky End to Schools' Growth

Maria Glod:

The proposed downsizing of Glasgow -- and the anger it has sparked among parents -- underscores a dramatic shift in the region's largest school district, where the rapid student growth of the past decade appears to have come to an abrupt end.

Just four years ago, school officials predicted that there would be more than 171,000 students this year and that the number would continue rising. Now they think the district, the 12th largest nationwide, will max out next school year with 164,725 students.

Posted by Jim Zellmer at 7:57 AM Subscribe to this site via RSS/Atom: Newsletter signup | Send us your ideas

December 25, 2005

Pretty Good

A poem by Charles Osgood of CBS News quoted in There Are No Shortcuts, by Rafe Equith

Pretty Good

There once was a pretty good student,
Who sat in a pretty good class;
Who was taught by a pretty good teacher,
Who always let pretty good pass--

He wasn't terrific at reading,
He wasn't a whizbang at math;
But for him education was leading
Straight down a pretty good path.

He didn't find school too exciting,
But he wanted to do pretty well;
And he did have some trouble with writing,
And no one had taught him to spell.

When doing arithmetic problems,
Pretty good was regarded as fine--
5 plus 5 needn't always add up to be 10
A pretty good answer was 9.

The pretty good class that he sat in
Was part of a pretty good school;
And the student was not the exception,
On the contrary, he was the rule.

The pretty good student, in fact, was
Part of a pretty good mob;
And the first time he knew that he lacked was
When he looked for a pretty good job.

It was then, when he sought a position,
He discovered that life could be tough--
And he soon had a sneaking suspicion,
And he soon might not be good enough.

The pretty good town in our story
Was part of a pretty good state,
Which had pretty good aspirations,
And prayed for a pretty good fate.

There once as a pretty good nation,
Pretty proud of the greatness it had,
Which learned much to late, if you want to be great,
Pretty good is, in fact, pretty bad.

Posted by Larry Winkler at 1:24 AM Subscribe to this site via RSS/Atom: Newsletter signup | Send us your ideas

December 24, 2005

West HS students speek/speak out on English 10

Here are two stories from the December 23, 2005, issue of the West HS student newspaper, The Regent Review. I reprint them here just as they appear in print (that is, with all misspellings, grammatical errors, etc.). (Note: the faculty advisor for The Regent Review is West HS English teacher Mark Nepper. Mr. Nepper has been involved in the development of English 10. Some of you may recall that Mr. Nepper joined English Department chair Keesia Hyzer in presenting the plans for English 10 at the November 7 West PTSO meeting.)

From the front page: "A new English 10 expected for next year," by CI, a senior at West HS and co-editor of the student newspaper:

In an attempt to bridge the minority gap and continue with the smaller learning communities, Madison West High will tentativly be changing to a core English for all sophomores.

Ed Holmes, current West High principal, says he is doing his best to continue our tradition as a "School of Excellence." To achieve this ideal excellence, Holmes recognizes that he not only has to raise the standards of the struggling students but also continue to push accelerated students to be better each day.

The goal is to have this new English ciriculum continue to push West's excellence. The cirriculum will incorporate the current classes of FWW, IWW, With Justice for All, Writers in their Time, and Modern Literture. Now students will read and learn writing habits at the same time so that they can incorporate the new techniques that they are learning into the papers that they write.

During the first semester, all sophomores will learn the same material and read the same books at the same time. The 2nd semester will also include a Shakespeare festival. That semester, however, will give the students a choice between the themes of justice or identity. The students who choose justice will read more books from the current course With Justice for All while the students who choose identity will read books from Modern Literature.

At this point about 80% of sophomores take the five classes that are being eliminated to form English 10 and only about 35 sophomores take an honors English class. These statistics show that even when given a choice, most sophomores would choose classes that are now incorporated into English 10.

Because these five courses will be included into one, they will be eliminated from the elective choices. The first two years that this program is implemented, certain students will miss out on the opportunity to read those books but after that they will have already read them in English 10.

As with all changes, there are many people who are against the new core English 10. A major fear is that 10th grade English will be too hard for the struggling students and too easy for the accelerated ones.

English department chair Keesia Hyzer says that "West is a different school than it was 30 years ago," and it is time for West to look at how it teaches. She continues by giving statistics that West is currently a 40/60 ration minority to white, illustrating this difference.

Cindy Neusen, an English teach at West, agrees, saying that it is an "opportunity to make changes." Neusen recognizes that structure and consistancy is a positive thing and that it is currently not being reached with the electives in 10th grade.

Holmes states that it is impossible to implement the SLC's and have the English department work the way that West currently does with 26 electives. "We are trying to create a course that is engaging and rigerous" he says.

The key to success behind this program is the idea of collaboration. Without the English staff working together, this project will never get off the ground. Neusen states that "colaboration between the staff brings a lot of good things."

Holmes also uses the word "Colloboration" frequently, emphasizing the idea that the school needs to work together to make SLC's work.

Another positive that will come from the English 10 class is the extended amount of time that a student and teacher will have together. Sophomores "will see the same people and the same teacher for a year," says Neusen. "It takes about six weeks to get to know a student" and then after a semester you might never see them again. By having the same teacher for an entire year, the sophomore will be able to form a better bond with their English teacher, hopefully increasing their success since they won't have to get used to an entirely new class at semester.

Although all students are able to take whatever English class they want to, the student body knows what classes are going to be challenging and which ones you won't have to attend. They also know which teacher will give the A and which teacher you will have to work hard for a B. The English 10 ciriculum will eliminate this "tracking or self selecting below ability" says Neusen.

Many students have heard rumors about an honors component being added during students' lunch period. This rumor is, however, false. The English department is still working on the plan for the English 10 class, but there will not be an honors component added that requires students to give up a lot of their lunch time. Students who are struggling will be expected to seek help when they can, which may be during the one hour lunch, but that is an expectation in all classes, not solely an English 10 concept.

There are still many questions that will need to be answered. Steve olson, an English teacher at West High, is still skeptical about many aspects of how English 10 will work. His questions include: Who is making the decisions? How will they incorporate a fair honors component into this English program? Has the 9th grade core English worked well? How will this change effect what other departments at West are doing?

The staff working on this project is still pondering many of these questions, trying to find an acceptable answer that will lead to success. Holmes states that he is still looking at the question of "What should West be like?...As a school evolves we need to be reflective."

And from page 5, an opposing piece by West HS junior SB:

"West does not need a unified English 10: Student Response"

Our West High School is famous nationwide for its superb achievement levels in English largely because of our highly skilled teachers and the wide breadth of courses they offer. We have woven together an outstanding program of studies we should be proud of, one that has worked admirably for decades. However, the new Small Learning Community program wants to cut it down to size by snipping away at sophomores' right to choose their courses.

The plan, which is roughly outlined in the November 7 report from the West PTSO meeting (located at the following website: http://www.schoolinfosystem.org/archives/2005/11/report_from_wes.php), is to replace the wide range of classes sophomores can choose from with a single class called "English 10."

The new English 10 class is designed to cram FWW, IWW, Modern Literature, Writers in Their Times, and With Justice for All into a year-long course that every sophomore will have to take. This means that each course will include both students who may need extra help and students who won't be sufficiently challenged.

Naturally, any such program where students of such different levels are required to be in the same class will be problematic. The result will be that those that are already behind will slip even further behind because the course work is too challenging, and those who are already advanced will be bored utterly out of their minds. The average students will not receive the attention they need and deserve because the teacher is too busy attending to the needs of the rest of this students.

The supposed goal for this program is to "close the achievement gap," but placing students in an environment where no one benefits is not the way to go about it. In the end, no one wins; the students will suffer academically, and the teachers will have to work much harder.

The administration has tried to toss a few paltry bones at those concerned that many students' needs won't be met by suggesting that students who don't feel challenged can meet during lunch for extra study time! This is ridiculous -- no student would willingly give up their lunch hour for extra studying, and, even if they did, lunchtime is a valuable time for students to relax, eat, and hang out, in addition to studying and seeking help from teachers.

Even ignoring all this, what plans has the program made to accommodate students who might find the class too challenging? None.

In fact, the new standard curriculum itself is the most damaging of all. The literature is selected from an extremely narrow range; virtually all of it is American, and deals with the themes of either multiculturalism or oppression.

In addition, there is considerable emphasis placed on topics every single student in the class will have already been thoroughly grounded in: basic grammar and basic essay formats. Indeed, ingraining such rigid essay formats in the students' minds is actually thought to lock away much of their creativity, and in more advanced writing courses teachers frequently have to struggle to leech away the damage that has already been done.

The only flaw with this program is not only that it will wreak serious havoc in students' academic careers, but also that it will be much less enjoyable for the students. Students are not just inanimate objects rolling along an assembly line -- they are people and have their own interests they want to pursue, and when they get to choose their own courses they can select classes that will interest them and help them realize their own goals. By establishing English 10, the administration, is unwillingly making West a much less enjoyable place.

I have a younger sister who will be attending West in a few years, and I hope that she will be able to receive the same excellent education that my classmates and I are. But if the students lose the right to chose their 10th grade English education, that future grows a little furthe away.

(Editor's Note:

Posted by Laurie Frost at 11:50 AM Subscribe to this site via RSS/Atom: Newsletter signup | Send us your ideas

"Urgency is Needed to Improve our Schools"

Boston Herald Editorial:

It may sound simple, but it helps illustrate the urgent need to change the state’s approach to improving failing schools.

As it stands, the state can deem a school underperforming if students fail to meet minimum standards for two or more years.

Then it’s six months to come up with an improvement plan, another two years to make changes and only then does the state even consider intervening. Meanwhile, another generation spends its most important years in schools that aren’t getting the job done.

Posted by Jim Zellmer at 9:38 AM Subscribe to this site via RSS/Atom: Newsletter signup | Send us your ideas

December 23, 2005

West Moves Ahead With English 10 Restructuring

West High School has decided to move ahead with their curriculum reduction plan. The school has posted a document explaining the changes on their website. The one concession that the school has made to parents is their decision not to require students to give up time at lunch in order to earn an honors designation. Instead, there will be an embedded honors component where students will be expected to complete more complex assignments and take more challenging exams. Support for struggling students will now occur in the classroom as well.

From the document:

The staff training necessary for full implementation of the tenth grade English program will include:
• The basics of how to differentiate in the classroom. What is really meant by differentiated instruction? How is it successfully implemented at the high school level?
• Best practice strategies for supporting struggling learners in the heterogeneous classroom.

Posted by Jeff Henriques at 9:44 AM Subscribe to this site via RSS/Atom: Newsletter signup | Send us your ideas

Vouchers, Charters and Public School Accountability

Eduwonk rounds up a number of interesting comments on Milwaukee's voucher program, including this:

Update: Concerning public accountability, one reader writes:

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I’m not defending these voucher schools, or any schools that hide from legitimate public oversight. But I’ve spent years now working on projects that required interviews with school personnel, site visits, documentation from the central office, etc., etc. And if you think that refusing to submit to outside evaluation is specifically or even primarily a problem of private/voucher schools, you’re nuts. There’s no stonewaller like the public school stonewaller. Administrative assistants are the worst. And don’t give me all that FERPA xxxx, either; they just don’t want people snooping around.

That's a fair enough point, it's not just a voucher school problem (though not every public school stonewalls either).

Posted by Jim Zellmer at 9:21 AM Subscribe to this site via RSS/Atom: Newsletter signup | Send us your ideas

AP Class Quality Control

Georgina Gustin:

Starting in the 2007-08 school year, any high school that offers an AP class will have to prove it meets certain College Board requirements. Teachers and administrators will have to perform annual self-audits and submit materials, including syllabi, to the College Board.
Via Education Gadfly:
Prestigious universities value the letters AP (i.e., Advanced Placement) on an applicant's transcript, maintaining that success in AP courses is the best indicator of success in college. But students looking to score points with admissions officers have begun gaming the system. Many enroll in AP courses but never sit for the accompanying AP exam. And high schools—bowing to student pressure for more AP courses—are lowering expectations so that more students can have the coveted letters on their transcripts (see here for more on AP's expansion).

Posted by Jim Zellmer at 6:15 AM Subscribe to this site via RSS/Atom: Newsletter signup | Send us your ideas

December 22, 2005

Stay out of YOUR business!

Public education is public business, that is, your business. However, the administration thinks otherwise, and I was raked over the coals a few days back for saying, "The MMSD's line certainly tells students, parents, teachers, and taxpayers that we don't know bleep about education, so we should sit down, shut up, and get out of the way while the administration does what it pleases."

I further commented, "The issue is MMSD's 'corporate culture,' and how it values the opinions of administrators vs. the rest of us."

In the draft of the minutes of Performance and Achievement Committee on November 14, 2005, we get a clear restatement of the MMSD's organizational culture:

The reason that the board and public will not be able begin thinking through the curriculum redesign is that the superintendent invoked a new form of 'executive privilege' at last Monday’s meeting. When I asked for information as soon as the committee makes its recommendations, the superintendent successfully argued that no one outside of administration should have access to the recommendations until he decides which recommendations he supports. According to Rainwater, public discussion of the recommendations before he makes his choices would interfere with his discussion with the experts on his staff. Apparently protecting administrative discussion is more important than opening the curriculum-choosing process to public scrutiny and input.

I'll now have to amend my earlier comment: "The MMSD's line certainly tells the BOARD OF EDUCATION, students, parents, teachers, and taxpayers that we don't know bleep about education, so we should sit down, shut up, and get out of the way while the administration does what it pleases."

I respectfully encourage the board to assert its appropriate role as the ultimate authority over the MMSD.

Posted by Ed Blume at 2:01 PM Subscribe to this site via RSS/Atom: Newsletter signup | Send us your ideas

School-funding update from Wisconsin Alliance for Excellent Schools (WAES)

The Wisconsin Alliance for Excellent Schools (WAES) is a statewide network of educators, school board members, parents, community leaders, and researchers. Its Wisconsin Adequacy Plan -- a proposal for school-finance reform -- is the result of research into the cost of educating children to meet state proficiency standards.

Washburn joins list of districts in budget distress
Wisconsin schools serve too few breakfasts
Advocates tie education to brighter economic future
More evidence behind pre-school for disadvantaged kids
Arkansas next in line to change school-funding system
School-funding reform calendar

Washburn joins list of districts in budget distress

The Washburn School District Board took a look into its crystal ball, earlier this week, and saw "the future wasn't bright (http://www.ashlandwi.com/dailypress/index.php?sect_rank=1&story_id=208100)."

District Business Manager Ron Hollstadt said the district will likely have to slice between $225,000 and $257,000 from the 2006-07 budget to comply with state spending limits. He also said that, with a projected decline in enrollment, Washburn is looking at potentially having to cut $1 million by the 2009-10 school year.

"It's going to take a lot of head scratching and belt tightening to come up with creative solutions for next year," Hollstadt said.

*************

Wisconsin schools serve too few breakfasts

Despite what we know about the health and education benefits of breakfast, the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel reports that some think Wisconsin schools serve too few morning meals (http://www.jsonline.com/news/metro/dec05/379346.asp).

Ruth Jonen, national president of the School Nutrition Association -- announcing the start of a new program called "Got breakfast?" -- said "Wisconsin is America's Dairyland. You need to do a better job. Former Republican presidential candidate Bob Dole and former Democratic candidate George McGovern took part in the event in Washington.

Wisconsin ranked next to last in the percentage of eligible schools taking part. State schools superintendent Elizabeth Burmaster said scheduling, long bus routes, and budget concerns are reasons for the poor but improving participation.

************

Advocates tie education to brighter economic future

Ohio is much like Wisconsin, so state government in Madison should pay attention to 3,000 interviews that say, once again, that the best way to build a prosperous future economy is to improve the state's schools (http://www.accessednetwork.org/news/advocacy/12-04-05ohioeconomy.php3).

The interviews were conducted in northeast Ohio by "Voices and Choices (http://www.voiceschoices.org/default.asp)," a public engagement initiative of a collaboration of 70 regional philanthropies. The response from the interviews reflects the research on the links between schools and economic success. For example, one report says there are "strong indications that quality public schools increase national economic growth and competitiveness, state and local business attraction, and residential real estate values."

Additionally, studies show that home buyers are willing to pay more for a home close to high achieving schools. In rural contexts, small, community-oriented schools can narrow the achievement gap and create a more economically advanced work-force.

*****************

More evidence behind pre-school for disadvantaged kids

In the best of times ... when state budgets aren't quite as tight ... universal pre-school is at the top of everyone's list. With tight budgets, however, it is important that those who most need early childhood education get it.

An article in The Seattle Times (http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/education/2002691690_preschool19m.html) quotes one Head Start worker in Portland as saying, "We've got to get to 100 percent for low-income kids first. Those kids are most at risk -- they don't have computers at home, they don't go on trips to the zoo or on vacation. By being in Head Start, they get those experiences."

Annette Dieker, of Mount Hood Community College, says universal pre-school would be open to low-income children, but she worries that a broader program ... despite its track record of success ... might lack the extra support offered by programs like Head Start, which in Oregon relies on state and federal funding to operate.

**********

Arkansas next in line to change school-funding system

Earlier this month, the Arkansas Supreme Court ruled that "the state must comply with its own education funding laws," reform the way the state funds its schools (http://www.schoolfunding.info/news/litigation/12-16-05arsupct.php3).

The court held that "the General Assembly failed to comply with (these laws) and, by doing so, retreated from its prior actions." The General Assembly could not have adequately funded schools for the 2005-07 biennium, the court found, because it had made no effort "to determine what adequate funding should be," as required by its own laws.

The court set a December 1, 2006 deadline "too allow the necessary time to correct the constitutional deficiencies."

************

School-funding reform calendar

Jan. 16, 2006 -- School-funding reform presentation in Platteville for the Southwestern Wisconsin Education Association, 7 p.m. at Platteville High School
Jan. 23, 2006 -- School-funding reform presentation, 6:30 p.m., in the St. Francis School District (http://www.stfrancissd.org/)
Jan. 25, 2006 -- School-funding reform presentation, 7 p.m., at the Markesan Middle School (http://www.markesan.k12.wi.us/default.htm), 100 East Vista Boulevard
Feb. 22, 2006 -- School-funding reform presentation at Marinette School District High School (http://www.marinette.k12.wi.us/)

March 10, 2006 -- School-funding reform presentation, 3:30 p.m., School Finance Class (Ed 810) in the Edgewood College Doctoral Program
March 13, 2006 -- School-funding reform presentation, noon, for the Fond du Lac Retired Educators Association., Knights of Columbus building, 795 Fond du Lac Avenue.

Please feel free to share your copy of the WAES school-funding update with anyone interested in school-finance reform. Contact Tom Beebe (tbeebe@wisconsinsfuture.org) at 414-384-9094 for details.

Posted by Johnny Winston, Jr. at 11:37 AM Subscribe to this site via RSS/Atom: Newsletter signup | Send us your ideas

Report of Committee to Redesign Middle School Curriculum: Top Secret for Now

An administrative report recommending changes the middle school curriculum district-wide that was due in late December is now expected some time in January. Shwaw Vang, chair of the Performance and Achievement Committee of the MMSD school board, held a second meeting on the expected report on December 19. According to minutes of the November meeting on this topic, the December meeting would be an opportunity for Board members to provide feedback or input.

Unfortunately, the Board received no new information about the likely proposal of the committee, although the recommendations will affect most areas of the middle school curriculum, including Fine Arts, Life Skills, Mathematics, Wellness, and World Languages as well as Student Support Services. Among other things, the recommendations will result in equal minutes of instruction across subject areas.

At a November 14 meeting, the Performance and Achievement committee heard the following overview of the work of the Middle Grades Design Team to Develop a Consistent Curriculum for 6th, 7th, and 8th Grade Students.

"Pam Nash noted the design team was formed at the request of the Superintendent and charged to design a consistent sixth through eighth grade educational experience across the middle grades that address the areas of learning, engagement, and relationships. The goal is that all middle grade students will have an equal opportunity to gain the academic and interpersonal skills necessary to be prepared for the rigor of the ninth grade. She presented an overview of the work of the team to date. Recommendations will be provided to the Superintendent by the end of December and then to the Board of Education.

DISCUSSION:
• Considerations/affect on a magnet school program (Spring Harbor).
• Board opportunity to review recommendations. Board needs a real role before decisions come about budget and curriculum change.
• Focus of “learning” is that all students are prepared in the same way for the rigor of high school curriculum. Parents (not just low income) are concerned about rigor.
• Focus should be on priorities and a way to measure progress.
• Question is how to guarantee equal challenge as well as the opportunity to explore.
• Focus has been on emotional and social aspects and not enough academic challenge. Part of the issue will be bringing the staff along.
• Real goal is a consistent, rigorous academic program that does not look different from school to school, or teacher to teacher. Upgrade academic program and make it as consistent as possible.
• With continuing budget cuts, different schools made different choices about curriculum; widened from each other. Issue has been visited. At a point to do this now because it is the right thing to do for students.
• Ask for input from students as well. Need to know any budgetary impacts.

Follow-Up: Shwaw Vang asked for another presentation in early December. This would also be an opportunity for Board members to provide feedback or input."

From draft of Minutes of Performance and Achievement Committee on November 14, 2005.


Like the public, the Board of Education remains in the dark as to the scope and content of the committee’s likely recommendations to Superintendent Art Rainwater, let alone his thoughts. We will all get our first chance to review potentially sweeping curriculum changes in the New Year---at the same time that the board will be resolving school boundary and construction issues, monitoring the “$100 budget process”, developing the budget for the 2006-07 school year, and receiving the recommendations of the new task force on the district’s “equity policy”. A similar secrecy and delay last year kept the board from knowing about recommendations affecting high school sports until budget decisions were imminent.

The reason that the board and public will not be able begin thinking through the curriculum redesign is that the superintendent invoked a new form of “executive privilege” at last Monday’s meeting. When I asked for information as soon as the committee makes its recommendations, the superintendent successfully argued that no one outside of administration should have access to the recommendations until he decides which recommendations he supports. According to Rainwater, public discussion of the recommendations before he makes his choices would interfere with his discussion with the experts on his staff. Apparently protecting administrative discussion is more important than opening the curriculum-choosing process to public scrutiny and input.

The longer the curriculum design recommendations remain secret, the stronger will be the argument against implementing the recommendations at all middle schools in 2006-07. Parents, teachers and the public deserve sufficient time to review the recommendations and the basis for all proposed changes.

Posted by Ruth Robarts at 11:25 AM Subscribe to this site via RSS/Atom: Newsletter signup | Send us your ideas

Community Invited to Suggest Budget Reductions

Residents of the Madison Metropolitan School District will be given the opportunity in 11 January sessions to make suggestions and set priorities for budget reductions necessary for the 2006-07 school year. The budget reduction exercise uses a $100 budget that reflects the proportionate share for 47 major program areas of the actual MMSD budget.

MMSD Press release, 12/22/05

Participants are asked to individually and in a small group determine which program areas should be cut and by how much to reach the projected maximum of $10 million that the school district will have to cut for next year to comply with state-imposed revenue limits. In the $100 budget model, $10 million equals $3.85.

“We’re interested in meaningful community participation in setting priorities for budget reductions,” said Superintendent Art Rainwater. “The major priorities that result from all the exercise participants will inform us as we develop the budget for the Board of Education.”

The $100 budget exercise will also show the difficulty of making up to $10 million in budget cuts for next year, and improve understanding of the impact of budget reductions.

The 11 sessions are scheduled at each of the Madison middle schools on the evenings of January 24, 25 and 26 (complete schedule is below.) One will be held at each of the Madison middle schools. All MMSD residents are invited to participate one time, and the sessions should run between 1 hour 20 minutes and 1 hour 45 minutes.

There will be four parts to the sessions: an overview of the MMSD budget and the exercise process; individuals making their own budget cuts using the $100 budget; reaching consensus with a group of four persons on the cuts; and individuals setting priorities by goals and programs.

Residents can get more information about the $100 budget exercise and can work on their own budget reductions after January 9, when the document will be at www.mmsd.org/budget/100dollar/

For more information, contact:
Ken Syke, 663-1903 or 575-6682, or
Joe Quick, 663-1902

Community Sessions of the Budget Reduction Exercise Using the $100 Budget Model

Every MMSD resident is invited to participate, but each is limited to participating one time. Length of the sessions will be between 1:20 and 1:45.

Tuesday, January 24
Cherokee Middle School 6:00 p.m. 4301 Cherokee Dr Cafeteria
Sennett Middle School 6:00 p.m. 502 Pflaum Rd. Cafeteria
Hamilton Middle School 7:00 p.m. 4801 Waukesha St. Cafeteria
Sherman Middle School 7:00 p.m. 1610 Ruskin St. Cafeteria

Wednesday, January 25

Jefferson Middle School 6:00 p.m. 101 S. Gammon Rd. Cafeteria
O'Keeffe Middle School 6:00 p.m. 510 S. Thornton Ave. Cafeteria
Spring Harbor Middle School 7:00 p.m. 1110 Spring Harbor Dr.Gym
Whitehorse/Schenk Schools 7:00 p.m. 218 Schenk St. Cafeteria

Thursday, January 26

Wright Middle School 6:00 p.m. 1717 Fish Hatchery Rd. LMC
Toki Middle School 6:30 p.m. 5606 Russett Rd. Cafeteria
Black Hawk/Gompers Schools 7:00 p.m. 1402 Wyoming Way Cafeteria

Posted by Ruth Robarts at 10:34 AM Subscribe to this site via RSS/Atom: Newsletter signup | Send us your ideas

"Mysteries of Testing Solved"

Jay Matthews:

Bracey has been exposing statistics abuse for years. But I have never seen him put together all that he knows as well as he has in this book. It has some of the best explanations of educational numbers manipulation I have ever read, particularly issues like SAT scores, year-to-year school comparisons and argument by graph that are most likely to deceive us innocents. The book has Bracey's deft prose and sure touch with clarifying examples. I also appreciate the fact he trimmed much of his sharp ideological edge, loved by many of his fans, but not by me. He acknowledges several times that no combatant in the bitter education policy wars has an unquestionable grasp on the truth.

Posted by Jim Zellmer at 7:20 AM Subscribe to this site via RSS/Atom: Newsletter signup | Send us your ideas

One Room Schools Holding Up in Rural America

Neenah Ellis:

One-room schools still exist in America. They are a legacy of a less mobile, more rural time in American history. Mostly serving isolated communities, the remaining schools require one teacher to educate children of varying ages at the same time in a single classroom.

Posted by Jim Zellmer at 7:15 AM Subscribe to this site via RSS/Atom: Newsletter signup | Send us your ideas

Lopez to Seek 5th Term

Sandy Cullen:

Two slots on the Madison School Board will be up for grabs in spring elections in which one incumbent will face a challenger while other candidates vie for an open seat.

Board member Juan Jose Lopez announced Tuesday that he will seek a fifth three-year term. He is facing a challenge by Lucy Mathiak, a parent and organizer of the advocacy group East High United.

Parents Arlene Silvera and Maya Cole, both active PTO members at different West Side schools, have declared their candidacy for the seat being vacated by Bill Keys.

Websites: Maya Cole | Juan Jose Lopez | Lucy Mathiak | Arlene Silveira (Arlene told me her site would be up soon).

Posted by Jim Zellmer at 6:07 AM Subscribe to this site via RSS/Atom: Newsletter signup | Send us your ideas

December 21, 2005

Tim Olsen on Generating Cash from the Doyle Administration Land/Building

Tim Olsen's email to Madison Board of Education Member Ruth Robarts:

And below are the specifics you requested re calculating an estimated value for the Doyle site. You are welcome to share this email with anyone interested. And thanks for the opportunity to speak to the Board, for your comments, and for including Lucy Mathiak's blog-article. Someone told me about her article and I'm happy to receive a copy.

My estimate of the value of the Doyle Building is straightforward and based on current City assessments of the Doyle property and of Howard Johnsons just across the street. This public information is freely available via the City of Madison Assessor's site. Similar calculations can be made by anyone. The Excel spreadsheet I used (complete with embedded formulas) is attached as an example. Here's how anyone can make their own calculations:
  1. Go to the Assessor's site.
  2. Since the phone book etc. will show that the Doyle property is at 545 W. Dayton, you can "Query by Address"
  3. Fill in 545, then W, then Dayton in the form and submit.
  4. Click on the parcel number and you will then be shown the Assessor's records for the District's parcel.
  5. You can do the same for the Howard Johnson property and compare the two. The Howard Johnson Motor Lodge street address is 525 W. Johnson and the back of the hotel is across the street from the front of the Doyle property (originally called Washington School when it was built).
  6. The key calculation (per the attached spreadsheet [.xls file]) is figuring out the assessed value of Howard Johnson LAND (not including the "Improvements" i.e. building and parking lot etc) PER SQUARE FOOT. For HoJo's the calculation is $4,237,000 divided by 70,611 sq. feet in the parcel = $60 per square foot.
  7. Then, to calculate an estimate for the Doyle property land value (ignoring the building value), simply multiply $60/sq.ft. * 115, 927 sq. ft. = $6,955,620.
  8. Since the Doyle property is adjacent to the Kohl Center, and generally parcels in Madison sell for substantially more than assessed value, I'm guessing it's actually worth a lot more than $7 million.To sell, lease or develop the Doyle property, the zoning classification would have to be changed, which is not a trivial matter. But just as Ms. Mathiak points out with regard to City Landmarks, such obstacles have been overcome for good reasons many times in City history. The Hilton Hotel that was developed on Catholic Church property is a related example. It is quite unlikely that the Doyle property would ever qualify as a National Register of Historic Places landmark in my opinion but I'd suggest checking with the State Historical Society for a professional assessment.

    I think it would be great to get selling/leasing/developing the Doyle property formally on the table.

    My personal hunch is that the wisest option would be to develop the site, maintain ownership and lease space so that MMSD could continue to make money on it and maintain options for moving programs or administration in or out as enrollment changes over the decades. (Modeling needs for only the next 5 or 10 years is tremendously short-sighted. Extrapolating trends for such a short time is realistic in that projecting beyond that is highly speculative, but we need to recognize how just how limited our predictive powers are. That's the way it is.

    But the fact is, that the property will maintain, and likely greatly increase in value for a long time, given its incredibly valuable location. Why sell the cow that will produce for generations?

    But I'm sure that by putting it on the table, and giving it a thorough analysis with expert help would come out with very good, and well-prioritized solutions, that might even disagree my hunch.

    Meanwhile, I understand that the State Cap really puts MMSD in a box. And that 7 million would not pay off $10 million of shortfall each year. Referendums will need to be passed to maintain the same quality of education over the long term. And we can't wait for a huge change in the attitudes, or representation of legislators required for overturning or modifying the cap(s).

    Nonetheless, taking some initiative with the Doyle site could contribute positively to the district's inbalance in funding more significantly that reshuffling students among schools or building a new building. So, in sum I agree with you in that "we must take some steps of this kind to improve public confidence and build support for referendums that we will need in the near future."

    So -- keep up the good work Ms. Robarts.


    Cheers,


    Tim Olsen


    P.S. I would love to see MMSD Admin LEAD FROM THE FRONT by moving their offices to schools with space and low enrollments. That would be educational for all parties don't you think?

    P.P.S. A calculation of the value of the Wingra School property on Monroe St. can be made similarly to above. To be more accurate, average the value (land and improvements) per square foot value of all adjacent property around the three sides of the parcel, then multiply the ($ average value/sqft) * (the total square footage of the Wingra School) parcel. My guess is that $750,000 is still way, way less than its market value -- beneficial as maintaning its current use/zoning may be to adjacent property owners. A $750,000 sale price to the school subsidizes private education with public property value, while the green space etc. enhances adjacent and nearby property values. I'd vote for leasing the property to Wingra at a realistic rate for a shorter term (not $1 per year). Think that's a tough approach? Ask Edgewood how much it would cost to lease a similar amount of land and/or facilities from them. That would be the 'market rate' for a private school.

    Ms. Robarts, ..just some quick context for my 'specifics'.. Of course the City Assessor's Office, any good developer, or certainly a professional appraisor would point out that many more factors merit consideration in making an accurate appraisal. Factors as diverse as proximity to a freeway ramp, brown fields, street congestion, view, whether or not its on a lakeshore and non-linear relationships with parcel size are just a tiny tip of the iceberg. Nonetheless, a quick and fair calculation of the value of the LAND (excluding improvements which is more complicated; e.g. how would maintaining the exterior of a city landmark factor into developing the site) can be reasonably approximated the way I did it.

    And for more context -- How do I know?.. some further qualifications:

      dozen years on Tenney-Lapham Neigh. Assoc. Board with 2 as President inc. work on development,
    • building code and parcel assessment issues; most recently on the 800 E. Washington property (Don Miller autos) proposed for development by Gary Gorman (an excellent plan that deserves City support with TIF, in my opinion) -
    • PhD minor in Environmental Monitoring (remote sensing and Geospatial information systems science (as mentioned Monday eve. my PhD major is Curriculum & Instruction from Madison) GIS etc provides sophisticated means to estimate real estate value (along with many other applications).
    I'd be happy to help contact some developers to encourage them to look at the Doyle property. Have a great day
Terry Pristin discusses the University of Washington's rental income generated by 11 acres of downtown Seattle real estate. A great example of thinking different.

Posted by Jim Zellmer at 8:51 PM Subscribe to this site via RSS/Atom: Newsletter signup | Send us your ideas

Equity Task Force Members

School Board President Carol Carstensen provided the following list of recommended Task Force Members (and the elementary attendance area of their residence):

EAST
David Cohen - Gompers
Wendy Sauve - Emerson
Lisa/Luis Cuevas - Lakeview (child at Lowell)

LAFOLLETTE:
Christa Bruhn - Schenk
Paul Kusuda - Glendale
Tamaria/Glenn Parks - Glendale

MEMORIAL
Toya Robinson - Falk
Matt Silvern - Orchard Ridge
Jackie Woodruff - Falk

WEST
Rafael Gomez - Thoreau
Thomas Mertz - Franklin/Randall
Beth Swedeen - Midvale/Lincoln

Her recommendations must still be approved by the full Board, and the names will be on the Board’s agenda for the board's next meeting, January 4, 2006.

Posted by Ed Blume at 3:54 PM Subscribe to this site via RSS/Atom: Newsletter signup | Send us your ideas

Wisconsin Taxes Rose 10% in 2005

taxes21g.gif

  • Wisconsin Taxes Set a Record: Residents and Business give 10% more:
    Wisconsin residents and businesses paid a record $56.5 billion in state, local and federal taxes and fees this year, a 10% increase from last year and the biggest jump in more than two decades, according to a study by a non-partisan taxpayers group. = WISTAX
    • Wisconsin’s total taxes rose 1.4 percentage points in 2005 to 32.0% of personal income
    • Net local property tax levies rose 6.3% in 2005. At 4.3% of personal income, 2005 net levies were at their highest level in 10 years.

Posted by Jim Zellmer at 7:16 AM Subscribe to this site via RSS/Atom: Newsletter signup | Send us your ideas

Task Forces Present Early Options

Sandy Cullen:

Those options would move between 316 and 620 students. Some students at Leopold, Chavez, Falk, Thoreau, Stephens and Huegel would go to existing schools, while some students from Crestwood, Huegel, Stephens and Chavez would attend a new school.

School Board member Lawrie Kobza questioned why an option moving fewer students, which had been presented at recent public forums, was off the table. "I had felt we were moving in the right direction when moving the least number of kids," she said.

Facilitator Jane Belmore said bus rides for some of those students would have exceeded 45 minutes each way.

....parent Tim Olsen called on administrators to "lead from the front" instead by selling the Doyle Administration Building.

Olsen said that selling the property adjacent to the Kohl Center could bring nearly $7 million to the district, which anticipates eliminating up to $10 million from its current budget next year to comply with state revenue limits.

Posted by Jim Zellmer at 6:12 AM Subscribe to this site via RSS/Atom: Newsletter signup | Send us your ideas

December 20, 2005

"Beat the Achievement Gap" Student Conference

Students, mark your calendars!

The Simpson Street Free Press will be holding a city-wide "Beat the Achievement Gap" conference on February 25 at 2:00 p.m. At this conference, students will take the following pledge: "I will be an active role model for younger students. I will work to spread a positive message of engagement at my school and in my community. I will encourage academic success among my peers."

For more information, see "The Gap According to Black: A Feature Column by Cydny Black" and the inspiring two-page spread entitled "Education: Bridging the Achievement Gap" in the January, 2006, issue of The Simpson Street Free Press. Additional information will soon be posted at www.simpsonstreetfreepress.org

Posted by Laurie Frost at 7:44 PM Subscribe to this site via RSS/Atom: Newsletter signup | Send us your ideas

Memorial Black Student Union

A new student group at Memorial:

The Black Student Union (MBSU) was designed to encourage and develop the Black students of James Madison Memorial High School and beyond. Our purpose is to serve as a liaison between students and the administration, link students to the community, and provide a positive social and cultural atmosphere. Our goal is to build better relationship among one another and to break the typical presentations of the Black community while maintaining respect, unity, and love.

Read more on the blog of the Madison Area Family Advisory/Advocacy Coaliton (MAFAAC).

Posted by Ed Blume at 5:47 PM Subscribe to this site via RSS/Atom: Newsletter signup | Send us your ideas

"School Contests Promise to Be Hot"

Lee Sensenbrenner:

With this spring's elections to the Madison School Board, the balance of power on the seven-member body hinges on the outcome of what surely will be two hotly competitive races.
Much more on the candidates and the election here.

Posted by Jim Zellmer at 1:20 PM Subscribe to this site via RSS/Atom: Newsletter signup | Send us your ideas

MMSD Budget Mystery #5: Mumbo Gumbo in the Kitchen

Let me first say, daring detectives, we dismissed Sam Spade that language larruping lout. So uncouth!

So let’s get back to real sleuthing on the case of Mumbo Gumbo in the Kitchen, the MMSD kitchen to be exact.

The puzzling budget portfolio presented to the Board of Education says, “The Division [Food Service] is reviewing staffing levels for the 2005-2006 school year and expects to reduce the staffing level by approximately 2%.” (page 150)

Now here’s the first of the mysteries in this mumbo gumbo. The budget figures on page 149 (the page right before page 150!) show the Food Service budget RISING from $7,152,021 to $7,398,620, an increase of $246,599 or 3.5%! Mysterious!

Don’t go away. We’re just getting started on these numbing numbers.

“Fringe FTE” increased from $1,004,621 to $1,922,782, or $918,637 or 91.5%, according to the same budget figures. Do the Food Service employees have such a bold bargaining brigade as to wring such a wonderful increase from the MMSD contract negotiators?

The same table shows that “Other Salary and Benefits” leaped from $1,219,053 to $2,180,790, an increase of 78.9%.

What would cause such a dramatic increase in salaries and fringes in light of the professed reduction in staffing level “by approximately 2%?” (The simple solution won’t stump those who paid attention to Mystery #4: Body Count or 1-2-3 FTE.)

“Other expenses” in Food Services (still on page 149) yo-yo around from $2.1 million in 2003-2004, $3.9 million in 2004-2005, and settle at $2,395,600 in 2005-2006.

This is a most curious concoction!

Can anyone tell the okra from the rice in this gurgling mumbo jumbo?

Posted by Ed Blume at 10:17 AM Subscribe to this site via RSS/Atom: Newsletter signup | Send us your ideas

Highland's Distance Learning Grant

Amanda Kraemer:

The Highland School District, which has about 300 kindergarten through high school students, learned early this month they are one of 79 nationwide recipients of a $300,000 U.S. Department of Agriculture rural development grant.

School Board president Brad Laufenberg said one of the disadvantages of being a smaller school district is the inability to provide a large and varied number of courses to their students.

"The distance learning lab will enable us to provide many more of those courses to both our students and the rest of the community," he said.

Posted by Jim Zellmer at 5:56 AM Subscribe to this site via RSS/Atom: Newsletter signup | Send us your ideas

December 19, 2005

Internationalizing Our Schools

Elizabeth Burmaster:

We live in a world instantly connected via satellites, computers, and other electronic technology. Our children embrace the technology that makes those connections possible, but need the educational background through cultural and linguistic experiences that will prepare them for the global world of today and their international future.
Burmaster raises some useful points. Clearly, it is no longer sufficient to compare Madison's curriculum and achievement with Racine, Green Bay or Kenosha. Rather, the question should include Bangalore, Helsinki, Shanghai, Taipei and Osaka, among others.

Posted by Jim Zellmer at 4:04 PM Subscribe to this site via RSS/Atom: Newsletter signup | Send us your ideas

MMSD opposes charter school

An article by Joe Quick on MMSD's Web site lists the MMSD as one of the organizations opposed to legislation that would allow the UW-Madison to support a charter school in Dane County. Quick wrote:

Two Milwaukee-area legislators have proposed allowing the UW System to operate or contract for the operation of a charter school with the approval of the Board of Regents. According to the Legislative Reference Bureau analysis, "the school must be located in Dane County and may accept any pupil who resides in Dane County. The school may accommodate up to 700 pupils in its first school year (which may be no sooner than 2007-08), and up to 1,400 pupils thereafter."

. . . The bills are opposed by the: School Administrators Alliance, Wisconsin Association of School Boards, Wisconsin Education Association Council, Milwaukee Public Schools, Janesville and Madison Schools. As of December 15, no lobbying group or individual registered with the State Ethics Board has indicated support for the measure.

An individual does not have to register with the State Ethics Board unless they are a paid lobbyist working for a group like those listed above.

Posted by Ed Blume at 11:51 AM Subscribe to this site via RSS/Atom: Newsletter signup | Send us your ideas

When Learning Counts: Rethinking Licenses for School Leaders

Jacob E. Adams, Jr. & Michael A. Copland [PDF]:

This report asks two fundamental questions: do the licenses that states require of school principals encompass the knowledge and skills those principals need to promote student learning? If not, what kind of policy framework would help decisionmakers, educators, and others rethink principal licenses and the school leadership they support? To find the answers, we examined licensure content for principals in all 50 states plus the District of Columbia. Based on that in-depth investigation, we reached the following conclusions.


Licenses don’t reflect a learning focus. No state has crafted licensing policies that reflect a coherent learning-focused school leadership agenda. On the contrary, licenses run between two extremes: a reliance on individual characteristics, such as background checks or academic degrees, that signal nothing about the purposes or practice of the principalship, and lists of knowledge and skill requirements whose scope and depth don’t clearly sum to a meaningful definition of the job. Neither approach represents a set of qualifications on which the public may rely or the profession may depend. In an era of standards and accountability, this omission stands out.


Licensing requirements are unbalanced across states and misaligned with today’s ambitions for school leaders.

Posted by Jim Zellmer at 11:25 AM Subscribe to this site via RSS/Atom: Newsletter signup | Send us your ideas

Public Education Goes to School

Harvard Business School:

We asked our nine districts what their biggest barriers were in achieving excellence at scale, and they described five categories of management challenges:

  1. Implementing a district-wide strategy
  2. Achieving organizational coherence in support of the strategy
  3. Developing and managing human capital
  4. Allocating resources in alignment with the strategy
  5. Using performance data for decision making and accountability

Posted by Jim Zellmer at 7:43 AM Subscribe to this site via RSS/Atom: Newsletter signup | Send us your ideas

December 18, 2005

If "homogeneous" is bad, is "heterogeneous" better?

An article from American Educator, a magazine of the American Federation of Teachers:

. . . detracking accomplished many transformations in a few short years. It transformed teaching from difficult to impossible. It transformed the ideal of equal instruction for all into practices offering less instruction for all. It transformed faster students from motivated allies to disengaged threats . And it transformed teachers from detracking enthusiasts into advocates for a return to tracking. These results pose challenges for researchers and practitioners. While tracking often has bad outcomes, detracking
is not necessarily better.

Researchers who have played a role in criticizing tracking must also consider the potential problems of detracking. Until such studies are done, high school practitioners should be cautious about proceeding to detracking reforms just because they sound appealing. There is too much at stake, and there is great risk of unanticipated negative outcomes. These teachers’ experiences indicate that good intentions and hard work are not enough to make detracking successful.

Substitue "homogeneous" for "tracked" and "heterogeneous" for "detracked," and see whether the article has any application to West's Curriculum Reduction Plan.

Posted by Ed Blume at 7:42 PM Subscribe to this site via RSS/Atom: Newsletter signup | Send us your ideas

Friedman on Vouchers

Nick Gillespie:

In 1955 future Nobel Prize–winning economist Milton Friedman kick-started modern education reform with an article titled “The Role of Government in Education.” Bucking the “general trend in our times toward increasing intervention by the state” in virtually all economic and social activities, Friedman argued that universal vouchers for elementary and secondary schools would usher in an age of educational innovation and experimentation, not only widening the range of options for students and parents but increasing all sorts of positive outcomes.


“Government,” wrote Friedman, “preferably local governmental units, would give each child, through his parents, a specified sum to be used solely in paying for his general education; the parents would be free to spend this sum at a school of their own choice, provided it met certain minimum standards laid down by the appropriate governmental unit. Such schools would be conducted under a variety of auspices: by private enterprises operated for profit, nonprofit institutions established by private endowment, religious bodies, and some even by governmental units.”

Posted by Jim Zellmer at 7:41 PM Subscribe to this site via RSS/Atom: Newsletter signup | Send us your ideas

Elite French Schools Block the Poor's Path to Power

Craig Smith:

Nothing represents the stratification of French society more than the country's rigid educational system, which has reinforced the segregation of disadvantaged second-generation immigrant youths by effectively locking them out of the corridors of power.

While French universities are open to all high school graduates, the grandes écoles - great schools - from which many of the country's leaders emerge, weed out anyone who does not fit a finely honed mold. Of the 350,000 students graduating annually from French high schools, the top few grandes écoles accept only about 1,000, virtually all of whom come from a handful of elite preparatory schools.

Posted by Jim Zellmer at 3:46 PM Subscribe to this site via RSS/Atom: Newsletter signup | Send us your ideas

Madison School Board – SPAMMED!!!

Since Thursday, “thousands and thousands” (and I mean - thousands) of e-mails have filled the e-mailboxes of Madison School Board members (and probably other members of school boards in Wisconsin). The message reads:

Dear Governor Doyle and Public Instruction Superintendent's office,

I am very much disappointed that Wisconsin, a state which preaches tolerance and diversity, has public schools which now teach intolerance and anti-diversity. Celebrating a Christmas witch and secularizing "Silent Night" while changing the words to the Christmas carol displays a very narrow-minded approach to education. You have a double standard which allows some religious symbols while banning others. This double standard is not in keeping with this country's religious freedom. Why not be inclusive and allow both Hanukkah and Christian Christmas songs?

Christmas is recognized as a federal and state holiday. That being the case, it appears illegal for the school board to ban Christian Christmas songs since our federal and state governments recognize Christmas as a holiday. It certainly isn't a good reflection on your state.

I hope you will act to change this religious bigotry on the part of some schools in Wisconsin.

Sincerely,

XXXXXXX (The name of sender)

The person responsible for doing this is very technologically savvy. Each name is different and the comments are for the most part different as well. I don’t know about other board members, but I figured out how to “filter” the messages so their not clogging up my “In-box”, however if Governor Doyle tries to get a hold of me, his message will probably end up in the “trash.” If anyone sees the Governor and he asks about me, tell him to give me a phone call or write me a letter via U.S. mail.

In the spirit of the season and being "politically correct", have a Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Happy Kwanzaa, Happy Holidays and Happy (fill in your holiday) to all!

Posted by Johnny Winston, Jr. at 11:55 AM Subscribe to this site via RSS/Atom: Newsletter signup | Send us your ideas

East High Principal Allen Harris Profile

Sandy Cullen:

You can tell something's different at East High School this year without even going inside.

Gone is the "smoking wall," where for generations, students gathered to hang out and smoke cigarettes before and during the school day.

"It was intimidating," said parent Lucy Mathiak, who admits she was uncomfortable walking past the large group of students who would gather along the wall on Fourth Street. "It smelled terrible and it was really annoying," added Mathiak's son Andrew Stabler, 16, a junior at East.

It was also one of the first things to change this fall after Alan Harris stepped in as the school's new principal.

Background on East High's recent principal position turnover. More on Allen Harris, including his appearance at the recent Gangs and School Violence Forum

Posted by Jim Zellmer at 6:42 AM Subscribe to this site via RSS/Atom: Newsletter signup | Send us your ideas

December 17, 2005

Illiteracy remains a problem in the U.S.

Larry Winkler called attention to the figures in the recent assessment of literacy among adult Americans, as reported in the New York Times. An article in the Capital Times brings the issue closer to home:

. . .Wisconsin has the second highest high school graduation in the country for whites, it has the worst (50th out of 50 states) for African-Americans, the Center on Wisconsin Strategy reports.

Community-based literacy councils attempt to help those with the lowest literacy skills, said Erickson, whose nonprofit statewide organization provides support, training and advocacy to its 45 member literacy councils.

"They are on the frontlines serving the adults in the very lowest levels of literacy skills without access to most of the federal and state funding," she said.

Most, in fact, rely on volunteers to tutor adults with limited literacy skills.

In 2004, more than 1,000 adult learners were served by the Madison Area Literacy Council, 264 of whom got the skills needed to get a job, while 280 learners were able to become active in the education of their children, said Executive Director Greg Markle.

To volunteer or sign up for services, contact the council at 244-3911 or see www.madisonarealiteracy.org.

Posted by Ed Blume at 1:07 PM Subscribe to this site via RSS/Atom: Newsletter signup | Send us your ideas

An End to the Blame Game

This is an article by Martha McCoy and Amy Malick which was published in the December 2003 journal of the National Assocation of Secondary School Principals. The Madison Partners in Special Education are very interested in using this as a tool to engage the MMSD school board, staff and various parent groups in productive dialogue. The link follows below and the entire article is an extended entry.

An end to the blame game

A healthy school needs an active, informed community, but talking about problems can degenerate into fingerpointing and blame. Study circles can help communities create the schools they need.

Imagine walking into a room and seeing parents, teachers, students, and neighbors from different backgrounds and ethnic groups sitting in a circle talking about parent involvement, expectations, and testing. Parents you've rarely seen at school are speaking up. Some are talking through an interpreter. Teachers are listening and contributing their ideas. Everyone pays close attention to the students. The conversation is lively and respectful. The trust is obvious.

Sound far-fetched? It's not. Schools across the country are creating productive conversations that routinely and meaningfully involve the community in all its diversity. They are using a process called "study circles" to bring together educators, students, and average citizens from different backgrounds to talk in small groups about what matters to them in education, what challenges face the educational system, and what the community can do to address those challenges in productive ways.

Study circles are part of a larger program that has easy-to-use, fair-minded discussion materials and trained facilitators who reflect the community's diversity. Each circle comprises a small, diverse group of 8-12 people who meet for four 2-hour sessions. A facilitator leads the sessions and helps manage the discussion but does not teach the group about the issue or take sides. To help group members respect one another and get results, the circle sets its own ground rules. Starting with their personal stories, members of the circle consider an issue from many points of view. Next, group members talk about how they want things to be. Finally, they make plans for action and change. The purpose of the program is to move a community to action when the study circles conclude.

Why Study Circles?

People have different ideas and views about education problems, and they disagree about the causes. Finding solutions to these complex problems is hard and takes many different groups working together, which can be a challenge. Communication and trust frequently break down between people and groups from different backgrounds and sectors. Solutions that make sense for one person or group may not meet the needs of others. And there are usually lots of people on the sidelines who are not invited into problem solving or who don't know how to join in. By using study circles, school communities can talk about difficult or divisive issues, find common ground, and take action.

That's what happened in New Hampshire, where the Violence Prevention Committee at Portsmouth Middle School was worried about an increase in "subtle nastiness" between students. The committee decided to focus on preventing the escalation of the bullying behavior and organized study circles. Once a week for a month, 200 sixth-grade students met in small groups with 75 community leaders, parents, and business people to discuss student behavior issues. "Adults in the community, especially seniors, expressed surprise about how so many youth had meaningful things to say," said Jim Noucas, an attorney who participated in the circles. "The sixth-graders also were surprised that adults would even listen to what they had to say. People left with a positive perception, not only of the kids, but of the schools."

Karen Kleinz, associate director of the National School Public Relations Association, said that the accountability movement requires a different kind of involvement than traditional programs have delivered: "The public is no longer willing to just take our word on things. People want to know about all sides of an issue, and they will seek out their own facts to support what they believe to be true." But with endless demands on their time and creativity, most principals need help establishing and strengthening community connections. Kathy Morledge, associate director of the Arkansas School Board Association and former principal, said the entire community needs to understand the problems. "That's where I see study circles helping-getting everyone on a level playing field and from there, as a group, consider what kinds of action we can work on together."

How It Works

Study circles work because people, often for the first time, have the opportunity to converse about what matters to them-and to feel that someone is listening. They're able to claim their "space," learn and hear what other people are saying, and put it in a relevant context. "People come to the table with fixed ideas about things, and by listening to other points of view, you see them becoming more open to other perspectives, or at least an understanding of where someone else is coming from," said Dan Parley, executive director of the Arkansas School Boards Association, which promotes study circles across the state.

Get Broad-Based, Large-Scale Participation

Study circle programs are more effective when they have a diverse range of voices in each group. To involve people who reflect the makeup of the community, start by building a coalition of organizations that represent different parts of the community. Leaders from those organizations can recruit people from their networks to participate in the project. It is particularly beneficial to enlist grassroots organizations, such as neighborhood associations, businesses, religious institutions, and clubs.

"If you have a slanted perspective, if your circle is all school promoters or all naysayers, it's not going to work," said Ray Pellegrini, executive director of the Vermont Principals Association. "It's only going to be credible if you're hearing all the voices. If you're talking about school climate, you can't have a room full of people who think school is wonderful. You've got to have all points of view."

Successful efforts to recruit from a broad base in Montgomery County (MD) Public Schools led to a promising outcome at a community forum concluding the project: As the forum began, Bach Van Nguyen stood at the podium to speak to the 140 people in the audience. Nguyen, who works in a kitchen factory, had participated in a special study circle for Vietnamese refugees who did not feel ready to talk with others. In broken English, he said, "I felt very lonely and lost when I went to my son's school."

Participating in study circles had changed that, he said. He now understood what to do to help his children. He had developed relationships with people who could help him when needed. Nguyen looked out to the crowd and said, "Study circles was like a bridge to my children's education...If you see me coming across, I hope you will reach out your hand and help." The next speaker, Delric East, a Black father who had recently lost his job, stood up, walked to the podium, and grabbed Nguyen's hand. The two stood hand-inhand while East told his own story.

Engage the Unengaged

To involve hard-to-reach parents and community members, imagine yourself in the place of people who are the least likely to participate and devise strategies to overcome the barriers to participation. In Kansas City, KS, organizers have used a combination of creative recruitment strategies for study circles. Organizers ran public service announcements on the radio and television and in newspapers. They arranged interviews with the press and put up billboards throughout the community asking, "Do you want to talk about our schools?" Most of these approaches gave study circles name recognition in the community, but what really reached those who were typically disconnected from the schools was the personal, one-on-one outreach of trusted neighborhood-based leaders. The more site-based and grassroots the approach, the more effective it was.

Because many people-particularly in the Black community-did not trust the schools and felt disconnected, the United Way was chosen to convene a group of staff members from a participating foundation, clergy from area churches, business people, educators, and community members. "This group recognized that before planning other initiatives, they had to address the trust issue through a public discourse," said study circle organizer Brandi Fisher. Bilingual coordinators were recruited and some study circles were conducted in Spanish.

Some elderly neighbors who participated in study circles recalled days when members of their community were more engaged. They spoke about neighbors looking after one another, about parents being more involved with their children's schools, and about teachers living in the neighborhoods where they taught. In their spare time, these neighbors "adopted" an elementary school in a public housing project near them and started a tutoring program there.

Provide Structure

Limiting the group size to 8-12 people enables everyone to contribute. To ensure that the discussion feels safe and builds trust, each group has an impartial and well-trained facilitator and participants set their own ground rules. Groups meet several times: a first session to focus on their experiences and concerns, two sessions to focus on the decision facing the district, and a final session to help the decide how each group member can contribute to school success. Groups should be given basic information about the schools and the situation, plus a fair and candid restatement of the main arguments about what should be done to establish a framework for the sessions.

Empower Everyone

Participants need to know that their participation will make a real difference in how the schools are working. People want their ideas to be heard and to have the chance to put ideas into motion. Dan Parley, executive director of the Arkansas School Boards Association, described a district north of Little Rock that was experiencing a rift between the board of education and the teacher's union. Community residents considered ways to handle this rift in study circles held across the community-in churches, community buildings, and low-rent housing complexes.

Community members offered several recommendations, three of which were implemented within the next few weeks. Because of school responsiveness, residents saw an improvement in communications between the parents and the individual schools their children attended. The district created a newsletter for community members and began to televise board of education meetings on the local cable access channel. The community members could see that the schools were taking their input seriously and acting on it.

Ask for Support

At the beginning of the program, school leaders should be clear that they want more than just recommendations. Community members should be encouraged to think about what they can do as individuals, as members of new or existing organizations or action groups, and as a community. A large-group meeting held at the conclusion of the small-group discussions can be a venue to hear the ideas generated by the small groups and a place where citizens and administrators can join or create action groups to work on some of those ideas. Clearly there are some policy changes that can only be enacted by school leaders, but on every issue there are a host of things individual citizens can do, as well as many projects that can be undertaken by a combination of citizens, public employees, and community organizations.

Consider the Barriers

Advance planning will go a long way toward eliminating barriers to a successful program. Morledge said to expect and plan for challenges as you:

* Recruit teachers, parents, and community members.

* Find times appropriate and convenient to all participants. Right after school is the best time for teachers and staff members, but that time may not work for parents and community members. One way to overcome this barrier is to provide food and babysitting services for teachers and parents with young children.

* Find locations where people feel comfortable, particularly people who haven't had good school experiences.

* Identify the issues and develop or adapt materials.

Conclusion

School-community connections are an essential part of creating schools where all students can flourish. True community collaboration produces schools that use resources effectively and creatively and that value a diversity of perspectives. Unfortunately, most informal community conversations about the schools degenerate into blame. The spiral of negativity helps ensure that people will stay on the sidelines. Understandably, educators fear being attacked and community members fear that they will not be heard.

Study circles are not about blaming but about finding ways to work together to strengthen the schools. Because participants get to know one another better, they take stock of their schools in a way that is honest and respectful, rather than accusatory. When people understand that the process is fair to everyone and that there are opportunities for constructive disagreement, they are more willing to participate and the process is more likely to achieve real outcomes for the schools. People respond to having an opportunity to participate in a process that is positive and centers on finding solutions and solving problems. Finally, they develop action ideas and take shared responsibility for being part of the solution.

Martha L. McCoy is the executive director for the Study Circles Resource Center in Pomfret, CT. Amy L. Malick (amym@studycircles.org) is the communications director and Matt Leighninger is a senior associate with the center.

Copyright National Association of Secondary School Principals Dec 2003
Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights Reserved

Posted by at 11:32 AM Subscribe to this site via RSS/Atom: Newsletter signup | Send us your ideas

December 16, 2005

Winter Solstice Celebration: Thoreau Student Self Portraits


Thoreau Art Teacher Andy Mayhall:

Thoreau Elementary School was given a donation by a retired art teacher to have an artist-in-residency. We had artists submit proposals to the school, which were reviewed by the Cultural Arts Committee. Local artist, Susan Tierney, was selected to work with me, and Thoreau students to create self-portrait paintings. Susan worked with students in the classroom on and off for about a month. The students made sketches and then final drawings onto hardboard. Students could create realistic or non-realistic, some were cartoon like, self-portraits. They used colored pencil and acrylic paint to color the portraits. The finished portraits were put together to form 22 murals. The murals are on display in the hallway between the LMC (library) and classrooms on the upper floor. These murals will be a permanent display at Thoreau.
Check out the murals via these photos.

Posted by Jim Zellmer at 9:17 PM Subscribe to this site via RSS/Atom: Newsletter signup | Send us your ideas

Investing in Education

KJZZ:

In this essay we hear from Chris Coffey, an educator who has gone into teaching as a second career and who thinks it's time for a lot of us to do more than talk about improving education. Chris Coffey is a lawyer who has returned to education and teaches in the Law Magnet Program at South Mountain High School in the Phoenix Union High School District.
audio

Posted by Jim Zellmer at 7:50 PM Subscribe to this site via RSS/Atom: Newsletter signup | Send us your ideas

Attendance Task Force Update

Please see www.madison.k12.wi.us and click on the Long Range Planning section and view the updated options on this site. Or view the report that will be given to the BOE Monday evening. The W/M Task Force will have another meeting on Dec 20th and tweeking of the options may occur but many of us feel we have reached the near end. (Of course anything can happen so don't hold me to that.) Also, the East Task Force Report for the BOE is available on the LRP site.

Posted by Mary Battaglia at 4:31 PM Subscribe to this site via RSS/Atom: Newsletter signup | Send us your ideas

And the (West HS English 10) beat goes on ..."

Here is the email I wrote earlier today to Ed Holmes, Art Rainwater, Pam Nash, Mary Gulbrandsen, and the seven members of the BOE, followed by the reply I just received from Ed Holmes:

I wrote:

Hello, everyone. I wonder if one of you would please send us a status report on the plans for 10th grade English at West for next year? Many of us have written to you multiple times about this matter, but without any reply. We are trying to be patient, polite, collaborative and upbeat (despite the fact that we are feeling frustrated, ignored and stonewalled).

Specifically, would one of you please tell us:

1) what will be printed in the 2006-07 West course catalogue about 10th grade English? (when is the printer deadline, by the way? has it already passed? if so, please send us a copy of the text that will appear for the English Department course offerings)

2) when will an English 10 update be posted on the West website? (we were told it would be there early this week -- it's still not)

3) when will we be provided with West HS and MMSD data that support this proposal as a way to address the low achievement in English for some groups of West students (as described and defined in the West SLC report on English 10)?

4) when will we be provided with the citations for the empirical studies upon which this proposal -- and the apparent District-wide move to heterogeneous classes in our middle and high schools -- is being based? (presumably you have already done a literature search on this topic, so a reference list must exist somewhere that can easily be sent to us)

5) we heard a rumor almost two weeks ago that the English 10 curriculum will be tried as a pilot project only next year; is that true? (we have written to several of you, asking specifically about that rumor; but no one has replied)

6) has anyone followed through on my idea to connect with Emily Auerbach and the Odyssey Project (www.odyssey.wisc.edu), either for West only or for the District, generally?


Thanks for getting back to us with the answers to these questions as soon as possible.

Laurie

I received the following reply from Ed Holmes:

Laurie,


We had hoped to have the information regarding English 10 online early this week. We are still working on the final piece of information before it is to go out to the public. We are really close. We have a number of people reviewing the plan to be sure all aspects of the proposal are clear and correct. We have not submitted anything that will be an official course description for English 10 at this time. I know the course of study deadline is of concern but we will delay its submission until we have all the accurate information needed.


This process is one where we must be meticulous. What we say must be clear and accurately reflect our plan. Anything that comes from West High school becomes part of the public domain. It is not only a reflection of me but everyone who is a part of the West High school community. I cannot release the information until it complete.

I appreciate your patience and understand your frustration in this challenging process.


Ed Holmes, Principal
West High School


Posted by Laurie Frost at 12:45 PM Subscribe to this site via RSS/Atom: Newsletter signup | Send us your ideas

Science, The Rebel Educator

Lynn Margulis writing in the American Scientist:

The ridiculous but effective public-relations tactics of hype and guile serve our television culture. Pressures to produce and consume generate deceptions and half-truths. On the dominant side of the cultural abyss, hard-sell tactics contradict the demands of science: honesty, rigor and logic. Scientific inquiry, on the other side of the abyss, is a search for truth—whether or not, to paraphrase the wise, recently deceased physicist David Bohm, the truth pleases us.

....

When he described America as a self-imagined nation of "pragmatic, pious businessmen," Baldwin unwittingly exemplified science education. Science for schools is written, controlled and produced by publishers whose goal is to sell materials in huge quantities to avoid sales taxes. Qualified scientists and teachers are not paid for comprehensibility, accuracy or logic, but rather bribed to rapidly approve "content" that no one understands. Such beleaguered experts rush to meet publishers’ deadlines for "up-to-date" consumer products that quickly earn money. To maximize profit, books, digital media, supplies, even equipment are planned to be obsolete within the academic year.

Posted by Rebecca Cole at 11:31 AM Subscribe to this site via RSS/Atom: Newsletter signup | Send us your ideas

Decrease in Literacy for College Graduates

The National Assessment of Adult Literacy, as reported by the New York Times, has declined significantly from 1992 to 2003.

In 1992, the percentage of college graduates scoring proficient in English was 40%; in 2003 the percentage had declined to 31%. Of those college graduates below proficient, 53% score intermediate, while 14% had only basic literacy. Astonishingly, 3% of college graduates had less than basic literacy in English.

Separating the data by ethnicity, Blacks increased statistically signficantly from 29% to 33%, Asian literacy increased significantly from 45% to 54%, but Hispanic literacy declined significantly from 33% to 27% in intermediate/proficient, while below basic literacy increased significantly from 35% to 44%.

The NAAL study includes sampling of 19,000 people above age 16.

Of course, non-English literacy is not the same as illiteracy, so the study should be interpreted with this distinction in mind.

Posted by Larry Winkler at 9:08 AM Subscribe to this site via RSS/Atom: Newsletter signup | Send us your ideas

New Special-Ed Testing Rules

Nick Anderson:

Education Secretary Margaret Spellings outlined new testing rules for disabled students yesterday, formalizing an initiative that has already helped more than 100 public schools in Maryland and Virginia meet the standards of the No Child Left Behind law.

Posted by Jim Zellmer at 6:05 AM Subscribe to this site via RSS/Atom: Newsletter signup | Send us your ideas

December 15, 2005

Solution to MMSD Budget Mystery #4: Body Count or 1-2-3 FTE

Congratulations to Roger Price, MMSD assistant superintendent, for completing the table with the FTE (full time equivalent) positions for 2004-2005 and 2005-2006, i.e., last year compared to this year.

If you open the Excel file, you’ll see some potentially surprising figures. Unlike the reports, total FTEs for this school year compared to 2004-2005 did not decrease by the threatened 131 positions. The total fell by 90.

You can also see that some job categories actually increased. Food service staff increased by 10 FTEs. The increase seems odd when MMSD enrollment declined this year, presumably meaning the MMSD will prepare and serve fewer meals.

Unspecified “Supervisors” increased by 2.95 FTEs, while "administrators" fell by 2.0 FTEs. Does that mean "downtown" staff actually rose by .95 FTE?

School psychologists and social workers took the largest percentage hit at 12.2%.

I’ve been urging the board to use year-to-year comparisons during budget deliberations, and this table provides an excellent example of why. That is to say, no one during any budget deliberation even mentioned the increase in food service staff. The administration gave no justification; the board asked no questions.

With the comparative information in the table, which the board did not have during the budget process, some board member might have asked whether the budget should increase the number of food service workers while decreasing the number of school psychologists and social workers.

In the coming budget process, I hope that the board asks for an update of the table with a column added for the FTEs under a balanced budget for 2006-2007 . . . before they vote on a budget.

Posted by Ed Blume at 2:59 PM Subscribe to this site via RSS/Atom: Newsletter signup | Send us your ideas

Making AP Work For Students

Jay Matthews:

The board had decided that any student who wanted to take a high school honors or college-level course could do so. The only prerequisite was a desire to work hard.

The School Board also said that anyone taking difficult Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate courses had to take the special AP and IB exams written and scored by independent experts and administered in May. The number of exams nearly doubled, and passing rates on those college-level tests dropped sharply. In 1998, 75 percent of students taking AP tests in the county received passing scores. In 1999, that figure was only 62 percent.

Posted by Jim Zellmer at 6:14 AM Subscribe to this site via RSS/Atom: Newsletter signup | Send us your ideas

How One Suburb's Black Students Gain

Micael Winerip:

Here in this integrated, upper-middle-class Cleveland suburb, you would think they would be boasting. African-Americans' combined math and verbal SAT scores average 976, 110 points above the national average for black students. The number of black sixth graders scoring proficient on the state math test has nearly doubled in three years and is more than 20 percentage points above the Ohio average for blacks.

A black parent group here has sponsored many projects aimed at narrowing the gap, including a summer enrichment program started in 1997. In October, Alisa Smith opened a parent room at the high school to encourage more adult involvement. Ms. Smith, a Columbia graduate and a stay-at-home mother, and her husband, a doctor, have three children in the schools, including Andre, the MAC scholar. While she says her children have been underestimated at times because they are black, over all she is delighted with the schools.

Posted by Jim Zellmer at 6:02 AM Subscribe to this site via RSS/Atom: Newsletter signup | Send us your ideas

December 14, 2005

Madison School Board looking for community members to serve on Equity Task Force

The Madison School Board is looking for persons interested in serving on an Equity Task Force. At this time we are targeting our efforts in finding citizens that live and/or have children in the LaFollette and Memorial attendance areas. Persons selected will need to be sensitive and understanding of issues of poverty, class, privilege, race, and disenfranchisement. Other attributes would include someone who has had experience working or living in a culture, community or environment that serves predominately low income or individuals in a minority group.

The Equity Task Force will recommend to the Board of Education an equity policy that includes:

- a definition of equity,
- a statement of the district's commitment to equity, and
- possible guidelines for implementing the policy.

Timeline will include several meetings with the Madison school district administration. The dates and times will be discussed amongst the selected membership.

This is an important Task Force! If you are interested in assisting in this effort, please contact school board President Carol Carstensen at 255-5931 or ccarstensen@madison.k12.wi.us. Thank you for your consideration in this important effort. Please respond by Wednesday December 21st.

Johnny Winston, Jr.
Vice President
Madison School Board

Posted by Johnny Winston, Jr. at 4:27 PM Subscribe to this site via RSS/Atom: Newsletter signup | Send us your ideas

Education Trust: "How Some High Schools Are Boosting Student Achievement."

The Education Trust:

The Education Trust's two newest reports highlight the practices of high schools that are getting the job done and improving student achievement, especially for the poor and minority children traditionally underserved by the American high school.
(Press Release) (Gaining Traction; Gaining Ground) (The Power to Change)

Posted by Jim Zellmer at 6:52 AM Subscribe to this site via RSS/Atom: Newsletter signup | Send us your ideas

"Poor Basic Skills Mar Progress"

BBC:

Improvements in standards in primary and secondary schools in England are being marred by poor levels of literacy and numeracy, Ofsted inspectors say.
Pupils with below average abilities in reading, writing and maths are not getting enough help, Ofsted reports.

Posted by Jim Zellmer at 6:20 AM Subscribe to this site via RSS/Atom: Newsletter signup | Send us your ideas

"School Choice and the Civil Rights Establishment"

Shavar Jeffries:

According to the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, Black parents, especially Black parents of children in urban schools, strongly support school choice. This result should be unsurprising: The futures of their children are directly, if not irrevocably, compromised by the continuing failure of urban schools. At the same time, most longstanding civil-rights organizations — like the NAACP, the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund, and the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights (LCCR) — strongly oppose school choice. The following assertions of LCCR, contained in its platform statement on educational matters, is typical:

Posted by Jim Zellmer at 6:14 AM Subscribe to this site via RSS/Atom: Newsletter signup | Send us your ideas

December 13, 2005

Videoconference on youth gangs on January 11th, 2006

Please join the City of Madison, Madison Police Department, UW Police Department, Dane County Human Services, Dane County Youth Prevention Task Force, Project Hugs, NIP, Dane County Sheriffs Office and others for a nation-wide videoconference addressing strategies and community programs concerning gangs and gang violence. Following the videoconference there will be an interactive discussion about gangs in Dane County and address some strategies or programs that will assist us in dealing with our current gang issue. Light refreshments will be available.

WHAT: Videoconference on youth gangs in America and local interactive discussion

WHO: Presented by the US Department of Justice, nationwide discussion

WHEN: January 11th, 2006 from 9:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m.

WHERE: UW Campus-Engineering Hall Room 1800 (Corner of Johnson St./ Randall Ave.)

CONTACT: If you are interested in attending please contact Toni Colson at colson@co.dane.wi.us or call 273-6603 to register.

WHO SHOULD ATTEND: Anyone: Citizens, Community Leaders, Law Enforcement, Social Workers, Politicians, Teachers, Probation and Parole, Boys and Girls Club Staff and those individuals interested in helping with the gang issues of our community. Seating will be limited to the first 200 people, first come first serve.

Posted by Johnny Winston, Jr. at 10:01 PM Subscribe to this site via RSS/Atom: Newsletter signup | Send us your ideas

Michigan Considers Requiring High-School Students to Take at Least One Online Course

Dan Carneville:

The Michigan State Board of Education is set to approve a new graduation requirement today that would make every high-school student in the state take at least one online course before receiving a diploma.

The new requirement would appear to be the first of its kind in the nation. Mike Flanagan, the Michigan state superintendent of public instruction, said he proposed the online-course requirement, along with other general requirements, to make sure students were prepared for college and for jobs, which are becoming more technology-focused.

"We don't want our kids left in the global dust," Mr. Flanagan said. "It's an experience we need to have."

Posted by Jim Zellmer at 9:48 PM Subscribe to this site via RSS/Atom: Newsletter signup | Send us your ideas

Congratulations to LaFollette Principal Mike Meissen

Message to the School Board from Superintendent Art Rainwater:

I am pleased to announce that Mike Meissen has accepted the position of Superintendent of the Glenbard Township High School District in Illinois effective July 1, 2006. Glenbard is a high school district with 4 high schools and almost 9,000 students.

After many years of service to the children of Madison, we are all very excited that Mike can realize his dream of leading a school district.

Note from me: I think this is a wonderful opportunity for Mr. Meissen. He has been very dedicated to LaFollette and the community as a whole. I know he'll do a great job for the Glenbard Township High School District.

Posted by Johnny Winston, Jr. at 4:19 PM Subscribe to this site via RSS/Atom: Newsletter signup | Send us your ideas

BIO 2006 Chicago


This April, 2006 event would be a fabulous class trip for any K-12 student. McCormick Place.

There's a one day primer on biotechnology (Saturday) that looks useful.

Ironically, during the mid-1990's, the Madison School District declined an offer of free land in Fitchburg for a school and a partnership with Promega.

Posted by Jim Zellmer at 1:46 PM Subscribe to this site via RSS/Atom: Newsletter signup | Send us your ideas

The impossibility of English 10

Forget the philosophies about heterogeneous versus homogenous classrooms. Forget English 9. Forget Shakespeare.

English 10 just ain’t gonna’ work for struggling and advanced student, who we’re told can meet with teachers twice a week during the lunch hour.

A few quick calculations show the glaring impossibility of success for these students.

* Twenty-percent of West’s 10th graders cannot read at grade level.
* Let’s assume a perfect bell shaped curve, which would mean twenty percent can handle work beyond the regular coursework.
* Soooooo, 40% of the 10th graders should be meeting with teachers during lunch.
* West has 535 9th graders this year, meaning that next year 214 10th graders will need to meet with a teacher during the lunch hour. (535 x 40% = 214)
* If they meet with a teacher twice a week, that produces 428 contacts of some sort in the week. (214 students x twice a week = 428)
* Those 428 contacts spread over five days in the week mean that 85 10th graders need to see a teacher during the lunch hour each day.
* Let’s assume that 10 English teachers will be available, meaning that each teacher will be able to meet with 8 students during a lunch hour.
* Going further, let’s assume that in between eating and getting to the class after lunch, the schedule allows 40 minutes for students to meet with teachers.
* If each teacher meets individually with each of the 8 students during those 40 minutes, each student will have 5 minutes with a teacher.
What’s a struggling student or an honors student going to learn in 5 minutes?

Or, maybe West could create 3 or 4 more sections of English 10 to meet during those 40 minutes for those 85 students each day, leading us right back to asking whether those classes should be grouped heterogeneously or not.

In short, the planning for West’s English Curriculum Reduction Plan needs to deal with the reality of only a few minutes a day during lunch to meet the academic needs of 214 students. It needs to deal with the reality of providing academic challenge and producing academic excellence for each and every student at West. The students deserve it.

ps. See what else goes on at lunch at West by visiting the school’s page on more than 100 Lunch and Learn Activities, which run AODA Use Support Group to English Help groups five days a week.

Posted by Ed Blume at 11:04 AM Subscribe to this site via RSS/Atom: Newsletter signup | Send us your ideas

Giving Credit Where Credit Is Due: A Look at the Educational Histories of the 29 West HS National Merit Semi-Finalists

Earlier this semester, 60 MMSD students -- including 29 from West HS -- were named 2006 National Merit Semifinalists. In a 10/12/05 press release, MMSD Superintendent Art Rainwater said, "I am proud of the many staff members who taught and guided these students all the way from elementary school, and of this district's overall guidance and focus that has led to these successes."

A closer examination of the facts, however, reveals that only 12 (41%) of West High School's 29 National Merit Semifinalists attended the Madison public schools continuously from first grade on (meaning that 59% received some portion of their K-8 schooling in either private schools or non-MMSD public schools). Here's the raw data:

NMSF #1: Wingra K-5th; Hamilton

NMSF #2: Franklin-Randall K-5th; Wright for 6th; Hamilton 7th-8th

NMSF #3: Midvale-Lincoln, K-5th; Cherokee

NMSF #4: Denver public schools (magnet Montessori school) K-6th; Hamilton 7th-8th

NMSF #5: New Orleans parochial school K-8th; New Orleans public high school through 11th

NMSF #6: Libertyville, IL, public schools ("extremely rigorous") through first semester 10th

NMSF #7: Franklin-Randall, K-5th; Hamilton

NMSF #8: Van Hise, K-5th; Hamilton

NMSF #9: Van Hise, K-5th; Hamilton

NMSF #10: Starkville, MS, public schools K-8th

NMSF #11: Japanese school for K; Glenn Stephens 1st-4th; Van Hise for 5th; Hamilton

NMSF #12: Franklin-Randall, K-5th; Hamilton

NMSF #13: Madison Central Montessori through 3rd; Shorewood 3rd-5th; Hamilton

NMSF #14: Lincoln-Midvale through 4th; Eagle 5th-8th

NMSF #15: Eagle K-8th

NMSF #16: MMSD through 9th; home schooled beginning in 10th

NMSF #17: Leopold though 4th; Eagle 5th-8th

NMSF #18: Lapham K-2nd; Randall 3rd-5th; Hamilton

NMSF #19: California private school through 5th; Hamilton

NMSF #20: Midvale and Van Hise; Hamilton

NMSF #21: Seattle public schools (TAG pullout program) through 7th; Hamilton for 8th

NMSF #22: Unknown private school K-1st; Eagle 2nd-8th

NMSF #23: Lincoln-Midvale K-5th; Cherokee

NMSF #24: Madison Central Montessori through 4th; Eagle 5th-8th

NMSF #25: Shorewood K-5th; Hamilton

NMSF #26: Queen of Peace through 5th; Hamilton

NMSF #27: West Middleton through 4th; Eagle 5th-8th

NMSF #28: Montessori pre-K through 2nd; Shorewood 4th-5th; Eagle 5th-8th

NMSF #29: Shorewood K-5th; Hamilton


Looking at the sample in a little more detail, we find the following:
  • Elementary school (K-5) history: 31% attended private school for three or more years (an additional 21% attended non-MMSD public schools for three or more years -- total: 52%).

  • Middle school (6-8) history: 28% attended private school for two or more years (an additional 14% attended non-MMSD public schools for two or more years -- total: 42%).

  • K-8 schooling history: 28% attended private school for five or more of their K-8 school years (an additional 17% attended non-MMSD public schools for five or more of their K-8 school years -- total: 45%)
Although we do not have K-8 attendance data for the entire class, it seems unlikely to think that almost 30% of current West seniors attended private school for five or more of their pre-high school years. Thus on this single demographic variable, the 29 West National Merit Semifinalists are probably different from their classmates, generally.

Descriptive data like these are certainly interesting, though they often raise more questions than they answer. And of course, they don't prove anything. Nevertheless, with 45% of the West HS National Merit Semifinalist sample attending non-MMSD schools for over half of their K-8 years, it is recommended that the District temper its sense of pride in and ownership of these very accomplished students.

Many thanks to each of these fine young people for speaking with us on the telephone. Congratulations and good luck to each and every one of them!

Posted by Laurie Frost at 9:55 AM Subscribe to this site via RSS/Atom: Newsletter signup | Send us your ideas

"Hopes, Fears, & Reality: A Balanced Look at American Charter Schools in 2005"

Robin J. Lake and Paul T. Hill, Editors:

The report is in two parts. In the first, the National Charter School Research Project (NCSRP) provides new data that inform questions such as: Is the charter school movement growing or slowing down? Do charter schools serve more or fewer disadvantaged children than regular public schools? Are charter schools innovative? It also identifies several important questions on which state and local record keeping needs to be improved.

The second part of this report takes up issues and controversies that have characterized the discussion of charter schools in the past year. NCSRP's goal is to provide essays that examine these controversies in a broad context and assemble evidence in as balanced and informative way as possible. The essays are unlikely to settle any of these issues definitively, but they may establish a more constructive basis for continued discussion.

Posted by Jim Zellmer at 8:13 AM Subscribe to this site via RSS/Atom: Newsletter signup | Send us your ideas

Weekly Email From Board President Carol Carstensen

Parent Group Presidents:

BUDGET FACTOID:
The Qualified Economic Offer (Q.E.O.) law provides that a district which offers its teachers a combined salary and benefit package of at least 3.8% can avoid going to binding arbitration. The practical impact is that a district must offer at least 3.8%. Over the 12 years of revenue caps, the Madison district has settled at about 4.2% with MTI that means the total increase of salary and benefits (including health insurance) has been about 4.2%. This year the settlement was 3.98%.

December 5th meetings:
Legislative Committee (Ruth Robarts, chair) the committee discussed a bill introduced in the state senate which requires the legislature to pass a health reform bill by January 1, 2008 providing coverage for 98% of state residents. The second bill discussed was one which would allow the UW System to create and run a charter school (independent of any school district). The discussion focused on whether there was any interest by people or departments within the University in this bill. It was also noted that the Board has historically opposed creating charters that are not run by school districts.

Special Board Meeting: Wright Middle School one of the district’s charter schools came to the Board because it’s charter was up for renewal. The Board heard a presentation from Wright’s principal, Nancy Evans and comments from parents and staff. The new charter streamlines the governing board a bit; the school focus was enlarged from art and technology to include service learning. The Board was unanimous in its support for the charter. Board members specifically noted:

    the academic progress students have made at the school;
    the fact that there have been almost no students recommended for expulsion from Wright; and
  • the fact that Wright was created as the result of more than a decade of advocacy by a number of organizations and community members who felt the south side needed a middle school.
Regular Board Meeting: The Board gave final approval to the goals for the Superintendent for the 2005-06 school year. The goals are:
  1. Develop targets and measures for each of the areas of the Strategic Plan (student achievement, challenging curriculum, student support, staff effectiveness, home and community partnerships and fiscal responsibility).
  2. Develop a detailed plan to improve student’s performance in math.
  3. Provide information to the Board twice a year on the district’s collaborations and partnerships.
  4. Develop and provide a means to implement a plan to “grow our own administrators”.Week of Dec. 12th NO MEETINGS (Board members will try to catch up on their reading, responding to emails, shoveling sidewalks, and perhaps even preparing for the winter break.)

    Dec. 19th Meetings televised from McDaniels Auditorium:

    • 5 p.m. Partnerships Committee (Lawrie Kobza, chair) first consideration and discussion of a policy governing outside funding for school district programs and activities.
    • 6 p.m. Performance and Achievement Committee (Shwaw Vang, chair) report from the Middle Grades Design Team
    • 6:45 p.m. Long Range Planning Committee (Bill Keys, chair) preliminary recommendations from both the East Area and Memorial/West Areas Task Forces. (N.B. These are only preliminary recommendations final ones will be made at the end of January. The Board will likely hold forums to get further feedback from the public once the final recommendations are made.)

    Posted by Jim Zellmer at 7:59 AM Subscribe to this site via RSS/Atom: Newsletter signup | Send us your ideas

UW Signs Onto Satellite Teaching Program

Ryan Eisner:

EDUSAT, sent into space last year, is India’s first educational satellite. It will allow American instructors to lead classes in remote classrooms, thousands of miles away, via Web cast.

“Any Indian village could set up a receiving station and receive a signal, and schools would need only a computer and a simple Web camera to view the lessons,” Sanjay Limaye, senior scientist at the UW-Madison Space Science and Engineering Center, said in a release.

The targets of the satellite are rural Indian communities, which are plagued by a lack of educational infrastructure and a lack of good teachers.

Posted by Jim Zellmer at 6:16 AM Subscribe to this site via RSS/Atom: Newsletter signup | Send us your ideas

December 12, 2005

Crucial Year Can Be Precipice or Springboard

Jay Matthews:

"Ninth grade in America's public schools has become an increasingly severe hurdle to student progress," said Walter Haney, a Boston College education professor who has done much research on why more ninth-graders are being held back and eventually dropping out.

Posted by Jim Zellmer at 9:56 PM Subscribe to this site via RSS/Atom: Newsletter signup | Send us your ideas

Wisconsin Scores "F" on State Science Standards (continued)

The Fordham Institutes State of Science Report for 2005 reviews the state of State Standards in Science and found 15 states scoring "F", Wisconsin among them. The states whose Science Standards were deemed worthy of an "A" are California, New Mexico, Indiana, New York, Massachusetts, Virginia, and South Carolina.

Of course, standards are one thing, implementation is another. This report does not, and is not meant to directly address delivery of the content; but, it is likely to have either a positive or negative effect depending on the quality of the Standards. To quote the report:

"Academic standards are the keystone in the arch of American K-12 education in the 21st century. They make it possible for a sturdy structure to be erected, though they don’t guarantee its strength (much less its beauty). But if a state’s standards are flabby, vague, or otherwise useless, the odds of delivering a good education to that state’s children are worse than the odds of getting rich at the roulette tables of Reno."

"Sure, one can get a solid education in science (as in other subjects) even where the state’s standards are iffy—so long as all the other stars align and one is fortunate enough to attend the right schools and benefit from terrific, knowledgeable teachers. It’s also possible, alas, to get a shoddy education even in a state with superb standards, if there’s no real delivery-and-accountability system tied to hose standards."

The report, written by active scientists, is highly critical of the current approach to teaching science, and argues frequently against "discovery" methods, "inquiry-based" learning, and the false dichotomy between "rote-learning" and "hands-on" learning.

Interestingly, the Fordham Report is highly critical of the AAAS (American Association for the Advancement of Science) and the NRC (National Research Council) for producing very weak "national standards", due to their enshrining of "discovery learning" pedagogy over "old-fashioned" instruction, remarking that this pedagogy essentially expects American students to learn science by reinventing the work of Newton, Einstein, Crick and Watson. "That's both absurd and dysfunctional."

Wisconsin's Science Standards scored 29% -- "F". In the previoius Fordham Institute's 2000 report, Wisconsin scored "C". To quote the report on the current Wisconsin standards:

"The Wisconsin Model Academic Standards announce confidently that they “set clear and specific goals for teaching and learning.” That was not the judgment of our review. They are, in fact, generally vague and nonspecific, very heavy in process, and so light in science discipline content as to render them nearly useless...."

To make these matters concrete, compare the California Science Standards (a single PDF document) to the vague and disorganized Wisconsin Science Standards.

Then, review what your child(ren) has(have) learned or are learning in our schools. In spite of the Wisconsin Standards, are they learning, or have learned the curriculum as described in the California Science Standard document, or is their learning as vague and useless as the Wisconsin Science Standard?

Posted by Larry Winkler at 9:39 PM Subscribe to this site via RSS/Atom: Newsletter signup | Send us your ideas

Cheating Our Kids

Greg Toppo:

Q: So what can parents do to fight for better schools?

A: Former American Federation of Teachers president Al Shanker said the New York City union needed to "become a disaster" to be taken as seriously as a hurricane that had worked its way up the East Coast. Parents also need to be a "disaster." No one who has power in education got it by asking nicely. Public education is about politics, politics is about power, and if parents want control over what happens to their kids, they have to go out there and steal power from someone else. I'm not suggesting that parents be out there running schools, but if they were a little more demanding, we wouldn't be in this mess.

Posted by Jim Zellmer at 1:55 PM Subscribe to this site via RSS/Atom: Newsletter signup | Send us your ideas

12/9/05 Reply to West Principal Ed Holmes re: English 10

Hi, Ed. Thanks for writing. I look forward to seeing the material you're putting up on the website.

A couple of other questions --

I'm curious to know what Shwaw Vang has asked you for? In particular, did his request include outcome data for English 9? As you know, many of us think a thorough evaluation of English 9 is the wisest (and most responsible) first step to take in developing English 10. Wouldn't it be a shame not to avail ourselves of the several years' worth of data there for the picking?

Also, given that one of the concerns driving the English 10 initiative is concern that some students don't take the higher level electives and some get through West without any bona fide literature and writing courses, did anyone think about requiring a certain number of upper level electives, literature courses, and writing courses for graduation? That seems to me the most straightforward approach to the stated problem.

I am glad to know that you are starting to see us as your partners in this process -- not your adversaries -- and that you are grappling with the Very Challenging Truth that West's diverse student body does not have exactly the same learning needs throughout, thus the needs cannot be met effectively with standardized, cookie-cutter solutions.

Speaking of partnership and the diversity of solutions needed, later today I will be dropping off the 20-minute DVD on the Odyssey Project that Emily Auerbach sent me. I would appreciate getting it back by winter break. Feel free to share it with Keesia, Pam, Art and any others. It's really powerful. When I think of some of the students who appear in the film being available to dialogue with students and teachers at West, well, I get really hopeful.

Finally, please know that no one is questioning the excellence or commitment of anyone involved in this conversation and struggle. Never have been. I truly believe that we all have the kids as our highest priority.

Have a good weekend.

Sincerely,
Laurie


www.odyssey.wisc.edu

Posted by Laurie Frost at 9:03 AM Subscribe to this site via RSS/Atom: Newsletter signup | Send us your ideas

December 11, 2005

"More Black Families Homeschool"

Zinie Chen Sampson:

Joyce Burges, of the Baton Rouge, La., area, says she and other black home schoolers have been likened to traitors by people who think they've turned their backs on the struggle to gain equal access to public education. But she feels that when schools don't teach children to read, or fail to provide a safe place to learn, children should come first.

"You do what you have to do that your children get an excellent education," she said. "Don't leave it up to the system."

(Michael) Apple, the Wisconsin professor, said improving public education for the greatest number of students depends on mass mobilization by concerned parents, but he raises a cautionary note.

A homeschooling mother of one blog National Black Home Educators Resource Association.

Posted by Jim Zellmer at 5:57 PM Subscribe to this site via RSS/Atom: Newsletter signup | Send us your ideas

THE HANDBOOK OF SCHOOL COUNSELING: COUNSELING THE GIFTED AND TALENTED

Below is an excerpt from the book entitled: THE HANDBOOK OF SCHOOL COUNSELING: COUNSELING THE GIFTED AND TALENTED. It has not yet been published (so you get to read it first). It is written for school counselors, who I believe are very integral to student success. The authors of this book are Corissa C. Lotta, PhD; Barbara A. Kerr, PhD; and Erica A. Kruger, MS. I have been corresponding with Dr. Lotta at the University of Wisconsin-Madison regarding the use of on-line curricula for gifted students. Enjoy.

Introduction

Gifted and talented students are some of the most rewarding and challenging students for the school counselor. It’s surprising, then, that these students are so seldom discussed in counseling training programs, despite evidence that these students are at-risk for negative academic and social-emotional outcomes, including underachievement, drop-out, stress, and depression (Colangelo & Davis, 1997; Kerr, 1991; Lovecky, 1993; Moon, Kelly, & Feldhusen, 1997; Silverman, 1994). While there is a great deal of literature and research on gifted students, very few school counselors have been required to demonstrate proficiency in these topics in the course of their education and training. Of course, this does not mean that they will not encounter these students in their school counseling work – gifted students are in every school at every grade level. It does, however, mean that school counselors may not have the knowledge required to identify and support this population, nor the ability to recognize the importance of providing services that address their specific needs (Adams-Byars, Whitsell, & Moon, 2004; VanTassel-Baska & Baska, 2000).

The Unique Academic and Social/Emotional Needs of Gifted Students
The importance of being knowledgeable about these students is illustrated by the following vignettes. Although identifying information has been changed, each of these scenarios is based upon actual individuals with whom the authors have worked in a counseling setting.

Matt, a 3rd grade Caucasian student at a small suburban elementary school, has a history of excellent school performance. He is well-liked by all of his teachers, involved in extracurricular activities, and appears to have friends. A recent phone call from Matt’s mother, however, indicates that Matt has been increasingly withdrawn and has been having difficulty sleeping.

Anita is a 5th grade Latina student at a medium-sized urban elementary school who has been referred to the school counselor due to frequent absences and issues with homework completion. Teacher reports about Anita’s performance are inconsistent. Most teachers report that Anita is struggling, but her math teacher notes that Anita’s work is often excellent, although at times it is often incomplete or not turned in at all. Anita is in a pull-out English Language Learner (ELL) class.

Jackie, a 7th grade African American student at a large urban middle school, has been referred to the Student Services Team by her teacher because she has become increasingly disruptive in the classroom. In particular, her teacher is frustrated with Jackie’s “attitude problem”, including complaining about certain assignments, talking out of turn, and her tendency to negatively influence other students. Jackie’s grades are average.

Before you read further, take a moment to consider the following questions: What are your initial impressions about these students and the issues that they are facing? What do you think your role as a school counselor would be in each of these situations? What interventions do you think would be needed in order to best meet the academic and social/emotional needs of these individuals?

Now, think about how your responses to these questions might change if you also had the following additional information:

Matt was identified as gifted in first grade and has been excelling in the school’s gifted programming. His teachers have described him as well-behaved and creative, although he occasionally seems to be preoccupied and “in his own head”. Matt’s mother states that he has a vivid imagination and has always been highly sensitive. While Matt has always had friends, recently he spends most of his time alone or with one particular friend, often playing elaborate fantasy games. Matt’s parents went through a difficult divorce two years ago, and Matt now lives with his mother, seeing his father every other weekend. School has always been enjoyable for Matt, although lately he seems less enthusiastic.

Anita and her family moved from Mexico when Anita was in the first grade. Spanish is the primary language spoken at home. Because her parents both work several jobs to support them and their extended family, Anita is responsible for caring for her younger siblings and often does not get to her homework until late at night. The teacher for her ELL class states that Anita is a quick learner and often provides tutoring and support for other students in the class. When asked, Anita states that she loves school, especially math.

A review of Jackie’s cumulative file indicates above average scores on standardized tests and strong academic performance throughout grade school. Previous teachers have described her as “well-liked, assertive, and determined.” Jackie is very involved at the community center near her home, and is widely considered a leader. She expresses a passion for acting and singing, and participates in her church choir and a local children’s theater group. Jackie reports that she doesn’t like school very much anymore, and is frequently bored.

Even though each of these stories is very different, there is a common thread that ties these students’ experiences together - giftedness. These vignettes illustrate that gifted students are diverse, both in terms of demographics and in how their giftedness is expressed. In addition, these vignettes help us to understand why accurate identification and knowledge of the specific academic, social, and emotional concerns of gifted students is so essential. Without appropriate support, Matt could become depressed and begin to underachieve; Anita may never be identified as having high ability and receive the guidance she needs to reach her potential; and Jackie may become increasingly bored and frustrated and eventually drop out of school. It is easy to see how, if one is not familiar with the characteristics and issues common to gifted children and adolescents, the specific needs of these students may go unmet: although the school counselor may recognize that there are problems or concerns, and even make efforts to intervene, without a comprehensive understanding of the role that giftedness plays in the student’s experience, these intervention attempts may not be most effective or efficient.

Posted by Johnny Winston, Jr. at 1:26 PM Subscribe to this site via RSS/Atom: Newsletter signup | Send us your ideas

The Next Retirement Time Bomb

Milt Freudenheim and Mary Williams Walsh:

The pressure is greatest in places like Detroit, Flint and Lansing, where school systems offered especially rich benefits during the heyday of the auto plants, aiming to keep teachers from going to work in them. Away from those cities, retiree costs may be easier to manage. In the city of Cadillac, 100 miles north of Grand Rapids, government officials said they felt no urgent need to cut benefits because they promised very little to begin with. Instead, Cadillac has started putting money aside to take care of future retirement benefits for its 85 employees, said Dale M. Walker, the city finance director.

Ohio is one of a few states to set aside significant amounts. Its public employee retirement system has been building a health care trust fund for years, so it has money today to cover at least part of its promises. With active workers contributing 4 percent of their salary, the trust fund has $12 billion. Investment income from the fund pays most current retiree health costs, said Scott Streator, health care director of the Ohio Public Employee Retirement System. "It doesn't mean we can just rest," he said. "It is our belief that almost every state across the country is underfunded." He said his system plans to begin increasing the employee contributions next year.

The Madison School District's Health insurance costs have been getting some attention recently:
  • WPS Insurance proves Costly - Jason Shepherd
  • "Important Facts, Text and Resources in Consideration of Issues Relevant to Reducing Health Care Costs in the Madison Metropolitan School District In Order to Save Direct Instruction and Other Staffing and Programs for the 2005-06 School Year" - Parent KJ Jakobson
  • MMSD/MTI Joint Insurance Committee is holding the first in a series of meetings to discuss healthcare costs at MTI's office on January 11, 2006 @ 1:00p.m. via the BOE Calendar
  • Many more health care related blog posts are available here

Posted by Jim Zellmer at 12:44 PM Subscribe to this site via RSS/Atom: Newsletter signup | Send us your ideas

Milwaukee: "Main Street of School Reform"

Alan J. Borsuk:

North Ave. is a microcosm of the wealth of things being done to help educate low-income black students and is ground zero in Milwaukee (which itself has been called ground zero in America) for school reforms of many kinds - all of them paid for with public money.

"This whole plethora of schools has inspired this community and given this community hope," Johnson says. "All of the schools along the avenue are sending a very strong message to the community that education is the key, and there are very strong options."

But if North Ave. illustrates how parents in Milwaukee have a wider array of choices in publicly funded education than parents elsewhere in America, it does not yet provide convincing answers of what will come from the innovations.

Map of the North Avenue Area.

The most interesting quote of the article:
(Milwaukee Public Schools Superintendent William) Andrekopoulos says: "We do things differently because we have to compete. We have a consciousness of all the options in the community."

At the Young Leaders Academy, Ronn Johnson says, "It's very clear to the school operators that you have to offer a high quality option or your customers will leave."

He calls the burst of new schools "a wake-up call to everyone that the power has shifted. It's no longer in the district. . . . Parents really have the power now."

Posted by James Zellmer at 7:17 AM Subscribe to this site via RSS/Atom: Newsletter signup | Send us your ideas

Math, Science and Rigor

Sandy Cullen:

Gov. Jim Doyle supports the push to increase the math and science proficiency of high school students, which is primarily coming from business leaders.

They say a lack of these skills among those entering the labor pool is putting Wisconsin at risk of losing jobs because there won't be enough qualified workers to fill positions ranging from manufacturing jobs to computer specialists, from engineers to mathematical, life and physical scientists and engineering and science technicians.

Art Rainwater, superintendent of the Madison School District, supports increasing the state requirements. Madison high schools require two years of each subject, but in recent years the district has strengthened its math requirement so that all students must now take algebra and geometry to graduate, Rainwater said.

If the state does not increase its math and science requirements, the district will likely consider raising them, he said.

But School Board President Carol Carstensen said she isn't certain requiring more courses is the way to best prepare all students to succeed after high school.

And just increasing the requirements (emphasis added) won't make the classes more rigorous, said Lake Mills chemistry teacher Julie Cunningham, who recently won the prestigious Milken Family Foundation National Educator Award.

Additional links and background on math and science curriculum.

Posted by James Zellmer at 7:10 AM Subscribe to this site via RSS/Atom: Newsletter signup | Send us your ideas

"What's the Return on Education?"

Anna Bernasek:

This academic year, the better part of $1 trillion will be spent on education in the United States. That's an awful lot of spending, approaching 10 percent of the overall economy. But what exactly is the return on all of that money?

While the costs are fairly simple to calculate, the benefits of education are harder to sum up.

Much of what a nation wants from its schools has nothing to do with money. Consider the social and cultural benefits, for instance: making friends, learning social rules and norms and understanding civic roles.

But some of the most sought-after benefits from education are economic. Specialized knowledge and technical skills, for example, lead to higher incomes, greater productivity and generation of valuable ideas.

Posted by Jim Zellmer at 3:01 AM Subscribe to this site via RSS/Atom: Newsletter signup | Send us your ideas

December 10, 2005

School Improvement Plan at John Muir Elementary

L. Johnson:

SIP Goal #2: Literacy-All students at John Muir will be proficient readers by the end of third grade.

Rationale: 50% of African Americans beginning fourth graders have minimal or basic reading skills as measured by the WKCE test. As a school, all students need to demonstrate proficient or advanced reading and writing skills. All classroom teachers will implement components of a Balance Literacy program. Students will have increased opportunities to read and practice their skills using a variety of ficion and non-fiction texts.

Posted by Jim Zellmer at 2:52 PM Subscribe to this site via RSS/Atom: Newsletter signup | Send us your ideas

Illinois Schools Proposed Junk Food Rules

AP:

Cartons of whole milk would be considered junk food, but baked Cheetos would not, under new rules proposed Friday by Illinois education officials
Read the proposed rules: [pdf]

Posted by Jim Zellmer at 6:23 AM Subscribe to this site via RSS/Atom: Newsletter signup | Send us your ideas

December 9, 2005

"Schools of Hope" is 10 Years Old: 3rd Grade Reading Scores

Channel3000:

During its 10 years, the project has been making a difference to local children, WISC-TV reported.

Since then, the achievement gap has narrowed between students of color and white students who complete algebra by the 10th grade.

At Friday's Schools of Hope Annual Meeting, the group declared their first goal of closing the gap in third grade reading scores closed. This is something that hasn't been achieved anywhere else in the country.

Ruth Robarts posts a different perspective and notes that while there has been real progress, the gap has not in fact been closed: "For example, African American third graders scoring proficient or advance has risen from 41% in 1998 to 69% in 2004. Nonetheless, there are significant differences between the percentages of students in subgroups who score proficient or advanced and those who score basic or minimal." Joanne Jacobs links to two Education Trust reports that describe a "culture of excellence" for high school curriculum.

UPDATE: Sandy Cullen has more on Schools of Hope

Posted by Jim Zellmer at 10:29 PM Subscribe to this site via RSS/Atom: Newsletter signup | Send us your ideas

Gifts for Teachers

KJZZ:

Diane Duffy, a teacher at Kyrene de la Mirada Elementary School in the Kyrene School District, talks about gifts for teachers during the holiday season.
audio

Posted by Jim Zellmer at 4:01 PM Subscribe to this site via RSS/Atom: Newsletter signup | Send us your ideas

East Task Force Action?

The East task force met last night (December 8). Can anyone provide an update?

Posted by Ed Blume at 3:45 PM Subscribe to this site via RSS/Atom: Newsletter signup | Send us your ideas

"The Absolute Necessity of School Choice"

Shavar Jeffries:

In the current model, public schools have little incentive to respond meaningfully and systematically to the interests of Black parents, particularly poor Black parents, as these parents simply do not have the political capital to impact systematically the way in which public schools deliver education. A choice model, however, consistent with the most basic predicates of freedom and democracy, begins to grant poor people the opportunity to opt out of the public system if it continues miserably to fail their children. At the same time, it empowers Black parents to select educational models less contaminated by diminished conceptions of Black existential capacity -- a phenomenon James Baldwin warned us about forty years ago.

Posted by Jim Zellmer at 6:31 AM Subscribe to this site via RSS/Atom: Newsletter signup | Send us your ideas

December 8, 2005

Public Knowledge: Vote Database - A Fabulous Resource

Perhaps we'll see something like this for local officials, including our own Board of Education. Very impressive use of RSS.

Ideally, the district would publish a page with votes along with items that Board members requested be placed on an agenda. This information would provide the public with easily accessible voter data and illuminate issues that were prevented from being discussed by the then current President. What is RSS?

Posted by Jim Zellmer at 10:15 PM Subscribe to this site via RSS/Atom: Newsletter signup | Send us your ideas

Time for Our Own District (Fitchburg)

Kurt Gutknect writing in the Fitchburg Star:
Satellite View of Fitchurg | Madison School District Map | Oregon School District Map | Verona School District Map

You don’t have to travel very far to hear snide remarks about Fitchburg. It’s a sprawling suburb. Unchecked growth. An enclave for white folks and their McMansions.

Of course, there’s an element of truth in all of these barbs, and I frequently indulge my doubts that this appendage of Madison is a manifestation of our most noble civilizing instincts.

But I confess to getting rather fond of Fitchburg, and occasionally entertain notions that its sprawling, disjointed character is normal. The city might be evolving toward something that resembles, well, a city.

My main reservations about Fitchburg have more to do with doubts that 21st century American culture is really creating a better world for the next generation. For better or worse, Fitchburg is a product of the times. It’s unrealistic to expect us to evolve into an enclave against virulent consumerism or to stanch the flow of SUVs.

All things considered, Fitchburg does about as well as can be expected, and maybe better than many other burbs.

While passers-by think that we allow development on every vacant field, the city struggles mightily – and at great length – to impose order and logic on the process. Yes, our roads are becoming more congested, but much of that is beyond our control. One of the largest impediments to Fitchburg’s nascent sense of identity is the lack of separate school district, another factor beyond our control.

The current scheme of parceling the city among three school districts might have made sense at one time but it makes no sense – absolutely none – today. The actions of the school districts make sense for the respective bureaucracies (no bureaucracy would ever consider actually getting smaller) but the arrangement continues to fracture and divide Fitchburg.

The school districts can quantify how much it would cost to create a separate district for Fitchburg – and it would be expensive – but there’s no way to quantify the cost in diminished sense of community.
We have become a larger version of the Allied Drive area, where children of disadvantaged residents, who are most in need of a community anchored by a local school – are transported in every direction in the interest of achieving racial and economic balance. Such an arrangement is eminently logical for everyone except the hapless residents of Fitchburg.

Residents of the new upscale developments of Fitchburg now find themselves in a similar position. Their children will now probably be bused hither and yon forever. The arrangements will make sense when viewed through the prism of the district – but not from the perspective of the residents and their children.

Perhaps the most egregious example of how self-interest of a bureaucracy trumps the interest of Fitchburg residents occurred a few years ago when the Madison and Oregon school districts traded jurisdictions over portions of Fitchburg. Madison got Swan Creek and Oregon got an enclave in Hatchery Hill.

Madison’s schools are overcrowded. It would be eminently sensible to cede some of its jurisdiction to avoid problems instead of cobbling together a system.

We can probably expect more of the same of this type of logic as Fitchburg grows. All three districts will continue to assert that there aren’t enough students to warrant schools in Fitchburg. We are more likely to be visited by the Tooth Fairy before voters in these districts view matters from Fitchburg’s perspective.

Students derive absolutely no benefit from riding a bus. A community derives enormous benefits from accessible schools.

It’s time for Fitchburg residents to consider alternatives to the current system. They aren’t likely to have their demands met this time around but they should lay the groundwork for the decades ahead.

If we don’t articulate an alternative, rest assured that no one else will. It won’t be easy, but it’s time to start.

A number of years ago, Bill Linton offered the Madison School District Fitchburg land at no cost for a school. Unfortunately, the District turned this offer down. That land become home to Eagle School.

Posted by Jim Zellmer at 1:53 PM Subscribe to this site via RSS/Atom: Newsletter signup | Send us your ideas

Oxford English Dictionary Newsletter

Some interesting tools online at the OED:

Posted by Jim Zellmer at 9:00 AM Subscribe to this site via RSS/Atom: Newsletter signup | Send us your ideas

Report Says States Aim Low in Science (Wisconsin's Grade = "F")

via reader Rebecca Cole: Michael Janofsky:

The report, released Wednesday by the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, suggests that the focus on reading and math as required subjects for testing under the federal law, No Child Left Behind, has turned attention away from science, contributing to a failure of American children to stay competitive in science with their counterparts abroad.

The report also appears to support concerns raised by a growing number of university officials and corporate executives, who say that the failure to produce students well-prepared in science is undermining the country's production of scientists and engineers and putting the nation's economic future in jeopardy.

The full report is available here.

Wisconsin's results are available in a one page PDF file:
The Wisconsin Model Academic Standards announce confidently that they “set clear and specific goals for teaching and learning.” That was not the judgment of our review. They are, in fact, generally vague and nonspecific, very heavy in process, and so light in science discipline content as to render them nearly useless at least as a response to problems for which state learning standards are supposed to be a remedy.

Wisconsin’s school districts are required to devise a curriculum from these very general statements. Advanced science courses are entirely of local design. There are in toto eight standards, labeled A through H. Only three are concerned with science content (physical science, life and environmental science, and earth and space science). All the remaining five are about process. Required performance standards are given for grades 4, 8, and 12. There is a low level Glossary of Terms, followed by “Terms Unique to Science.” All seem to be derived from the National Science Education Standards.

Samples of vague disciplinary content standards: From Standard D, physical science: D.12.12: “Using the science themes and knowledge of chemical, physical, atomic, and nuclear reactions, explain changes in materials, living things, earth’s features, and stars.” Standard E, Earth and space science: E.4.7: “Using the science themes, describe resources used in the home, community, and nation as a whole.” And E.4.8: “Illustrate human resources used in mining, forestry, farming, and manufacturing in Wisconsin and elsewhere in the world.”

Specificity in the science process standards is no higher. Standard A, “Science Connections.” For grade 4: “When studying a science-related problem, decide what changes over time are occurring or have occurred.”Or, Standard B: “Nature of Science.”B.4.3:“Show how major developments of scientific knowledge in the earth and space, life and environmental, and physical sciences have changed over time.” Interpretation of all such “standards” by teachers across an entire state must inevitably range from the sublime to the ridiculous.

There is no more depth in the Standards for biology, exemplified by these selections, for Grade 12: “State the relationships between functions of the cell and functions of the organism as related to genetics and heredity.” Or, “Understand the impact of energy on organisms in living systems,” and “Apply the underlying themes of science to develop defensible visions of the future.” Local specialists and teachers needn’t worry about biology content in planning to comply with such standards.

Responding to one instruction—E.8.7,“Describe the general structure of the solar system, galaxies, and the universe, explaining the nature of the evidence used to develop current models of the universe”—a reviewer asks,with asperity, “Why not just say ‘Explain astronomy’?” “Science,”we are told in the Standards, “follows a generally accepted set of rules.” Would that we were told what those rules were! More to the point, would that the teachers making lessons, curricula, and tests were given real guidance on those putative rules of science and the degree to which they differ, if they do, from “accepted sets of rules” in other human occupations. Grade: “F.”

Posted by Jim Zellmer at 6:41 AM Subscribe to this site via RSS/Atom: Newsletter signup | Send us your ideas

December 7, 2005

Options under review by task forces

Could someone post a report on the December 6 meeting of the West/Memorial task force? At the meeting the members were going to consider the following 5 Base Plans.

* A2e- New School – Pair Chavez/Falk
* A2f- New School – Move some Leopold to Chavez
* C3 – No New School - Pair Chavez/Falk- Leopold to Thoreau
* C4 – No New School – No Pair- move a grade level to another location
* C5 – No New School – No Pair – Move some Leopold to Chavez
(In all plans, students who live on Allied Drive will be assigned to Stephens and Crestwood)

The six "preliminary" options for consideration by the East task force at its meeting on December 8 are:

E-1 Move students from the West attendance area into the East attendance area schools
E-2 Move portions of the La Follette attendance area into the East attendance area
E-3 Move MSCR (Madison School Community Recreation) into the East attendance area schools
E-4 Move Alternative Education Programs in rented space into the East attendance area schools
E-5 Move Packers Townhouse area from Lindbergh to Mendota
E-6 Analyze East Attendance Area school pairings

Posted by Ed Blume at 12:24 PM Subscribe to this site via RSS/Atom: Newsletter signup | Send us your ideas

Reply from West HS Principal Ed Holmes to request for update on English 10

Hi Laurie,

The discussion about 10th grade English and 10th grade core continues. There will be a statement and responses to questions that have been raised by parents, community, and staff online in the form of a link from the West High website early next week. I will also submit information to MMSD School Board member Shwaw Vang as per his request regarding direction of 10th grade English.

I have been working with some of the best eductors in the field to address the concerns that have been raised in order to develop the best plan possible to meet the academic needs of all students at West High. I am excited that we are having this discourse and that everyone's perspective is being heard. This process challenges everyone to work hard to come up with the best possible plan to meet the academic needs of our students.

I expect to hear a strong voice and challenge from a community and parents that are as informed and concerned as the parents and community of West. I will continue to do my best as Instructional Leader at West to meet the needs of all students, maintain high academic standards, and preserve the reputation of West as a school of academic excellence.

This is indeed challenging and exciting work. Thank you for your continued interest, perspective, and concern.

Ed Holmes, Principal
West High School

Posted by Laurie Frost at 12:22 PM Subscribe to this site via RSS/Atom: Newsletter signup | Send us your ideas

"What Kind of School Systems Are Our Taxes Supporting"

Word travels quickly in 2005: Northwestern Adjunct Professor James Carlini:

This question becomes very critical given the fact that jobs are being outsourced to other countries by the thousands and many leaders of public schools have lost touch with what’s important. Educators better get with the program and start teaching real skills along with the ability to learn and compete.

......

Where is the quality control in public schools? Political correctness and slanted ideology should be replaced with political accuracy and strong, fundamental and objective learning skills. Schools should also concentrate on developing skill sets to compete globally. A focus on creativity, flexibility and adaptability – rather than rote, repetition and routine – should be the critical objective of today’s school goals for educating tomorrow’s work force

More about Carlini. There are, of course, no shortage of opinions on this matter.

Posted by Jim Zellmer at 10:15 AM Subscribe to this site via RSS/Atom: Newsletter signup | Send us your ideas

Proving Success using Different School Models

American Institutes for Research:

Of the 22 reform models examined, Direct Instruction (Full Immersion Model), based in Eugene, Ore., and Success for All, located in Baltimore, Md., received a “moderately strong” rating in “Category 1: Evidence of Positive Effects on Student Achievement.”

Five models met the standards for the “moderate” rating in Category 1: Accelerated Schools PLUS, in Storrs, Conn.; America’s Choice School Design, based in Washington, D.C.; Core Knowledge, located in Charlottesville, Va.; School Renaissance in Madison, Wis.; and the School Development Project, based in New Haven, Conn. Models receiving a “moderate” rating may still show notable evidence of positive outcomes, but this evidence is not as strong as those models receiving a “moderately strong” or “very strong” rating.

The Complete report is available here [Elementary | Middle and High School] Via Joanne.

Posted by Jim Zellmer at 7:52 AM Subscribe to this site via RSS/Atom: Newsletter signup | Send us your ideas

Competing for Students

Anthony Gottschlich:

Catholic and private schools in Dayton have seen a 20 percent decline in enrollment over the past five years in the face of changing demographics and intense competition from charter schools, which are tuition-free public schools run by private operators.

Posted by Jim Zellmer at 7:01 AM Subscribe to this site via RSS/Atom: Newsletter signup | Send us your ideas

Our Education System isn't Ready for a World of Competition

Norman R. Augustine:

But the U.S. educational system is failing in precisely those areas that underpin our competitiveness: science, engineering and mathematics. In a recent international test involving mathematical understanding, U.S. students finished 27th among the participating nations. In China and Japan, 59 percent and 66 percent, respectively, of undergraduates receive their degrees in science and engineering, compared with 32 percent in the United States.

I've recently had an opportunity to review these trends as chairman of a 20-member committee created by the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering and the Institute of Medicine. Congress asked the committee to examine the threats to America's future prosperity. The panel was a diverse group that included university presidents, Nobel laureates, heads of companies and former government officials. We agreed unanimously that the United States faces a serious and intensifying economic challenge from abroad -- and that we appear to be on a losing path.

Posted by Jim Zellmer at 6:58 AM Subscribe to this site via RSS/Atom: Newsletter signup | Send us your ideas

December 6, 2005

FINDINGS CHALLENGE CONVENTIONAL WISDOM ABOUT U.S. MATH SUCCESS IN EARLY GRADES

American Institutes for Research:

U.S. students consistently performed below average, ranking 8th or 9th out of twelve at all three grade levels. These findings suggest that U.S. reform proposals to strengthen mathematics instruction in the upper grades should be expanded to include improving U.S. mathematics instruction beginning in the primary grades.

“The conventional wisdom is that U.S. students perform above average in grades 4 and 8, and then decline sharply in high school,” says Steven Leinwand, principal research analyst at AIR and one of the report’s authors. “But this study proves the conventional wisdom is dead wrong.”

Previous studies compared U.S. performance with substantially more countries, whose characteristics vary widely. A total of 24 countries participated in TIMSS-grade 4, 45 countries in TIMSS-grade 8, and 40 countries in PISA.

Posted by Jim Zellmer at 10:05 PM Subscribe to this site via RSS/Atom: Newsletter signup | Send us your ideas

Tuesday Links

Seat 1 Madison Board of Education Candidates:

Maya P. Cole:

Cole: Put public back in public hearings
00:00 am 12/06/05
MAYA P. COLE

The Wisconsin Policy Research Institute reported some disturbing news in its most recent public opinion survey. A mere 6 percent of Wisconsin residents believe their elected officials represent their constituents' interests. For black residents, the survey found not one resident felt their interests were represented.

The survey also found that as 2005 draws to a close, 88 percent of the Wisconsin citizenry believes that the priority of elected officials is to represent either special interests (41 percent) or the politicians' own interests (47 percent). These are most troubling findings for our state.

I would like to offer an anecdotal explanation for this pervasive public discontent.

As an activist mom of three boys, I have a pretty good understanding of how our Legislature works. My latest experience involves how the Legislature now conducts a "public hearing."

After registering early in the morning to speak as a member of the general public in opposition to the proposed concealed carry law, I waited from 8:15 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. while lobbyist after lobbyist and several arranged speakers, many not even from Wisconsin, gave their presentations.

After spending almost the entire day at the Capitol, having cancelled an appointment and arranged for alternate child care, I had to leave without speaking.

I did strike up a conversation with a pro-concealed carry gentleman from Appleton. He told me his wife works in the schools and he is a father who shoots for sport and practices at the shooting range twice a week. He is proud of his skill and should be. We shared stories of our fondness of raptors, the outdoors, and the beauty of the Capitol. He also had no opportunity to speak at the hearing.

Maybe the Legislature doesn't want to publicize or acknowledge what Wisconsin citizens think about concealed carry law. Maybe the Legislature wants to strangle the democratic process in this state.

The entire committee obviously had an agenda and had no intention of listening to ordinary citizens and adhering to a time limit. Sen. Dave Zien, R-Eau Claire, even announced in the beginning, and it was joked about during the hearing, that there would be a five-minute time limit. By 4:00 p.m., the committee was still calling "experts," almost all in favor of concealed carry, and many speaking for 45 minutes at a time.

Zien asked question after question, for several hours. When a committee member tried to clarify something in the bill, Zien had to look over and ask the lobbyist from the National Rifle Association what the bill said. Isn't the author of the bill supposed to have most of his questions answered before he writes the bill?

It is apparently not enough that the Legislature gets visits from lobbyists daily along with campaign contributions (many times from out of state). We now hold public hearings where the lobbyists, paid professionals and chairs of committees have the floor. The only time citizens' opinions seem to count is when we are polled.
Cole is from Madison.

Posted by Jim Zellmer at 9:42 PM Subscribe to this site via RSS/Atom: Newsletter signup | Send us your ideas

Education for ALL Children

Art Rainwater:

The Madison Metropolitan School District has been a leader in creating inclusive educational opportunities for children. Since the District's closing of Badger School in 1977, there has been steady progress toward fully including our children with disabilities in the general educational experience in our schools. Most children with disabilities now attend their neighborhood school where special education and classroom teachers work collaboratively to ensure that the learning experience is appropriate for every child in the classroom.

The sense of community and relationships between students with and without disabilities that develop in the school setting set the stage for many of our disabled citizens to join a pluralistic society as adults. Our community at large is enriched by providing valuable opportunities for children with disabilities to move into the world of work and be productive citizens.

Posted by Jim Zellmer at 7:12 PM Subscribe to this site via RSS/Atom: Newsletter signup | Send us your ideas

NEW ART DOLLARS TARGET MADISON SCHOOLS

American Girl and an anonymous donor contribute $20,000 to grants program

The Foundation for Madison’s Public Schools and the Dane County Cultural Affairs Commission have secured $20,000 in new grant funds designated exclusively for arts programs in Madison schools. The two organizations have forged a unique grantmaking partnership to distribute the funds supporting guest artist residencies and other special K-12 arts programs in the schools planned for the 2006-07 year

A $10,000 contribution to the commission from American Girl’s Fund for Children will be competitively allocated to Madison schools seeking support for visual art, music, theater, dance, and creative writing programs. An equal amount from an anonymous donor to the school’s foundation will automatically provide matching funds to every school receiving a commission award. The combined grant dollars have the potential to fully fund visual, performing and literary arts projects occurring outside the schools’ general operating budgets.

“This wonderful financial boost by American Girl’s Fund for Children, matched by an anonymous angel, comes at a critical time for local schools. After several years of severe budget reductions in arts education, our donors are offering an infusion of new resources to support some exceptional arts experiences for Madison students next year,” commented Dane County Cultural Affairs Commission director Lynne Watrous Eich in announcing the new grants. “One of our goals is to simplify the application and award process for everyone involved.”
Jodi Bender Sweeney, President of the Foundation for Madison’s Public Schools concurred. “We’re simply thrilled. These private funds will offer a helping hand to teachers and parents interested in building collaborations among our local schools, artists and arts organizations. They’re earmarked specifically for projects which promote students’ creative potential and learning opportunities, while building arts audiences for the future.”

Application deadlines are February 1, June 1 and September 1, 2006. Only Madison schools are eligible to apply for these funds. For more information on arts-in-schools grants, call Lynne Eich, Cultural Affairs Office, 266-5915, Jodi Bender Sweeney, Foundation for Madison Public Schools, 232-7820, or Madison school district Fine Arts Coordinator Julie Palkowski, 663-5227. Grants for Dane County schools outside Madison are also available through the commission with a combination of other public and private funding.

For immediate release: December 1, 2005
Contact: Jodi Bender Sweeney, President, Foundation for Madison’s Public Schools, 232-7820;
Lynne Eich, Director, Dane County Cultural Affairs Commission, 266-5915

Posted by at 11:10 AM Subscribe to this site via RSS/Atom: Newsletter signup | Send us your ideas

Straight Talk: What Every Parent Needs to Know about Alcohol, Drugs, and Teens

Over the last year, several informal surveys taken throughout the district indicated a desire on the part of parents for information on drugs and alcohol. As a result, a three part series entitled STRAIGHT TALK has been designed for all district parents who want to learn more about these topics.

These forums will be of great benefit to the parents of ALL Madison school children, no matter their ages. The following statistics from the Partnership for a Drug Free America and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration are quite alarming and demonstrate the need for these events in the Madison area.

· 1 in 5 teens has tried Vicodin, a narcotic pain reliever, to get high.
· 1 in 11 has admitted to getting high on cough medication.
· 25% of 8th graders and 53% of 12 graders report drinking alcohol in the past month with 25%-30% reporting binge drinking (over 5 drinks during an occasion) in the last two weeks.
· Methamphetamine is one of the biggest concerns in Wisconsin due to its almost hand-in-hand connection to violent gangs.

January 18, 6:30-8:30 pm, East High School Theater. The focus of this evening will be prescription and over the counter drugs currently being abused by school-aged children. (Statistics are that kids as young as 4th grade are abusing cough meds!)

Presenters: Special Agent Greg Phillips, WI Department of Justice
Catherine Zdeblick, Became a national speaker following the death of her own daughter from an Oxycontin overdose.
Madison Police Department, Dane County Task Force on Narcotics
MMSD Alcohol/Drug Prevention Coordinators

February 22, 6:30-8:30 pm, Memorial High School Theater 300 This evening will focus on alcohol abuse among teens. (Statistics are that up to 50% of kids have tried alcohol by the time they reach 8th grade!)

Presenters: UW Professor Kristi Obmascher currently teaching a UW class on binge drinking; Scott Caldwell, UW Adolescent Alcohol/Drug Abuse Prevention Program; Madison Police Department, Dane County Task Force on Narcotics; MMSD Alcohol/drug Prevention Coordinators

April 5, 6:30-8:30 pm, MMSD Administration Building, 545 West Dayton St. The focus of this evening will be the rise in methamphetamine use in Wisconsin. (Statistics are that 85% of users become addicted with a less than 5% recovery rate!)

Presenters: Special Agent Jay Smith, WI Department of Justice
Madison Police Department, Dane County Task Force on Narcotics
MMSD Alcohol/Drug Prevention Coordinators

In addition to the expert guest speakers, Madison police specialists will be at each presentation with a display of various drugs and drug paraphernalia for parents to view. They will be also talking about marijuana and inhalants!!! (Inhalants are one of the biggest late elementary and middle school issues! We have attempted to secure speakers who are highly competent in their field of expertise and will be able to speak to what is currently happening with Madison school-aged children. Parents attending the presentations will be encouraged to ask questions. Madison Metropolitan Social Workers, Jan Lorch and Betsy Hambrick, will also present on ways to increase effective communications with your children about these difficult subjects. Numerous handouts will be available addressing these issues and providing resources for families seeking help. We are also arranging to have translators for Hmong and Spanish at the presentations.

Due to the sensitivity of the material presented, we encourage only adult attendance.

Any questions? Please feel free to contact:
Jan Lorch, AODA/Violence Prevention/Memorial (442-2323) or
Betsy Hambrick, AODA/Violence Prevention/East (204-1662)

Posted by Johnny Winston, Jr. at 11:00 AM Subscribe to this site via RSS/Atom: Newsletter signup | Send us your ideas

Successful First Day of MSCR's Extramural Programming

Message to the School Board from Lucy Chaffin, MSCR Director:
On Saturday December 3, 2005 we held the first day of games for the new 9th and 10th grade extramural basketball league. We had 71 participants for a total of 8 teams and roughly 100 spectators including parents and friends of players. All participants, coaches and specators were very respectful and well behaved and created a fun and recreational atmosphere for the day. Skill levels of participants varied greatly and all students received equal playing time.

We are currently seeking a coach for a West High team and one of the
LaFollette teams. If you know of anyone interested please have them
contact Diana Miller at 204-4580.

A special thanks to West High Athletic Director, Boyce Hodge for being extremely helpful with set-up at West. Thanks for everyone's support and help.

Posted by Johnny Winston, Jr. at 9:29 AM Subscribe to this site via RSS/Atom: Newsletter signup | Send us your ideas

December 5, 2005

PAGING RANDY ALEXANDER?

Or, What Is This Old Building Worth?


WashingtonSchool1.jpg.jpeg

Photo of Washington Public Grade and Orthopedic School, 545 W. Dayton St., Madison Trust for Historic Preservation. To see where it is located, click here.

Complex problems require creative solutions. But what happens when innovative ideas don’t get serious consideration?

This fall, the Madison School Board assembled two task forces to propose solutions to the knotty problems of shifting enrollments and facility use in the East and West/Memorial High School attendance areas. The people tapped to serve on the task forces have put in long hours and, in the process, have come up with some creative options that go beyond the “standard” proposals to close schools and/or move boundaries. Unfortunately, at least one credible idea for fully using space in East side schools with low enrollments has been taken off the table.

The proposal definitely represents “new thinking.” Rather than closing schools that don’t have “enough students,” the proposal is to sell the Doyle administration building and relocate district administration to one or more of the under-enrolled schools on Madison’s East side.

This idea makes sense. After all, the Doyle Building’s West Dayton Street address is in prime real estate territory. It was built as an orthopedic facility and is handicap accessible; it has parking and is within close distance to the Kohl Center, UW-Madison campus, State Street, and the state capitol. The number of apartment and condominium projects within a four block radius of the Doyle Building during the past 5 years and the planned reconstruction of nearby University Square attest to the interest in building, rehabbing, and developing properties in central Madison.

So why not explore this option? Several members of the task force were given the impression that selling the Doyle Building is not a viable option. The arguments against selling the building sound plausible at first blush, but can they be verified by available information?

Assertion: The Doyle Building would be unattractive to developers because it is a historic building.
Facts: The Doyle Building is a Madison landmark. Decisions to deny demolition or modification of historic buildings can be and are routinely appealed to the Madison City Council. The building may be eligible for the National Register of Historic Places. If it were placed on the National Register and a private developer decided to rehab it, it would be eligible for state and federal tax credits (see resources below).

There are numerous examples of buildings that were similarly declared “unattractive to developers” and “impossible to rehabilitate” historic buildings in the area and that have been successfully restored to viable economic use. Consider the following projects within a few blocks of the Doyle Building: the Machinery Row commercial and office building, Doty School and Lincoln School Apartments: Lorraine Hotel, City Market, and Quisling Clinic Condominiums; and the Wiedenbeck Warehouse Lofts. Certainly the notion that there are no developers or businesses with an interest in commercial uses of historic buildings would be a stunning idea to Randy Alexander, Isthmus Architects, Historic Madison, Gary Gorman, Stonehouse Development, Arlan Kay, or any of a number of other professionals who are engaged in the thriving business of preserving historic buildings.

Assertion: UW-Madison, another potential buyer because of the building’s proximity to the Kohl Center and the East end of campus, is not interested.
Fact: If one reads closely the report from Roger Price to Art Rainwater (November 18, 2005), UW-Madison has indicated a potential interested in the space but is unlikely to make a commitment until it has followed its own planning processes. Ironically, the university, which shares the Doyle Parking Lot with the school district, has just completed a 20-year plan that includes several projects to rehab existing historic structures. In any event, the UW-Madison answer does not appear to be an unqualified “no.”

It may be that a sound analysis would conclude that selling the Doyle Building to a private developer or UW-Madison is a bad idea. The disturbing issue is that we will never know whether it is a viable option to sell, rent, rehab or raze this structure unless the proposal is put back on the table so that verifiable information can be used to decide whether the Doyle Building can and should be a part of the resolution to the district’s enrollment and facilities problems.

____________________

Additional resources:

State Historical Society of Wisconsin architectural services web site with information on funding, including federal and state investment tax credits for income producing historic buildings.
http://www.wisconsinhistory.org/hp/funding.asp

Madison Trust for Historic Preservation documents from and press coverage of July 2005 Summit on Historic Preservation’s role in Community Economic Development
http://www.madisontrust.org/news/index.html


____________________

Text, Memo from Roger Price to Art Rainwater November 17, 2005


November 18, 2005


TO: Art Rainwater, Superintendent

FROM: Roger Price, Assistant Superintendent – Business Services

RE: U.W. Interest in Doyle Administration Building


As a result of a meeting on Thursday, November 17, 2005, with Alan Fish, U.W. Associate Vice Chancellor, Facilities Planning and Management, and Gary Brown, Director, U.W. Planning and Landscape Architecture, the following is the status of the Doyle Building relationship with the U.W.-Madison:

**The Doyle Building is not within the University’s official campus boundary set by the Board of Regents and is not included in specific plans in the recently completed 20-year master plan. The plan does designate land adjacent to campus, such as the Doyle Building, as joint planning areas with the city.

**If the Doyle Building was available for lease, the U.W. would have some interest, particularly if the lease included purchase at the end of the lease. The U.W. currently has no specific program need that would require using the Doyle Building.
**If the Doyle Building was available for sale, the U.W. would be interested in discussing; if there is interest, planning and acquisition would take a minimum of 4 to 5 years.

**The U.W. is aware of MMSD’s desire to accommodate functional replacement in other central Madison spaces to house core District administration and operations.


bkl

Posted by Lucy Mathiak at 9:35 PM Subscribe to this site via RSS/Atom: Newsletter signup | Send us your ideas

Reply to Carol Carstensen re: West HS

Dear Carol,

First, let me say a hearty and heartfelt "thank you" for replying to my 12/2 email request -- and so promptly. One of the major frustrations parents have experienced over the many months we have been expressing our concerns about what's happening at West HS is the chronic non-responsiveness of the people we have been trying to dialogue with. (Frankly, I am continually amazed to see how little understanding District officials seem to have about how their silence makes difficult situations much, much worse than they need to be.)

Also, I am glad to know that you see the issue of heterogeneous versus homogeneous grouping in classrooms as "a broader policy issue" that the BOE has a responsibility to involve itself with. I hope you will also agree that the conversation -- if it is to be a responsible and meaningful one -- must be empirically based. To that end, parents have repeatedly asked District officials for MMSD data and empirical studies from the educational literature that support, for example, the changes being made at West and the District's drive, generally, towards heterogeneous classes in our middle and high schools. I hope you, too, will insist that those data and studies be brought forward and evaluated thoroughly before any actions are taken.

You say, Carol, that we have to give this time. Well, let me fill you in a bit so that you can appreciate that we have, indeed, given it time and, in fact, have been quite patient.

I wrote my first email to a West HS administrator regarding my concerns about the plans for West in April of 2004, several months before I became a West parent. (My email exchange with Mr. Rathert actually became his monthly column in the Regent Reporter the next month.) Similarly, I corresponded with current West Principal Ed Holmes (and members of his staff) about the same issues and concerns several times last year and met with him in his office for almost 90 minutes in May. At that time, I offered to be part of the team that was going to be working on the science and English curricula over the summer. I also asked to please be kept abreast of developments. I didn't hear anything further about anything Mr. Holmes and I had discussed (despite multiple inquiries over the summer and early fall) until I read the October issue of the Regent Reporter. In a word, I was outraged that I and the many other concerned parents I know who had written to and met with Mr. Holmes had been shut out of the process so completely.

Carol, over the course of the past almost two years, I have made the same points over and over -- to administrators, teachers, superintendents, BOE members -- regarding my concerns that the curriculum changes occurring at West are not able to meet the learning needs of all students, specifically, the highest and lowest performing 15-20% of students. Appropriate learning opportunities for certain groups of students at West (in particular, the "high flyers") are clearly eroding, making it an ever more different learning environment for them than exists for their counterparts at our other high schools. Sometimes my focus has been science (e.g., the need for additional sections of Accelerated Biology); more recently, it has been English 10. In all of my correspondence, I have requested hard data and empirical studies that support the decisions being made. Many other parents have written to and met with the same District staff. They have expressed the same concerns and made the same requests for data. All of our efforts have been to no avail.

You also need to know, Carol, that at the 11/7 West PTSO meeting (which was the first time the West administration shared with parents the details of the plans for English 10), it was mentioned that the 2006-07 course catalogue is due at the printer in December. That's this month. As well, West students will be registering for their 2006-07 courses in early February. Alas, despite our best efforts and quite enormous patience, really, we have been unable to avoid a time crunch because of the clear use of the well-worn District strategy of stonewalling-plus-letting-the-clock-run-down.

Personally, I think we have given the Performance and Achievement Committee adequate opportunity to act on this matter. As you know, I wrote to them on 11/21 (hand-delivering my letter to Shwaw Vang) and again on 11/28. I also left a message for Mr. Vang on his home answering machine the morning of 11/29. In each communication, I stressed the urgency of the matter; but still no response. Carol, if you can promise us that West will not go ahead with its plans for English 10 (nor will the District proceed with any concrete plans that involve heterogeneous grouping in our middle schools) until there has been a thoroughgoing, data-driven, community-wide conversation about the fundamental issues involved (for example, what is the evidence that English 9 has had a positive impact on the achievement gap at West? shouldn't we know that before we expand the approach into 10th grade?), then I promise to relax and assume a less urgent stance once again. I will also wait patiently until January for that conversation to start. I am sure that others will join me, but if and only if they see that the clock on these projects has truly been stopped in order to allow for a better process.

I have every confidence that you understand the wisdom of such a course of action for our great community ... and that you can make it happen.

Many thanks,
Laurie Frost

P.S. Mr. Steve Rosenblum made a point in his email to you that I have often wondered about myself. Can you offer any insight into the matter?

If a student were to arrive at one of our high schools with, say, phenomenal basketball skills (shooting 90% from the free throw line and over 50% from the three-point line, dominating the backboard like nobody's business, etc.) -- the result of a combination of natural ability, hard work, and years of play outside of school and at specialized summer camps -- would we make him play on the freshman team (i.e., take Basketball 9)? Or would we immediately put him on the varsity squad (i.e., into AP Basketball)? Would we hold him back out of concern for the feelings of all the kids (like mine) who aren't that good at basketball or don't like basketball, insisting that he be patient, play at a level far lower than what he is capable of, and not learn anything new while we worked to bring all the others up to some common level of play? No way. Not in a million years. You know as well as I do that he'd be put on the varsity/AP team immediately, he'd get lots of media and community attention, and people would thrill at the thought of him playing for our side for a four full years.

Why is this a "no-brainer" in the world of sports, but a "no-no" in the world of academics? Any thoughts or insights would be greatly appreciated.

Posted by Jeff Henriques at 12:21 PM Subscribe to this site via RSS/Atom: Newsletter signup | Send us your ideas

Steve Rosenblum on West's Planned English 10: Same Curriculum for All

Steve Rosenblum, writing to Carol Carstensen:

Date: Fri, 2 Dec 2005 15:07:45 -0600
To: Carol Carstensen ,"Laurie A. Frost" From: Steven Rosenblum Subject: Re: West English
Cc: raihala@charter.net, jedwards2@wisc.edu, bier@engr.wisc.edu, jlopez@madison.k12.wi.us, wkeys@madison.k12.wi.us, svang7@madison.k12.wi.us, rrobarts@madison.k12.wi.us, jwinstonjr@madison.k12.wi.us, lkobza@madison.k12.wi.us

Carol,

Thank you for the response. I am somewhat confused however regarding your statement concerning the Board's role. Maybe you could define what is included under 'set policy' and what is excluded. I am aware of the situations you reference regarding the BOE and what some may consider poor decisions on subject matter and censorship. I also believe the public was able to vote boards out when the decisions made do not reflect community opinion. I thought our BOE was responsible to control the Administration's decisions regarding just these type of issues.

With a child entering West next year, I am personally very concerned with what I perceive is a reduction in education quality at West. We see this in English, in the elimination of Advanced Placement Courses, through the homogenization of class make-up which ignores student achievement and motivation. In addition, I really do not feel we can allow much time to resolve these issues, especially when decisions can be made in closed door sessions and without supporting data.

Personally I am confused how we can justify diluting content and rigor in the academic aspects of school while allowing stratification by ability and motivation in sports like Basketball and Soccer. Why is it that we allow our children to be stigmatized by being placed in a lower achieving section of the basketball team or not allowing them to participate at all due to their lower level basketball abilities but insist that everyone take the same English content. The system, as it is now evolving, encourages mediocrity and in no way reflects the world these people live in outside of school.

If nothing else, I hope this note indicates how dissatisfied this one parent of three school age children is with the direction of Madison schools.


Steven Rosenblum

#############################

At 2:18 PM -0600 12/2/05, Carol Carstensen wrote:
Laurie:
Thank you for your email. I have been following the discussion on the proposed changes to English 10 at West. I know that there have been various conversations between West High staff and parents and downtown administrators. I believe that a number of the concerns raised by parents are being given serious consideration. I really think you need to allow some time here.

I do see a broader policy issue of the question of heterogeneous grouping. Since this is really in the area of the Performance and Achievement Committee, I will talk with Shwaw Vang about having a meeting on this topic. Given the current schedule of Board meetings it looks as if January is the earliest we can have a meeting on this.

It is important to remember that the Boardís role is to set policy not to get involved in curriculum decisions. Just to remind you of some of the pitfalls of having politicians make curriculum decisions: there is the national controversy over the teaching of evolution and the example of the Dover PA board; there is also the current push to require the use of abstinence only programs; and lastly various attempts to censor what books are used in classrooms.
Carol

P.S. If you decide to forward or post this, please use the entire response.

#################################

At 08:32 AM 12/2/2005 -0600, you wrote:
Dear Carol,

I am writing to request that you put a discussion of the plans for English 10 at West HS (and the question of whether or not West's English 9 course has been appropriately evaluated, and whether or not the results of any evaluation support the implementation of English 10) on the agenda of a BOE meeting as soon as possible.

I believe it is time for the BOE to step in and take seriously its responsibility to students by insisting that the West administration make a sound, empirically-based decision.


Many thanks,
Laurie

Posted by Jim Zellmer at 10:00 AM Subscribe to this site via RSS/Atom: Newsletter signup | Send us your ideas

Response to "This is Not Your Grandchild's Madison School District"

This is an open response to Mary Battaglia and Larry Winkler's posts on the data showing rising numbers of low income and minority students in the Madison Metropolitan School District.

I tend to agree with Larry Winkler's take that the "low income" and "minority" data is more of a diversion from the larger discussion of standards and achievement in our schools. The district and board have presented data on low income and/or minority status (not synonymous) as if it is an explanation or an excuse for the low expecations and low achievement levels of portions of the district student body.

We need to rethink to how our schools and educational programs operate and are staffed if we are to achieve high educational standards during a time of demographic change. We are seeing changes that include more low income students, students of color, populations for whom English is a second language, and students of all backgrounds who face extraordinary challenges at home. We also are seeing more stress among students who are under extreme academic pressure at home and at school in ways that did not exist twenty years ago.

We don't have the same populations that we had five or ten years ago. Why would expect to sustain high academic achievement without a discussion of whether we need to realign our human and financial resources in order to do so? (And I'm not talking about one-directional PowerPoint presentations that don't get at the issues.)

When I've met with other parents of students of color at East -- which has the highest proportion of low income and highest proportion and number of minority students of the Madison high schools -- we've discovered that we are on the same page: we want the district to raise the expectations and the standards for all students and students of color in particular. There is common understanding that good education is fundamental to good futures.

This desire was echoed in the recent East High United Meeting, where we discussed advanced academic classes (TAG, AP, other). While there was passionate interest in classes at these levels, there also were some good questions and good discussion about the standards and expectations in ALL of our classes.

The tough part is that there have been few serious discussions of what this indicates for resource allocation in general, or for specific schools, within this district. The Northside Coalition has tried repeatedly to obtain a serious discussion of the equity formula, and I distinctly remember Barbara Golden and others from MAFAAC raising equity and minority achievement at school board meetings last year.

Sadly, the board chose to spend more time considering whether to allow live animals in the classroom than it did responding to either issue. Even if one accepted an argument that there wasn't time in monthly board meetings, one might have expected to see such issues raised in relevant committees such as Performance and Achievement or Finance and Operations.

The issues were not raised in the board or in committee, however, and as a result, we had yet another budget that did not align cuts or spending with the board's stated priorities for student achievement.

Posted by Lucy Mathiak at 9:14 AM Subscribe to this site via RSS/Atom: Newsletter signup | Send us your ideas

Virtual Schools - Cash Cow Dry???

Original URL: http://www.jsonline.com/news/state/dec05/375354.asp

No tide of cash from virtual schools
Online efforts aren't the big revenue source many had foreseen
By AMY HETZNER, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
ahetzner@journalsentinel.com
Posted: Dec. 4, 2005

With a contract to open the first statewide virtual high school before them, the mood of the members of the Waukesha School Board at their January 2004 monthly meeting was effusive.

A cost simulation showed that the school - called iQ Academies at Wisconsin - could start generating as much as $1 million for the school district by the 2006-'07 school year.

School Board members gushed.

"Pretty sweet," board member Daniel Warren said about the numbers.

A little more than a year into the iQ's operation, however, the school has yet to come close to matching the board's high hopes.

Expected to run $1.2 million in the red by next summer, the school faces possible closure unless administrators show they can stop the financial bleeding.

"There are not a lot of options," Warren said in a recent interview. "One option is to not proceed in the third year, to shut the program down because it's not working financially for us."

What has happened with the Waukesha school caught not only its board members but other school officials in the state off-guard.

And it raises questions about a previously uncontested notion about virtual schools - that they save money.

"I think the assumption was everybody saw it as a quick way to make a dollar. And it's not," said William Harbron, superintendent of the Northern Ozaukee School District, which runs the Wisconsin Virtual Academy.
Grandiose expectations

When the idea of virtual schools with students attending from home via computer first emerged, it seemed a sure-fire way for a savvy school district to make some extra cash.

Without the physical facilities of traditional school systems and the related transportation concerns, the schools could lure students from around the state, bringing more than $5,000 each under the state's open enrollment system, while still operating below the cost of a regular school.

The Appleton Area School District was the first to jump on board in 2002 when it signed an agreement with Sylvan Ventures to open Wisconsin Connections Academy to elementary-age students statewide. The Northern Ozaukee School District followed in 2003 with another virtual elementary school before Waukesha launched its new high school in 2004.

Finances in Connections Academy's first year were not picture perfect, Appleton Assistant Superintendent Todd Gray said.

That year, the school had to fend off a lawsuit filed by the state's largest teachers union, the Wisconsin Education Association Council. In addition, the school had planned for a larger staff than was necessary after receiving applications from 1,000 students, only 400 of whom ended the 2002-'03 school year enrolled in the Appleton charter school, Gray said.

Even today, with a formula in place to account for the large student attrition rate common to virtual schools, the district is fortunate to break even at the end of the year, Gray said.

"I'll be honest with you, our margin's pretty close," he said. "I mean, we didn't go into this to make money. If we make 30 to 40 thousand a year net, that's fine."

Northern Ozaukee's Harbron also said that money was not his district's motivation when it opened Wisconsin Virtual Academy two years ago. Since then, however, the school has provided an extra $120,000 annually for the district's operating fund, which Harbron said offsets funding losses caused by declining enrollment in the district's brick-and-mortar schools.

Any savings the school has comes from its large student-teacher ratio, he said, which could be threatened by a lawsuit filed by WEAC that contends the school violates state law because it relies too much on parents to fill the role of certified teachers.

While Northern Ozaukee isn't losing money, the same can't be said for K12 Inc., the educational company once headed by former education secretary William Bennett that is contracted to run Wisconsin Virtual Academy.

As it has expanded to become the country's largest operator of online public schools, K12 has yet to turn a profit, said Jeff Kwitowski, the company's director of public relations.

But much of that is because the company is still developing its product, a full K-12 online curriculum with associated materials, he said.

"We're not looking to make profit off the management side," Kwitowski said. "Our product is where we're going to eventually be successful. . . . Then we're going to, I think, see our product kind of take off and sell itself as districts are saying, 'Hey, this is great stuff.' "

Careful contractual agreements have protected the Appleton and Northern Ozaukee school districts from major losses in the first years operating their virtual schools.
Waukesha school defended

Waukesha School Board member Kurt O'Bryan thinks his district's contract with KC Distance Learning does the same. So far he's in a minority in his district.

Splitting its losses with KC Distance Learning, the private company that the Waukesha School District contracted with to start iQ Academies last year, the district is on pace to lose $716,720 by the end of the school year because of iQ, according to a November report by the district's business office.

A number of factors are at work. Revenue has been below expectations, with fewer students bringing fewer dollars to the school than originally predicted. In addition, the state's open enrollment reimbursement amount, which had been increasing by between $125 and $231 a year, rose only $50 per pupil last school year.

Costs also have been running higher than expected, with more teachers on staff than can be justified by the number of students who eventually enroll.

iQ Principal Kristine Diener suggested that the school could increase its pupil-teacher ratios and start writing its own curriculum instead of purchasing it from outside vendors as cost-saving measures.

Closing is not an option to Diener.

"I think everyone feels that we're meeting some very important needs," she said. "The main thing is we want to have this available for our students internally."

Waukesha's virtual school is vitally important to students such as Sammuel Kimball, a former home-schooler who enrolled at iQ this year so he could have access to upper-level math teachers, said Sammuel's father, Arthur Kimball.

"I would say the Waukesha School Board should be applauded at every corner," he said. "To take the risk to open the school up and to allow this educational opportunity, it's totally amazing, and it's above and beyond the call of duty."

Aggressive recruiting of more students like Sammuel who would not be as well served by traditional schools would be a better answer than closing iQ, Kimball said.

Sixteen-year-old Sammuel agreed.

"It is a really good opportunity for a lot of people," the high school junior said. "It's just not known enough."

Posted by Lucy Mathiak at 8:52 AM Subscribe to this site via RSS/Atom: Newsletter signup | Send us your ideas

Get Off the Bus: Commemorating the 50th Anniversary of the Montgomery Bus Boycott and the life of Ms. Rosa Parks

The Martin Luther King, Jr. Coalition is inviting all local citizens to share in a brief ceremony commemorating the 50th Anniversary of the historic Montgomery Bus Boycott. The ceremony will be held on Monday, December 5, 2005 at 12 noon in the lobby of the Madison Municipal Building (215 Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd.). It will begin at noon with a brief program featuring comments by current civil rights leadership as well as Madison’s Mayor. Their words of reflection will be followed by a reenactment of Ms. Parks’ courageous stand on the bus some 50 years ago.

The boycott, spurred on by Rosa Parks’ courageous refusal to give up her seat on a bus, helped launch a massive grassroots non-violent struggle for freedom and equality. As written in The Daybreak of Freedom, “The Montgomery bus boycott looms as a formative turning point of the twentieth century: harbinger of the African American freedom movement, which in turn inspired movements for freedom around the globe; springboard for the leadership of Martin Luther King Jr. in civil rights, human rights and peacemaking; launching pad for the worldwide era of upheaval known as the “sixties”. The bus boycott stands for all times as one of humankind’s supreme democratic moments, a monumental struggle to actualize the American dream of freedom, equality and constitutionalism. The nonviolent uprising of 1955 and 1956 represented a new founding of American democracy that pushed the nation a quantum leap closer to keeping faith with parchment principles.”

Words of reflection by some of Madison's community leaders will be followed by a reenactment of Ms. Parks’ courageous stand on the bus some 50 years ago. “It’s critical that we don’t forget the sacrifices and struggles that got us where we are today,” explained King Coalition Co-Chair Mona Adams Winston. “It can instruct us in how to confront the issues of today, such as the dire poverty of too many citizens that Hurricane Katrina recently brought to light or the fact that our own state has been recently labeled as the worst place for Black people to live because of outrageously disparate rates at which African Americans are being incarcerated.”

The King Coalition was established in the fall of 1985 to celebrate and carry on the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. The Coalition consists of representatives from many sectors of our community. Membership is open to all that are willing to work together in the spirit of harmony. Other sponsors of this event include the NAACP Madison Branch, Urban League of Greater Madison, and City of Madison Minority Affairs Committee. Special thanks to Metro Transit System and their staff for their contribution to making this commemoration a reality.

Posted by Johnny Winston, Jr. at 8:06 AM Subscribe to this site via RSS/Atom: Newsletter signup | Send us your ideas

Monday Morning Links

Posted by Jim Zellmer at 6:39 AM Subscribe to this site via RSS/Atom: Newsletter signup | Send us your ideas

December 4, 2005

The Community Speaks:
West Side Task Force Meetings: Hamilton and Cherokee

11.30.2005 Hamilton Questions [Video] 11.30.2005 Hamilton Statements [Video] 12.1.2005 Cherokee Statements [Video]
Fascinating. Statements and questions from parents, including those who send their children to private schools. Well worth watching. Cherokee questions pending. Thanks to MMSD-TV for recording and broadcasting the Hamilton event.
Posted by Jim Zellmer at 5:43 PM Subscribe to this site via RSS/Atom: Newsletter signup | Send us your ideas

Storm Warnings for America's Public Schools

I came across this article from the Black Commentator written by Paul A. Moore. It is very interesting and I thought I would share it. I agree with much of it, however, some of it I don't.

I have never been a fan of talking about "The Achievement Gap." I even argued about this with my campaign team in 2004. I hope to write about this when I get some quality time to collect my thoughts. I personally would rather focus on "Achievement" for our students and less on the "Gap." Enjoy.

http://blackcommentator.com/161/161_moore_storm_warnings_schools.html

Posted by Johnny Winston, Jr. at 3:48 PM Subscribe to this site via RSS/Atom: Newsletter signup | Send us your ideas

Statewide Advocacy Effort for Gifted and Talented Education

AP:

the state Department of Public Instruction to create rules forcing Wisconsin schools to offer uniform programs for gifted and talented students.

State law already requires districts to identify students who qualify as gifted and talented and offer appropriate programming.

But Todd Palmer, a Madison attorney spearheading the parents' effort, said Thursday schools have pulled resources away from those programs because of ongoing budget problems. The parents filed a petition for rulemaking, a rarely used option to ask the agency to create new rules.

DPI Petition:
My name is Todd Palmer and I am a parent of three students enrolled in Wisconsin public schools.  I am writing to ask for your help on a matter which should not take more than several minutes of your time. 

Specifically, I am asking you to sign a Petition requesting that DPI promulgate rules to govern public school districts in providing access to appropriate and uniform programs for pupils identified as gifted and/or talented.  This Petition was filed with DPI on November 29, 2005 under the signatures of several parents and educators.  However, this effort could use additional support from you.  This would involve a minimal effort on your part, but has the potential to greatly benefit your children and/or students. 

Here's what you can do to help:
  1. Read the Petition.
  2. If you support the Petition, please print and sign the signature page (p. 16).  Please include your signature, printed name, address and date.
  3. Either fax, e-mail or snail mail the signed petition to me at the following address (or mail directly to DPI):

                     Todd Palmer
                     2 East Mifflin Street, Suite 600
                     Madison, WI  53703-2965
                     Facsimile:  608-252-9243
                     Phone:  608-255-8891
                     E-mail:  tep@dewittross.com

    Spread the word in your community and gather more signatures. Contact friends and acquaintances to request their signatures as well.

    By signing the Petition you are supporting a request that DPI establish rules to do the following:

    • Establish clear and objective criteria for the uniform identification of gifted and talented pupils enrolled in Wisconsin public schools.
    • Establish clear and objective criteria to ensure that all school districts provide uniform, systematic and continuous instructional activities to fully develop the capabilities of gifted and talented pupils.
    • Establish clear and objective criteria to ensure that gifted and talented pupils have access to appropriate programs.
    • Establish an infrastructure within DPI with sufficient staffing and resources to assist school districts in meeting these requirements.
    • Establish an inspection, auditing and enforcement program to ensure that all school districts are meeting these obligations.
    • Establish a process for pupils, and their guardians, to appeal decisions made by school districts with regard to gifted and talented education.
    • Establish a Gifted and Talented Education Council to advise DPI on education issues, including the development of these rules.
    • Establish a requirement that the president of each school district Board annually certify to their district's compliance with all gifted and talented education mandates.
    • Establish a talented and gifted teacher certification process with requirements that teachers participate in periodic, continuing  education courses.

    Several individuals have put many hours of thought and work into this Petition.  These efforts were not undertaken to benefit their own children. Rather, they are trying to improve the educational opportunities for all gifted and talented children throughout the state-including your children and students.  I implore you to take several moments and complete the very simple task of signing the Petition and getting a copy returned to me. 

    There are over 51,000 GT students in this state.  If we band together we maybe able to improve the resources devoted to their educational experience.

Posted by Laurie Frost at 1:21 PM Subscribe to this site via RSS/Atom: Newsletter signup | Send us your ideas

Carol Carstensen on West's Planned English 10 Single Curriculum for All

Laurie:

Thank you for your email. I have been following the discussion on the proposed changes to English 10 at West. I know that there have been various conversations between West High staff and parents and downtown administrators. I believe that a number of the concerns raised by parents are being given serious consideration. I really think you need to allow some time here.

I do see a broader policy issue of the question of heterogeneous grouping. Since this is really in the area of the Performance and Achievement Committee, I will talk with Shwaw Vang about having a meeting on this topic. Given the current schedule of Board meetings it looks as if January is the earliest we can have a meeting on this.

It is important to remember that the Board’s role is to set policy not to get involved in curriculum decisions. Just to remind you of some of the pitfalls of having politicians make curriculum decisions: there is the national controversy over the teaching of evolution and the example of the Dover PA board; there is also the current push to require the use of abstinence only programs; and lastly various attempts to censor what books are used in classrooms.

Carol

P.S. If you decide to forward or post this, please use the entire response.
.............

At 08:32 AM 12/2/2005 -0600, you wrote:

Dear Carol,

I am writing to request that you put a discussion of the plans for English 10 at West HS (and the question of whether or not West's English 9 course has been appropriately evaluated, and whether or not the results of any evaluation support the implementation of English 10) on the agenda of a BOE meeting as soon as possible.

I believe it is time for the BOE to step in and take seriously its responsibility to students by insisting that the West administration make a sound, empirically-based decision.

Many thanks,
Laurie

Posted by Laurie Frost at 12:05 PM Subscribe to this site via RSS/Atom: Newsletter signup | Send us your ideas

Letters to the Editor: The Prodigy Puzzle

Letters to the NY Times Magazine regarding "The Prodigy Puzzle":

It is easier to be a genius when you don't have to pay the rent. We live in a world that values dependability over brilliance and where jobs that reward curiosity may not support a family. The time to explore and take bold risks is a luxury few of us, genius or not, can afford once we leave school. Measuring programs for gifted children by the success of their adult graduates overlooks the significant hurdles that lie just after graduation.

Kate Wing
San Francisco

I have found that there is often an inverse relationship between what I perceive to be a genuinely innovative thinker in my third-grade classroom and the attitude of the parents. The most intellectually curious and imaginative problem solvers have parents who are supportive of rather than ambitious for their child. And each year I am struck by how some of the most perceptive children come from families whose parents have no time to advocate for them and no "gifted" agenda to pursue.

Barbara Yost Williams
Madison, Wis.

Much more.

Posted by Jim Zellmer at 10:53 AM Subscribe to this site via RSS/Atom: Newsletter signup | Send us your ideas

The Importance of Making Connections

KJZZ:

Holly Batsell, a Language Arts teacher at Sandra Day O’Connor High School in the Deer Valley Unified School District, comment on how she and her colleagues need to help students make connections during the difficult, teenage years.
audio

Posted by Jim Zellmer at 6:33 AM Subscribe to this site via RSS/Atom: Newsletter signup | Send us your ideas

December 3, 2005

06 - 07 Budget Positioning: HR and Business Services Presentation to the Madison School Board

The Madison School Board heard presentations this past Monday from The District's HR Director, Bob Nadler and Assistant Superintendent for Business Services Roger Price. Both described the functions that their organizations provide to the District.

Bob Nadler's Presentation: Video
Roger Price's Presentation: Video
The District's Budget increases annually ($329M this year for 24,490 students). The arguments begin over how that increase is spent. Ideally, the District's curriculum strategy should drive the budget. Second, perhaps it would be useful to apply the same % increase to all budgets, leading to a balanced budget, within the revenue caps. Savings can be directed so that the Board can apply their strategy to the budget by elminating, reducing or growing programs. In all cases, the children should come first. It is possible to operate this way, as Loehrke notes below.
Learn more about the budget, including extensive historical data.
Steve Loehrke, President of the Weywauga-Fremont School District speaks to budget, governance and leadership issues in these two articles:

Posted by Jim Zellmer at 5:03 PM Subscribe to this site via RSS/Atom: Newsletter signup | Send us your ideas

Nutrition and Schools Forum Audio, Video and Links

Rafael Gomez and volunteers from this site organized a Schools and Nutrition Forum Wednesday evening, November 30, 2005.



Video | MP3 Audio
Participants included:

David Bernhardt emailed the following links:

Posted by Jim Zellmer at 4:34 PM Subscribe to this site via RSS/Atom: Newsletter signup | Send us your ideas

Excellent data from MMSD on Read 180

Who would believe that I’d call any MMSD data excellent?

It’s true!

But first, the critical point: I respectfully urge the board of education to approve funding in the next budget to expand Read 180 to West as part of West’s English 9 and English 10. Read 180 would help those students who cannot read well enough to succeed in those courses, as well as all other West courses.

Now the background.

After I asked and asked for data on the costs of various programs, the MMSD finally posted (without any fanfare) useful figures on the cost of Read 180, a successful program used in Wisconsin and across the nation to teach reading to adolescents.

The MMSD praised Read 180, but the superintendent said the district had no funds to expand the program.

Now we see that the computer-based Read 180 curriculum costs about $40,000 per school for hardware and software, according to the MMSD figures.

Read 180 could address the lack of any current proposal for instruction for poor readers in English 9 and 10.

With real numbers about costs, the board of education can now decide whether it’s willing to find $40,000 in the next budget to round out West’s English curriculum. Once low-skilled readers can actually read at grade level, core English might begin to make sense. But not until all the students can read at grade level.

Posted by Ed Blume at 11:51 AM Subscribe to this site via RSS/Atom: Newsletter signup | Send us your ideas

The New White Flight?

Lita Johnson quotes Leonard Pitts:

Consider the National Assessment of Educational Progress, a federal study released last month. It found that, despite some improvement, American kids remain academically underwhelming. Only 31 percent of fourth-graders, for instance, were rated ''proficient'' or better in reading. Just 30 percent of eighth-graders managed to hit that mark in math.

In recent years, I've taught writing at an elite public high school and three universities. I've been appalled at how often I've encountered students who could not put a sentence together and had no conception of grammar and punctuation. They tell me I'm a tough grader, and the funny thing is, I think of myself as a soft touch. ''I've always gotten A's before,'' sniffed one girl to whom I thought I was being generous in awarding a C-plus.

It occurs to me that this is the fruit of our dumbing down education in the name of ''self-esteem.'' This is what we get for making the work easier instead of demanding the students work harder -- and the parents be more involved.

So this new white flight is less a surprise than a fresh disappointment. And I've got news for those white parents:

They should be running in the opposite direction.

Posted by Jim Zellmer at 6:34 AM Subscribe to this site via RSS/Atom: Newsletter signup | Send us your ideas

December 2, 2005

Charlotte's Top's NAEP Urban School Tests

Robert Tomsho:

A reform effort launched by Charlotte-Mecklenburg in the late 1990s focused on shifting more district funds to low-performing schools from schools that were doing better -- a move that has lately created some backlash. The district also reduced class sizes in those schools and offered to pay graduate-school tuition for teachers who agreed to work in those schools for at least two years. The district also required all of its elementary schools to adhere to a strict, phonics-based reading program.

And it brought more learning-disabled students back into mainstream classrooms and paired up teachers who had been teaching them separately. Now, "you have a great combination of teachers who are very, very versed in reading and teachers who are very, very versed in additional learning strategies," says Frances Haithcock, the district's interim superintendent.

Posted by Jim Zellmer at 5:49 PM Subscribe to this site via RSS/Atom: Newsletter signup | Send us your ideas

Debating the Future of Education Reform

Reason Magazine:

Fifty years after Milton Friedman first proposed the idea of education vouchers, school choice proposals come in all shapes and sizes. We asked a dozen experts what reforms they think are most necessary and promising to improve American education. We also asked them to identify the biggest obstacles to positive change. Here are their answers. Comments should be sent to letters@reason.com.
Via Joanne Jacobs who has more on Math Curriculum in China.

Posted by Jim Zellmer at 4:25 PM Subscribe to this site via RSS/Atom: Newsletter signup | Send us your ideas

West HS English 9 and 10: Show us the data!

Here is a synopsis of the English 10 situation at West HS.

Currently -- having failed to receive any reply from BOE Performance and Achievement Committee Chair Shwaw Vang to our request that he investigate this matter and provide an opportunity for public discussion -- we are trying to get BOE President Carol Carstensen to put a discussion of the English 10 proposal (and the apparent lack of data supporting its implementation) on the agenda for a BOE meeting.  Aside from the fact that there is serious doubt that the course, as proposed, will meet the educational needs of the high and low end students, it is clear we are witnessing yet another example of school officials making radical curricular changes without empirical evidence that they will work and without open, honest and respectful dialogue with the community.

As the bumper sticker says, "If you're not outraged, you're not paying attention!"

  • 11/7/2005: West PTSO meeting, where the plans for English 10 were first introduced. A videotape of the English 10 portion of the meeting (along with additional background information) may be found here.

  • 11/9/2005: After hearing from two independent sources who attended the 11/8 West faculty meeting that West Principal Ed Holmes represented the parents who attended the previous night's PTSO meeting as very supportive of the English 10 proposal, I write Mr. Holmes a forceful, clarifying letter.

  • 11/9/2005: I request a copy of the report written by SLC Evaluator Bruce King that someone mentioned at the 11/7 PTSO meeting. I am told by West Principal Ed Holmes that the report is a "confidential" and a "draft."

  • 11/14/2005: After several days of investigation and writing to the proper District authorities, I obtain a copy of the SLC report from MMSD Attorney Clarence Sherrod. http://www.schoolinfosystem.org/archives/2005/11/evaluation_of_t.php

  • 11/14/2005: I re-send to West Principal Ed Holmes the list of questions that several of us submitted to him and West English Department Chair Keesia Hyzer before the 11/7 PTSO meeting because most of the questions were not answered at the meeting. (Note: I have yet to receive a reply and we have yet to receive answers, studies or data.)

  • 11/18/2005: Several West HS attendance area parents meet with Assistant Superintendent for Secondary Schools Pam Nash. We discuss many important issues pertaining to the English 10 plan and request data and empirical studies that support what is being done at West.

  • 11/20/2005: I send Pam Nash a follow-up email of thanks, reinforcing our request for West and MMSD data -- as well as empirical studies -- that support the implementation of English 10 and the move towards heterogeneous classes in our middle and high schools. I include the list of talking points that our group generated before our meeting with her because we did not get to all of them in our meeting. (Note: I have yet to receive a reply and we have yet to receive answers, studies or data.)

  • 11/21/2005: I pen a request to BOE Performance and Achievement Committee Chair Shwaw Vang (copying several other District officials), asking that he obtain the data that forms the basis for a couple of important points in Bruce King's SLC report, points regarding the apparent failure of English 9 to impact the achievement gap. Several others sign the request. We ask that the data be made public and that the P& A Committee hold a public discussion of the data. Knowing that Mr. Vang doesn't "do" email, I hand-deliver a copy of my request to him, along with a hard copy of the SLC report. (Note: I have yet to receive a reply from Mr. Vang.)

  • 11/28/2005: I write a follow-up email to Mr. Vang and his committee members (Ruth Robarts and Bill Keys), asking about the status of our request and stressing the time urgency of the situation. (Note: I have yet to receive a reply from Mr. Vang.

  • 11/28/2005: I write a follow-up email to Pam Nash, urgently requesting an update on the situation at West. (Note: I have yet to receive a reply from Ms. Nash.)

  • 11/29/2005: I leave a message on Mr. Vang's answering machine asking for a status report on our request. (Note: I have yet to receive a reply from Mr. Vang.)

  • 11/30/2005: I receive an email from Bill Keys, essentially a forward of a brief message from Art Rainwater.

  • 11/30/2005: I write back to Bill, copying Art Rainwater, Pam Nash, and Mary Gulbrandsen.

  • 12/02/2005: I write an email to Madison Board of Education President Carol Carstensen that the Board discuss plans for English 10 at West HS (and the question of whether or not West's English 9 course has been appropriately evaluated, and whether or not the results of any evaluation support the implementation of English 10) on the agenda of a BOE meeting as soon as possible.


Chronology with emails follows below:

11/7/2005: West PTSO meeting, where the plans for English 10 were first introduced. A video of the English 10 portion of the meeting (along with additional background information) may be found here:

11/9/2005: After hearing from two independent sources who attended the 11/8 West faculty meeting that West Principal Ed Holmes represented the parents who attended the previous night's PTSO meeting as very supportive of the English 10 proposal, I write Mr. Holmes a forceful, clarifying letter.
Date: Wed, 09 Nov 2005 08:15:05 -0600 To: eholmes@madison.k12.wi.us From: "Laurie A. Frost" Subject: English at West HS Cc: pnash@madison.k12.wi.us,arainwater@madison.k12.wi.us,wkeys@madison.k12.wi.us,lkobza@boardmanlawfirm.com,robarts@execpc.com,ccarstensen@madison.k12.wi.us,jlopez@madison.k12.wi.us,svang7@madison.k12.wi.us,jwinstonjr@madison.k12.wi.us

Dear Ed,

I have it on very good authority that you misrepresented Monday night's PTSO meeting at your full faculty meeting yesterday. It is not clear if this was a matter of positive spin, selective inattention, or willful calculation. Yes, parents were calm, well-behaved and non-combative, and they tried to compliment the good they saw in the proposed curriculum. There are some great books on the list (though someone has since pointed out that most are by male authors), plus we appreciate the goal of integrating the writing assignments with the literature being read. As I see it, though, our good behavior speaks to our respectfulness and willingness to collaborate, not to our support of the plan as presented.

More specifically, I would estimate that approximately 80%, possibly more, of the parent comments Monday night were not positive and accepting of the plans for English 10 as they currently stand. Almost every parent who spoke expressed concern about how the plan does not meet the needs of the students of high ability and enthusiasm in language arts. There was also concern that the curriculum is not a good match for students who struggle with reading. Parents were very critical of the details of the proposed honors designation and pessimistic about its effectiveness and success. You were asked several times to consider creating an honors section of English 10 in each SLC. (Same for English 9 and Accelerated Biology.) Why? Because, as parents pointed out, most any literary work can be taught at a wide range of levels, depending on the teacher and the students. Put another way, a student's experience of rigor, high expectation and intellectual stimulation in a class depends on the level, quality, depth and pace of the conversation in the room; and that, in turn, depends on who is in the room. There are very real limits on the number of grade levels across which even a masterful teacher can teach. It is also unfair to ask students who simply want to have their educational needs met to give up two lunch periods per week, along with the opportunity to participate in school clubs and other activities. That would not be necessary if the appropriate level of rigor were provided in their classroom experience.

Please stop the plans to implement the English 10 core as it was presented on Monday night until there has been a thoroughgoing, community-wide discussion about it and until you provide hard data -- from West and from the research literature -- that support it. (Note: this includes the recent report written by the SLC evaluator, Bruce King.) Otherwise, you risk alienating a large segment of the West community and hastening the "bright flight" that has already begun in our attendance area. (Did you know that almost one-third of the approximately 70 parents who attended the meeting were parents of elementary and middle school students in the West attendance area who are watching these developments very closely?)


Laurie Frost


Here is a link to a more complete report on what transpired at the West PTSO meeting on 11/7:

http://www.schoolinfosystem.org/archives/2005/11/report_from_wes.php


A videotape of the portion of the meeting dealing with the English 10 proposal will posted on schoolinfosystem asap.


11/9/2005: I request a copy of the report written by SLC Evaluator Bruce King that someone mentioned at the 11/7 PTSO meeting. I am told by West Principal Ed Holmes that the report is a "confidential" and a "draft."

Date: Wed, 09 Nov 2005 09:49:28 -0600
To: eholmes@madison.k12.wi.us,hlott@madison.k12.wi.us
From: TAG Parents
Subject: SLC report request
Cc: arainwater@madison.k12.wi.us,pnash@madison.k12.wi.us,csherrod@madison.k12.wi.us

This is a formal request for a copy (electronic, if possible, perhaps as an attachment) of SLC evaluator Bruce King's recent report on the progress of the SLC initiative at West HS.

Please send this report as soon as possible, as time is of the essence. If it is easier for you, I would be happy to pick up a hard copy in the West HS office. Just let me know by email or phone call (238-6375) and I will drop by.

Thank you.


Respectfully,

Laurie Frost

_____________________________________________
Madison TAG Parents
Email: tagparents@yahoogroups.com
URL: http://tagparents.org

###
X-Mailer: Novell GroupWise Internet Agent 6.5.2
Date: Wed, 09 Nov 2005 13:42:52 -0600
From: "Ed Holmes"
To: "Heather Lott" ,
Cc: "Art Rainwater" ,
"Clarence Sherrod" ,
"Pam Nash"
Subject: Re: SLC report request
X-Spam-Flag: Unchecked
X-Scanned-By: MIMEDefang 2.41
X-RCPT-TO:

Dear TAG Parents,

The document you have requested is a confidential draft that was sent
to me by our Smaller Learning Communities Grant Evaluator, Bruce King.
Clearly the front cover of the document says DRAFT and CONFIDENTIAL. I
want to be clear that it is Bruce King who has requested that this
information be kept confidential and that I will be honoring his
request.

Bruce King is currently working on an Executive Summary that will
outline his findings regarding establishment of the 10th Grade English
course at West. That document will be distributed to anyone interested
in reviewing his evaluative statement regarding the merits of the
process and the plans for implementation of the course.

As soon as I recieve the aforementioned document I will be happy to
pass it on to you.

Thank you for your ongoing interest in this important curriculum review
process.

Ed Holmes, Principal
West High School

_____________________________________________
Madison TAG Parents
Email: tagparents@yahoogroups.com
URL: http://tagparents.org


11/14/2005: After several days of investigation and writing to the proper District authorities, I obtain a copy of the SLC report from MMSD Attorney Clarence Sherrod. http://www.schoolinfosystem.org/archives/2005/11/evaluation_of_t.php


11/14/2005: I re-send to West Principal Ed Holmes the list of questions that several of us submitted to him and West English Department Chair Keesia Hyzer before the 11/7 PTSO meeting because most of the questions were not answered at the meeting. (Note: I have yet to receive a reply and we have yet to receive answers, studies or data.)

Note: These questions were first sent on 11/3 -- several days before the PTSO meeting -- and again on 11/14. "Kathy" is West PTSO President Kathy Riddiough.


Date: Mon, 14 Nov 2005 09:38:15 -0600
To: eholmes@madison.k12.wi.us,ricciridd@tds.net
From: "Laurie A. Frost"
Subject: Questions for 11/7 PTSO meeting
Cc: pnash@madison.k12.wi.us

Hello, Kathy and Ed. Below are the questions a group of us submitted before last week's PTSO meeting. It seems to us that Questions 5, 8, 13 and 15 were answered, Question 10 was addressed by parents only (and constituted the bulk of the Q and A), but the rest were not addressed at all. Many of the parents who were present at the meeting would appreciate having the answers to the remaining questions asap.

We are especially interested in seeing West HS data that indicate the need for the structural/curricular change being proposed and West HS data and empirical studies from the education literature that indicate the likely success of the proposed change in addressing the problem. Please include, in particular, the studies you believe best indicate the effectiveness of heterogeneous grouping for educating well the full range of high school students.

We would also like to know what will be happening -- and when (there is some urgency, after all) -- to continue the dialogue that has only barely begun by the West administration and the parents of the children who will be affected by this change.

Thanks for your timely attention to this matter.

Respectfully,
Laurie Frost

I. Questions about 10th grade English

1) What are the West HS data that indicate there is a problem with the current system for 10th grade English?

2) What are the data that suggest the solution being proposed (i.e., a standardized, homogeneous curriculum delivered in completely heterogeneous classes) will fix the problem? (Are there empirical studies you can tell us about?)

3) What are the data that indicate all students' educational needs will be well served by the proposed solution? (Again, are there empirical studies you can tell us about?)

4) What are the data that indicate no students will be harmed or poorly served by the proposed solution? (And again -- empirical studies?)

5) If the 10th grade English core is implemented, will some English electives be dropped from the course offerings? If so, which ones?

6) Will advanced students be allowed to "test out" or be "teacher-recommended out" of the 10th grade English core? If so, when would this happen? When they register for their 10th grade classes? At the end of 9th grade? At the beginning of 10th grade? In between semesters in 10th grade? Some or all of these times?

7) Will you extend this option to advanced 9th graders and allow them to "test out" or be "teacher-recommended out" of 9th grade English? (It is our understanding that this used to be allowed.)

8) Would you consider keeping the current system in place and adding the new curriculum as an additional elective for those students for whom it is a good educational match?

9) Will the grant be jeopardized or lost if you do not implement a homogeneous 10th grade English core? (If you are not sure, would you be willing to check into it and get back to us?)

10) We fear that the plan to offer an honors designation in 10th grade English that requires two lunchtime meetings per week is likely doomed to failure for the following reasons: a) it seems highly unlikely that students who have just endured a year of required "freshman resource time" during their lunch hour will be willing to give up two-fifths of their hard-earned midday freedom as sophomores; b) the plan puts having an honors distinction (which is really not the point -- having an appropriately challenging curriculum and the opportunity to learn with similar-ability peers is the point) in direct competition with participation in clubs and other activities that meet during lunchtime; c) the plan forces students to choose between more academics and social time or "down" time. Because so many reasons for students not to choose the honors option are being built into the plan, we feel the plan is likely to fail and that you will then use that as justification for discontinuing the option due to "lack of interest." Would you please comment on our concerns? What are your thoughts about the potential success or failure of the proposed honors designation, as it is currently defined?

11) Who conceived of the proposal to restructure sophomore English by eliminating electives and implementing a standardized curriculum to be delivered in heterogeneous classrooms (i.e., what are their names, please)?

12) Were District TAG staff included or consulted in the development of this proposal?

13) Who is developing the 10th grade English core curriculum (again, what are their names, please)?

14) Were District TAG staff included or consulted in the development of the new curriculum?

15) What is the process the group is using to develop the English 10 core curriculum?

II. General -- but nevertheless relevant -- questions

16) Would you please explain to us the difference between "tracking" and "flexible ability grouping"?

17) Would you please share with us your understanding of the research on ability grouping?

III. SLC questions

18) What were the West HS data that were used to justify the need for a change this drastic at West?

19) What were the data and studies that were used to justify the selection of this particular smaller high schools model for West?

20) Whose idea was the SLC initiative originally? That is, what is the name of the person who conceived of the idea in the very beginning?

21) What are the specific outcome measures that are being used to assess the impact of the SLC initiative?


_____________________________________________
Madison TAG Parents
Email: tagparents@yahoogroups.com
URL: http://tagparents.org


11/18/2005: Several West HS attendance area parents meet with Assistant Superintendent for Secondary Schools Pam Nash. We discuss many important issues pertaining to the English 10 plan and request data and empirical studies that support what is being done at West.


11/20/2005: I send Pam Nash a follow-up email of thanks, reinforcing our request for West and MMSD data -- as well as empirical studies -- that support the implementation of English 10 and the move towards heterogeneous classes in our middle and high schools. I include the list of talking points that our group generated before our meeting with her because we did not get to all of them in our meeting. (Note: I have yet to receive a reply and we have yet to receive answers, studies or data.)

Date: Sun, 20 Nov 2005 23:10:50 -0600
To: pnash@madison.k12.wi.us
From: "Laurie A. Frost"
Subject: thanks, and more ...

Dear Pam,

Thanks so much for taking the time to meet with us on Friday to discuss the matter of English 10 and related issues at West HS. We greatly appreciated your time, your honesty, your patience and your perspective. We would very much like to continue the dialogue with you as things unfold at West in the coming weeks and months. I am happy to continue as your contact or "point person" for the group.

As a follow-up to our meeting, I cannot overstate parents' interest in seeing both West HS data and empirical studies from the education literature that support the District's increasing use of a homogeneous curriculum delivered in completely heterogeneous classrooms at both the middle and high school level. We want to know more about the research base that the Administration is using as the empirical foundation for this reform, as well as about the evidence from within the MMSD that attests to its effectiveness for all students.

We came on Friday with several talking points, but didn't get to all of them. I've pasted in the entire list below. If you have thoughts to share about any of the ones that didn't come up in our meeting, please feel free to respond.

Again, thanks so much for taking the time to start a dialogue with us.

Sincerely,

Laurie


Talking points for 11/18 meeting with Pam Nash


1. The SLC report makes it clear that English 9 – a standardized curriculum delivered in completely heterogeneous classes – hasn’t had the desired effect on the achievement gap at West, on the English 9 failure rates for certain groups of West students, or on the participation rates in the more challenging English electives of those same students. It thus makes no sense to us to expand the approach into 10th grade English. The first order of business should be to understand why English 9 is not working as hoped, and fix it.

2. The English 10 course – as currently planned – is a set up for failure for struggling and low achieving students for whom the reading and writing demands will likely be too great. It is also not fair to expect high performing and highly motivated students to get their need for challenge met during the lunch hour and through extra independent work. Students in honors classes report that the single most important feature of those classes for them is the high level of discussion, a result of who is in the class. Thus, students at the upper and lower most ends of the performance distribution will not be well served by this plan.

3. One way to modify the plan would be to have one honors section and one skills and enrichment section in each of the four SLC’s. Students would self-select into these special sections of English 10 and – in the honors sections – would have to maintain adequate performance in order to remain in the section. The special sections would be less exclusive than, for example, the single section of Accelerated Biology at West because four sections would provide significantly more access for a wider variety of interested students. According to the SLC report, having special sections like this in each SLC is not inconsistent with the SLC model.

4. Such a modified plan would also bring West in line with Madison’s other high schools. East HS, for example, has TAG, AcaMo and regular classes in English, science, and social studies, as well as several different levels of math.

5. Increasing the number of AP classes at West would address another important disparity between our high schools, one that affects the educational opportunities for West’s high performing students. (We hope the AP grant that the MMSD has just received, along with several other Wisconsin school districts, will be used to do this.)

6. In general, the significant differences across our four high schools with regard to how and how well the learning needs of the high performing students are met is of great concern to us. We are concerned about the “bright flight” that is occurring, from one attendance area to another and to neighboring districts.

7. Middleton HS was just named a Blue Ribbon School for its academic excellence by the U.S. Department of Education, one of only two in the state. Middleton HS offers a diversified curriculum in each content area and thus appropriate educational opportunities for students with widely varying interests, abilities, and career aspirations. It seems to us that Middleton understands that “equal” and “equitable” are not the same thing; that equal educational opportunity and heterogeneous grouping are not synonymous.

8. What are the major empirical studies upon which the District’s move towards completely heterogeneous classrooms at both the middle and high school levels is based?

9. Are you aware of the District’s dropout data for the second half of the 1990's? The data indicate that 27% of the dropouts for that period had a history of high academic achievement and that over half of this high achieving group of dropouts were poor and over 40% of them were minority students. Of the four high schools, West had the largest percentage of formerly high achieving dropouts. How do you understand those data? (I will bring hard copies.)

10. Can you provide us with an update on the plans for Accelerated Biology at West next year?

11. Is there any update since the 11/7 PTSO meeting we should know about?

12. A point about the process -- the lack of partnership -- the stonewalling -- which has become part of the problem. In contrast to the way things have unfolded at West, East had a community-wide meeting last week, at the beginning of their process, and has set up a task force to review high end curriculum.

13. Would we ever keep a talented 9th grade basketball player off of the varsity team? No. We'd celebrate his ability and be excited about having him play varsity for four years. And we wouldn't worry about hurting the feelings or self-esteem of any less capable or motivated students. Why is this attitude so acceptable in sports, but not in academics?

14. We would like to see honors/accelerated/more rigorous classes throughout the curriculum -- e.g., English 9, Accelerated Biology, social studies, etc. Why not one honors section per SLC?

15. What do the data show regarding how (matched samples of) students from Wright, Hamilton and Cherokee do at West? We think much could be learned by taking a look and seeing if there are differences.


Laurie A. Frost, Ph.D.
Isthmus Psychotherapy & Psychiatry
222 South Bedford Street
Madison, WI 53703
(608) 256-6570


11/21/2005: I pen a request to BOE Performance and Achievement Committee Chair Shwaw Vang (copying several other District officials), asking that he obtain the data that forms the basis for a couple of important points in Bruce King's SLC report, points regarding the apparent failure of English 9 to impact the achievement gap. Several others sign the request. We ask that the data be made public and that the P& A Committee hold a public discussion of the data. Knowing that Mr. Vang doesn't "do" email, I hand-deliver a copy of my request to him, along with a hard copy of the SLC report. (Note: I have yet to receive a reply from Mr. Vang.)

Date: Mon, 21 Nov 2005 20:02:40 -0600
To: svang7@madison.k12.wi.us
From: "Laurie A. Frost"
Subject: West HS SLC report -- request for examination and public discussion of 9th grade English data
Cc: robarts@execpc.com,wkeys@madison.k12.wi.us,jwinstonjr@madison.k12.wi.us,ccarstensen@madison.k12.wi.us,jlopez@madison.k12.wi.us,lkobza@boardmanlawfirm.com,arainwater@madison.k12.wi.us,pnash@madison.k12.wi.us,talkingoutofschool@isthmus.com,edit@isthmus.com

Dear Shwaw,

We are writing to you in your capacity as Chair of the BOE Performance and Achievement Committee to ask that you address a critical situation currently unfolding at West High School.

Enclosed you will find a copy of a report entitled "Evaluation of the SLC Project at West High School," written by SLC Evaluator Bruce King and dated November 2, 2005. The report focuses on the West administration's plans to overhaul 10th grade English.

For many years West sophomores -- like West juniors and seniors -- have chosen their English courses from an impressive list of electives that range in content and difficulty level. According to the report, the overarching reason for changing the existing system for 10th grade English is the concern that the elective structure contributes to unequal educational opportunities across different student groups. Specifically, there is concern that some groups of students do not sign up for the more rigorous, higher level electives. There is also concern that some West students complete their English credits without taking any literature courses. In essence, the proposal makes 10th grade English a lot like English 9 -- a standardized curriculum delivered in heterogeneous classes. The thing is, English 9 has not had the desired effect on these indicators of student achievement.

When you read the report, you will discover that English 9 -- which has been in place at West for several years -- has not done much to close the gap in achievement in English among West students. Thus the report recommends that "ongoing critical reflection and analysis of both the 9th and 10th grade English courses [is] needed [in order to] address ... concerns [such as] the failure rate for 9th grade English and which students are failing [because] it is not clear if a common 9th grade course has helped close the achievement gap" (emphasis added).

The report also states that "in addition, an action research group might be formed to evaluate the 9th grade course, including levels of expectations and differentiation, failure rates by student groups, and the extent to which it has helped or hindered students to take challenging English courses in subsequent years. Apparently, it hasn't helped some groups of students that much (emphasis added). Why? What needs to be changed so it does, and so the 10th grade course does, as well?"

In a word, we find it unconscionable to think that the West administration would expand a program into the 10th grade that has so clearly failed to achieve its objectives in the 9th grade. We can't help but suspect that a look at the hard data would convince any reasonable person that the appropriate and responsible course of action, at this juncture, would be to figure out why English 9 hasn't worked and fix it before making any changes to the 10th grade curriculum.

As Chair of the Performance and Achievement Committee, would you please take responsibility for obtaining from the MMSD Research and Evaluation Department the 9th grade data that goes along with the above statements from the report? Would you also please make these data public and schedule a public discussion of them at a Performance and Achievement Committee meeting?

We must stress to you the time urgency of this matter. At the November 7 West PTSO meeting -- when the West administration and English Department first introduced the proposal for English 10 -- it was mentioned that the West course catalogue is due at the printer in December. This leaves very little time for the public discussion that should have been an essential element of this curriculum change process. Consequently, we ask that you please obtain the data and hold a public discussion of them immediately.

Many thanks for your prompt attention to this urgent matter.

Respectfully,

Laurie Frost, Jeff Henriques, Larry Winkler, Jim Zellmer, Joan Knoebel, Michael Cullenward, Ed Blume, Kathy Riddiough, Jane Doughty, Janet Mertz, Stephanie Stetson, Nancy Zellmer, Jan Edwards, and Don Severson


11/28/2005: I write a follow-up email to Mr. Vang and his committee members (Ruth Robarts and Bill Keys), asking about the status of our request and stressing the time urgency of the situation. (Note: I have yet to receive a reply from Mr. Vang.)

Date: Mon, 28 Nov 2005 21:23:18 -0600
To: svang7@madison.k12.wi.us,wkeys@madison.k12.wi.us,robarts@execpc.com
From: "Laurie A. Frost"
Subject: West HS English 9 data request

Dear Shwaw, Bill and Ruth --

We are wondering about the status of our 11/21 request that the Performance and Achievement Committee obtain the West HS English 9 data that goes along with the comments in the text of Bruce King's report regarding the course's failure to impact the student achievement gap at West; make the data public; and hold a Performance and Achievement Committee meeting to discuss it?

The update from our end is that we have not heard from Pam Nash since our 11/18 meeting with her; we still have not heard from Ed Holmes about the answers to those questions we posed to him before the 11/7 PTSO meeting, but that were not answered at the meeting; SLC Evaluator Bruce King held two parent focus groups tonight; there is a 20-minute English Department meeting on Wednesday to discuss which English electives will be discontinued; and we understand English Department Chair Keesia Hyzer is working on an English 10 course catalog description.

Please, time is of the essence. Please get back to us. Please get those data. And please slow down the process that is unfolding at West, even as I write this email.


Laurie


P.S. I heard about yet another West family looking to move further west today.


11/28/2005: I write a follow-up email to Pam Nash, urgently requesting an update on the situation at West. (Note: I have yet to receive a reply from Ms. Nash.)

Date: Mon, 28 Nov 2005 21:33:42 -0600
To: pnash@madison.k12.wi.us
From: "Laurie A. Frost"
Subject: update?

Pam,

Is there anything to report on the English 10 situation at West? Any data? Any articles? Any news about follow-up from the West administration or with you?

Parents are getting increasingly agitated again. Although there were two one-hour focus groups held this evening, it's not clear they were anything more than an opportunity for parents to say their piece -- i.e., they felt much like the 11/7 PTSO meeting, in terms of not having any real impact on the process.

That's in part because we understand that the English Department is having a 20-minute meeting on Wednesday to discuss which electives will be discontinued, and that Keesia Hyzer (English Department chair) is working up an English 10 course catalog description. It appears that everything is proceeding as planned, as if parents had never said a word, as if the SLC report told a glowing success story about English 9.

What's going on?

Please get back to us asap.

Thanks,
Laurie


11/29/2005: I leave a message on Mr. Vang's answering machine asking for a status report on our request. (Note: I have yet to receive a reply from Mr. Vang.)


11/30/2005: I receive an email from Bill Keys, essentially a forward of a brief message from Art Rainwater.

X-Apparently-To: lauriefrost@ameritech.net via 68.142.199.141; Wed, 30 Nov 2005 05:49:04 -0800
X-Originating-IP: [199.197.64.10]
Authentication-Results: mta819.mail.scd.yahoo.com
from=madison.k12.wi.us; domainkeys=neutral (no sig)
X-Originating-IP: [199.197.64.10]
X-Sender: wkeys@mail.madison.k12.wi.us
X-Mailer: QUALCOMM Windows Eudora Version 5.1
Date: Wed, 30 Nov 2005 07:46:39 -0600
To: "Laurie A. Frost"
From: Bill Keys
Subject: Re: Fwd: Re: Fwd: West HS English 9 data request
Cc: Art Rainwater
X-Spam-Flag: Unchecked
X-Scanned-By: MIMEDefang 2.41

Laurie,
This is what I intended to send: Art's response, in bold and italics.
Bill
Mary G, Pam and I met with Bruce King today. Bruce was very clear with us that his report did not say that the ninth grade English class had failed. What he actually said in the report was there was no data to make any kind of judgement about the success of the course. They would need to talk to Bruce about what data he has. My understanding was that he has none.
Art


11/30/2005: I write back to Bill, copying Art Rainwater, Pam Nash, and Mary Gulbrandsen.

Date: Wed, 30 Nov 2005 12:57:58 -0600
To: wkeys@madison.k12.wi.us
From: "Laurie A. Frost"
Subject: West HS English 9 data request
Cc: arainwater@madison.k12.wi.us,pnash@madison.k12.wi.us,mgulbrandsen@madison.k12.wi.us

Bill --

First, thanks so much for responding and getting involved in this urgent matter.

Second, we have Bruce's report!

In fact, the following paragraphs from my email request to Shwaw contain verbatim quotes (in bold) from Bruce's report:


When you read the report, you will discover that English 9 -- which has been in place at West for several years -- has not done much to close the gap in achievement in English among West students. Thus the report recommends that "ongoing critical reflection and analysis of both the 9th and 10th grade English courses [is] needed [in order to] address ... concerns [such as] the failure rate for 9th grade English and which students are failing [because] it is not clear if a common 9th grade course has helped close the achievement gap" (underline added).

The report also states that "in addition, an action research group might be formed to evaluate the 9th grade course, including levels of expectations and differentiation, failure rates by student groups, and the extent to which it has helped or hindered students to take challenging English courses in subsequent years. Apparently, it hasn't helped some groups of students that much (underline added). Why? What needs to be changed so it does, and so the 10th grade course does, as well?"


Speaking as a well-trained social scientist with that whole other career behind me, I guess I see two ways to interpret these statements. One is that the West administration has looked at the data for English 9 and it does not show any effect on the achievement gap -- i.e., there is no effect on either the failure rate of certain groups of students (presumably in English 9) or the participation rate of certain groups of students in the more rigorous English electives. The other way to interpret the statements is that it's not clear if English 9 has had an impact on the achievement gap (i.e., those two specific indicators) because they have not yet looked at the data.

Now, Art says his understanding is that Bruce has no data. In all honesty, that possibility hadn't occurred to me. Wow. If that's true, I am even more appalled and outraged than I was before.

Bill (and all those I've copied), please try to understand, this is the kind of professionally irresponsible decision-making behavior that parents across the District are so enormously frustrated with. Think about it. A radical school-wide change is being implemented at one of our high schools -- one that will affect thousands of students -- despite an absence of data supportive of the change, that absence apparently due to the fact that the appropriate and necessary data have not even been collected and examined! I see that as a serious violation of the trust we parents have put in all of you, the decision-makers of our school district.

Please, I implore you once again, put a stop to this English 10 business and figure out what's going on with English 9 first!


Laurie

Here are the unchanged verbatim quotes from Bruce's report:

from page 4 ---

"Ongoing critical reflection and analysis of both the 9th and 10th grade English courses are needed. This analysis should address different but interrelated concerns:

1) The failure rate for 9th grade English, and which students are failing. It is not clear if a common 9th grade course has helped close the achievement gap."


From page 6 --

"In addition, an action research group might be formed to evaluate the 9th grade course, including levels of expectations and differentiation, failure rates by student groups, and the extent to which it has helped or hindered students to take challenging English courses in subsequent years. Apparently it hasn't helped some groups of students that much. Why? What needs to be changed so it does and so the 10th grade course does as well? " p. 6

At 07:46 AM 11/30/2005, you wrote:
Laurie,
This is what I intended to send: Art's response, in bold and italics.
Bill
Mary G, Pam and I met with Bruce King today. Bruce was very clear with us that his report did not say that the ninth grade English class had failed. What he actually said in the report was there was no data to make any kind of judgement about the success of the course. They would need to talk to Bruce about what data he has. My understanding was that he has none.
Art


At 07:24 AM 11/30/2005 -0600, you wrote:
Bill -- I don't think you sent what you intended to send. This looks like my own message only. Thanks for sending Art's response again. --Laurie

P.S. We have Bruce's report. Do you mean contact him for the actual data?


At 10:38 PM 11/29/2005, you wrote:
Laurie,
Here is Supt Rainwater's response to your request for information. I encourage you to contact Bruce King for the report.
Bill

Dear Shwaw, Bill and Ruth --
>
>We are wondering about the status of our 11/21 request that the
>Performance and Achievement Committee obtain the West HS English 9 data
>that goes along with the comments in the text of Bruce King's report
>regarding the course's failure to impact the student achievement gap at
>West; make the data public; and hold a Performance and Achievement
>Committee meeting to discuss it?
>
>The update from our end is that we have not heard from Pam Nash since our
>11/18 meeting with her; we still have not heard from Ed Holmes about the
>answers to those questions we posed to him before the 11/7 PTSO meeting,
>but that were not answered at the meeting; SLC Evaluator Bruce King held
>two parent focus groups tonight; there is a 20-minute English Department
>meeting on Wednesday to discuss which English electives will be
>discontinued; and we understand English Department Chair Keesia Hyzer is
>working on an English 10 course catalog description.
>
>Please, time is of the essence. Please get back to us. Please get those
>data. And please slow down the process that is unfolding at West, even as
>I write this email.
>
>
>Laurie
>
>
>P.S. I heard about yet another West family looking to move further west
>today.

12/2/2005: I write an email to Madison Board of Education President Carol Carstensen that the Board discuss plans for English 10 at West HS (and the question of whether or not West's English 9 course has been appropriately evaluated, and whether or not the results of any evaluation support the implementation of English 10) on the agenda of a BOE meeting as soon as possible.

Date: Fri, 02 Dec 2005 08:32:36 -0600
To: ccarstensen@madison.k12.wi.us
From: "Laurie A. Frost"
Subject: West English
Cc: wkeys@madison.k12.wi.us,lkobza@boardmanlawfirm.com,robarts@execpc.com,jwinstonjr@madison.k12.wi.us,jlopez@madison.k12.wi.us,svang7@madison.k12.wi.us,arainwater@madison.k12.wi.us,pnash@madison.k12.wi.us,mgulbrandsen@madison.k12.wi.us

Dear Carol,

I am writing to request that you put a discussion of the plans for English 10 at West HS (and the question of whether or not West's English 9 course has been appropriately evaluated, and whether or not the results of any evaluation support the implementation of English 10) on the agenda of a BOE meeting as soon as possible.

I believe it is time for the BOE to step in and take seriously its responsibility to students by insisting that the West administration make a sound, empirically-based decision.


Many thanks,
Laurie

Posted by Laurie Frost at 10:13 AM Subscribe to this site via RSS/Atom: Newsletter signup | Send us your ideas

They’re off and running: Three new faces seek seats on Madison's school board

This week is the official start of the spring campaign season, and three local parents are launching bids for Madison’s board of education.

Arlene Silveira, 47, the president of Cherokee middle school’s parent-teacher organization, and Maya Cole, 42, an active member of the parent-teacher group at Franklin-Randall, are seeking the open seat being vacated by Bill Keys. Both say they’ll circulate nomination papers starting Dec. 1, the first day the law allows.

And, in the race generating the most buzz, Lucy Mathiak is seeking the seat now held by Juan Jose Lopez. The most aggressive of the three candidates, Mathiak could significantly alter the makeup of the board.

“People are disgusted and worried about our schools,” says Mathiak, 50. “People are tired of speeches. They want action, and they’re not seeing it.”

Lopez hasn’t decided whether to seek a fourth three-year term, but says he’s “leaning toward running.” He adds, “There are two things I love most. The first one is working with kids and the second is working on the school board.”

By Jason Shepard, "Talking out of school" from Isthmus, December 2,2005

Besides the advantage of incumbency, Lopez is a well-known advocate for Hispanic causes who has achieved a high profile on the board. He also has a demonstrated knack for appearing to be on both sides of contentious issues in trademark passionate – sometimes rambling – speeches.
For instance, Lopez halted approval of new administrative hires earlier this fall to publicly criticize Superintendent Art Rainwater’s record of hiring of minority staff. Two months later, Lopez issued a press release praising Rainwater’s record on the same issue.
And, at a meeting about police policies last week, Lopez said that when he reads police reports about arrests in schools, he sees “racial profiling.” Seconds later, he added, “I’m not accusing anybody of anything. I’m for zero tolerance.”
Mathiak’s challenge, assuming it’s a two-way race, will be to articulate differences between herself and Lopez – something she seems excited to do – and continue to raise the issue of change. She sees signs of growing voter discontent: Last spring’s ouster of incumbent Bill Clingan, Carol Carstensen’s closer-than-expected margin of victory, and the defeat of two out of three school spending referendums.
According to Mathiak, the board has failed to move beyond blaming the state for its fiscal problems and continues to make budget cuts that directly hurt students and academic programs.
“There are entire sections of the budget that are safe from cuts, that aren’t even considered and that have no direct impact on schools,” Mathiak says. “It’s simply time for a change.”
Mathiak is closely allied with dissident member Ruth Robarts and maverick Lawrie Kobza, whose campaign treasurer Barb Schrank is also Mathiak’s treasurer.
A mother of four whose youngest child is a junior at East High, Mathiak works as director of communications for the College of Letters and Science at UW-Madison. She holds a Ph.D. in history and says she’s been involved in school issues for 17 years. In a letter to potential donors, Mathiak estimated she needs $18,000 to run a competitive race against Lopez.

Both Silveira and Cole appear to be the antithesis of Keys, who is seen by some as arrogant and unduly combative.
Silveira says that while the district is generally strong, she sees better ways to handle issues and improve communication with parents. Silveira supports the board’s effort to craft a “$100 budget model” to simplify for the community the process of making next year’s budget cuts, estimated to be at least $6 million.
A single mother of an eighth grader and director of marketing for Promega, Silveira holds a master’s degree in molecular biology and is currently a member of a school task force examining boundary changes on the west side.
Silveira says she hopes to follow in the mold of Carol Carstensen, the current board president, citing her open mind and responsiveness.
Cole, meanwhile, has sought early advice from Kobza and Robarts. She too stresses the need for greater parent involvement, citing her experience as a mother.
“I get the sense that this campaign is going to be about shaking things up,” says Cole, who feels that communication by the board needs to improve. She says her own frustrating experience in trying to understand the district’s budget has propelled her to push for more accountability and openness.
Like Silveira, Cole is a political novice. She holds a biological science degree from the UW-Madison and lives on the west side with her husband, 8-year-old son and twin 6-year-old boys. She volunteers for several organizations in addition to her PTO activities.
The general election is set for April 4, with a primary on Feb. 21 for any race with more than two candidates.

Posted by Ruth Robarts at 9:58 AM Subscribe to this site via RSS/Atom: Newsletter signup | Send us your ideas

This is Not Your Grandchild's Madison School District

While viewing the MMSD web site I came across some data called District data profile that suprised me, and answered some of my questions concerning low income disparity. While sitting on the task force, I have been bothered by the districts solution for dealing with high numbers of low income students by rearranging school boundaries and/or paring schools, and wondered if you really solved the disparity issue or if you shifted the issue to another school or something that would have to be solved at another time.

Madison school district low income percentages per www.mmsd.org 1991 - 2005.

East High 2005 - 2010 Elementary Projections (click to view a larger version)Memorial/West 2005 - 2010 Elementary Projections (click to view a larger version)
In 13 years, 1992 to 2005, MMSD low income percentage has gone from 24.6% to 42%.
  1. Has the definition of low income changed during this time period?
  2. Has the community as a whole really changed this much in 13 years?

    As a community member that hears and believes there is no low income housing, where do these people live if 42% of our community is now low income?

  3. We have lost 1000 elementary students in the same time period and doubled our minority students. Is this a wave of low births or are we losing students?
Middle School totals
  • In 1991 there were 4776 students with a 20.3% low income.
  • In 2005 there are 5297 students with a 38.6% low income.
High School totals
  • In 1991 there were 6435 students with a 12% low income.
  • In 2005 there are 8429 students with a 28% low income.
The question about pairing two schools and whether it improves low income percentage numbers over time was also in the data.
  • Lincoln in 1991 was at 51% low income, 1997 59%, and 2005 69%.
  • Midvale in 1991 was 42% low income, and 2005 it is at 64%.
It does not seem to have improved the high percentage of low income numbers.

Posted by Mary Battaglia at 6:36 AM Subscribe to this site via RSS/Atom: Newsletter signup | Send us your ideas

December 1, 2005

Wright Middle School Charter Renewal - Leopold?

I've attended a couple of the East / West Task Force Meetings (props to the many volunteers, administrators and board members who've spent countless hours on this) and believe that Wright Middle School's facilities should be part of the discussion, given its proximity to Leopold Elementary (2.2 miles [map], while Thoreau is 2.8 miles away [map])

Carol Carstensen's weekly message (posted below) mentions that Wright's Charter is on the Board's Agenda Monday Night. Perhaps this might be a useful time to consider this question? Carol's message appears below:

Parent Group Presidents:

BUDGET FACTOID:
The state has backed away from its promises to support the special education services required by state and federal law. Originally the state promised to fund 63% of local costs for special education today the state funds about 28%; in 1993 when revenue caps were first imposed the state funded 45% of special education costs. If the state had kept its share at that level (45%) the district would not be facing the need for budget cuts every year.

Special Board meeting on Monday, November 28:
Madison Partners in Special Education, an organization of parents of special education children, talked with the board about:

· the lack of consistency between schools;

· their concern that not all teachers and principals have adequate training in working with children with special education needs;
· concerns that some of the budget discussions seemed to be pitting children and families against one another;
· their desire to work cooperatively with other parents and with the Board to ensure adequate funding for the district.
Some of the parents are also part of the district’s Parent Advisory Council and Board members talked about using that Council to communicate concerns about specific schools as well as highlighting schools which are doing an excellent job. I agreed that I would help the leaders of Madison Partners to connect with other parents who are concerned about the district’s budget constraints.

The second half of the Board’s meeting was devoted to looking intensively at the budgets for Human Resources and Business Services. These presentations will be available soon on the district’s website, www.mmsd.org click on Financial and then on Reports. I will summarize the information in a future email. The Superintendent and the Assistant Superintendent for Business have created advisory committees for both Business Services and Human Resources. Professionals from the private sector and other governmental levels have agreed to serve and use their expertise and knowledge to help the departments become as efficient as possible.

Lastly the Board looked at a proposal from Virchow, Krause & Company to do a study of the administrative staffing levels in Business Services and Human Resources. The Board wanted to be sure that the study would help us determine what further budget cuts can be made without harming the ability of the district to carry out its legal and financial responsibilities. The administration will bring additional information about this in the next few weeks.

December 5th meeting schedule:

5:30 Legislative Committee (Ruth Robarts, chair) consideration of a charter school bill and also a bill on affordable health care.

6:15 Special Board Meeting renewal of the charter for Wright Middle School

7:15 REGULAR BOARD MEETING
Carol

Carol Carstensen, President
Madison School Board

"Until lions have their own historians, the hunters will always be glorified." - African Proverb

Posted by Jim Zellmer at 10:29 PM Subscribe to this site via RSS/Atom: Newsletter signup | Send us your ideas

From Private School to a Differentiated Public School

Reader Helen Hartman emailed this article: Michael Winerip:

SARAH JACOBS' son Jed, 9, has a learning disability. He's easily distracted and, if asked to do too many things at once, panics. At his former school, a private academy that cost $20,000 a year, his mother says Jed got into trouble daily ("kicking and even some biting") and stopped learning. "He was reading 'Captain Underpants' in kindergarten and he was in third grade and still reading 'Captain Underpants,'" she says.

So in September she switched him to a nearby public school, P.S. 75 on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. Jed was a new boy. His fourth grade had two full-time teachers and the class was so well-organized, Jed moved smoothly from one task to the next. When Ms. Jacobs asked how he liked it, Jed said he thought his teachers must have a disability too, because they made it so easy to understand the work.

Posted by Jim Zellmer at 10:14 PM Subscribe to this site via RSS/Atom: Newsletter signup | Send us your ideas

Not much new in MMSD report on worker's comp

Juan Lopez, chair of the Board of Education Committee on Human Resources, released a report on the MMSD's worker's compensation experience after a critical story on Madison's WKOW-TV.

The new MMSD report seems only to repeat the information contained in the TV report.

Roger Price, assistant superintendent and author of the report, offered this conclusion, without directly responding to any of the issues raised in the TV station's story:

Great steps have been taken over the last few years to improve MMSD’s worker’s compensation reporting and claims (loss) experience. This has resulted in a significant drop in our experience mod and subsequently in our premiums. We have also realized adjustments in each of the last two years as a result of a positive loss experience. However, some of these improvements will be difficult to sustain with the limited staff assigned to Risk Management.

Work is underway to create a Safety Committee that could fill part of the void left by the reduction in staff.

Posted by Ed Blume at 2:23 PM Subscribe to this site via RSS/Atom: Newsletter signup | Send us your ideas

Primary Reading Set for Overhaul

BBC:

The government has accepted a review which backs the greater use of a method called synthetic phonics.

Children are taught the sounds of letters and combinations of letters before they move onto books rather than reading simple books from the start.

Critics say the approach could stop pupils from getting a love of reading.

The review was carried out by Jim Rose, a former director of inspections at England's schools' inspectorate, Ofsted.

Posted by Jim Zellmer at 6:40 AM Subscribe to this site via RSS/Atom: Newsletter signup | Send us your ideas

Parents Get a Bigger Say in Education - Maryland

Nick Anderson:

"The time is ripe in Maryland, and nationally, for parent involvement to be seen as the critical element that it is, not as an add-on," Grasmick said in a recent letter to education reporters.

Grasmick said the state also would begin to consider family involvement when it gives awards to principals, teachers and schools. And she said the department would redesign its Web site, http://www.marylandpublicschools.org , to make it more friendly to parents.

How parents affect the educational equation is a subject of debate. Some experts say rigorous academic programs and a quality teaching force are more important.

Posted by Jim Zellmer at 6:33 AM Subscribe to this site via RSS/Atom: Newsletter signup | Send us your ideas

New LA Mayor Plans to Take Over School District

NPR:

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa has been talking tough in his bid to take control of the huge, but troubled Los Angeles Unified School District. Such a takeover could put Villaraigosa at odds with the teachers' union, a group he once served as a labor organizer
More on similar efforts in New York and Chicago.

Posted by Jim Zellmer at 6:28 AM Subscribe to this site via RSS/Atom: Newsletter signup | Send us your ideas

Soft Drink Sales Down in US Schools?

AP:

the American Beverage Association sounds almost proud when it declares in a report being released Thursday that the amount of non-diet soft drinks sold in the nation's schools dropped more than 24 percent between 2002 and 2004.

The trade group's report is an effort to deflate threats of a lawsuit against soft drink companies, which face mounting pressure as childhood obesity concerns have led schools to remove sodas.

During the same two-year period, the amount of sports drinks sold grew nearly 70 percent, bottled water 23 percent, diet soda 22 percent and fruit juice 15 percent, according to the report, which is based on data from beverage bottling companies.

Regular soda is still the leader within schools, accounting for 45 percent of beverages sold there this year. But that's down from 57 percent three years earlier, the industry said, citing additional numbers based on 2002-2005 data.

Posted by Jim Zellmer at 5:55 AM Subscribe to this site via RSS/Atom: Newsletter signup | Send us your ideas