James Barron: Rich Cronin, the president and chief executive of GSN, said he was not just thrilled to watch the competition, he was euphoric. “One person will be the ‘American Idol’ of vocabulary,” he said. (In the end, after an afternoon with its share of technical difficulties and dashed hopes, the winner was Robert Marsland, … Continue reading 18 Year Old Madison Resident Wins National Vocabulary Championship
The Madison West High School PTSO held a school board candidate forum Monday night. Topics included: Madison High School Comparison A candidate’s ability to listen, interact and work successfully with other board members Past and future referenda support Candidate views on the $333M+ budget for our 24,000 students Extensive conversations on the part of Marj … Continue reading 3/5/2007 Madison School Board Candidate Forum: West High School
Danielle Repshas: “Still, there is not an absolute guarantee that a course [called] one thing someplace has the same rigor somewhere else,” Reason said. Part of the challenge is judging the standards of one AP class from another at different high schools, and Reason said the level of trust colleges and secondary schools have with … Continue reading Notes from UW-Madison and Madison West High on AP Standards
After listening to Phony Tony Casteneda’s ludicruous charaterizations of those who post on this blog, I remembered a post by Bill Keys on a listserve sponsored by Advocates for Madison Public Schools. Bill and Phony Tony used nearly the same language and divisiveness. Here’s Bill’s rant: FACTS? FACTS? FACTS? Do you really believe that those … Continue reading Keys and Casteneda sing same song
March Madness is approaching! On the board level, madness can be characterized by the large assortments of topics and decisions that have been or will need to be made such as the superintendent search, budget, and other serious issues that require time, analysis and public discussion. I would like to give you a brief report … Continue reading March Madison BOE Progress Report
The Madison School Board voted down the proposed Studio Charter School Monday night in a 4-2 vote (Against: Carstensen, Kobza, Silveira and Winston; For Mathiak and Robarts with Vang away). Sparks flew when Lucy Mathiak asked Nancy Donahue about their interaction with the attempts to talk with principals and teachers about the proposed charter school … Continue reading Sparks Fly as the Madison Studio Charter School is Voted Down
Teacher Voices: In Philadelphia last week a teacher named Frank Burd, wound up in the hospital after two students assaulted him, apparently because he had confiscated an iPod during class. After class, according to a report on NBC news, the two students were waiting for Burd. One punched him and the other pushed him. As … Continue reading Making Safety a Piece of the Pie
Jason Shephard: Suzanne Fatupaito, a nurse’s assistant in Madison schools, is fed up with Wisconsin Physicians Service, the preferred health insurance provider of Madison Teachers Inc. “MTI uses scare tactics” to maintain teacher support for WPS, Fatupaito recently wrote to the school board. “If members knew that another insurance [plan] would offer similar services to … Continue reading Going to the Mat for WPS
It will be interesting to see how voters on February 20 and April 3 view this decision by a majority of the Madison School Board: Should the Board and Administration continue to give away their ability to negotiate health care benefits ($43.5M of the 2006/2007 budge) before MTI union bargaining begins? Read the 2005 MMSD/MTI … Continue reading Concessions Made in Advance of MTI Negotiations by a Majority of the Madison School Board
Chris Gallagher THE EDUCATION report card for my home state of Nebraska in the spring of 1999 was mixed, according to Education Week. While children in the state ranked among the top 10 nationally in most academic categories, Nebraska nonetheless garnered only a C. Why? Largely because it does not administer statewide, standardized assessments and … Continue reading Teachers Reclaiming Assessment Through Rethinking Accountability
Educational Testing Service: A report from ETS’s Policy Information Center, America’s Perfect Storm: Three Forces Changing Our Nation’s Future, looks at the convergence of three powerful sociological and economical forces that are changing our nation’s future: substantial disparities in skill levels (reading and math) seismic economic changes (widening wage gaps) sweeping demographic shifts (less education, … Continue reading America’s Perfect Storm
Steven Malanga: In football, a quarterback’s blind side is the side of the field opposite his throwing arm—the left side of the field for a right-handed quarterback, for instance. One shouldn’t confuse the blind side with a blind spot, which is what our policy-makers and media often have when discussing American poverty: it is a … Continue reading Parenting vs. Poverty
Up close, the author finds that politics obscure key educational issues Marc Eisen: Where’s the challenge? I’m no different. I want my kids pushed, prodded, inspired, and challenged in school. Too often—in the name of equity, or progressive education, or union protectionism, or just plain cheapness—that isn’t happening in the Madison schools. Advanced classes are … Continue reading My Life and Times With the Madison Public Schools
Po Bronson: But as Thomas has progressed through school, this self-awareness that he’s smart hasn’t always translated into fearless confidence when attacking his schoolwork. In fact, Thomas’s father noticed just the opposite. “Thomas didn’t want to try things he wouldn’t be successful at,” his father says. “Some things came very quickly to him, but when … Continue reading How Not to Talk to Your Kids: The Inverse Power of Praise
John Nichols noted that Madison’s Mayoral challengers have not raised substantive questions of the incumbent Mayor’s (Dave Cieslewicz) record, including schools: No. 2, he has failed to offer much in the way of a vision for how this rapidly changing city should approach the future. How green should it be? Where does mass transit fit … Continue reading Mayors and Schools
I’ve updated the election page with the following information: January, 2007 campaign finance filings which show that retired Madison Teacher and seat 5 candidate Marj Passman (who faces Maya Cole – $135.00) has raised $5,530, far ahead of the rest. Beth Moss is next at $822.00 (Moss faces Pam Cross-Leone – $75.00 and Rick Thomas … Continue reading Spring 2007 Madison School Board Election Update
School closings need to be considered in light of the long-term (5-10 years or more) outlook – a 3-5 year outlook, yet alone 1-2 years, is not nearly long enough when considering a measure whose impact lasts for many years, at a student/family level, as well as financial. What muddies this school closing picture is … Continue reading School Closings & the Long-Term Outlook
Over the past week, I have had several heartfelt e-mails from residents of the Lapham-Marquette neighborhood, urging me and other board members to oppose closing Lapham School. To put the e-mails in context, let us all remember that there are MANY proposals out there because EVERYTHING is on the table thanks to the $10 million … Continue reading My Thoughts on Lapham-Marquette
A story by Sol Stern posted on City Journal highlights the success of Reading First and includes striking parallels to our superintendent’s response to the program: Reading First, though much maligned, succeeds in teaching kids to read. . . . A comprehensive study by an outside evaluator will appear in 2007, measuring Reading First’s influence … Continue reading This Bush Education Reform Really Works
Marc Fisher: Somehow, when good, bright people get serious about the fact that thousands of children emerge from this city’s schools year after year without knowing how to read well enough to get a decent job, those good people end up busying themselves with little boxes on a piece of paper. Both say the schools … Continue reading Notes on Washington DC’s School Climate
From a reader involved in these issues, by Kerry Hill: Demystifying math: UW-Madison scholars maintain focus on effective teaching, learning Tuesday, January 30, 2007 – By Kerry Hill New generation of Math Ed Many people still see mathematics as a difficult subject that only a select group of students with special abilities can master. Learning … Continue reading “No Need to Worry About Math Education”
Teacher Thomas Biel: Juan/Sean/John doesn’t read too well because we don’t teach him how very well. Results from the 2005-’06 Wisconsin Knowledge and Concepts Examinations show that 55% of Milwaukee Public Schools 10th-graders do not read at a proficient level. The majority of our kids have reading problems. Leaders in the school district, in the … Continue reading Why Johnny can’t read very well and what to do about it
School spending has always been a puzzle, both from a state and federal government perspective as well as local property taxpayers. In an effort to shed some light on the vagaries of K-12 finance, I’ve summarized below a number of local, state and federal articles and links. The 2007 Statistical Abstract offers a great deal … Continue reading School Finance: K-12 Tax & Spending Climate
Maria Newman: Gov. Eliot Spitzer of New York said today that he would allocate more money to the state’s public education system in his 2008 budget proposal, but he said the increased spending would be tied to better results from schools, educators and students. “There will be no more excuses for failure,” Mr. Spitzer said. … Continue reading NY Governor Spitzer to Tie Increased School Funds to Performance
Jay Matthews: In the midst of a national debate over whether Advanced Placement courses place too much pressure on U.S. high school students, a team of Texas researchers has concluded that the difficult courses and three-hour exams are worth it. In the largest study ever of the impact of AP on college success, which looked … Continue reading Studies Find Benefits to Advanced Placement Courses
What does it take to truly create a school where no child is left behind? That question defines what is probably the most pressing issue facing American public education, and a high-poverty school on Madison’s north side west of Warner Park seems to have figured out some of the answers. Mendota Elementary is among a … Continue reading Madison’s Mendota Elementary School beats the odds
The Madison Board of Education is faced with several great challenges over the next few months. One of the biggest is the announcement that Superintendent Art Rainwater will retire at the end of the June 2008. The board will be working with a consultant to assist in hiring the next superintendent. Another board challenge is … Continue reading Late January School Board Progress Report
Sherrilyn Ifill: was recently trying to list the 10 most encouraging initiatives by black people in 2006 and I thought I’d share one with you. It’s the Baltimore Algebra Project, a group of African American inner-city teens who’ve evolved from tutors to activists in an effort to force change in the failing Baltimore City School … Continue reading The Baltimore Algebra Project
Mark Hicks: The reorganization is part of the district’s controversial plan to shutter 47 schools this summer and five more during summer 2008 in a bid to save $19 million. The struggling district lost nearly 12,600 students last fall after a teachers strike, and more than 50,000 have left in the last eight years. The … Continue reading Parents Sound Off on Detroit School Plan
Tom Moore: IN the past year or so I have seen Matthew Perry drink 30 cartons of milk, Ted Danson explain the difference between a rook and a pawn, and Hilary Swank remind us that white teachers still can’t dance or jive talk. In other words, I have been confronted by distorted images of my … Continue reading Classroom Distinctions
Charles Murray posted three articles this week on Education and Intelligence, a series that generated some conversation around the net: Intelligence in the Classroom: Our ability to improve the academic accomplishment of students in the lower half of the distribution of intelligence is severely limited. It is a matter of ceilings. Suppose a girl in … Continue reading Education & Intelligence Series
I am pleased to invite you to a conference on “Education and Educational Research in an Era of Accountability: Insights and Blind Spots“, to be held on February 7-8, 2007, at the Pyle Center [map], near the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus. Attendance is free, and we very much hope that members of the local educational … Continue reading Education and Educational Research in an Era of Accountability: Insights and Blind Spots
Channel3000.com: Some Madison community members are circulating a petition to put forward a candidate to be La Follette High School’s next principal. That name is Joe Gothard, who is the former dean of students at La Follette and currently serves as principal at Akira Toki Middle School, WISC-TV reported. Questions about who would lead the … Continue reading Community Members Petition for Joe Gothard to be Named LaFollette High School Principal
Ted Widerski: The Talented and Gifted Division of MMSD is busy organizing ‘MathFests’ for strong math students in grades 4 – 8. These events are planned to provide an opportunity for students to interact with other students across the city who share a passion for challenging mathematics. Many of these students study math either online, … Continue reading Financially Support Madison Schools’ Math Festival
On a sunny September morning in 2005 Preston Hollow Elementary School hosted Bike to School Day. Dozens of grinning children with fair skin played and talked outside in the courtyard, relaxing happily after rides through their North Dallas neighborhood of garish mansions and stately brick homes. Parents shared tea and fruit, capturing the smiles of … Continue reading A judge says Preston Hollow Elementary segregated white kids to please parents. The reality is deeper and maybe more troubling.
In a guest editorial in The Capital Times on January 10, 2007, MTI leader John Matthews explains that Madison school superintendent Art Rainwater unveiled his plan to resign at the end of 2007-08 to the teachers union leader long before he told the Madison Board of Education in an executive session on Monday, January 8, … Continue reading Madison Superintendent Rainwater Tells MTI about Resignation Plans Before He Tells the School Board?
Madison Superintendent Art Rainwater’s recent public announcement that he plans to retire in 2008 presents an opportunity to look back at previous searches as well as the K-12 climate during those events. Fortunately, thanks to Tim Berners-Lee’s World Wide Web, we can quickly lookup information from the recent past. The Madison School District’s two most … Continue reading Notes and Links on the Madison K-12 Climate and Superintendent Hires Since 1992
Wisconsin State Journal Editorial: Wisconsin’s state government ended the past fiscal year with a giant deficit of $2.15 billion, according to the accounting methods used by most businesses. But the state’s books show a cozy balance of $49.2 million. The discrepancy results from years of Wisconsin governors and legislators manipulating the accounting process to hide … Continue reading A Call for an Honest State Budget
The Madison School Board Communication Committee’s upcoming meeting includes an interesting 2007-2009 legislative agenda for state education finance changes that would increase District annual spending (current budget is $333,000,000) at a higher than normal rate (typically in the 3.8% range): 4. 2007-09 Legislative Agenda a. Work to create a school finance system that defines that … Continue reading Local School Budget Tea Leaves
Daniel de Vise: Not every student at Bannockburn is above average. But 70 percent of the third-grade class has been identified as gifted, based on tests and other academic indicators. The school serves one of the largest concentrations in the region of students capable of working beyond their assigned grade, sometimes well beyond. “We’re constantly … Continue reading Schools Seek and Find Gifted Students
Jay Matthews: The American Montessori Society, based in New York, reported 7 percent membership growth in just the past year, and many of the schools are getting ready to celebrate the centennial of the Montessori beachhead. Once considered a maverick experiment that appealed only to middle-class white families in the States, Montessori schools have become … Continue reading Montessori Goes Mainstream
A reader involved in these issues emailed this article by Andrew Rotherham: Second, the story highlights my colleague Tom Toch’s criticism that a lot of tests states are using under NCLB are pretty basic. That’s exactly right. I’m all for better tests, but isn’t that, you know, an indictment of schools that can’t even get … Continue reading NCLB and the Stress Between “Bringing up the Bottom and Supporting High End Kids”
Jason Shephard: From the beginning, Mary Watson Peterson had doubts about the motivations of those in charge of implementing federal education grants known as Reading First. As the Madison district’s coordinator of language arts and reading, she spent hundreds of hours working on Madison’s Reading First grant proposal. “Right away,” she says, “I recognized a … Continue reading Reading Between the Lines: Madison Was Right to Reject Compromised Program
Amy Hetzner: Under the model, used by a number of school boards in the state, the board develops a set of expectations and then holds its administrators accountable to achieve those goals and report on progress. The result is a more focused board that has more objective criteria for evaluating the performance of the school … Continue reading Wisconsin School Boards Evaluate Governance Focus
Watch Monday evening’s school board discussion [Video | Download] of the upcoming larger than usual reductions in revenue cap limited increases in the District’s 2007 – 2008 budget (they are larger than normal due to the recently disclosed 7 year structural budget deficit). The 2006 / 2007 budget is $333M+ (it was $245M in 98/99 … Continue reading 2007 – 2008 Madison School District Budget Discussions Underway
Brian Lee and Jared Cunningham: By applying GIS analysis, University of Kentucky undergraduate landscape architecture students have found ways to make it safer and easier for children to walk to school. Concerns with the growing childhood obesity epidemic, increased costs in driving children to school, and fostering the perception that it is more normal to … Continue reading Why Not Walk to School Today?
Susan Troller’s piece today on the larger than usual reduction in “revenue cap limited” increases (say that quickly) in the Madison School District’s $332M+ 2007/2008 budget is interesting, from my perspective, due to what is left unsaid: The District has been running a “structural deficit for years, revealed only recently after school board Vice President … Continue reading 2007/2008 Madison School District Budget Outlook: Half Empty or Half Full?
Janet Mertz recently mentioned (along with UW Placement’s James Wollack recently) this paper by Richard Hill & Thomas Parker [750K PDF]: The latest, December 2006 issue of the American Mathematical Monthly, an official publication of the Mathematical Association of America, contains an 18-page article entitled “A study of Core-Plus students attending Michigan State University” by … Continue reading A Study of Core-Plus Students Attending Michigan State University
Madison School Board President Johnny Winston, Jr. (thanks!) posted a rather remarkable summary of recent activity today. I thought it would be useful to recall recent Board Majority inaction when reviewing Johnny’s words: It’s remarkable to consider that just a few short years ago, substantive issues were simply not discussed by the School Board, such … Continue reading Comments on BOE Progress Report for December
Happy Holidays to everyone! Despite the cold weather, the Madison Board of Education continues its work.
Adam Liptak: But, as an extraordinary two-hour Supreme Court argument last week demonstrated, the meaning and legacy of Brown remain up for grabs. The court was considering whether school systems in Seattle and Louisville, Ky., could take account of students’ races to ensure racial balance. During the argument, two sets of justices managed, with equal … Continue reading The Supreme Court & Race in Schools
I have a few questions for Barb and the other members of MPIE. I hope one or more of them will take the time to answer. As I look over the course catalogs for the four high schools, I see that each school has both a Special Education Department and an English as a Second … Continue reading A few questions for MPIE members …
As Arlene has reached out to the community for suggestions about the Redesign of the high schools, let me share a couple of thoughts: It’s too late. The students that are behind in 5th grade rarely catch up. The 2/3 combinations are by far the worst academic combination for elementary students, yet we continue this … Continue reading High School Redesign Notes
The arrival of local property tax bills signal the onset of tax season. Accordingly, there has been a number of recent articles on Wisconsin’s tax climate: Barbara Miner: More than 16,000 private properties in Wisconsin pay no property taxes. As a result, everyone else pays more. Why? In Milwaukee, for instance, almost 20 percent of … Continue reading Tax Climate Notes & Links
Superintendent Rainwater and I engaged in a lengthy series of e-mails when I questioned the truth of a statment in a letter he wrote to Wisconsin congressmen to seek their help in reinstating the MMSD’s eligibility for funds from Reading First. In his letter the superintendent said that the MMSD was told “we had to … Continue reading Superintendent’s letter misleads
Daniel Golden: In 2004, after the district scrapped race as a factor in assignments because of the legal threat, another group of white parents from the same neighborhood got upset when their children were passed over at the same majority-white school, Ballard High. They were left out not because of race, but because they didn’t … Continue reading Swaying Seattle’s School Assignments (Boundaries)
In light of recent events regarding curriculum and other issues in our high schools, there has been a small step in the right direction at West HS. Superintendent Rainwater announced at our 11/29 MUAE meeting that he has been in discussion with West HS Principal Ed Holmes about providing West 9th and 10th graders who … Continue reading One Small Step in the Right Direction at West HS …
Joanne Jacobs: Last night at the Hunt Institute retreat for North Carolina legislators, the former governor, Jim Hunt, handed out copies he’d underlined to everyone there, urging the legislators to “read every word.” Schools like KIPP and Amistad [Clusty on Amistad] that succeed in educating low-income students tend to do three things well, Education Gadfly … Continue reading Additional Notes on “What it Takes to Make a Student”
National Institute of Mental Health: The first long-term, large-scale study designed to determine the safety and effectiveness of treating preschoolers who have attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) with methylphenidate (Ritalin) has found that overall, low doses of this medication are effective and safe. However, the study found that children this age are more sensitive than older … Continue reading Effect of Ritalin on Preschoolers Examined
Arnold Kling: The incumbent policy is more of the same. Both parties in Washington champion more government involvement in primary education and more subsidies for existing colleges and universities. The innovative policy is to support any alternative to our current education system. Ultimately, we would trust consumers to keep the best alternatives and discard the … Continue reading Education and Entrepreneurship: More Differentiation
If Jason Shepard is correct, West will stay as is during the review process, heterogeneous classes is the goal and the study committee will not include parents or teachers.
If the BOE doesn’t step in right now, it’s all over. I hadn’t quite understood what Ed Blume has been writing about here structurally as much as I do at this moment. This process will be driven to Rainwater’s foregone conclusions. The BOE must frame the questions and decide who is on this committee. And if it’s truly a tabula rasa, let’s put West on the same footing as East, that is, undo the changes the Rainwater administration shoved through.
The prime motivator for taking MMSD’s high schools from an academically rich curriculum to the one-room schoolhouse model has been to close the minority achievement gap. Thus, I read with interest the following NYTimes letters: A Racial Gap, or an Income Gap? (7 Letters) Published: November 24, 2006 To the Editor: In emphasizing race-based achievement … Continue reading Does Closing the Minority Achievement Gap Require a Downward Rush to the Middle
Wikipedia | US Census Bureau A quick note to thank the Madison School Board (Johnny Winston, Jr., President; Lawrie Kobza, Vice President; Carol Carstensen, Treasurer; Shwaw Vang, Clerk; Lucy Mathiak, Ruth Robarts and Arlene Silveira) for publicly discussing and addressing a number of issues this year: The Superintendent’s Review (something that was not done for … Continue reading Thanksgiving
On Monday, November 27, the Madison School Board will begin to address rumors about major changes coming to our high schools. There are some realities behind the rumors. For example, West High School substantially reduced the English courses for tenth graders this year. The principal at East High School met with parents last week. He … Continue reading Superintendent Rainwater: “We need to dramatically change our high schools.”
The Madison School Board has given Superintendent Art Rainwater a set of specific orders to accomplish in the coming year, including several directives to take an in-depth look at the district’s entire math curriculum. In the past several years, area math educators have expressed concern about the effectiveness of the Madison district’s reliance on a … Continue reading Keep an eye on math, board tells Rainwater
The October 30, 2006 Board of Education met to discuss a series of resolutions, and approve the final 2006-07 MMSD Budget, and approve the AFSCME Local 60 contract. The video of the meeting is 210MB, and 2 hours and 30 minutes long. Click on the image at left to watch the video. The video contains … Continue reading Board of Education meeting of 30-Oct-2006
Academic Blend, a 100% Fair Trade Coffee. An insurgent fundraising idea from Thoreau Elementary School’s activist parents. 4 flavors (check out the eyes), $10/pound. Email Rosana Ellman (rellmann@charter.net) to order. Add your interesting fund raising ideas to this post via the comments. The recently revealed Madison School District’s $6M structural deficit (slightly less than 2% … Continue reading Academic Blend: A Thoreau Fundraiser
State gifted education advocate and Madison attorney Todd Palmer recently filed a request for a judicial “summary judgement” in the matter of “Todd Palmer v. The State of Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction and Elizabeth Burmaster.” As he explained it to me in layperson’s terms, a summary judgment “is a procedure wherein a party (me) … Continue reading New Glarus Parent Files Request for Summary Judgement On Behalf of Gifted Education in Wisconsin
Channel3000: Two Madison West High School students have been suspended and are facing criminal charges after allegedly creating a bomb scare twice — once on Monday and on Halloween. A 17-year-old boy and a 16-year-old girl allegedly just wanted to play a practical joke, but the school’s officials said they don’t think it’s a laughing … Continue reading 2 West High Students Face Charges In Connection With Bomb Threat
Lynn Thompson: But they strongly believe that their math textbooks should include actual math. Donald’s “Connected Mathematics” book at Harbour Pointe Middle School in Mukilteo asks him to arrange a list of 20 cities in order of their populations, all in the tens of millions. Yes, he concedes, he must recognize differences among numbers, but … Continue reading “Too Little Math in Math?”
Donna Gordon Blankinship: Gates said the experience of being a parent of three kids – ages 10, 7 and 4 – has led him to spend more time thinking about schools. Specifically, he said the U.S. education system needs higher standards, clear accountability, flexible personnel practices and innovation. Gates, whose children are in private schools, … Continue reading Gates: U.S. Education System Needs Work
Dan Benson: The proposed tax rate, however, is $1.83 per $1,000 of equalized value, down from $1.97 this year. That means the owner of a $250,000 house would save about $35 on the tax bill from the previous year. “(Vrakas) is calling it a tax decrease because the impact on some homeowners is that their … Continue reading Tax rates don’t tell the whole story
A story by Susan Troller in the Cap Times reports: Two elementary schools at opposite ends of the Madison Metropolitan School District are bursting at the seams and may face boundary changes next year to deal with crowding. Lake View Elementary on the northeast side of the city and Chavez Elementary on the southwest side … Continue reading Boundary changes for Lake View & Chavez?
Susan Black: In many classrooms, science textbooks add to children’s misconceptions. William Beaty, an engineer who designed an electricity exhibit for the Boston Museum of Science, discovered “a morass of misconceptions, mistakes, and misinformation” in grade school science textbooks. In fact, he couldn’t find a single book that explained basic electricity correctly. North Carolina State … Continue reading Is Science Education Failing Students?
David Klein: Problem: Find the slope and y-intercept of the equation 10 = x – 2.5. Solution: The equation 10 = x – 2.5 is a specific case of the equation y = x – 2.5, which has a slope of 1 and a y-intercept of –2.5. This problem comes from a 7th grade math … Continue reading School math books, nonsense, and the National Science Foundation
Jason Shephard: One of the better-kept secrets in Madison is that the school district currently offers more than 100 online courses for city high school students. The program is called the Madison Virtual Campus. “It turns out Madison is a leader in this technology,” says Johnny Winston Jr., the school board president. “My first question … Continue reading Madison School District Virtual Learning
I would like to thank our community for their passage of the referendum on November 7th. This referendum will build a new school in Linden Park, finance the cafeteria and remodeling of Leopold Elementary and refinance existing debt…
From a reader: Address 201 South Gammon Road (Memorial High School) Arrested person/suspect 1. Jacquelyn L. Lightfoot, 37-year-old female of Madison (Charges –Disorderly Conduct 947.01, Resisting/Obstructing A Police Officer 946.41) 2. 14-year-old female (10th grade Memorial HS Student) of Madison (Charges – Disorderly Conduct 947.01, Resisting/Obstructing A Police Officer 946.41) 3. 15-year-old female (9th grade … Continue reading Memorial High School Taser Incident Notes
Jay Matthews: I am collecting the Challenge Index data now. The early returns indicate our local schools will set a record for the number of AP and IB tests being given. In fact, there appears to be no other region in the country that has as high a level of participation in college-level courses and … Continue reading A Discussion of AP/IB High School Classes
Jay Matthews: It is election day — a good day, I think, to thank God for our freedoms and for finally relieving us of the pain of listening to all those annoying campaign commercials. I watch and listen to them anyway, even the worst of them. I am a political news junkie and always find … Continue reading Seven Ways Politicians Are Dumb About Schools
Brett posts his thoughts on the book”Reclaiming Public Education by Reclaiming Our Democracy: As with his last book, Mathews offers a great deal of evidence as to the roots and the current state of the issues preventing community engagement. It’s a challenge that’s been more than a century in the making: when the idea of … Continue reading Notes on “Reclaiming Public Education by Reclaiming Our Democracy”
Cynthia Crossen writing in “Deja vu” on Taylor, whose ideas continue to this day in the education world (among others): “You have been quarreling because there have been no proper standards for a day’s work,” Mr. Taylor chided bosses. “You do not know what a proper day’s work is. We make a bluff at it … Continue reading Frederick W. Taylor, Scientific Management and Standardized Testing
The Department of Public Instruction has announced the availability of grant funding through the 21st Century Community Learning Centers program, funded under the federal Elementary and Secondary Education Act. Funds may be used to build or expand after school programs that provide academic enrichment in reading and math, as well as other youth development and … Continue reading DPI has grants for after-school academic enrichment
On November 7th, voters will be asked to approve a referendum allowing the Madison Metropolitan School District to build a new school and exceed its revenue cap. After very careful consideration, the Board of Education unanimously decided to ask the question. I fully support this referendum and urge you to vote yes. Our community is … Continue reading THOROUGH ANALYSIS SUPPORTS “YES” VOTE ON SCHOOL REFERENDUM
There were some interesting items in today’s conversation between Don Severson and Vicki Mckenna [13.7MB mp3 audio file]: A caller (29 minutes): “Why does the rest of the media have such complacency with the Schools?” Don noted the lack of negative aids discussion in Monday’s “very long” Wisconsin State Journal article. The caller raised a … Continue reading Severson / McKenna on Negative Aid, Local Media Coverage of Schools and the Referendum
Jay Matthews: But at Scarsdale High, my son was told he could not get into the course unless he did well on an entrance test given to every prospective AP U.S. history student. He passed the test, got into the course and did well, as I expected. That was not my problem. What bothered me … Continue reading Should Scarsdale Drop AP?
This is one of the best things I read recently on support for public education. TJM Jacob Stockinger: A ‘yes’ vote for schools ensures a better future By Jacob Stockinger There is a lot I don’t know about my parents. But I do know this: They would never have voted no on a school referendum. … Continue reading Jacob Stockinger: A ‘yes’ vote for schools ensures a better future
With all of the talk about the district’s high schools going through a redesign process (similar to what the middle schools did last summer), I think it’s important that as many interested people as possible attend the East High United meeting at 7 p.m. on Nov. 9 at East High School [map/directions]. I recently asked … Continue reading High School Redesign & Academic Rigor: East High United Meeting 11/9 @ 7:00p.m.
As a senior adviser and former president of Public Agenda, I’m often asked to interpret public-opinion research in relation to the priorities of major education groups. These groups are seeking information that can help them refine their “messaging” strategies to promote a particular agenda. “Messaging,” when it assumes that the solution is a given, merely … Continue reading Toss Out the PR Playbook
The Madison School District Board of Education approved a collective bargaining contract with the custodial units last night in which the custodians agreed to move from their current health care plans (GHC and the Alliance PPO) to a 3 HMO plan which is GHC, Dean Care and Physicans Plus. MMSD continues to pay 100% of … Continue reading Madison School District Healthcare Cost Savings
Stanford’s Terry Moe: The Department of Education recently announced its first grants in a new $94-million program to fund incentive-pay plans for teachers. The money itself is a drop in the bucket for a public school industry that spends more than $400 billion annually. And only a small portion of the nation’s school districts will … Continue reading More on Teacher Merit Pay
Carla Rivera: By the end of the day one thing was clear: Parents, teachers and community organizations want an equal say in determining how the district will be remade. illaraigosa acknowledged as much in his opening remarks to the group of 100 or so people, who represented church groups, businesses, human services agencies, city and … Continue reading Seeking an equal say in schools’ future
Miranda Spivack: A Montgomery County “growth tax” law designed to force builders to pay for new roads and schools to ease the impact of development has raised substantially less money than promised by its supporters. County officials had predicted that the 2003 law, which created a tax to help pay for schools and increased an … Continue reading Revenue From (Developer) Growth Tax Falls Short of Promises
Eugene Hickok: Even if Secretary Spellings were right that NCLB is 99.9% pure, it still would not be the formula for what ails American education. The current debate over NCLB overlooks a critical problem: Nothing the administration does under NCLB will ensure the law’s promise that every child will be proficient in reading and math … Continue reading The Education Revolution America Needs
At the October 23, 2006 meeting of the Human Resources Committee for the Madison School Board, I reported on why the Board of Education and employee representatives should work together to reduce future health insurance costs. With one exception, my data came directly from the September 25 presentation by Bob Butler, attorney-consultant for the Wisconsin … Continue reading Getting out information about MMSD health insurance costs: some progress
US Census Bureau. The data is aggregated a variety of ways, including by state. Minnesota ranks first in the percentage of population 25 and older who have a high school diploma (Wisconsin is 9th) while Connecticut ranks first in the percentage with Bachelor’s degrees at 36.8% (Wisconsin is 33rd at 25%). .xls file. Census Bureau … Continue reading Educational Attainment by State: Wisconsin 9th in High School Graduates and 33rd in College Grads
Brett: Have you ever heard of Project Follow Through? Most people haven’t, despite the fact that it was the largest-scale and most expensive education study ever conducted, costing more than $1 billion and involving more than 20,000 children. PFT was initiated by President Lyndon Johnson as part of his “war on poverty”, and was designed … Continue reading Project Follow Through
Diana Jean Schemo: The Bush administration is giving public school districts broad new latitude to expand the number of single-sex classes, and even schools, in what is widely considered the most significant policy change on the issue since a landmark federal law barring sex discrimination in education more than 30 years ago. Two years in … Continue reading Change in Federal Rules Backs Single Sex Public Education
Krishna Guha: A radical new approach to government accounting that would require the US administration to account for the cost of future social security payments year by year as people build up entitlements will be proposed on Monday. The proposal by the federal accounting standards advisory board (FASAB) – which would also require the government … Continue reading US Welfare Accounting Overhaul
Chris Meyers: ideasfortps.com is all about citizen-powered ideas. You can comment, rate and even submit your own ideas here to help the Toledo Public School (TPS) district save money. Learn more about the site purpose and function or get help by reading our FAQ. You can rate the ideas without an account. You also do … Continue reading Saving Money in the Toledo School System