This is an excerpt from the conclusion of an recent paper posted on the Education Working Paper Archive by Bruce S. Cooper, Timothy R. DeRoche, William G. Ouchi, Lydia G. Segal, and Carolyn Brown. WSF stands for Weighted Student Formula, a means of budgeting that assigns money to students based on a number of factors … Continue reading Weighted Student Formula : Putting Funds Where They Count in Education Reform
Heather G. Peske and Kati Haycock for Edtrust [PDF Report]: Next month, for the first time, leaders in every state must deliver to the Secretary of Education their plans for ensuring that low-income and minority students in their states are not taught disproportionately by inexperienced, out-of-field, or uncertified teachers. For many, this process will be … Continue reading Teaching Inequality
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1154AP_Scotus_Schools_Race.html Monday, June 5, 2006 · Last updated 8:37 a.m. PT Supreme Court to hear schools race case By GINA HOLLAND ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER With the addition of the Supreme Court’s newest member, Justice Samuel Alito Jr., top row at right, the high court sits for a new group photograph, Friday, March 3, … Continue reading Supreme Court to Hear Education Race Case
Susan Saulny:In what is an elite tweak on home schooling — and a throwback to the gilded days of education by governess or tutor — growing numbers of families are choosing the ultimate in private school: hiring teachers to educate their children in their own homes. Unlike the more familiar home-schoolers of recent years, these … Continue reading Private Tutors & Homeschooling
For immediate release Wednesday, May 24, 2006 Six elementary principals to lead different schools for 2006-07 Six elementary school principals will lead different schools next year in a series of transfers within the Madison School District. All six principals have been at their current schools for at least five years. The list of new assignments, … Continue reading Musical principals – official announcement
Sandy Cullen: A new statewide assessment used to test the knowledge of Wisconsin students forced a lowering of the curve, a Madison school official said. The results showed little change in the percentages of students scoring at proficient and advanced levels. But that’s because this year’s Wisconsin Knowledge and Concepts Examinations- Criterion Referenced Tests proved … Continue reading State Test Scores Adjusted to Match Last Year
In an effort to build community, enhance self-esteem and inspire the spirit of giving among its students, Lapham Elementary School has organized a very special service-learning project. The “Lapham to Lubasi Run-a-thon”, held Wednesday May 10th, was led by one of the school’s second grade classes to raise awareness of poverty in Africa and to … Continue reading Lapham Students Run to Build Library for African Orphans
Seven metropolitan areas of Wisconsin are in the top 25 metros for public schools in the country, according to a survey ranking U.S. school districts with 3,300 students or more. The survey was conducted by Expansion Management Magazine, a monthly business publication for executives of companies that are actively looking to expand or relocate facilities … Continue reading Schools in seven Wisconsin metro areas rated highly
…there are lessons we can absorb, and maybe the easiest is that respect for education pays dividends.
A report from an organization called MDRC strikes a responsive chord because the report stresses the need to “assist students who enter high school with poor academic skills” instead of dumping them in English 10 and to improve instructional content and practice: [The report] offers research-based lessons from across these evaluations about five major challenges … Continue reading Assist students who enter high school with poor academic skills
MMSD’s School Board meets tonight to discuss the 2006-2007 school budget. There are no public appearances on tonight’s agenda, but the Madison community can continue to email the School Board in support of elementary strings at: comments@madison.k12.wi.us. Thank you to the parents and community who have attended the public hearing and who have sent emails … Continue reading Speak Up For Strings – Thanks for Emailing the School Board: Keep The Emails Coming
This is to briefly summarize from my point of view what went on at the MSRI workshop on equity in math education last week. (Vicki was also there and may wish to give her side of the story so you get a more complete picture. It was a very broad workshop, 13 hours a day … Continue reading MSRI Workshop on Equity in Math Education
Nicholas Kristof: Why are Asian-Americans so good at school? Or, to put it another way, why is Xuan-Trang Ho so perfect? Trang came to the United States in 1994 as an 11-year-old Vietnamese girl who spoke no English. Her parents, neither having more than a high school education, settled in Nebraska and found jobs as … Continue reading The Model Students
A Madison School’s TV Channel 10 video, MSCR: Middle School After-School Programs received a “Significant Community Programming” distinction at the annual awards for the Wisconsin Association of PEG Channels (WAPC). WAPC represents local public, educational and government access cable channels across the state. The TV program, cooperatively produced by Lindy Anderson of the Madison Schools’ … Continue reading MSCR: Middle School After-School Programs wins in top award category
Active Citizens for Education offers the following recommendations for the consideration of the MMSD Board of Education in the allocation of funds for the 2006-2007 budget: (I appeared on WIBA, 1310, this evening with Brian Schimming and discussed the MMSD proposed budget and ACE recommendations) [18MB mp3]
Douglas Kern: Not long ago, I showed up for my first year at Smartypants U., fresh from a high school career full of awards and honors and gold stars. My accomplishments all pointed towards a more verbal course of study, but I was determined to spend my college days learning something useful. With my strong … Continue reading Confessions of an Engineering Washout
In my previous post on Speak Up for Strings, I wrote about two ways to contact the School Board – one way is by speaking to the School Board at public appearances; which,is normally after the minutes of a meeting – at the beginning, before the board begins it’s business. A special Board meeting is … Continue reading Speak Up For Strings – Monday At Midnight? Tuesday at 6:30 p.m.
A longtime reader emailed David Brooks most recent column: Around 1970, Walter Mischel launched a classic experiment. He left a succession of 4-year-olds in a room with a bell and a marshmallow. If they rang the bell, he would come back and they could eat the marshmallow. If, however, they didn’t ring the bell and … Continue reading Marshmallows and Public Policy
Liam Julian: Last month, the Washington Post’s David Broder wrote a column trumpeting the value of teaching civics to American students. He interviewed Sandra Day O’Connor and former Colorado Governor Roy Romer (now serving as Superintendent of Los Angeles’s schools), both of whom are spokespersons for the Campaign for the Civic Mission of Schools (CMS). … Continue reading Civics Education in Schools
American Legislative Exchange Council: LEC has released its newest edition of The Report Card on American Education: A State by State Analysis 1983-1984 to 2003-2004. The Report Card contains over 50 tables and figures that display in various ways more than 100 measures of educational resources and achievement. It strengthens the growing consensus that simply … Continue reading Report Card on American Education
Via a Johnny Winston, Jr. MMSD email: It is with great humility that I announce that I have been elected to serve as President of the Madison School Board. I am honored to have the opportunity to provide leadership to our school district and community. Serving as President is the culmination of part of a … Continue reading Announcement from Madison School Board President Johnny Winston, Jr. (and the 04 / 07 elections)
Former Teacher and Principal Ruby Payne: To survive in poor communities, Ms. Payne contends, people need to be nonverbal and reactive. They place priority on the personal relationships that are often their only significant resources and rely on entertainment to escape harsh realities. Members of the middle class, in contrast, succeed or fail through the … Continue reading Good Teaching for Poor Kids
WEAC President Stan Johnson: The Wisconsin Education Association Council has always believed that virtual education can benefit students in Wisconsin. Advocates of an Assembly bill that WEAC opposed have criticized us, in newspapers and elsewhere, as opponents of virtual education. However, as they criticize WEAC for opposing Assembly Bill 1060 they never inform readers that … Continue reading Virtual Schools Must Still be Great Schools
Sandra Boodman: What non-drug treatments work to combat attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)? It’s a question more parents are asking doctors, prompted by new concerns about the safety of medicines used to treat a problem that affects an estimated 4.4 million American children.
From the Wisconsin State Journal, May 2, 2006 ANDY HALL ahall@madison.com Madison made more progress than any urban area in the country in shrinking the racial achievement gap and managed to raise the performance levels of all racial groups over the past decade, two UW- Madison education experts said Monday in urging local leaders to … Continue reading Work on education gap lauded
Bob Reber: Governor Doyle recently vetoed Assembly Bill 1060 which would have reaffirmed and clarified the state’s commitment to virtual public schools in Wisconsin. Prior to his decision to veto the bill, WEAC (the teacher’s union) was making noise about the “outsourcing of education” to people who would not be qualified teachers, instructors or presenters … Continue reading Doyle Flunks Test on Virtual Schools
An inconspicuous provision in the newly unveiled MMSD budget document would establish an ESL/bilingual advisory council (Department & Division Detailed Budgets, page 55). I encourage the Board of Education to remove the provision and give any proposed council the careful and detailed attention the board gave to the attendance task forces and equity task force. … Continue reading Budget proposes ESL/bilingual advisory council
Carol Carstensen: What is Fund 80, and why are people saying such awful things aboutit? Fund 80 is the state accounting code for community services expenditures,the major portion of which is for Madison SchoolCarstensen Community Recreation (MSCR) and the district’s cable channel 10.The current budget for community services is $11 million. Of that $8 millionis … Continue reading Fund 80 Is Worth Our Support
NPR’s Elaine Korry: How can U.S. high schools do a better job? A new study identifies key characteristics of high schools that work. And at Granger High in Washington state, the principal demands high standards for students and staff. audio
A good teacher friend emailed this article: Nicholas Kristof: Suppose Colin Powell tires of giving $100,000-a-pop speeches and wants to teach high school social studies. Suppose Meryl Streep has a hankering to teach drama. Alas, they would be “unqualified” for a public school. Elite private schools would snap them up, of course, but public schools … Continue reading Opening Classroom Doors
Carol Carstensen: Parent Group Presidents: MEMORIAL AND WEST AREA SCHOOLS: NOTE FORUM DESCRIBED UNDER MAY 8. BUDGET FACTOID: The 2006-07 proposed budget is on the district’s web site (www.mmsd.org/budget). The Executive Summary provides an overview of the budget. The list of specific staff cuts is found on pages 3 & 4 of Chapter 3, Department … Continue reading Weekly Email Message
Peter Whoriskey: A new pay-for-performance program for Florida’s teachers will tie raises and bonuses directly to pupils’ standardized-test scores beginning next year, marking the first time a state has so closely linked the wages of individual school personnel to their students’ exam results. The effort, now being adopted by local districts, is viewed as a … Continue reading Florida Links Teacher Pay to Student Test Scores
Once again the strange MMSD budget process presents uncountable mysteries for our intrepid investigators. Somehow the administration puts this year’s budget and staff into a black box somewhere in the Doyle Building and miraculously out comes a prediction of the FTEs needed to continue the current level of services, as well as proposed FTEs for … Continue reading MMSD Budget Mystery #6: FTEs from the Black Box Budget
I recently posted a comparative list of the English courses offered to 9th and 10th graders at Madison’s four high schools. The list showed clearly that West High School does not offer its high achieving and highly motivated 9th and 10th grade students the same appropriately challenging English classes that are offered at East, LaFollette … Continue reading MMSD Cross-High School Comparison — continued
Other districts facing fiscal and academic achievement challenges have had successes maintaining and growing their fine arts education – through strategic planning, active engagement and real partnerships with their communities. In Tuscon, AZ, with a large low income and hispanic population, test scores of this population have climbed measurably (independent evaluations confirmed this). This state … Continue reading Fifth Verse – Same, Sorrowful Tune: Superintendent Proposes to Elminate Elementary Strings
Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel editorial: t is simply nothing short of catastrophic that so many Milwaukee youngsters are being left behind in a world in which a bachelor’s degree is the new high school diploma. It’s a trend that bodes ill for the region’s capacity to grow and compete. Yes, Milwaukee again makes a list it should … Continue reading Milwaukee Graduation Rates – Poverty & Governance
Kevin Carey: Normally I leave charter school issues to my colleagues Eduwonk and Sara Mead. But this morning’s front page article in the WaPo struck me as too obvious to pass up. It details how DC Public Schools is considering a novel arrangement with KIPP, one of the city’s most successful charter schools. KIPP wants … Continue reading DC Public Schools & Charters
Consortium on Chicago School Research at the University of Chicago: Following CPS (Chicago Public Schools) graduates from 1998, 1999, 2002 and 2003, this report uses records from Chicago high schools and data from the National Student Clearinghouse to examine the college experiences of all CPS alumni who entered college in the year after they graduated … Continue reading 6% Success Rate: From High School to the Future: A first look at Chicago Public School graduates’ college enrollment, college preparation, and graduation from four-year colleges
Ben Feller: Teachers are far more pessimistic than parents about getting every student to succeed in reading and math as boldly promised by the No Child Left Behind Act. That’s left a huge expectations gap between the two main sets of adults in children’s lives. An AP-AOL Learning Services Poll found nearly eight in 10 … Continue reading AP Poll: Teachers & Parents on No Child Left Behind
Carol Carstensen: Parent Group Presidents: BUDGET FACTOID: The administration’s proposed budget for the 2006-07 school year will be made public on Friday, April 21. Board members and the media will have hard copies of the budget and an electronic version should be up on the web site shortly. The Board begins discussion and consideration of … Continue reading Carol Carstensen’s Weekly Email
The Superintendent, along with the President and Vice President of the School Board, is holding a press conference to announce the 2006-2007 school budget. They’re performing as if this is the start of the public discussion of the budget for next year, which it is. While late April may be the first time the School … Continue reading 2006-2007 School Budget Already Implemented: What’s the Current Fanfare About?
Recently, a parent expressed concern about the quality of third-quarter report cards at Crestwood Elementary School. Can We Talk 3: Third-Quarter Report Cards Today a parent of students at Elvejhem Elementary asked Madison School Board members why the teachers only reported on 10% of content areas. I have asked Superintendent Art Rainwater for a response … Continue reading Another Parent Concerned about Third-Quarter Report Cards
Nan Brien: In recent weeks Madison homeowners received their 2006 assessments. Most of us saw an increase in the value of our homes. What will this mean for the next property tax bill? Last spring Grandparents United for Madison Public Schools attempted to explain that school property taxes had actually gone down for many Madison … Continue reading Nan Brien on Local Property Taxes
Sara Reed: Voters in Denver, Colo., in 2005 overwhelmingly approved a $25 million tax increase to fund a new, nine-year performance-based pay system for the city’s teachers. Brad Jupp taught in Denver’s public schools for 20 years, and was the lead DCTA negotiator on the team that negotiated the pilot project in 1999, and for … Continue reading Teachers Unions as Agents of Reform
Ms. Abplanalp and MMSD District Staff (cc’d to the Board of Education), I read with some confusion your letter [350K PDF] sent to all elementary school parents about the lack of measurable change in students marking period as too small to report to parents on their third quarter report cards. Here’s my confusion. … Continue reading Can We Talk 3: 3rd Quarter Report Cards
A Strategy to Create Small, High-Performing College-Preparatory Schools in Every Neighborhood of Los Angeles Green Dot Public Schools, Bain & Company [180K PDF]: Public school reform has become the #1 issue for the City of Los Angeles. While most acknowledge the poor state of the public education system, the discussion to date has largely focused … Continue reading The School Transformation Plan
Frank Bass, Nicole Ziegler Dizon and Ben Feller: States are helping public schools escape potential penalties by skirting the No Child Left Behind law’s requirement that students of all races must show annual academic progress. With the federal government’s permission, schools aren’t counting the test scores of nearly 2 million students when they report progress … Continue reading States Help Schools Hide Minority Scores
Sandy Cullen: Twenty-five years ago, less than 10 percent of the district’s students were minorities and relatively few lived in poverty. Today, there are almost as many minority students as white, and nearly 40 percent of all students are considered poor – many of them minority students. And the number of students who aren’t native … Continue reading Madison Schools, New Population, New Challenges
Paul Malischke: Because of Madison’s close School Board election, you may be witnessing the last manual recount of election results in Wisconsin for some time to come. A bill in the Legislature, poised to become law, will outlaw manual recounts for municipalities that use machine-readable ballots. Under current law, the board of canvassers may use … Continue reading “Keep Option To Recount Ballots By Hand”
Robert Tomsho: When San Diego’s school district began overhauling its science-education curriculum five years ago, it wanted to raise the performance of minority, low-income and immigrant students. But parents in middle- and upper-income areas, where many students were already doing well, rebelled against the new curriculum, and a course called Active Physics in particular. They … Continue reading San Diego School District Overhauls Physics Curriculum
Oprah: t’s their first interview together…Bill and Melinda Gates. What they want you to know. Then, Lisa Ling investigates America’s silent epidemic. And, what Anderson Cooper uncovered just minutes from the White House. Why Oprah is shocked, and you will be, too! The failing state of America’s schools How will this education crisis impact you?
A forum hosted by Progressive Dane and The Edgewood College Human Issues Program. Thursday, April 6th 6:30 to 8:30 at Edgewood College’s Anderson Auditorium, in the Predolin Humanities Center. Access to health insurance has become a national crisis, but there are bold, creative proposals to fix it. Please join us to hear four great proposals … Continue reading Affordable Health Care: Four Wisconsin Proposals
Joanne Jacobs: Stuart Buck recounts a conversation with a friend, a black man teaching high school English at a mostly black school in Georgia, about the challenge of teaching students who’ve made it to 10th grade without learning how to read. The friend says: “It’s just impossible for me to spend one or two semesters … Continue reading Teaching the Unreachable
Mike Ellis: Unfortunately, it appears the controls proposed for school districts under the constitutional amendment could undo all that. Just as troubling, it also appears the amendment could seriously disequalize taxes and spending across school districts in Wisconsin – something that itself would appear to violate an existing constitutional mandate that requires school districts to … Continue reading Should Schools Be Included in Taxpayer Amendment
Sunday 10 a.m., Channel 3’s For the Record will feature a debate among the four candidates for school board. Here is my email to Neil Heinen regarding the station’s coverage including a discussion of some of the issues at stake in the race: To: Neil Heinen Subject: Sunday show Dear Neil, A new post up … Continue reading For The Record
Rafael Gomez held a “Parent and Taxpayer Perspective on School Budgets” last evening. Participants included: Carol Carstensen, Peter Gascoyne, Don Severson, Jeff Henriques, Shari Entenmann, Jerry Eykholt and Larry Winkler. This 70 minute event is well worth watching (or listening via the audio file). Carol discussed the “three legs” of school finance and passed around … Continue reading Budget Forum Audio / Video
Madison Metropolitian School District News Release: Community asked for feedback on proposals, Board will begin to consider next month As the next step in developing a Madison School District comprehensive food policy, recommendations are being released today by a student work group for consideration by the Board of Education. There’s been quite a bit of … Continue reading Madison Schools’ Proposed Comprehensive Food Policy
Will the Madison district sink or swim? April 4th elections could prove pivotal At the end of an especially divisive Madison school board meeting, Annette Montegomery took to the microphone and laid bare her frustrations with the seven elected citizens who govern Madison schools. “I don’t understand why it takes so long to get anything … Continue reading The fate of the schools
According to a document apparently floating around the Doyle Administration Building and MTI offices, the MMSD administration will recommend cutting 92 positions when the Board of Education meets on April 3. Disappointment best describes my reaction. I’m not surprised, of course. I’m not even upset that the union has the information even before the board, … Continue reading MMSD administrators will propose cutting 92 positions
Bloomberg: After only 50 percent of Arizona’s eighth-grade public school students passed a standardized reading test, state education officials took decisive action: They made the exam easier. Last year, 71 percent of students were rated “proficient” in reading. As students throughout the U.S. undergo the latest round of tests this month, corporate leaders including Craig … Continue reading Dumbing Down Proficient: Intel, State Farm Heads Say Easy State Tests Sap U.S. Education
The Economist: “TEACHERS, teachers, teachers.” Thus the headmistress of a school near Helsinki, giving her not-exactly-rocket-science explanation for why Finland has the best education system in the world. ……. It has achieved all this by changing its entire system, delegating responsibility to teachers and giving them lots of support. There is no streaming and no … Continue reading Back to School
It’s nearly the end of March, and there’s a strange quiet at the Madison School Board. Every March for the past five plus years has meant public School Board discussions and meetings about next year’s budget, budget cuts and referendum. Earlier this year, Superintendent Rainwater informed the School Board there would be budget discussions throughout … Continue reading MMSD Staffing Resources/Cuts Go To Schools April 3rd – Where’s the School Board, Where’s the Board Governance?
Linda Borg writing in the Providence Journal: Michael Lauro, the district’s new math coordinator, will discuss plans for a curriculum called FASTT Math. PROVIDENCE – Osiris Harrell, an outspoken critic of the school district’s math curriculum, has invited parents and school officials to a meeting March 22 to discuss the effectiveness of the math program. … Continue reading Providence School forum will explore fresh approach to math
Madison School Board candidates Juan Jose Lopez and Lucy Mathiak look at what is happening in schools here in very different ways, but on at least one issue they are in complete agreement: Public education here and throughout the Badger State is at a critical crossroads. But the two candidates vying for School Board Seat … Continue reading Candidates agree education is at crossroads
By James J. Gallagher I am posting this article from 1992 given the recent debate on one size fits all classrooms. Professor Gallagher makes the point that the argument that homogeneous grouping hurts no one is clearly false: research consistently shows that high ability students do better when they are in classes with similarly able … Continue reading When Ability Grouping Makes Good Sense
New Glarus parent and Madison attorney Todd Palmer has filed a lawsuit against the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction and DPI Superintendent Elizabeth Burmaster for their failure to promulgate rules for the identification and appropriate education of Wisconsin’s 51,000 academically gifted students, as is required by Wisconsin state law. Here is the press release; a … Continue reading New Glarus Parent Files Gifted Ed Lawsuit Against DPI, DPI Superintendent Burmaster
Eduwonk: Most everyone in the political and policy world was fixated on all the “what does it mean” questions about Sunday’s NYT Mag story on Mark Warner. But there was also some chattering about the Outlook spread on No Child Left Behind in the Wash. Post. It was well done including reactions from DC-area principals, … Continue reading What’s an AYP Rating? And Why it Matters
Neal E. Boudette: Last year, Greg DeHaan and his partner built 189 homes in the leafy, middle-class suburbs ringing this downtrodden industrial city, but not one in Kalamazoo itself. “There was no demand,” says Mr. DeHaan, whose company, Allen Edwin Homes, is one of the largest home builders in Michigan. By early December, however, a … Continue reading Kalamazoo, Mich., Pegs Revitalization Plan on Tuition Plan
Friends of Dave.org: Put your hand on your wallet! Check out this North County Times article. State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O’Connell and EdVoice are working to get a measure on the ballot called the “Classroom Learning and Accountability Act”. This measure would add a $50/parcel tax on every piece of property in California. … Continue reading California’s Proposed $50/Parcel Tax
Teacher contract up for vote this week. Jessica T. Lee: n Hanover, where public school teachers are already the highest paid in the state, voters this week will decide whether a proposed teachers’ contract is too generous, as some residents contend, or appropriate for the affluent school district. People on both sides of the issue … Continue reading A wealthy school district asks: How much is too much?
State Superintendent Elizabeth Burmaster has announced $1.3 million in dissemination grants to 12 charter schools in nine school districts. The grants are part of the state’s $52 million, three-year federal funding to create 100 new charter schools in Wisconsin. Four of the grants renew previous dissemination projects; eight are for new projects, some of which … Continue reading Schools to share what works through charter dissemination grants
Isthmus: What role should the school board play in determining curriculum? What about parents? Extra Credit: Critics say the district’s math program in elementary and middle schools lacks rigor and doesn’t teach enough math facts, while supporters say it teaches students how to solve real-life math problems. What do you think of the district’s math … Continue reading Madison Schools’ Board of Education Candidate Take Home Test: Week 7
This is very long, and the link may require a password so I’ve posted the entire article on the continued page. TJM http://www.tcrecord.org/PrintContent.asp?ContentID=11566 Standards, Accountability, and School Reform by Linda Darling-Hammond — 2004 The standards-based reform movement has led to increased emphasis on tests, coupled with rewards and sanctions, as the basis for “accountability” systems. … Continue reading Standards, Accountability, and School Reform
Two weeks ago, Roger Price presented a 5-year forecast for the district, which included a projection that there would be a $38 million budget gap, by 2011, if the district proceeded with it’s present operations. He emphasized the presumption that this was before changes are implemented to address the gap. He also emphasized his discomfort … Continue reading A 5 Year Approach to the Madison School District’s Budget Challenges; or what is the best quality of education that can be purchased for our district for $280 million a year?
University of Wisconsin News: How can middle- and high-school students get a leg up on preparing for college? In many cases, summer recreation, academic and athletic programs play a valuable role. The Youth Opportunity Fair, designed to promote summer youth activities, will be held from 10 a.m.-noon on Saturday, March 4, at the Villager Mall, … Continue reading UW Madison Hosts Summer Opportunities Fair
When the Cincinnati Public Schools devised a reform strategy for improving student performance, it became clear that the district’s traditional budgeting system was inadequate. The authors trace the district’s process of moving to a system of student-based budgeting: funding children rather than staff members and weighting the funding according to schools’ and students’ needs. By … Continue reading Leveling the Playing Field: Creating Funding Equity Through Student-Based Budgeting
Funding reform resolution introduced — your chance to act Funding system continues to erode quality education School-funding reform calendar 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 … Continue reading WI School Funding Update
Eduwonk: Public schools are public. Consequently, it seems a reasonable principle that unless privacy is at issue, the processes by which major decisions about them are made should be public, too. But too often this isn’t the case. Teacher collective bargaining negotiations are a primary example. They’re usually conducted behind closed doors and with some … Continue reading Transparency
Katherine Kersten: Something momentous is happening here in the home of prairie populism: black flight. African-American families from the poorest neighborhoods are rapidly abandoning the district public schools, going to charter schools, and taking advantage of open enrollment at suburban public schools. Today, just around half of students who live in the city attend its … Continue reading “Black Flight: Minneapolis Exodus to Charter Schools”
Next year’s projected operating budget shortfall is $8 million – projected expenses will exceed revenues by that amount. For 13 years the growth in expenses have exceeded what the district received and was allowed to receive from the a) state and federal government revenues and b) allowed growth in revenues from property taxes. Further, the … Continue reading Are Administrators Golden?
Maya Cole posted an interesting idea on her Web site: Energy efficiency stands out as one island of excellence in the MMSD. The Wisconsin Focus on Energy program features the Madison school district in one of its case studies on energy-efficient schools. I’d like to take the MMSD’s excellent energy-efficiency commitment one step further by … Continue reading Cole: New schools should be green
Kurt Gutknecht and Bill Livick pen an interesting article, published recently in the Fitchburg Star: Several teachers at area schools did not return calls asking for their opinion on the act. Administrators were less reluctant to weigh in. The principal of a Madison middle school, who did not want to be identified, gave a qualified … Continue reading NCLB Area Comments
At a meeting on February 22 (audio / video), representatives of the Madison Metropolitan School District presented some data [820K pdf | html (click the slide to advance to the next screen)] which they claimed showed that their middle school math series, Connected Mathematics Project, was responsible for some dramatic gains in student learning. There … Continue reading Madison and Wisconsin Math Data, 8th Grade
Early 2005, School Board members received a spreadsheet that summarized administrative contracts from 1998-1999 through plans for 2005-2006. That spreadsheet showed 147 administrative contracts in the 1998-1999 school year and 149.65 administrative contracts planned for 2005-2006. In 2003-2004 the total administrative contract budget for wages and benefits was approximately $15.1 million ($100,000 average wage and … Continue reading More MMSD Administrators in 2004-2005 than in 1998-1999?
Ms. Cornelius (an anonymous AP History high school teacher): All of my grades are based on percentages. I’m not one of these teachers who wants to convert someone’s scores in my head, so I just weight grades differently. But all grades are based on 100 possible points. I can tell at a glance how a … Continue reading Lost in Numbers
Carol Carstensen, President of the Madison School Board, announced in a recent letter to The Capital Times that new ideas are OK with her, so long as they are not illegal, in violation of contracts, can save money and are capable of implementation.
Video and audio from Wednesday’s Math Forum are now available [watch the 80 minute video] [mp3 audio file 1, file 2]. This rare event included the following participants: Dick Askey (UW Math Professor) Faye Hilgart, Madison Metropolitan School District Steffen Lempp (MMSD Parent and UW Math Professor) Linda McQuillen, Madison Metropolitan School District Gabriele Meyer … Continue reading Math Forum Audio / Video and Links
Carol Carstensen: Parent Group Presidents: BUDGET FACTOID: The Community Service Fund (known for its state accounting code, Fund 80) is not under the revenue cap; these services are funded by a combination of fees and a separate portion of the tax levy. Madison School Community Recreation (MSCR) represents more than 80% of these expenditures. Some … Continue reading Carol Carstensen’s Weekly Update
Jason Shephard, writing in this week’s Isthmus: Kerry Berns, a resource teacher for talented and gifted students in Madison schools, is worried about the push to group students of all abilities in the same classrooms. “I hope we can slow down, make a comprehensive plan, [and] start training all teachers in a systematic way” in … Continue reading Making One Size Fit All: Rainwater seeks board input as schools cut ability-based classes
Arlene Silveira and other Leopold referendum supporters addressed the MMSD Board of Education a few days after the failed referendum. I posted my reactions on June 6, 2005: Leopold school supporters packed room 103 of the Doyle Building to speak at a meeting of the Long Range Planning Committee on Monday evening, June 6. Arlene … Continue reading Arlene Silviera’s post-referendum comments
Michael Winerip: But for all FairTest’s impact, its days may be numbered. Never before has standardized testing so dominated American public education, thanks to the 2002 federal No Child Left Behind Law. Every child from grade 3 to high school must now take state tests. And the Bush administration is considering extending those tests to … Continue reading Watchdog of Testing Industry Faces Economic Extinction
This is from a recent article in the Los Angeles Times. I was alerted to it by the Daily Howler blog http://www.dailyhowler.com/. I mention this because that site has had some great education coverage lately and will soon be launching an all-education companion blog. http://www.latimes.com/news/education/la-me-dropout30jan30,0,3211437.story?coll=la-news-learning THE VANISHING CLASS A Formula for Failure in L.A. Schools … Continue reading A Formula for Failure in L.A. Schools
Donna Winchester & Ron Matus: The Board of Education is expected today to approve a proposal that would give some teachers a bonus equal to 5 percent of their salary. The extra pay would be based solely on their ability to show student learning gains on the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test. But the biggest impediment … Continue reading Florida & Iowa: Pay for Performance Teacher Bonus Proposals
Jay Matthews: The first Toolbox provided the most powerful argument by far for getting more high school students into challenging courses, my favorite reporting topic. Using data from a study of 8,700 young Americans, it showed that students whose high schools had given them an intense academic experience — such as a heavy load of … Continue reading Secrets of Graduating from College
The Madison School District’s Finance and Operations Committee reviewed a 5 year financial forecast, starting with this year’s $320M+ budget, prepared by the Administration Monday evening. Video and mp3 audio. Local media comments: Susan Troller: Roger Price, business services director for the district, cautioned that projections beyond the next two years are simply a forecast, … Continue reading Madison Schools 5 Year Budget Forecast
WKOW-TV: Pulfus cites the speedy payoff of the high school as one example of a way the District has worked to keep costs down for taxpayers. He also says the district attracts 140 students each year from surrounding districts under the school choice program, showing they have quality programs and education. “If parents didn’t believe … Continue reading Portage School Referendum
Sandy Cullen: Madison School District administrators are projecting a $7.96 million gap between what it would cost to continue the same services next year and what it will be able to raise under state revenue limits. A gap of $6 million to $10 million had been projected. [ed: 2005-2006 budget is $321M+] There are many … Continue reading 7.96M Spending vs. Revenue Gap Projected for the Madison School District (2006 – 2007 Budget)
Most of the $37M that the Madison school district will spend this year for employee health insurance goes to the cost for covering our teachers and their families. That’s about 10% of the total annual budget. I support high quality health insurance for all of our employees. As a school board member, I also have … Continue reading Want to know whether the Madison schools get a good health insurance deal for teachers? Forget it.
Madison school politics make for some strange bedfellows. Take the case of the Feb. 21 primary race for the School Board, in which three candidates are vying for the seat left open by incumbent Bill Keys’ decision not to seek re-election. The marketing manager of a Madison-based biotechnology giant has been endorsed by the powerful … Continue reading Alliances Are Unconventional In School Board Primary Race
This message was sent to me by Mazie Jenkins an MMSD employee. This trend needs to STOP. I’m committed to changing this. I need your support on Monday nights and every single day!!! If there is not major intervention in the next 25 years, 75 percent of urban young men will either be hopelessly hooked … Continue reading AFRICAN-AMERICAN BOYS: THE CRIES OF A CRISIS By E. BERNARD FRANKLIN