June 29, 2008 - July 5, 2008 Archives

The July edition of American School Board Journal is online right now -- and you can read the technology cover articles even if you aren't a subscriber (you are a subscriber, aren't you?).

It's a challenge to write about technology for school leaders. School board members and administrators often believe that education technology is a subject for their tech directors and teachers to worry about. We're careful not to get too nitty-gritty into technology techniques and devices, and we focus instead on big-picture issues that school leaders face.

Senior Editor Del Stover writes about ways that school boards and administrators can make smart technology purchases, even during these tough budget times. Senior Editor Naomi Dillon delves into how digital technology will soon be changing the way districts approve and purchase textbooks. Laura Lefkowits, vice president for policy and planning services at McREL, addresses how schools can harness the power of social networking.

We know you'll find these articles useful in doing your jobs. Stay tuned for more technology coverage in September, when we'll cover up-and-coming education technology trends arriving in your schools and classrooms.

Meanwhile, if you have a technoloogy issue that you're struggling with, let us know.

Kathleen Vail, Managing Editor

As I walked through the hallways of Parklawn Elementary School one brilliant morning this spring, a little voice kept popping up in my head:

“What’s the story, Larry? Why, exactly, are you here?”

A bit of background: I was visiting this school in the Alexandria section of Fairfax County, Va., to see what it was like for Parklawn to take in 20 students within months from adjoining Prince William County. I was writing a story for ASBJ’s September issue on the local anti-illegal immigrant law that has rocked Prince William and caused hundreds of families to flee. Certainly, I reasoned, it must be traumatic for these children and difficult for schools like Parklawn that are struggling to absorb them.

Well … no. At least not in the case of Parklawn, a place where the students come from 36 countries and speak 34 languages.

“We’re used to people coming and going, so it doesn’t feel any different,” said Emma Keomalavong, who teaches English for Speakers of Other Languages.

That doesn’t mean that the high student mobility -- and a free and reduced lunch population of 65 percent -- isn’t a challenge. It is. But during my visit I got a wonderful sense of a school with a cheerful, optimistic attitude, a place where having a friend from a different continent seems really not that different from having one from next door. .

I’m afraid I started a light-hearted commotion in a combined K-2 class when I opened a world map on the floor and a bunch of students rushed over to point to their native lands and flags.

“There’s my flag!” (Lebanon)
“There’s my flag!” (El Salvador)
“There’s my flag!” (Taiwan)

I didn’t have space in September’s story for Parklawn: it’s a “good news” story that got squeezed out by the need to cover the tumultuous events in the county next door. I’m sure not everything is rosy here. Certainly, being a high-mobility immigrant student is not easy for you or your family -- no matter where you come from or what school you attend.

But if you were lucky enough to end up at Parklawn, for even part of your stay in America, you just might just get a feeling for what this country is all about.

“It’s terrific,” says Principal Susan Akroyd, “that we have such a gift everyday -- to have the world here.”

Lawrence Hardy, Senior Editor

Never, never, never say “no comment” as a school leader.

It is a foolish phrase. It is politically clumsy. It sounds as if you have something to hide—and that the public doesn’t have a right to know what’s going on.

And, as a long-time journalist, I can assure you it annoys the heck out of reporters.

Uttering those two words also is a failure for you as a community leader attempting to guide public opinion.

Worst of all, there’s no need to say it.

So what are you supposed to do when asked about an issue you can’t discuss?

If you think about it, there’s a lot you can say. And it essentially boils down to this: Here’s why I cannot give you any details—but I can reassure you that the school district will do the right thing.

For example, what do you say when a teacher is claiming school administrators fired her for nefarious reasons?

“The school district has a responsibility to protect the privacy of school personnel, so we obviously cannot talk about the employee or the matter you’ve raised. But be assured that school board policy is to treat everyone fairly and to respect the law regarding personnel matters.”

And what if the community is up in arms about some matter the principal handled—perhaps inappropriately?

“We need to gather all the facts before we can accurately and fairly discuss the matter. But we are looking into the concerns that have been raised.”

One important caveat to this advice is the danger of saying too much—and having your remarks come back to bite you. I can see a school attorney cringing at the thought of a board member promising “due process” or saying a teacher “will have a chance to defend herself.”

So, depending on the issue, running any comments past your school attorney might be a good idea.

Del Stover, Senior Editor

I have a small guilty pleasure … dare I confess it? Ok, here goes: I kind of like reality television. Not the inane (though some might argue all reality TV is inane), superficial (again, someone might counter here), height of ridiculousness that appeals to the same audience base of Jerry Springer and Star magazine, but the stuff that showcase or cultivate talent (Project Runway), perseverance (The Biggest Loser), and adventure (The Amazing Race.) And OK, I like a little bit of drama here and there (I’ll keep those ones to myself.)

Unfortunately, reality TV has spawned a not so pleasant byproduct: the reality star and even worse, the reality wannabe star, which leads me to a recent trend that I frankly find disturbing. Kids apparently are filming and engaging in fights for the express purpose of posting them online. I’m flummoxed.

I understand and have stood witness to many a schoolyard fight during my days as a secondary student. But the fisticuffs were more often than not motivated by some perceived wrong or a misguided show of bravado. It was not done to gain fame and solicit widespread attention, as so many kids are doing these days.

“This is the bite of reality TV coming back at us, there is something about the culture of instant celebrity that seems to encourage this,” Alex Halavais, a communications professor at Quinnipiac University, told the Buffalo News, which did a search on the popular video-sharing website YouTube and found more than 40,000 videos came back under the key words “school fight.”

The most notorious video to date is one that occurred in late March, when six teenage girls beat a fellow Florida classmate for allegedly posting insults about them online. The 16-year-old victim suffered through a 30-minute series of punches, kicks, and slaps that continued even after she slumped to the floor and curled up in the fetal position.

Police arrested and confiscated the video before the protagonists, which also included two boys standing as lookouts, could post it online. Unfortunately, it became public and ended up on YouTube anyway. Despite the fact that they faced kidnapping and battery charges and would be tried as adults, several of the alleged attackers seemed flippant and unrepentant for their actions.

I don’t know what to say about this new phenomenon, other than it’s a sad day when harming another person is the mark of stardom among today’s youth.

Naomi Dillon, Senior Editor