http://leadingsource.asbj.com/ The Leading Source, American School Board Journal's Weblog, offers the latest on education news, views, slants, and trends from the editors of ASBJ. en Copyright 2008 Fri, 09 May 2008 11:55:54 -0500 http://www.sixapart.com/movabletype/ http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Editorial Projects in Education. Naomi Dillon, Senior Editor ]]> http://leadingsource.asbj.com/2008/05/farewell_stacey.php http://leadingsource.asbj.com/2008/05/farewell_stacey.php Current Affairs Student Achievement Fri, 09 May 2008 11:55:54 -0500 Dallas Morning News about school district spending. Speaking at the Education Writers Association’s annual conference in Chicago last month, reporter Kent Fischer shared some eye-opening tips about how his newspaper uncovered millions of dollars of questionable spending within the Dallas Independent School District (DISD)—just by looking at records available to the public. Imagine what you could do with the records available to you as a board member. You could start by examining what’s being purchased with district credit cards. After looking at more than 150,000 credit card transactions over two years, Fischer and his colleagues uncovered millions of dollars in purchases that the newspaper claimed “violated state procurement laws or district policy.” All of these purchases had been buried and lost in vast amounts of paperwork. But, citing Texas’ open records law, the newspaper requested electronic records on purchase orders, written checks, credit card bills, payrolls, and other financial data, including budget program codes and purchase order numbers. By cross-referencing data, Fischer said lots of interesting transactions popped up, including purchases of blanket and pillow sets, Star Trek DVDs, iPods, and a subscription to an online dating service. One former district employee already has been sent to prison. Another fertile area for scrutiny is employee stipends, Fischer said. The newspaper discovered that the school district had, as one article last fall reported, “doled out millions of dollars a year in stipends and extra pay not included in the district’s compensation manual.” “Look beyond the ‘average teacher’s salary’ and look at stipend and supplemental pay,” he said. “Get overtime itemized.” One story cited a high school band director who “collected nearly $40,000 between 2003 and 2006 for long hours on band trips that should not have qualified for extra pay.” Meanwhile, school police ran up $2.5 million in overtime for three years straight—yet kept budgeting only $250,000 for overtime. Questions also might arise about employee travel stipends, he said. Thousands of employees were receiving such stipends, including those whose job descriptions didn’t demand travel. One secretary received a $1,200-a-year car allowance, and she didn’t have a driver’s license. Fischer said it also pays to look closer at contract language. One multimillion-dollar computer contract was written so strictly—demanding a specific internal processor, for example—that only one product could meet the bid specifications. In another contract, school administrators arranged free entry into a major golf tournament. When exposed on the front page of the local newspaper, such discoveries are a public relations nightmare for a school board. Indeed, DISD leaders spent much of last year modifying their financial processes in response to headline after headline of bad news. But why leave it to your local paper? You represent your community. Why not look for such improprieties yourself? Through their example, the Dallas Mornings News and Kent Fischer perhaps have done you a favor. Just follow this last admonishment that Fischer shared with his fellow journalists: “Follow the money—what is spent, not [just] what’s budgeted.” Del Stover, Senior Editor ]]> http://leadingsource.asbj.com/2008/05/dont_wait_for_the_press_look_i.php http://leadingsource.asbj.com/2008/05/dont_wait_for_the_press_look_i.php Current Affairs School Security School Spending Thu, 08 May 2008 11:40:36 -0500 Bostonia, the university’s alumni magazine, about the 20th anniversary of BU’s unprecedented -- and, so far, unrepeated -- management agreement with the Chelsea public schools. Say what you will about Silber’s negatives, he had the imagination and chutzpa to take on the project after Harvard refused. The man I so loathed as a BU grad student put the university’s reputation on the line for a small urban school system with a host of problems -- crumbling infrastructure; a highly transient, immigrant population; high poverty; and abysmal test scores. And if, early on, Silber and the district’s new management team were criticized for their “czarist tendencies,” well, maybe the place needed a little tough love. Did it work? As the Chelsea School Committee prepares to take control again after two decades, Bostonia makes the case that it largely did. BU revamped the schools’ curriculum. It consolidated and improved early childhood programs. It provided student teachers though the university’s education school, opened a health clinic at Chelsea High School, and provided free dental screenings through its School of Dental Medicine. BU also created a foundation that has raised $12 million for the schools, and perhaps most importantly, used its influence to help secure $116 million for school construction, most of it state money. Test scores are climbing. The proportion of 10th graders passing the math section of Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System Tests (MCAS) rose from 10 percent in 1998 to 37 percent in last year; in English, the passing rate rose from 19 percent to 42 percent. Yet in many subject tests, Chelsea schools still rank near the bottom of the state’s urban districts. The Chelsea School Committee could have ended the partnership years ago; instead it voted twice to extend the original 10-year agreement. The BU experiment illustrates both the successes and the continuing challenges of urban school reform. And while the university isn’t going away -- it will maintain some ties with the district -- building on its reforms will now be the responsibility of the local school committee. Lawrence Hardy, Senior Editor ]]> http://leadingsource.asbj.com/2008/05/experiments_in_urban_reform.php http://leadingsource.asbj.com/2008/05/experiments_in_urban_reform.php Current Affairs Curriculum School Governance Wed, 07 May 2008 08:52:15 -0500 Sacramento Bee analysis showed the impact a few tweaks can make when using data to analyze a school’s performance. Two years of test data for some 6,000 California schools showed that 80 of those initially fell short of their annual NCLB benchmarks but met them after making “demographic corrections.” Of those, 12 schools had changed students’ racial classification, 50 had reclassified English language learners, and 11 had changed student demographics so that an entire group was rendered statistically insignificant. Several years ago, when NCLB was first taking hold, I asked an elementary principal how she verified the race of her students. She said she didn’t—she couldn’t—because it was all self-reported by parents or guardians. Then she mentioned that even though she was white and her husband had both white and Hispanic ancestry, they classified their high-achieving children as Hispanic to help their schools meet NCLB requirements. It was just another example of how so many children do not fit neatly into racial categories—or in some cases, our assumptions. We need to find better ways to focus on the truly disadvantaged students who are struggling -- regardless of their race. Joetta Sack-Min, Associate Editor ]]> http://leadingsource.asbj.com/2008/05/playing_the_race_card_with_ncl.php http://leadingsource.asbj.com/2008/05/playing_the_race_card_with_ncl.php Current Affairs Curriculum Student Achievement Testing and Assessment Wed, 07 May 2008 08:26:23 -0500 Miami Herald. The district could save $13.9 million by no longer having to pay current salaries, says the Herald. Miami-Dade offered to pay Feldman $120,000, but then withdrew their proposal after cutting DROP candidates. So Feldman made a surprising counteroffer. The career principal told the district he would return for the cost of a Double Cheeseburger at McDonald’s. “Do I know it’s going to end at one point? Of course, I do,” Feldman told the Herald. “But new life has been thrust into this old body. With one more year, I could take these kids to the next level.” Although appealing, school board members and Miami-Dade’s superintendent turned down Feldman’s offer, saying they would never be able to hire another employee for $1 if Feldman ever left. The principal and a gaggle of mobilized parents hope the district will reconsider. Although administrators like Feldman are few and far between, there are plenty of people in any community who want to help local schools by volunteering their time. Volunteers can assist teachers, help with school activities, and give students personalized attention. Money-starved districts should take a look at the ways they are attracting and, more importantly, retaining volunteers. Stacey Hollenbeck, Spring Intern ]]> http://leadingsource.asbj.com/2008/05/volunteering_to_be_principal.php http://leadingsource.asbj.com/2008/05/volunteering_to_be_principal.php Current Affairs School Spending Mon, 05 May 2008 17:52:22 -0500 ASBJ dealing with diversity. The principal and community leader says instructing parents can help them be more organized, on schedule, and involved. In the near future, she hopes to help struggling families with another course on relationships. Cultivating more adept parents could be a plus for students—especially poor performers—but are public schools the right places to put forth such efforts? Stacey Camp, a mother from Plano, Texas, says “no.” She told The Dallas Morning News that she didn’t want her “hard-earned taxes” spent on the classes, which are also popping up in North Texas schools. “I'm being penalized for working harder when others might not be working as hard as they need to,” she added. The programs can be expensive. Plano will spend $250,000 on developing and implementing the lessons next year, says the Morning News. The new Connecting Parents to Educational Opportunities program in Minneapolis, an initiative that has attracted over 400 families, comes with another added cost. Parents who participate can earn their child a future scholarship that would cover tuition at one of two Minnesota colleges, says the Star Tribune. Despite controversy and costs, schools who see a need for coaching parents should consider such programs. Without reinforcements at home, students can’t reach their full potential. But if parents align their goals with those of the school, both parties will benefit. Stacey Hollenbeck, spring intern ]]> http://leadingsource.asbj.com/2008/05/schooling_parents_can_help_kid.php http://leadingsource.asbj.com/2008/05/schooling_parents_can_help_kid.php Current Affairs Fri, 02 May 2008 10:18:30 -0500 Education Writers Association in Chicago last week. One war story involved the all-too-common failure of the D.C. schools to put textbooks in the hands of students at the beginning of the school year. Last fall, Rhee made headlines by touring the school system’s book warehouse with D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty and finding pallet after pallet of untouched textbooks waiting for delivery. Highlighting the problem didn’t prevent some foul-ups last fall in getting books to kids, and Rhee shared one shared one little-known incident. A parent complained by e-mail that high school textbooks had ended up at a nearby middle school. That was bad enough, of course, but making it worse was that the central office had rejected the offer of parents to load up the books in their cars and personally deliver them to where they belonged. The reasoning of bureaucrats? District rules insist that the textbooks be delivered by the school system. So the textbooks had to sit at the middle school until district personnel picked them up. Then they’d be sent back to the warehouse, processed, and eventually delivered to the right school. That mentality, Rhee said, revealed the dysfunction within the district bureaucracy. She told the parents "to go ahead, so that kids had their books on the first day of school." The 38-year-old chancellor, who had never served as a school administrator before now, also shared a war story about one of her biggest political fights—closing 23 underutilized schools. Rhee wasn’t surprised that school closings would be controversial. Nor did she doubt that the decision was correct. With nearly one-third of the city’s school-aged children in charter schools, the D.C. system had many schools filled to only half capacity—and they were wasting vast sums in salaries, energy costs, and security and maintenance resources. What was interesting, though, was how strongly neighborhoods identified with their schools—without regard to their academic performance, she said. During one school visit, Rhee said, she stopped to talk to residents on the street, and they all begged her to save their school building from closure. They loved the school, she said. They thought it was a great school. The only problem, she noted, was that it was anything but a great school. "Only 9 percent of the kids were testing proficient." That compared to a charter school only a few blocks away—serving students from the same neighborhood—that boasted that 90 percent of its students were scoring proficient. For all the controversy involved, closing those schools was an early success for Rhee. So much money will be saved that each city school next year will have an art teacher, a music teacher, and a physical education teacher. That might not seem all that remarkable for educators in more affluent communities, she added, but in D.C., such staffing is "almost unheard of." Finally, Rhee spoke a little about the City Council granting her unprecedented authority to terminate district employees, which she promptly used to cut 100 jobs in the central office. As it turned out, it wasn’t all that difficult to decide who should stay—and who should go. For example, she recalled, she found a staff of nine serving teen mothers at a cost of $1 million annually. But the program only served about seven students each day, and it turned out that $700,000 of the program was spent on salaries. That just didn’t cut it in Rhee’s judgment. "How do we make sure dollars actually have an impact on kids in the classrooms?" she asked. "We have to look at every program. Even if the people are nice people, if the program is not having a dollar-for-dollar real impact on kids, it has to be seriously looked at." These are only a few of Rhee’s stories. But they all emphasize how the new chancellor is fighting "the good fight" on behalf of D.C. schoolchildren. Such a fight ensures that we can expect Rhee to share even more war stories to share in the years ahead. Del Stover, Senior Editor ]]> http://leadingsource.asbj.com/2008/05/war_stories_from_the_district.php http://leadingsource.asbj.com/2008/05/war_stories_from_the_district.php Charters and Vouchers Current Affairs School Governance School Spending Student Achievement Thu, 01 May 2008 11:10:15 -0500 Wallace Foundation. That’s troubling on many fronts, most obviously because of the looming shortage of school leaders and the importance of strong leadership to turn around struggling schools. And, “that’s a lot of wasted money,” says Jody Spiro, a senior program officer at Wallace. The foundation is looking for innovative ways to not only ensure that most people who enter these higher education programs actually want to become K-12 principals, but also to find ways to better prepare those candidates. Currently, too many programs focus on managing budgets and administrative tasks, when principals really should be instructional leaders who spend much of their time in classrooms. Wallace hosted a luncheon for state legislators at the National Conference for State Legislature’s annual federal relations meeting last week in Washington, D.C. Some of the best practices discussed included six-month principal internships, where a principal candidate not only shadowed an experienced principal but also was allowed to oversee programs and make decisions, as well as multi-year mentorships for new principals. Several principal training programs, including one through Stanford University, have dramatically increased the numbers of graduates who become K-12 principals by more narrowly focusing their programs. Kentucky also has focused its principal training by creating other specialized programs for people who want additional training but don’t want to be principals, such as teacher leadership programs, according to one panelist. So why do people enter principal training programs when they don’t want to be principals? Many of them want to go into different types of school administration or are merely looking for salary increases, Spiro says. Joetta Sack-Min, Associate Editor ]]> http://leadingsource.asbj.com/2008/04/better_training_for_principals.php http://leadingsource.asbj.com/2008/04/better_training_for_principals.php Current Affairs Research Wed, 30 Apr 2008 10:53:48 -0500 Education Week saying research shows that the greatest widening of the black-white achievement gap occurs not among the general population, but among higher-performing students as they move from elementary school into middle and high school. In truth, I can’t tell you for sure that he was gifted, just that he was obviously very, very bright. Yet the sad truth was that students like him in Stoddert’s gifted and talented classes would be merely performing on grade level if they moved across the Potomac River to the more affluent areas of Arlington or Fairfax County. That’s what happens, researchers note in the article, if the general population is doing poorly: Teachers tend to teach to the middle, and the middle at Stoddert, located near the distressed neighborhoods that border Washington, D.C., was lower. After several years of being taught at a level lower than students at more affluent schools, it’s no wonder that the achievement gap tends to widen most noticeably at the top. There are other possible reasons for this trend. Just as there can be disadvantages in attending a majority black school, some African Americans may feel out of place in an overwhelmingly white one -- and determined not to “act white” and do their best. Out-of-school disparities among families can exacerbate the achievement gap as well: think of the academic advantages provided by computer camps, piano lessons, and private tutoring. Finally, add the influence of NCLB and its single-minded focus on raising the achievement of students who test below state standards. It’s a worthy goal, of course, but there are fewer of these students in the more affluent schools, and that encourages the teachers in these schools to adopt a more enriching curriculum across the board. The high-end achievement gap is a serious challenge for board members, teachers, and administrators. But it’s not insurmountable. And educators, who tend to be optimists by nature, know that. The more we learn about the reasons for the achievement gap, the more effectively we can begin to reduce it and move toward a public education system that offers all students the chance to reach their potential. Education is not the only tool in the struggle for equal opportunity and social justice, but it is indispensible. Lawrence Hardy, Senior Editor ]]> http://leadingsource.asbj.com/2008/04/blackwhite_achievement_gap_wid.php http://leadingsource.asbj.com/2008/04/blackwhite_achievement_gap_wid.php Current Affairs Curriculum Research School Governance Student Achievement Testing and Assessment Tue, 29 Apr 2008 12:38:33 -0500 Times Union in Albany, N.Y. The district went even further, giving parents the option of viewing discipline records and daily updates on classroom attendance. Earlier this month, some Florida districts allowed online parental access to grades, attendance, and homework assignments, says TCPalm. In Minnesota, districts that don’t have “parent portals” have fallen behind, says the Star Tribune. Posting grades online not only keeps interested parents in the loop, it also saves teachers valuable time. Thanks to the Web, they no longer have to add up grades by hand or field calls from curious parents. And knowing Mom and Dad are only a click away from seeing his or her D in chemistry could keep students from slacking. Parents who feel like they need they need a crowbar to pry information from their kids will find the program most useful—and possibly thrilling. Secretly glimpsing at grades could be just as exciting as downloading music for free. Although some schools have experienced low registration numbers—at Albany High, only one-fourth of parents signed up to glance at students’ grades—the option promises make otherwise info-starved parents more involved in their child’s education. Stacey Hollenbeck, spring intern ]]> http://leadingsource.asbj.com/2008/04/no_missing_report_cards_techno.php http://leadingsource.asbj.com/2008/04/no_missing_report_cards_techno.php Mon, 28 Apr 2008 11:41:54 -0500 American School Board Journal, I explored the strategies and approaches that school districts take under financial duress. “Any cut means someone is losing something,” Luz Cazares, the chief financial officer for Alameda Unified School District, said bluntly. The California district is one of many in the state that were blindsided by Gov. Schwarzenegger’s proposal of 10 percent across-the-board cuts to fill a $14.5 billion deficit. Schwarzenegger’s proposed budget would mean a $4.8 billion reduction in education funding across the state; for Alameda it would mean $4.5 million in cuts for next year’s budget. “The Governor has put us in a position to cut half of what it took us seven years to do,” Cazares said of the $7.7 million the district had to trim soon after student enrollment began to decline in 2000. “We were blindsided.” As are parents and children, some of whom stood in trash cans during a recent visit by Schwarzenegger. "Our students/teachers/coaches are too valuable to throw away,” read signs each held. “There’s nothing like showing up when the governor’s there and sticking read kids and real teachers in trash cans and saying, ‘You know what? This is what you’re doing,” Brook Briggance, a member of the Alameda Education Foundation, told the Los Angeles Times. Naomi Dillon, Senior Editor ]]> http://leadingsource.asbj.com/2008/04/budget_tips_in_tough_times.php http://leadingsource.asbj.com/2008/04/budget_tips_in_tough_times.php Current Affairs School Spending Fri, 25 Apr 2008 10:27:05 -0500 American School Board Journal article on smart practices for purchasing technology—particularly in a slowing economy. So far, people are saying the right things. School leaders are aware that technology is an important component in teaching students 21st century skills. They say they want to see technology expand and enrich classroom learning. They also voice an understanding of the dangers of deferring maintenance and trimming funds designated to replace older machines. They understand that aging technology will raise maintenance costs, and that cutting staff training adds to the risk that expensive technology will sit unused in the corner of the classroom. I also was heartened by a news article reporting that the Massachusetts’ Dover-Sherborn Regional School Committee recognizes the dangers—and recently expressed concern when it received a budget recommendation for a modest cut in the technology budget. “Some of [the budget] is not staying up with our five-year replacement plan,” one committee member commented. “To me, we could be putting ourselves on a slippery slope.” The rest of the committee agreed, reported the Dover-Sherborn Press, adding that committee members feared “that if the towns get off-track with technology advancements now, it could lead to a disastrous snowballing effect a few years down the road.” Smart policymakers, I think. But, as the economy sours and school revenues are trimmed, can this school committee—or any school board—hold the line? Will it matter that, in the long run, it’s a fiscally sound, efficient policy to protect staff development, maintenance, and replacement budgets? These are questions that too many school boards might have to answer—and answer in ways they won’t like. Sue Helms, president of the Madison City Schools and Alabama Association of School Boards, is a big proponent of classroom technology, but even she is well aware that getting kids to school and putting a teacher in front of the classroom are higher priorities than any high-tech gadget. “If a school system is trying to decide between a new school bus or computers in the classroom,” she notes, “that’s a no-brainer.” Del Stover, Senior Editor ]]> http://leadingsource.asbj.com/2008/04/will_school_technology_spendin.php http://leadingsource.asbj.com/2008/04/will_school_technology_spendin.php Current Affairs Educational Technology School Governance School Spending Thu, 24 Apr 2008 13:58:56 -0500 www.dayofsilence.org. GLSEN offers a wealth of information on preventing bullying and harassment of gay students, and May’s ASBJ features an interview with filmmaker Debra Chasnoff, who produced “It’s Elementary: Talking about Gay Issues in School.” The video is being re-released with a new, 140-page guide for schools. Joetta Sack-Min, Associate Editor ]]> http://leadingsource.asbj.com/2008/04/silence_can_battle_bullying_of.php http://leadingsource.asbj.com/2008/04/silence_can_battle_bullying_of.php Current Affairs School Health School Security Wellness Wed, 23 Apr 2008 12:36:15 -0500 School Board News on What We Think: Parental Perceptions of Urban School Climate, which was recently published by NSBA’s Council of Urban Boards of Education. According to the survey, parents who rely on newspapers for their information have more negative views of their schools than those who get their information from their child or their own experiences with the district itself. For example, 76.1 percent of responders agreed or strongly agreed with the statement, “My child’s school is a safe place,” when their information came from “self-experience.” When it came from TV, it dropped slightly to 73.8 percent; and when their information came from the newspaper it fell all the way to 61.5 percent. I can’t explain the reasons for these discrepancies, but I can guess. Much news follows a conflict model; that is, conflicts or controversies make news. This generally works OK when you’re covering, say, the war in Iraq or the latest outburst from Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. But it’s less useful in conveying the myriad events that occur in a school district. How, for example, do you describe that critical yet elusive process we call learning? I could go on, but that would take more than the space I have here. Let me just say that the media -- never monolithic -- are getting more diverse every day. On the one side are responsible newspaper reporters (me? biased?) who try earnestly to just “get it right.” They can be a very collaborative group. For example, the Education Writers Association has a listserv on which reporters from around the country help each other sort through the many complex issues that come up in school districts. There’s also, to be sure, poor and sensationalized reporting out there as well. And as news gathering expands into the ever-burgeoning blogosphere, there will no doubt be more of this as well. Finally, let me put in a plug for ASBJ’s Communications columnist Nora Carr, the chief communications officer for the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools. As a former newspaper reporter, I thought I knew everything about communications, but reading, and at times editing, her excellent columns over the past several month has taught me a tremendous amount about how school districts can “tell their story.” Her April column deals with much of what I’ve been discussing today: It’s called “Setting the Record Straight.” Lawrence Hardy, Senior Editor ]]> http://leadingsource.asbj.com/2008/04/dealing_with_the_media.php http://leadingsource.asbj.com/2008/04/dealing_with_the_media.php Current Affairs School Governance Tue, 22 Apr 2008 13:58:15 -0500 ASBJ hope that our Magna Awards program can serve as a starting point toward finding those best practices. For 14 years, we have been recognizing excellence in board and district programs on nearly any topic you can come up with. Want to know how a district is dealing with dropouts? Magna has it. Want to find out how to engage Spanish-speaking parents with the schools? Magna has it. Each year, we ask an independent panel of judges to evaluate the 300 or so entries we receive each year and find the standout programs. The entries are in three enrollment categories: under 5,000, 5,000 to 20,000, and over 20,000. This way, districts are competing against other districts of the same size. We honored the 2008 Magna Award winners at the School Leaders' Luncheon at NSBA's annual conference in Orlando. The three grand prize winners took home checks of $3,500 each; all of the winners are featured in a supplement to ASBJ that ran in April. Look online at the 2008 winners; then browse through the past winners. You'll find the contact names and e-mails of the district contacts so you can get more details about their wining programs. While you're on the site, consider applying for a 2009 Magna Award, so you can add your programs to our growing "best practices" list. Kathleen Vail, Managing Editor]]> http://leadingsource.asbj.com/2008/04/magna_the_source_for_best_prac.php http://leadingsource.asbj.com/2008/04/magna_the_source_for_best_prac.php Curriculum Research School Governance School Health School Security School Spending Student Achievement Testing and Assessment Wellness Mon, 21 Apr 2008 15:36:59 -0500