ABQ/ Students Threaten To 'Shoot Up' Tony Hillerman Middle School, Intervention Commended
By Hailey Heinz
ABQ Journal Staff Writer
September 22, 2012
School officials took seriously the plans made by two 11-year-old Tony Hillerman Middle School students to "shoot up" their school later this year, notifying parents on Friday of the threats.
The two would-be shooters have not been identified or charged with a crime. The sixth-graders are on long-term suspension, and Albuquerque Public Schools is taking steps to expel them.
The students' plot was considered a "high-level, category two" threat, according to a police report that quotes the school psychologist's findings.
- An outside expert said "category two" means the threats were likely more serious than just something said in the heat of the moment, but it does not mean their plans were imminent.
The West Side school became aware of the boys' plans Wednesday, after someone came forward with concerns and shared them with the city police officer assigned to the school, according to an Albuquerque Public Schools police report.
The officer questioned the two boys, who admitted they were planning to "shoot up" the school, then kill themselves, either by shooting or hanging. They had a particular date in mind for their attack: Dec. 12, during third period. However, there is no evidence either boy had a gun.
Psychological threat assessments of the two students were done Wednesday and Thursday. After the assessments found that the threat was credible, the students were suspended and referred to counseling services.
Parents at Tony Hillerman were alerted through the district's automated phone system Friday morning, and a more detailed letter was sent home with students Friday afternoon.
- Nancy Rappaport, a professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and director of school-based programs at the Cambridge Health Alliance, made clear she was not speaking specifically about the Hillerman case but was willing to explain the terminology.
- A category two threat "would be, for example, if they've (the students have) gone out and done some research about it, maybe gotten some supplies or done some computer research on how to make explosions," said Rappaport.
Parents waiting to pick up their children at Hillerman after school Friday had mixed reactions to the news and the way the district handled it. Several said they were angry they hadn't heard about the threat until Friday, since the district knew about it Wednesday.
"If it was an issue Wednesday, parents should have known Wednesday," said one parent. She said she also felt the district should not have brought students back to school Thursday and Friday, once the students revealed their plan.
APS spokesman Rigo Chavez said the district did not know how serious the threat was until the second threat assessment was finished Thursday. And he said the assessment did not find that the boys were imminently dangerous to their peers, so it did not make sense to send students home.
Numerous Hillerman parents said they thought the district handled the situation well, and that there was no reason to panic the students by closing schools or sounding the alarm before the threat was substantiated.
"I don't think we do them any favors by getting them all worked up," said Paula Smith, who was waiting to pick up her child. "I'm sure terrible things are averted every day around the country, and the system seemed to work very well."
Rappaport agreed that the system at Hillerman seemed to work, and that this is a bright spot.
- She said it is good that someone came forward about his or her concerns and that the school police officer took that seriously. She said these are key ways to create safe school culture.
- "The upside is that Albuquerque has resources to have an adult hear it and then respond," she said.
Tony Hillerman students, meanwhile, weren't sure how seriously to take the students' threats.
Some students said in interviews after school Friday that the would-be shooters probably just wanted attention, while others solemnly affirmed that all threats should be taken seriously.
~~~~~~~~~~~~
ABQ/ Health Leadership Charter High School Charter to Help At-Risk Children
By Glen Rosales
ABQ Journal Staff Writer
September 22, 2012
Targeting an educational path with an eye toward a growth industry helped Health Leadership High School win unanimous approval by the state Public Education Commission.
The commission voted 9-0 at its meeting Wednesday in Santa Fe to approve the charter school under the condition that it be located in the South Valley or on the Southwest Mesa, said PEC Chairman Andrew Garrison.
Of nine charter schools up for approval, Health Leadership was the only one to gain approval.
"The school is very different, that's one of the reasons," Garrison said of its approval.
- The school will have a dual mission: helping traditional-track, at-risk students stay in school while also reaching out to dropouts through flex-hour classes.
- The goal would be to deliver an education that would prepare graduates for health industry careers or to transition into higher learning in the health field, said its principal, Gabriella Duran-Blakey.
Albuquerque Public Schools officials declined to comment on adding another charter school to the district, but they spoke out against the school when the commission held a public forum last month.
APS policy analyst Carrie Menapace earlier said
- the district already has numerous charter schools that serve at-risk students or those who have dropped out. She said career-oriented classes and a nursing program are already available through the Career Enrichment Center, Atrisco Heritage Academy and classes students can take for free at Central New Mexico Community College.
- At the public forum, APS noted that there are nine high schools or charter schools in the South Valley that cater to high-risk students.
But in researching the application, Garrison said that eight of those schools received a "D" or an "F" in the state's new grading formula, while the ninth had a "C."
Educator Tony Monfiletto, who founded Amy Biehl charter high school and is head of ACE Leadership charter high, helped spearhead Health Leadership.
Many of its practices will be based on the ideals used at ACE (architecture, construction and engineering), only using health as the baseline educational model.
The school is expected to being operation in August 2013, Duran-Blakey said.
Health Leadership will not just teach vocational skills, but will teach state academic standards through the lens of career skills.
- For instance, students will learn science by learning about anatomy and nutrition, and
- social studies by learning about health risk factors in New Mexico and media literacy.
The school has established partnerships with the local health industry to make the curriculum as useful as possible for students seeking jobs.
The top two priorities for the school at the moment are finding a site and developing the curriculum, Duran-Blakey said.
The community partners, which include health organizations like First Choice Healthcare, Presbyterian Healthcare Services and the University of New Mexico Hospital, should be able to help with those priorities, she said, particularly in the area of curriculum, as the health industry looks at training its future employees.
- "We're going to be digging into the curriculum and designing it with our industry partners," she said.
- "They'll drive what our students need to know going into the field for the next five to 10 years. Then we want to make sure to connect that to the students and (educational) standards."
The school will start with about 100 students split about evenly between traditional track and dropouts, Duran-Blakey said, and add about 100 additional students a year for the ensuing three years.
The key in attracting students will be in showing them the value of their education as it relates to employment, she said.
"When we have a partnership with the industry, the students everyday can see it's real work that they can do," Duran-Blakey said. "They will become engaged in their education and their future."
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Las Cruces/ Gravel Pit Owners Clash with School District
By Diana Alba Soular
Las Cruces Sun-News
September 23, 2012
A clash involving a mining claim and the city's new Centennial High School has two Las Cruces businessmen crying foul and the public school system contending it's in the clear.
The dispute centers upon a fragment of land just south of the new high school that, up until last year, was part of the sand and gravel mining pit belonging to Las Cruces Transit-Mix Inc., owned by brothers Victor and Chris Perez.
- But the less-than-1/4 acre was ordered condemned through eminent domain by a state judge in late 2011 and handed over to the Las Cruces Public Schools.
- The district said the parcel was key to building a crucial, main roadway to Centennial High, as it barreled toward a fall 2012 grand opening.
Still up in the air is the second part of the condemnation case, which leaves the company and LCPS to hash out the price to be paid - or else the court will decide one.
The main problem, Victor Perez said, is that the condemned part of his mining claim contained the only authorized road into the gravel pit. And, now that the road is closed, the business is land-locked. He said his business, which supplies sand and gravel to local construction projects, has dried up the past year because of it.
"The schools offered us $24,000 at one point to buy that easement from us," he said. "We told them "no' because that's pretty much saying: "Well, we're going to buy out your business with $24,000.'"
The Perezes don't own the gravel pit outright because it's actually held by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management. But they do own a decades-old right - which can be bought and sold -to mine the land.
From the Perezes' mining claim, Centennial High School is to the north; the new road to the school - an extension of Sonoma Ranch Boulevard - is to the east; and a different rock and gravel pit is to the west and south. The now-blocked entrance to their claim is toward the southeast, near a stoplight that's gone up at Dripping Springs Road and the Sonoma Ranch Boulevard.
Disputed
LCPS's attorney in the case, John Kennedy of Santa Fe, said Friday the Perezes have taken a number of stances with which the school district disagrees. But it's the job of a court to decide between two opposing parties, he said, and that's what happened.
LCPS prevailed when the court granted the condemnation, Kennedy noted.
"We disagree with their views of the reality of the situation," he said of the Perezes. "They have strongly held views about it, but the condemnation procedure has been used hundreds of times to build schools."
Kennedy noted the Perezes, in spite of the condemnation, are accessing their mining claim today.
There is some access -a path from the neighbor's parcel - but it's limited, Victor Perez said. A company that's buying dirt and gravel from the adjacent pit, American Redi Mix, also is buying material from his own pit, Victor Perez said. Because the company has permission to be on his neighbor's land, it can also reach his parcel with no problem. But for other excavators and Las Cruces Transit-Mix Inc. itself to cross the parcel, he'd need an agreement with the neighbor. That's potentially doable, he acknowledged, but not without a downside.
"Like anything else, terms can be done, with a dollar figure," he said.
It's a cost Victor Perez said he doesn't believe he should have to incur.
In addition, Victor Perez noted there's an embankment that was built by LCPS on a separate, 1.8-acre portion of the mining claim that he actually did relinquish to the benefit of the Centennial High School construction. That was in exchange for LCPS eliminating a pile of concrete rubble he needed removed. Perez said the school district has argued that embankment should be his new ingress -to replace the now-closed route.
However, Victor Perez contended there are problems tied to the embankment, as well. Specifically, he said, it's still owned by the BLM, even though Las Cruces Transit-Mix Inc. has dropped the mining claim on that parcel. That means he'd need a new easement from the agency.
Lastly, said Victor Perez, to formally move the ingress and egress point to his mining claim requires a modification to his formal mining plan on file with the BLM. And that, he said, could trigger an environmental review by that agency and require him to post a higher reclamation bond, a type of insurance to pay for the land's restoration should he go out of business.
Dave Wallace, the Las Cruces BLM office's assistant district manager for multiple resources, acknowledged that an amendment to a mining plan can trigger an environmental review under federal laws, but it might not. Sometimes proposed changes fall under the scope of an existing environmental assessment, he said.
"It depends on the level of modification," he said.
The reclamation bond, too, would be subject to review, Wallace said. Whether the amount would change also would hinge upon the extent of the proposed changes in the mining operation, he said.
Wallace said the BLM hasn't been involved directly in the dispute, though it had believed that LCPS had built the alternative road and embankment for the Perezes, as part of an agreement with them over the 1.8 acres.
Victor Perez said Friday the district had proposed that, but there wasn't a verbal or written agreement.
"We never agreed at any point in time to exchanging entrances," he said.
LCPS officials declined to comment much because the matter is still in litigation. But district Associate Superintendent of Operations Dane Kennon indicated LCPS is hoping for a satisfactory resolution.
"We never want these things to drag on -nobody does," he said.
Decision pending
Victor Perez said the 40-acre pit was first started by his father and grandfather in the 1940s. In the decades since, he said, it has supplied sand and gravel to a number of major projects in the city, including Aggie Memorial Stadium.
The early date of the mine's establishment actually gives it an unusual standing, as far as gravel pits go, Victor Perez contended. After 1955, the federal government stopped granting mining claims for sand and gravel, he said.
Victor Perez said the standing means that he and his brother must agree to any new easements issued on the mine. Also, he argued it means the land shouldn't be subject to condemnation by the state government, thanks to certain protections in the law.
Kennedy, attorney for LCPS, said that, while the Perezes have that perspective, the issue isn't as cut-and-dry, given the complexity of federal mining law and state property condemnation law.
"That's their view of it, and both the state district judge and BLM disagree because there is case law across the country that disputes their views," he said.
In May 2011, a former associate LCPS superintendent, Herb Torres, noted in an email that he'd received legal advice from a different attorney who noted that "school district and likely the county have no legal authority for condemnation of a mineral claim, pre-1955," according to a copy of the email. Torres then proposed possibly moving Dripping Springs south to skirt the mining claim.
Wallace said the BLM has remained neutral in the dispute involving LCPS and the condemnation proceeding. But he said the Perezes have appealed, to the BLM's land decisions appeals board, two separate easements the agency granted for a portion of the mining claim.
Kennedy said LCPS has deposited with the courts the $24,000 that was the appraised value of the condemned patch of ground. The next proceeding is a trial to determine the exact amount to be paid to the Perezes, he said.
Victor Perez contended the district has paid out multiple times that in attorneys' fees in the case and so must think the land is more valuable than that. He said he and his brother believe they've been short-changed so far and will likely appeal the outcome of the compensation trial, if they don't agree with the price.
"How they've done it is beyond me," he said.
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Los Alamos/ Loma Colorado Library, UNM Partner to Provide GED Courses
By Elaine D. Briseņo
ABQ Journal Staff Writer
September 22, 2012
It's never too late to go back to school.
Rio Rancho's Loma Colorado Library has teamed up with the University of New Mexico Los Alamos branch to make it possible.
The library is hosting free GED and English as a Second Language courses. The first session is ongoing, but the second eight-week session will start Oct. 15 and run through Dec. 5.
Librarian Stephanie Zaslav said word has gotten around, and she has had a barrage of phone calls inquiring about the classes.
Currently, there are 18 enrolled in the GED courses and 10 in the ESL classes, but she expects those numbers to increase for the second session.
- Students enrolled in the GED courses will be tested to assess their proficiency. And although the library is not administering the GED test, it will offer a practice test during the course, Zaslav said.
- The ESL course aims to help students improve their English skills in conversation, writing, reading and pronunciation.
The classes are held Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday from 5:45 to 7:45 p.m., and the library is able to offer free child care on Monday, courtesy of the Covenant School of Rio Rancho. Zaslav said the library is trying to arrange child care for the other two days.
Participants must attend all three sessions each week.
The courses are an extension of UNM Los Alamos' Adult Basic Education program. Michelle Worley, the Adult Learning Center manager, said in an email that the program targets lower income and "low literacy" populations.
"The overall goal is to help adults get the jobs they need to get better jobs, enjoy a better lifestyle and be more involved with their families," she said.
Registration for the second session will start the first day of class on Oct. 15 and will continue through that first week. Call 891-5013, ext 3082 for more information.
~~~~~~~~~~~~
ABQ/ Griegos School Principal Deanne Smith, Education Runs in Her Blood
By Glen Rosales
ABQ Journal Staff Writer
September 22, 2012
Griegos Elementary School Principal Deanne Smith is a third-generation educator. Smith's grandparents were teachers. Her aunts and uncles were teachers. And her mom was a teacher.
"I just come from a family of teachers so it was pretty natural," she said.
And to wind up at Griegos Elementary School is also somehow fitting, as she had two cousins who attended the North Valley school.
"I thought this would be a perfect fit for me," Smith said. "It's very small; community oriented with very involved parents. It seems like the school is at the heart of community."
After seven years as principal at Corrales Elementary, Smith's tour around the Albuquerque Public Schools continued this summer when she was named to replace retiring principal Tom Graham, who helped transform the small school nestled in the neighborhood just to the north of Valley High School into a nationally recognized Blue Ribbon School.
That brings its own challenges, but no more so than being an administrator at any other school in the district, Smith said.
"I think there is pressure wherever you go," she said. "You always want to maintain your high standards and high expectations. And I think the pressure gives you that adrenaline that you need to keep going."
Going is one thing the 43-year-old Smith has never stopped doing since her youngest days.
She started out attending schools in Bernalillo, where her grandmother taught and where her grandfather was the high school principal then district assistant superintendent.
Smith then attended both a private and public school on the Hopi Reservation in northern Arizona before returning to New Mexico and finishing up at Sandia High.
During her college years, she started at the University of New Mexico, then attended New Mexico State at Carlsbad, where she was also a substitute teacher. She eventually took over a sixth-grade, special education class full time there, before returning to Albuquerque to earn her undergraduate degree at UNM and eventually a master's degree.
When she began her career with APS, she started out as a special education teacher at Ernie Pyle Middle School in the South Valley, then briefly returned to her alma mater to serve an administrative internship, before moving on to Tomasita Elementary near Eubank and Interstate 40. Then she went to McCollum Elementary in the Northeast Heights, followed by La Mesa Elementary, a bilingual school near Copper and Louisiana NE, before settling in at Corrales Elementary.
That whirlwind journey through the district has helped prepare her for Griegos, Smith said.
"It's very diverse here," she said of the student population. "I felt like I could use my experiences from every school I was at. My special ed experience. I had (English as a second language) experience. And I had experience working with the community."
Smith said she realizes she's inherited a school that has become used to success so it may take some time to add her distinctive touch.
"I just need to get to know what systems are in place," she said. "I don't want to just come in and make these drastic changes. I like to keep going with what's already in place because it's working. (But) I do want to bring in my own qualities."
It helps that "the staff is incredible," Smith said. "They have a lot of experience and they truly care for the kids. They made me feel so welcome."
One big change that the school has already seen is the addition of a fourth kindergarten class to meet the school's growing population. And one thing she said she would like to implement soon is differentiated learning, putting the data culled from the standardized testing to use to meet the needs of the diverse student body.
Focusing on implementing Common Core standards is also a priority, as the entire district adopts those practices.
For the moment, however, Smith said she's busy getting to know her students and teachers and parents.
"Visibility is key," she explained. "Attending events. Being out there. I pride myself on being available to families. Whether it be email, phone calls, drop-ins. If I'm not working with a student or in a classroom, if a parent comes in, or grandma, grandpa, auntie, I'll stop what I'm doing and meet with them."
That has already paid off in unexpected, and tasty, ways.
"One of the grandmothers brought me some homemade tortillas last week," she said with a smile. "They were fantastic. They reminded me of my grandmother's."
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Santa Fe/ EDITORIAL: Measuring Success, One Principal at a Time
The New Mexican
September 23, 2012
Halfway through his first 100 days, new schools Superintendent Joel Boyd is beginning to show what he means to do to begin improving the Santa Fe Public Schools. Last week, Boyd outlined how he plans to change employee evaluations in the public schools, beginning with principals.
By next week, principals should know what their performance compact model - Boyd's term - will include. It's an attempt to bring accountability and uniformity to performance evaluations, including establishing systems to set goals and evaluate achievement.
- Principals will be measured on a number of fronts, with expectations for them depending on their experience and their school setting. Key components include student achievement, school operations, community satisfaction and instructional leadership. The evaluation will include hard data - test scores, for example, and the statewide A-F school grading model - as well as surveys of parents, students and staff and other indicators such as teacher and student attendance.
The comprehensive nature of the evaluation is important to determine fairly who can lead and who can't. We like that Boyd's proposed format relies on more than test scores, a one-dimensional measure. We also think it's a good sign that the superintendent is reaching out to include the community in judging how a principal performs. The feelings of staff, teachers and families matter in how well a principal is doing her job.
Once the principal evaluation model is set, the administration will move ahead into setting up teacher evaluation criteria.
We'd wager that Superintendent Boyd gets a decent evaluation system developed before the Public Education Department has its new system up and running - of course, it's much easier to make changes on the local level than when fighting a political battle across the state. Still, it helps when the boss is listening. Making such evaluations transparent, clear (the failing of our state A-F report card) and uniform will help both the teachers being evaluated and the community buy into the new system.
These are early days, of course, but the deliberate nature of Boyd's approach - meeting with the community, focusing on performance and evaluation, and continuing to reach out as he makes decisions - is reassuring. We look forward to seeing the finished evaluation model and to its implementation. Good principals help grow and maintain good schools - it's that simple. And that difficult.
~~~~~~~~~~~~
ABQ/ OPINION: APS Reaches High for Top Rankings
By John Briscoe [Albuquerque and Taos resident, Briscoe is the former spouse of Joyce Briscoe, who was a well respected teacher at APS and worked for many years to establish the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards. He and his current wife, Anita, work with the ATF Foundation to fund the National Board financial award and reception as a memorial to the work that Joyce Briscoe did to define and promote best practices in public education.]
ABQ Journal
September 23, 2012
Well qualified and motivated teachers are the single most important component in education. The National Board for Professional Teaching Standards was created to quantify and define exactly that, the recognition of a highly qualified and motivated teacher.
I compliment the Albuquerque Journal for its recent reporting and supportive editorial on the work being done at Susie Reyes Marmon Elementary. With the support of their principal and current nationally certified teachers, they are working to mentor others at their school as they undergo the rigorous process of certification.
They "get it"; they understand the importance of encouraging outstanding teachers, those who will be leaders at their school and in their community and are willing to work for it. Teaching is a difficult job especially in the current political climate of tight budgets and lack of consensus on where we should be headed with public education. With that said, I think we can all agree that the work being done at Susie Reyes Marmon is to be commended.
I would like the readers to be aware of another program that mentors teachers who are attempting to achieve National Board certification.
From the National Board's inception some 20 years ago, the Albuquerque Teachers Federation has mentored its member teachers to meet the high standards required for certification. In fact approximately 280 of the 340 teachers who are or have been a part of Albuquerque Public Schools have benefited from the union's program, including those at Susie Reyes Marmon Elementary.
As a result, APS is far ahead of the rest of the state in the number of teachers who have met the standards for national certification. The total number of teachers who are nationally certified in New Mexico is 675. New Mexico ranks 23rd in the nation for the total number of National Board certified teachers; if this figure was calculated by population, New Mexico would most certainly be in the top 10 states in the country.
Last year's class of 2011 National Board certified teachers ranked New Mexico 15th in the nation with 95 new National Board certified teachers. A total of 52 of those were from APS, which put APS sixth in the nation for the most number of new National Board certified teachers in 2011.
The process of certification is both rigorous and expensive.
In addition to the mentoring program, the ATF, through its foundation is assisting teachers who successfully complete the process by reimbursing some of the costs at least for liberal arts teachers (Sandia National Labs provides financial assistance for math and science teachers). The ATF Foundation also hosts a reception each year to recognize those who have completed the process and to encourage them to mentor others.
Just as we commend the good work at Susie Reyes Marmon Elementary, let us commend the Albuquerque Teachers Federation leadership in supporting the work of the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards and those APS teachers who strive to meet the highest stands of their profession.
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Santa Fe/ OPINION: Superintendent on Accepting Responsibility for Student Success
By Joel D. Boyd [Superintendent of Santa Fe Public Schools]
ABQ Journal
September 23, 2012
When I began as superintendent of Santa Fe Public Schools, I was surprised to learn that there were no clear expectations in place for academic improvement. Although almost as many students were dropping out of high school as graduating, we didn't have measurable, annual goals for each school. Instead of designing a coherent approach to performance management, as a system, we tended to blame external factors for our schools' lackluster results.
In some cases, our schools still found ways to achieve. SFPS, for instance, currently has the highest performing elementary school in the state. However, in most cases, adults were given satisfactory ratings year after year while children continued to fail. Currently, just 48 percent of our students are proficient in reading and only 36 percent are proficient in math. At this rate, it will take more than 100 years for our schools to reach a point where all of our children are performing on grade level academically.
If we want to improve upon our results, we must change the status quo.
We recently unveiled a new strategy for shared accountability; a system in which every administrator will be provided with clear expectations for performance and evaluated against those expectations at the end of each year. To begin this process, we designed Performance Compacts for each of our schools. In these compacts, we outlined indicators of success and defined annual improvement targets in four key areas - student achievement, school operations, community satisfaction, and instructional leadership. We avoided a one-size-fits-all approach and developed individual targets for each school, making sure that our targets were aligned with reasonable outcomes. Our next step will be to establish similar types of performance compacts for each office in our central headquarters.
To be as clear as possible, our Performance Compacts use a simple method for establishing student learning targets. Following a pure growth model, schools are simply asked to improve upon their student achievement data over the previous year (i.e., if a school had 20 percent of its students proficient in reading in 2012, they were given a target of 28 percent proficient in 2013). Our principals understand this straightforward method and can easily use the targets to develop improvement strategies.
These compacts also include opportunities for teachers and parents to weigh in on the performance of their schools. At SFPS, we are committed to partnering with the entire community. As a result, a category of the performance compact - Community Satisfaction - calls for community feedback through surveys and requires schools to increase the amount of parents who state that they are receiving quality services. We are also using surveys to learn how teachers and staff members perceive the leadership in their schools. That data will then be used to complete the Instructional Leadership component of the compact. Overall, the Performance Compacts will offer a comprehensive, 360-degree review of each school on an annual basis.
Of course, we know that whole school improvement requires more than accountability. As we establish these compacts, we are committed to providing all schools with adequate support through a differentiated approach to site-based autonomy and resource allocation. Recently, we realigned our system's central functions to better support our classrooms. In a few weeks, we will begin reconfiguring our core services to ensure that schools get the types of supports that they need when they need them. Schools with the greatest need will be provided resources and guidance to develop intervention programs for students, increase professional development opportunities for teachers, extend learning time and engage families in the educational process. Following a belief that people who are closest to our children are best positioned to make decisions, all of our schools will be given greater decision-making authority. Schools that have demonstrated continuous improvement will be provided with complete financial flexibility to enable them to build on the good work that they are already doing.
As educators, we have the opportunity to touch the life of every student who walks through our doors. At SFPS, we know that we are responsible for our students' academic success. We now plan to make our actions match our words - we will accept nothing less than 100 percent of our students achieving college and career success.
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Washington DC/ School Districts Lack Critical Data on Early Education
By Julie Rasicot
Education Week [Edweek.org]
September 21, 2012
School districts and communities across the nation are doing a poor job of keeping track of how many kids attend publicly-funded preschool and kindergarten programs, leading to an inability to analyze those programs to make sure they are meeting students' needs, according to a new report released this week. [http://earlyed.newamerica.net/sites/newamerica.net/files/policydocs/Counting_Kids_Tracking_Funds.pdf]
The issue brief from the New America Foundation's Early Education Initiative, "Counting Kids and Tracking Funds in Pre-K and Kindergarten," makes the case that even in this data-conscious age in public education, "the American education system suffers from an acute lack of some of the most basic information about publicly funded programs for young children."
- "City leaders, school board members, superintendents, and elementary school principals often have no idea how many 3- and 4-year-old children in their districts' borders are enrolled in publicly-funded pre-K programs, let alone whether these children are prepared for kindergarten," wrote authors Lisa Guernsey and Alex Holt.
- "State policymakers cannot make sound comparisons between districts or shine light on disparities in access in low-income areas."
In their brief, Guernsey and Holt focused on the lack of data at the local level, noting that other research has documented issues with collecting early-education data at the state level, as part of the New America Foundation's Federal Education Budget Project. [http://febp.newamerica.net/] The project collects and displays information on federal education funding.
- The researchers found that the diversity of funding-including local, state and federal-for pre-K programs increases the challenges of collecting data about those programs. And disparities in enrollment requirements, length of programs, and ages of enrolled children only add to the problem.
- Efforts to collect kindergarten data face some of the same issues. Funding, the length of the school day and school week, as well as enrollment criteria, can vary from district to district.
Why is collecting accurate data so important?
- "The movement toward better public early education in the United States is predicated on issues of equity. Policymakers and the public recognize the unfairness inherent in a system that provides some children access to full-day pre-K and full-day kindergarten programs and other children with no such opportunities," Guernsey and Holt wrote.
- "Making comparisons between school districts and localities is critical to understanding which children are excluded."
They recommend creation of a panel of national experts to figure out what states and the federal government should do to improve the collection of early-education data at the district level.
"Getting the data right is a critical step toward providing better learning experiences for all young children, laying the groundwork for alignment across the pre-K-3rd grade years, and building a strong foundation for their success in school," the authors said.
~~~~~~~~~~~~
New York NY/ Public Television Takes Role in Curbing Dropout Rates
By Elizabeth Jensen
New York Times
September 23, 2012
More than 100 public television stations reaching two-thirds of the nation's viewers turned over their air on Saturday to an unusual seven-hour telethon broadcast live from WNET-TV's Lincoln Center studio in New York.
A parade of media stars, including NBC's Brian Williams, CNBC's Maria Bartiromo, CBS's Rebecca Jarvis and public media's Maria Hinojosa and Ray Suarez, exhorted viewers to "call the number on your screen," but they were not seeking membership pledges. Instead, they asked viewers to sign up to be "American Graduate Day Champions," and connect with community organizations working on the nation's high school dropout crisis.
The telethon was part of the fast-growing American Graduate initiative, seeded in the last year with about $5 million in grants to public television stations by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
- "Education is probably one of the hottest issues facing the country," said Neal Shapiro, president and chief executive of WNET, which assembled the telethon in just four months. "I think people didn't realize how huge the problem is, or how much success there could be and how local groups are actually making a difference."
While graduation rates have inched up in recent years, nearly 25 percent of students over all drop out.
- CPB, whose partners include the America's Promise Alliance, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the Everyone Graduates Center at Johns Hopkins University, has channeled an additional $10 million into program grants.
- The grants are for televised teacher town hall meetings, programs from Tavis Smiley and the Independent Television Service, and a coming four-hour PBS documentary, "DC Met: Life Inside School Reform," from the National Black Programming Consortium, among other programs.
- Shows this week include a "Frontline" hour, a five-part "PBS NewsHour" report by Mr. Suarez and a public radio documentary. (Coincidentally, NBC News is broadcasting its "Education Nation" reports this week.) But stations have embraced American Graduate beyond the shows; many have become deeply involved with the broad swath of local community organizations tackling issues including abuse and abandonment, and teacher quality.
- In St. Louis, the Nine Network of Public Media is coordinating 51 local partners, which have divided into groups addressing such topics as early intervention, and parent engagement strategies, said Jack Galmiche, Nine Network's president and chief executive. He characterized Nine Network's role as helping disparate community organizations align their work more effectively.
"Being in this community for 50 years, being a trusted institution, when we ask these groups to come together they show up and they show up with the best intentions," Mr. Galmiche said.
Other stations are developing curriculums for schools and production training programs for at-risk youth.
While public television stations have long been involved in early childhood education through their preschool shows, the American Graduate work is far afield from the stations simply being an outlet for "Sesame Street," or the prime-time hit "Downton Abbey."
"This is a next-generation relationship with our community," said Rich Homberg, president and general manager of Detroit Public Television.
Mr. Galmiche called it a return to public broadcasting's original mission. "Being a provider of education and educational resources and civil discourse were the principles we were founded on in 1954," he said. "Our value to this community is, simply, how do we improve community life?"
John Kania, a managing director of nonprofit consultant FSG, which has worked with the stations, said shrinking revenues helped spur the new thinking.
"There are serious conversations going on within public media right now about how do they improve their relevance both for society and as a media asset going forward," at a time when state and federal support is dwindling, and consumers have lots of media options, Mr. Kania said. He commended the strategy, but said it was also risky, "because they're working on a lot of issues where people have failed for many years to make progress."
Any impact on dropout rates will take years, raising questions of long-term commitment.
"Stations always chase the grant money to do something and then once the grant money stops flowing they stop doing it," said Robert J. Daino, president and chief executive of Syracuse's WCNY, which received American Graduate grants. He praised the program "as long as stations remain committed."
CPB is committed to supporting the initiative for five years, said Patricia S. Harrison, the corporation's president and chief executive. "In order for this to be taken seriously, this cannot be a drive-by," she said, adding that the goal is to find other support. Nine Network, for one, has raised $500,000 so far to support the dropout work.
Ms. Harrison said she is hopeful the work will also convince detractors on Capitol Hill who want to cut public broadcasting's funds. "It should, because it speaks to an issue that belongs to all Americans. It's not partisan," she said.
"It speaks to the fact that the country is in trouble and that we cannot tolerate or even sustain a million Americans dropping out without changing how we think of ourselves as Americans," she added. "If that doesn't resonate with Capitol Hill, I really don't know why."
Organizers said Sunday it was too early to say how many new volunteers the telethon generated. But United Way executives who appeared said they were pleased.
United Way and more than a dozen public television stations are meeting this week to discuss a more formal relationship around the issue, said Stacey D. Stewart, an executive vice president at United Way Worldwide, in an interview at the WNET studio. "We have to activate action on the ground with volunteer programs and advocacy," and public television stations can help get the message out on the local level, she said.
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Washington DC/ COLUMN: Superintendents Fight Ohio's 'Third Grade Guarantee'
From Valerie Strauss' Answer Sheet daily column
Washington Post
September 24, 2012
The Chicago teachers' strike was the biggest action that we've seen against aspects of modern school reform, but people in other places are fighting too. Here's a report from Ohio, by George Wood, superintendent and secondary school principal at the Federal Hocking Local School District in Stewart, Ohio. He is also the executive director of the Forum for Education and Democracy - on whose blog this appeared - and chair of the board for the Coalition of Essential Schools.
Wood writes in part about superintendents who have decided to fight Ohio's Third Grade Guarantee [http://www.cleveland.com/open/index.ssf/2012/06/ohio_gov_kasich_signs_third-gr.html, which essentially means that third graders who cannot read at grade level will be held back and not be allowed to move to fourth grade. While this seems to make sense, there is virtually no evidence that holding students back is more beneficial than allowing them to move up a grade. [http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/mar08/vol65/num06/Grade-Retention.aspx]
First, three superintendents and their school boards have decided to stand up publicly against the ill-conceived "Third Grade Guarantee" here in Ohio. If you missed it, last spring the Ohio legislature, prompted by Gov. John Kasich, decided that no child would be promoted to fourth grade unless they could read by third grade. Further, at each grade level, kindergarten through third, children had to be tested with standardized instruments to see if they are 'on-track' to read by age eight. If not, an individualized program was to be designed and carried out for each individual student.
Of course there is no funding for the program, just the advice that schools can use their federal dollars for it and that there would be, sometime in the future, grant funds available. The law, passed in May, had to be implemented by September even though the Ohio Department of Education did not inform school districts of what tests they could use until August. As of September 13, the policies to be followed were still changing.
More important than the structural problems with the law is the fact that it is simply not good educational practice.
Teaching children to read is a craft, not simply a "follow-this-recipe" science. Children learn to read with the help of good teachers at all sorts of speeds, some by age 6, some not until age 10 or later. Sure, if they are struggling, we should help - what the heck do the legislators think we have been doing?
But mandates like this, well, as one of the brave superintendents put it: "At the end of fifth grade, I could not read. Somebody intervened on my behalf. If they had retained me, I would not be the person I am today."
On a more local level, one of our graduates was sitting through her first college lecture on one recent day. In the lecture hall she patiently listened to her professor claim that schools are factories, kids and teachers are mindless robots, and the only outcome is to reproduce an unequal social order. When he ran out of air, he challenged the 300 some students to tell him if their school was any different than what he had described.
Much to his surprise, I am sure, our graduate, just a freshman, stood up and talked about her school. A school where kids are not ability-grouped, where self-designed senior projects and portfolios are the capstone of their years in school, where students have an equal say in hiring staff and where they serve on all committees. The professor responded, "Really, right here in Athens County?" Yes, a mere 15 miles down the road he could find a school that challenges his carefully constructed but ill-informed worldview. But I doubt he will ever come visit; few if any college faculty do. I don't know why they don't visit schools like ours - maybe they would have to rewrite their lecture notes.
When I survey the educational landscape there is much that gives me pause. The growing privatization of our school system, the reliance upon standardized tests to promote students and evaluate teachers, more and more state regulation with fewer state dollars. And many of the teachers I talk with feel overwhelmed, under-appreciated, and helpless in the face of forces that seem too big to challenge.
But then there are these acts, both small and large, that give me hope. Hope that, in spite of how the prevailing winds blow now, that those winds might just shift.
It will take all of us to bring about this change in public dialogue.
It will take more school administrators and school boards brave enough to call out legislators on ill-conceived policies. It will take union leaders bold enough to embrace changes that are needed while defending the traditions that we hold dear. It will take college faculty who are willing to climb down out of their ivory towers and join in the day-to-day work of schooling. And it will take teachers, students, and parents who are willing to speak out in support of the educational practices that do make a difference in the lives of young people.
When I watched the national conventions of the Democratic and Republican Parties I noticed how often they paraded out "regular" folks to make their case. Teachers, firefighters, moms, college students, you know the drill. But there is something in that strategy.
It is the knowledge that if you want to grab someone's attention you do not bombard him or her with numbers, or research reports, or pie charts. Instead, what you do is simply ask people to speak from the heart, to take their case, their experience, and use it to generalize to the larger system.
That is what the graduate of my high school and these superintendents in Ohio are doing. This is a lesson for us all.
~~~~~~~~~~~~
New York NY/ OPINION: Education First
By Ban Ki-moon [Secretary-General, United Nations]
Huffington Post
September 21. 2012
Education has shaped my life and the history of my country. I grew up in a society ravaged by war and mired in poverty. Schools had been destroyed. My classes were held in the open under a tree. We had no desks, chairs or other basic necessities. The Republic of Korea was on its knees, but education enabled the country to stand tall again. The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) and other international partners provided books and school supplies to help pave road to recovery. I will never forget the hope that these basic tools gave us.
Even in the worst circumstances, education helps to give children confidence to face the future. As Secretary-General of the United Nations, I want every child, without exception, to have the same sense of opportunity that I had. The power of education to transform lives is universal. When you ask parents what they want for their children -- even in war zones and disaster areas -- they seek the same thing first: education. Parents want their children in school.
Children have a fundamental right to free primary schooling of good quality. Governments have pledged to uphold this right. I am deeply concerned that education is slipping down the international priority list. Education First stems from my resolve to answer the call of parents everywhere for the schooling their children deserve -- from the earliest years to adulthood. We must place education at the heart of our social, political and development agendas.
This is not a matter of choosing education over other issues of great importance. Our internationally agreed development goals are a complex tapestry, and education is an indispensable thread. Educated mothers are more likely to have healthy children who survive. Educated families are less vulnerable to extreme poverty and hunger. And educated nations enjoy are more likely to enjoy vibrant economies, political stability and a respect for human rights.
Education is not simply a moral imperative; it is the smart choice. Every dollar invested generates $10 to $15 in returns. Yet worldwide, some 61 million children are still not in school. Our shared ideals are simple. We want all children to attend primary school and to progress to secondary school and relevant higher education. We want them to acquire the literacy, numeracy and critical-thinking skills that will help them to succeed in life and live as engaged and productive global citizens.
This is a pivotal moment for collective action. The 2015 deadline for achieving the internationally agreed goals for education is approaching fast. The achievements of the past decade have shown what it takes to succeed: political will at the highest levels, sound policies, and resources to scale up proven methods. But to achieve a breakthrough, we will need an unprecedented mobilization of all traditional and new partners. Education First aims to rally a broad spectrum of actors to spur a global movement to achieve quality, relevant and transformative education for everyone.
We must not deny the promise of quality education to any child. The stakes are too high. When we put education first, we can end wasted potential and look forward to stronger and better societies for all.
