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March 2008
Who should prepare kids for kindergarten?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Eileen Drennen wrote about a program that prepares 3- and 4-year-olds for kindergarten. The program, which operates out of an apartment complex in Norcross, is a partnership between parents and the United Way.
Nonprofit groups have worked for years to provide low-income children with quality pre-school and pre-kindergarten. But they can’t reach everyone. What happens to the kids they can’t help?
Georgia already offers universal pre-kindergarten for 4-year-olds and there has been talk about expanding the program to 3-year-olds.
Some argue the state shouldn’t teach more children until it can provide quality education to its k-12 students. They question why the state should get involved when part of the problem comes from poor parenting.
Supporters stress how critical the first five years of life are for children. They say strong programs prepare children for school by increasing their language and reasoning skills. Studies show students who enter kindergarten prepared are less likely to repeat grades, drop out or need special education programs.
How important are school readiness programs? Who should provide them?
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Fat or Thin Envelopes
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
It’s college acceptance season. That time of year when students are thrilled to open the mailbox and find a fat envelope, full with an acceptance letter and other information. Tears fall when students get a thin envelope, which contains just a rejection letter.
More students are learning their college fate on a computer screen. High school seniors will be able to go online today and learn if they got into UGA. Other colleges will post their decisions online March 31.
Many of us have been in this situation before. But college admissions are more competitive now. The current high school senior class is the nation’s largest in 20 years. They applied to college in record numbers. A bigger applicant pool means schools can be even more selective.
What was it like when you applied to college? Could you get in to your alma mater if you applied today?
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Will other schools accept Clayton students?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Some Clayton County parents will be happy to know a House committee passed a bill that will give them vouchers to send their children to private school or another public school.
Senate Bill 458 provides an escape for families if their school loses accreditation or fails to meet state and federal testing goals for seven consecutive years. Clayton has until Sept. 1 to meet nine mandates set by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools or else the district will lose its accreditation.
Of course there is a catch: Public schools are not required to accept the vouchers.
For several months some parents and teachers in nearby Fayette and Henry counties have feared Clayton students would try to attend their schools. Some say the schools don’t have enough space for extra students. Others argue their schools are more challenging and wonder if Clayton students can handle these tougher standards.
We’ve blogged before about what adults and the state owe Clayton County students. Do you think these vouchers are fair? Should neighboring public schools be required to teach Clayton children? If not, what will happen to these kids?
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Does school choice work?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
A story in today’s newspaper examined the push behind different bills in the state Legislature to give parents options to send their kids to private schools or non-traditional public schools.
These “choice programs” cover everything from tuition tax credits to vouchers to charter schools. Similar bills have popped up in state legislatures across the country and have become part of a national platform.
But do these programs work? For every study touting how great it is there is another arguing the benefits are minor or non-existent. A study released last Thursday says the success of these programs depends on how well they are designed. (Warning: A group opposing private school choice helped pay for this research.)
The idea that healthy competition improves all schools is one of the arguments behind these marketplace programs. As expected, many public school leaders don’t buy this argument. Check out what Gwinnett Superintendent J. Alvin Wilbanks had to say about this.
What do you think? Does choice improve public schools for all children or is it an escape route for a lucky few?
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Awards for everyone
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Practically any teacher, student or school that wins awards gets recognized during Gwinnett County’s monthly school board meetings.
This month board members saluted a student named the Georgia German Student of the Year; a student who was the state winner of the Invest Write essay contest; and an elementary school teacher who received a Georgia Council of Teachers of English award.
These awards aren’t unique to Gwinnett. Sit through almost any school board meeting and you’ll hear about campuses winning the Schools of Excellence label from the state. There’s also the state’s Title I Distinguished Schools honors. Let’s not even try to list the many national awards.
How meaningful are these awards when so many students, teachers and schools win them? Are these awards just feel-good honors or do they really say something about the quality of a school and its teachers?
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How much do you want to know?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
This has been an interesting month for several Gwinnett County high schools.
Central Gwinnett, Duluth and Peachtree Ridge high school principals all dealt with rumors spread through text messaging that a shooting or other violent act would take place on their campuses. The principal at Mill Creek High disciplined students involved in a fight and then saw the brawl land on YouTube because another student recorded the free-for-all using a cell phone.
With each incident, principals sent letters home or posted notes on school Web sites letting parents know what happened. Some provided more detail the others. Parents from each school said they wanted to know more.
A national school safety expert said school leaders must let parents know they’re aware of different problems and explain they’re investigating them. Others say telling parents about every threat, rumor or fight could be a full-time job.
How much should principals tell parents? Are there some things you don’t want to know? When does all this information become too much information?
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What would you pay for a good superintendent?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The Clayton County school board will have to pay big bucks if they select John Thompson to become the struggling district’s temporary superintendent.
According to this story, Thompson wants a $275,000 salary, 24-hour security, a car and driver and $2 million for his own consultant team.
Granted, Thompson will have a challenging job as he tries to salvage this district. But his salary request is higher than what is paid to the superintendent of Georgia’s largest school district. Gwinnett superintendent J. Alvin Wilbanks will earn a base salary of about $262,000 under his new contract. His total compensation package including expenses and benefits is about $353,000.
Wilbanks isn’t the highest paid school leader in the metro area. That honor goes to Beverly Hall, Atlanta schools superintendent. Under her new contract, Hall could earn about $355,000 between her salary and performance bonus. That doesn’t include expenses or benefits.
Some could argue Thompson has the harder job. He must work quickly to stave off the loss of accreditation. The district must meet nine goals, including: better governance; ethics and conflict management; improved training of school board members; an end to meddling by outside groups; a forensic audit of district finances; and a comprehensive audit of student attendance records.
He also will have to restore faith in the district, heal a community and work with a bickering school board.
How much would you pay someone to accomplish all that?
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Text-messaging rumor mills
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Rumors spread by text messaging flew through three Gwinnett high schools this month. The rumor mill said a shooting would take place on campus or gangs were bringing weapons to school.
Students panicked and left school early. Worried parents made their kids stay home.
Here’s the catch - when police investigated the threats at Central Gwinnett, Duluth and Peachtree Ridge high schools they found nothing to substantiate the rumors.
Gwinnett school police charged a 16-year-old student from Peachtree Ridge with disruption of public schools as part of the investigation into the text-messaged threats. The three campuses increased police presence. Principals sent notes home and took calls from concerned parents.
Schools have had bomb threats and rumors of violence before, but text messaging gives wings to all this gossip.
How are parents, schools and the police supposed to respond to this? Everyone needs to take these threats seriously, but when do the rumors become like the boy who cried wolf?
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Will flexibility improve NCLB?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings announced a pilot program aimed to differentiate between schools that need help in many areas to make Adequate Yearly Progress and schools with just a small number of students missing the mark.
Spellings described this program as “differentiated accountability.” Basically up to 10 states will have more freedom in how they sanction schools that fail to meet the performance targets required under No Child Left Behind.
NCLB says all students should perform at grade level by 2014. To meet that goal, schools must reach certain benchmarks on specific tests every year. Schools are judged on scores for all children and subgroups of students. If just one group misses the mark, the entire school can fail. Schools missing the mark for consecutive years face increasingly severe sanctions, ranging from allowing students to transfer to better-performing schools to a takeover by the state.
The law breaks down schools’ test scores in more than 35 categories. School A may fail in 20 areas, while School B may miss one. As the law stands now, both schools would be viewed as “in need of improvement” and face the same punishment.
The pilot program would change that. School A would receive extensive intervention from the state and face harsh sanctions. School B would help its few struggling students without being labeled underperforming or facing sanctions.
The change addresses criticism that the law labels too many effective schools as failing. But this isn’t the overhaul many critics hoped for. One anti-NCLB group described the program as “the political equivalent of rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic.”
Do you think this flexibility will improve NCLB?
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Anything you research, I can research better
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
At least once a day I get an email or piece of actual mail touting some new study. The pr person typically writes that this new study provides all the proof for why the nation or Georgia or Gwinnett County should try the latest education fad.
One study says big schools are better; another says smaller campuses are the way to go. One report says charter schools are superior, a second study touts the benefits of private schools and a third claims traditional public schools remain the strongest.
Unlike other industries or subjects, schools have so many variables it is hard to determine whether a new method really works. Schools never implement just one thing. Sure a school may try uniforms, but that same year the principal may start new training for teachers and a better reading program. How can you say one reform worked over another?
What about other indicators: family income, parent involvement, teacher experience and the amount of money spent on each student? Any of those factors can sway the success of a new program.
With all the contradicting reports and studies out there, what are we to believe? If we can’t trust these studies, how do we make informed decisions about what will work in our schools?
What do we owe Clayton County students?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
As expected, the National Accreditation Commission board voted to revoke Clayton County’s accreditation effective Sept. 1. That means no HOPE scholarships for students. No state-funded pre-K.
In order to keep its accreditation, the school district must meet nine mandates set up by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools by Sept. 1. School board members say they can overhaul the district in time. An official with the accreditation commission said that’s unlikely unless the system gets significant intervention.
Some parents aren’t waiting to see what will happen. They’re registering their kids for private school, preparing to move to another school district or getting the materials needed to home-school.
The reality is many of the district’s 52,800 students won’t be able to leave. What’s to happen to them?
When we’ve blogged about Clayton County before there’s been a lot of responses along the lines of Clayton voters created this mess and they should clean it up.
To that I ask: What about the students? They didn’t elect this school board. Why are they being punished for the mistakes of adults? Don’t all of Georgia’s adults owe something to the children of Clayton County?
Do we have different rules for male teachers?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Mike King wrote a column about a male teacher who was accused of sodomizing a 6-year-old girl in a school bathroom, only to be declared not guilty of aggravated child molestation nearly 2 ½ years later.
The teacher’s case makes me wonder: Do male teachers face a double standard?
Few people raise an eyebrow if a female teacher talks with a student alone. When it happens with a male teacher, the situation can be misconstrued. I’ve heard male middle and high school teachers say they try to never be alone with a student. Some invite a female colleague into the room or move the conversation into the hallway.
If they must be alone with a student, many male teachers leave the door open. Some say they stand near the doorway, so it doesn’t look like something clandestine is going on.
Male elementary school teachers - particularly those in kindergarten - face different challenges. At that young age, children are quick to hug. Female teachers hug back with little hesitation. Male teachers say they’re more likely to give pats on the back or on the head.
Many female kindergarten teachers will help kids with problematic snaps and zippers and help kids change their pants if they have an accident. The male kindergarten teachers I’ve met said they won’t do that because it could be misinterpreted. Instead, they ask a female paraprofessional to step in.
As a society, do we trust female teachers more than male teachers? Why?
Can alternative schools work?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Steve Visser wrote about the lawsuit the American Civil Liberties Union filed against the Atlanta school board and the private management company hired to run the district’s alternative school.
The ACLU suit describes the school run by Community Education Partners as a violent, out-of-control campus that fails to teach students.
The suit says school resource officers are physically aggressive and have used choke-holds on students. According to the lawsuit: “Teachers and at least one administrator routinely hit students, throw books and throw students against the walls or to the floor.”
The school doesn’t do any better when it comes to academics: The ACLU says no students there made it to senior year in 2006.
Atlanta school officials pay Community Education Partners almost $7 million a year to run Forrest Hill Academy. In today’s story, the company’s chief executive officer disputed the lawsuit’s claims.
He said most students dramatically improve within five months. He dismissed claims that teachers fight with students. Teachers are trained to restrain students when necessary, he said adding staff act quickly when students fight to keep other kids safe.
Many districts have some type of separate school for students with habitual discipline problems. But that doesn’t mean educators know how to help these kids. Many of these children are so close to becoming dropouts, that an alternative school is the last hope for getting them back on track.
Alternative schools are supposed to provide students with personalized attention to help them succeed academically and work through any problems they might have. Can alternative schools accomplish that? Or are they warehouses for violent-prone kids failing in school who are too young to drop out?
Shakespeare for 4-year-olds?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
When I was 4 my favorite books were poems and stories by Shel Silverstein and anything involving Curious George. Turns out I should have been reading Shakespeare instead.
The Royal Shakespeare Company has suggested 4-year-olds learn The Bard. The group’s directors recently made statements in The Guardian of London saying young kids are fearless and open to new words. While Shakespeare’s works intimidate many adults and teens, the company’s directors say young kids don’t have that problem because they’ve never heard of Shakespeare.
We’ve all heard educators buzzing that young brains are like sponges, waiting to soak up any information thrown their way. As a result, schools expect young children to know more and more every year.
Do you think young children could handle Shakespeare? How much is too much for these students?
Teach more, spend less
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
It looks like Georgia’s public schools won’t get as much money as they hoped.
Gov. Sonny Perdue said the state isn’t getting as much money from tax collections because of the weak economy. So he lowered by $310 million his estimate for how much money the state will take in over the next year and a half. The state has to find ways to cut spending and that could include smaller raises for teachers and schools won’t get money for new computers or buses.
Obviously school leaders won’t be happy about this. For the past five years the state has made cuts to its basic school funding formula. School leaders have said they are getting to the point they can’t tighten their belts anymore. They’ve already held off on filling some positions, buying new buses, textbooks and computer software. Meanwhile the number of students they teach continues to increase.
What do you think of Perdue’s plan? Is there a way to make cuts and still protect schools? If local school leaders have to slash their budgets, what programs or positions can they afford to get rid of?
Create the ideal school board
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
A story in Sunday’s newspaper focused on a group trying to recruit candidates for the Clayton County school board. Many people agree the current members need to go, but who will replace them?
We touched on this topic a little bit Friday, but let’s go deeper. If you could create the perfect school board, what would it look like?
Some would argue the members should have experience working in schools. Maybe it would help to have someone with experience in human resources or accounting or a developer who understands planning and growth. Others say active parents make strong board members. But few push for students to serve on school boards.
Tell me your ideal school board.
Can anyone run a public school?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
This Legislative session is full of bills questioning how and who should run public schools.
The House passed a bill Wednesday that would give school administrators more freedom on how they spend money, the number of students they put in each class and the types of teachers they hire. In exchange for this freedom, schools would enter into contracts with the state to meet specific academic goals.
Sounds simple enough, but the bill also says schools failing to meet standards could be converted to charter schools or put under private management.
Some see this bill as a back-door way to privatize public education. Others say it is a way to improve schools by stripping away bureaucracy and holding schools responsible for student learning.
What do you think of these contracts? Would you want a private company running a public school?
Fewer bus-riders
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
I left a school the other day a good hour before dismissal. Already cars driven by Mom and Dad were lining up to pick up the little ones.
I’ve heard of schools having 500 cars waiting to pick up kids at dismissal. These parents create a traffic nightmare. Their cars block fire lanes and the congestion forces many drivers to take alternate routes.
Some parents say buses are inefficient. Kids wake up early to catch the bus and a 15-minute ride takes 45 minutes because of circuitous bus routes. Other parents worry kids aren’t safe on buses. For proof they point to this week’s bus accident in Cherokee County that sent 27 students to the hospital.
But studies from the National Safety Council say kids are 87 times safer in a school bus than a passenger car. And some principals tout buses as better for the environment. They say school buses consume less gas and produce cleaner air as opposed to the pollution produced by idle cars.
With gas over $3-a-gallon, isn’t the school bus a better deal? Why do Moms and Dads want to chauffeur their kids to school?
K-9 units at school board meetings
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Every article about the situation in Clayton County public schools paints a picture that is increasingly depressing and outrageous.
I read the story about Monday night’s meeting and was startled by this paragraph describing the scene:
“While the crowd walked through metal detectors, about 25 patrol cars, including K-9 units and special operations units, circled outside. A police helicopter hovered overhead while a mobile command center was set up in the parking lot.”
How did we get to the point where a police helicopter is required at a school board meeting? One expects that much police presence after riots or gang violence, not school meetings.
I’ve seen the occasional security guard at school board meetings. Sometimes a couple of police officers will be present when the agenda topics are controversial.
What do you think of the police presence at the Clayton meeting? Was it warranted or was this a way to intimidate those who attended?
Sprechen Sie Deutsch? Parlez Vous Francais?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
You may not speak German or French, but kindergarten students may learn these languages and more if Senate Majority Leader Tommie Williams has his way.
Williams is trying to find $20 million to provide foreign language lessons in all kindergarten classrooms. His plan is to add more money every year so eventually every grade in all Georgia elementary schools will offer a foreign language.
Williams and other foreign language supporters argue students need to know a second language to be vital in today’s global society. In the last couple of years charter schools have promoted this same belief by offering Spanish, Chinese and Japanese to elementary school students.
Others question whether spending $20 million on foreign language classes is the best use of money. Some argue students will be more competitive if they master math, science and technology.
How important is it for young children to learn a second language?
(If you want to see another opinion on this issue check out what Rick Badie had to say.)
Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Today I thought we’d tip our hats to reading’s top cat.
Sunday marked the birthday of the late Theodor Seuss Geisel, the man who taught us to read, to love books and turned whimsical characters into our friends. Schools across the country are serving green eggs and ham and holding birthday parties to honor Dr. Seuss. Guest readers will pop into schools and share some of their favorite books.
It’s easy to forget the impact of Dr. Seuss. He famously wrote “The Cat in the Hat” following a challenge from his publisher. That publisher read a national report showing most schoolchildren had trouble reading because their books were boring.
Can you imagine what schools and books would be like without Dr. Seuss? What is your favorite Seuss character and book?
Here’s an ode I once wrote to Dr. Seuss:
Kids would not read in a boat.
They would not read in a moat.
They would not read what so easily bored,
What felt like chores and brought on snores.
They would not, could not read those old shams
‘Til Seuss made it fun with his friend Sam I Am.
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