Posted 1:06 PM by Susan Darst Williams

RHODE ISLAND UNION-BUSTING TACTIC
IS THE PERFECT RX FOR OPS

Whoa! Cheers for Frances Gallo, a Rhode Island school principal, who is going to fire about 100 teachers, assistants, and administrators for failing to obey her orders aimed at improving the educational outcome of the high school in beleaguered Central Falls, R.I.

Half of the students are failing ALL of their classes, and the graduation rate is BELOW 50%. Unemployment is rampant in the town, with average salaries pegged at $22,000 a year. But school staffers are making upwards of $50,000 MORE than that.

So Ms. Gallo decided it was time for the staff to take some serious steps to fix the failing school:

-- work 25 minutes longer per school day
-- provide before- and after-school tutoring on a rotating basis
-- eat lunch with the students once a week
-- have more rigorous staff evaluations
-- attend weekly after-school planning sessions with other teachers
-- attend two weeks of summer training

The unionized staff refused. So Ms. Gallo FIRED them!!!

Woo hoo! Love it. Let's keep watching this one . . . and see if the idea spreads to other schools where far too many kids are failing and dropping out. Exhibit A: the Omaha Public Schools.

Read about it:

www.businessinsider.com/henry-blodgett-unionized-rhode-island-teachers-refuse-to-work-25-minutes-more-per-day-so-town-fires-all-of-them-2010-2

Labels: Frances Gallo, Rhode Island tactic of firing uncooperative staff would work in the Omaha Public Schools, Rhode Island union-busting

Posted 9:58 AM by Susan Darst Williams

NEBRASKA EDUCATION LEADER
BLASTS FEDS FOR ENDING SCHOOL CHOICE IN D.C.

It's encouraging to see a university president in Nebraska who "gets it" about how school choice is the answer for disadvantaged children and youth.

Even though we're a state which lacks any form of meaningful school choice -- vouchers, tax credits, charter schools, contract schools, a network of multifamily attendance area homeschools -- the president of Grace University still perceives the benefits of school choice. He still has enough common sense to see that it is wrong of the Obama Administration to end the school-choice vouchers program that was demonstrably working in the District of Columbia.

See:

www.issuesinperspective.com/2010/Feb/10feb20-21_2.cfm

Labels: school choice program District of Columbia

Posted 1:58 PM by Susan Darst Williams

ELKHORN KIDS COMPETE IN
ENGINEERING CONTEST IN D.C.,
JOIN THE PRESIDENT IN SPACE CHAT

Congratulations to two middle-school teams from the Elkhorn Public Schools, who took first and second in a recent regional Future City competition, and were in Washington, D.C., this week, competing at the national finals. See http://www.futurecity.org/

Students from Elkhorn Ridge Middle School and Elkhorn Middle School designed and built tabletop models of a DURA -- Disaster Underground Relocation Area -- which was this year's theme for the student competition that is put on during National Engineers Week.

Three of the students got to visit President Obama along with students from three other states as he placed a phone call to American astronauts in the space station.

Kevin Riggert, principal of Elkhorn Ridge, said that experience and the Future City competition is a good example of how schools are teaching students 21st Century thinking skills, creativity, collaboration and real-world application. "It gives me shivers," he said. "This is what makes your job."

He said 34,000 middle-school students were in Washington for the event, so it was an honor indeed for the three Elkhorn students.

The students used simulation software, researched and wrote an essay and narrative about how the city would function, and gave an oral presentation to a panel of engineers. They worked with engineer mentors in this practical application of math, science, technology and engineering.

Riggert said his school's students were the only ones at nationals to use an outer space theme. He conjectures that is why some team members were invited to the White House. The team won a special award, he said.

Labels: Elkhorn Public Schools, Nebraska students at Future City competition

Posted 2:50 PM by Susan Darst Williams

N.U. GRADS FUND READING CENTER
ON UNL CAMPUS FOR 1-ON-1 TUTORING

A major gift to the University of Nebraska Foundation has resulted in a new name for the remedial reading center in the Home Economics Building on East Campus at UNL. It's the Kit and Dick Schmoker Reading Center:

http://cehs.unl.edu/tlte/readingcenter/

The Schmokers graduated in the 1960s and live in Edina, Minn. Their git pays for salaries, outreach services, equipment, scholarships and fellowships for college students involved in reading education.

N.U.'s future teachers tutor children at the center to apply what they're learning in their undergraduate and graduate courses.

The center serves students who read one to three years below grade level. So far, nearly 300 students in elementary, middle and high schools have been aided.

Labels: 1-on-1 tutoring in reading in Nebraska, Schmoker Reading Center, UNL reading remediation

Posted 11:08 AM by Susan Darst Williams

MONOPOLY:
GOOD GAME, BAD SCHOOL SYSTEM

John Stossel has a good article that points out how foolish it is to expect a government monopoly to do a good job delivering an important item like a child's education:

www.townhall.com/columnists/JohnStossel/2010/02/17/education_too_important_for_a_government_monopoly

In the last few days, I've talked to three teacher friends who are all down in the mouth over what they CAN'T do. It's all because they are forced to do things a certain way by the government monopoly.

One wants the freedom and flexibility to teach to the children's passions and interests, but has to stick to the multitudinous, micromanaging standards which bore her as much as they bore the children.

One wants to be able to flunk kids who aren't working hard in his high school science class, but it's against district policy to flunk anybody, and the kids KNOW that, so all he can do is let them take the same test over and over until even an eggplant would be able to pass.

The third would like to recommend to the parents of a short, frail seventh-grade boy to switch him to a private school, because he is getting bullied by the public school "toughs" who are already in gangs. But if she did that, she'd get fired.

What should we do?

End the government monopoly over schools. The question is, how?

Labels: end government monopoly over education

Posted 10:25 AM by Susan Darst Williams

WATCHING THE SEATTLE SCHOOL BOARD SQUIRM
OVER JUDGE'S RULING THAT THEIR MATH CURRICULUM
DAMAGES THE FUTURES OF LOW-INCOME STUDENTS

It is instructive and encouraging to see how a citizens' group in Seattle is shining a spotlight on the terrible disservice that "whole math" does to all students, but particularly low-income and minority students:

www.educationnews.org/ed_reports/53457.html

The Omaha Public Schools has the exact same problem -- stubbornly clinging to "discovery" math curriculum that is actually making low-income kids more innumerate, and widening the racial achievement gap. It has become a civil rights issue in Seattle, and it sure as shootin' is in Omaha as well.

Now all we need is a small group of concerned citizens to file suit. Any takers?

Labels: math racial achievement gap, Seattle math lawsuit

Posted 9:48 AM by Susan Darst Williams

SEATTLE JUDGE ORDERS SCHOOL BOARD
TO TAKE A HARDER LOOK AT FUZZY MATH TEXTS

This is a victory for fans of traditional math instruction! A group of citizens filed a lawsuit against the Seattle Public Schools for selecting a "discovery math" curriculum, even though the evidence showed that it increased the racial achievement gap, rather than helped low-income and minority students succeed more in math.

The judge recently ruled that the school board should take another look at the evidence for and against that curriculum. While he stopped short of ordering them to throw it out, he agreed with the citizens that it looked counter-productive to the goal of helping low-income and minority students succeed in math:

http://betrayed-whyeducationisfailing.blogspot.com/2010/02/decision-favors-plaintiffs-in-court.html

"Discovery math" is the style of many, many public school boards these days. It keeps the low-income kids down, and prevents more advantaged kids from achieving as much in math as they could, if they had traditional math instruction.

Wouldn't it be great if school boards would come to their senses, drop-kick "fuzzy math" and get tried-and-true, computation-based math textbooks back in the classroom?

Or do we have to SUE 'em?

Labels: fuzzy math prevents low-income and minority kids from achieving success, problems with discovery math, Seattle math lawsuit