Lucas' Blog

Influencing education in South Carolina…

2012-02-03T06:28:00.001-05:00

There’s so much money flowing into SouthCarolina from other parts of the United States for political purposes.

Many of our politicians spend a good bitof time raising funds for their campaigns from those who do not live within theconfines of our state. Citizens of ourstate should question the motives behind such fundraising efforts (and themotivations behind the donations).

One effort that seems to draw lots ofmoney to our state ( from such places as New York City) is the attemptto include tuition tax credits/vouchers into our state law.

Based on an analysis by the SC Boardof Economic Advisors, this year’s voucher bill (*H. 4576) will costcitizens approximately $68 million during the first year ofimplementation. The bill would also havea cost of $15 million in each of the next two fiscal years. You can clickhere to read this brief report from the BEA.

Anotherbill is under consideration is *H. 4547. This bill would cost taxpayers over $30 million next year. You can clickhere to read this report by the BEA.

I believe strongly that public moneyshould be used to support local public schools.

*The SC General Assembly website wasdown this morning, so I do not have links to the proposed legislation.

Update: Here's the link (click here) to the SC General Assembly website. Enter the bill number and you can read the proposed legislation.

Literary Quilt at Ravenel Elementary ...

2012-02-02T05:29:00.000-05:00

I receivedthis note a few weeks ago from Cindy Edgerton who serves as the media specialist at Ravenel Elementary:

There once was a librarian from Ravenel,
Who had a dream and wanted it to go well.
So she enlisted the help of the teacher of art,
Then authors and illustrators throughout the US and Canada were asked to take part.

The project began and took five years to complete,
Just organizing the endeavor was quite a feat.
Students learned lots through year number one,
Then it took a village to get the work done!

An invitation will arrive soon, so please save the date.
A celebration it will be - we can hardly wait!

The celebration was heldyesterday morning, and a new quilt with squares completed by many of the authors ofbooks read by the students at the school was unveiled.

The quilt looks great, andit now hangs in the school’s art gallery.

Here’s a picture of thequilt and one close up of the square by noted author and illustrator Steven Kellogg.

My congratulations go out tothe folks at Ravenel Elementary on this collaborative project that celebratesthe love of reading and books.

Two things are so important …

2012-02-01T06:10:00.000-05:00

A colleague gave me a wonderful quote that I keep on my deskso I can be reminded of it often. It’sfrom George Bernard Shaw. Shaw states, “Thesingle biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has takenplace.”

My goal in this job to provide clear communication, but I donot always succeed.

Another critical element for me is to have a sense of humor. Being able to laugh, even at my ownmistakes, helps me stay positive and optimistic.

With than in mind, here’s a video that I think encapsulatesthese two important concepts: The needfor clear communication and a good chuckle midweek.

NCLB/ESEA Waiver Meeting

2012-01-31T05:50:00.000-05:00

I’m off to Columbia this morning to hear more about thewaiver request being proposed by the SC Department of Education. This is a rescheduled meeting. The original meeting was to be lastThursday (January 26), but was cancelled on short notice Wednesday afternoon (January 25) without explanation.

I’m concerned about what is being proposed (see earlierblogs), and I’ve very interested in the simulations that are to be sharedtoday. It should prove to be aninteresting meeting.

EFOC Scrabble Tournament

2012-01-30T08:31:00.002-05:00

We had a great time on Saturday with the Education Foundation’sScrabble Tournament. There were five games that lasted 45 minutes each, and money raised atthis event help with the teacher grant program. The next tournament will be February 18 at Seneca High.

Congratulations to our winners pictured below ...

First place – Seth Chea
Second place – Rose Kratzer
Third place – Tamra Hawkins

Pictured: Jim Gadd (Education Foundation), Chea, Kratzer, and Hawkins

Comparison of the calendar options...

2012-01-30T08:10:00.001-05:00

I got a request for a side-by-side comparison of thecalendar options. Here’s the comparison:

Changing teacher evaluation...

2012-01-27T07:44:00.000-05:00

We seem tobe on a fast track to change teacher evaluation systems in our state. Although not required by the US Department ofEducation, this seems to be a major component of the NCLB/ESEA waiver beingproposed by the SC Department of Education.

Talking withmy colleagues across the state, there seems to be little support for suchchange and much concern. It seems in ourhaste to make tweaks to the evaluation system we may make some of the same mistakesthat other states have made.

With regardto “pay for performance,” most teachers (less than half) do not have tests thatcan provide “value added” data for evaluation purposes. There seems to be a narrowing of thecurriculum (maybe less teacher collaboration, too) when such systems get put into place. Anotherproblem seems to exist when you don’t structure incentives correctly: people will cheat (there are many examples of this across the US).

How do you manage such a system efficiently withexisting manpower? The additional load and responsibilities will fall onthe principal when moving from a bimodal system (teacher demonstratescompetency and then moves to a goals-based evaluation) to a frequent rating/ranking model. Such a system has to be fair and consistent, and that's been a major problem.

There’s anarticle that highlights some of the problems being faced by principals in otherstates in the rush to develop new teaching rating/pay for performance models (clickhere to read).

I hope wedon’t put the cart before the horse in this situation.

Student emails…

2012-01-26T07:49:00.004-05:00

I like when I get an email from a student. Such mail usually falls into one of twocategories: a description of a perceivedinjustice or a request for information.

I always try to respond promptly to such e-mails so I’m a little later in my posting this blog entry this morning.

The student who wrote me is writing a research paper related to high school dropouts. That’s a great topic, and it is so relevant.

I’m sharing on the blog the references I shared with thestudent this morning. It’s some reallygood information, and I hope folks will check out some of the disturbing facts andstatistics.

The student also wanted local statistics. These statistics can be found on the SC Departmentof Education website under the research portal. Graduation and dropout rates are reported as part of the annual schoolreport card (click here).

Although our on-time ratesexceed state and national performance, I’m not proud of these statistics. Our proposal for a modified calendar is anattempt to hold students accountable and improve these statistics.

Day 99 and a visit to the Walhalla-area elementary schools

2012-01-25T05:33:00.001-05:00

I spent time at James M. Brown Elementary and WalhallaElementary yesterday, and I really enjoyed seeing teachers and students inaction.

James M. Brown Elementary

My first stop was in 1^st grade. The students were excited; they were doingthe calendar and counting activities and it was day 99 in school. The 100^th day of school is alwaysa big event in early childhood classrooms. I have to commend the teacher because these first graders were thinkingand using vocabulary words like “commutative” and “expanded notation” as theyworked on number sentences. Thinking wastheir number one task.

I moved around the building and arrived at a kindergartenclassroom. These students were alsodoing the morning routine, but something was different. There were no chairs. Students had just starting using exerciseballs in the classroom for seating. The teacher ledthe discussion, and they were making t-shirts with segmented worms (finger painton their thumbs to make the segments). The worms were to have one hundred sections. I loved the caption on the shirt, “We arewiggling our way to the 100^th day.” So, they were getting ready forDay 100, too.

I next arrived in art. These second graders were carefully observing a picture by HenriRousseau. They looked closely at theflora and fauna in the artwork. Theywere using great vocabulary words. Theytalked about the forest canopy, the overlapping of plants, the cool colors, andhow best to demonstrate a 3D effect with their own artwork. The teacher modeled for the students, andthen they started to work on their own piece of art. I walked around, and the students showed meunique aspects of their artwork. There weretrees, lions, streams, fish, plants and vines. They were busy adding items to give dimension. They were learning and having fun.

I was impressed. Thinking and creativity were being exhibited in the classrooms at JMB.

Walhalla Elementary

I drove the short distance to Walhalla Elementary, and thistime I was slated to observe in a special education class, a music class, andsee fifth grade math instruction.

The special classroom was one-on-one instruction. The student was doing a great job learningabout pronouns. What pronoun can youuse to replace “children,” “mother,” “brother” in the sentence? The student was working hard to find the correct pronoun. The teacher was using a great strategy ofasking him to close his eyes and picture if the word was singular or plural(e.g., one child versus many). Again,there was much excitement in learning. The student gave us a high five as he finished his work and planned fora transition.

My next stop was music. The students were learning to read music and play simple songs with theirrecorders. Hey, I learned a fewthings, too. I don’t read music, and thestudents reminded me of the ways to read it (e.g., Every Good Boy Does Fine andFACE). They practiced playing thecorrect notes and having the rests in the music just right. They played and practiced as a group, and then they playedalong with the accompanying music on the MP3 player. They did a fine job, and I appreciate the teacher’s effort to help themappreciate and learn about music.

My final classroom stop was 5^th grade math. The students were on a pretty difficultsegment of mathematics. They wereworking with fractions, decimals, and percentages. One group worked with classroom computers(mostly netbooks) to determine which fraction was bigger using a web-based program. The computer program required that they placea greater than, less than, or equal to sign as the computer flashed up pairs offractions. They worked in pairs to determine which was bigger. Other students were busyworking in their Everyday Math Journals with such activities as converting fractions to percentages. The teacher pulled the instruction together with a Brain Pop video aboutunderstanding fractions. Again, they hadto think.

I was impressed with what I saw at Walhalla Elementary. The students were doing work at high levelsof the taxonomy.

Well, I had a great visit in the schools on Day 99. Thinking and creativity were all exhibited inthe classrooms, and I left excited about what goes on in our schools everysingle day of those 180 days.

As I write this entry, Iwish everyone a Happy 100^th Day of school today.

Keowee Elementary PTO Meeting …

2012-01-24T05:20:00.001-05:00

I was invited to share information regarding the calendaroptions at Keowee Elementary School last night. There was a great turnout, and the event started with pizza. Fourth graders were selling items to raisefunds for an upcoming fieldtrip.

I appreciated the opportunity to share information about thecalendar options. The parents and staffhad many great questions, and it gave me an opportunity to explain benefits ofmoving from the traditional calendar to one in which we remediate/acceleratestudents who are not performing successfully after each 45-day grading period.

Of course, the best part of the meeting was my ability tosee the Keowee students perform. Students shared with the audience information about South Carolinasymbols they had studied in class (a great skit and PowerPoint), and anothergrade shared a rap/song about figurative language (click hereto listen). I really enjoyed it, and thestudents did a great job!

I will be off to visit in classrooms today, and I’ll sharemy observations in tomorrow’s blog.

WSNW's Coffee Time Program for January 23, 2012

2012-01-23T12:14:00.001-05:00

Dianne England and I were on WSNW's Coffee Time this morning. Topics covered including the state's move to the Common Core of State Standards, the modified calendar process, the NCLB waiver being proposed by the SC Department of Education, and the local Education Foundation Scrabble tournament.

You can use the embedded player below or click here to listen to the broadcast.

How the U.S. Lost Out on iPhone Work

2012-01-23T05:48:00.000-05:00

"Apple once bragged that its products were made in America. But it has since shifted its immense manufacturing work overseas, posing questions about what corporate America owes Americans."

I am about finished with the biography of Steve Jobs, so I was interested in this article in this weekend's NY Times. I encourage you to read this article which details how Apple outsourced its manufacturing of the iPhone and iPad to China. The article details some of the challenges we'll face in the future, and we will need to do more to educate our students for the future.

Business Day

How the U.S. Lost Out on iPhone Work

By CHARLES DUHIGG and KEITH BRADSHER, The New York Times

Published: January 21, 2012

Building Apple’s iPhone in the United States would demand much more than hiring Americans — it would require transforming the national and global economies.

Click here to read this article.

Do you like to play Scrabble (or Words with Friends)?

2012-01-20T04:50:00.000-05:00

Please consider participating in the upcoming tournament next week. It's not too late to register.

Click here to find out more about the tournament.

The Education Foundation of Oconee County (EFOC) is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization that supports educational excellence in Oconee County. The goal is to be an avenue for individuals, businesses, and community partners to provide financial and other resources to benefit students and teachers.

Apple Unveils iPad Textbook Plan

2012-01-19T12:58:00.001-05:00

Apple Unveils iPad Textbook Plan

Apple Says iBooks 2 App Reinvents Textbooks

Something was missing …

2012-01-19T05:54:00.003-05:00

I listened to the Governor’s State of the State speechlast night. I perused the speech thismorning (click here to read). In fact, I had my computer search the textfor references for the word “education.” It was mentioned in the contextof privatizing school buses, the funding mechanism for higher education, and charterschools being innovators.

There has to be more. I searched the text again using the word “school”and found two references. These two referenceswere related to higher education funding mechanisms.

One of the most importantresponsibilities of our state is public education, but it was generally missingfrom the speech.

The speech was focused on jobs andeconomic development. But education wasmissing.

As William Schweke points out in hisbook Smart Money: Education and Economic Development,education is a critical component to economic development in the community. He states, “A compelling body of researchlinks primary and secondary education to economic development and growth. Thisresearch recognizes people as a type of economic asset – ‘human capital’ – andshows that increased investment in health, skills, and knowledge providesfuture returns to the economy through increases in labor productivity.Education increases workers’ average earnings and productivity, and it alsoreduces the incidence of social problems such as drug abuse, crime, welfaredependency, and lack of access to medical care, all of which can weigh heavilyon the economy.”

What provides a significantreturn?

Research indicates an emphasis onpre-school education has a great return on investment with a “decreased likelihood for preschoolparticipants to repeat grades, require remedial education, be incarcerated forcrimes, and become dependent on welfare.”
Quality elementary andsecondary education programs are critical, too. "Educationspending can have a direct, positive impact on the business climate and canimprove the success of at-risk students, whose contributions to the economy arecritical for achieving a high-value/high-wage economy in the 21st century. Suchspending will have a greater chance of success if coupled with specificreforms, such as smaller class sizes, greater access to technology for at-riskstudents, support for teacher training and innovation, and improvedaccountability structure."

I kind of felt like something wasmissing from the speech. The quality of our K-12 public school system is tied to our future prosperity in South Carolina. Dum Spiro Spero.

How to motivate people …

2012-01-18T06:05:00.002-05:00

We had a great principals meeting yesterday, and during the highschool breakout we talked about some of the contradictions in what we do. We want students to be held accountable andexposed to a rigorous curriculum, but we have to do it in a way that doesn’tpush even more students who lack intrinsic motivation out of school.

One of the e-mail clippings (AASA News of the Nation) Ireceived this morning mentioned an article that relates to this dilemma. The Learning Network (NY Times) entry byLarry Ferlazzo references Daniel Pink’s summary of the research in Drive.

Current research says we can motivate people to do what we want withenough of the right incentives. For instance, with alarge enough cash incentive most people will comply with completing expectedtasks; however, they’ll soon resort back to their old habits if the incentivedisappears.

Edward Deci, a professor at the University of Rochester andauthor of Why We Do What We Do, saysthe real question should be: “How canpeople [teachers] create the conditions within which others will motivatethemselves?”

There are three things that educators can do to help studentsdevelop intrinsic motivation:

Praise effort over intelligence. Research indicates praising student effort,especially with difficult and challenging tasks, helps students develop a “growthmindset.” So, never say a student issmart, but highlight the great strategies they employed to complete a difficulttask.
Help students understand and developself-control. Delayed, ratherthan immediate, gratification is the key.
Assigning a 15 minute writing assignment onvalues to build confidence. Awriting assignment that occurs three to five times during the year buildsresiliency and self-worth. Researchershave found that when people reflect on important values they often have agreater sense of self-worth. This canresult in long-lasting academic benefits.

Check out the commentary (clickhere) which has links to research, articles and activities for teachers.

Modified or Traditional Calendar for 2013-14

2012-01-17T05:38:00.001-05:00

The survey to gather input on the type calendar supported byour community in 2013-14 is now online. You can find out more about the modified calendar option by clickinghere or here.

The online survey is only open to residents of OconeeCounty. The survey can be accessed by clicking here.

The modified calendar being proposed for 2013-14 providesopportunities for students to receive additional assistance or credit recoveryat the end of each nine weeks grading period.

Here are a few highlights from the calendar being proposed:

1st Day for Students: Friday, July 26

1st Quarter Grading Period: July 26 –September 27 (45 school days)

-ContainsLabor Day Holiday

1st Quarter Remediation: September 30 – October 4 (5 weekdays)

1st Quarter Break: September 30 – October 13 (10weekdays)

2nd Quarter Grading Period: October 14 – December 18 (45 school days)

-Containsthree days for Thanksgiving

2^nd Quarter Remediation: January 2 – January 8(5 weekdays)

2^nd Quarter Break: December 19 – January 9 (16weekdays)

3^rd Quarter Grading Period: January 10 – March14 (45 school days)

-ContainsKing Day holiday

3^rd Quarter Remediation: March 18 – 21 (4school days)

3^rd Quarter Break: March 17 – March 31 (11 weekdays)

4^th Quarter Grading Period: April 1 – June 6(45 school days)

-Contains 3 inclement weather makeups and Memorial Day holiday

4^th Quarter Remediation: June 10 – 16

4th Quarter Break: Begins 7 (approximately 7 weeks off for students)

Total Required Days for Successful Students: 180 Days

Total Days Available for Students Needing AdditionalAssistance/Support: 199 Days

Folks unable to complete the online survey may contactthe school or the district office for a paper survey.

All parents were notified via our calling system aboutthe availability of the survey beginning on Friday, January 13, and the survey willremain open this month.

Clickhere to see the four options (3 traditional and the modifiedcalendar). The modified calendar is onpage 4.

One of my favorite quotes ...

2012-01-16T05:16:00.000-05:00

Here’s one of my favorite quotes from Dr. Martin LutherKing, Jr.:

“Our lives begin to end the day we become silent aboutthings that matter.”

Student artwork on display at Duke’s World of Energy …

2012-01-13T08:14:00.002-05:00

Students from across Oconee and Pickens counties have artworkon display at Duke’s World of Energy. Idropped by yesterday afternoon to see the opening of the gallery.

There’s some fantastic artwork. I was kind of partial to an elementary workwith a pig, a high school self-portrait with powerful eyes, and middle schoolceramic work. There’s teacher artwork ondisplay, too.

The artwork will remain through February 11, socheck it out. Click hereif you want to find out more about Duke's World of Energy (including the hours ofoperation).

Oh, I wish I had just a tiny fraction of the talent that’son display.

Seneca Middle School ...

2012-01-13T07:19:00.001-05:00

Yesterday I spent some time in classrooms at Seneca MiddleSchool. It is always good to visit themiddle school level. It is like goinghome to me since I spent 18 years of my career either teaching or serving as amiddle school principal.

My first stop was 7^th grade language arts. The writing prompt for the journal entry was “Thegrass is always greener on the other side of the fence.” Students were busy interpreting and reactingto this statement as the teacher took role (and I pondered on the quote, too). The pace quickly changed and the students werereviewing theme, plot, and topic for an upcoming test. To make a good assessment of studentunderstanding, the teacher used colored sticky notes (blue for theme, red forplot, and yellow for topic). With theaid of the computer, a theme, plot, or topic from a literature selection theyhad studied was up on the screen. Students then held up the appropriate sticky and kept a tally of their response(correct vs. incorrect). It was a greatway to review the lesson (and to hold all students accountable).

I moved to another 7^th grade classroom. The next class of students was listening to abook as I entered the room. The teacher readfrom Cinder Edna. This was a great introduction to thestudy of ratios. Cinder Edna, likeCinderella, had a very important relationship with a shoe. The students had two tasks: boys were to trace then measure the length of their shoeand girls were to measure their heights. Then they switched. The teachermade it clear that everything was in centimeters because they were working todetermine the ratio of shoe size to height. It was a great activity, and hopefully the activity will serve as the “mentalVelcro” to help them remember ratios.

My final class was sixth grade language arts. I love ancient Greek and Roman mythology, andthese students were listening to a selection and following along with a graphicstory about Perseus and Medusa. Vocabulary was the focus (e.g., fate, oracle, demigod). The teacher was using a neat soundenhancement system that she had received as part of a grant. Several of our elementary schools use suchsystems, and it benefits all students (and reduces the need for the “teachervoice”) regardless of hearing issues (click here). Pace was quick, and soon the students were being introduced by video to visiting exchange teachers (one from Uganda and one from Peru) who willbe working in the sixth grade classroom with teachers.

I enjoyed my visit in the classrooms at Seneca Middle. Students were engaged and excited aboutlearning. I truly appreciate theprofessionalism and dedication of the SMS staff!

Base funding request for SC Schools in 2012-13 …

2012-01-12T05:39:00.001-05:00

Dr. Mick Zais, SCSuperintendent of Education, presented his budget request and priorities to theWays and Means Committee in the SC House yesterday (click here to read the AP coverage).

Citizens can review thebudget materials he submitted by clicking here.

The primary funding law forschools in our state is known as the Education Finance Act. The SC Board of Economic Advisors states the amountper student to fully fund this law is $2790 for 2012-13. The amount being requested by the Departmentof Education will remain at the 2011-12 funding level ($1880 per student).

Because of the EFA and theIndex of Taxpaying Ability, the School District of Oconee County receives abouthalf of this amount to fund schools from the state level. The remainder of it must come from local funds.

I’ve plugged Financing Education in South Carolina: ACitizen’s Guide before, and it is an excellent primer on school finance inour state. You can access this can 26page document from Clemson’s Strom Thurmond Institute of Government andPublic Affairs by clicking here.

Classroom visits resume: Blue Ridge Elementary was my first stop in 2012!

2012-01-11T04:45:00.000-05:00

I resumed classroom and school visits yesterday. I will be visiting in each school during thesecond semester. Blue Ridge Elementary School was my first stop in 2012.

My first classroom was with a teacher working with small groups of students who need additional support in reading and math. These first and second graders were hard at work on the “oo” sound and letter combination. You know, they were working with words like moo, smooth, moon, root,etc. The students had a secret word withthis letter combination, and they had to describe it to their classmates. Students took turns guessing from the clues,but they also had to spell it correctly if they guessed the word. I have to say “whoo-hoo”because these students were engaged and thinking.

I moved down the hall to see third graders in action. They were working with figurative language,and, specifically, idioms. Don’t youjust love idioms? I think those of us fromthe South constantly use them. Thestudents were being introduced to idioms in a book being read by the teacher. They next selected a slip of paper from abasket that contained an idiom. The students did their best to describe and explain its meaning. They were soon “busy as bees” and were to draw a picture representingtheir idioms and its meaning.

My next two classes to visit were in 5^th grade. Both classes were working in the area ofmathematics. The students were workingin centers and they were learning about equivalent fractions. One group of was playing a card game to seewho could win with the biggest fraction. Other students were working in their math journals completing someproblems (converting improper fractions to mixed numbers). Four or five students wereworking on computers identifying fractions that were bigger, smaller, or equalto one another. A final group wasworking with the teacher. The group working with the teacher had aneat tool that helped them see equivalent fractions; as the teachers explained, the tool would onlybe with them until they mastered the concept. Students were engaged and able to easily explain what they were doing to me.

As I exited the school, I noted the large number ofvolunteers who were working with students. It’s great to see so many citizens willing to give of their time to helpthese students at the school.

Classroom visits for 2012 started off great, and I appreciate the hardwork of the folks at Blue Ridge Elementary School.

NCLB Word Cloud …

2012-01-10T04:58:00.000-05:00

No Child Left Behind was 10 years old earlier this week(January 8, 2002; clickhere for more). Education Week posedthis question: What word or words do youassociate with No Child Left Behind? There were 280 responses, and this wordcloud (click herefor the jpg image) was constructed with the most common or popular responses inthe largest type.

Is your view represented in this word cloud?

Having a great teacher makes a big difference …

2012-01-09T05:01:00.000-05:00

Everyone knows that having a great teacher is extremely important,and I reviewed a new study by professors at Harvard and Columbia (click here tosee the study and the associated materials) this weekend.

With all the waiver talk going around with NCLB/ESEA, this studywas pertinent in that the professors dealt with two important questions:

Does VA (“value-added”) accurately measureteachers’ impacts on scores or does it unfairly penalize teachers who may systematically be assigned lower achieving students?
Do high VA ("value-added") teachers improve their students’long-term outcomes or are they simply better at teaching to the test?

To answer the questions, the researchers tracked approximately onemillion students (grades 4 to adulthood) in a large urban school district. They found that “teachers’ impacts onstudents are substantial.” For instance,replacing a teacher in the bottom 5% with a teacher of average quality (asmeasured by value-added techniques) may generate lifetime earnings gains worthmore than $250,000 for the average classroom.

The researchers note, however, “Our study shows that great teachers creategreat value – perhaps several times their annual salaries – and that test scoreimpacts are helpful in identifying such teachers. However, more work is neededto determine the best way to use VA for policy. For example, using VA inteacher evaluations could induce undesirable responses that make VA a poorermeasure of teacher quality, such as teaching to the test or cheating. Therewill be much to learn about these issues from school districts that start usingVA to evaluate teachers. Nevertheless, it is clear that improving the qualityof teaching – whether using value-added or other tools – is likely to havelarge economic and social returns.”

Teacher quality is critically important, and we must to our bestto attract and retain quality educators. The real question is how best to do it.

Limiting the future?

2012-01-08T07:16:00.001-05:00

There’s anarticle that outlines Dr. Zais’ ideas for reform of our state’s educationsystem. You can clickhere to read this article in the Charleston Post and Courier.

Dr. Zaismakes the statement, "Traditional proposals for improving education --more money, better facilities, improved curriculum and smaller classes -- willnot work. We've tried that. We've tried that for 40 years," said Zais.

He alsostates, "Sadly our high school curriculum is focused on collegepreparation and life enrichment. I'vesaid our high school curriculum should focus on career preparation and lifeskills. For example, business writing is a legitimate substitute to Britishliterature. Public speaking is an important skill that children do not learn. Consumermath, which is useful, might be more important than Algebra I or II. I havenever (seen) the quadratic equation in real life, but I'm hard pressed tocompute my own mortgage payments."

I don’tnecessarily disagree that there should be a focus on future career goals andskills (the EEDAhelps in that respect). However, there’sa danger of a return to our past. That’sthe way South Carolina’s public school system used to work. I am a product of a system that limited thefuture for certain students. Schools weresegregated (not just racially but by mill and town schools), and, even after integration, there were distinct (and limiting) curriculumpaths that students followed.

In the 21^stCentury, all children have to be prepared for some kind of post-secondaryeducation. We also cannot return tolimiting the future of children based on sorting. I’m fearful that some of the options mostoften touted as being beneficial will limit the future of so many young people in our state.It will also limit our state’s competiveness.

Our stateneeds an educated workforce that can compete in the global community. Let’s look forward rather than backward.

I wish everyone could see…

2012-01-06T05:36:00.000-05:00

I wish everyone could see the great things going on in ourschools. We have super teachers andschool staff members who bring out the best in our students.

This year we’ve been highlighting a school or two at each SchoolBoard meeting. The Board has gotten someexcellent presentations about programs and events at the schools. In December, we learned all about the MoneyCents program at Orchard Park Elementary. With the upcoming meeting on Monday, Ravenel Elementary will be highlighted by itsschool principal (we may even have a performance).

I know everyone can’t always visit a school or attend aSchool Board Meeting, but they can stay informed via the district website. Each Board meeting is recorded, and you canwatch by using this link (click here). If you select the December meeting video file (embedded below) you’ll see an excellent presentation and video about the financial program atOrchard Park Elementary (it begins about the 4 minute mark).

So, if you can’t visit a school or attend a meeting to learnmore about school events, please take a few minutes to peruse the video files onthe district’s website.

Check out the Money Cents Highlight from Orchard Park Elementary at the 4 minute mark.

January is a time to begin thinking about budgets …

2012-01-05T05:03:00.000-05:00

About this time of year we begin to think aboutbudgets. Our goal is efficiency andproviding the taxpayer with a good return on their investment.

As we begin the process, I gather data for the Board ofTrustees. One piece of information Ishared with them this week is how we compare on local taxation.

You’ll note three slides below. Citizens in Oconee County have millage ratesthat are much lower than most school districts (5^th lowest in totaland operational millage) in the most current comparison (clickhere for the 2001-2010 data from the SC Department of Education and you canclick herefor a good summary of school finance in our state).

We’re extremely lucky in our county because the value of aschool mill in 2010 was approximately $524,538.

You can determine the amount of revenue from local taxes bymultiplying the millage rate by the value of the mill. So, 31 mills for debt service isapproximately $16,261,000 that we can spend yearly to build, maintain, and retiredebt on our building and maintenance program.

The assessed value in Oconee County was approximately $527million in 2010. The district has theability to borrow for capital/building programs approximately $42 million. This is possible because the SC Constitutionallows us to borrow up to 8% of the assessed value.

Because of the amount/value of business and industry in ourcommunity, tax rates are relatively low to the average citizen andindustries.

I thought I would pass along this data this morning.

How did the Jan. 2 return date impact student attendance?

2012-01-04T05:14:00.000-05:00

With regard to our winter break, this year was unusual. January 2 fell on a Monday. Mostplaces were closed and many of the bowl games (e.g., South Carolina, 30 vs.Nebraska, 13) were held, but we were open and operating. How did itimpact our student attendance rates?

You can see in the graphic above that student absentee rateson January 2 were about 2.5% higher than the typical Monday in December. I guess a little higher than normal can be expected when you return from a holiday break.

We will not have this same issue next year (click here for the 2012-13 calendar). We’ll also return on January 2, but it’s aWednesday. Bowl games and the “official”state/federal holiday will be January 1.

Thanks to all those parents who helped to make sure 93.05%of our students attended school on Monday, January 2!

But are we moving in the right direction?

2012-01-03T05:02:00.000-05:00

The SouthCarolina Department of Education is seeking comment on its flexibility requestunder No Child Left Behind/Elementary and Secondary Education Act. I wrote about this effort in an earlier blog(clickhere).

The request followsfederal requirements (click here toaccess the site allowing for citizen comment, waiver materials, etc.). But is this the correct direction to bring aboutimprovement for our schools?

Dr. Helen F.Ladd, a professor of public policy at Duke University, wrote a response to someof these issues recently (November 2011). You can clickhere to read the entire address/report (“Education and Poverty: Confronting the Evidence”) or here to find out more about Dr.Ladd’s credentials as an educator and researcher.

Dr. Laddstates, “Current U.S. policy initiatives to improve the U.S. education system,including No Child Left Behind, test-based evaluation of teachers and thepromotion of competition, are misguided because they either deny or set to theside a basic body of evidence documenting that students from disadvantagedhouseholds on average perform less well in school than those from moreadvantaged families. Because these policy initiatives do not directly addressthe educational challenges experienced by disadvantaged students, they havecontributed little -- and are not likely to contribute much in the future -- toraising overall student achievement or to reducing achievement and educationalattainment gaps between advantaged and disadvantaged students. Moreover, suchpolicies have the potential to do serious harm. Addressing the educationalchallenges faced by children from disadvantaged families will require a broaderand bolder approach to education policy than the recent efforts to reformschools.”

Here are acouple more quotes from the address/article that I felt were important:

Value-Added Teacher EvaluationInstruments: “The attention to value added, however, doesnothing by itself to help teachers address the educational challenges thatdisadvantaged children bring to the classroom. In that sense it ignores thecorrelation between family background and student performance. Even if it were true that value added modelsgenerated valid and reliable measures of teacher effectiveness (which extensiveresearch shows they generally do not) this focus on teacher effectiveness atbest pushes teachers to work hard toward the goal of raising student testscores, with no attention paid to other academic and non-academic needs ofchildren that may impede their ability to learn (Baker et al, 2010).”

Pay for Performance: “The best U.S. evidence to date indicates that providing financialincentives for teachers to raise test scores does not lead to the desiredresults. In a recent experiment in which randomly assigned math teachers ingrades 5-8 in Nashville were offered large bonuses for raising their students’test scores, for example, no differences emerged in the test scores of thoseteacher offered the incentive and those in the control group (Springer et al,2010). More generally, the focus on test based evaluation of teachersprovides incentives for them to narrow the curriculum to the tested subjects ofmath and reading, and to direct teacher attention to basic skills away fromstudent reasoning skills. In addition, statistical problems of bias andunreliability can lead to unfair and arbitrary treatment of teachers, which inturn lowers morale and reduces the appeal of teaching as a profession (Baker etal, 2010).”

Holding Schools Accountable: “At the same time, individual schools alsoshould be held accountable, but only for things that are under their control.Specifically, they should be held accountable for the internal policies andpractices that help to produce a far broader set of educational outcomes thanstudent achievement alone as measured by test scores. Schools might be heldaccountable, for example, for providing a safe and supportive schoolenvironment and a climate that promotes respect among children and teachers;for tracking the individual developmental needs of all the children they serveand for implementing strategies to address those needs; and for delivering thecurriculum in a coherent manner that engages students as partners in thelearning process and appropriately pushes them all to the limits of theirabilities.”

It is something to consider. Will the efforts really address the problems associated with poor school performance?

Looking forward to 2012 ...

2012-01-02T05:47:00.002-05:00

I am looking forward to 2012. We have 97 school days for students remainingin the 2011-12 school year, and I know it will be extremely busy and productivetime that culminates with graduation on Saturday, June 2.

I hope everyone returns today rested and ready for theimportant work that we have to accomplish during the next six months.

I have to be honest. I woke up this morning a little apprehensive. I had several dreams that signify a feeling of anxiety. I distinctlyremember three different dream scenarios from last night: There’s one where I am a student, and I can’tfind a notebook needed to complete an important homework assignment. Another one in which I’m traveling to work inmy vehicle and several bridges are out keeping me from arriving on thejob. The final scenario is my arrival atwork without any shoes.

My amateur dream analysis tells me this is normal when youreturn from a vacation. There may be somethings that may happen that are unexpected. I also know most folks operate a little better under some stress(if you’re experienced like me, you may recall they called it “level of concern”or “tension” in teaching pedagogy).

Well, I have my notebooks. I don’t anticipate any bridges being out as I drive to work thismorning, and I will be putting on my shoes. I'm ready for whatever comes in 2012!

Best wishes to all for 2012!

2012-01-01T00:01:00.000-05:00

2011-12-20T14:00:00.000-05:00

The blog will resume on Monday, January 2, 2012.

Coffee Time Broadcast for December 19, 2011

2011-12-19T10:56:00.004-05:00

I was a guest on Coffee Time (WSNW) this morning. Also, Dr. Michael Thorsland (Assistant Superintendent for Operations) participated.

The topics covered included the 2010-11 audit, modified calendar, grading practices, and future building plans. The show lasts about 30 minutes and you can listen by using the embedded player below.

SC DOE develops waiver request for NCLB/ESEA and seeks comments

2011-12-19T05:16:00.004-05:00

The SC Department of Education has put together a draft proposal for flexibility under federal accountability laws (NCLB/ESEA).

You can click here to access the SC Department of Education files related to this request. Comments can be submitted on this website (the comment period ends January 23, 2012).

Here a few of the changes that are being requested in the draft document …

Schools would receive a letter grade rather than using the current rating system (excellent, good, etc.).
High performing schools may receive financial incentives for progress.
All teachers would be evaluated on a multi-level scale and performance of students would be a component of this plan.
Principal evaluations will also be modified to include an assessment of school performance.
A sophisticated state-wide assessment system will be developed to track student performance as part of the evaluation process.

We all know that NCLB/ESEA needs modification and change. The US Congress has been unable to act to make revisions, so the US Department of Education is providing an opportunity for states to seek waivers.

Just like NCLB, the real issues are the details of the change. In principle things often sound very good, but the “devil is in the details.”

Congratulations to our newest high school graduates …

2011-12-16T05:09:00.002-05:00

Yesterday there were four new high school graduates from Oconee County. These students were among seven students who received high school diplomas from the Gateway to College program at Tri-County Technical College. The Gateway to College program is a cooperative venture between the seven school districts in Anderson (5 school districts), Oconee and Pickens counties and the technical college.

Gateway students work on their high school diploma and take courses toward a degree at Tri-County Technical College. Plans for the program started about eight years ago when these students were youngsters in elementary school. We’ve had several graduates complete the program from our school district.

The graduation was touching with remarks by Dr. Ronnie Booth of Tri-County Technical College, and then there was a luncheon for the graduates and their guests. The awards component would bring tears to your eyes. The students awarded and paid tribute to individuals who helped them make it through the challenges they’ve faced in life to reach the goal of receiving their high school diploma.

I was so proud of these students, and I join their schools (Seneca High and West-Oak High) in congratulating them on reaching one of life’s important milestones.

You can find out more about the Gateway to College program at TCTC (which will soon become Connect to College) by clicking here.

Show me the money?

2011-12-15T04:50:00.003-05:00

The NY Times has done an investigation into online charter schools (click here to read). Many of these "nonprofit" schools are owned by “for profit” companies. Some operate in our state, too (e.g., Connections Academy).

The article looks specifically at the Agora Cyber Charter School. According to the writer, “by almost every educational measure, the Agora Cyber Charter School is failing.” However, “by Wall Street standards, though, Agora is a remarkable success that has helped enrich K12 Inc., the publicly traded company that manages the school. And the entire enterprise is paid for by taxpayers.”

More and more folks are starting to ask questions. According to the report, “Kids mean money. Agora is expecting income of $72 million this school year, accounting for more than 10 percent of the total anticipated revenues of K12, the biggest player in the online-school business. The second-largest, Connections Education, with revenues estimated at $190 million, was bought this year by the education and publishing giant Pearson for $400 million.”

What’s the reasoning behind such schools? “The growth of for-profit online schools, one of the more overtly commercial segments of the school choice movement, is rooted in the theory that corporate efficiencies combined with the Internet can revolutionize public education, offering high quality at reduced cost.” Or does it? That's the purpose of the news report.

I encourage you to read this interesting investigatory piece about online schools that seem to advertise at the beginning of each semester. How much financial transparency really exists for these corporations running online schools with taxpayer dollars? Is the taxpayer getting a good return? Are the needs of students being met?

The real issue …

2011-12-14T05:12:00.002-05:00

A principal in our district shared a link to a great commentary on the real issue that persists in America’s schools: Poverty.

The op-ed piece is written by Helen F. Ladd (a Duke University professor) and Edward B. Fisk (a former education writer for the NY Times). I think they have a good perspective on the real issues faced by public school educators.

Here are three quotes from the piece (and you can click here to read it in its entirety):

“Large bodies of research have shown how poor health and nutrition inhibit child development and learning and, conversely, how high-quality early childhood and preschool education programs can enhance them. We understand the importance of early exposure to rich language on future cognitive development. We know that low-income students experience greater learning loss during the summer when their more privileged peers are enjoying travel and other enriching activities. “

“Yet federal education policy seems blind to all this. No Child Left Behind required all schools to bring all students to high levels of achievement but took no note of the challenges that disadvantaged students face. The legislation did, to be sure, specify that subgroups — defined by income, minority status and proficiency in English — must meet the same achievement standard. But it did so only to make sure that schools did not ignore their disadvantaged students — not to help them address the challenges they carry with them into the classroom.”

“A final rationale for denying the correlation [correlation of impoverished background and achievement] is more nefarious. As we are now seeing, requiring all schools to meet the same high standards for all students, regardless of family background, will inevitably lead either to large numbers of failing schools or to a dramatic lowering of state standards. Both serve to discredit the public education system and lend support to arguments that the system is failing and needs fundamental change, like privatization.”

There’s always some danger when you extract quotes, so I encourage you to read the entire commentary to gain insight into their perspective.

What about taxes?

2011-12-13T09:59:00.006-05:00

I shared in my earlier post today the results of our audit and a graphic that shares "where the money goes" in our school district.

I shared this slide (below) at our Business and Industry Partnership meeting this morning. Local property taxes (millage) has gone down during the past three years. We've also been fortunate that the value of a mill in Oconee County has increased.

Our county auditor was present at our meeting, and he reminded the group that in some cases lower school millage may have resulted in an increase in the amount of property taxes. As we've reduced millage the homeowner sees less of a credit from the state on his/her tax bill per Act 388.

Of course a reduction of millage does mean lower taxes for our business and industry folks.

2010-11 Audit for the School District of Oconee County

2011-12-13T05:18:00.004-05:00

The School District of Oconee County’s financial audit for 2010-11 was shared with members of the Board of Trustees at their regular December meeting last night.

Stancil, Cooley, Estep, and Stamey, LLP, serve as the independent auditors who review district financial data for the required audit that is due each year. Their primary role is to examine governmental, business-type and major funds and issue an independent report in accordance with Government Auditing Standards. Their report is dated November 21, 2011.

According to the presentation by company representatives, the School District of Oconee County received an “unqualified” opinion with no major findings. An auditor’s opinion is said to be “unqualified” when it is concluded that all financial statements give a true and fair accounting of the financial status under the appropriate framework (e.g., Government Auditing Standards). Some of the financial highlights include:

District assets exceed liabilities by $126 million, an increase in $11.7 million due to recent construction at Seneca and West-Oak high schools;
An unassigned fund balance of $25.5 million which is 32.4% of the general fund expenditures;
A positive net change in fund balance of $2.074 million;
A reduction in long-term debt by $2.3 million (3.8%) over the prior year;
A reduction in revenues of 2.0% for all activities from $124.8 million (2010) to $122.3 million (2011); and
Use of existing fund balance of approximately $2 million to balance the 2011-12 budget.

The audit provides the district with an opportunity to closely examine revenues and expenditures for the year. Using the Financial Analysis Model for Education, which analyzes 100 percent of the general ledger, the District can provide valuable information regarding school and district expenditures in key areas:

Instruction includes expenditures for teachers , substitutes, instructional assistants, pupil-use technology, and instructional materials/supplies;
Instructional Support includes expenditures for guidance counselors, library/media specialists, extracurricular activities, student health, curriculum development, in-service/staff training, program development, and special education;
Operations includes expenditures for transportation, food service, Safety, building upkeep/maintenance, data processing, and business operations;School Management includes expenditures for school principals/assistant principals, and school office personnel;
Program Management includes expenditures for program administration at the district level (administration in the area of assessment, staff development/special programs, and special education); and
Superintendent/Board includes expenditures for the superintendent and board Functions and legal fees associated with district operations.District financial data can be accessed by clicking here and using the links on the left.

Expenditures in these areas can be seen in the graphic above.

Click here to access our financial data on the website. Links are found on the left-hand side of the screen.

SC General Assembly - Pre-Filed Legislation Links

2011-12-12T17:34:00.002-05:00

The SC General Assembly returns to work in January. Several members have pre-filed bills.

Here are the links to the proposed legislation (click on the date):

House Pre-filed Legislation
House Legislation pre-filed on November 29, 2011
House Legislation pre-filed on December 6, 2011

Senate Pre-filed Legislation
Senate Legislation pre-filed on November 28, 2011
Senate Legislation pre-filed on December 5, 2011

Taking a “high stakes” test can be a humbling and disturbing experience…

2011-12-12T05:49:00.003-05:00

I’ve had several people mention a story about a school board member who took one of the state’s accountability tests and found it to be a very humbling (and disturbing) experience. I tried to find the story, but my skills with Google weren’t successful. Last night I received a copy of the story from a community member via e-mail (thanks!).

Here’s a quote from the original story:

“I won’t beat around the bush. The math section had 60 questions. I knew the answers to none of them, but managed to guess ten out of the 60 correctly. On the reading test, I got 62%. In our system, that’s a ‘D’, and would get me a mandatory assignment to a double block of reading instruction.”

You can read the original post (click here) and the follow up (click here) from the Washington Post.

The comments were from Rick Roach, a school board member from Florida, who had recently taken the FCAT (Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test). The FCAT is given annually in grades 3 to 11 in math, science, reading, and writing.

Mr. Roach is a pretty educated man. He has a bachelor’s degree, two master’s degrees, and additional credit toward a doctorate. He oversees a company with 22,000 employees with a budget of $3 billion. He’s required to analyze and make sense of some pretty complicated data as part of his job responsibilities. But he got a low score on a 10^th grade accountability test.

He makes a pretty important comment: “It makes no sense to me that a test with the potential for shaping a student’s entire future has so little apparent relevance to adult, real-world functioning.”

I thought these posts were relevant and important as we move to the next generation of tests for the Common Core and “pay for performance” models.

I’ll have to be honest, I am a critic of such accountability measures (i.e., PACT and now PASS). I really like assessments like MAP (Measures of Academic Progress) that actually inform the instruction process.

Well, it was good to see another’s opinion of testing who had actually participated as a test-taker.

Awesome talent …

2011-12-09T05:40:00.001-05:00

As we come to the close of the semester and the arrival of the holidays, schools typically use this time to showcase the talents of their students.

I’ve spent most evenings this week attending as many of the events as possible. I’m helped out by others at the district office who also attend these activities to represent the district administration and our school board.

This week I’ve seen a principal serve as the conductor on the Polar Express, an art exhibit (I was partial to some awesome pigs drawn by third graders), and band, strings, and choral productions. There’s one word that can describe the events: Awesome!

I’m always amazed at the talent of our students. I’m also in awe of the ability of our teachers and staff to nurture and develop this raw talent and showcase it for the community.

There will be another week of such activities, and I encourage folks to check out the awesome talent of our students.

It's time to wash those hands ...

2011-12-08T07:01:00.003-05:00

Working in schools you're bound to come in contact with illness. I was at a school yesterday to meet with an SIC team on the topic of the modified calendar. Everyone seemed to have a cold or be recovering from one.

As a young teacher I was sick quite a bit, but I soon developed a stronger immune system.

One way to prevent illness is to wash your hands. This week is National Handwashing Awareness Week.

Here's a great infographic on the topic. So wash those hands to stay healthy!

Via Certification Map – Teacher Credential & MAT@USC: Teacher Certification

Federal role in K-12 education?

2011-12-07T05:46:00.000-05:00

I read an interesting Op-Ed piece in the NY Times (click here to read) yesterday. Frederick Hess and Linda Darling-Hammond argue for a coherent vision for the federal role in public education.

Both writers represent different political ideologies and perspectives, but they agree that the federal government should not micromanage the public school system.

The two feel that four functions are critically important and essential for the federal role in public education. The federal government should …

Encourage financial transparency on academic performance and spending in America’s schools;
Ensure that schools protect and defend constitutional rights of students (especially those from disadvantaged or vulnerable populations);
Support basic research that asks fundamental questions about learning; and
Sponsor voluntary and competitive grant programs that encourage innovation.

According to Hess and Darling-Hammond, “Beyond this list, the federal government is simply not well situated to make schools and teachers improve — no matter how much ambitious reformers wish it were otherwise. Under our system, dictates from Congress turn into gobbledygook as they travel from the Education Department to state education agencies and then to local school districts. Educators end up caught in a morass of prescriptions and prohibitions, bled of the initiative and energy that characterize effective schools.”

I hope many others read and consider their comments.

Showdown in Columbia this week …

2011-12-06T05:52:00.002-05:00

There was an interesting article in today’s Columbia area newspaper. According to The State, “a showdown is in the works this week over who has a say about accepting federal money for S.C. schools.”

The article goes on to say that “Superintendent of Education Mick Zais is refusing to follow a directive from the state Board of Education regarding federal education money. It is a sign of an increasingly tense relationship between the state’s education leader and could impact decisions on future education money.”

Further, “he will not follow an order from the 17-member board to give it a monthly report on education money available to S.C. schools from the federal government and private groups.”

You can read the story by clicking here.

NY principals angry over new teacher evaluation system …

2011-12-05T05:37:00.004-05:00

The NY Times covered a revolt that is growing among principals in New York. The revolt is related to changes in the evaluation system of teachers (click here to read “Principals Protest Role of Testing and Evaluations”).

Since the article was published, the number of principals signing the protest letter has grown to 756.

Here’s the gist of their concerns: “… the evaluation system was put together in slapdash fashion, with no pilot program; there are test scores to evaluate only fourth-through-eighth-grade English and math teachers; and New York tests are so unreliable that they had to be rescaled radically last year, with proficiency rates in math and English dropping 25 percentage points overnight.”

It is my understanding that our own state is developing a similar pay-for-performance evaluation system. However, superintendents (and human resources folks) have not received any kind of update on what’s happening or being developed.

It is critically important that superintendents, principals and teachers participate in changes in policy related to teacher and principal evaluation. The problem is often that things are imposed on the system; those who know it best are excluded from the conversation. It appears that is what has happened in New York.

My public school is great ...

2011-12-02T05:48:00.003-05:00

The following video was shared at our superintendents' meeting yesterday. Several districts in our state participated with students, teachers, and parents sharing their comments.

I thought it was a great video, and it's a great way to end the week.

Lines of Communication …

2011-12-01T05:38:00.005-05:00

I’ll be off today to a meeting of superintendents from across the state in less than an hour this morning. We generally meet the first Thursday of each month during the school year. Other groups (e.g., instruction, human resources, testing/assessment) also meet periodically.

It has been my experience, since 2005, of local school folks receiving updates from staff members of the SC Department of Education. Each month we learned about instructional programs, proposed regulations, state testing, budget concerns, etc. It also gave local school district folks an opportunity for dialogue regarding programs and services in our state with state officials. I felt informed and enjoyed the opportunity to voice an opinion on such matters.

This exchange of information no longer happens at these meetings. It ended earlier this year when a new administration took office at the Rutledge Building in Columbia, and it may have resulted from the politics of electing a constitutional officer to oversee educational policy.

I guess this helps me understand the need in our state for this policy position to become less political. A move from being elected to being appointed may help.

It is critically important that communication and dialogue exist between local school officials and the Department responsible for policy and regulation of our schools in South Carolina. What is a better way than meeting at the table periodically for such discussion and exchange of information?

The Corporatization of America’s Schools …

2011-11-30T05:58:00.006-05:00

I took time to listen (player below or click here) and read a report (The Nation) by Lee Fang on the efforts to privatize America’s schools. Fang’s contention is that politicians and corporate executives may be taking advantage of this effort. One area that he’s investigated is for profit companies in the area of virtual or online education.

How schooling is delivered to America's children is always up for political and philosophical discussion, but the bottom line is the use of taxpayer money to educate America’s children. We need to look carefully at how funds are being directed and expended (from the local schoolhouse to a "for profit" company).

Regardless of your political ideology, you might want to listen to his comments and observations from his article entitled "How Online Learning Companies Bought America's Schools."

Article links:

http://www.thenation.com/article/164651/how-online-learning-companies-bought-americas-schools

http://www.thenation.com/blog/164850/lee-fang-takes-corporatization-american-schools

Never too tired to text …

2011-11-29T05:11:00.003-05:00

You’ve seen kids (and young adults) do this. They have their two thumbs constantly in action on their cellphones. Folks spend so much time texting. They do it at all times … even while carrying on a face-to-face “conversation.”

I guess it is a generational thing. I don’t text that much, but I’ve heard from colleagues that it is the only way at times to get hold of college-age students. These young adults will respond to a text rather than a voice message, phone call, or e-mail. So, I found this article that arrived in my inbox this morning (click here) very interesting. The article links sleep deprivation and depression to texting.

According to the research referenced in the article, young adults lose as much as 45 minutes of sleep each week due to texting. These young adults already have a “sleep debt” of about two hours each night now. That additional 45 minutes over the week is a big deal.

I’m glad there are some restraints on high school-age students. Texting isn’t permitted in our schools, and many parents continue to regulate (or restrict) the use of cell phones. College kids do not have such a control mechanisms.

So much of technology consumes our lives. In my professional lifetime I’ve seen the advent of e-mail, phone messaging systems, and cell phones. Who knows what will be down the road.

Time flies ...

2011-11-28T05:36:00.004-05:00

As I write this entry this morning, I am fresh from the holiday break. I’m up a little earlier than usual with the anticipation of getting back to work. My mind is full of priorities and things to do, but one thing keeps coming to the forefront: Only 33 days remain in the calendar year!

Time flies. It seems like this year just got started, and I can now successfully write “2011” on my checks and items that I have to date.

What popped in my mind this morning was the story (click here to read) that I read about an experiment that has universal results. People of various ages are asked to estimate a three minute time interval of time (eyes closed). Older adults overestimate it and those who are around 20 years-old get it about right. According to the article “People in their early 20's were accurate within three seconds, and some got it exactly right. People in their 60's estimated that three minutes were up after 3 minutes and 40 seconds had passed. Middle-aged subjects fell in between but, like the older people, all underestimated the passage of time.”

I had to Google the information this morning, and I found a link (click here) to a psychology site that sets up the experiment. It might be fun to do with a group of staff members of various ages to see if the results are similar.

Well, time flies and I have been having fun. These next 33 days are going to be busy. The time, based on brain research, will pass much quicker for me than the kids in our schools.

Here's wishing you a ...

2011-11-21T05:04:00.000-05:00

American Education Week - Fast Facts for 2011-12

2011-11-18T05:50:00.003-05:00

This week has been American Education Week, so let’s end the week with some interesting facts from Institute of Education Sciences (click here).

Elementary and Secondary Education

Enrollment

In 2009–10, there were about 13,600 public school districts (source) made up of over 98,800 public schools, including about 5,000 charter schools (source). During this time, there were about 33,300 private schools offering kindergarten or higher grades (source).

In fall 2011, over 49.4 million students will attend public elementary and secondary schools. Of these, 34.9 million will be in prekindergarten through 8th grade and 14.5 million will be in grades 9 through 12 (source) . An additional 6.0 million students are expected to attend private schools (source).

About 1.1 million children are expected to attend public prekindergarten this fall. Enrollment in kindergarten is projected to reach an all-time high of approximately 3.8 million students (source) .

This fall, about 4.1 million public school students are expected to enroll in 9th grade—the typical entry grade for many American high schools (source).

Teachers

Public school systems will employ about 3.2 million teachers this fall, resulting in a pupil/teacher ratio of 15.5. This ratio is lower than the 2000 ratio of 16.0. Close to 0.5 million teachers will be working in private schools this fall, resulting in an estimated pupil/teacher ratio of 12.9, which is also lower than the 2000 ratio of 14.5 (source) .

Expenditures

Public elementary and secondary schools will spend about $525 billion for the 2011–12 school year. On average, the current expenditure per student is projected at $10,591 for this school year (source) , the same as actual expenditures in 2008–09 (source) .

Attainment

About 3.2 million students are expected to graduate from high school in 2011–12, including 2.9 million students from public high schools and 316,000 students from private high schools (source) .

The percentage of high school dropouts among 16- through 24-year-olds declined from 11.8 percent in 1998 to 8.1 percent in 2009. Although there have been declines in the Black and Hispanic dropout rates–which have traditionally been among the highest–dropout rates for Blacks and Hispanics remain higher than those for Whites and Asians (source and U.S. Department of Commerce, Census Bureau, Current Population Survey, October 2009).

The percentage of students enrolling in college in the fall immediately following high school completion was 70.1 percent in 2009 (source) . Females enrolled at a higher rate (73.8 percent) than males (66.0 percent) (source) .

Change the first five years ...

2011-11-17T05:47:00.004-05:00

A member of the community, a retired educator, shared this video with me yesterday. Our future can be so much brighter if we understand the importance of the first five years.

The video, which runs four minutes, is very powerful.

Change The First Five Years from Best Start on Vimeo.

Playing by the same rules …

2011-11-16T06:17:00.004-05:00

What would you think if Carolina and Clemson each had different rules for collegiate football? Well, presently states all have different rules and expectations for students when it comes to accountability and standards. It makes it difficult to really understand how students are doing.

To make sure we all have the same rules, most states have moved to become part of the Common Core of State Standards Initiative in order to set similar expectations for college and career readiness. With these new standards for learning, new assessments have to be developed. There are two consortia working to develop assessments for use in 2015.

South Carolina made the decision in the summer of 2010 to move to the new standards, and I have added an “app” that allows one to review the standards for English-language arts and mathematics on this blog (check it out on the right side of the page). You can also find free apps for phones and electronic tablets available, too.

We’re in the process of learning and preparing for this transition. Education is a state responsibility, but the use of national standards will provide similar expectation for students.

South Carolina now needs to decide which assessment will be used in the future. I hope the SC Board of Education will soon make this decision. Using the football analogy, our state is presently sitting in the stands watching as other states determine how learning will be assessed. We need to get in the game.

Click here to find out more about the Common Core of State Standards
Click here to visit the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium site
Click here to visit the PARCC (Partnership of Assessment for Readiness for College and Careers)
Click here for one of the Common Core Apps

2011-11-15T07:15:00.000-05:00

WSNW Coffee Time - November 14, 2011

2011-11-15T04:58:00.000-05:00

I was on WSNW's Coffee Time yesterday. My comments were on a range of topics (e.g., modified calendar, report card release, testing program), and you can hear the show by clicking the player below.

Friday’s High School Student Advisory Meeting…

2011-11-14T04:54:00.004-05:00

We have a high school student panel as part of our district advisory groups that I meet with each quarter. Our second meeting was on Friday at West-Oak High. We move the meetings around to the four high schools during the year, and it gives the kids a chance for them to see another school campus.

The group always offers great advice, and we’ve focused on the modified calendar and new grading practices/protocols that have been in place this year. These students are not shy, and they offer their impassioned advice. I truly appreciate their ability to “cut to the chase” from the student perspective.

I also enjoy visiting the campuses, and I come across some interesting things. The media center at the school had some of the neatest social studies projects on display. The students, studying world history, had to determine the “most absolute monarch.” There were projects with Louis XIV, Henry VIII, Marie Theresa, Elizabeth I, etc. The students replicated a picture or profile of the monarch with important information about their reign and why they were most absolute. It was great to see the information succinctly summarized and the creativity exhibited by the students in the depiction of the ruler. What a great project!

After the lunch meeting, members of the leadership team rode to see the new barn that was constructed across the road from the campus. This may be one of the few (or only) campus buildings approved by the Office of School Facilities in Columbia as a school barn. The barn is an essential part of the agriculture program offered at West-Oak High.

While in the barn I met Henry. Henry is the latest addition to the West-Oak Agriculture Program. Henry’s name is on his stall with a few messages from students. At first, he was a little shy. However, Henry soon approached us and began to talk to us.

Here are a couple of pictures of Henry taken by Dr. Michael Thorsland during our stop at the barn.

Thank You Veterans!

2011-11-11T07:53:00.006-05:00

One of my favorite activities on my Friday drive to work is listening to a Story Corps selection on NPR. These short oral histories are very touching.

The one I heard this morning was illustrative of the sacrifice of our Veterans. It tells the story of a young 17 year old and his experience at the attack on Pearl Harbor.

You can click on the player below to hear this tale (Warning: It’s rather graphic) or you can click here to go to the webpage.

I extend my appreciation to our Veterans for their sacrifice to our nation.

Visiting the Hamilton Career Center

2011-11-11T05:41:00.010-05:00

Each semester I set aside time to visit in classrooms in each school in the district. I had my final observations for this semester yesterday when I visited the Hamilton Career Center. It was a great visit, and, I must admit, a first for me during my 30+ years of experience.

Certified Nursing Assistant

My first stop was the CNA (Certified Nursing Assistant) class. The students have classroom time, and they also have time where they practice what they’ve learned. It is all about demonstrating their skills. I walked in and the students were monitoring their fellow student "patients" in the health room setting.

The students were going through the required 24 skills that will be tested when they complete the required certification exam. The instructor monitored and marked their progress. A student was checking the patient’s pulse. Another was doing foot care. Others were practicing with bedpans.

One young lady approached me and asked if I would serve as her patient. I couldn’t say no, so I was up in the hospital bed. She quickly went through the bedpan procedures. That was a first for me … to have a student demonstrate this procedure. They even took pictures and I'm sharing one below.

Another great strategy in the classroom was the use of a heart made with painters tape (see photo below). As the students studied the circulation system, he/she could walk the blood flow process and label it with arrows. It was a great way to learn using multiple modalities.

The students were great, and they expertly described what they were doing. Each expressed an interest in a future medical career. We have many future CNAs, nurses and other health care practitioners in this class. I even saw the skill they will use if I'm ever bedridden.

Machine Tool Technology

I moved from the CNA class to the Machine Tool Technology classroom. This class is all applied mathematics (e.g., measurements, calculations, drawings). Students had successfully demonstrated completing a drill plate task, and it was fascinating to learn about the strategies they used to complete the calculations to complete the process (e.g., formula for calculating RPMs for cutting tools, reaming allowances). The students color coded the worksheets to help determine which calculation was the correct procedure.

The students were busy working on an individual project creating a "hitch pin bushing." I approached a student and he explained the step he was on in the process. One student used metal shavings to demonstrate why coolant was critical in the process.

Success in this class means almost guaranteed employment. Many of the students can also work and have their tuition paid as they complete additional study at Tri-County Technical College.

The students were great, and I was impressed with their ability to describe the process to someone like me who has such limited knowledge of the use of these cutting and boring tools in the manufacturing process.

I appreciate the teacher's passion for the cooperative experience and making sure his classroom matched the job requirements of our local industry.

Law Enforcement Class

My time was running short before the end of the period, and my final visit was in the law enforcement class. As I entered the classroom, a student was demonstrating her skill at administering a field sobriety test. Another student served as the individual being assessed; he was wearing special goggles that distorted and interfered with his motor skills. With strobe lights from a simulated law enforcement vehicle, the young lady put the individual through the routine. Students in the class were to use their powers of observation: What was done correctly? What evidence existed of driver impairment? What about probable cause?

The students responded, and demonstrated their knowledge. I was impressed with the activity, and I know this course has increased their interest and awareness of law enforcement careers.

It was a great day, and I really enjoyed seeing students in the hands-on application of their classroom learning.

2011 Report Cards Issued ...

2011-11-10T04:56:00.005-05:00

As part of the 1998 Education Accountability Act, school and district report cards were released online earlier this morning. You can see our district and school report cards in the post below. Other districts and schools will be available later today by clicking here.

In the area of Absolute Performance, most schools in the School District of Oconee County maintained or improved the absolute and growth/improvement rating received in 2010.

The District received a "Good" rating on both Absolute and Growth this year.

I find the statistics on the district and schools to be most interesting. For instance, the report card details per student expenditure (a low of $6904 to a high of $11,083), mean salary for the teacher at a school location (district average is $47,500), attendance rates, on-time graduation rates, etc.

Here’s the summary of the information and some of the selected statistics:

Click to make the graphic larger.

SDOC 2011 Report Card Files

2011-11-10T04:55:00.004-05:00

School District of Oconee County	Summary Report	Full Report
Elementary Schools
Blue Ridge Elementary	Summary Report	Full Report
Fair-Oak Elementary	Summary Report	Full Report
James M. Brown Elementary	Summary Report	Full Report
Keowee Elementary	Summary Report	Full Report
Northside Elementary	Summary Report	Full Report
Oakway Intermediate	Summary Report	Full Report
Orchard Park Elementary	Summary Report	Full Report
Ravenel Elementary	Summary Report	Full Report
Tamassee-Salem Elementary	Summary Report	Full Report
Walhalla Elementary	Summary Report	Full Report
Westminster Elementary	Summary Report	Full Report
Middle Schools
Seneca Middle	Summary Report	Full Report
*Tamassee-Salem Middle	Summary Report	Full Report
Walhalla Middle	Summary Report	Full Report
West-Oak Middle	Summary Report	Full Report
High Schools
Seneca High	Summary Report	Full Report
*Tamassee-Salem High	Summary Report	Full Report
Walhalla High	Summary Report	Full Report
West-Oak High	Summary Report	Full Report
**Hamilton Career Center	Summary Report	Full Report

*Tamassee-Salem Middle/High receives two reports because of its grade configuration (Grades 6-12)

**Career Center Report Cards have not been published at this time.

Educating students since 1946 …

2011-11-09T05:15:00.004-05:00

I don’t know if you saw this NY Times article (click here to read) yesterday, but it was inspirational to me.

Mrs. Madeleine P. Brennan has been an educator in the NY Public Schools since 1946. She’s also served as a principal of a middle school for over 48 years (she's been at the school longer than most teachers at the school have been alive).

We too often see negative news, and educators often only make the headlines when something bad has happened. It was refreshing to see the community celebrate the service of Mrs. Brennan as she plans to retire at the conclusion of this school year.

She’s a traditionalist (well, maybe other than on rhinestone day). She runs a tight ship. So, I hope you’ll take a few minutes to read about her service to the Brooklyn community.

Video as mental Velcro ...

2011-11-08T05:16:00.006-05:00

I have always loved to use videos as an instructional tool, and I have a pretty big collection I use when doing workshops. My experience with video goes back to the old reel to reel films you ordered from the state’s lending library to school owned filmstrips (Hey, I remember when they came out with a projector that automatically advanced filmstrips using a cassette taped script).

My final years as a teacher the VCR was in use, and I learned to edit videos by connecting two VCRs together so that I could use parts of a film that made the point (and saved valuable classroom time).

Videos are still a great tool, but they’re even better today. Teachers in our classrooms use Brain Pop and other short videos to introduce or summarize units. Many folks take snippets of films to illustrate a concept, and it can easily be manipulated with the computer and editing software.

The video becomes the mental Velcro that helps students or adults remember the message. Often folks will remember a funny, provocative, or intriguing video; the message conveyed by the speaker comes back instantly as a result of this technique (e.g., the mental Velcro).

I came across the video below on another blog I read yesterday. I think it’s about as perfect as an instructional video can get. It’s less than three minutes and it provides so much instruction on the world’s population growth.

Check out the video ...

Visualizing How a Population Reaches 7 Billion from NPR on Vimeo.

Teacher Cadets ...

2011-11-07T05:22:00.005-05:00

When I checked my e-mail Saturday morning, the picture above was in my mailbox. One of the school counselors had sent me the picture.

The Teacher Cadet program is a college credit high school class offered in the district’s high schools. According to the program mission statement at Anderson University, “The primary goal of the Teacher Cadet Program is to encourage academically able students who possess exemplary interpersonal and leadership skills to consider teaching as a career. An important secondary goal of the Program is to provide these talented future community leaders with insights about teachers and schools so that they will be civic advocates of education.”

In my long career as an educator, I’ve had cadets spend time in my classroom as an assistant or to work directly with students. One of these cadets I worked with didn’t become a teacher, but now serves as a member of the SC General Assembly (the secondary goal of the program).

It was great to see this picture of Oconee students excited about learning more about the education profession. I know we'll have future teachers, principals, and community leaders emerge from this group.

You can find out more about the program sponsored by Center for Education Recruitment, Retention and Advancement by clicking here.

What about poverty?

2011-11-04T06:55:00.005-04:00

This week the NAEP results were released. The news was shared that South Carolina’s results were below the national average. Concern was expressed about such stagnant performance, but I think a few other factors should be considered.

First, when you deal with a mean score then someone has to be below average. The “Lake Wobegon Effect” where all children are above average cannot really exist. So, some states have to be below average.

Second, we know there’s a strong correlation between poverty and student performance (e.g., SAT scores resemble family income levels). I was interested in this relationship, so I looked at the 2008 state poverty levels (US Census data) and compared it to the results.

The slides below illustrate this relationship, and you can see that most states with higher poverty tended to perform below the mean NAEP score.

The real problem in many states is poverty.

Source of Poverty Data:

http://www.census.gov/compendia/statab/rankings.html

Source of NAEP Reading Data: http://nationsreportcard.gov/reading_2011/reading_2011_report/

A snapshot of public education in South Carolina …

2011-11-03T06:07:00.003-04:00

Superintendents from districts across South Carolina meet in Columbia today. It’s not our regular monthly meeting, but one in which we share a vision for public education in our state. A new website has been designed and you can check it out by clicking here.

The website provides a snapshot of what public education should be in our state.

Visiting Fair-Oak Elementary and Oakway Intermediate …

2011-11-02T05:32:00.005-04:00

I spent time yesterday at Fair-Oak Elementary (PK-Grade 3) and Oakway Intermediate (Grades 4-5) yesterday morning.

Fair-Oak Elementary

I was to spend my time in 3rd grade classrooms at FOES.

My first stop was small group instruction in English-language Arts. The teacher was working with a small group of students as others completed work at their desk, a computer station, or in a favorite reading location in the room. The small group of students was having a discussion of the book Ivy and Bean with the teacher. The students were using a great graphic organizer called “Character Cash.” Each student had selected a character and were describing to the teacher why they identified with the character. They used their skills to predict, and were planning on working in groups to retell aspects of the story. I was impressed with the thinking and conversation in the group.

My next classroom was a group of students identified as gifted and talented. They were getting ready to create a quilt related to mathematics vocabulary and operations. The teacher called the group together and they read the book Cassie’s Word Quilt as an introduction to the activity. I was fascinated by the story of the tar beach, and a student quickly pointed out that a “tar beach” was a rooftop and the tar was kind of like a beach when you had a picnic. The story, with its urban setting, was very different from the environs of our area. The students moved back to their desk, and they were to begin figuring out how to exemplify math operations on a quilt. Each student selected a unit (percents/chance, factoring, multiplication and division, etc.) and were to cut out the symbols for the quilt square. I was with a group of boys and it was interesting to hear them discuss their thinking (pizza for percentages, etc.) and see their creativity with the activity.

I moved down the hall to another 3rd grade classroom. This group was also doing small group English-language arts activities. As in the first class, students were engaged at stations. I took a seat, and a young lady shared with me the station menu of activities they were using. The teacher worked with a three young men, and they were discussing The Night Crossing. The guys were about to read three pages, but the teacher prompted them to think about something unpleasant that had happened to them. They were to keep this in mind as they read the three pages. Vocabulary (especially the use of context clues to determine meaning) and comprehension were part of the discussion. As this small group worked together, all other students were on task. It was impressive.

I enjoyed my time at Fair-Oak. Students were all engaged in tasks that required thinking and creativity.

Oakway Intermediate School

I traveled the short distance to Oakway Intermediate. I was going to spend time in the fourth and fifth grade (the only grades at the school).

My first stop was in the art classroom. I wasn’t scheduled to visit the class, but I wanted to congratulate the art teacher who serves Fair-Oak Elementary (4 days per week) and Oakway Intermediate (1 day per week). The teacher was just named the Elementary Art Teacher of the Year by the SC Art Education Association. The kids in the class were engaged in one of two activities, and I checked them out before slipping off to a classroom.

My first classroom visit was in the science lab. Fourth grade students were learning more about the scientific method. A quick video illustrated the process, and the goal in the class to predict (hypothesize) which solution polished pennies better (click here for the activity). They had three liquids provided by the teacher and could select the fourth as small groups. I joined one of the groups, and they formed hypotheses related to the liquids: milk, cola, lemon juice, and a solution of choice (orange juice, Gain detergent, vinegar, or water). The group I was with chose to have vinegar as their fourth solution in the experiment. The students explained their reasoning for selecting vinegar to me (mainly it was related to previous experiments). I exited as they dropped the pennies for the five minutes in the solutions. The teacher was ready to use that five minutes for learning, and the students were to review with a song. I wonder if the students’ hypotheses proved true? I’ll have to follow up with the class to find out.

My next stop was 5th grade English-language arts. The students were busy in groups with the Daily 5 rotations (e.g., Read to Self, Work on Writing, Read to Someone, Listen to Reading, and Word Work). I saw each of these in action, and the teacher held a mini conference with individual students to discuss reading progress (fluency, vocabulary, etc.). I was excited to overhear the student conferencing with the teacher was reading The Sea of Monsters which sounded like the monsters from The Odyssey that I found interesting at this same age. I liked seeing the Word Work group working on Greek and Latin Stems, too.

I moved down the hall to PE in the gymnasium. The students were beginning a unit on bowling. I learned some fascinating things (Did you an English king banned bowling because his men preferred it to archery practice?). The teacher modeled bowling positions (holding and throwing) and some safety procedures. Then everyone was assigned to one of five groups to begin practice. The teacher planned to take the group on a field trip for some real bowling experience later in the grading period.

I really enjoyed my time at Oakway Intermediate, too. I was pleased to see active learning as I moved from class to class.

Why do kids misbehave?

2011-11-01T06:04:00.008-04:00

I read an article this morning about student behavior, and it brought to mind a workshop I have done on student behavior for various groups (I think I originated the workshop for bus drivers). I’m no expert on the issue, but based on my readings and experience as an educator, student behavior (and especially misbehavior) occurs for a reason. To be successful in managing any misbehavior, you have to understand the antecedent or cause and address it appropriately.

I’m including the four slides below that I’ve used to help identify the four main reasons for misbehavior. One often can determine the reason for the behavior by examining your personal reaction to the kid. So, if you’re angry as a parent or teacher, it is most likely that the child is trying to gain power or control of the situation (see the response chart below).

There are numerous resource guides on trying to understand and manage child behavior. One of the sites I’ve used in the past is www.disciplinehelp.com. This site may be helpful because it provides possible causes for the behavior and suggestions on how best to handle the situation.

We all come across students acting out. To be success, it is our behavior and reaction as an adult that is critical. Our reactions either diminish or reinforce the inappropriate behavior.

Fast Facts: Oconee Demographics

2011-10-31T05:17:00.006-04:00

Seven billion. Demographers predict that sometime today (October 31) the earth's population will reach 7,000,000,000. No one knows for sure, but this research group has said this symbolic child will most likely be born in India.

There were several stories in the media over the weekend about this milestone event, and I thought I would share a few of the population statistics from Oconee County. Our county-wide population is about 75,000 and that represents a growth of about 12.2% in the past ten years.

Click on the images to make them larger.

Even more local demographics ...

2011-10-31T05:10:00.001-04:00

Ravenel Elementary ...

2011-10-28T05:26:00.004-04:00

On Thursday I was off to visit in classrooms at Ravenel Elementary.

My first classroom was first grade, and the teacher was busy with the opening routine on the Smart Board. Students completed the calendar, discovered that it was the 49^th day of school, did some money activities (49₵ was in the change purse on this 49^th day), examined the temperature, and graphed the weather. What was wonderful to see was the level of thinking expected by the teacher. The students had to have their thinking caps on because the teacher would ask them to describe things in the future. For instance, when they worked with the change she asked what would happen with the coins the next day (regrouping would be needed for the coins when it became 50₵ and there were several variations pointed out by the students of coinage that could represent the amount). I was impressed, and the students quickly moved to sorting numbers (prime vs. even-numbered). I was out the door and off to visit another class.

I was scheduled to visit in two fifth grade classrooms. My first stop was in an English-language arts class. Students were preparing for an upcoming spelling test; however, the teacher didn’t simply call out words to spell in the traditional manner. The teacher was to read a sentence and ask the students to fill in the missing spelling word that could be used correctly in the sentence. The students had to know the appropriate word, its meaning and the correct spelling to be successful. As part of the Money Cents program, a student shared with me a reading from the diary of Bill Bob Billionaire (who had just returned from a visit at the student’s home). The final activity was the editing of a descriptive story. Wow! These students were great writers. They did a “waterfall sharing” of the writing with me, and my mind was quickly filled with autumnal pictures, sounds, and smells.

I moved down the hall, and it was transition time. A new class of fifth graders was about to enter for mathematics. The teachers at Ravenel are grouping and regrouping based on student needs. The new group arrived and the students were quick to begin problem solving. These were tough problems, and I liked the strategy employed by the teacher. She asked students to provide an answer for the problem … and the students came up with multiple answers. They couldn’t all be correct, so they carefully analyzed the problem. The teacher was quick to ask the students to explain their logic in approaching the problem. In just a few minutes, students responded to problems that required powers of a number, determining surface area, and possible combinations of clothing. Each required a strategy and some heavy duty thinking. I was impressed.

My first class at Ravenel was first grade, and many of the students had on special hats as part of a reward system. I have to say that all of the students I saw at the school had on their thinking caps. I really enjoyed seeing students engaged and thinking!

The teenage brain ...

2011-10-27T05:01:00.002-04:00

Here’s an interesting video (below) about a study that was reported in the Wall Street Journal. It seems that teenagers, with maturing brains, can have IQs that rise or fall by 20 points or more. If this research proves to be true, it gives more evidence that environmental factors impact intelligence. I wrote about such a mindset of intelligence in an earlier blog this week. So, intelligence, as the researchers point out, is more malleable than previously thought. Tutoring (or a lack of tutoring) can have an impact on the growth in mental capacity.

It must be noted that it was a small study in which researchers “studied 33 healthy British teenagers whose IQ scores initially ranged from 80 to 140. They tested the volunteers on standardized intelligence exams in 2004 and again in 2008, to encompass the peak years of their adolescence, while monitoring subtle changes in brain structure using functional magnetic resonance imaging.”

At the conclusion of the research, one-fifth of the students’ results changed. And “the rise or fall in verbal IQ scores appeared to be connected to changes in an area of the brain associated with speech, whereas shifts in nonverbal IQ related to an area involved in motor control and hand movements.”

So, if this study proves correct, exercising the brain and performing challenging mental tasks can be extremely beneficial (especially for adolescents).

Click here for a link to the report.

Keowee Elementary ...

2011-10-26T05:28:00.005-04:00

I spent time in three classrooms at Keowee Elementary School yesterday. It was a beautiful morning for the drive to the school.

My first stop was first grade. I walked in and the students were beginning a new activity. They were making words with “e” and “a.” The student helpers handed out slates, and they also handed out cups of dried beans. The dried beans contained letters written on them, and the students were to take a couple of spoon fulls of letters and form words. The students worked in groups, and I was assigned to work with one student. They divided their whiteboard into two segments to list words they formed. The student I worked with formed a total of 15 words: map, cap, hat, set, pet, etc. After forming the words, he wrote them carefully on his slate. Next came sharing. The students shared words they formed with the sound as the teacher wrote them on the SmartBoard. It was a great activity, and I appreciated the use of dried beans as manipulatives to form the words.

My next classroom visit was in second grade. The students were in a creative use of time at Keowee. When students are pulled out for various activities (speech, gifted and talented, etc.), the teacher has a small group remaining to work with. Students were using netbook computers and reading some creative stories (“Pig”asso and “Mo”tisse were two artists in one of the stories). Other students were reading in small groups as the teacher worked with students on adding two digit numbers. She reminded them that we read left to right, but solve math problems in math from right to left. A volunteer was working with three students on telling time; she wrote a time in digital format and asked the students to show the time on their analog clocks. I applaud Keowee teachers for this creative use of pullout time to reinforce skills.

My final classroom visit was in fourth grade. As I entered, students were working with verb tenses (past, present and future). They were asked to quickly stand up and provide a past tense of a verb. The teacher clocked their speed. The first go round the class did it in 40 seconds. They wanted to improve on the time, and they tried once more. This time it only took 35 seconds. The students quickly transitioned and reviewed editing symbols. They were now ready to edit a descriptive story related to Halloween they had written. Some were writing scary stories, and others were busy describing the best costume for the holiday.

I had a wonderful time at Keowee Elementary, and I appreciate the dedication of the teachers and staff members to support the students. It’s a great school!

Fixed vs. A Growth Mindset ...

2011-10-25T05:16:00.007-04:00

The video above is one of my favorites. It came to mind as I listened to a story as I made a long drive this weekend.

There are so many life lessons that are learned when we are unsuccessful. Some kids see failure as a vehicle for growth and others do not. In fact, many kids may do everything possible to avoid challenging tasks and the risk of failure.

What determines this difference in attitude? Well, according to one researcher, it may be as simple as how we acknowledge kids' efforts in completing a task. We should never say things like, “Wow, you’re smart.” Making reference to a child being intelligent or smart may actually help the child develop a mindset that is limiting.

According to Carol Dweck, author of Mindset, we should focus on the process or strategy that children use to solve problems. The kid is more likely to take on challenging tasks, and, most importantly, learn when they do not entirely succeed in the task with such a mindset.

The interview was done in 2007, but its good advice for parents and educators on helping children develop a growth mindset.

I had trouble with embedded audio player this morning, so click here to listen to this fascinating story.

Fast Facts: Class Size

2011-10-24T05:23:00.000-04:00

Visiting West-Oak High …

2011-10-21T05:10:00.002-04:00

Yesterday was a beautiful morning for a drive to West-Oak High. The air was crisp, and it seemed like autumn.

I arrived and received instructions from the front office. My visit was to concentrate on elective classes, and all of the classes required hands-on or physical activity.

My first stop was in the Industrial Technology class. I walked in, and I was greeted by the teacher. Safety first: The teacher offered me a set of safety glasses so I could visit with the students as they completed their projects. The Industrial Technology 1 students were busy building picture frames. Industrial Technology 2 students had a couple of projects going on (e.g., an end table and a wooden bowl). What was great was to hear about the reverse engineering process from a student. Using a model, the students took measurements, made the design with the computer, translated the computer drawings into printed schematics, and the final step of building the project. All students were hard at work, and each took time to share with me what step they were on with their projects. My only experience as a kid with such an activity was watching my dad build a doghouse … with a chainsaw. I have to say that our dog appeared embarrassed by his abode. These kids will have a much better skillset than I had growing up.

My next stop was in Art. Students taking Art 2 and 3 were in the class. The students were busy with a collage project. Their goal was to present two figures in a paper collage showing some kind of movement. I saw jazz players, skateboarders, a holiday scene, a pair of lovers on top of the world, etc. I was blown away by their designs and the use of color in showing an important aspect of the collage. The students each took time to describe their work of art that was in progress. They articulated their vision, and I was impressed. As they worked, the teacher held consultations with the students. The students made me wish that I had some form of artistic talent.

I moved to Physical Education in the gymnasium. Two classes were transitioning, so I was able to see the end of one and beginning of another PE class. It also gave me a few minutes to speak with the teachers. These PE classes were working on two activities during the week: Ultimate Frisbee on Tuesday and Thursday and Couch to 5K on Monday and Wednesday. They do Fitnessgram assessment activities on Fridays. As the students dressed out, I checked out the activities listed on the wall as part of the Couch to 5K program (click here to find out more). The students wasted no time and one group started the frisbee game (with scoring and timers used on the gym wall). The other group was involved in classroom instruction, and I visited to see that they were working in groups to prepare for a project that would cover several PE standards. I really enjoyed seeing students physically active and engaged.

My final class was to visit in the band room with the WOHS Color Guard. These students have been very successful in recent competitions, and I got to see them in practice. It was an eye-opener for me. The students counted and performed. Perfection was their goal. I offered to take the place of one student as they practiced, but the student wouldn’t take me up on my offer. I couldn’t stay long, so I offered them my best wishes with an upcoming competition.

I had a great visit at WOHS. It was a terrific way to spend a Thursday morning.

Jared Fogle of Subway Fame Visits Seneca Middle School

2011-10-20T05:41:00.002-04:00

There was great excitement at Seneca Middle yesterday morning. Jared Fogle from the Subway commercials was a surprise guest at Seneca Middle School.

Jared was at the school to announce one of the SC Grand Prize Winners in the Fresh Fit Competition. You can read about the event and the winner from Seneca Middle by clicking here.

Jared had a great message for the kids about health and nutrition. Jared told that kids that they need to take responsibility for their actions. He hoped they would heed his advice to cut down on video game play, eat properly and drink less soda, get plenty of exercise, and watch less TV. He expressed the need for moderation in all that we do.

Jared told the kids he made a decision to change his lifestyle as a college student at Indiana University. He was over 400 pounds and wore pants with a 60 inch waist. He had the ill effects of the weight (sleep apnea, inability to move without pain or exhaustion, etc.).

The kids seemed to listen carefully to his message. I congratulate Brenda Beatty, the PE teacher at Seneca Middle, for encouraging her students to be a part of this campaign. Way to go, Seneca Middle!

A fieldtrip for principals …

2011-10-19T04:52:00.002-04:00

We had a fieldtrip as part of our monthly principals’ meeting yesterday.

We’ve done this before. A couple of years ago, we visited Borg-Warner’s plant to learn more about their production and the skills required for today’s worker. The plant manager was great, and he even let us work on the floor of the plant for a period of time (although production at the plant had to have been negatively impacted by our novice work alongside the pros).

We made a similar trip yesterday, and we ventured to the Bad Creek Hydro Station (click here for more information about this part of the Duke Energy System in rural Oconee County and here for more about the Bad Creek Hydroelectric Station).

At one point during our tour we were eighty feet or so below Lake Keowee, and the beauty was breathtaking from the top of the dam. We saw wild turkeys, bald eagles, and the majesty of the mountains and lakes.

Duke Energy is the largest taxpayer in Oconee County, and we truly appreciate their support. We also appreciate the time they gave our principals as we learned more about this industry in our county.

Here are few of the pictures from our field trip. It was a great way to spend the morning, and we were able to get back into “meeting mode” at lunchtime.

Fast Facts: Teacher Experience

2011-10-18T05:44:00.007-04:00

Click on the graphic to make it larger.

There’s been talk about changing the structure of teacher pay in South Carolina. Currently teacher pay is based on the teacher’s experience and degree level (e.g., Bachelor’s, Master’s, Doctorate). Many have questioned the value of teacher experience.

In doing some research, I came across this study by the National Commission on Teaching and America's Future which demonstrates the important role experience plays in student performance. Here’s what was noted in this research study:

“While young teachers and the fresh ideas they can bring are essential to improve teaching effectiveness, experience always matters in teaching. Research clearly shows that with each year of experience, teachers improve their proficiency and effectiveness during the first seven years."

“Moreover, a 2009 study by Francis L. Huang and Tonya Moon at the University of Virginia found that additional years of teaching experience at the same grade level add to direct positive impact on student achievement for up to 20 years of teaching experience. (Huang, 2009) In fact although gains per year start to decline after 21 years of experience, the drop is such that a teacher at 30 years at the same grade level is still performing at a level of effectiveness that is higher than the performance of teachers during their first ten years” (see graph above)."

Teacher experience does matter in student performance.

Click here for access to this research report (Who Will Teach: Experience Matters). The quotes and the graph are on page 12.

The Flipped Classroom ...

2011-10-17T05:19:00.006-04:00

I wrote about Khan Academy last week. Some teachers are using it for the "flipped classroom." With this instructional strategy, kids hear the lecture at home and come to school to engage in practice. It isn't without controversy, and some do not have access to speedy internet service. Here’s a three minute story from NPR describing the “flipped” classroom.

Click here for the link to the story.

Visiting West-Oak Middle and Westminster Elementary

2011-10-14T05:09:00.005-04:00

Thursday was a great day to visit in the classrooms at West-Oak Middle and Westminster Elementary.

West-Oak Middle School

I always love visiting middle schools. I spent 18 years of my career at the middle school level (12 years as a teacher and 6 years as a principal). My first stop was an 8^th grade physical education class. PE has changed over the years, and I saw some of the changes immediately. The students arrived and checked the assignment board for skills they were to practice. Once completed, everyone was ready for the class. A short video was used to introduce some of the skills associated with “Ultimate Frisbee.” The kids, after seeing the skills modeled by the teachers, started to form lines to practice. I had to exit, but the focus is now on developing skills and the use of technology to better instruct students on the intricacies of a move.

I moved to see a 7^th grade social studies class in action. As I entered, the students were midway through a reading of the play about war service in the Vietnam era. The teacher was using this play to help kids understand some of the realities of military service. It included dialogue between an army nurse and a soldier injured in battle. The students participated in this activity as a way to prepare for writing a Veterans’ Day essay. The bell rang, and the class ended with the teacher reminding them of due dates.

My final middle school class was that of Spanish I. The students had checked in, and they were to work in pairs with IPads. The students were using two main apps on the technology device: Evernote and A+ Signature. With an e-mail sent by the teacher, each student group had their Spanish vocabulary terms. They were to use the IPad to take a picture illustrating the word, write a caption to ensure proper gender and singular/plural status. They added a recording to the caption, and then moved to another word (see the video below). It was amazing to see the students and their skill level in Spanish and with the technology. IPads (or some future device like them) will surely be in the hands of all students in the near future.

Westminster Elementary

I made the short drive to Westminster Elementary. My first stop was that of 5^th grade math. Students were working on reading numbers with decimals. The teacher had a great activity in which each student received three slips with a number written in words. They had to write the correct number on their white board. After they finished the three, they exchanged them with another student. The final activity was the reading of a book, “Piece=Part=Portion.” It was a neat way to introduce to students equivalencies in math, just as words have the same meaning (hello, bonjour, hola).

I moved around the corner and down the hall to the music classroom. Kindergartners are amazing, and this music teacher had them all engaged. They were busy learning a rhythm and melody. They sang a song about a ghost, and learned so much about melody. The teacher even got them to focus as he critiqued their performance (he said, “let’s cut the ‘Boo” and make it sound better). They were up and singing it again. Finally, a few activities with Quincy the Quarter Note and Ellen the Eighth Note were the focus. Amazing! The students were smiling and engaged with the lesson … the entire time (and kindergarteners don’t have especially long attention spans).

My final classroom was that of 1^st grade. The class finished a short book, and they were to begin the “read to self” portion of the Daily Five. The teacher reminded them of their task. They were to work on reading stamina. As they read silently in their own special spot in the classroom, the teacher worked with an individual student. He read a book, worked on problem vocabulary words, and got great feedback on his effort.

I had a wonderful visit, and it was a terrific way to spend my Thursday.

An amazing website …

2011-10-13T06:02:00.005-04:00

I came across an amazing website a week or so ago. I became aware of the website while reading about a magnet school in Georgia. The school was having the students review the videos prior to class. Class time was then spent in practice.

The website is Khan Academy. This website has over 2600 instructional videos and 207 practice exercises. Over the past week I’ve reviewed several of the lessons. The one I checked out this morning was on the Electoral College.

According to the site, “The Khan Academy is an organization on a mission. We're a not-for-profit with the goal of changing education for the better by providing a free world-class education to anyone anywhere.”

The site goes on to state that “All of the site's resources are available to anyone. It doesn't matter if you are a student, teacher, home-schooler, principal, adult returning to the classroom after 20 years, or a friendly alien just trying to get a leg up in earthly biology. The Khan Academy's materials and resources are available to you completely free of charge.”

The playlist on the site includes instruction in the areas of mathematics, science, social sciences, and test preparation.

The website was the brainchild of Salman Khan. He’s an educator and a graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

In finding out more about the site, I came across these articles:

How Khan Academy is Changing the Rules of Education (Wired)

First Modern Explorer: Khan Academy (iLearn Project)

Salman Khan on TED TV (You Tube Video)

Meet Sal Khan: The Seinfeld of the Education Revolution (PBS)

Khan Academy: Free Education for All (Certification Map)

I encourage you to check out this wonderful resource.

Visiting Code Learning Center and having lunch at the Considerate Café

2011-10-12T04:54:00.002-04:00

I spent time yesterday morning visiting in classrooms at Code Learning Center.

My first stop was in the Family Literacy Program. I love seeing the young babies and toddlers in the daycare setting. The parents were still with the preschoolers when I arrived. The learning activities would keep the youngsters engaged as their mom and/or dad were busy in the classroom studying in preparation for the GED. The students were busy reviewing and interpreting different types of graphs under the teacher’s direction. All were engaged, and I appreciate their perseverance as young parents taking time to attend school.

I moved around to Code Academy. I was able to pop in three classrooms. I saw English-language arts, mathematics, and science classes. Students in the ELA class were busy making up work and reading a selection in literature. Down the hall, students in the science class were generating a hypothesis related to the number and colors of M&Ms in a package. The math students were trying to visualize or think graphically. The classroom computer collected data from a motion detector and, later, temperatures from a probe. What would that data look like when it was graphed? Students were engaged and learning in this alternative program of study.

I finished up my visit by dropping in on two Adult Education classes. Both classes were using computer aided instruction geared to weaknesses identified on the TABE test administration. One classroom was focused on pre-GED work, while the other classroom students were preparing for an upcoming administration of the test. I enjoyed meeting and talking with these adults who had returned for some additional schooling.

I left Code Academy and drove to the Hamilton Career Center. The students in the STARS programs were having a grand opening of the Considerate Café. The teachers in this transitions program were successful in getting a grant to open a working kitchen. Students will be serving lunch and earning some income as part of this instructional program. After a special ceremony and the cutting of the ribbon, I was able to eat lunch in the café. I had the Panini, and it was delicious. I also bought a pumpkin that was grown as part of their summer agricultural project. I am so proud of the students, teachers, and staff who work in this program.

Well, it was a great Tuesday for me in Oconee County.

Bullying as a part of the social status hierarchy ...

2011-10-11T07:21:00.013-04:00

CNN commissioned a study that examined bullying. You can access the report by clicking here or click here for the CNN report.

Highlights from the study include ...

- Many students are involved in "social combat" as they navigate their school's social hierarchy

- Bullies can be both the aggressor and the victim, the survey finds

- "Putting other people down" helps students gain respect, one high school junior says

- Family background does not appear to play a role in bullying behavior, study's author says.

Here are the video segments (click on the link above if you have trouble with the embedded players). It is interesting to hear directly from the students who describe bullying as part of the social hierarchy.

Board Brief for October 10, 2011

2011-10-11T05:17:00.009-04:00

Click on the graphic to enlarge for reading.

Coffee Time Comments on 10/10/2011 ...

2011-10-10T14:59:00.006-04:00

I spoke with Chad Dorsett on Coffee Time this morning. This weekday public affairs program is part of the WSNW lineup.

I shared comments about school finance, the modified calendar, construction projects, county broadband implications, and merit pay in this 30 minute program.

I appreciate WSNW allowing me to post the program on my blog for others who could not hear it this morning. You can hear the broadcast by clicking on the play button below.

My next visit to Coffee Time is scheduled for Monday, November 14, at 8:30 AM.

Columbus traveled even in death ...

2011-10-10T06:41:00.002-04:00

Today is Columbus Day, and I thought this was a great video that illustrates that Columbus traveled even in death.

Xenogamy ...

2011-10-10T04:44:00.006-04:00

In doing some research for an upcoming presentation, I came across a website that used a word new to me. The author of the blog used the specialized biology term xenogamy [zuh-nog-uh-mee] in the context of leadership.

Xenogamy refers to the process of pollen from one plant being introduced to another. Such insects as bees make this crosspollination possible.

We see this process all around us. A great teacher puts students with diverse skills together and learning takes place. The students learn from each other, and, hopefully, grow greater in their skills and knowledge as a result of the collaboration.

The same thing happens in the world of work. Leaders can orchestrate the process by ensuring that folks of different talents and strengths share ideas. The result of this collaboration should be a synergy of ideas that benefits the organization.

As state leaders move forward toward newer pay structures in our state, I am hopeful that we will not move from collaborative to competitive in processes that we follow. We all need xenogamy to promote creativity and innovation of practice.

Op-Ed: Long-overdue relief from meddlesome NCLB

2011-10-09T08:05:00.005-04:00

I thought this editorial was spot-on when it comes to NCLB ...

http://www.thestate.com/2011/10/09/2001079/long-overdue-relief-from-meddlesome.html

Save the Date: Small Towns, Big Dreams

2011-10-07T04:54:00.003-04:00

Les Walden Real Estate and the Education Foundation of Oconee County will be sponsoring an important event on Tuesday, October 25, at Seneca High. The event will be from 7 to 8:30 PM, and will be an inspirational program entitled “Small Towns, Big Dreams.”

Micheal Burt will be speaking in the Seneca High auditorium. Micheal has worked with people from all walks of life in multiple disciplines, encouraging and guiding them to find their unique voice in life, redefining and reconnecting leadership, while pinpointing and overcoming gaps that prohibit them from being successful. Micheal is also a retired head coach and athletic director. He now travels the country educating and motivating people and stimulating companies to build cultures that win.

Micheal will be sharing his message the following day with the students at Seneca Middle School. He will inspire and motivate everyone to make our community a better place. Proceeds from this event will benefit the Oconee Education Foundation’s grant program.

You can hear Micheal by clicking here or using this URL (http://www.maximumsuccess.org/).

Important facts to know about teachers ...

2011-10-06T05:14:00.004-04:00

The teacher is the single most important factor in a child's education. Here are some facts about teachers and teaching (click here for the source of this information, The Teacher Salary Project).

Studies prove that a great teacher can impart a year and a half's worth of learning to a student in one year. source

46 percent of teachers in public schools leave the profession within five years. source

Teachers make 14 percent less than people in other professions that require similar levels of education. source

In the next 10 years, more than 1.8 million of the 3.2 million teachers will become eligible for retirement. source

14 percent of teachers leave the profession each year; in urban districts, the turnover is higher: 20 percent. source

High turnover of American teachers costs our country over $7 billion every year. source

Teachers are priced out of home ownership in 32 metropolitan areas. source

Only 4.7 percent of college juniors would consider teaching at the current starting salary. 68 percent of college students said they would consider the teaching profession if it paid 50 percent more than the current occupations they were considering. source

The average starting salary for teachers in our country is $39,000; the average ending salary—after 25 years in the profession—is $67,000. source

In 1970 in New York City, a starting lawyer going into a prestigious firm and a starting teacher going into public education had a differential in their entry salary of about $2,000. Today, including salary and bonus, that starting lawyer makes $160,000, while starting teachers in New York make roughly $45,000. source

Teachers work an average of ten hours per day. source

92.4 percent of teachers spent their own money on their students or classrooms during the 2007-2008 school year. source

62 percent of teachers have second jobs outside of the classroom. source

61 percent of adults think teachers are underpaid given their level of training and importance to society. source

77 percent of U.S. adults feel teaching is among the most under-appreciated professions in the U.S. source

76 percent agree that many of the smartest people in society don't go into teaching because being a teacher doesn't pay enough. source

Good teaching over a sustained period can [help students] overcome the disadvantages of poverty. source

We’ll fire all the policemen …

2011-10-05T06:48:00.005-04:00

I attended the lecture by Diane Ravitch at Furman University last night. There was a great turnout for the event, and the Furman folks had to open an additional section of the conference facility to accommodate the attendees. There was a good contingent of folks from Oconee County, too.

It was great to hear the remarks and the introduction of the speaker by former Governor/Secretary of Education Richard Riley. He’s been one of the greatest advocates for public education and its critical role in the success of our state.

Ravitch jokingly made reference to her last lecture at Furman (I believe she said it was 1984). She warned the crowd that she would most likely be contradicting her earlier comments. She’s no longer an advocate of free-enterprise/free-market models in the public school setting. She is an advocate of equality of opportunity for children, and she stated that current research doesn’t support many of the experiments that have been conducted in the past 30 years (e.g., vouchers, pay-for-performance, and charters).

Ravitch was a part of the group that served as the early architects of what later became No Child Left Behind. She stated that it had to be one of the worst pieces of legislation to ever make its way through the US Congress. In her words, the federal government, which provides about 10 percent of the funding, took control of local schools. She argued that such control should rest with communities and states with a better understanding of local needs.

Ravitch expressed her displeasure with the (over)emphasis on testing, and the detrimental effects to a system that should be focusing on creativity and exposure to multiple disciplines (as opposed to only those that are tested). She referenced her recent trip to Finland, which is the world’s best performer on international assessments, and their lack of standardized tests in the schools (administered only when they prepare to enter college/university). The Finnish focus is on the careful selection of the brightest candidates for the teaching profession and required intensive training at the master’s degree level.

She used a wonderful analogy of a key component of NCLB: All children will be proficient by the year 2014. She stated that a similar goal for crime rates in the United States could be established. If crime doesn’t disappear by the year 2014, we’ll simply fire all the policemen in the community. Does that address the real issue? NCLB is focused on punishment and has no real inducements for improved performance or enhanced teacher quality.

Ravitch used research to counter much of the dialogue and the picture being painted of America’s public schools. Having served on national assessment boards, she cautioned that tests were primarily a measure of a child’s performance (not that of a teacher). A misapplication of this concept is being touted for teacher pay, and there are just too many variables. Such inducements have resulted in cheating rather than improved student performance.

What’s the answer? She was clear that the root problem is poverty among children. We must address this root cause. Children must have adequate preschool instructional experiences in order to be ready for school. If not, these children will continue to enter school destined to be part of the historically underachieving groups. We must promote and enhance the teaching profession. Teacher and principal quality are critical to our success as a school system.

My impression of the evening? Diane Ravitch gets it. She understands the real problem that must be addressed in order to improve our schools: poverty. This issue is not solely within the control of the schoolhouse or the teacher. Poverty presents a myriad of issues for children (e.g., poor health care and nutrition) that make it difficult for them to be successful. Teaching must again attract the best and the brightest with an emphasis on continued professional growth. Teaching must once again become a respected profession.

I left the lecture feeling renewed and ready to do battle to protect the interests of children in our community.

"Steak" in Oconee

2011-10-04T04:58:00.004-04:00

There was an event last night to celebrate the important role of agriculture in our community. Excluding forestry, agribusiness in our community contributes about $133 million to the local economy. The Oconee Chamber of Commerce, along with several sponsors, held a dinner to celebrate the importance of this segment of the economy. This event was in conjunction with the opening of the Carolina Foothills Heritage Fair.

The event was called “Steak in Oconee” because all food, with the exception of our salad, was produced locally. Steak and chicken were the entrees. Vegetables, blue cheese, and other menu items came from our community through donations from local farmers.

I was so proud of our students in Oconee County. FFA students were on hand to greet and direct folks to parking. The culinary arts students from the Hamilton Career Center prepared and served the dinner; I was especially pleased with their expertise because the steak was actually cooked to order. Students from West-Oak High’s ROTC presented the American flag to begin the activities. Also, students from the jazz band at Tamassee-Salem Middle/High and the orchestra from West-Oak High provided dinner music.

Former students from Oconee who are enrolled in the agricultural economics and agricultural education program represented the College of Agriculture, Forestry and Life Sciences from Clemson University at the event.

We all have a stake on Oconee County … and the steak was delicious, too.

Ravitch to speak at Furman University tomorrow night

2011-10-03T15:49:00.001-04:00

Click here for a link to the Riley Institute

Are you smarter than a 15 year-old?

2011-10-03T05:14:00.002-04:00

Smithsonian Magazine had quite a bit on the academic success of Finnish schools in a recent edition of the magazine, and, as part of their series, the authors included an on-line quiz similar to the PISA (Program for International Assessment) administered across the world by the OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development).

So, this Monday morning I encourage you to check out sample questions from this international assessment by clicking here. Are you smarter than a 15 year-old?

Classroom Visits: Orchard Park Elementary and Blue Ridge Elementary

2011-09-30T05:18:00.005-04:00

I really love my job, and the best part about it is the opportunity to see students and teachers in action. I was able to visit both Orchard Park and Blue Ridge yesterday. My visits were mainly in the area of early childhood instruction, but I did see one upper elementary class in action.

You can see in the picture why I like making visits in our schools. This shot was taken by the teacher as I left her classroom. There is no better compliment than for a student to compare me to Santa Clause (the beard was mentioned, although I have other qualities of a “well-nourished” Santa).

Here’s my recap of what I observed in the classrooms in two of our Title I schools.

Orchard Park Elementary

My first classroom at OPES was that of second grade. The students were working on the concept of cause and effect. That’s a tough concept for second graders, and the teacher did a great job. Using the classroom’s SmartBoard, the teacher had sentences with both a cause and an effect. Students were to determine the cause or effect in the sentence. They had their thinking caps on. A student would answer by selecting it on the SmartBoard, and his/her classmates gave thumbs up or thumbs down to indicate agreement/disagreement. The computerized screen then congratulated them or asked them to try again. The students moved into forming sentences in pairs. Everyone got part of a sentence which they matched up. Finally, the kids were to determine if their part of the sentence was a “cause” or an “effect.”

I moved down the hall to see a Reading Recovery class. The student was so proud because she was reading fluently without having to use her finger to point to the word. I observed her read her books with quite a bit of expression. She had learned the strategies well and was gaining confidence as a first grade reader. The final activity was to compose a story. She wanted to write about her grandmother (and snack time after playing). The teacher was so patient and reinforced or prompted the student. Reading Recovery is intensive, and the goal is to get the student up with their peers (and dismissal from the program).

My next visit was that of a GT classroom. The students were transitioning from math (stem and leaf plots were on the SmartBoard) to language arts. These elementary students were working on reading non-fiction selections. The nonfiction piece they read was all about sloths (an interesting mammal). The students looked for expository, interrogative, and exclamatory sentences in the passage. They had to think about their thinking in order to answer the questions. They used great strategies of eliminating answers and rereading passages to respond. As I exited, the students were beginning to play Stem Bingo with Greek and Latin stems.

I moved around the building to kindergarten. The classroom’s Smart Board was being a little temperamental and just unwilling to respond. The teacher didn’t skip a beat. Good teachers always have a backup plan (we used to call it “monitoring and adjusting”), and she used the poster on the wall as they reviewed their letters and sounds. The letter “R” was the topic of the moment, and the students were learning about rabbits, roosters, and other things with the “R” sound. Kindergarten is a great place to be, and these young and energetic learners were all excited about the instruction.

Blue Ridge Elementary School

I made the drive to Blue Ridge Elementary. I was able to observe speech classes, a Reading Recovery session, and a first grade class during my time at the school.

I visited two speech classrooms in back-to-back sessions. A student was rolling a set of dice to work on speech and language skills as I entered. Articulation and language processing were clearly the goals. The teacher was using a neat framework called the Expanding Expression Tool. This made it easier for students to organize information in their heads for speaking and writing. This is a difficulty for many young children, and our speech-language pathologists work to support them in developing appropriate strategies. The goal is to work with these youngsters and help them develop strategies in articulation and language processing. Once they have mastered the skill, the student is dismissed from this specialized program.

The second speech classroom had the teacher, along with a shadow, work with a student who was to read and categorize words. The student had a developmental disorder, and he was having fun categorizing words. He categorized words based on color, types of food, animals in the zoo, etc. The student then worked with an IPad. The IPad is a great tool for the speech classroom, and the student worked to continue to categorize and match words. His last activity was related to emotions. The teacher asked the student to select certain emotions (happy, sad, etc.) on the IPad screen. He really enjoyed hearing the sounds as he selected an emotion and heard the response. He was soon off to join his classmates for music.

I was next slated to visit in a first grade classroom. The students were to read a Big Book, but they had to discover the pattern in the book. The teacher wouldn’t identify the pattern, so they looked for clues on the front of the book. The teacher read, and they were to add the missing word that was covered by a sticky note on each page. The students quickly discovered it was all about rhyming words. Each student was engaged and on task. After the final page was read, the students continued to discover and spell rhyming words; however, they did so with the use of the SmartBoard. The teacher did a great job of managing the energy level and reinforcing responses (correct and incorrect). It was great to see the positive energy in the classroom.

My final class visit was in Reading Recovery. In this case, the young man entered and was required to spell a word by sounding it out. That was the admission ticket. He quickly took his place and selected a book to read. He was very successful, and the teacher made sure the student could find individual words in the story after reading the selection. The final activity was to make words with magnetic letters. “See” became “sees”. Soon he was making “seeing.” He was gaining confidence and fluency in his reading. I know he’ll soon exit the program and have skills at the level of his classmates.

As I left the two schools, I was reminded of all the wonderful things I miss about working in a schoolhouse on a daily basis. However, my visits reassured me that great things are happening in our classrooms in Oconee County.

Modified calendar could change education for the better

2011-09-29T05:01:00.006-04:00

Below is the unedited version of an Op-Ed piece I wrote for the Anderson Independent Mail (click here for the version that was printed on June 26, 2011). We are now beginning the discussion of the advantages of such a calendar for 2013-14. You can click here to see a draft of such a calendar for discussion purposes or on the graphic to the right of the screen).

_______________

I love the quote attributed to Albert Einstein: “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”

We’ve heard this quote over and over, and, yet, we still follow the same pattern when it comes to the delivery of schooling in the 21st Century. Change is difficult, and some folks even work to prevent a move from the “agricultural calendar” by codifying it into state law and defining it in state regulation.

Borrowing a catch phrase from a commercial in the 1990s, “It’s time to stop the insanity.” I’m not asking that we add more days to the school year for all students in these difficult economic times, but simply to restructure the way the 180-day student calendar is used in our community.

There are two very important reasons to consider change in today’s world.

First, countless *research studies point out that there is a greater propensity for certain things to happen when a student fails to earn a high school diploma: a life of menial jobs and poverty, a lifestyle more prone to alcohol or substance abuse, and/or greater chances of incarceration during adulthood.

Our graduation rates in our state are unacceptable, and as many as one in four students in our very best performing districts (including Oconee) are likely to have no diploma by the end of four years of high school. That percentage gets progressively worse as poverty rises within a community. Do we as a community want these students to have increased chances of poverty, substance abuse, or incarceration?

Second, we know about the “summer slide,” too. A recent study by **Rand Education and the Wallace Foundation stated that students typically perform one month behind when they return to school each August. Further, summer learning loss disproportionately impacts poor students. All students may lose ground in mathematics each summer, but poor children lose even more in the area of reading. Such loss is cumulative and widens the achievement gap based on socio-economic status of the student. Do we want this achievement gap to grow in our community?

During this past school year the Oconee Board of Trustees asked that the district administration examine a modified school calendar as an option for 2012-13. They did so as a way to gauge community support for changing the calendar while trying to address graduation rates and summer learning loss.

The resulting modified 2012-13 calendar had 180 student days, but built in a period of two to three weeks of vacation between each instructional quarter and five to six weeks off for summer vacation. Each interim period contained five additional days for students who were not successful during the instructional quarter.

The thinking was to address any remediation immediately and not wait until the end of the school year. The students would, hopefully, recover the content or skills they missed during the current grading period. The remediation periods could serve as a motivation or an incentive to work harder during the grading period: Students had vacation time off if they succeeded academically during the grading period.

The result would be as many as 200 days of instruction for students needing to master grade level standards. We all know that children learn, but at different rates. Some need more time (and some may need an incentive to not waste precious class time).

Finally, students, teachers, and families would benefit from the change. There would be multiple opportunities in each season for vacations and recharging of batteries between intensive instructional periods. Less time on summer vacation would mean less instructional loss for children between school years.

There is also an opportunity to provide other services during these interim periods: delivering instruction to gifted children or allowing private daycare providers to provide options for working parents during these vacations.

There would be some additional costs to our district (e.g., greater electricity costs in the summer months); however, we could shift certain costs by staggering certain teacher schedules and/or pay existing instructional staff stipends to provide remediation. This would save in benefit costs in having to hire additional folks engaged in remediation as part of the regular school calendar. The end results should certainly justify the means, especially if results are like that of ***Bardstown, Kentucky, where dropout rates decreased and college attendance rates increased significantly when they implemented a similar “45-10” calendar.

Will we be changing to the Modified Calendar in 2012-13? No. We were not successful this year in getting buy-in for such change. Teachers overwhelmingly favored the change, but many parents and community members didn’t understand or support it.

Next fall we’ll try again, and I’ll work harder to communicate the potential benefits of such change for our community. So, stay tuned for a modified option for 2013-14 when we begin school calendar deliberations in the fall in Oconee County.

________________________

Research references:
*General facts about high school dropouts:
http://www.all4ed.org/files/GraduationRates_FactSheet.pdf
http://www.betterhighschools.org/docs/nhsc_dropoutfactsheet.pdf
http://nces.ed.gov/fastfacts/display.asp?id=16
http://www.gatesfoundation.org/united-states/Documents/TheSilentEpidemic3-06Final.pdf

**SREB’s Alternate School Calendar:
http://publications.sreb.org/2011/11S01_Alt_Cal.pdf
Bardstown, Kentucky/”45-10” Calendar: “During the first five years of implementation, the district reported that the high school dropout rate decreased from 4.5 percent to 2.7 percent, and the percentage of students from the senior class who attended a postsecondary institution increased from 62 percent to 74 percent. In addition, disciplinary referrals decreased while attendance increased. The school system continues to see positive results, including decreased absenteeism and discipline referrals. The dropout rate remains around 2.5 percent.” (Page 7)

***Rand Corporation/Wallace Foundation’s Making Summer Count:
http://www.rand.org/pubs/monographs/MG1120.html
“Despite long-term and ongoing efforts to close the achievement gap between disadvantaged and advantaged students, low-income students continue to perform at considerably lower levels than their higher-income peers in reading and mathematics. Research has shown that students' skills and knowledge often deteriorate during the summer months, with low-income students facing the largest losses.”

Visiting the Tamassee-Salem area schools …

2011-09-28T04:37:00.010-04:00

It was a great day to make the beautiful drive to the Tamassee-Salem attendance area. I started my visit at Tamassee-Salem Elementary School, and then it was on to Tamassee-Salem Middle/High School.

Tamassee-Salem Elementary

TSES is a beautiful school. I arrived a few minutes early for the appointed classroom visits.

I walked to the music classroom with the principal. The second grade students were exiting, and they sang a song (“I’m so glad to be here”) after lining up. I walked in, and a class of 4^th graders were about to arrive. As the students entered, they quickly and quietly took their seats. Classical music was playing in the background, and the teacher reminded the students that it was from Haydn (the composer of the month and it was his Symphony No. 104). Today’s lesson was all about rhythm and melody. They reviewed and played rhythmic notation (homemade drums and later with plastic tubes), and I could tell the melody (and they could, too). The song was “Mary had a Little Lamb.” Students then were up and placing notes on the SmartBoard. I enjoyed my time, and I learned a few things about rhythm and melody.

I moved to visit in a first grade classroom. It was game show time … “Let’s Make a Word.” The students were up and dancing with music in the background. They were letting off energy, and then the contestants were ready to form words. Students had their alphabet mats, and they replicated the letter combinations displayed on the SmartBoard. The students had two vowels (e and o) and five consonants (c, k, p, s, t). They were working with blends of letters (e.g., c and k). They quickly formed words. The teacher moved the thinking up a notch by having them form their own words by using the available letters. The Jeopardy theme played as they formed each word, and this kept the pace lively and the students on task. I was kind of tired as I exited because the teacher expected me to dance and move, too.

I visited another first grade classroom down the hall. These students were finishing up work in mathematics as I walked through the door. They closed their math notebooks and transitioned to English/language arts. The class also was about to play “Let’s Make a Word.” This class started the dance, and four young men were having a good time dancing in the front of the room. The SmartBoard displayed a, i (the vowels) and c, d h, n, s, and w. The alphabet mats were passed out, and students replicated the combinations quickly. They were ready to begin. Students formed various words at the direction of the teacher. Finally it was time to figure out the mystery word. What word can you form with all the letters? The teacher gave a hint (i.e., my favorite has peanut butter), and most knew the answer but they had to figure out the spelling. The secret word was “sandwich.”

I truly enjoyed visiting TSES and seeing these students actively engaged in learning.

Tamassee-Salem Middle/High

Tamassee-Salem Middle/High is getting ready for a transformation. Construction fences are up at the front, and a major addition/front façade will be added. The new front will improve security, join the two separate middle and high school buildings, and create new fine arts rooms. The maintenance department, as part of the preliminary work before construction, was repositioning an air conditioner as I arrived.

I walked in and reported to the office. I was quickly off and my first class was that of biology. The students were about to begin the “Jell-O lab.” The class was studying monomers, and they were going to determine which detergent had the better enzyme in breaking down proteins found in Jell-O. This was part one of the lab. The students formed individual hypotheses and moved to the lab tables to label the test tubes of gelatin. The teacher’s goal was to help students see the action of enzymes. They would observe and report the results the following day. When I visit classrooms like biology, I try to do a little homework after the fact. I learned that detergents contain enzymes to work effectively, and you can see a similar lab by clicking here.

My next class was math; however, they were using some of the same terms as the science class (independent, dependent variables). The class was being introduced to the concept of probability. The topic was introduced with an example with dice: What are my chances of rolling a 3? A student quickly pointed out that this sounded like gambling … well, it is hard to talk about probability without someone making that observation of its relationship to games of chance. After this initial example, the teacher introduced the three types of probability (classical, empirical, and subjective). She then helped students with a blind example of drawing objects from a bag. What were the differences in probability if she kept the object out of the bag or put it back in? I always have to do some thinking when I visit math classes.

I arrived a little late arriving in the English class. The students were finishing up a review of short stories in preparation for an upcoming test. They were using computer netbooks and the website Today’s Meet to answer and respond to questions posed by the teachers. The teacher posed a question, and the groups responded and their answer was displayed on the classroom screen. The bell rang, and I had to be off to another class. I was sorry to have only a short period of time to observe the class.

My final class was sixth grade math. The students were learning about stem and leaf plots as a way of picturing datasets. I have to be honest, I’ve never really used stem and leaf plots. I was quickly engaged in how the teacher introduced it with sticky notes. Students were to think of a number between 10 and 50. They wrote the two digits on the sticky note (for instance 27), and they then tore the digits apart. With a tree projected on the screen, the students placed the ones digit from the sticky note on the correct stem (the tens digit in this case) of the tree. I got it, and I hope the students did, too. The students then formed the data table.

I left Tamassee-Salem Middle/High, and I was pleased that I had learned a few new things that I’ve added to my teacher toolkit.

High School Dropout: The Cost to the US Economy

2011-09-27T05:07:00.000-04:00

NBC has been sponsoring its second Education Nation this week, and I discovered some interesting data from the website.

The Alliance for Excellent Education calculated a series of projections using economic data from 220 metropolitan areas, all 50 states, and Washington, D.C. This calculation depicts the financial impact of high school dropouts on the US economy. This data set was provided to graphic designers who were asked to create an infographic that depicts the connection between diplomas and dollars. The entry selected was by Jonathan Schwabish and Courtney Griffith, Education and the Economy, is below (or you can click here).

There are two additional slides I created for ease of reading.

The dropout problem has serious implications for the US economy.