I received a question this morning from a reader about South Dakota’s new high school graduation requirements. The purpose of the change is to make education more meaningful for students, and at the same time prepare students for a world that seems to be changing faster each day.
At the [...]
Why do people become educators? Why do educators become administrators? And why do people out in the public – with no educational training – sign up to become school board members?
A Facebook note from New York superintendent Kimberly Moritz got me thinking:
I want to leave education when my time [...]
Every school board faces the challenge of dealing with special interest groups. Rapid City recently settled a federal lawsuit after denying access for a pro-life organization to use its middle school gym. In Watertown, our special interest challenges have come mostly from sports boosters. [...]
At a recent school board conference, two of the guys sitting at my table were talking about how ugly teacher contract negotiations had become at their schools. I couldn’t help but shake my head as I thought to myself how sad that description was. My experience has been that contract [...]
Is South Dakota Racing to the Top? Seems nobody knows. The education news is full of stories about states competing for the single largest amount of discretionary money ever directed toward education – 4.3 Billion dollars — but things are uncomfortably quiet here.
The Race to the Top [...]
Has the South Dakota legislature failed in its constitutional requirement to adequately fund education in our state? That’s the question at the bottom of a potential appeal to the South Dakota’s Supreme Court.
HISTORY OF THE FUNDING LAWSUITIn January, 2006, a “costing-out study” showed the South Dakota government was underfunding state schools [...]
I’m reading an excellent book, “Catching Up or Leading the Way” by Michigan State’s distinguished Education Professor Yong Zhao. Born and raised in China, Zhao writes that America’s education gap is a myth that’s been fueled by the fears of competition from the Chinese, Indians, and others. [...]
Later this month, representatives from the Associated School Board’s of South Dakota (ASBSD) will gather in Pierre to debate policy positions we believe are important for education in our state. One of the new positions concerns Indian Education. I’ve reprinted the position in full from the ASBSD site:
South Dakota’s [...]
Education Week reports that some high schools in Illinois have found a way to beat the state NCLB accountability exam given to juniors each year. Their technique is to redefine the Juniors who are behind on credits as sophomores and suddenly the lowest achievers don’t take the test! The following [...]
Tear down the wall between K-12 and postsecondary education, writes Bill Maxwell, a correspondent at the St. Petersburg Times:
We have two separate cultures in education: elementary and secondary schools (K-12) and postsecondary schools (undergraduate and graduate institutions). This separation is expensive, wastes human capital and harms the public [...]
Teacher prep programs have been coming under fire lately. I ran across this interesting ditty from Stephen Sawchuk at Education Week’s Teacher Beat:
Two recent news stories illustrate nicely two ways of looking at teacher preparation: an “output”-oriented view of teacher preparation that focuses on student achievement, and an input-oriented [...]
The state board of education just made it harder to graduate from South Dakota high schools. The change is the result of a new law passed by the legislature that eliminates the “basic” curricular option for graduation, and instead mandates a single curriculum designed to prepare all [...]
Seems the blogs are full of dire budget news. Pure Pierre Politics writes:
The news gets worse. The governor’s forecast for state government’s 2011 budget shows a $170 million chasm between revenues and spending. State government has $107 million in reserves. Someplace, somehow, $65 million of savings and revenue needs [...]
Each night before going to bed I read teacher blogs. I’m impressed how technology is transforming the classroom, and I can’t help but wonder how long it will take for technology to impact school board members like it has teachers.
What if school board members, like teachers, used Nings, Personal Learning Networks, and [...]
I ran across this video from Toby Fischer’s blog, Future of Education. The video is his take on education — either where we’re at now, or where we’re going. It all really kind of blows me away.
Your thoughts?
[...]
Superintendent Kimberly Moritz commented about how an “us vs. them” attitude is a big problem for school districts because it permeates through an entire school climate.
I’ve been on the job as superintendent in my current district for a year now. When I interviewed with all of [...]
Check out this brilliant three minute talk from the TED site on the 8 secrets of success.
It’s something we should all watch — and then show our children.
The secrets are Passion, Work, Focus, Push, Ideas, Improve, Serve, and Persist.
But don’t take my word for it, watch the video & enjoy![...]
Today I participated in a webinar with the National School Board Association about what’s happening on Capitol Hill and the Department of Education. These are the notes I took about what’s going on:
HR 3221 – funding for modernization, repair and renovation passed the House last month. It awaits action in the Senate. IDEA [...]On a percentage basis, South Dakota has one of the highest rates of high school 1:1 laptop programs in the country.
If only our internet access was as good.
The other day I emailed our superintendent about the Flat Classroom™ Project — a global collaborative that joins together high school students [...]
Pat, over at Successful Teaching, read my recent post about Education Week taking a slap at school board members, and came up with a list of suggestions about how teachers can develop relationships with their school board members. Pat’s ideas are right-on in my opinion, and I re-print [...]
Last week our country’s premier education newspaper for educators, Education Week, went after School Board Members with it’s “Leading for Learning report.”
The lead article by Lesli Maxwell set the tone. Titled, “An Overlooked Institution Struggles to Remain Relevant,” the article begins with the foundation that ”local school [...]
The week after I was first elected to our school board, a little old couple stopped me at the local café and asked if they could visit. They were concerned the school district was spending more money on paper supplies at their old competitor than the store they used to own [...]
As columnist Bob Mercer points out in his “Domino Theory” post, the Mitchell school district is developing student housing for Mitchell Technical Institute, apparently by working around the law that says:
13-24-9. School board power to erect, acquire, equip and dispose of school and accessory buildings–Dormitories for postsecondary students [...]
With the weather turning cold in South Dakota, I’ve been doing some blog house-cleaning. Awhile ago I received a post that my blog was too “visually noisy.” You know, too much stuff packed into too little a space. Kind of reminded my of my old college dorm room back at [...]
To what extent do schools limit creativity? Anyone involved with education should watch this and then take a minute to reflect. Thanks to Lisa N. at Education Innovation for sharing this.
[...]Liz Wilen at Insideschools.org wrote a great little piece about kids Facebooking instead of doing homework that had me wondering if she was talking about MY daughter:
A typical conversation between concerned parents and their high school students might, theoretically, begin with a casual inquiry about homework. A most unwelcome [...]
It may sound like a geeky task, but writing school policy is all about doing what’s best for our children. Policies establish direction for the school district – they set the goals, assign authority, and establish controls that make school governance and management possible. In a very real [...]
This interesting tidbit came across my edublog reader this morning – Kathleen Kennedy Manzo at Education Week reports on teachers that are experimenting with the popular micro-blogging tool, Twitter, as a way to distribute homework assignments and engage students in collaborative activities.
It would be interesting to learn if the teachers [...]
I received a call from a parent about H1N1 and thought others might be interested in the same information. According to a school board report from Dr. Hanson, our absenteeism numbers this past week ran pretty consistently at 10% until spiking on Friday at 13%. Our typical rate runs between [...]
Blogging is one of the ways I reach out to folks. I look at it a way to connect to people through what I write. I also look at blogging as a way for me to learn.
I use a RSS reader to subscribe to news sites, education experts, and policy makers. The stories [...]
Ed Sec Arne Duncan delivered a speech today to the National Association of State Boards of Education in which he discussed some of the education themes we’ve been hearing from the Administration:
“Now that I am in Washington, it’s even clearer to me that education reform starts locally…. I want to be a partner [...]I know I’ve posted a lot of videos this past week, but I couldn’t resist one more — US Ed Sec Arnie Duncan on Colbert. Both informative and pretty darn funny!
The Colbert Report Mon – Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c Arne Duncan www.colbertnation.com Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor Michael Moore [...]![13klas-600[1]](http://www.school-of-thought.net/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/13klas-6001-300x165.jpg)
Reading this New Your Times article on “Texting, Surfing, Studying?” makes me think I’m reading about my own high school kid. Our bill from Sprint tallied some 5000 text messages last month (both sent and received). And how many do you think were during school hours – when [...] 
To my knowledge there are only four school boards in the entire US that govern both a K-12 and a post-secondary technical school — and I have the privilege of serving on one of them. Today I’m writing about at what many in Watertown call our community jewel — Lake [...]
This is a great video to challenge teachers and help all of us understand the difference between a teacher and an educator (the video is a good investment in 3 minutes, trust me). Are our children’s teachers fire extinguishers, or the igniter of flames?
[...]
I loved “Shift Happens” 2.o when I first saw it in 2007. Then when Karl Fisch came out with Shift Happens version 3.0 in 2008, I thought it couldn’t get much better. But the guy has outdone himself with his newest version released this year, Shift Happnes 4.0.
I think it’s [...]
Are you a concerned parent who wants to make a difference in the lives of children? Consider running for your local school board. In my experience, there’s little in life that’s more valuable – or more rewarding.
To learn more, click on this brief video from the National School Board Association.
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Do you ever just take time to just ponder about things? You know, sit in a chair, rest your head on a hand, and just reflect about big-picture type questions? This morning I’m pondering a few education questions, like:
What do I value about education? What more do I want from our schools? [...]Last night’s school board meeting is history. We heard from Doug Schooley, our AD about the soccer proposal. I have to tell you, we have one darned good school board – very professional and focused on doing what’s best for our young people. It’s a pleasure to serve on a [...]
I’m reading a book that our superintendent loaned me. It’s “Catching Up or Leading the Way: American Education in the Age of Globalization,” by Yong Zhao.
Before I comment, here’s the review:
At a time when globalization and technology are dramatically altering the world we live in, is education reform in the United States headed [...]
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For my dear readers that follow the excitement of school board meetings, below are a few personal reflections about some of topics we’ll discuss at tonight’s monthly meeting:
Soccer Discussion – Our Athletic Director (who also serves on the South Dakota High School Activities Association board of directors!) [...]I received a question about laptop that deserves fuller response than I can give in a little response box, so I’m writing my response here. The question from Paul is:
“How does the school board or Regents determine the effectiveness in educating the youngsters since the advent of the laptop? Can [...]
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This morning I learned we have about 450 soccer players participating in the current system in Watertown. I also learned the cost to Watertown-area tax payers to implement the school-based program will be around $35,000. The issue is – can we afford the additional expense in light [...]
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I’m writing this early in the morning, sitting at my computer, sipping coffee, and thinking I need to learn how to work voice dictation software – this typing is getting old!
Today, I’ll share with you about how we’re reducing our dropout rate.
First and foremost in the big [...]
I was reviewing data from one of our school districts most important goals – graduating all our students from high school on time. Every school has issues, including ours, but when it comes to reducing the drop-out rate, I like our trends. Here is what the data shows us over [...]
Many thanks to Kelli Rumpza at Watertown’s Human Services Agency and Marilyn Peplau from the Search Institute for their presentation last night on our community’s youth survey data. The survey provides a snapshot of our young people’s risk-taking and thriving behaviors.
From the Executive Summary:
Over the last 20 years, Search Institute has [...]
Watertown school and city officials are beefing up the fight against truancy by working together and expanding interventions.
Truancy is a serious issue that affects every community and all schools, from elementary through high school. What we’ve found by analyzing local data is that patterns of chronic high school truancy [...]
Ever thought about serving on a school board? Whenever I hear someone say serving on a school board is a thankless task, I just cringe because if you care about making a difference, that’s such a wildly untrue statement. In fact, during a recent school board meeting, if any of [...]
I’m scratching my head. The South Dakota High School Athletic Association (SDHSAA) has accepted a proposal to formally add soccer as a state sport in 2011. Communities will have until 2014 to officially add soccer before club teams won’t be allowed to compete with the high school teams – which in [...]
I’m back! I hope, dear reader, you’ll forgive me for my absence. Life just got too busy — what else can I tell you?
But my passion for education never dimmed, and so, I’m back, ready to recommitt to blogging, and to share with you about the educational issues that confront [...]
