Whos of Who-cester

A principal apologizes

noreply@blogger.com (cascadingwaters) — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 19:32:00 +0000

For those who may have noticed some differences in the public schools under NCLB...this principal is in Ohio, but what he says applies in Worcester, too:

He's sorry that he spent thousands of tax dollars on test materials, practice tests, postage and costs for test administration.

Sorry that his teachers spent less time teaching American history because most of the social-studies test questions are about foreign countries.

Sorry that he didn't suspend a student for assaulting another because the attacker would have missed valuable test days.

Sorry he didn't strictly enforce attendance rules because all absences count against the school on the State Report Card.

He's sorry for pulling children away from art, music and gym, classes they love, so they could learn test-taking strategies.

What just happened?

noreply@blogger.com (cascadingwaters) — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 21:09:00 +0000

So:
The allocation of that money gets sent to Business subcommittee (their next meeting isn't up...I'll find out)
The City Council gets notified that discussion of the money is up on the agenda.
The administration comes up with a recommendation on K-3, 4-6, and middle school program allocations.
The subcommittee comes back with a recommendation to the full School Committee for the August 21 meeting (that's again at 4pm here at the City Council chamber).

Where is that money?

noreply@blogger.com (cascadingwaters) — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 20:49:00 +0000

And here's 8-169:
(co-sponsored by Monfredo, O'Connell, Hargrove, Foley)

Mr. Monfredo: "we voted to place the $445000" in the teacher account...We did not discuss the middle school.
"The question remains: what will be our priority: can we ensure that our elementary classes will be small enough to be effective?"
"I ask that we consider the $200,000 for K-3...if we can even get our numbers down from 29 to 24...we know what works by what we cut...it's not a great budget, but it's better than we've had in seven years...we need to do all we can in our primary grades"

Motion: use $200,000 for K-3 in numbers over 27, then 4-6 classes over 27, then address the middle school recommendation. Further, asking that it not be referred to subcommittee.

Mullaney: "absolutely opposed voting on this now...far more study...we have kids in 4-6, 7&8, even in high school...fine to talk about children now in K-3...large number of students no longer in K-3 who need to be remediated...people making decisions...you'll see a revolt..vehemently oppose...Mr. Foley needs to weigh in...cannot balance the budget on the backs of one group of kids"
Lukes: "not just taking a vote...without causing a whole lot of trauma...troubled by having this kind of motion this late in the season...his logic is appropriate...I have a difficult time supporting it."
O'Connell: "is it possible to bring this back with a recommendation at our August meeting?"
Caradonio: "It was our understanding that this is what we were going to do...refer to Business...have a 41% mobility rate...31% of buildings foreclosed are 2 and 3 family homes...When this was brought up by the City Council you were there...to change this needs some sort of recommendation by the City Council...they (did this) to (forward the middle school)...consider some sort of communication with the City Council...I think that's only fair to do with the City Council...would give us the time that we thought we had...don't really assign a lot of the teachers until school starts."

Motion: refer to standing committee on Business and notify the City Council

Bogigian: "When the City Council appropriated this money for the school committee...I don't recall having the Council vote on how the School Committee uses funds...all I'm saying, is I support the motions...I don't think that money was given to us with the express purpose with doing the the things that are listed here."
Lukes: "The legal oversights..."basically, yes, it's our authority, but what does it do to our political negotiations? Conflicted.

Motions all passed

on blogs

noreply@blogger.com (cascadingwaters) — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 20:38:00 +0000

Should there be a policy regarding posting of material on blogs through school system equipment?

(of interest only because, well, I'm blogging here, aren't I?)

FY10...yes, already

noreply@blogger.com (cascadingwaters) — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 20:33:00 +0000

Looking ahead...item gb#8-159 from Mr. O'Connell and Mr. Monfredo:
"To begin preparation for the FY!) Budget, with discussion of school system needs and priorities with interested school and community groups"

That means you!
This usually goes up in January; we're working on this early next year.
"what we all anticipate to be a particular rigorous" year next year
Referring to the standing committee on business

WPL and WPS working on reading

noreply@blogger.com (cascadingwaters) — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 20:28:00 +0000

Suggestion that some money be put into the fund of the Friends of Worcester Public Library to fund coupons for children. The kids would get the coupons as rewards, and the coupons would be good at the Friends' bookstore.
Referred to subcommittee.
Getting kids to the library!

Playgrounds

noreply@blogger.com (cascadingwaters) — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 20:23:00 +0000

On School Plant: the administration insisted and the subcommittee followed the recommendation that playgrounds only be installed by professional installers.

Attention, Nelson Place and Thorndyke Road! So much for saving money...

Superintendent Caradonio is up and waxing eloquent about the dangers of using volunteers. "The key thing is get volunteers to maintain it, not to build it."

Coming out of the community and employee issue subcommittee

noreply@blogger.com (cascadingwaters) — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 20:17:00 +0000

Problem-free Playgrounds recommended for expansion
Recommendation for an additional health teacher for middle schools, for anti-bullying programs; held, as we have an additional health teacher

And Mayor Lukes just came in.

Liveblogging the School Committee

noreply@blogger.com (cascadingwaters) — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 20:15:00 +0000

liveblogging the School Committee: Mayor Lukes, Mr. Foley out today, so Mr. O'Connell is chairing.

Right now we're going through the subcommittee reports.

Midsummer School Committee meeting

noreply@blogger.com (cascadingwaters) — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 18:41:00 +0000

The agenda for the midsummer meeting of the School Committee is up.

In addition to the usual rash of midsummer personnel appointments and some items for next year, there is one item of budgetary interest:

gb #8-169 - Mr. Monfredo/Mr. O’Connell

(June 26, 2008)

To discuss the manner in which the $445,000 in the teacher account will be utilized.

You might remember that there was some question as to whether additional money coming in should go to continue to keep down the size of elementary school classes, or to fund middle school programs. The School Committee was pretty strong in recommending the former.
But it wasn't clearly said in a vote.
It looks as though perhaps it will be made even clearer on Thursday.

Congratulations, Belmont Street!

noreply@blogger.com (cascadingwaters) — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 18:27:00 +0000

Congratulations to Belmont Street Community School on their newly renovated library! The school received a revamped library with additional books and computers through the READesign program from the Heart of America foundation. Always good to see more books heading into a school!

Not in any way to rain on their parade, but it would be behoove us to remember that the revamped library will not have a librarian.

What I Learned At School This Year

noreply@blogger.com (cascadingwaters) — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 12:54:00 +0000

Good column from George Wood in the Forum for Education and Democracy

His list of what he'd learned from the Forum's report, Democracy at Risk, is most interesting:

What I learned from looking at these far-from-perfect numbers is that the nations that do well on these comparisons do things I wish we did, including:

Funding their schools equitably, often nationally, and refusing to allow the disparities we see in this nation;
Taking care of their children by providing national health care, early childhood education, safe neighborhoods, and quality housing;
Supporting a professional teaching corps by providing financial support to become a teacher, ensuring mentoring programs, and investing in ongoing professional development;
Making sure there is a supply of well-prepared and well-supported teachers for every child and every school;
Relying upon performance assessments, and assessments of learning at the school and classroom level, to gauge how schools are doing;
Using assessments that engage students in higher order thinking processes to solve real-world problems; and
Refusing to use standardized assessments for high-stakes decisions.

Every time I mention this list to policy-makers they seem astounded. What I have learned this year is that we have a mythological notion of what is going on in schools around the world. We believe something like this: In other nations kids go to school all the time, study primarily math, take tests almost daily, and are subjected to a great deal of drill and memorization work. In fact, nothing could be further from the case and to pursue a policy agenda based on this mythology will deeply damage our schools.

And, as he says in closing:
What we need is a system of national policy supports for schools that insures every child, regardless of condition, has equal access to a good school, with good teachers, where what they learn is judged by what they can do on complex tasks.

what to do with those research bureau reports?

noreply@blogger.com (cascadingwaters) — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 00:10:00 +0000

A quick discussion here on what we should do with the Research Bureau's latest report: send it to the Education sub-committee? or (as suggested by Councilor Clancy) just let the School Committee take it?

(This report is on the search for a new superintendent.)

Councilor Toomey (chair of the Education sub-committee) says she'll take it, so it gets referred.

on closing Providence Street station

noreply@blogger.com (cascadingwaters) — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 00:02:00 +0000

Rep. Fresolo raises a point I hadn't considered in the conversation over closing Providence Street station:
There's a huge number of schools up on that hill (public and private). Do we want them waiting for a fire truck on the other side of a passing train?

It's a thought.

Be careful what you vote for

noreply@blogger.com (cascadingwaters) — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 23:30:00 +0000

There's been some online discussion of this already, but it looks as though the City Council isn't missing the impacts of the proposed rollback of the state income tax:

Item 12i. Request City Manager, in conjunction with the City Auditor and the Worcester Public Schools, prepare an impact report concerning public services that would result from the ballot initiative to eliminate the state income tax. (Clancy)

(live-posting from the City Council meeting)
Councilor Clancy says he wants projections..."we're a creature of the state. Our schools receive a tremendous amount of money from the state...that's going to have an impact...We at least have to roll out what that impact would be...certainly significant on the school side...far great repercussions on the school side."

The councilor stresses that he'd like conservative projections, saying the schools "like to have their finger on the scales sometimes."

(The proposal would rollback the tax 2 1/2 percent in 2009, and 2 1/2 in 2010.)

Stand for Children article in the T&G

noreply@blogger.com (cascadingwaters) — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 13:02:00 +0000

Front page of today's local section

Encouraging words from some public officials!

The disappointing thing is that the mayor apparently still doesn't understand the foundation budget formula:

"The bizarre thing was, even though we had effectuated savings from our health insurance reforms...because it wasn't new money, they weren't going to recognize it..that means there's no incentive for reforms."

That's one you'll want to take up with the state, Madame Mayor. They set the foundation budget formula.

Readiness project misses

noreply@blogger.com (cascadingwaters) — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 14:35:00 +0000

UPDATED:
There have been a slew of letters to the Boston Globe regarding the Readiness Project. We'll see about getting some links up to those over the next day or so.

The O Jornal (not a mistype; it's not an English word) points out one hole to the report: English Language Learners.

State Representative Antonio F.D. Cabral (D-New Bedford) was not surprised by the lack of vision; however, he was disappointed.
"We cannot have a 10-year readiness project without including those students statewide that have suffered in terms of transition to English because of the present law," said Cabral. "Call it full immersion, bilingual, those students must be part of the debate. When legislation is submitted, certainly that issue will have to be discussed."

You'll remember that we have many of them in Worcester. As those children require resources (there was some discussion at last week's School Committee meeting regarding translators, for example), this is a topic that warrants attention. The percentage statewide of students who speak English as a second language is 15%. According to the DOE foundation calculations, in Worcester, 28% of Pre-K students are English language learners and 18.6% of K-12. That's a lot of kids. That matters to Worcester.
(thanks, Colleen, for finding the Worcester numbers!)

Commissioner's district report

noreply@blogger.com (cascadingwaters) — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 14:32:00 +0000

You can find it online here

And, for those who missed the correction, the T&G list (below) failed to include the Roosevelt School.

Commissioner's District

noreply@blogger.com (cascadingwaters) — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 19:42:00 +0000

The state has okayed Worcester's plan for its twelve underperforming schools.
The first thing that leaps out at me on this list? It includes all four of Worcester's middle schools.

According to today's article by Jacqueline Reis, the plans include more time for reading, meeting time for teachers to discuss test results, and training for principals.

Two important points made by the superintendent:
In the district’s analysis, however, Mr. Caradonio pointed out that the district cannot afford all the improvement efforts recommended. Although the district provides some daily after-school tutoring, for instance, it would cost $6.4 million more to provide it to everyone the state recommends have it. And while the district provides some coaching for teachers at Priority Schools, giving each such school two subject-area coaches would cost another $2.2 million
And:
The plan focuses on academic and teacher quality issues and does not delve into other factors that might affect students’ ability to learn, such as poverty, Mr. Caradonio said.

Poking around online, I can't find the report itself. If I do, I'll post a link. Remember, incidentally, that these results are almost entirely based on MCAS scores.

Readiness project rollout

noreply@blogger.com (cascadingwaters) — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 13:09:00 +0000

If you're looking for information on the Readiness Project, the governor's website has a number of things to look at.

And the Globe's coverage gives a rather different spin than the Telegram's.

City Council evaluates the City Manager

noreply@blogger.com (cascadingwaters) — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 00:13:00 +0000

As they run through their evaluations, we're interested in seeing how many city councilors mention schools.

Apropos of nothing, several councilors have recommended that the City Manager delegate more.

Councilor Toomey was glad to mention the increased amount of money the city was able to give to schools. She wants to see us doing more for our students.

Councilor Petty: "your leadership is why we got the money" (referring to the superintendent of schools) "first time we didn't have to cut in, what, seven or eight years over there?"

Councilor Clancy: "kept our services at the same level without raising our tax levy" (citing Section 18)"It's kept us solvent: it's kept teachers in our classrooms...we've been able to do that because of that reform"

Councilor Eddy: "ran on a platform of strong neighborhoods...strong schools...must prioritize citizens' quality of life in making decisions" (looking ahead)"coming up with a plan and a funding plan for the schools for our children"

Councilor Palmieri: activists for education have "our undivided attention as to HOW we are going to improve this educational system"

(the following councilors did not mention the schools, but said things that apply:)

Councilor Haller: "to break down the silos of departments...we're in this together and we need to solve this together" (she was speaking of the city-side ones, but it applies) "responded to the greatest diversity of need"

Councilor Rushton: "don't see an employee as more than a line on a spreadsheet" "knitting a community together" "building a better Worcester"

Councilor Rosen: "budget was responsive to what the city council" asked for..."strong in preserving city services"...

Mayor Lukes: "wait for more savings and more reforms...I will not support new taxes...maintained our twelve million dollar tax" levy..."a large city agenda and large city dreams within our grasp"

City Manager O'Brien: "countless accomplishments across the spectrum"
"continue to succeed on countless fronts"
"relentless in the pursuit of excellence"

The extra money and when it's free

noreply@blogger.com (cascadingwaters) — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 23:38:00 +0000

Hmmm...here's a puzzler.

That $2.4 million has three priorities:

Fuel
Class size
Supplies

According to the school administration, this money will not be released until the gas prices are locked in.

That will happen sometime between now and November. It's based on the NYMEX market rate.
School, of course, starts in August.

This would seem to mean that they can't spend the money until, possibly, after school starts. That would make applications to class size tricky.

Readiness project rollout

noreply@blogger.com (cascadingwaters) — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 18:52:00 +0000

The final report won't be out until after the November election, but the Patrick administration began its rollout of the Readiness Project report yesterday. On the school funding front:

the committee agreed that the state funding formula--the foundation budget--needs to be revamped.

"On average, school districts spent 18 percent more than the foundation budgets set by a state formula, Patrick said in a press conference at the Boys and Girls Club of Dorchester yesterday."(from the Boston Globe report)

And Worcester? 0.4%

a move towards funding universal pre-kindergarten and "high need district" full-day kindergarten (it's unclear if this would help Worcester; it looks as though the funding would be for those high need districts that don't yet have full-day kindergarten)

state assistance in lowering class size in "high need districts" (this would seem to help Worcester)

consolidation of districts

a recommendation for a state-wide teachers' contract. According to the Berkshire Eagle, the Massachusetts Teachers' Association hasn't had a chance to look at the details of this proposal. The Worcester Telegram and Gazette is already against it.

You've probably already seen the reports that funding all of this is not planned for at this point.

And the MCAS? No change. This was work, incidentally, as the entire committee had to ignore the assessment subcommittee report. And so we will be continuing to pour millions of dollars into that particular assessment system which leads to many of the problems cited elsewhere in the report.

Voting and school funding

noreply@blogger.com (cascadingwaters) — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 18:23:00 +0000

In light of the Election Commission's recommendation that Worcester's polling places be moved out of schools, the study demonstrating a link between where you vote and how you vote may have repercussions beyond those anticipated. The election officials' concerns are valid ones of child safety, accessibility, and traffic. Moving half of Worcester's polling places out of schools, however, may make it a little bit harder to get people to vote for funding for them.
The study looked not only at the effect of voting on school funding in schools, but of voting on stem cells in churches. The difference made, while small, was statistically significant. News reports (on NPR and ABC) differ on if it could make enough of a difference to sway an election. It's called "contextual priming," where environmental cues influence behavior.

As Worcester voters rarely themselves face a vote directly on school funding (only in a 2 1/2 override), this may not make as much of a difference here. It does make one think, however, that it would be well to hold education hearings and budget votes in schools.

Depressing day in the T&G

noreply@blogger.com (cascadingwaters) — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 01:56:00 +0000

Not a happy way to start one's Sunday morning...
It might perhaps have been helpful if the articles on school nurses and on the MIAA had run sometime prior to the funding of the Worcester school budget. Then perhaps interested parties could have had a chance before the budget was finalized to contact the School Committee regarding funding these two accounts.
As it is, the school nurses will see no change for next year. The following schools were without a full-time nurse this year (this list was in the printed paper, but it is not online):

Chandler Elementary with 312 students
Creamer Alternative School with 193
Grafton St. Elementary with 349
Heard St. Elementary with 272
Lake View Elementary with 268
Lincoln St. Elementary with 235
May St. Elementary with 279
McGrath Elementary with 180
Thorndyke Rd Elementary with 369
Worcester Alternative School with 58
Union Hill Elementary with 280
University Park Campus with 270

That's an awful lot (3065) of kids to have without a nurse in the building. Taking into account the number of kids with poor primary health care, the asphalt playgrounds, the huge number of health issues (from asthma to diabetes to allergies to ADHD), this is just a dangerous situation. A disaster waiting to happen.

As for the MIAA, Mayor Lukes did ask at the budget hearing what exactly we got for our MIAA dues. She was told that we got our membership, and that the dues are determined by population. In other words, as the mayor said, if we were a smaller town, we'd get the same services for less money. I have a feeling that a great deal more would have been said on this subject were the breakdown given on the front page today public earlier this week.

Turning farther along the paper, Bob Nemeth continues convinced that charter schools are the answer to what ails us (based largely, it seems, on John Rowe), and the T&G editorial board continues its hysterical support of the MCAS exam. Those two together, however, show some local concern around the Governor Patrick's awaited Readiness Project report, coming out in the next week or so.

(and here everyone wondered what would happen to Who-cester once the budget passed!)