On instructional assistant placements

I know there are conversations going around about this, and I've gotten several calls, so...

Instructional assistants for kindergarten are placed as follows:

• every school gets one.
• schools with the highest number of kids per class get additional IAs, in order. Thus, the two classrooms of 30 at Chandler Elementary meant that school got another IA. Then the Quadrant Managers go through all of the classes of 29, all of the classes of 28, and so on down the line until we run out of IAs to place. WPS does not have enough IAs to have one in every kindergarten class..

Note that this means a couple of things:

• as always, we're only as good as our most recent information. We can only shuffle so often (I think we only shuffle once, but I'm checking on that), and if a class that was 23 suddenly gets four more kids, then yes, there may well be a class of 27 out there that is still sharing.
• this is done without regard for need. Thus, it may be a class of 24 kids with five with particular needs: that doesn't figure in. Nor does poverty level, nor does school level (aka: Level 4, Level 3, and so forth). 

I suspect this will come up at the Worcester School Committee meeting on Thursday--Mr. O'Connell has put in an item regarding Union Hill--so expect more discussion.

And by all means, keep the calls coming! We're only as good as our information!

New Hampshire puts a moratorium on charter schools until they fund what they have.

Wait, what? Someone actually considered funding before they granted new charters?
Yes, and it was our neighbors to the north:

New Hampshire's state board of education has taken the highly unusual step of placing a moratorium on the creation of new charter schools, arguing that the legislature has not adequately funded them and that their costs are poised to balloon in the years ahead.
Board members voted this week deny all applications it receives to open new charters in the state until more funding is provided for those schools.In a letter explaining the decision, board Chairman Tom Raffio said the panel "continues to be supportive of charter schools." But he noted that the board has approved eight new charter schools over the past two years, increasing the state's costs by $5 million. Without additional funding, he said, "it would be inappropriate to approve any new charters schools at this time."

It seems that this sufficiently freaked out the state legislature such that they are considering (and this in fiscally conservative, to put it lightly, New Hampshire) increasing ed funding by $4.9 million.

Would someone please alert the Massachusetts Board of Education that charter schools costs money and that our Legislature has not increased education funding to keep up with the charters they've authorized? They appear not to have noticed.

I would like to read more principal's letters this honest

Mr. Sternberg, hats off!

One significant issue as we move into this new school year is that we will, at times, find it difficult if not impossible to teach authentic application of concepts and skills with an eye towards relevancy. What we will be teaching students is to be effective test takers; a skill that does not necessarily translate into critical thinking – a skill set that is necessary at the college level and beyond. This will inevitably conflict with authentic educational practice – true teaching...

 Of additional concern to me is the relationship between children and their teacher as we move into an era where teacher job status is based upon student assessment scores. Guess what, some children will become more desirable than others to have in class! And, conversely, others will be less desirable. There, I wrote it! That concept is blasphemy in our school where teachers live to prepare children to be productive learners and members of society. 

Not so incidently: Mr. Sternberg was the New York State Principal of the Year for 2009.

Exam/IB school committee upcoming dates

First up, the public hearing dates:

Wednesday, October 10: Quinsigamond Community College, Harrington Learning Center, Room 109B

Monday, October 15: Holy Cross, Hogan Center, Suite A

Monday, October 22: Worcester State, Student Center, Blue Room

Monday, October 29: Clark University, Grace Conference Room

All hearings start at 7 pm, with the exception of October 15, which will start at 8 pm. There will be a brief presentation of the programs and the research we've reviewed thus far, followed by time for public comment.  Please plan to attend! We are most interested in any member of the public's--parents, teachers, business owners, community members--view of both or either program and why.

The committee is also visiting a number of schools and programs. We'll be visiting the Abby Kelley Foster international baccalaureate program during the second week of October. We're visiting to exam schools in Boston: John D. O’Bryant School of Mathematics and Science on Tuesday, October 9, 2012 and Boston Latin School on Wednesday, October 17, 2012. We're hoping to see one of Boston's IB programs that afternoon, as well. 

I will keep you posted!

Meetings next week

Hugely behind on posts...fighting a flu this week...

There is a meeting of the Teaching, Learning, and Student Supports subcommittee on Monday at 5:30 (4th floor of DAB). You can find the agenda here. Under discussion:

• an "early warning" system to target potential dropouts
• strategies to deal with truancy
• question of restoring DARE
• a report on the youth health survey
• a review of the absentee policy

The full Worcester School Committee meets on Thursday at 7 pm at City Hall. You can find that agenda here.

After some honors (including Thorndyke's playground committee!), the report of the Superintendent is on the innovation schools, year one (worryingly without a backup, as yet).

We're hearing about the new children's gallery at the Worcester Historical Museum.

We've got both the TLSS and the Governance and Employee Issues committees reporting out.

We have a response back on JROTC programs.

Several requests for recognitions, publications, and reports are going in.

We're reporting out on the exam/IB school committee.

Two grants: 

1. $95,716 for Kindergarten Assessment Entry testing (largely to be spent on materials)
2. $421,715 has come in for Burncoat Prep's Level 4 grant. You will remember that this is the money that is contingent on a number of things, including the replacement of the principal.

Also $13,274.44 in prior year invoices (for natural gas).

And we're getting a recommendation that finalists for the special education position be interviewed on October 18.

Reality check on school nutrition regs

It seems appropriate to take the opening of today's front page story in the Telegram on the results of the Body Mass Index screenings to do a quick reality check on the new federal school nutrition regs. You may have seen that the House has a bill before it that would reverse the calorie limits in the new regulations.
Among those sponsoring the bill is Representative Steve King of Iowa, who is in a tough re-election battle with none other than Christie Vilsack, perhaps best known as the wife of US Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack...who oversees school nutrition regulations.
(I won't get into the ins and outs of who's getting money from whom, but everyone's getting money from Big Ag.)
Also, the calorie limits aren't a scheme to put the nation's children on a diet; they are those recommended for various ages of children by the Mayo Clinic.

Norrback Ave library

Another in the occasional series of photos of places you may not have seen in the Worcester Public Schools.

Here are the constellations on the ceiling of the library at Norrback Avenue Elementary School.

Yes, the starts really light up! It's really a lovely room, and I will post more photos of it soon!