BoardBuzz was encouraged by a story we got today. This tidbit from the Daily Citizen in Georgia shows just how important school board governance is.

BoardBuzz knows just how important school boards are, how much they can impact student achievement, and as the article notes, "They set the schools’ vision, establish policy and hire the superintendent. And in some cases, they oversee multimillion-dollar budgets." But the article also pointed out, "In the past decade, at least one-fifth of all school boards in Georgia have had problems, according to Mark Elgart, president and CEO of AdvancED -- the organization that accredits more than 90 percent of the school systems in Georgia."

So the question became, what to do?

The state board in April asked the Georgia Chamber of Commerce, the Metro Atlanta Chamber, the Georgia Partnership for Excellence in Education and AdvancED to launch a 90-day task force to research national best practices in school board governance.

Our task on the Commission for School Board Excellence was to study the best-performing school boards in the nation -- and figure out what they had in common.

We held meetings around the state to collect research and data. We talked to national and state experts, including the National School Boards Association, the Georgia School Boards Association (GSBA) and the Georgia Superintendents Association (GSA), and incorporated many of their recommendations in our report. We read the best case studies and looked for the common themes.

And what came out of the meetings is a really solid set of recommendations that will strengthen school boards all across Georgia, and maybe even serve as a model for school boards all over the country.

“If Georgia can adopt most of these suggestions for change, the state will be a model for the nation in school board governance,” Elgart noted.

The final recommendations are directed at improving board elections, qualifications and training so that boards do not get to a point where state intervention is necessary. We do not recommend that the State Board of Education have authority to intervene in a local system unless all local attempts to save the failing system have been exhausted. Even in such cases, the state board, as the entity of last resort, should have only temporary authority to stabilize the system until new local board elections can be held.

The recommendations include:

• Creating uniform conflict-of-interest and ethics policies.

• Clarifying the roles of board members and the superintendent.

• Requiring school board candidates to meet minimum qualifications to run and receive capacity-building training once elected.

• Creating nonpartisan elections.

• Limiting boards to no more than seven members.

And perhaps the icing on this cake?

This is important work. Good school board governance has a direct impact on pupil performance and graduation success -- and in the new economy, 80 percent of jobs will require a two-year technical or four-year college degree. Education is the root of all economic growth, and as business leaders, we must do everything possible to ensure Georgia’s children are ready to compete in the global economy.

You can read the whole article and learn about the recommendations by clicking here. Our hats are off to GSBA for being such an integral part of this effort.

Thanks to an article we found in The Washington Post, BoardBuzz was happy to hear more about how some students and families are getting educated about childhood obesity.

This past weekend, the American Heart Association, sponsored an event called Recess by the River for eight to 14-year-olds in D.C and their parents to learn about fighting obesity.

According to the article, last year the Trust for America organization released a study showing that the District has the highest childhood obesity rate in the country. So, this weekend children were invited out to the Fort Davis recreation center, and divided into groups to begin their journey through the United States of Healthy, which consisted of nine activity stations to make learning about obesity more enjoyable.

Children earned heart-shaped passport stickers for each event they participated in, which included dance, aerobics, kickboxing and special lessons from the D.C. Divas professional football team and the Washington Redskins cheerleaders.

It seems like the event was a success, and parents and children also had access to health screenings and nutrition information. After a day of fun exercising, events organizers (and BoardBuzz!) hope that children will be inspired to keep active and start getting fit. For more information on childhood obesity, be sure to check out these tips from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention.

The National School Boards Association’s Technology Leadership Network (TLN) has announced its annual list identifying 20 emerging leaders in education technology. These individuals are recognized for championing technology initiatives that make a difference for students, teachers, school districts, and the greater education technology community.

A nationwide search was conducted to identify individuals who reflect the spirit of creativity and collaboration that embraces the power of technology to enhance learning for students, inspire colleagues, transform operations, and engage communities.

“Innovation in K-12 technology is the result of educators with the vision, passion, and natural curiosity to explore new tools and teaching strategies that transforms teaching and learning,” said Ann Flynn, director of education technology for NSBA. “Today, the exceptional accomplishments of these 20 individuals help us define our expectations for the role technology can play in the future. We hope this program inspires other educators to follow their lead and provides policy makers and school leaders with the insight they need to further support future innovation.” The 20 technology leaders will be recognized at NSBA’s annual technology and learning conference, T+L, which will take place Oct. 28-30, 2008 in Seattle. They will also be showcased in future NSBA education technology publications. For more information, please visit the T+L Conference Website.

No, not learning to read the A, B, C’s, but how to read reading scores. Reading scores are an assessment of at what level a child is reading and comprehending material. It sounds simple, but using both numbers and letters, sometimes it can be hard to truly understand what progress your child is making or to identify if they need to improve.

Thanks to the Washington Post, BoardBuzz can offer some tips for understanding your child’s reading scores. In Montgomery County, Maryland, parents were proud of the effort of working towards universal grade-level literacy in kindergarten through second grade, but weren’t sure what the reading scores meant.

Here is what the Post has to say:

Reading levels are assessed on a scale that begins at 2, progresses to 16, then switches over to letters and goes from J to P…

It's a hybrid of two diagnostic reading scales. The numbers come from the New Zealand program Reading Recovery, which focuses on struggling first-graders. The letters come from the work of scholars Irene C. Fountas and Gay Su Pinnell, who deal with struggling readers across a broader age and ability range.

Most teachers expect students to read at Level Three or Level Four on the Reading Recovery scale in kindergarten and hope they reach Level M by the end of second grade.

Still confused? Scholastic offers some general information on their site saying:

Grade level scores on formal tests mean that the student has performed as well as a student at that grade level. For example, a third grader gets a test score of 6.2 grade level. This score means that the third grader is performing like a sixth grader in the second month of school. It does not mean that the student is reading at a sixth grade level. However, a grade level score on an informal test like the Qualitative Reading Inventory -3 (citation?) does mean that a third grader is reading sixth grade material effectively.

BoardBuzz is pleased with the efforts to educate parents on different ways their children’s reading skills are evaluated. Any more suggestions? Leave us a comment.

The other day, Board Buzz heard the following story from Daniela Espinosa, a project coordinator in NSBA’s School Health Programs Department:

“Around two months ago, I attended a workshop in a high school in the state of Virginia. It was a very hot day and I got really thirsty right before the workshop began. I decided it would be best to get a bottle of water and take it into the workshop with me. I was really happy when I spotted a vending machine two steps away. The vending machine had Pepsi, Diet Pepsi, Dr. Pepper, and some other soda -- but no, it did not have the water I so wanted.

Don’t get me wrong, I do like to have a Pepsi here and there, but for someone who is trying to lose weight, Pepsi is not a good option. And, unfortunately, I don’t like the taste of anything labeled “diet” and dislike Dr. Pepper, which, for me, tastes like cough medicine.

Being someone who works with programs that aim to improve nutrition in schools, including limiting the availability of high calorie beverages, it was very disappointing to see that something as simple and healthy as water was not easily accessible in a high school.”

So Board Buzz was pleased to see that a recent report suggests otherwise. The report, released by the American Beverage Association, reveals that the school beverage landscape has been changing, shifting more to water, portion-controlled sports drinks, and diet drinks. It also shows that calories of beverages being shipped to schools has been slashed by 58 percent since 2004. This outcome comes on the heels of the national “School Beverage Guidelines” set forth two years ago by the Alliance for a Healthier Generation who worked with The Coca-Cola Company, Dr. Pepper Snapple Group, PepsiCo Inc., and the American Beverage Association to establish these guidelines with the purpose of reducing the number of calories made available to children during school hours.

The voluntary agreement was announced by President Clinton along with leaders of the beverage industry on May 3, 2006. The guidelines called for the beverage industry to provide lower-calorie and smaller-portion options in schools, including the removal of full-calorie soft drinks, all by the 2009-2010 school year. Within the guidelines, beverage options include 100 percent juice, low-fat milk, and bottled water in elementary and middle schools, with the addition of diet sodas, calorie-capped sports drinks and enhanced waters, as well as low-calorie teas in high schools.

The report marks the second annual assessment of the impact and status of implementation of the national guidelines. It shows that 79 percent of schools under contract with bottlers are in compliance with the national “School Beverage Guidelines,” surpassing a previous goal that 75 percent of schools under contract be in compliance by the 2008-2009 school year, which has just begun. According to the report, shipments of full-calorie drinks have decreased by nearly two-thirds, with the volume shipped to schools down by 65 percent.

Board Buzz is very happy with these results and hopes to see a lot more schools taking up the challenge of providing less caloric beverages to keep kids healthy and ready to learn!

BoardBuzz is very excited to annouce Jumpstart's Read for the Record campaign! Children and adults are reading together at homes, schools, libraries, stores and more with the goal of setting children on the track for success in both school and life.

Since 1933, Jumpstart has worked toward the day that every child in America can enter school prepared, but the current reality is that many children in low-income communities do not have appropiate books in thier homes to begin to succeed.

Read for the Record aims to fix this inequality; Because the number of books in a home is the strongest indicator of a child's future reading ability, the campaign asks individuals or groups to buy a book to open the world of reading for children. All proceeds go directly to the Jumpstart program,which matches adult readers with children for a full year before they enter school.

This year's book is Corduroy by Don Freeman, and the Pearson Foundation, both a founding partner of Jumpstart and a sponsor of Read for the Record, is providing more than 100,000 copies to children in low-income communities.

BoardBuzz encourages you to learn more at the campaign's web site. Are you reading for the record and incorporating time to read with children? Let us know and leave us a comment... we'd love to know how you are taking part!

It looks like some teenagers at three California high schools are embarking on a journey to find the answer to that question. As reported in The New York Times, academic classes are following the model of the popular television show "The Apprentice" and will develop ideas for the well-known "Got Milk?" campaign.

Over a period of about six weeks, these high school students will act as advertising agencies that are responsible for research, account managment, and strategy brainstorming with the ultimate objective being to increase milk consumption among the teenage population.

Students are responsible for designing ads and interactive campaigns to propose to the agency behind the milk campaign, Goodby, Silverstein & Partners. The purpose of the campaign seems to benefit both parties; students get a fun and professional academic assignment, and the campaigns gets fresh creative input. Co-chair Jeff Gooby said:

“It kind of gets us out of having to create the advertising,” said a jocular Jeff Goodby, co-chairman at Goodby, Silverstein.

He continued, more seriously: “The idea is that it’s fine to involve people in the solution of problems. And people love to see if they can do as good a job as the professionals.”

For more information, be sure to check out the article. BoardBuzz was thrilled to hear of this educational opportunity and can't wait to hear what ideas students pitch to the campaigns to take home the winning $2000 prize and the chance to see their ideas advertised across the nation.

That's a question that Education Week will explore tomorrow, October 1st, in an online chat that includes John Musso, the executive director of the Assocation of School Business Officials International. You can submit questions in advance.

It's the bailout that wasn't that is getting all the attention, but Congress actually has been working on other issues in what is believed to be the final days of the session, including passage of a continuing resolution to essentially keep most of the government operating at FY08 funding levels until a new administration and new Congress convenes. No commentary on that princely accomplishment is really needed, is it? You can find the details with NSBA's Weekly Highlights.

On Saturday night, the CUBE Annual Award for School Board Excellence was awarded to the Brownsville Independent School District in Brownsville, Texas.

At the CUBE Annual Conference, attendees gathered over the weekend to learn about 21st century skills and how urban districts need to react to the changing educational environment. Every fall, CUBE also gathers to learn the best practices among urban school districts and how the board provides leadership and guidance to their community.

Three finalists were announced in August—Omaha, Nebraska, Chula Vista, California, and Brownsville, Texas. All three demonstrated how the leaders of a district work together as a team, strive for excellence for their community, and focus on student achievement. While it may not get the coverage that the Emmys or the Oscars get, the CUBE Annual Award is a prestigious honor for urban school districts. Other winners from prior years include Boston, Norfolk, Hillsborough County (Tampa), Florida, Miami-Dade, and Houston. That’s pretty good company, especially as time goes on and we can examine the long term successes in these districts as they evolve. The competition was stiff for 2008. All three districts have overcome challenges while keeping their eyes on the student’s needs, first and foremost.

Every district faces challenges, regardless of size, location, and who’s in charge. Brownsville sits on the border of Texas and Mexico and their population is 98% Hispanic and 95% economically disadvantaged. With more than 48,000 students, they still make academic gains and find ways to educate ALL students using innovative strategies. The school board and superintendent work in concert to provide leadership for a community that wants the best for their families.

One of CUBE’s missions is to share information and celebrate the successes of urban boards and governance teams. Brownsville, Chula Vista, and Omaha will all be spotlighted in CUBE’s conferences, webinars, and publications in the coming year. All three were genuine and graceful in demonstrating how they’ve made big improvements in their districts. Take our word for it—the challenges of today are tomorrow’s success story. Just ask Brownsville.

BoardBuzz came across an impressive website about school boards by a group called the
"Committee for Good School Governance" in California's Pajaro Valley Unified School District. This group has made endorsements in that district's upcoming school board elections, but what got our attention was the detail their site features about the role of a school board and its members. As the site explains:

We have adopted the California School Board Association’s Professional Governance Standards for School Boards recommendations. We found the Association’s standards to contain the fundamental principles required in governing responsibly and effectively. Adding to the Association’s standards, the Committee has incorporated additional standards that will advance improvement in student learning and achievement. These additional standards largely include expectations for academic achievement goal setting, progress measurement compared with goals, and frequent improvement cycles to advance District progress.

Here's another example, from a group that called itself "Take Back Perry Schools" and was organized around elections earlier this year in the Metropolitan School District of Perry Township in Indiana. We like that this one includes links to NSBA's Key Work of School Boards, an article by Missouri School Boards' Association executive director Carter Ward and former Charlotte-Mecklenburg school board member Arthur Griffin Jr. on five characteristics of an effective school board, and the Center for Public Education's "All In Favor" brochure about the importance of school board elections and related resources for voters.

Committees that run slates of candidates can be controversial, and the Pajoranian Register reports that this is true of the Pajaro Valley one. Let's be very clear here: BoardBuzz doesn't know a thing about the candidates running in these races, these groups' agendas, or the validity of their endorsements.

What we do want to applaud, though, is organized community efforts, using the power of the Internet, to give these vital contests more attention and—even more important—to direct voters' attention to the principles of effective school governance. That's something we've said before should be part of a community's discussion at election time. It may not help much to immerse school board members in these principles if the people choosing who serves on the board base their voting decisions on entirely different considerations.

Some school board elections can be complicated, with lots of candidates and little help from news media unless there's something sexy going on. Don't expect reporters to spill a lot of ink on principles of good governance. But if communities do this on their own, that can only bode well for children.

Educators and parents who wring their hands wondering if their kids have goals other than becoming a video game-meister should do what the U.S. Department of Education has done—ask them. They'll probably like what they hear. Nearly four out of five 8th graders (79%) said they expect to go to college after high school. Most of them (70%) expect to earn a B.A. or better. Plus, college-intending crosses all racial and income groups of kids—even our poorest middle schoolers say by large margins they expect to go to college. Only 16% of all 8th graders reported that they don't know what they want to do.

This shouldn't surprise anyone who has been watching college-going trends. When BoardBuzz was hustling our way into college to the tune of "Staying Alive," only half of our fellow high school grads were joining us. Since then, the number has risen dramatically, and now two-thirds of all grads are enrolling in college right after high school.

But there is another reality, too, and this one really warrants our collective hand-wringing: Despite their middle school dreams, according to the Center for Public Education, somewhere between 20% and 30% of our young people are not completing high school with a regular diploma. And without one, the way back into the education pipeline is incredibly difficult to navigate. It's not impossible. But it has certainly been shown to be highly improbable.

What can we do? Fortunately there are many things that the Center tells us work to keep kids in school and on track to graduate. For one, educators and parents should be alert to early warning signs that students may be in danger of eventually dropping out. These include failing grades in English or math, poor attendance and other signs of being disengaged from the school culture. These students can really benefit from intensive interventions that address their academic and social needs. For another, we need to pay attention to the transition years when students leave one school for another. This in itself could really pay off for our 8th graders because even high-achieving students have been known to fall off the rails after entering high school.

Finally, we need to make sure students have a high-level curriculum. Yes, this seems counter-intuitive. But successful drop-out prevention programs like the Talent Development high schools and the so-called middle colleges like this one understand that young people rise to the occasion when the subject matter is relevant, rigorous, and can get them where they want to go. And for most of them, where they want to go is college.

In some schools, students will no longer hear the age-old phrase to take a seat after the bell has rung for the start of class. An article found in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, informed BoardBuzz of these new desks that are helping fidgety students perform better in school.

The secret is not to sit down. This year, students in Pamela Seekel's, a fifth grade reading teacher's, class will try out stand-up desks. Produced by a Wisconsin company, these desks are height adjustable and allow students to stretch and lean as they are getting their reading done.

BoardBuzz has to wonder, will this catch on? The article goes on to say that:

As part of a small but growing movement in northern Wisconsin and Minnesota that many teachers say is bound to gain popularity elsewhere, several schools are experimenting with their physical learning environments by incorporating stand-up workstations in the classroom, or, in one school, stability balls instead of traditional school desk chairs.

Anecdotally, teachers have reported positive results after freeing their kids from the confines of “feet flat on the floor” and “no rocking!” — greater attentiveness, fewer behavioral problems, better posture and more enthusiasm. Kids who are habitually fidgety or who suffer from attention disorders appear to show the most improvement, teachers say.

The desks work to keep students from getting restless, bored, or tired. Only one issue has come up so far; it seems their cost is preventing some schools from trying them out. The new stand-up desk is about as twice as expensive as the usual classroom desk and chair set. Many schools are beginning by buying a few for each classroom, andBoardBuzz can't wait to hear if they have a larger impact on learning.

Has your school tried stand-up desks? Leave us a comment and let us know how it's working out for your students.

BoardBuzz has been so busy this week keeping you up-to-date on a wide variety of issues it almost forgot to mention this article in USA Today. The article focused on a study by the Brookings Institute’s Tom Loveless which found that 38 percent of 8th graders are now taking Algebra or an equivalent advanced math course -- a dramatic increase since the early 1990’s. This number includes nearly a third of the nation’s lowest performing 8th graders, which is almost triple the number from just the beginning of this decade. These increases are no doubt a result of the focus in the last fifteen years or so to get more middle schoolers, and especially minority and low-income students, into Algebra courses.

But rather than celebrate the fact that more students are being exposed to Algebra in middle school-- as is the norm in most countries around the world -- Dr. Loveless argues that these students and their classmates are ill served by placing them in Algebra when they lack basic foundational math skills like multiplication and division. He states that:

It's hard to teach a real algebra class if you have kids who don't know arithmetic.

Dr. Loveless makes a good point but is focusing on just one output—enrolling students in Algebra by 8th grade—without also focusing on inputs—a well aligned math curriculum throughout elementary school. Of course placing students in a course they are not prepared for is counterproductive. But abandoning the push for "Algebra for Everyone" by 8th grade could carry greater consequences.

Today there is a greater demand for higher level math skills from our high school graduates than ever before and by most accounts that demand is only going to increase. These demands are not just for those students thinking of going to college but also students looking to be mechanics, electricians, and a wide variety of jobs that traditionally have not required a college degree. Without higher level math skills many of our high school graduates will be ill prepared to compete in the ever more competitive global market place.

So the answer may not be to end the push for "Algebra for Everyone" by 8th grade but to focus more on "Preparing Everyone" for Algebra by 8th grade. Some educators and policymakers, like this group in Utah described in this article, are looking overseas to high-achieving countries like Singapore, Korea, and Japan for examples of well-aligned math curricula that stress mathematical understanding and problem-solving.

For more information about standards check out the Center for Public Education’s Guide to Standards-Based Reform.

School improvement strategies should focus on use of data and instruction, not on altering the governance of a school, according to a new report from the Center on Education Policy. As the number of schools entering or in restructuring under NCLB doubled from last year, the strategies used by states and school districts to turn around struggling schools are under increased scrutiny. The CEP report, based on studies in California, Georgia, Maryland, Michigan and Ohio, found that no one single restructuring strategy required under NCLB is effective in helping schools make AYP. Instead, it recommended that policymakers expand the current available options and encourage states to implement state-specific strategies that meet the needs of their students.

The report findings echo NSBA’s recommendations that states and school districts be allowed to create and implement improvement strategies that meet their specific needs. Mandating certain changes and specific sequences of changes--such as those proposed in the Title I regulations by the U.S. Department of Education--would not serve students well, see NSBA’s recommendations here.

Besides, drastic changes in governance and staff as currently required under the law could have “unintended negative consequences,” the CEP report said. These include principals not being able to find qualified teachers and staff for replacement and obstacles from negotiation with teachers unions.

Carl Sandburg once said that “Time is the coin of your life. It is the only coin you have, and only you can determine how it will be spent. Be careful lest you let other people spend it for you. “ When looking at the impact of time dedicated to learning during the school day and throughout the school year, educators are facing the age-old questions of “how much is enough?” and "what is the impact?" Two articles from EdWeek explore this issue, but kind of leave BoardBuzz chasing our tail…how much is enough?

A string of winter storms in 2003 hit the state of Maryland pretty hard, and left parent and researcher Dave E. Marcotte curious about how multiple school closing would impact student achievement and test scores. According to Marcotte and an article in EdWeek, the impact was “quite a lot.” Marcotte and University of Maryland scholar Steven W. Hemelt analyzed 20 years of data from state reading and math exams to find out how unscheduled interruptions, such as snow days or teacher strikes, affect students’ test scores. Their findings revealed that the number of 3rd graders who met state proficiency targets in Maryland was 3 percent lower than in years with just five lost school days, which is the average number of closings each year in Maryland. The research pointed out that the ultimate impact for schools was higher than that initial 3 percent would imply: “more than half the elementary schools that had been singled out by the state over the past 3 years for failing to make adequate progress would have been on target to pass if Mother Nature hadn’t interfered. “

A second article from Ed Week explored the issue of time in school further, pointing out that “Since the work of the national education commission that gave birth to the report A Nation at Risk in 1983, one blue-ribbon panel after another has called for expanding learning time as a way to boost student achievement. Yet studies only recently have begun to document the potential impact that a little extra learning time might have in practice. “

Unfortunately, there’s not a lot of research on what is the best approach for expanding the time spent in school—arguments abound for more school days, longer academic years, various scheduling configurations, and extended day/after-school programs that all profess to be the cure. According to EdWeek, the demand for students ready to compete in this world has “educators, policymakers, and community activists are adding more learning time to children’s lives. 'This issue is hot right now,' said Bela P. Shah, a senior program associate for after-school initiatives at the National League of Cities’ Institute for Youth, Education, and Families. 'There’s a real understanding that we have to do more, and that everyone has to take responsibility for it.'

BoardBuzz is curious to hear what school leaders have heard from their communities regarding “seat time” and how they’ve made changes to reflect that need. And how will you meet that demand for more time with heightened financial challenges? Silver bullets gladly accepted here…

As Congress takes up the Continuing Resolution (CR), a measure to fund the operation of the federal government at the FY 2008 level through March 6, 2009, NSBA’s advocacy staff continues to urge lawmakers to include funding for school repairs and modernization and Secure Rural Schools, a program essential to school districts and communities with nontaxable federal forest lands. As of today, funding for these two programs do not appear to be included in the CR.

As Congress continues to negotiate the CR and prepares to adjourn for the year, NSBA plans to mobilize its grassroots efforts this week to urge lawmakers to include these and other critical funds for public schools, see NSBA’s letter sent to both chambers. For updates on funding and other legislative issues, go to NSBA's advocacy Website.

Pittsburgh Steelers fans come as die-hard as can be in the world of the NFL. Their success on the field is well documented, and those who attend the games are often granted the beloved "terrible towel" to wave like windmills until their arm falls off (if only we could harness that wind-power, but that's another entry).

It's no wonder that we caught this article in the Pittsburgh Post Gazette about head coach Mike Tomlin helping Pittsburgh's Public Schools pump up the freshman class. As part of the "Pittsburgh Promise" program, the city is rallying together with the help of the University of Pittsburgh and other donors to potentially give the class of 2012 up to $40,000 each to go to college. They'll have to work hard for that money and show perseverance and dedication, but Coach Tomlin knows they can do it. He spoke to almost 2,000 freshman who are part of the Ninth Grade Nation. The hope in Pittsburgh is by gathering these students together at Heinz Field, it will unite them and help them gel into a city wide team. There's a lot at stake for the students and the city in general. These students are part of a mission, like in many American cities, to turn things around. As the coach said, "I'm rooting for you. Hopefully you're rooting for us." What's your community doing to motivate the future?

From NSBA's free weekly Legal Clips e-newsletter BoardBuzz gets word that an Oregon school district is asking the Supreme Court to resolve a special ed issue on which it split 4-4, with Justice Anthony Kennedy recusing himself. Here was our take when that indecision was handed down a year ago.

The Legal Clips item points to a meaty article in the Oregonian and provides links back to the whole history of this issue before various courts, which had split on the question before the Supremes split on it themselves. The question is whether taxpayers are on the hook to pay private school tuition for the special education of a student who has yet to receive services from the school district. The 4-4 result in the Tom F. case left the answer to that question as "Yes for now" in the Second Circuit, where that case arose, but the answer remains "No" in some other places.

The Oregonian quotes the superintendent of the Forest Grove School District, Jack Musser, as saying, “We are proceeding with this not only for the Forest Grove district but the state and the rest of the nation." That's the kind of leadership we've applauded before. The Oregonian goes on to note that:

The National School Boards Association is preparing an amicus brief supporting the school district, said deputy general counsel Naomi Gittins. Gittins said IDEA’s purpose is to make parents and schools work together to provide individualized services for a student with a disability. “The 9th Circuit's ruling really goes too far in that school districts are on the hook for something they didn't know they needed to provide for parents,” she said.

So will the Court grant the request to hear the case? No one's sure why Justice Kennedy recused himself last time. If it's something very specific about that case, maybe. But if it's something about the legal issue itself, Forest Grove—and everybody else—is out of luck. The Oregonian ends by quoting Lehigh University education law professor Perry Zirkel as saying, "In my view, it's worth trying."

By the way, if you're not already getting Legal Clips, try it out by self-subscribing. In addition to the special education case, last week you would have been treated to more details about the ADA issue we flagged here, lawsuits over "timeout rooms," the latest on legal challenges to high school exits exams and other high-stakes tests, a dispute over recent federal guidance about diversity efforts in schools, the Arizona lawsuit over funding for English language learners, and yet another church-state tiff, among other things. And hey, the price is right.

That's right, the evolution/intelligent design debate may see a resurgence as a new movie is in development about the life of Charles Darwin. BoardBuzz is even hopeful that the film will be... good.

Darwin actually lived a rather interesting life. No dramatization is needed to tell his story. A self-described agnostic, Darwin lived a life conflicted by science and religion. He went on to produce his theory of natural selection which became the foundation of modern evolutionary studies.

The film is based on Randal Keyne's book, Annie's Box, which is unique in being authored by a great-great grandson of Charles Darwin. The book--and hopefully the film--explores how Darwin’s work relates to his grief over the death of his daughter at the age of ten, how her death shook his faith, and how he was a man conflicted in his love for his deeply religious wife and his own growing belief in natural selection.

Darwin's voyages, studies, and personal life certainly weave enough of a story to interest BoardBuzz. Director Jon Amiel said, "It’s a powerful, emotional account of a man and his family going through an extraordinarily turbulent time.”

A nine-week shoot is planned for Creation, a film that will explore the life of the man whose theory of natural selection became the foundation for evolutionary biology. The film’s planned release next year coincides with Darwin’s bicentennial and the 150th anniversary of On the Origin of Species. The producers obviously intend for the film to spark debate among audiences on the theory of evolution. What do you think?

BoardBuzz admits to being a compulsive websurfer in the morning. Give us a cup of coffee and broadband, and we are ready to scan the world, picking up the flotsam and jetsam of presidential polls, late baseball scores, and various attempts to put lipstick on a pig. So we were intrigued when we came across an article the Chronicle of Higher Education entitled Online Literacy Is a Lesser Kind. Wha'? we said. Isn't electronic communication the future of reading and writing? Isn't this what we should be teaching so our young people are prepared for the workplace?

Not necessarily so, according to author Mark Bauerlien. Bauerlein provides this description of a study on how readers approach electronic text:

"In the eye-tracking test, only one in six subjects read Web pages linearly, sentence by sentence. The rest jumped around chasing keywords, bullet points, visuals, and color and typeface variations. In another experiment on how people read e-newsletters, informational e-mail messages, and news feeds, [researcher] Nielsen exclaimed, "'Reading' is not even the right word." The subjects usually read only the first two words in headlines, and they ignored the introductory sections. They wanted the "nut" and nothing else."

According to the article, adult web readers, like BoardBuzz, have a success rate for completing tasks online of only 66 percent. But for teenagers -- who as a group tend to spend much more time online than adults -- the success rate drops to 55 percent. The problem, according to Bauerlein, is that digitized texts don't encourage the close reading of texts that develops skills necessary for strong critical thinking. He writes: "The shape and tempo on online texts differ so much from academic texts that e-learning initiatives in college classrooms can't bridge them." His advice? "[G]iven the tidal wave of technology in young people's lives, let's frame a number of classrooms and courses as slow-reading (and slow-writing) spaces."

While Bauerlein is writing about higher education, the caution applies to k-12, too. To be sure, Bauerlein could be accused of being a bit of an anti-tech Luddite. For example, we don't see much value in going to the library in order to get information you can pull of the internet in 10 seconds, as Bauerlein makes his students do. But he does remind us that schools may need to be more deliberate in getting kids to slow down and get inside poems and book-length texts -- at least once in a while.

President Bush is expected to sign into law the new Americans with Disabilities Amendments Act of 2008, which was passed by Congress this week. NSBA submitted a letter to Congress expressing some of the concerns local school boards have on the new legislation, which moved through the Senate and the House expeditiously this week. Although local school boards fully support the goals and objectives of the ADA, the expanded definitions of disability in the new legislation would increase the number of employees covered by the law while giving little consideration to how significantly a particular disability affects an employee. Public schools across the country are also expecting to see an increase in the number of students who seek eligibility under Section 504 and who would otherwise would not have been covered under the previous definitions. The overall implications of the new ADA for public schools remains unknown, but more disputes over who is eligible for coverage are almost a sure thing.

Remember the line “I used to walk 10 miles to school every day, uphill, both ways…”? Today’s children and youth are much less likely to use it. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the percentage of students who live within a two mile radius of, and walk or ride a bike to school has dropped dramatically in the past several decades—plummeting from 49% in 1969 to just 18% in 2001.

October 8 is International Walk to School Day. This is a chance for schools, communities and parents to work together to get students across the country out of the car and onto a bike or sidewalk. With its 1997 U.S. debut as a city-wide event in Chicago, Walk to School Day has grown to involve over 2700 schools in all 50 states last year.

But BoardBuzz believes walking and biking to school shouldn’t be just a once-a-year occasion! Often it takes a leader to champion the cause. A school board member from Arizona did just that by advocating for the development of a “walking school bus program” for her rural district. Since many of her students live outside of town and are bussed in to school, she arranged for the school bus to drop off the students at the town hall. The students are met by parent chaperones and the group continues on foot to the school.

Simple changes such as these can make a difference in the health and physical activity levels of students. But the benefits don’t stop there. Walking- and biking-to-school programs also have positive effects on the environment (by reducing pollution from automobiles) and on school district budgets (by reducing transportation costs). With emerging concerns about childhood obesity, global warming, and rising fuel prices, these benefits become even more pronounced.

Don’t be mistaken—creating safe walking and biking routes takes plenty of collaboration between community leaders, schools, parents, and other groups. But the payoffs will be well worth the effort. Want more information? Visit the U.S. International Walk to School Day web site , the National Center for Safe Routes to Schools, or contact NSBA School Health Programs.

Earlier this week U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings unveiled the department’s Leading Education Indicators: Trends in Education. The indicators include Achievement, Achievement Gaps, High School Graduation Rates, College Readiness, and College Completion and are meant to provide a more accurate picture of how our nation’s schools are actually performing.

Well, BoardBuzz thinks Secretary Spellings must have come across the Center for Public Education’s Good Measures for Good Schools! Released earlier this year, Good Measures for Good Schools consists of these five indicators, as well as 23 others in seven categories to provide parents, educators, policymakers, and the general public a more well-rounded view of our nation’s schools. However, not only does Good Measures for Good Schools provide national data for each of the indicators, it also provides a quick summary of how each indicator should—and should not—be used to evaluate our public schools. BoardBuzz knows all too well how some education indicators are misused.

So if you want to learn about how these 28 indicators can be used to evaluate your local schools, that link again is here.

BoardBuzz gave up trying to figure out what parts of this letter to the next President by writer, performer, radio commentator, and hard-core public school mom Sandra Tsing Loh to share with you here in this blog entry. Nope, instead you absolutely must click on the link and go to the Washington Post to read the entire thing for yourself. In her I-am-parent-hear-me-roar fulmination, no one (except kids) is spared her wit: politicians, bureaucrats, school boards, administrators, school employees, unions, think tanks, "rock and rolly inner-city charter school innovators," op-ed writers, even the Gates Foundation. Read it and weep ... and laugh.

Last night PBS debuted a new documentary, Where We Stand, which looks at education in America through the lens of Ohio. Judy Woodruff introduces Ohio as a cross section of America, where urban, suburban, and rural districts exist and presidential politics is nothing less than a 'swing' vote away from one side or the other. The hour long documentary rattles off statistics and other interesting FAQ-like information in an attempt to bring attention to education for all Americans who will vote in November. PBS isn't alone in trying to get Americans to pay attention to education. But who's paying attention? With the headlines screaming of stock market trouble, housing crunches, budget woes, and hurricanes, is something as long term as education really a matter of national urgency? Well, yes!

As hard as we try, we can't live in the past. Marty McFly and Doc aren't going to go back and correct our mistakes with their time machine. We need to study our mistakes and begin moving forward with new ideas. While Where We Stand recounts a lot of the problems in education and compares us internationally, there are many solutions already in place locally. There are urban districts that are trying unique strategies to get parents and students involved by creating networks and academies to help. Suburban districts utilize the business community to shape 'real-world' skills in the classroom, and rural districts are consolidating to save money and be more efficient with resources. Those stories don't get covered as often, but they are there (and there are lots of examples, just ask us). Take a look at Where We Stand (check your local listings), but look at it critically. We can't afford to let this issue get away from us. Education needs to come forward in this election, and all of us need to do more to carry it there.

The doom and gloom for school board budgets continues. The New York Times had this piece a couple of weeks ago about the painful choices being made in communities around the country. “The big national picture is that food and fuel costs are going up and school revenues are not,” NSBA Executive Director Anne L. Bryant told the Times. “We’re in a recession, and it’s having a dramatic impact on schools.”

Today, ABC News has this long article profiling some of the tough calls school boards are making. Deborah Rigsby, NSBA's director of federal legislation, tells ABC that 29 states are dealing with a combined $48 billion budget gap, which is hitting schools hard. The article goes on:

Other school boards are in a tenuous position thanks to the rise in costs for federally mandated programs that are either unfunded or poorly funded, including the No Child Left Behind Act and special education services.

Common school board cuts include eliminating field trips and laying off staff. Other schools are considering four-day school weeks and raising the price of lunches. And still more have cut school nurses and school-based police officers, leaving the health and safety of the students in the hands of their teachers and administrators.

"This is probably the worst I've seen in years," Rigsby said, noting that at least during the 2001 economic downturn the federal government enacted a multibillion-dollar relief program for local governments. There is no such program in place now.

Another hit comes from the mortgage crisis, she continued. As fewer houses sell and more homeowners enter foreclosure, states just aren't collecting the taxes they count on, yet those homeowners' students are still in school. And if the state faces a revenue shortage, that problem is almost certainly passed on to local governments and schools.

Sure, during lean times, schools and children have to share the pain along with everyone else. But if federal and state elected officials—and candidates—don't hear the message from their constituents loud and clear, they may not make education a high enough priority when something's gotta give. Kids don't vote.

BoardBuzz enjoys science. And with so much attention being paid by school boards and others on the need to beef up science and math instruction and get kids more excited about these fields, we want to do our little part to help ratchet up the excitement.

We recently read an excellent article from Popular Science on the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). The LHC is the world's largest and highest-energy particle accelerator complex, intended to collide opposing beams of protons. It was built by the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), and lies underneath the Franco-Swiss border between the Jura Mountains and the Alps near Geneva, Switzerland.

You may have heard about the LHC already. Of course, if you did read or hear something, it probably involved some crazy fringe theory about black holes destroying the earth. The media love a good doomsday story. These threats have been discounted by the scientists at CERN, and by most physicists around the world. Stephen Hawking had this to say: "The world will not come to an end when the LHC turns on. The LHC is absolutely safe." He also said the LHC is "vital if the human race is not to stultify and eventually die out." So maybe it is a life or death experiment after all...

A far cry from the media hype, Popular Science provides a brighter view:

The most powerful and complex science experiment in the history of the universe is finally—after 14 years and $10 billion—about to begin. There’s no telling what it may find, and that’s entirely the point.

Science for the sake of science. Now that's what we're talking about. Yes, our understanding of the universe is about to change. Or so we hope. The crux is that we think we know what will happen when protons are accelerated to .999c (the speed of light) and smashed together. Many theorists hope to discover the missing particle called the Higgs boson. The Higgs boson explains why mass exists, and its discovery would complete the Standard Model of the universe, which describes everything yet known.

Another possibility is that we may witness the creation of dark matter, something that astronomers would celebrate since our universe seems to be riddled with mass of unknown origin and composition. Yet another possibility, is that we'll find something new. We'll learn we were wrong or observe something unexpected. In truth, the CERN scientists hope to be surprised.

As the Popular Science article describes:

The history of science is one of hubris. We think we have the natural world pretty much figured out, we think that our theories are pretty darn solid—and then someone does an innocent little experiment, and much to everyone's surprise, reveals the unfathomable. Never have scientists so self-consciously courted the unknown as they are doing with the LHC. No one thinks the Standard Model will end up being the whole story of the universe, despite its innumerable successes in explaining the world. Physicists know there is more out there, just beyond our reach. "I think of things for the experiments to look for," says John Ellis, "and hope they find something different."

Even Hawking is betting that we don't find the Higgs boson! Everyone is hopeful that the experiments will have ancillary benefits. Experts argue that the LHC could lead to medical and technological advances. It's happened before.

BoardBuzz suggests you check out the full article. If you're looking for lighter fare, PhD Comics provides a uniquely entertaining look at the LHC.

BoardBuzz has reported before the benefits some schools have gotten for going green. Lower utilities that relieve schools of high energy bills and the opportunity to instill in students a responsibility for the environment are both reasons districts are attracted to greener schools. But today, a Newsweek article had BoardBuzz questioning where this leaves districts that don’t have the funds to build new sustainable schools.

Sustainable green schools are an expensive investment, and many elementary schools around the country are putting thousands of dollars into constructing these new facilities for environmental learning. But as Newsweek reminds us, environmental learning isn’t just about having the faciliities or simply teaching students to save the environment:

Environmental learning isn't always about climate change or the Earth's plight. Rather, teachers with green lesson plans use the natural world as a tool, like leading a study on an ordinary stream, which can include language, math and social studies. "If you take kids outside, it typically engages them, especially ones who are struggling," says Jerry Lieberman, an educational researcher. A handful of studies from the State Education and Environment Roundtable shows the same connection, that students exposed to a nature-based curriculum score higher more than 90 percent of the time than students taught the same subjects in the classroom out of a textbook.

It looks like Project Learning Tree could be the answer. Sponsored by the American Forest Foundation, educators can be trained in green teaching practices for about a $15 fee, which includes a teaching workshop and guidebook for green lesson plans.

Sounds like this could be part of the solution. Is your district finding ways to teach using the environment and outside world for teaching, instead of just textbooks? Let us know what you are up to.

Well, it’s happened. These are no longer the lofty words spoken by a young twenty something as she answers a question for the Miss America pageant. And today, seven years after 9/11, is it any wonder that a day of cease fire seems like a wonderful but lofty idea? A dream that, as Americans and educators, we hope to rub the sleepies from our eyes and wake to a world of non-violence so our children don't have to know war the way we have and the way many generations before have come to know it so well.

World peace... a full day. Twenty four little hours of peace seem to finally be within reach. How is this possible? Well one man, Jeremy Gilley, dreamed of the intangible in 1999 and was just crazy enough to pursue the dream of a day of cease fire, a day of world peace. This British born dreamer used his skills in film production to gain the support from all sectors of society; governments, businesses, influential people, and individuals across the globe. As a result, September 21, 2008 has been declared and agreed upon as the international day of peace. As cynics across the globe hold their breath and prepare to roar in laughter and make snood remarks if September 21 fails to produce Jeremy’s idealistic dream, this movement is 15,000+ strong and steadily growing.

But has his dream already been accomplished? Regardless of the outcome, has he already triumphed? He has received the support and word of countries and governmental organizations around the world that they will seek peace on September 21. They have agreed that September 21 will be an international day of cease fire. And even more importantly, this young man, filled with lofty ideals, has stirred the dream for peace in the hearts of many that once thought “peace” was something placed on greeting cards during the holidays and mentioned during the Miss America Pageant. Peace is now tangible… isn’t that an accomplishment in and of itself? The thought that one man with passion and a mission can achieve world peace, even if for just a day, is a nice reminder that we are only limited by our dreams. That’s pretty amazing!

And you can bring this wonderful day of non-violence into your classrooms and celebrate it with your students. Peace One Day has created an educational guide for introducing students to conflict and conflict resolution, the power of dreams, and the hope for tomorrow. The below video demonstrates Jeremy’s pursuit of peace.

Peace One Day Video

Quality or Access?

That's the question many states are asking when it comes to funding preschool programs. This article from the Boston Globe states that Massachusetts has opted to first improve the quality of the state's pre-k programs rather than expand program access to more children, despite a waiting list of 4,400 seeking state aid to attend preschool.

A major reason is limited funding, which often makes it impossible to both improve program quality while expanding access at the same time. Massachusetts' action is also in line with national studies that have shown only high quality programs can adequately prepare children for kindergarten and beyond, the article said.

That's why increased federal investment in publicly funded voluntary preschool will help states such as Massachusetts tremendously by making more resources availble for both improving quality of and expanding access to pre-k programs. Check out this analysis of H.R. 3289, the Pre-K Act, that passed the House Education and Labor Committee in June and helps states with quality programs to expand their access. NSBA and its Pre-K Legislative Committee advocated for the passage of H.R. 3289. Check out the pre-k committee here.

That's not the only question educators are having a hard time answering when trying to promote reading skills among their students that meet the demand in the 21st Century . The real question for them is how to keep students picking up another book to read after they finish?

The Philadelphia Inquirer reported the city's latest push to get students more excited about reading. Want a clue?

Well, actually the answer to that question requires 39 clues. The program, called The 39 Clues, is published by Scholastic and aimed at readers ages 8-12. Accompanying a series of ten books is an Internet game, puzzles, and game cards that allow readers to become a part of the clue hunt to solve a 500-year-old mystery.

So BoardBuzz wants to know, why this approach?
According to the article:

The watchword is multi-platform. Slowly, book publishing is catching up to information-age possibilities. It may be the first children's-publishing effort of its kind, expanding the idea of the "interactive" book for young readers.

Students seem to enjoy these extra features, the article said, there is also the opportunity to incorporate lessons from other subjects:

This is a teaching tool. To excel in the game, users must amass clues and learn about famous figures, places and events in history: Ben Franklin, the Taj Mahal, the Titanic.

Students at Ferguson Elementary in Philadelphia are testing out the program to see if it is the answer to the reading slump. With a movie in the works and new books being added to the series, we can't wait to find out how the mystery ends. For more information, be sure to check out the article or website.

Answer: Queen Victoria (from 1837 to 1901)

That's the answer Superintendent Kathy Cox of Georgia gave last Friday night to successfully win $1 million for her school system on the popular television program, Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?

The Associated Press reported by way of USA Today of Cox's success, which has been the show's first ever million dollar win.

According to the article, Cox, who competed against two others on the show, "accepted the invitation because the show is family-friendly and promotes education."

BoardBuzz applauds Cox for correctly answering the final million dollar question, for promoting education, and for taking the opportunity to win money for her school system...Congrats!

Tuesday night BoardBuzz noticed a statement on NBC Nightly News that the U.S. high school graduation rate ranked 19th in the world, just ahead of Mexico. Just ahead of Mexico? BoardBuzz wasn’t sure about that, so we did a little investigating.

Turns out NBC News was close on where the U.S. ranked, but not so much on being just ahead of Mexico. According to the latest numbers from the Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD), the U.S. graduation rate actually ranked 18th out of 24 countries, but Mexico’s graduation rate of just 42 percent lagged well behind the U.S. rate of 77 percent. Not exactly "just ahead of Mexico." However, the U.S. does have a lot of ground to cover to catch up with the likes of Finland, Korea, Japan, and Norway, which graduate over 90 percent of their students.

Luckily educators, school board members, and other policy makers from around the country are working hard to improve the graduation rates in their local schools. This is no easy task, of course, but they can find help by checking out the Center for Public Education to find out what has been working to increase the number of high school graduates and what has not. The Center’s most recent report, "School Organization: Structuring Schools so Students Succeed," provides valuable information on how organizing schools has been effective in reducing dropouts and increasing graduation rates. BoardBuzz highly recommends it to find out how schools are best organized to help students.

While you’re visiting the Center, check out its report on Dropout Prevention to learn more about what is proven to work in keeping kids in school.

According to the National Endowment for Financial Education, as few as ten hours of classroom instruction can be enough to persuade students to improve their spending and saving habits. Looking at our current mortgage crisis, it is evident that financial literacy is something that needs to become a focus in education. Discussions of another round of stimulus checks are beginning to make rounds through Congress and America is noting the similarities between today’s financial constraints and the parameters of previous recessions. This close brush with a possible recession is having educators look at the lack financial literacy in K-12 curriculum.

That’s why organizations aimed at increasing the financial proficiency of students is critical. Jump$tart is an organization that notes the average student who graduates from high school lacks basic skills in the management of personal financial affairs. This results in citizens that become financially crippled throughout their lives. Subsequently, Jump$tart and other similar organizations have taken on the challenge of incorporating basic personal financial management skills into K-12 curriculum. Financial education programs are beginning to pop up throughout the country in response the lack of financial knowledge of the average graduating senior. And it’s high time it happens!

Want to include financial management education in your school district, school, or classroom? You’re in luck! There are programs throughout the country that pull on local resources and experts that help get financial management curriculum into the hands and pocketbook of students and teachers alike. Junior Achievement is a leader in helping educators engage and excite students about the somewhat hum drum and daunting world of financial management. If you plan on attending T+L this coming October you will have the unique opportunity to register for and attend a site visit to the Washington Junior Achievement center and see students in action as they become the financial master’s of their own town, BizTown. In this hands-on simulation of a fully functioning town with a Mayor, small businesses, restaurants, electric companies, and banks. Students become owners, customers, parents with budgets, and get to literally experience a day in their parent’s shoes. Not only does this program provide them with a better appreciation of the challenges their parents face but it teaches them about the importance of budgets, long term planning, investing, and the difficulties of working in the real world. As you’ll see in the below video, with these financial literacy experiences education meets real life for these young students in programs, like Junior Achievement’s BizTown, and these children leave with a deeper understanding of the true value of a dollar!

A common thread among administrators, teachers, school board members, and other education professionals is that good teachers make the difference. If a district can keep good teachers and help them mentor younger teachers, that helps the future of America even more. It seems so simple, but it's what we at BoardBuzz read and hear all the time. Maybe that's why the story about E-mentors from Edutopia caught our eye.

Go back five years--In 2003 we were at the beginning of the war in Iraq, blogs were still a relatively new idea for mainstream America, Myspace was recently invented, Facebook wasn't even launched yet, and SMS texting on your cell phone was a crazy new concept. Many of those students in college who were at the cusp of the creation of these tech-savvy and now mainstream mediums are entering their first year as teachers. Is it realistic that they will want to be mentored by teachers who don't embrace the technology driven society we live in today? Fast forward five years--In 2013 will those who are new teachers now share their wealth? What will we evolve into for teacher leaders and mentors in the next five years?

Edutopia's article showcases some of the ways new teachers can query about a topic or discuss some challenge that they have faced recently. What's more impressive is that it allows teachers to cross borders. Teachers often face similar challenges, whether it's an urban teacher who feels like they're in over their head, a suburban teacher who feels in over their head, or a rural teacher who feels in over their head (yes, it's common). In the past new teachers were limited to those in their building to seek help. E-mentors can be in any state or city, providing wisdom and experienced advice for the novice teacher. If this can help good teachers become great, and keep those great teachers in districts that seek excellence every day, then E-mentoring is an outstanding way to start this school year.

As a fan of Michael Wesch, assistant professor of cultural anthropology at Kansas State University, BoardBuzz has been meaning to share his recent talk at the Library of Congress:

This is the third lecture in a series titled "Digital Natives," referring to the generation that has been raised with the computer as a natural part of their lives, especially the young people who are currently in schools and colleges today. The series seeks to understand the practices and culture of the digital natives, the cultural implications of their phenomenon and the implications for education to schools, universities and libraries.

In this presentation Wesch explains that YouTube has become a new form of empowerment, community, and global connections. BoardBuzz agrees, but not everyone gets it. As the Chronicle of Higher Education details,

one audience member essentially asked: So what? Why should anyone care about a subculture of homemade video makers, or the fact that some people watch amusing clips on the Internet instead of looking at TV? “I don’t understand how this is going to impact my life,” said the questioner, who said she’s only ever watched one YouTube video.

“It will impact politics — it will impact who gets elected this year,” said Mr. Wesch. “And I think it can be argued that Obama would not have taken the election without social media. Clinton with her machine would have just ran right over him.”

The crux here is not the content on YouTube but rather the people that create it. Wesch, as an anthropologist, does not see media as content. Media are more than tools of communication. Media mediate human relationships. So when media change, human relationships change.

One interesting insight from Wesch is the concept of context collapse. He recently defined it in a blog posting as "an infinite number of contexts collapsing upon one another into that single moment of recording." This creates a hyper self-awareness as people cannot evaluate their audience as they do in face-to-face communication.

Wesch's presentation itself is available on you YouTube, and it's both entertaining and informative. Expect to find key insights about the power of social media as a revolution in communication and sharing.

With Congress back to work today, NSBA’s advocacy staff is gearing up for the remainder of the 110th congressional session. School board members across the country are expected to participate in NSBA’s Back to School Call-In Day on Wednesday, September 10, urging Congress to take action on critical issues before it adjourns for the elections this fall. School board members will be calling members of Congress to urge support for the Secure Rural Schools Act and school construction funding as part of a second economic stimulus plan, and to ensure school districts continue to receive E-Rate funding for school technology programs. Go to NSBA’s Legislative Action Center to get the details on the Call-in-Day and read more about these issues.

While you are on NSBA’s advocacy website, don’t forget to check out the new “Elect Education” campaign toolkit, designed to help school board members make an effective case for public education during the congressional election campaigns.

If you have questions about the Call-in Day or the toolkit, contact Kathleen Branch at kbranch@nsba.org.

British researchers found that children who attended preschool scored as much as 27 percent higher on math test than their peers with preschool, according to this article in the Boston Globe

“Preschool boosts the child’s cognitive language and social development,” said lead researcher Edward Melhuish from the University of London. “Therefore when the child starts school, the child benefits more from the school experience and many aspects of development are better, including math scores.”

In the U.S. numerous studies have shown the benefits of preschool. Check out information on NSBA’s advocacy on voluntary publicly funded preschool here. While state investments in pre-K have risen over the years, we are far from providing universal pre-K to all three- and four-year-olds like our British friends have done since 2004.

BoardBuzz has been seeing some more editorialists figuring out the nuances in NCLB "failing" labels and making a point of urging readers to look more closely, too. Ironically, a little more journalistic responsibility like this might go a long way toward soothing resentment of how the act is affecting schools. If everyone understood and consistently expressed the need for caution in stigmatizing schools, NCLB might be seen as less of a mess.

For our first example, there's this from Stephanie Porter-Nichols of Southwest Virginia Today:

By 2014, schools are required to achieve 100 percent proficiency.? An official speaking at a school-year kickoff for Wythe County’s teachers wondered what would happen if the same standards were applied to every profession—if a lawyer had to win every case, if a doctor had to save every life, if a clergyman had to save every soul. The question is valid. While we strive to see every edition of this newspaper published without a single typographic error, we know we’re human.? In truth, Virginia’s schools deserve credit for their success. Despite higher standards, the same percentage of public schools achieved the required reading and math scores this year as did last year.

She doesn’t dismiss NCLB accountability, but at the same time she urges readers to take negative labels with a grain of salt:

Room for improvement always exists. We wholeheartedly endorse efforts to make continuous progress and maintain accountability for advancement.?Yet, we also believe in being realistic. While the news of three local schools failing to achieve adequate yearly progress is not good, community members should view the report within a pragmatic framework. We owe it to our schools and their leaders, faculties and students to judge their success or failure with the same discretion we apply to our work.

Moving west to the middle of the country, we find this from the Telegraph Herald in Dubuque, Iowa:

School officials must take what information they can from the No Child Left Behind testing results. But parents, students and taxpayers should not let the labels attached to those results overshadow the positive things going on in our schools.

And, hey, misery loves company, the Telegraph Herald continues:

Every other major school district in the state … are all saddled with the District in Need of Assistance label. All the largest school districts are under scrutiny ... in Iowa, the state with the second highest ACT scores in the country. … Interesting outcome for a state with all of its urban districts failing to succeed by the national measure.

Nationwide, there’s a whole lot of company. More all the time.

Continuing on to the west coast, there’s this one from the Everett Washington Herald:

If you only glanced at the headlines late last week, you might surmise that hundreds of schools were sliding backward in Washington. Hardly. By a variety of measures, our public school system is performing better than ever.

After explaining why the public needs to be cautious about NCLB labels, the Herald concludes that, “Several hundred Washington schools may need improvement, but so does the law that made that judgment.”

Returning east, the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle picks up the let’s-get-it-in-gear theme. “As it returns from its August recess, Congress must very quickly go back to school,” its editorial starts. Like NSBA and the other editorials, this one calls for mending NCLB, not ending it. Here’s the key diagnosis:

One of the assumptions of the 2002 law was that the spotlight would move states and localities to improve bad schools. That has not occurred to the degree sought—and required. Congress failed over five years to back up its demanding law with enough money to carry out its precepts. Hence, the law carried out only half of its charge—it helped plumb the depths of America's school failures but didn't provide the money and resources to correct the problems. Congress can't merely tinker under the hood on this one. The mission of NCLB should remain, but its methods must change.

Interestingly, one person who apparently doesn’t share the sense of urgency is Secretary Margaret Spellings. According to this item, she told Ed Week she’s glad Congress has ended up stalled, because "where we were headed would have been a bad reauthorization." This, Ed Week says, refers to the draft bill crafted by House Education and Labor Committee Chair George Miller.

Well, OK, BoardBuzz agrees that there’s at least one better NCLB bill on the Hill. But one seriously has to question how the climate for a good reauthorization is supposed to get any better as NCLB’s shortcomings play out more intensely in more places all over the country and drown out the act’s considerable merits, while Congress takes months—maybe even years—to get around to doing something about it.

Florida's Supreme Court has removed three controversial, school-related constitutional amendments from November's ballot. All three had been placed on the ballot by a state tax and budget commission of political appointees that meets once every 20 years. Two of the three were aimed at rewriting the constitution to make private school vouchers permissible and undo a 2006 ruling by the Court striking down the state's original flagship voucher program, while the third would radically alter the state's funding structure for public schools.

NSBA praised the Court's unanimous decision. The Palm Beach Post editorial staff did likewise.

BoardBuzz weighed in on the commission's actions from earlier this year.

It looks like the answer to that question is a big one. This weekend between 1,500 and 2,000 volunteers from the Houston Independent School District will be going through the streets of Houston knocking on doors to encourage students who haven't shown up at school yet to come back to school.

BoardBuzz got word of this event through the Houston Chronicle. This door-knocking walk is an initiative aimed at helping Texas' cities that are fighting higher drop-out rates. Since its start in Houston in 2004, cities including Dallas, Fort Worth, San Antonio, Corpus Christi, and El Paso have added programs, and this year 16 districts statewide are expected to participate.

The goal of the walk is to encourage students to return to school, and over past years its success has been proven:

"We're really gaining momentum," Mayor Bill White said. "Most folks in Texas and the United States understand that education is the most important issue facing our nation today."

In 2007, volunteers visited more than 1,740 homes in the Houston area looking for students who failed to return to school last August. By September, 766 of those students were back in class, officials said.

BoardBuzz is inspired to see so many members of the community realizing the importance of a high school diploma and making education a priority. It looks like this year the effort is going to be strong with Mayor Bill White saying:

School districts must continue to take strong steps to reach these at-risk children, White said.

"For too long people have regarded a dropout rate as something that was either inevitable or acceptable," he said. "When there's a young person who doesn't return to school, we want it to be viewed as a crisis."

It may be a couple of weeks into the school year, but BoardBuzz agrees it's not too late to come back to school. We think the community should be commended for its efforts and hope to hear they accomplish their goals!

The Associated Press reported by way of The New York Times that New York City schools have new rules for tackling bullying.

Yesterday, Mayer Michael R. Bloomberg announced new policies for dealing with bullying that is based on bias. According to the article:

The policy is intended to deter intimidation and harassment based on ethnicity, national origin, religion, gender, sexual orientation or disability.

Every principal will be required to designate a staff member to whom students can report bullying, and schools will be required to report complaints to the Department of Education within 24 hours.

The schools will have to investigate the complaints and contact the families of students accused of bias-based harassment.

A report of the complaints, broken down by school, will be made public on the Internet at the end of each school year.

BoardBuzz has covered bullying before. ( Check here and here), and we are glad to see these New York City schools establishing clear regulations and policies to both combat and prevent bullying. Does your district have unique or noteworthy policies for bullying prevention? Let us know by leaving a comment.

Okay, so they aren't horses--they are our education policy experts at The Center for Public Education. Listen here to Patte Barth and Jim Hull as they speak with WHYY--Philly NPR-- radio host Martha Moss-Coane earlier today.

Patte and Jim answer questions about what research says is the optimal class size for student learning, what makes an effective teacher, what schools are doing to prevent students from dropping out, and a wide variety of other topics that face our public schools today.

For more information on the topics Patte and Jim spoke about today, as well as many others, check out The Center for Public Education.

To listen to the podcast click here.

Kudos to the Des Moines Register for a terrific editorial on the critical importance of school boards and school board elections. Read it in its entirety, but here are some highlights.

The editorial starts out with an acknowledgement that more news media ought to take to heart and—ahem—do something about: "School board elections tend to get little attention, unless there's a controversy of some sort ... ." Then it really hits the nail on the head by identifying the key point of discussion for Iowa's September 9 school board elections:

What will candidates do to create world-class schools in their community, to ensure students get the necessary preparation to thrive in the competitive global economy? ... It's not enough to post on the district's Web site a philosophical statement about high expectations. In their policy-setting capacity, school boards ought to require more of students, teachers and administrators than the state, even if there's push-back from parents that kids need time for sports and other extracurricular activities.

The Register also gives credit to the Iowa School Boards Association for its leadership:

The Iowa School Boards Association has been a strong advocate for raising student achievement. It pushed to establish challenging statewide academic content standards, although the Iowa Department of Education has resisted, arguing that the Iowa Core Curriculum embodies high standards. And in July, the Iowa School Boards Foundation previewed its study finding Iowa was 33rd among the 50 states in making improvements in achievement, taking into account test scores and progress in closing the achievement gap between affluent and low-income students.

And the parting words for voters?

The state association represents local school boards, which can be ambitious or complacent. That depends entirely on the candidates voters elect to serve in unpaid but extraordinarily important positions. Candidate forums are still scheduled in many districts. You have just more than a week to learn more about the priorities of those seeking to serve in your community - and to tell them what you expect.

A lot of busy people can't be bothered to pay close enough attention to school board elections. And the focus of voters may not be on the academic bottom line. But try asking people in this community whether these choices matter or not. More here. The message to that community from their governor is that the future comes down to the upcoming school board election, and the ball is in the voters' court. If your community is about to elect its own board, here again is a user-friendly tool to share with your fellow voters to help keep their eyes on the prize.

Last week, BoardBuzz was pleased to see Congress recognizing the critical role that early childhood educators provide in the preparation and advancement of our nation’s youngest students. (Check that out here) But, an article in The New York Times reminds us that opportunities for Pre-K still have room to grow and expand.

New York is one of eight states (and D.C.) in the country that has adopted some variety of a universal pre-kindergarten program. In 1997, New York passed legislation to provide Pre-K classes for all four-year-olds,but ten years later only 38 percent of the state’s four year-olds attended Pre-K classes.

But, while Pre-K offers an opportunity for cognitive and personal development and the chance to level the playing field for children from different socioeconomic backgrounds, it seems that some districts aren’t finding it necessarily practical:

Few school administrators dispute the benefits of pre-kindergarten, but many say it is impractical to provide it to every child. In Smithtown, for example, Mr. Ehmann said that even if his district could find the money, it would have to contract with community groups to provide pre-K classes because there is no room in the schools, which would mean hiring administrators to oversee those locations, adding costs.

In Westchester County, the affluent Bronxville district decided not to pursue a pre-kindergarten program for about 100 students because, as Superintendent David Quattrone put it, “the vast majority of parents prefer to use the private programs in our community.” He also cited financial and space constraints.

Despite these challenges, BoardBuzz knows that the benefits of early childhood education can't be ignored, and the article does show the positive impact Pre-K can have:

“I’m disappointed by the slow progress, especially since over the last 10 years, there’s been even more evidence of how useful universal pre-K is in closing the achievement gap,” said Maria DeWald, president of the New York State Congress of Parents and Teachers, which has long advocated for universal pre-kindergarten.

Time, money, and space are all challenges for making Pre-K an available priority, but it’s great to see some states working on it. For more information on the benefits of early childhood education, be sure to check out the Center for Public Education.

That's the title of a new toolkit (pdf link) produced by NSBA's Advocacy Office and developed exclusively for local school board members. The purpose is to help board members elevate the discussion of education in the upcoming Congressional campaigns. The non-partisan toolkit includes suggested activities and strategies that school board members, who are uniquely positioned in their communities to discuss education, can consider implementing, such as helping to put together candidate forums or meeting with the candidates running for Congress. It also features background information on key issues that the next Congress will have to tackle, including NCLB / ESEA reauthorization, funding, 21st century skills and competitiveness, and early education, among others.

Check out "Elect Education: A Campaign Toolkit for the Congressional Elections" on our website (pdf file).

With back to school upon us, students are getting ready to see their new classrooms and meet their new teachers for the year. But, thanks to an article from ABC News, BoardBuzz was surprised to see that some parents aren't so thrilled with the outcome of their children's teachers... that is, when the teacher is a male.

The 2003 National Schools and Staffing Survey reported that men account for 16 percent of all elementary school teachers. Despite the help of the National Education Association and MenTeach to recruit young men interested in teaching, it seems that some parents still have stereotypes about male teachers not having enough experience with caretaking or nurturing.

For these male teachers, the struggle doesn't end there. There is mistrust in male teachers for their interest in the profession, and many parents express uneasiness on how this affects student and teacher relationships.

So BoardBuzz wants to know, is gender really important? According to the article:

"I really think it has a lot to do with the personality of the teacher," said Dr. Caryl Oris, a consulting psychiatrist for the Sewanhaka Central High School District on Long Island, N.Y. "What matters more than anything is that it's a good teacher and the teacher loves to teach."

A good teacher that loves to teach sounds good to BoardBuzz. Be sure to check out the article to learn how parents are dealing with their anxieties over male teachers, and what great accomplishments some have had with students. And tell us about how male teachers in your district are faring by leaving a comment.

BoardBuzz promised and BoardBuzz delivers: a full summary of the 2008 SAT results direct from the Center for Public Education.

Although the SAT scores get all the headlines, the Center delves deep into the data to answer these important questions:

* Which graduates took the SAT and what was the percent of race/ethnicity and gender participation?

* How many of the test takers will be the first in their families to attend college?

* What courses did the graduates take during their high school careers?

These questions often get overlooked when SAT results are released each year, even though they show that our schools are opening up the possibility of college to a number of students who may not have thought they were college material. So check out the Center's summary to find out how students are getting more prepared for college.

For more information on how SAT scores should be used to determine how well your school is preparing students for college check out the Center for Public Education's Good Measures for Good Schools.

And for additional press on the results (and quotes from the Center), click here and here.

One more reason to invest in pre-K . . .

Congress and states should expand pre-K programs because it is among "the most effective strategies to increase graduation rate," said a new report by Fight Crime; Invest in Kids, a national anti-crime group comprising more than 4,000 law enforcement officials and crime victims.

Although it is not a new argument, the report has some interesting stats, including: increasing high school graduation rates by 10 percentage points will save billions of dollars and prevent 3,000 murders and 175,000 aggravated assaults in the U.S. each year.

Given this report and other evidence that shows the benefit of quality preschool, NSBA has been in the forefront of advocating more federal investments in voluntary publicly funded pre-K in states, check out NSBA's Pre-K Legislative Committee and the work it does, here.

And for more on pre-K research, check out the Center for Public Education.

BoardBuzz has had our eye on the SAT story (results were released this morning) all day today -- and it sure seems to be simmering. Our friends at the Center for Public Education have been weighing in all over the place.

From Bloomberg:

Increased preparation of students, including those in lower-income areas, may be the reason, said Jim Hull, an analyst for the Center for Public Education, a nonprofit research organization in Alexandria, Virginia. In previous years, the SAT exam had spread to more schools with little expertise at test preparation, he said.

``All the efforts the schools have been putting in, with increases emphasis on getting all kids college ready, has started to pay off,'' Hull said in a phone interview yesterday.

From Associated Press:

The class of 2008 scored an average of 515 out of a possible 800 points on the math section of the college entrance exam, a performance identical to graduating seniors in the previous year.

Scores in the critical reading component among last spring's high school seniors also held steady at 502, but the decline over time has been more dramatic: the past two years represent the lowest reading average since 1994, when graduating seniors scored 499.

By comparison, the highest average reading score in recent decades was 530 by the class of 1972, although that score dropped dramatically within five years to near present levels. The latest math average is just five points below the 35-year high of 520, reached three years ago.<