Wednesday 10/12/05

I can relate

to Bill Hobb's situation when he explained the change in his blog:

"I am merely taking a break from what has become a rather time-consuming and uncompensated hobby..."

My own life has become much busier than I'd like lately, and thus my own sporadic postings. Thanks for hanging in there. And I wish Bill all the best blessings and am thankful for his efforts.

Ludacris

Why is a East Tennessee State University expending so much time and effort in accommodating this concert? Isn't education their focus? Not only does this get mentioned in Knox News but also it's on the BREAKING NEWS page of the San Jose Mercury News. Apparently, no earthquakes or Arnold news to report.

A woman's job

And speaking of Arnold it looks like Jackson Central-Merry High has their own sort of action hero in the form of their new principal Virginia Stackens-Crump. According to the Jackson Sun she's got a plan and she's getting it done.

"The whole atmosphere of the school has changed," said [parent Angela] Johnson, who believes student and parent morale have increased, more focus has been put back on the children, and the teachers and students have a mutual respect for each other.

She apparently realized that attitude was an important first step in education and is helping the students to focus on some basics that enable learning to actually take place. This article is full of little things that she requires that add up to a lot: using inside voices, walking on the left in the halls, in school suspensions mean in school chores (I really like that one), requiring athletes to also be academics, and bare midriffs are for after school. It's an encouraging read.

Powerball Fever

The Clarksville Leaf-Chronicle reminds us where the money really goes.

But we still object to a government program that essentially redistributes wealth from the poor and lower classes to the middle and upper classes, pours money into corporate gaming empires, wastes money on enormous salaries for bureaucrats and offers a poor return on investment for the state's citizens.

Why do few parents know?

While legislators and educrats are working hard to kill the value added system and discredit Dr. William Sanders, it keeps leaking out that there is some valuable information in there.

Few parents know it, but school principals hold information that can predict the likely performance of their children on important tests. From the Tennessean.

The board considers...moving the deck chairs

A committee assigned to study converting Metro schools to a balanced calendar found no evidence that the alternative schedule overwhelmingly improves student achievement.

However, committee members polled at the end of their work were still in favor of the school board at least considering the switch, according to TITLE Rob Sasser. From Nashville City Paper

So changes have to provide 'overwhelming' improvement?

They also considered the impact on teachers and students with summer jobs, what area private schools would do, and how community organizations serving children would be affected.

snip

A copy of the committee’s report is expected to be posted on the district Web site.

And according to a post made by BOE member Kathleen Harkey on the NashvillePTO Talk list she's requested that the report be posted to the web and a "response box" be included so that "parents and citizens could read the original without depending on the press as the communication function and give feedback."

Good move. Parents shouldn't have to depend on the press to get this information. They ought to be able to get original documents straight from the district. AND there should always be a readily accessible way to provide feedback. Maybe this will help more parents know.