March 13, 2000: You can take an online community survey on Scotia-Glenville Schools, covering topics such as communications, school board performance, funding, and school safety issues.  The more people who share their thoughts and opinions, the better the decisions will be.

February 24, 2000:  On October 20, 1999, Superintendent Michael Marcelle notified parents that the school would administer the CDC Survey to "all students in grades 7-12." As a result of survey content, some parents worked successfully to stop the administration of the survey. The history of this topic is available on this website.

Many students, and School Board Member Joe Benny, strongly objected to the cancellation of the CDC Survey. Although there are many reasons why giving this survey in school was inappropriate, there is no reason it cannot be made available online for students to voluntarily take from the privacy of their own homes, if they wish.

Scotia-Glenville students in grades 7 through 12 are welcome to take the CDC Survey online. The anonymous results from the survey are immediately available online.

February 16, 2000:  Several February 2000 reports from 8 building committees have been added, introducing a new capability of this site to provide files in Adobe Acrobat's PDF (portable document file) format.  For general building project information and timelines, please click here.

Some reports are more thorough than others, but now is the time to scan the reports and make suggestions.  As time passes from this point forward, more and more of the project will become fixed.

February 5, 2000:  One public school district has begun requiring all 6th graders and up to take mandatory drug tests--just to attend school. You can view the article here, and take an online survey on this issue.

February 4, 2000:  The following is a list of recent and excellent Internet resources:

Skewl Sites Educational Resources
All about Florida
Awesome Library
School-Home Links Reading Kits (K-3)
Beliefnet Exploration of Religions
U.S. Dept. Ed. Grant Applications
U.S. Dept Ed. Funding Opportunities
U.S.D.E. Technology Effectiveness Conference
The Cave of Lascaux
Nancy Drew Website
Asia Source
BBC News
Museum of American Art Photography
Artcyclopedia
The Tech Museum of Innovation
The OYEZ Project (U.S. Supreme Court)
Resources for Educational Excellence
The Gateway to Lesson Plans
National Park Service Links to the Past
Homework Central
On Hoops
The Genetic Trail
The Roden Crater
NCES Publications
Ernest Hemingway
Russia Today
Kwanzaa
Arabia Online
Collected Visions
Personality

February 4, 2000:  President Clinton proposed a $2 billion package to expand access to the Internet and bridge the digital divide between rich and poor.  I agree with that.  I also agree that teachers need the $150 million proposed spending for training in the use of new technologies.

January 31, 2000:  The Buffalo School Board has unanimously voted to amend two existing policies to include sexual orientation as a protected category in hiring, promotions and access to services and benefits.  You can view the article here, and take an online survey on the issue.

January 25, 2000:  Yesterday, the school board decided to proceed to the final rounds of acquiring an additional $2.6 million of debt through an energy performance contract.  Although the investment should pay for itself, there is no question the district will be spending more for energy with the addition of building space and air conditioners.  Don't look for a rebate check in your school tax bill.

The board also heard a presentation on the 2000-01 budget and it approved the district's Shared Decision Making Plan.  My comments on community involvement, Shared Decision Making, and the preliminary budget are located in School Talk.

January 24, 2000:  Karen Bradley, member of the Board of Education, steps up to the "microphone" in School Talk.  See her comments one and two.

January 23, 2000:  The renovations at the High School are seriously over budget.  You can read my letter to Principal Castronovo online.

January 21, 2000:  The minutes from the January Homework Committee are now online for you to view.  Please take a few minutes to review the minutes and post your comments on homework in the School Talk discussion forums.

By the way, if you wanted to get these documents from the district office, you would have to file a Freedom of Information request, wait a typical 5 days, then make an appointment to go to the district office to view them and pay $0.25/page to keep a copy.  I am happy to provide the information for free.

January 21, 2000, 5 PM:  After determining early on in the construction project that the junior high's elevator met minimum ADA standards, today the school district reversed course and unofficially announced there will be a new elevator in the middle school addition to the Junior High School.  It turns out the current elevator is not acceptable.

One Glen-Worden parent, Mrs. Chris Darby, deserves the heart-felt appreciation of all of us for keeping the issue on the table and seeking out expert opinion to check the school's position.  Our disabled children have tough enough lives as it is.  This new elevator will improve their school lives and their education by reducing travel time between classes.

While the administration is to be commended for making the right decision, it cannot go without saying that the failure to plan for a new elevator was an expensive and totally avoidable mistake, similar to the absence of a music room to accommodate the new population of 6th graders.

Our district is not blessed with abundant wealth that can be used to buy our way out of mistakes.  Every dollar has to be spent with utmost effectiveness if we are to comply with all mandates and become the best school in the area.  This means that rigorous research and planning has to back the expenditure of every dollar.  Neither the school board nor the administration have shown sufficient interest or ability to accomplish this essential work and until that changes, we cannot become the best school in the capital area.

It has taken countless hours out of people's lives to try to fix only the most egregious errors of the building project.  Thanks to the efforts of parents and teachers who believe they can make a difference, our new facilities will be much better than originally planned.

January 19, 2000:  For the first time in her Junior High experience, my daughter had to miss school today because she was exhausted from  staying up too late trying to finish her homework assignment.  You can read my letter to Anne Sterman online.

January 19, 2000:  Parents of students entering the 6th grade in 2001 should be actively involved now in the decisions being made by the Social Aspects Committee, which next meets Tuesday, February 8.  If you have strong feelings about Teen Town or integrating 6th graders with 7th and 8th graders into a whole host of academic and sports/recreational activities, you must speak up now because the decisions for the 2001-02 school year are being made now.

In my opinion, John Tobiassen's Social Aspects Committee is one of the best-run, most diverse, most thoughtful committees currently working on the middle school program.  It is the only committee I have observed in the district that openly and systematically considers all positives and negatives before making policy recommendations.

However, that does not mean your feelings and concerns will be represented by others.  The only way to be sure your opinions are considered is to voice them yourself.  If you cannot attend the meetings, and many cannot, then call John, or post your comments in School Talk under General Comments for Scotia-Glenville.  I know this takes some effort, but the effort is small compared to what it will take later to change a committee-designed policy you strongly dislike.

And while I'm thinking about extraordinary committees, Helen Laroche's Lincoln Building Committee deserves a special commendation.  I have attended meetings in this district where the clear implication is that if we can play fast and loose with our terms and true intentions to get more building project money from State Ed., we should do it.

The Lincoln Building Committee unanimously agreed to be completely honest with State Ed., and if that means there will be no aid for storage rooms, and storage rooms cannot be built without aid, then Lincoln will learn to live without them or find another way to get them.

A school with a staff dedicated to honesty and integrity over self-interest is priceless.  I have heard others chastise Lincoln for trying to get by with less than it could have gotten from the building project.  But the values of the Lincoln staff, unmeasured by any standardized test and unassessed by any teacher certification process, will mean more to the parents and students of that school than any amount of space you could add to the Lincoln school building.  You have my highest regard.

January 17, 2000:  Think you're smart?  Why not test that theory by taking a practice high school graduation standards test from the Anchorage Alaska School District website at www.asd.k12.ak.us/.  You can take the test online, and your exam is scored immediately.  Be sure to save your score for bragging rights, or not.

January 5, 2000:  The decade-old national standards movement for public school students is more form than substance, with most states still expecting far too little, a new report from the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation concludes.  You can see New York's "C-" and compare our results with other states.  As per usual, third highest pay, middling performance.

December 17, 1999:  Anyone who voted on the building bond is probably aware that the High School has been designed with an eye toward block scheduling.  And as with team teaching in the future middle school, the proponents of block scheduling consider the concept a hand-down winner.  Soooooo, it's not too early to start educating yourself about the pros and cons of block scheduling.  To help you with this task, I have found the following resources.  If you find a good one to add, please let me know.

Websites:
See what a Block Schedule looks like
NY State Education
Block Scheduling House of Problems
Block Scheduling in Brevard County
Block Scheduling Observations
Block Scheduling Resources
Block Scheduling Sources & Connections
The Case Against Block Scheduling
Intensive Block Scheduling

Books:
Questions & Answers About Block Scheduling
An Educator's Guide to Block Scheduling
Action Research on Block Scheduling
Encouraging Student Engagement
Block Scheduling: A Collection of Articles
Intensive Scheduling

Check the Library:
Sch'y County Public Library
University at Albany Library
SCCC Library
Hudson Val'y Com. College Library

December 16, 1999:  Area schools protest myshortpencil.com.

December 15, 1999:  School teachers in some public schools are filling out survey forms on students, answering questions originally designed to predict spousal abuse and workplace violence.  Once the forms are filled out on behalf of the students, they are targeted for psychological counseling, if indicated.  You can read more about this in an article from the Associated Press.

Star Trek's Borg collective is the first image that comes to my mind.  When the State compels students to attend school, and then psychologically evaluates them for the purpose of compelling them into counseling to change their inappropriate thoughts, all done sub silentio and while it is supposed to be providing an education to the students, then public schools have lost sight of their educational mission and become psychological manipulators. Looks like we need a new law.

December 14, 1999:  In the years since abortion became Constitutionally protected private choice, no one has seriously asserted that students may not make arguments against abortion in health classes and other forums of the public schools.  To make pro-life public policy arguments has not yet been equated to sexual harassment, or sexist bigotry.

Apparently, the same will not be true for health discussions regarding homosexuality.  Although homosexual behavior is not protected under most anti-discrimination statutes or The Constitution, my guess is that students in Shenendehowa health classes and other classes, will not be permitted to speak out against homosexuality, nor will they be permitted to mention that same-sex marriages are not currently legal, for such utterances will likely violate the school's prohibition against sexual harassment based on sexual orientation.

On this issue I express no opinion except that of John Stuart Mill from Chapter II: Of the Liberty of Thought and Discussion:

"If all mankind minus one, were of one opinion, and only one person were of the contrary opinion, mankind would be no more justified in silencing that one person, than he, if he had the power, would be justified in silencing mankind."

December 13, 1999:  A new tool is now available to help teachers and parents pinpoint -- from thousands of learning resources on the Internet -- the one resource that is right for their students and children, U.S. Secretary of Education Richard W. Riley announced this month. The Gateway to Educational Materials (GEM) at http://www.thegateway.org is designed for teachers to type a topic, grade level, and other information into a search screen that then retrieves lessons, instructional units, and other free educational materials on that topic, for that grade level.

GEM lets teachers, as well as parents and students, search instructional materials of more than 140 federal, state, university, non-profit, and commercial organizations. These materials may also be browsed by subject area or key word. Currently, more than 7,000 items are included in GEM with hundreds of new resources being added and new consortium members joining each month. 

The department also sponsors the Federal Resources for Educational Excellence (FREE) web site at http://www.ed.gov/free/. While teaching and learning resources are the aim of both GEM and FREE, FREE focuses only on those created with federal support. GEM includes mostly materials not created with federal support. Also, the search tools differ. 

A list of organizations that are GEM Consortium Members is available for viewing.

December 7, 1999:  You can read a fair but negative review of Bill Bennett's "The Educated Child : A Parent's Guide from Preschool Through Eighth Grade."  Personally, Bennett is an essential read for anyone surveying the lay of the educational landscape.  You can read more reviews at amazon.com and barnesandnoble.com.  The book is also available at the Schenectady County Public Library, but be prepared for a wait.

December 4, 1999:  When teachers self-assess they see vast improvements and hear unfounded bashing.  Leave it to teachers to claim the worst student performance occurred just when SAT scores peaked, and the best that has ever been done is now.  I'll agree that much with our schools is good.  They should be supported provided they demonstrate a good faith effort to aggressively solve the serious problems they have.  (Please refer to my commentaries).  And as bad as the misinformation in the press can sometimes be, teacher self-assessments are also full of it, as this article demonstrates. 

December 3, 1999:  The American Academy of Pediatrics, American Association of School Administrators, American Counseling Association, American Psychological Association and others, mailed a 12-page pamphlet to 15,000 school officials, reportedly urging gay student tolerance.  The pamphlet has caused a ruckus, and for being important enough to mail to 15,000 people, you would think these organizations would make a copy available online, but I couldn't find one.  [12/16/99 update:  A copy of the pamphlet is now available online in PDF format.]

Out of the many stories available on this issue, I selected one from Utah because of its unusual state law prohibiting the teaching of any kind of sexual relations outside of marriage -- heterosexual or homosexual -- in public schools.  More than other articles, it sets up the question of who gets to decide what our public stance toward gays will be.

December 3, 1999:  Three Ohio schools have asked that voters cast their ballots somewhere else on election day.  Concerned about maintaining consistent security measures and people without name tags, the schools say they can no longer serve as polling places.  Their county board of elections has agreed, and new places will be found for the 2000 elections.

December 2, 1999:  Today there are updates on alcohol, religion in public schools, and zero-tolerance policies.  South Carolina schools report that alcohol usage is up 78% over last year's figure.  That may be signaling a fundamental problem, but in light of other statistics, I think it likely means schools are getting better at detecting and reporting violations of policies related to alcohol.

In case you thought only Ohio is teaching religion in public schools, this story reports on several Southern schools that use the Bible in the curriculum, including one where Genesis has been read as literature for the past five years.

On the flip side of progressive discipline . . . zero-tolerance.  Somehow school officials found a pocket knife in the glove compartment of a car driven by a high school honors student.  The knife was either in or next to a first aid kit and was apparently intended to be used as an instrument in rendering first aid.  The student was suspended, but readmitted after three days, in what was a close call in avoiding expulsion.

School officials need to learn that just because an object is a knife, doesn't mean it's a weapon.  Almost every car has a tire tool for removing lugs, and tire tools can be used as extremely deadly weapons--even more deadly than pocket knives.  Yet, tire tools don't result in suspensions.

Knives are everywhere in schools, with the blessings of the schools.  Scissors are two knives joined by a screw.  Knives are located in cafeterias, art rooms, laboratories, Home Ec. rooms, janitor rooms, etc.  All knives are not weapons, else there are egregious cases of selective enforcement.  Just because an administrator has earned one or more degrees does not mean its time to stop thinking.  None-the-less, there are two more zero-tolerance stories to think about--one in favor, and the other agin it.

December 1, 1999:  Police are enforcing child endangerment laws against parents who permit their minor children to drink or throw keg parties.  Thirty years ago, with substantially the same laws, an officer would have been disciplined for filing such charges.  But attitudes and risks change.  And perhaps because 82% of local students who drink alcohol say they do not want to stop drinking, police are nabbing the parents, who have much more to lose from criminal convictions than do the teenagers, and therefore much greater incentives to take zero-tolerance alcohol stances.  Those who are slowest to pick up on cultural trends often find themselves on the wrong side of the law, as these affluent parents from Westchester County have learned.

November 30, 1999:  Can the Bible be taught in public schools?  The National Bible Association and The First Amendment Center (now called The Freedom Forum Online) say it can be done.  Public schools should "become places where religion and religious conviction are treated with fairness and respect," according to their joint report, The Bible & Public Schools: A First Amendment Guide.  The report is endorsed by the National School Boards Association.  You can download the report, and you can read about an Ohio school where religion is taught in a public elementary school.  You can also read a statement by Americans United for Separation of Church and State, explaining why religion cannot be taught in public schools.

In the context of asking 12-year-old students about sexual practices and criminal behaviors on surveys--all without the need for parental permission--it is very interesting that the Ohio school requires parents to sign permission slips before students can be presented with religious information.

November 29, 1999:  Funbrain.com is a website that gives elementary school teachers the ability to select from 10,000 pre-written quizzes in 8 subjects, have them graded, and receive student performance evaluations via email.  The site also provides activities for children and parents.  You can read more about this and similar websites in an article from the Seattle Times.

November 29, 1999:  Parlez-vous Française?  Perhaps you or your child should consider it.  The decline of the Canadian dollar makes studying French in Québec a bargain.  You can read more in this article from the New York Times.  Then, take a look at this wonderful website created by a teacher, Mr. Kanefsky, for middle school French students.

November 23, 1999:  Are videos a teaching aid or a crutch?  That's the issue in this article from the Omaha World-Herald.  Every video that can be shown in school has some educational value.  But the issue is whether showing videos is the best use of scarce teaching time.  The answer depends in part on the quality of the video, why it is being shown, the alternatives to showing it, how it is being used, and whether it is connected in some way to a test.  I will have more to say on this issue in a later commentary.  For now, you can read more about the use of videos in classrooms in this article.

November 20, 1999:  When educators, politicians, parents, and others all clamor for higher teacher salaries, they are talking about teachers like those in Davenport, Iowa who, with 10 years experience and a master's degree earn $23,205 per year in Catholic schools, according to an article in the QCTimes.  At one Catholic school the average salary for the whole teaching staff is $16,115 per year.  And although Catholic Schools often perform as well as public schools on standardized tests, S-G's average teacher salary is over $50,000 per year.

November 19, 1999:  No principal, administrator or superintendent in Denver Public Schools will  receive a raise next year unless the school district's students improve by at least 8 percent on the Colorado Student Assessment Program next year, according to the Denver Post.

November 19, 1999:  Parental involvement is the key to quality education.  A recent study in Michigan determined that "intensive involvement of parents in their children's schooling" stood out as "the most frequently recurring theme" among school districts that boasted high student test scores.  You can read more about a Clifton Park story of parental involvement in education.  By the way, improving academic performance through increased parental involvement (by mutual partnerships, not one-sided contracts) costs very little and routinely delivers the biggest bang for the buck.

November 18, 1999:  Several school systems support broad involvement on core and substantive issues by all stakeholders through the tried-and-true system of Total Quality Management (TQM).  They have forsaken authoritarian approaches to curricula, staff, teachers, students, parents and communities and adopted the empowering, inclusive, customer-service practices of associated with TQM.  You can see how TQM works in one North Carolina school and follow the TQM links on the page.

November 17, 1999:  Smoking, drinking, hate, violence, premarital sex.  The Teen Files, from Paramount Stations, tackles these behaviors with well-placed, hard-hitting facts intended to weigh heavily on peer-centered, passion-filled, teen decisions to go into the ring with these brutes.  Most teenagers will recognize the site for what it is, but the entertainment value may keep them there long enough to do some good.

November 16, 1999:  The Thomas B. Fordham Foundation grades the states on their efforts to improve teacher quality.  New York would have earned a grade better than its "B-" if the state granted more autonomy to districts in personnel decisions.  You can view the report at www.edexcellence.net/better/teachers.html.

November 16, 1999:  Vermont Schools are increasingly issuing bar-coded, photo I-Ds to its students. The I-Ds serve as more than just a security measure. Many of the schools are also installing scanning devices that will enable students to use the cards to check books out of the library, pay for school lunches, and receive discounts at school events.  This seems like a reasonable security and convenience upgrade to consider for the high school and junior high school building projects.

November 15, 1999:  Threats, weapons, and shootings have kept the topic of school violence in the news.  The St. Louis Post-Dispatch has gathered several incidents of students expelled or suspended by zero tolerance policies and looks for a common sense meaning.  To complement this article, I have included the top 20 indicators of potentially violent students.  Since the Youth Issues Consortium is still searching for a survey, it should consider using one that includes the indicators of school violence.  [Note: Although the government report on the The Appropriate and Effective Use of Security Technologies in U.S. Schools makes several good recommendations, I have not heard them discussed in any of the four building project committees I sit on.]

November 12, 1999:  1000 teacher-created lesson plans are at The Solution Site.  West Virginian teachers designed the site and gathered the plans from 250 teachers representing 37 countries.  The teachers believe the site will really make a difference, and that it will become a model for the rest of the nation.  You can read more about the site.

November 11, 1999:  Ann Woodbury Moore, my wife, has had three articles, originally published in Cobblestone, republished in various English assessment tests and an English textbook.  The articles are America's Labor Day, Martin Luther King Day, and Life at Mount Holyoke, a story about Emily Dickinson.  These online articles feature links to related websites.  Enjoy!

November 10, 1999:  Melanie Painter, Jr. High School art teacher, is collecting suggestions for a Middle School Mission Statement.  Her stake holder survey asks the questions: 1. Who are we?  2. What is the purpose of our school?  Why do we exist?  3. What makes our school different or distinguished from similar organizations?  4. What is our commitment to students, parents, faculty and the wider school community?  5. What are our values?  What is our philosophy?  You can see my draft of some of the elements of a middle school statement.

November 9, 1999:  At last night's Board of Education meeting, members correctly decided to abandon the pursuit of a pouring rights contract.  Benny and Magruder made the argument for the contract, but Kurt Ahnert made the compelling case against it.  He asked who is the seller, who is the buyer, and what is the product?  His answer:  The school is the seller, Coke or Pepsi is the buyer, and the product is access to our students.  Obviously, we should not be selling access to our students for profit.  Other Board members were concerned with exclusivity, monopoly pricing, an endless parade of venders seeking exclusive contracts, and health issues.  I note that this issue will probably come up again next year as more schools report their experiences with pouring rights contracts.

The Board also addressed the Youth Risk Behavior Survey.  You can read more about it here.

November 6, 1999:  The 1999, 4th and 8th grades English Language Arts and Mathematics assessment scores have been reported by the New York State Dept. of Education.  Scotia-Glenville turned in its typical good-but-should-be-better performance of 12th place in the Capital Region.  The worst news is that 43% of our 8th graders failed to reach the math standard, and 32% failed to reach the English standard.  The results in 4th grade were somewhat better.  30% didn't make the English standard and 14% didn't reach the math standard.

You can view more complete tables and articles from the Gazette and Times Union with a click.  You can also read my statistical analysis of the 4th grade ELA results in response to professional commentary made in June 1999.  Finally, you can read my commentary to the school board on the subject, which includes a table that compares our top scores to the top scores of other schools.

November 4, 1999:  A recurring theme of mine is missed opportunities for unique and substantial educational experiences.  Our building program represents one of those opportunities.  Turner Construction Company, the project manager for our building project, runs an innovative program for 7th graders in Philadelphia called "Future Careers in Construction."  The program emphasizes the development of math and science skills, and you can find out more with a click.

The amount of math, science and technology used in a construction project is phenomenal.  Our school board should ask Turner to prepare presentations for the Jr. High and High Schools' faculty and students.  It should also ask faculty to develop lessons and activities that utilize the unique resources we will have available during construction.  (There are a whole bunch of "what-if" scenarios that can be explored through the construction theme).  Turner should be asked to host a Students' Construction Club starting in January, 2000, with special opportunities for members to have hands-on construction access throughout the project.  The architects from Glynn Spillane Griffing should also be asked to participate in this polymathic treat.

November 1, 1999:  Coca-Cola and Pepsi have responded to the Scotia-Glenville School Board's September 1999 request for proposals for exclusive pouring rights within the district.  You can read several articles on this subject, plus view a table of pro's and con's.  You can also read a Gazette Opinion and an article from the last time Scotia-Glenville considered signing a pouring rights contract.

October 27, 1999:  The power of technology in education keeps surging as Stevens Institute of Technology (NJ) begins offering online worldwide middle school science lessons using international student collaboration and measurements relayed live from scientific instruments (potentially even remotely controlled over the Internet by the students, themselves).  You can read more about these innovations in an article from the Chronicle of Higher Education.

October 27, 1999:  Want students to produce better work? Give them harder assignments. That's the simple conclusion of a study of 12 elementary and middle schools in Chicago. Teachers who challenged their students got significantly better results than those who gave easy assignments.  You can read more about this at The Christian Science Monitor.

October 27, 1999:  Bismarck Teacher Contract Resolved - (BISMARCK, ND) -- The impasse appears to be resolved in the contract dispute between Bismarck teachers and the school board. The Bismarck Tribune says both sides appear willing to accept the recommendations made by a three-person impasse board. The recommendation includes a two-and-a-half percent increase in base pay and one additional workday for teachers. Negotiation teams from both sides will meet tonight in an effort to conclude the contract talks.

October 26, 1999:  A prior news article and my recent comments to the School Board have pointed out the failure of our phys ed programs to provide adequate physical workouts for optimal health.  Today, an Associated Press article reports, "Obesity [defined as being more than 30% over ideal body weight] is a U.S. epidemic that has surged in the past decade and now affects nearly one in five adults, killing some 300,000 a year. . . ."  [430,000 annual deaths result from tobacco use.  I wonder what's in store for the obese, and chocolate manufacturers?  No more eating at your desk?  But I digress.]

Why is obesity on the rise?  ``Children watch more television daily, physical education has been markedly reduced in our schools, many neighborhoods lack sidewalks for safe walking, the workplace has become increasingly automated, household chores are assisted by labor-saving machinery, and walking or bicycling has been replaced by automobile travel.''  You can read more about this problem and visit the website of the Journals of the American Medical Association (which my brother-in-law, Henry Woodbury, helped design).

October 26, 1999:  The Board of Education asked Superintendent Marcelle to postpone the Youth Risk Behavior Survey scheduled for grades 7-12 on Wednesday, October 27, so it may more formally and thoroughly evaluate the concerns raised by 8 families.  Thanks go to the Board, and to the parents who reviewed the survey.  (I note that today's Gazette article was printed before the Board of Education addressed the issue.)

October 23, 1999:  During the week of October 25th, the school intends to administer the 1999 Youth Risk Behavior Survey to students in grades 7-12.  I strongly urge you to view this survey online.  Many of its questions are deeply personal.  You can read more about the survey and the issue of its use in the school on this website.

October 20, 1999:  In the '70s I had an ex-marine for a phys ed teacher who lived for calisthenics, drills, and running laps.  "Healthy mind; healthy body."  No one got out of gym class without thirty minutes of hay-bale-stacking sweat.  Your grade was determined by your time on the 1.5 mile run and the number of push-ups and sit-ups you could do.

No more!  The new phys ed programs are more about cooperative learning, teamwork, and having fun while learning a dozen or so sports.  My daughter, who sweated buckets to get her black belt from Pai's Tae Kwon Do in Glenville, says she has rarely broken a sweat in any of her gym classes.  And its not expected.  To find out what is expected, you can read this article on a New Kind of Phys Ed from the Newton Kansan.  Its phys ed program is very similar in philosophy to the program we have at the Junior High School, though some of the sports it teaches are different.

You might wonder whether professionals even recommend strenuous physical activity for children anymore.  Well the Center for Disease Control (CDC) not only recommends it, but points out that participation in vigorous physical activity in school is declining.  The CDC has prepared guidelines for communities and schools promoting lifelong physical activity.  These guidelines recommend 20 minutes of vigorous physical activity three times per week.  Unfortunately, a CDC Youth Risk Behavior Report shows that many students are not getting the kind of exercise they need for optimal health.  I do not know about our high school phys ed program, but I'm sure the junior high's phys ed program is not providing the kind of workout the CDC recommends with the regularity it recommends.

October 19, 1999:  Social security checks went up 1.3% in 1999.  The projected increase for 2000 is 2.4%.  Our school budget soared 6.3% this year.  Spending per pupil is up 8.9%.

Goal #4 of the School Board's 1989 goals (10 years ago) was "to continue to operate the district so that increases in budgeted per pupil costs . . . do not exceed the average rate of inflation for the preceding three years" [omitting costs for private school pupils and students with handicaps].  At an August 1999 school board meeting, I urged the Board to re-adopt this goal as part of its 2000 goals.  It declined.  You can read the vague and relatively worthless financial goals the Board adopted in the Major District Directions and District Operations sections of its 2000 goals.  By the way, we would be spending $1.6 million less this year alone if we had followed Goal #4 throughout the 90's.

October 19, 1999:  Visit our school's website.  Then visit this popular Pokemon website created by an Alaskan 14-year-old.  Notice the sophisticated design, the flash and pizzazz, the substance and depth of the news, games, music, downloads, and other services.  Then ask yourself why a school with a $28 million budget for 3044 students--at least $7 million more per year than most American schools spend for the same number of students--can't have a website with the same kind of quality a kid can create for Pokemon fans.  You can read more about the story of Bomby Kitchpanich, the Pokemon site's creator.

October 18, 1999:  More on virtual schools from the Chronicle of Higher Education.

October 18, 1999:  Time magazine has a nice piece on "A Week in the Life of a High School," available online and at newsstands.

October 18, 1999:  How well did we really do on the 1999 English Regents exam?  We weren't in the top two schools in the Capital Region, as the September-October 1999 Tartan Report might have led you to believe.  We placed 19th on the percentage of test-takers scoring above 54%, and 15th on the percentage of test-takers scoring above 84%. 

October 17, 1999:

Hometown Scholars
as published in the WSJ on 10/15/1999

These public high schools have had the best student performance over the past 10 years based on SAT, achievement-test and standardized-test scores:

1.  Chapel Hill High School -- Chapel Hill, N.C.
2.  Granville High School -- Granville, Ohio
3.  Highland Park High School -- Dallas
4.  Lower Merion High School -- Ardmore, Pa.
5.  New Trier Township High School -- Winnetka, Ill.
6.  Niskayuna High School -- Schenectady, N.Y.
7.  Palos Verdes Peninsula High -- Rolling Hills Estates, Calif.
8.  Pine View School for the Gifted -- Osprey, Fla.
9.  Roslyn High School -- Roslyn Heights, N.Y.
10. Weston High School -- Weston, Mass.
Source: School Match, Westerville, Ohio

CONGRATULATIONS!

October 15, 1999:  School Workers Vote Yes - (SANTA FE) -- Santa Fe school employees [including teachers] have a new deal. School workers put their seal of approval on the latest contract negotiated between the union and the School District. The agreement gives all employees a 100-dollar raise [for the YEAR!] with the promise of an increase next summer if the District ends the fiscal year with a surplus.  [New Mexico teachers already earn $20,000 less per year, on average, than Scotia-Glenville teachers.]

Compare the Santa Fe contract with the one negotiated by the Troy Teachers Association this week.  Teachers will receive a 2 percent raise retroactive to last year. A 2 percent raise this year, a 4 percent raise next year and a 4.75 increase in the 2001-2002 school year.  The 2% is the lowest I have seen in the area, but the 4.75% is the highest.

(A word of caution: The frequent local practice of giving different percentage raises to different steps in the salary scale, combined with different proportions of teachers across salary steps, works to conceal the true amount of teacher raises.  A reported 2% raise could amount to an increase of 3% or more in spending.  For a simplistic example, if 10-$30,000/year teachers get 1% raises, and 20-$50,000/year teachers get 3% raises, the average raise is 2% across the 2 steps.  An "across the board raise" of 2% would increase the budget by 2% to $1,326,000 from $1,300,000.  However an "average 2%" raise in the example given results in a  2.5% increase in the budget to $1,333,000 from $1,300,000.  I have examined over 100 teacher salary scales over the past six months and I have never seen this kind of finagling in any state outside New York.  The net result is that teachers in other states really are getting raises between $100/year and 3%, while our reported raises of between 3 to 5% are really more like 3.5 to 6.5%.  Hence, the disparity between NY teacher pay and the pay of teachers in other states continues to grow at even a faster pace than is apparent on the face of the reported numbers.)

October 14, 1999:  Scotia-Glenville teachers start at salaries higher than the average salary earned by Mississippi teachers.  When spending per pupil is adjusted for regional variations in the cost of living, Mississippi spends about 40% less than Scotia-Glenville.  So, it'll be no surprise at all to learn that some Mississippi schools have a little extra cookie jar money to invest in educational technologies that improve academic performance.  In fact, 1200-student Hancock High School, located in rural southern Mississippi, gave every student a laptop computer last year.  And this year, it installed the world's largest wireless local network AND it provides FREE, at-home, Internet access to every student.  You can read more about this 21st Century school and the Netschools Company that is making it happen.  Too bad bricks can't be linked to the Internet.

October 13, 1999:  Browse on over to USA Today to find out what teachers think about job satisfaction, salaries, the quality of teaching, pay-for-performance, team teaching, and other school issues.  You'll find a 46-question survey and several related articles.

October 11, 1999:  Some of you were astonished with the Kentucky Virtual High School.  Now here's Florida's Virtual High School.  There is no school building.  There are no bells between classes.  The school population is 2000!  You can read more about Florida's Virtual High School here.  You can also visit more virtual high schools listed on my links page.

October 8, 1999:  HERE IT COMES!  The inevitable.  The welcome page says:  Welcome to the Kentucky Virtual High School, an online learning resource developed to make the same high level of learning opportunity available to every Kentucky student.

The KVHS is an unprecedented collaboration between the Kentucky Department of Education, the Council on Postsecondary Education, and the state's major education partners whose common interest is to secure an internationally superior education for our state's citizens. Through the KVHS, every Kentucky high school student will be able to enroll in for-credit classes taught by Kentucky certified teachers and receive credit from their local high school. Courses will be delivered online to schools, homes and other places with Internet access, available anytime and anywhere--meeting the needs of students. * * * The Kentucky Virtual High School will provide every high school student with a new and equitable opportunity to achieve.  The site is expected to be operational in January 2000.  You can read more about the virtual high school in this article from the Associated Press.

October 6, 1999:  Dr. Ruth Peters, a nationally recognized expert in child and adolescent psychology, offers several tips for parents trying to help their children do better in school in this article from PRNewswire.  Parents must  be involved in both the day-to-day and long-term efforts to complete homework and improve study skills.  They must see that homework gets done and that long term research projects begin early.  Parents must also be willing to impose negative consequences if homework is not completed .

October 5, 1999:  An economist from the Institute for Policy Innovation says we aren't getting our money's worth out of public education.  Countries that we look to for models of health care are ignored as models for education even though they surpass our performance on many standardized tests. These countries pay much less per student for public education.  You can read more in this PRNewswire article from Yahoo!

In my opinion, in the near future--5 to 7 years--the Internet will dramatically cut the total cost of K-12 education and radically change the nature of our public schools.  A few great teachers will become millionaires by offering courses that parents will choose for their children from the Internet.  The great weakness of public schools--the inability to individualize courses and teach them to each student's pace of learning--will be solved.  Public school teachers will see their responsibilities shift from teaching to tutoring.  Places with strong unions will hold out against the trend and devise new roles for teachers, but the teachers in some grades or in some kinds of subjects will see their status and pay decline.

October 5, 1999:  What do opposition to social promotion, calls for more federal spending on education, lamenting over a decade of failed attempts to achieve educational goals set in 1989, and calls for more harshness for not meeting educational standards have in common?  They are all comments from the 1999 National Educational Summit.  Read these and many more comments in five articles from the summit meeting.

September 30, 1999:  A national report card on grade-school writing was released Tuesday.  Three-fourths of the students tested showed only “basic” writing skills, leaving just a quarter scoring “proficient” and one percent writing at an “advanced” level, according to this MSNBC article.  The full writing report card is online at the Nation Center for Educational Statistics.

September 28, 1999:  The Gazette reports that Scotia-Glenville High School students did quite well on the 1999 Regents exams.  Since our school opted for a passing score of 55 rather than the 65 required for future years, about 30 students passed an exam who wouldn't have passed otherwise.  The teachers and students deserve our hardy congratulations!

September 28, 1999:  SmarterKids.com, one of the leading educational sites on the Web, provides parents with the ability to quickly and easily assess their child's individual learning style through a unique online survey. The site uses the survey results to recommend books, software, games and toys to help each child learn specified skills, utilizing the learning style that he or she prefers. 

September 28, 1999:  Ever wonder what the characteristics of underachievers are?  The Underachiever Checklist lists the factors that lead to poor academic performance, in its view.

September 25, 1999:  New York's high taxes seriously impede business growth, as reported in this article from the Gazette.  The inability of school boards to control education costs makes them partly responsible for our economic lethargy.  My related commentary to the school board gives just one example of how our costs soar past other states.

September 23, 1999:  After several successful contests that drew innovative lesson plans from teachers nationwide, teachers can enter the next ``Compaq Lesson Plan'' contest by completing an official entry form, available at www.educast.com, printing out a copy of their best lesson plan, and mailing it in.  Educast also offers a free software program that delivers up-to-the-minute education news, Internet resources, and lesson plans directly to your computer.

September 22, 1999:  Book Adventure(TM), a free online reading incentive program with over 60,000 registered users, challenges students to read more and understand more with the first-ever Book Bonanza reading contest. The Book Bonanza was designed to generate more enthusiasm about reading by adding to the arsenal of Book Adventure prizes used to reward students for their literary success. At www.bookadventure.org, children (K-8) create personalized book lists from over 4,000 recommended titles, take quizzes on the books they've read at school or at home, and earn prizes for understanding the books they have read.

September 21, 1999:  Blackboard.com(SM), is a leading online education company that provides one of the industry's most popular platforms for teaching and learning over the Internet.  Only six months after its launch, 9,600 instructors use it for teaching in every state and in 60 countries.  Through this free service, our teachers can post course work online, assess student participation, track grades, issue assignments, exchange computer files with students and easily monitor the progress of each learner.  Students can view assignments online, submit work, send and receive e-mail, complete tests, chat in study groups and more.

During the next year the price of devices to connect to the Internet will probably drop from $400 to $200 or less.  (This is only twice the price of the graphing calculator 8th grade math teachers are suggesting our children buy.  Graphing calculator programs can be run online.)  The devices may even be offered for less than that to schools within the next two years.  During our building project we should endeavor to wire every core-subject, non-laboratory, classroom desk and every library desk with an electrical outlet and a connector to the Internet.  Also, we should install the capability to be an ISP (Internet Service Provider) so every student can call into our server from home and access the Internet.

September 20, 1999:  Classroom Connect (www.classroom.com), the leading provider of quality Internet products and services for K-12 educators, today announced the launch of its revolutionary Internet education platform, ``Classroom Today,'' enabling students to harness the power of the Internet in a way never before possible, both at school and at home. Children using the site will have the opportunity to deepen their understanding of a wide range of topics through a highly interactive, content-rich learning environment, while increasing their grasp of 21st Century learning skills: problem solving, communication, research, and collaboration with fellow students.

September 18, 1999:  The NY State Board of Regents set tougher standards for new teachers, which these articles from the Times Union and Daily Gazette outline.

September 18, 1999:  You, or your child, can take a free course on Internet search tools and techniques at Sink or Swim.  The site also includes links to popular sources of information on the web.

September 18, 1999:  The Departments of Justice and Education announced the joint release of a guide that will help school and law enforcement officials assess security needs and consider the type of security equipment most appropriate to make schools safer.  The security guide, "The Appropriate and Effective Use of Security Technologies in U.S. Schools," is available online.

September 16, 1999:  How would you like to be able to track how well your child is progressing during the school year in preparing for standardized tests such as the 4th grade ELA (English) test or Regents Math I?  Amazingly, for a pretty low price, you can sign up with Edutest.com and your child can take online tests that meet state requirements.  The site provides instant scoring and feedback, and skill drills to provide additional help when needed.  You can track your children's progress every step of the way.  Fascinating!

September 15, 1999:  Schenectady County Civil Service employees recently agreed to a 4 year contract, with raises of 2.6% this year and 3% in each of the next 3 years.  Although the raises are high compared to many states, some of these employees have seen the real value of their paychecks decline by 15% over the past 25 years.  Our teachers' salaries, on the other hand, have increased by an average 8% in constant dollars over the same period.  The top salary is 11% higher.  Clearly, the county-negotiated raises for civil service employees should set the upper boundary for teacher raises in the future under the current method of setting teacher salaries.

September 14, 1999:  I know many people in our school district believe we do a good job with our resources, and many would probably take offense at a bunch of Ohio farmers and hillbillies pinching their pennies and getting better academic results at the same time.  So, for those of you who might feel this way, save yourself some grief and don't read this article from The Columbus Dispatch.  The rest of you may bravely click on! to see how much education you can buy for $1,200 in property taxes per $100,000 home.

September 13, 1999:  How can schools reduce educational costs while hiring exceptional teachers in fields with teacher shortages?  The answer is not by starting a bidding war for teachers--which many teachers are hoping for--but by using technology and the proven technique of distance learning.  This article from the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette explains how it is done.  One clear message is that the classrooms in our building project need to be designed to accommodate distance learning.

September 13, 1999:  Frost Elementary School, in Lawrence, Mass., is using a new learning tool, Lightspan Achieve Now(TM) -- an interactive curriculum program designed to enhance student achievement in reading, language arts, and mathematics and to increase test scores on the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System (MCAS) Test.  The article on this website is provided by Business Wire.

September 10, 1999:  Denver Public School teachers have decided to create a pilot program that links an average 2% of teachers' pay to student performance.  The pay-for-achievement system is different from the merit pay system tried in the middle seventies by many public schools, including Scotia-Glenville, because student academic performance, not teacher training, talent and ability, determines who gets a salary bonus.  For more information about pay-for-achievement, which follows the principles advocated on this website, please click here.  (By the way, the cost of living increase in pay for Denver teachers is 2.56%, however the starting and top salaries are being adjusted upwards, to levels that are 10% less than Scotia-Glenville's.)

September 9, 1999:  Teachers can easily integrate "real life" stock market investing into their lessons for 5th to 12th graders with no cost simulations from MainXed.com.  For more information, click here.  Also, I personally and strongly recommend the use of The Wall Street Journal Classroom Edition as a way of integrating mathematics, English, economics, social science and critical thinking skills.  The Classroom Edition is stimulating and challenging, and a far better choice for improving reading skills than allowing students to free read in English class one period every two weeks, as one of our teachers has been known to do.  And while I'm thinking about it, some school board members should visit the website, download a sample edition of the Classroom Edition, and copy the Decision Making chart from the Teacher Guide.  The chart will clearly aid in the organization and analysis of policy issues.

September 9, 1999:  If you or your child are going to college, a vaccination for meningitis may be wise..  This Wall Street Journal article explains why.

September 8, 1999:  While school districts across the country are setting teacher salary increases at or under 3%  (Los Angeles area: 2.5%; Indianapolis: 1.5%; Columbus, Ohio area: 2.25 to 3.1%), New York, with the third highest teacher salaries in the nation (but absent from the top 20% of states in math, science and English), keeps rolling along with a 4% pay raise for teachers in Rochester.  That wouldn't be too bad if we lived in an area where all worker wages outperformed the national average.  We don't.  Workers in our area are paid thousands of dollars less than national norms, as this Gazette article points out.

September 8, 1999:  Students in Halsey, Oregon have a four-day academic week -- no Friday classes -- to give teachers a day off for personal affairs they can't seem to get to during the 180 other days they have off.  The district hopes to save the money it spends on substitute teacher costs, which is substantial.

September 8, 1999:  Educating teachers is the subject of this Times Union article reporting on the politics and indecision of policymakers.  The near universal agreement that teachers need a specialized education is surely weakened by the great disagreement over what that education should be and how it should be given.

August 11, 1999:  The relationship between parents and teachers is dicey, according to this Washington Post article.  Parents are forced to live at the margins of many educational discussions, yet the 1998 Algebra book my daughter and I used this summer has the essentially same math in it my 1960s text did, and questions on SAT exams are unremarkable in their changes over the past 30 years.  Parents are clearly capable of understanding and contributing to educational policy, curriculum and standards.  It is a fundamental premise of public education.  In this article, I have begun inserting hyperlinks for books that are mentioned.  If a local public or university library has the book, the link goes to the library.  You'll have to look the book up manually at the Schenectady County Public Library because its search sessions expire after about one hour and the hyperlinks break.  If a local library does not have the book, the link goes to an Internet bookstore.

August 8, 1999:  The Executive Director of the NY School Board Association makes his pitch that spending on New York public schools is far from extravagant, in this Gazette letter to the editor.  You do not have to read the editorial carefully to see that every justification offered to explain high costs applies generally to every other school system in the United States. In my review of the data, school systems that had relatively low state aid over the years (like under 15%) did the best job of controlling costs.  The primary reasons Scotia-Glenville's costs are much higher than the national average are smaller class sizes and higher wages than the the national averages.  Many, many states do the same educational job NY does with equal or better results for 15 to 35% less money.  Please see the related article on teacher salaries from The New York Times.  Also see the table of mean hourly wages I generated from 1998 U.S. Department of Labor statistics.  I think it will shock some and surprise many.

August 8, 1999:  1000 hours of exposure to print before kindergarten helps middle income students outperform the reading abilities of low income students, who average just 16 hours exposure to print before entering school, according to this Christian Science Monitor article.  Clearly, our schools should have out-reach programs to encourage parents to read to their young children.  Perhaps then we could save the very great expense of pre-kindergarten programs.

August 6, 1999:  On August 11, the Horatio Alger Association will release its third annual State of Our Nation's Youth Survey .  The 1998 and 1997 surveys are available in Acrobat format here.

August 6, 1999:  State aid for education increased by 8% in this year's budget.  However, the State aid to SGCSD is going up less than 2%.  The increase is less than $200,000--which is a lot of money, but not an 8% increase.  Note:  Westchester County school aid increased 12.7%.  Its median household income is 40% higher than ours.  At least one school district will use the windfall to reduce property taxes.

August 5, 1999:  A new report finds kids lack the study skills they need to meet higher educational standards.  In my experience with SGCSD (through 7th grade), our schools can and should do a much better job teaching study and test-taking skills.  Information about these could be printed in a section of the student handbook.

August 4, 1999:  What do you get when you add high salaries, unparalleled perks, poor performance, arrogance, indifference to parents, and inefficiencies, to a public school system with insufficient incentives and integrity to make significant change?  The answer is profit-maximizing businesses competing for public funds for charter schools.  Charter schools will reduce funding for public education, as this Times Union article on Albany's Charter School implies, but the public school system brought the pox upon itself.  For public education to survive it must dramatically improve performance and aggressively reduce costs, else the public will seek and create better and cheaper alternatives.

August 3, 1999:  Teacher salaries are the topic of two Columbus [Ohio] Dispatch articles.  The salary increases for two Ohio school districts have been limited to between 2.25% and 3.1% for the next three years.  These small increases are being given to teachers who earn much less than our teachers, who have averaged an inflation-busting 3.5% increase for the past two years.

July 28, 1999:  New research-based reading software from Cognitive Concepts may help children read better.