Dare I suggest that perhaps students won't be going back in school for another week? Yes, I do believe that if another 18 or 20 inches of snow drops down on the region today and tomorrow, it is possible schools won't be able to open this week at all. With the Presidents Day holiday Monday added to the closures for snow, students will have been off for 11 straight days or exactly the same length of time they had off for the winter holiday.

Wow.

Are all the teachers who read this blog wondering whether it will take students a long time to settle into the routine of school again or do you believe that they will have been cooped up inside for so long that they will be dying to get back to school?

What about students in AP classes or students preparing to take the MSAs in about a month? Have any teachers tried to be in contact with their students to give them a few extra assignments? Are you posting notes on your websites to students to ask them to work ahead or are you just hoping they will have taken this time to relax, read a good book and get in some serious shoveling and sledding time with friends?

Posted by Liz Bowie at 11:47 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Around the Region
        

I am pretty sure that schools will be closed on Monday. I have no facts to back that up, but it seems a pretty good bet.  Readers of the blog may have some extra time on their hands. I thought I would start a poll on what parents, teachers and administrators are thinking? Should I mention the Tuesday forecast of up to 8 more inches?

Posted by Liz Bowie at 7:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (17)
Categories: Around the Region
        

Bill Lawrence, a well-liked area superintendent in Baltimore County, was reassigned last week to a job in human resources. I write about the job change in today's paper. I wasn't able to determine what new job he has in human resources, but it looks as though it was a demotion.

Posted by Liz Bowie at 1:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (24)
Categories: Baltimore County
        

Charter School renewal was the hottest item at last night’s Baltimore City school board meeting.

The topic generated more than an hour of debate, impassioned pleas and even a song.

Only one school -- Dr. Rayner Browne -- would not be issued a renewal under schools CEO Andres Alonso’s recommendation. Six schools -- City Springs, Collington Square, Coppin Academy, Baltimore International Academy, Bluford Drew Jemison STEM Academy, and Inner Harbor East Academy For Young Scholars -- would be given two-year extensions.

Three schools -- Wolfe Street Academy, Southwest Baltimore Charter School, and Independence -- received the highest recommendation of a five-year contract.

Rayner Browne did not receive a recommendation for renewal because the school saw test scores in all student subgroups decrease for mathematics the last two years. In reading, three of the four student subgroups experienced drops in test scores.

If the board follows Alonso’s recommendation and votes not to renew its contract, Rayner Browne will be in danger of closing or returning to a traditional or city school status.

Schools were judged on success of students, fiscal soundness and governess, compliance, being an effective, viable organization, and a mix of quantitative and qualitative data. 

Continue reading "Charter schools dominate discussion at Baltimore City School Board meeting" »

Posted by John-John Williams IV at 5:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (10)
Categories: Baltimore City
        

The committee was made up of administrators, principals, AIM trainers and a PTSA representative. Towson University Dean of the School of Education Raymond Lorion said the committee met twice for about an hour and a half each time.

While Lorion said last night that AIM has great potential, the committee recommendations he read are more nuanced.

Continue reading "AIM committee reports at Baltimore County board meeting " »

Posted by Liz Bowie at 4:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (49)
Categories: Baltimore County
        

One might have expected the news of a proposal that would close or revamp 12 schools might result in some tension between school board members and top ranking officials. Instead missing pages from a Power Point presentation of the proposal got folks riled up. The controversy surfaced during Chief of Staff Tisha Edwards’ presentation of the proposed changes. Midway through, she realized that the Power Point was missing several slides, which gave further information about the schools in danger of closure.

Edwards immediately apologized. She said she was well versed enough with the material to explain the missing information.

After Edwards finished, school board member Robert Heck launched into a speech where he said that the presentation was “unacceptable.” He also said he was offended by the fact that the public’s first look at the proposal was incomplete.

“We really sell ourselves short when we can’t make a simple presentation,” said Heck, who initially called the mistake a “minor point.”

Heck’s comments appeared to infuriate city schools CEO Andrés Alonso, who said that the meeting had been filled with several instances of disrespect. After calling the omission in the Power Point presentation “an embarrassment,” Alonso said that his staff works tirelessly and did not deserve the blame.

“They work too hard,” Alonso said. “We owe each other a bit more [respect.]”

The tension was cut when board member Anirban Basu joked that more people were likely watching Conan O’Brien than the marathon meeting after 10 p.m. on a Tuesday night. Alonso laughed and quickly reminded Basu that people were probably watching Jay Leno.

Posted by John-John Williams IV at 12:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Baltimore City
        

Andres Alonso will be introducing choice to the middle schools next fall, if the school board gives its approval tonight. A story in today's paper outlines the changes he is proposing. They include closing five schools and revamping seven others. He also will be opening several new schools and expanding some charter or transformation schools that have been successful.

Posted by Liz Bowie at 9:10 AM | Permalink | Comments (17)
Categories: Baltimore City
        

My colleague, Mary Gail Hare, writes today about minority contractors who say their bids were dismissed for minor oversights in paperwork. There is an update to her story. Late Tuesday, the day before James W. Ancel was to address the state Board of Public Works, the county purchasing office notified him that they were granting his appeal and reinstating him as the lowest responsible bidder on the Milford Mill Academy renovation. His bid had been disqualified for a minor miscue - a plus sign to show he had exceeded the required percentage - on the minority participation information he had provided. He appealed the decision and vowed to go to court, if the county schools did not resolve the matter. He and his attorney are in Annapolis today. They said they will criticize "a perfection policy" that is costing taxpayers millions more for school construction projects and asking for state review of rejections of low bidders.

Posted by Liz Bowie at 10:23 AM | Permalink | Comments (6)
Categories: Baltimore County
        

In today's paper, I write about Baltimore County teachers, parents and administrators who raise concerns over whether Barbara Dezmon should be involved in making decisions about the implementation of AIM, a program that she developed, owns and hopes to sell. In addition, a University of Maryland professor questions whether the county should have given Dezmon the copyright to the program or whether it should be the property of the county schools.

Posted by Liz Bowie at 9:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (35)
Categories: Baltimore County
        

The Maryland State Department of Education is providing the structure to allow schoolchildren a means to channel their concern over the earthquake victims in Haiti into fundraising for the devastated region. After Hurricane Katrina, the state's schoolchildren raised $1.3 million.

Today, the department announced that it would set up a fund that school systems can contribute to until Feb. 12.  For more information go to the website...www.MarylandPublicSchools.org.

Are teachers out there trying to include something about Haiti in their lesson plans to help children deal with the many sad pictures they are seeing?

Posted by Liz Bowie at 7:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)
Categories: Around the Region
        

In a major speech today, Randi Weingarten, the president of American Federation of Teachers, called for a reform of the way teachers are evaluated and supported during their teaching careers.

The speech comes just as states are about to apply for federal stimulus funds called Race to the Top funds. The competitive $4 billion in federal funding will go to a dozen or so states that demonstrate they have serious collaboration between teachers unions and management and have no rules that prevent test scores from being used as part of a teacher evaluation process. The feds, in other words, have made it clear that a new day is coming when school systems will use a variety of factors to evaluate teachers.

So Weingarten, whose union usually represents urban school teachers, has taken the first step toward making teachers a partner in the national debate over this sensitive issue.

She lays out four steps that school systems should take. Every state should adopt standards spelling out what teachers should know and be able to do, she said. And states should write standards for evaluating teachers that include student test scores on assessments that show growth during the year, classroom observations, portfolios and student work. The entire speech as well as a lot of additional information is available on the AFT Web site or at www.futurestogether.org.

Posted by Liz Bowie at 3:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (6)
Categories: Around the Nation
        

My story in today's paper details what Joe Hairston said yesterday in an hour-long interview in his office. The story raises many questions including what AIM will finally look like in its streamlined version and when it will be used widely by county teachers.

One of the things Hairston said was that the county was going to find a way to marry the assessTrax system with AIM. He suggested that a computer program would be available in the spring to integrate the two. "Teachers aren't asked to do anything that teachers don't already do," he said.

Hairston's reversal on AIM was clear, but what will come next wasn't.

"What superintendent in America gets into this much detail?" he said in discussing how he has now set up a committee to look into streamlining the system.

Posted by Liz Bowie at 11:25 AM | Permalink | Comments (98)
Categories: Baltimore County
        

Baltimore County teachers continue to contact The Baltimore Sun, upset about a requirement by the school district that they use a new detailed progress reporting system called AIM (or Articulated Instruction Module).

Under AIM, teachers must judge whether each of their students has mastered more than 100 specific skills. In an Advanced Placement World History class, a teacher must indicate whether each student can “evaluate the consequences of global pandemics” or “analyze the role of Islam as a unifying cultural and economic force in Eurasia,” two examples among pages of items. One AP course contains an 11-page list of knowledge or skills that must be checked off. To see other examples, go to the Baltimore County schools Web site.

Among the concerns being raised by teachers in posts to our blog is that they will need to set aside hours to complete AIM, which could take away from planning and instruction time.

Schools spokesman Charles Herndon told reporter Liz Bowie that he believes that the teachers who have complained are in the minority. “We feel our teachers are up to the task. We think very highly of the teachers; we think they are capable,” he said. 

Here's Liz's full article about AIM, which ran Sunday.

Posted by Jennifer Badie at 12:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (201)
Categories: Baltimore County
        

Because we are about to enter a new year, I thought I would leave this good news item for everyone. Advocates for Children and Youth has just analyzed the recently released data on school suspensions and for a change, there's been a reduction. The number of times that students are suspended each year has dropped significantly, particularly in Baltimore City and Prince George's County. The percent of students suspended statewide dropped by 12 percent from the prior year and fell to the lowest point in more than a decade, according to ACY.

Just a few years ago, Baltimore City was suspending about 12 percent of its students. They have reduced that to just over 9 percent.  The reductions follow years of work by school systems to put programs in place that will reward good behavior. In addition, school superintendents, such as Andres Alonso in the city, have simply ordered principals to lower suspensions for certain offenses.

School systems have stopped suspending students for being truant, for instance.

The only system to buck the statewide trend is Baltimore County, where the suspension rate is still at 11.2 percent, according to ACY.

Posted by Liz Bowie at 11:13 AM | Permalink | Comments (18)
Categories: Around the Region