Devraj "Dave" S. Kori, a 17-year-old senior at Lake Braddock High School in Fairfax County, called up Dean Tistadt, chief operating officer for the county system, to ask why he had not closed the schools. He left his name and phone number and got a nasty message later in the day from the official’s wife.

The minute-and-change message from the wife blasted the student. At one point she calls him a “snotty-nosed brat.”

Kori (the student) got the last dig when he posted the message, along with the official’s work and home number, on his Facebook page. Needless to say the official received a fair share of calls – at home. Check out more of The Washington Post story here.

Since The Post broke the story, it has gained national attention. CNN ran an item about it. And the phone message left by Tistadt’s wife is up on YouTube. As of 5 p.m. Wednesday, the link had attracted close to 21,000 hits. By 5:30 p.m., the link had been removed.

What do you think? Is it ever acceptable for a student to call a school official at home? 

Posted by John-John Williams IV at 6:10 AM | Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBacks (0)
                    

A "major grant" is expected to be announced Monday morning to help Baltimore County schools buy more than 400 laptops for students. The benefactors are the Edward A. St. John Foundation and the Middle River Business Center.

No word yet on the amount, so stayed tuned. This could be interesting.

Posted by Gina Davis at 1:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
                    

When Connections Academy, the Baltimore-based for-profit outfit that operates full-time online public schools, put down stakes in 2005 in Oregon, teachers objected loudly. Among their complaints --- the company is a for-profit business, has student-teacher ratios of 50-to-1 and depends on parents to serve as quasi-teachers, spending hours a day providing the kind of hands-on instruction that normally happens in the classroom, according to local news reports. In its first year, Oregon's program had 700 students and was said to be on the verge of doubling that enrollment within the year.

As I report in today's Sun, the Baltimore County public school system plans to test Connections Academy, starting this week with home-schooled students. (See the county's page at the company's website.) The goal is to enroll as many as 200 students for this year-long pilot phase. Students will be expected to meet all of the state's public school requirements --- such as completing 180 days of class and taking all of the state's standardized tests.

Contacted last night, the head of the Teachers Association of Baltimore County said she can envision a place for Connections Academy within the local school system as "a support" to students who might find themselves needing an extended absence from a traditional school, but not something that would be open to the general student population.

Cheryl Bost, TABCO president, added:

"We value more teacher-to-student interaction in the public schools, as opposed to taking taxpayer money and giving it to a company. We're not supportive of it being a replacement" for traditional schools.

A significant drawback, she added, is that if the company is unsuccessful with a student, that child would return to a brick-and-mortar school, forcing teachers to pick up the pieces.

Some wonder why a home-schooling family would want to sign up for a program that would return them to the public school way. Others figure it'll give these parents and students the best of both worlds --- access to public school resources on their own territory, in their own homes. Still others question what business do people have enjoying the benefits of the school system they decided to leave for whatever reasons, be they philosophical or practical.

Teachers, parents, students --- what do you think? Does Connections Academy present an opportunity or an obstacle for public education?

Posted by Gina Davis at 10:14 AM | Permalink | Comments (9) | TrackBacks (0)
                    

Parents with children attending Baltimore County public schools should visit the district’s Web site to download checklists of what their children are expected to learn in each of their classes throughout the school year.

The system is in the process of creating lists for all of its courses, but many are already available at http://www.bcps.org/apps/AIMpublic/.

As I reported last month, county school officials have created a new progress-reporting system, called the Articulated Instruction Module, as a tool for parents who want guidance on how to help their children at home.

The system is a series of checklists that follow a student from year to year, school to school, and chart whether the child has met specified objectives and learned certain skills during a given grade.

Beginning this school year, in addition to the traditional reports with letter grades that measure students' mastery of a given subject, participating teachers will give parents progress reports each quarter that will tell them whether their children can, for instance, convert fractions to decimals or determine percent of a number. Until it is mastered, a skill or objective follows a student from grade to grade.

Tested this spring in a few county schools, the system --- otherwise known as AIM --- is available on a voluntary basis to all of the county's teachers. Because the hope is that parents will find the reports useful, the school system has posted the checklists online so parents can print their own copies for home. If a teacher isn’t using the system, parents are encouraged to bring the checklists to their parent-teacher conference meetings to help guide the discussion of their children's progress.

Read my story from last month in full here:

Continue reading "AIM is the name of the game" »

Posted by Gina Davis at 6:19 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)
                    

Is it just me, or does this story give you pause?
There is no doubt that there are some benefits to a virtual education. But at the K-12 level, I think it is important that students are exposed to other students. 
Socialization is extremely important in shaping future adults. If a young child misses out on those important life lessons that exist in school – academic, respecting authority, learning social norms, being exposed to diversity – are they truly receiving an education?

Posted by John-John Williams IV at 12:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)