File Cabinet

Playground Pathology

2011-07-27T16:06:00.002-05:00

Funny Playground Falls by blinkylicious

Do you hyperventilate every time your kid gets on the slide or climbs higher than 2 feet of the ground? Do you measure the depth of the wood chips around the teeter-totter? You could be setting your kid up for some sort of fearful psychopathology in the future. Eliminating or trying to eliminate the risk of injury at a playground may also eliminate a kid's ability to conquer fear and ability to develop a sense of mastery. From the NY Times:

"We posit that our fear of children being harmed by mostly harmless injuries may result in more fearful children and increased levels of psychopathology.”

Even when kids do fall and hurt themselves it actually seems to have a long-term positive effect on their fear:

"A child who’s hurt in a fall before the age of 9 is less likely as a teenager to have a fear of heights."

But I suppose that having no fear of heights as a teenager could be problematic too:

Even with all the carnage that a robust, active child will probably experience on the playground, with the bumps, bruises, boo-boos, and less often, breaks, a playground fatality is awfully rare:

"The best current estimate of the mortality rate for short falls affecting infants and young children is 0.48 deaths per 1 million young children per year."

So let them climb, roam, and wander--better you take the nerve pills now than them later.

Charter Schools Are About Parental Choice, Not Test Scores

2010-05-23T17:28:00.004-05:00

In an op-ed article about Georgia's charter schools and charter school laws, GSU education professor Michael Moore recognizes the mixed success of charter schools when test scores are used as the evaluative yardstick:

"How successful are charter schools? They may not be the educational cure-all proponents portray. The research is mixed and depends on where you are. Michigan reports much lower charter test scores than public schools from the state. Some California and Pennsylvania studies found modest strength in test scores."

Moore mentions several more studies that support the middling success of charter schools, but fails to mention the comprehensive longitudinal evaluation of the Milwaukee Parental Choice program which would seem to be another plank in his thesis of charter school success being linked to test scores. That study concluded:

"We have displayed a rough and limited snapshot of the average performance of Choice students in certain grades that suggests they tend to perform at levels roughly comparable to similarly income-disadvantaged students in MPS and better than low-income students in urban areas across the U.S."

Pretty thin gruel for a choice program that is decades old and has over 50 charter schools up and running. So if test scores aren't likely to be that much different between a regular public school and a charter school, why do parents bother? Another conclusion from the Milwaukee Parental Choice program study sheds some light:

"We have found that Milwaukee families tell us that their child’s commitment to education and study habits are more important harbingers of academic success to them than are test scores."

That sentiment is exactly why charter school laws should be strengthened and why as Moore puts it, "I would like to see charter concepts be incorporated within the administrative structure of school systems." In Chatham County, there are 2 charter schools--Oglethorpe Academy (Core Knowledge) and Coastal Empire Montessori with three charter schools rejected recently (not out of spite or malice but because their ducks weren't in a row just yet). There are even more opportunities for choice with the district's specialty programs which offer programs like IB, Montessori, as well as Advanced Learning curricula. Charles Murray, writing in the NY Times, is sick of charter schools being judged solely by test scores:

"As an advocate of school choice, all I can say is thank heavens for the Milwaukee results. Here’s why: If my fellow supporters of charter schools and vouchers can finally be pushed off their obsession with test scores, maybe we can focus on the real reason that school choice is a good idea. Schools differ in what they teach and how they teach it, and parents care deeply about both, regardless of whether test scores rise."

Parents know what they want for their kids and become rabid supporters of charter schools that offer them what they want. Even so, Moore tempers his enthusiasm for charter school implementation with his version of school bureaucratic reality:

"However, my altruistic notions are offset by the reality of dim administrators and clueless boards of education. Until we undertake real reform, charter schools can provide thoughtful alternatives, provided the approval process is also thoughtful."

I'm not sure what his idea of a dim administrator is or what "real" reform looks like, but Moore should be out front at GSU proposing that choice--for students, for parents, for educators, for the community--will be the engine that drives educational innovation.

Georgia Has Good Shot To Win (Or At Least Place) In The Race To The Top

2010-02-28T09:55:00.004-05:00

UPDATE: As of Thursday, March 4, GA joins 14 other states in making the first round of cuts for the Race to the Top grant money.

President Obama is dangling $4 billion dollars out there (The Race To The Top) for states who take on educational reforms. From what I can tell, Georgia is well-positioned for a cut of this education stimulus. According to Thomas Carroll, president of the Foundation for Education Reform, (and the guy who runs Brighter Choice Foundation charter schools in NY State), Georgia turned in a strong application:

"Georgia has a strong track record of reform, including an overhaul of the state’s performance standards; redevelopment of state exams; uniform standards for high school graduation; and a law that has led to the approval of 27 alternative providers of teacher certification. Georgia also has one of the strongest charter-school laws in the nation, including no cap."

Besides developing and adopting common standards, implementing common assessments, creating data systems to support instruction, and fully developing a statewide longitudinal data system, Georgia's application is heavy on improving teachers and principals:

--Providing high-quality pathways for aspiring teachers and principals
-- Improving teacher and principal effectiveness based on performance
-- Ensuring equitable distribution of effective teachers and principals
-- Improving the effectiveness of teacher and principal preparation programs
-- Providing effective support to teachers and principals

Savannah has fully signed onto every jot and comma of the RT3 application as a participating local education agency (LEA) and if you get down to around page 154 or so you will see that the state will create a new office (State Office of School Turnaround or SOST) that will be responsible for working with the state's lowest achieving schools (58% are high schools, 38% are middle schools). One of the reforms that's stated in the application is the intent of low achieving schools to possibly be restarted under the leadership of Education Management Organizations--I am unclear whether or not these organizations are outside of the LEA's control or not.

$4 billion is serious money. If it was being given out by state equally, each state would score $80 million. That's not enough. Only 40 states have turned in applications--and if their plans will equally salutory, each state would receive $100 million. But this is a contest and according to Mr. Carroll only 7 states have highly competitive applications that meet the feds 19 criteria. That would be about $570 million for each state. Now that would pay for a lot of staff development.

Lester Jackson Giveth, Then Taketh Away

2010-02-09T19:28:00.005-05:00

GA state senator Lester Jackson wants to giveth, and then taketh away. Sort of. First, Jackson is linking a charter school group that addresses high school dropouts with local Savannah-area groups:

"The Savannah Democrat hosted a breakfast meeting Wednesday between Ohio-based White Hat Management and four groups that work with troubled youth. Each organization is seeking approval from Savannah-Chatham public schools to operate a state-financed but independently governed charter school."

A few days later, Jackson proposed a new state law that would raise the dropout age from the current 16 to up to 18:

"Currently, students must remain in school until they are 16. Under Jackson's bill, local school systems would be able to determine the dropout age, ranging from 16 to 18."

If this law is passed, (and there doesn't seem to be any local consensus for the utility of this bill), the White Hat group will likely ride off into the sunset. The Florida sunset. Or the South Carolina or Alabama sunset--to work with high school dropouts in those states. Our dropouts need a specialized program to fit their needs. Our kids need every option available to them.

Girl Power: Mining The Georgia NAEP Scores For Achievement Gaps

2009-10-16T16:49:00.010-05:00

Georgia Department of Education Superintendent Cathy Cox had this to say about Georgia students performance on the National Assessment of Educational Progress:

"This is the first evidence we have that the GPS is helping our students be more competitive at the national level. I am confident this is just the beginning of the gains our students will show on national tests as our new curriculum takes hold."

Governor Perdue was mighty pleased too:

"These latest Math NAEP scores continue to show that we are making significant progress in the most important subject areas. Our scores are improving at a faster rate than the national average, which is a result of the hard work of our students, parents and teachers. "

I looked at the executive summary which is usually a cherry-picked list of test scores that students improved on, then I went to the NAEP Data Explorer which provides an opportunity to input variables in as many weird combinations as you can think of (state, grade level, subject, subgroup, year, and statistical group) and I found some very encouraging tidbits and a few surprises about student achievement in Georgia.

--In the last 10 years, 4th grade & 8th grade students have improved an average of 15 pts. in math. This improvement roughly parallels the implementation (some would say imposition) of NCLB.

--4th grade reading has improved 10 pts in about 10 years. Curiously, 8th grade reading has declined 2 points during the same time.

--The black/white achievement gap in math and reading has stayed relatively constant (around 25 pts.) even as both groups have increased their achievement scores.

--Coming as no surprise to me, 4th grade females pound 4th grade males in reading by 6 pts. That's a touchdown better.

--By 8th grade, girls have increased their dominance over boys by 10 pts in reading.

--In the last 10 years, girls have narrowed the gap in 4th grade math to just 1 point behind boys.

--And in the last 10 years, girls have overtaken the boys in 8th grade math by 1 point.

So real quick-like:

Girls do better than boys at reading in 4th & 8th grade and they do better than boys at 8th grade math--by 1 point. They are gaining at 4th grade math. The black/white achievement gap has remained fairly constant over 10 years.

I bet if I spent even more time with the NAEP tool with other states data sets, I would find girls surging there too.

What's happened to boys in school?

Social Mobility Rankings For Georgia Colleges

2009-10-05T16:57:00.004-05:00

Looked at Washington Monthly's 2009 College Guide to see how Georgia colleges and universities were scored. The WM uses three indicators to rank schools:

Social Mobility (recruiting and graduating low-income students)
Research (producing cutting-edge scholarship and PhDs)
Service (encouraging students to give something back to their country)

Here is how Georgia colleges and universities ranked when all 3 categories are taken into account (this does not include the separate ranking for Liberal Arts Colleges):

#38 Georgia Tech
#69 Clark University
#113 Emory University
#135 UGA
#205 Georgia State
#231 Georgia Southern

Here's how these 6 schools rank in Social Mobility:

#8 Clark University
#83 UGA
#152 Emory University
#202 Georgia Tech
#212 Georgia State
#220 Georgia Southern

Here's how the Social Mobility ranking works--only 14% of Georgia Tech, Emory, and UGA students received Pell Grants. Georgia Southern--30%. Georgia State--35%. A whopping 60% of Clark University students received Pell Grants. Here are the respective graduation rates:

88%--Emory
78%--Georgia Tech
77%--UGA
47%--Georgia State
45%--Georgia Southern
44%--Clark University

It seems the more Pell Grant students a college has the higher the social mobility score. However, it also seems that the higher the social mobility score the lower the graduation rate will be.

So, is it downward or upward social mobility that the Washington Monthly celebrates? Well, certainly the WM mission clearly spells out the audience for such rankings:

"Isn't it time to join people such as Warren Buffett, Paul Krugman, Garry Trudeau, Rachel Maddow, Bill Clinton, and the producers of "60 Minutes" and "Frontline" who turn to the Washington Monthly for journalism that isn't afraid to shake some sense into the system?"

The WM College Guide is doing a whole lot of shaking, but not making a whole lot of sense.

Teacher Incentive Pay Works--What Will Furloughs Do?

2009-10-03T08:32:00.003-05:00

Always on the minds of educators is how to improve educational outcomes--which is jargon for how to get the kids to learn something--or more specifically, how to get them to learn something so they will pass the state tests that show Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP). Along with those thoughts, however, is the reality that teachers who excel at improving educational outcomes for students are also not going to get paid a dime more than the educator who doesn't exemplify all the skills and behaviors that work best for student achievement--that is unless they have more seniority.

Most teachers ignore the reality (most of the time) that their less well-prepared colleague who shows up late, muddles around in the classroom during the day, then leaves early, will get the same pay for doing, way, way less--they have to or they will quit a job they probably have a real affinity for and go wait tables or work at the perfume counter at Belk. It's past time for state legislatures to institute merit pay or teacher incentives for producing positive educational outcomes. Teacher incentives work:

"The program provided bonus payments to teachers based on the average improvement of their students' test scores in independently administered learning assessments (with a mean bonus of 3% of annual pay). At the end of two years of the program, students in incentive schools performed significantly better than those in control schools by 0.28 and 0.16 standard deviations in math and language tests respectively. They scored significantly higher on "conceptual" as well as "mechanical" components of the tests, suggesting that the gains in test scores represented an actual increase in learning outcomes. Incentive schools also performed better on subjects for which there were no incentives, suggesting positive spillovers."

Georgia has nationally board certified teachers that receive 10% pay increases based on completing an arduous program where great teachers document their greatness. But those pay increases were slashed this year. This year, all over Georgia, teachers are being furloughed at least 3 days, with more days coming after the first of the year. Furloughing teacher pay, unfortunately, is not concommitant with the state furloughing its expectations of teachers to foster even greater student educational outcomes.

So if incentivizing teachers increases student outcomes, what will happen when teachers are furloughed and lose thousands of dollars of their pay?

Just asking.

Spending Time With Your Kids: A Wise Human Capital Investment

2009-07-02T19:18:00.004-05:00

If you’ve got kids, it will do them well, and prospectively, the parents well, to spend time with them. Not to satisfy feminist ideology (why shouldn’t men spend more time with their kids—so we mothers can go out and do shots with the girls?) and not because of the smooshy cultural prompts (all of the unshaven, man-boys being schooled by their kids in the grocery store), but because, in these times particularly, it makes good economic sense. Spending more time with your kids increases their chances of getting into college:

“Since the early 1990s, college-educated mothers have reallocated more than nine hours per week from leisure time to childcare time. This reallocation occurred at the same time that competition to get into college intensified, as a combination of demographic forces and the increase in the college premium led to a surge in the demand for college slots.”

Dads are re-allocating almost 6 hours per week from leisure (there goes the Saturday morning golf time) to childcare. Competition for college slots is intensifying.

“The children of the baby boomers are flooding colleges with applications, making the process more competitive than ever.”

This I know. In the last two years, we have run the college admission gauntlet twice and were successful twice—but what it puts your kids through is harrowing. First, when high school starts and I mean freshman year, your kid is on the college application clock. Every single thing they do beyond going to school and getting good grades (that goes without saying—because in today’s hyper-inflated grades world—everyone gets A’s) counts toward gaining entry into college. Did your kid man a bake sale after school to raise money for a band or sports team trip? Document it and your kid’s role in it. Get your kid in as many after-school clubs and sports as you can (our boy child did varsity tennis, honor society, etc, the girl child was an officer of about a half-dozen clubs and committees)—not just as members, but in leadership positions. ALL of this stuff counts on college applications. (On one of the applications, there is a space to describe ORIGINAL research and/or experiments conducted.)

But your kid just doesn’t start being one of those “doing stuff all the time” high school kids unless parents have taken the time before that to be with them, take them places, and give them opportunities to experience things beyond what’s on cable, the internet, and Wii—get them outdoors, take them to big cities and little craphole towns on a two-lane road out in a county with a name you can’t pronounce, and make sure they see you being involved in stuff beyond the four walls of where you live. And it does mean chauffering them around a lot (mothers spend 2+ hours per week for kids under 5 and almost 3 hours per week chauffeuring kids older than 5—for dads its about an hour and a half per week).

Unless UGA, Georgia Tech, GSU and all the rest dramatically increase capacity, increased competition for college slots will be the trend—as will increased time spent by parents with their kids to prepare them for those slots.

Global Warming Pushback?

2009-06-01T17:54:00.003-05:00

There's this Mastercard commercial where the school-aged kid helps his dad become a better man by helping become more eco-conscious. (I sort of expected the kid to stand beside his dad while he was taking a dump and offer him 2 Sheryl Crow squares of toilet paper):

Presumably, the kid is more environmentally aware than his doofus dad and presumably the little green kid learned his global warming chops at school. Kids do learn about global warming at school--there are plenty of guides, lesson plans, and free materials out there to teach global warming to PreK-12th grade. Nickelodeon even has global warming specials on so that every child ca be inculcated in this man-made disaster as early as possible.

But there may be a pushback brewing. For the first time EVER, among all the usual pile of educational catalogues and materials that go straight to the recycling bin, was a teaching material that refutes global warming--The Skeptics Handbook. Here is the opening plaint from the author, Joane Nova:

"Rise above the mud-slinging in the Global Warming debate. Here are the strategies and tools you need to cut through the red herrings and avoid the traps."

I'm guessing Joanne means the traps of getting cornered in the gym or the cloak room by one of those little eco-scolds from the Mastercard commercial. Ms. Nova's slim volume goes over topics with headings like The Global Warming Gravy Train Ran Out Of Evidence, Believers Are Becoming Skeptics, and Cutting Through The Fog. Ms. Nova finishes her treatise with this bottom line:

"Carbon doesn't seem to have driven temperatures before; probably isn't doing it now; things are not getting warmer; and computer models can't predict the weather. An emissions trading scheme is a bad solution to a problem that's gone, fighting a cause that never was..."

This handbook seems about as alarmist as the global warmers talking about floods all the way to the Alabama line in the coming decades--so I don't know what the educational value might be. But I will say its the first educational pushback on global warming that I've seen come through my mailbox.

Big Headed Kids & Autism

2009-05-22T16:28:00.003-05:00

Seems as if the larger the head of an autistic child, the more trouble they have generalizing, but do well with detail-focused processing:

"Macrocephaly in the context of autism may therefore be a biological marker of abnormal neural connectivity, and of a local processing bias."

Macrocephaly is an abnormally large head. Big headed kids also tend to be taller and to be male. They also have less adaptive behaviors. I was curious though as to what "big-headed" might mean in context of babies at different ages. From the CDC:

--At birth, the 95th percentile for head circumference is a tad more than 15 inches.
--At 6 months, the 95th percentile is right at 18 inches.
--A one year old child that has a head bigger than 95% of other kids will have a 19 inch head.
--A two year old will have a head slightly under 20 inches and a three year old will have a head about 20 and half inches.

I know if I had a baby child I might be getting out the tape measure right about now.

No Weird Fridays

2009-05-02T06:13:00.004-05:00

We in the office are serious about our No Weird Fridays. No time suck psychodramas allowed. So of course, about 12 seconds after we were hooting about the time one of our substitutes was convinced she was receiving radio signals from her earrings and our fire alarm sensors were actually video cameras tracking her every movement (yeah, I sent her home, like, for good), into the office walks two guys--both wearing jeans, one in an Atlanta Falcons t shirt the other in an untucked golf shirt.

They announce to the three of us in the office that they are from the Department of Homeland Security. We howled. We couldn't help it. Right in the middle of our No Weird Friday declarations and our reminisces about prior paranoid schizophrenic weirdness, weird squared walks in.

No really, they insisted we are Homeland Security They both whipped out badge holders. Sure 'nuff. Golf Shirt guy says we have tracked an illegal alien to within 100 meters of this location.

"You mean, right now?" I ask.

Yes. He says they believe a woman, who we recognize as a parent, is harboring an illegal and we believe he is here.

"In school?" I ask, I think quite reasonably. And really, it is serious--the guy they are after is wanted for rape and assault in Florida. I'm thinking about locking down the school now. Or maybe evacuating it. This would certainly count as Friday weirdness.

"So how do you know he's here? Are you tracking him somehow?"

Golf Shirt guy says, "Homeland doesn't track cell phones, but we have traced his cell phone to within a 100 meters of this location." Aaaaaah. I see. How did I end up in Enemy of the State, II? But razor sharp school brains prevailed--we figured out who the kids were of the parent that was illegally harboring a fugitive and then figured out that one of the kids had the CELL PHONE.

The Homeland Security guys seemed almost peeved that their dangerous fugitive wasn't cowering in the Media Center behind the Captain Underpants display or hiding behind the tether ball pole out back.

I took Golf Shirt guy's card and promised I would call him if a guy we didn't know showed up to pick the kids up. They left and we in the office just looked at each other. It wasn't even 9:30 yet on our No Weird Friday.

School Lighting Mostly Sucks

2009-05-01T19:25:00.005-05:00

That's one half of the fluorescent lights in my office. There is another bank right over my head that I won't turn on because I'm convinced that it irradiates my brain and makes me surly and migrainish. So, my office is pretty dim most of the time. I'm not alone:

"Results showed that classrooms that are lit with 100 Hz fluorescent lighting can cause headaches and impair visual performance."

Turn the fluorescent lights off. Use natural light or lamps. The glare of fluorescent lights makes kids crazy. And staff. Truth.

Breastfeeding Backlash?

2009-04-02T17:56:00.005-05:00

I don't really have a dog in this fight, but I'm still curious as to how prevalent a potential breastfeeding backlash is in Savannah. From The Case Against Breastfeeding:

"In certain overachieving circles, breast-feeding is no longer a choice—it’s a no-exceptions requirement, the ultimate badge of responsible parenting. Yet the actual health benefits of breast-feeding are surprisingly thin, far thinner than most popular literature indicates. Is breast-feeding right for every family? Or is it this generation’s vacuum cleaner—an instrument of misery that mostly just keeps women down?"

I wonder if most women now feel that breastfeeding is an instrument of misery that's keeping them down? The author traces the rise of formula and from that the creation of the LaLeche League in the late 1950's who rebelled against scientists and formula:

"La Leche League mothers rebelled against the notion of mother as lab assistant, mixing formula for the specimen under her care. Instead, they aimed to “bring mother and baby together again.”

Later, the author characterizes the LaLeche League as veering into anti-science feminism:

"Over time the group adopted a feminist edge. A 1972 publication rallies mothers to have “confidence in themselves and their sisters rather than passively following the advice of licensed professionals.” As one woman wrote in another league publication, “Yes, I want to be liberated! I want to be free! I want to be free to be a woman!”

I see cars in my drop off line with LaLeche League decals and I wonder if moms are using breastfeeding their children as some sort of class signifier like the author notes:

"In my playground set, the urban moms in their tight jeans and oversize sunglasses size each other up using a whole range of signifiers: organic content of snacks, sleekness of stroller, ratio of tasteful wooden toys to plastic. But breast-feeding is the real ticket into the club."

I've waded into this topic before, mainly as breastfeeding relates to autism and I've always been a staunch believer that breastfeeding presents numerous advantages to the child and even to the mother. But is the wheel turning again--ready to throw LaLeche Leaguers and SouthernMamas into a panic that their practice isn't jibing with the latest science?

If science doesn't support breastfeeding as the optimal way to feed infants anymore, maybe that means that eventually breasts will be superfluous on a woman. Like lips on a chicken.

From a man's perspective, that would be really, really sad.

Little Red Riding Hood For The NCLB Era

2009-03-23T17:13:00.002-05:00

For all the data we collect on students achievement for NCLB and AYP, it was only a matter of time before our fairy tales reflected this obsession. Data is even collected on the nutritional value of Grandma:

Slagsmålsklubben - Sponsored by destiny from Tomas Nilsson on Vimeo.

Furlough Teachers, But Then Furlough Expectations

2009-03-19T20:40:00.005-05:00

As Georgia continues to lose tax dollars, the state intends to balance the budget on the backs of teachers:

"Georgia’s 125,000 public school teachers could be forced to take days off without pay next year as the recession continues to batter state finances. Rep. Edward Lindsey (R-Atlanta), chairman of the House budget subcommittee on education, said school officials should consider furloughing teachers on “planning” or training days in hopes of saving the state up to $200 million."

(I see where the House has passed the $18.6 billion dollar budget and it includes funding for school nurses--so at least my diabetics, asthmatics, and ADHD kids can get the medical attention they need). Saving the state almost $200 million is important, but teachers being furloughed for 6 planning days is going to hurt every school's product and presentation. The Savannah Morning News editorialist sort of gets the dilemma, but doesn't really understand the impact of losing planning days:

"The days that teachers would take off without pay would be planning days. These are days when students get a holiday, but teachers report for duty. Hence, teacher furloughs wouldn't mean lost face time with teachers for students in classrooms. That makes the best of a bad situation."

Typically, teachers get 4 days before students arrive, 1 day directly after Christmas break, and 3 days at the end of the school year. If the furloughs are going to happen, then the day after Christmas break needs to go and probably 2 out of the 3 days at the end of the year. That leaves 3 more days to make up and if they come at the beginning of the school year then the state probably knows and is banking on the fact that teachers, as conscientious as most are, will be at school--working--just not getting paid, preparing for their students. Let's say teachers stay away though as a form of protest for being dinged about a $1000--what would that mean for students? I mean students aren't losing any face time, right?

--During the first day back, it takes about 3 hours to introduce new staff, review any new policies handed down over summer, develop or share procedures to deal with the new policies, go over committee assignments, and hit the AYP data for what happened over the summer, what the school's status is for the year (passed AYP or Needs Improvement for the year), and what that AYP status means for the school-wide accountablity plan.

--Teachers then work in their classrooms--which may or may not be the classrooms they left in the summer--as movement of staff occurs based on student shifts, teachers leaving, certification issues, etc.

--During this time, which generally unfolds over the the next 3 pre-planning days, most staff will have at least one district-wide meeting or workshop to attend either as a liaison (meaning going to a meeting for all 4th grade math teachers for example and reporting back to all 4th grade teachers what district expectations are for 4th grade math) or as a specific position (gifted teachers, special education teachers, special area teachers like art, music, PE, etc.). This is in addition to school-wide meetings where grade-levels meet with administration to go over curriculum expectations for the year (that may or may not be different based on what the federal DOE, state DOE, or local BOE has put into place over the summer--stuff like Response To Intervention protocol, Professional Learning Community and Data Team procedures). Remember, the teachers and school staff have to implement in the classroom whatever nutty idea has passed through whichever legislature ostensibly to help students achieve.

--Usually, there is an open house scheduled during pre-planning week where parents and students come into the school and locate their new classroom for the year. This is what usually starts the year off for most parents either with a good feeling and a reasonable set of expectations for the new school year or sends them careening around the building in search of administrative relief.

The three pre-planning days are a whirl of activity--planning, discussing (sometimes arguing), making materials (Montessori materials) and getting ready for when the students arrive--because when they arrive, they are the focus and everything else drops away as a secondary concern. Furloughing teachers during planning days will impact students as surely as if it was face-to-face time. A prepared, caught up, planned up, teacher brings a patience and center of gravity that is a larger percentage of classroom success than you might think. I don't know if the furlough plan means for teachers to work for free or it means just staying away, but if it means the latter, Georgia's students will be impacted--maybe not in the obvious face-to-face way but in a more pernicious, indirect, fashion of discounting what a teacher does during their planning and training days and making everyone's remaining school days more difficult and assuredly less productive.

Marriage & ADHD

2009-03-16T18:35:00.002-05:00

Just about 1 in every 10 kids between the ages of 4-17 has been diagnosed with ADHD in Georgia (9.37%). Of those kids, about half are being medicated for ADHD (5.57%). So in a school my size (550) about 51 are going to be diagnosed ADHD with about 30 being medicated. That sounds a little high but I think thats because my ages go to about 13-14 instead of 17 but there is certainly a bunch of foot traffic to the nurse's office all day long. So this sounds about right too:

"Couples who have a child with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder are nearly twice as likely to divorce or separate as couples who do not have children with the psychiatric disorder. 12.6 percent of the parents of children without ADHD were divorced by the time the children were 8 years old, the figure was 22.7 percent for parents of kids with ADHD. Couples with ADHD kids also tended to reach the point of divorce or separation faster."

I've watched these kids and their parents for a long time and what I've noticed is that the parents who are seeking therapy for their child in addition to medication are more successful than parents who rely on just medication to manage behavior. I think thats because through the therapy process parents are learning how to manage their own behavior toward each other as well as toward their ADHD child. Medicating the child for school and letting it go at that helps the child stay on task better at school but the meds are wearing off by the time parents get them back. The study showed that parents with ADHD kids tend to be negative toward each other more:

"Regardless of whether they were dealing with easy or difficult children, parents who had ADHD children at home were three times as likely to be negative toward each other as parents who did not. Put another way, the parents of children with ADHD simply had less ability to respond to challenges with equanimity; they appeared to be psychologically worn thin."

Medication helps children to attend at school--but it doesn't help parents with coping--with each other.

Give Your Boy A Weird Name, Increase His Chances Of The Slammer

2009-02-02T17:48:00.004-05:00

Something to consider when you go about naming your boy child:

"The distribution of first names in the state’s population is different from the names of juvenile delinquents. Our results show that unpopular names are positively correlated with juvenile delinquency for both blacks and whites."

Weird first names don't CAUSE juvenile delinquency, but are positively correlated with it and more importantly are positively correlated with factors that tend to increase the tendency to commit crime:

"Such as a disadvantaged home environment, residence in a county with low socioeconomic status, and households run by one parent."

Here are the first names of males arrested in Chatham County in the last 3 days:

Dwayne, David, Christopher, Willie, Alexander, Jamal, Joshua, Patrick, Bernardo, Bernabe, Wallace, Benjamin, Samuel, Gary, Anthony, Derrick, Deangelo, Armando, Craig, Jay, Terence, Kevin, Angel, Reginald, Orlando, Morris, Kenneth, Zykee, Ronald, Eric, Jimmie, Rodis, Kyle, Diogenes, Lamond, James, Bradley, Frank, Robert, George, Joel, Michael, Vernon, Darren, Ellis, Daniel, Marcus, Ted, Oscar, Lance, Rocque, Rashiad, Norberton, Raymundo, Antonio, Aundree, Homero, Gabino, Richard, Cordell, Steven, Herbert, Terrell (4!), Alfonso, Carlos, Cory, Juan, Andrew, Gregory, Charles, Edward, William, Marquis, Timmy, Geoffrey, Set, Daniel, Karonta, Bernard, Sheldon, Kouiyiou, Harold.

Here are the top 20 boy baby names:

Michael, Christopher, Matthew,Joshua,Jacob, Andrew, Daniel, Nicholas, Tyler, Joseph, David, Brandon, James, John, Ryan, Zachary, Justin, Anthony, William ,Robert

Only about 15% of the guys arrested were in the top 20 for most popular names. Upping the list to the top 100 most popular names--only about 33% of the guys arrested were represented. Meaning about 66% of all the guys arrested in Chatham Couny in the last three days have the least popular names.

Parents, unless you're a celebrity idiot, (like Penn Jillette naming his kids Moxie Crimefighter and Zolten), choose your baby boy's first name carefully!

Don't Raise A Depression Kid

2009-02-01T16:49:00.004-05:00

Be careful what you say to your kids during this economic downturn. An aversion to risk might develop that could last a life time:

"Under identical market conditions, and controlling for age, people who had experienced lower stockmarket returns over the course of their lives put a smaller fraction of their money into stocks than people who had lived, on average, in times when stocks had done better."

Think about your parents and how they grew up. My dad was a sharecropper's son who was behind a mule from the time he was 8 years old. It wasn't until he was well into his 50's that he tried stocks. While its wise to continue to find ways to cut costs by cooking at home, brown bagging it at work, buying generic everything, paying down debt, paying bills on time to avoid late fees, carpooling it and doing Netflix--try not to alarm your kids with Dust Bowl comparisons and talk of imminent doom--what they learn could stick:

"What is more, the effect of the distant past dissipates much more slowly with the impact of events early in life persisting decades into the future."

Obama Testing Effect?

2009-01-25T16:04:00.005-05:00

Researchers think that Obama's election and inauguration could have boosted black achievement in test taking:

"Now researchers have documented what they call an Obama effect, showing that a performance gap between African-Americans and whites on a 20-question test administered before Mr. Obama’s nomination all but disappeared when the exam was administered after his acceptance speech and again after the presidential election."

What could account for increased scores for African-American test takers?

"The inspiring role model that Mr. Obama projected helped blacks overcome anxieties about racial stereotypes that had been shown, in earlier research, to lower the test-taking proficiency of African-Americans, the researchers conclude in a report summarizing their results."

Hey, Savannah elected a black guy for mayor--shouldn't there have been a tiny bump after that?

To Stop Kids From Whining, Treat Them Like Dogs

2009-01-21T20:59:00.007-05:00

There was an article the other day from the Savannah Morning News staff therapist (and believe me if things keep going like they are, the SMN folks are going to need more therapists on staff) about how to get kids to stop whining. Whining is a learned behavior:

"Whining is a learned behavior that tends to happen when children are bored or overwhelmed. At the toddler stage, children do not have the vocabulary to express their feelings, so whining may become their way of communicating."

Yes, whining is a learned behavior but it is not learned in a vacuum. Whining doesn't just tend to happen. Kids learn that whining is a winning strategy to get what they want when its richly rewarded by the only people who can grow it or eliminate it--the parents. Coincidentally, if there is a whiny kid in the house, chances are, if the family has a pet, there is bad puppy running around too. Whiny kids and bad puppies are a deadly combination that generally lead to all kinds of social unrest that unravels marital bonds rapidly and often times ends up with both the kid and the dog (and maybe a spouse) being dropped off of a bridge somewhere in the marsh.

Maybe that's an exaggeration, but if it is, its a small one. The SMN therapist suggests a few things to help with the whining:

--Establish no-whining rules. Before leaving the house, parents can discuss what behaviors they expect and establish rules while out in public.

This is a good suggestion. It applies to the parents more than the kid though. Both parents need to be on the same page about what their expectations are before they step foot out of their house. Its definitely doesn't help a toddler to learn how to cope with dissatisfaction and not getting immediate gratification when the parents can't do it either. If there is a puppy involved--one of you is going to have to be the pack leader. Dogs don't do well with co-leaders. They don't get the whole division of labor thing and could care less who makes the most money or whose turn it is to do the dishes. Puppies fully expect one parent to end up on the floor on their back exposing their neck to the other and will happily follow the winner. Failing a pack leader fight, the puppy will usually fall in line with the adult who is most assertive while being the calmest. Its when neither adult leads that there are problems:

"When a naturally submissive dogs lives with a human that does not lead, he or she will attempt to right the pack balance by filling what they see as a vacant pack leader role. This is how behavior problems develop."

And that is precisely what a whiny child is doing. Filling the void that adults are creating by not leading, calmly and assertively.

--Give rewards. Parents can reinforce good behaviors with rewards such as small stickers, toys or fun outings.

Positive reinforcement is absolutely critical for whiny kids and puppies. But it has to be from a place of calm and confidence. Bargaining with a whiny kid to get them to stop out of frustration or desperation will insure more whining in the future. A whiny kid can be whining for lots of different reasons, but a parent shouldn't interact with the child until the whining stops. Puppies that are tearing around the house and leaping all over the furniture shouldn't be interacted with until they are calm and ready to follow your voice and motions. Then reward.

--Use your normal voice. When your child begins to whine, say to them, "I can't understand you when you talk with that voice. Use your normal voice and I will listen."

Using a normal, matter of fact, calm voice is essential for both whiny kids and puppies. But the less said the better. Lack of reaction to whining and poor puppy behavior will teach both kid and dog that the pack leader isn't buying their performance and will extinguish negative behaviors quicker than trying to reason with them during their poor behavior.

If the thought of equating whiny kids with puppies makes no sense, you should probably eschew both and get a cat instead.

School Reform Is Messy And Painful, But Status Quo Is Worse

2009-01-10T08:06:00.004-05:00

Talked with a guy the other day who explained to me that Gulfstream, as one of the few businesses actually expanding in this area, is struggling to get professional engineer types to relocate to the Savannah area. Not because of concerns for the economic downturn, not because there isn't plenty to do in the Savannah area--with the revitalized downtown area, the beaches, and the historical opportunities--but because of the perception of the local, public schools as underachieving and sometimes downright dangerous institutions.

That's certainly not a shocking assessment of our school system. In fact, school administrators are well aware of our system's shortcomings and weak spots and intend to address it--despite the BOE's hesitancy. From the last BOE meeting:

"Ideas for revamping troubled middle schools were met with almost as much criticism at a Wednesday school board meeting as the proposed plans for high school reform received last month."

The ideas kicked around and presented to the BOE to reform the middle school programs are more than just perfunctory solutions, it will involve much greater reorganizations than this system is used to:

"The overall proposal calls for creating specialty programs at the middle school level that will allow students and their families to choose a middle school based on their academic strengths, needs and interests. Many are based on successful programs that currently exist in local middle and high schools. There are ideas for creating all-male and all-female academies, advanced learning academies, a fine arts academy, K-8 schools, fourth- through eighth-grade schools and sixth- through 12th-grade schools."

Reforming our middle schools is an onerous and sisyphean task that is guaranteed to create controversy and shake people (read that as teachers, administrators, parents, board members, etc.) from their everything-sucks-but-what-can-we-do-about-it torpor. And to me, the uncomfortable feelings of flux and change is acceptable if middle school performance changes for the better--and noting the stats from the proposal--it can hardly get worse. New school board member Floyd Adams seems like he doesn't know what lots and lots of Savannahians already know:

"Are you saying that we are failing? Are you trying to change the whole wheel? I need more detailed information on the whole process."

Just a cursory look at the stats that school administrators presented (Savannah middle schoolers pass rate on the Math CRCT is 15% less than the state, 4% less for English/LA CRCT, and a whopping 18% less on the Science CRCT. Not to mention lower percentages on ITBS Math & Reading), show that, indeed, our middle schoolers scores need to be improved drastically. And, yes, if the middle school program has square wheels, it is time to change the whole wheel. The current middle school program is configured into 6th-8th grades. This configuration is less than positive for our middle school students, who are still closer to elementary kids in stature and in emotions than to the young men and women of high school. Plus, transitioning to middle school isn't easy. Here are the top 10 concerns identified out of many:

(1) changing classes
(2) reduced parent involvement
(3) more teachers
(4) no recess, no free time
(5) new grading standards and procedures
(6) more peer pressure
(7) developmental differences between boys and girls
(8) cliquishness
(9) fear of new, larger, more impersonal school
(10) accepting more responsibility for their own actions

Ever seen a 6th grader? For the most part, they are exactly like 5th graders. Yet, they are expected to perform and achieve like seasoned 8th grade or even high school vets. Motivating middle school students is not a process of following a neat, linear flow chart--it involves recognizing a hash of interconnectedness between teacher actions, student choice, the student's social life, their feelings, and their assignments. The bottom line is that a middle schooler may or may not give a rip about their performance on the Math CRCT, but they can improve their performance if their voices are heard in the school setting, there is less whole-group instruction, more emphasis on choice, more emphasis on collaborative learning activities, and they perceive their assignments as meaningful and relevant to them. The school system's proposed models seem to give this research some credence. Savannah school administrators are proposing more K-8 models and even a few 4-8 and 6-12 models. This is not unheard of. It's happening nation-wide in urban school districts that suffer the same academic/behavioral challenges that we do:

"Paul Vallas, chief executive of the Philadelphia school system, thinks so, and he has closed 17 traditional middle schools since 2002, while converting some three dozen elementary schools into K-8s. “The fifth to sixth grade transition is just too traumatic. At a time when children are undergoing emotional, physical, social changes, and when they need stability and consistency, suddenly they’re thrust into this alien environment.”

Reforming Savannah's middle schools will thrust school officials, the BOE, and other stakeholders (like our city and county politicians who need to get behind these reform measures publically) into perhaps an uncomfortable alien environment--just like our middle schoolers. Reforming our middle schools is going to be messy and probably not pain-free, but really, at this point, what is the alternative?

10 Places In Savannah You Should See Before You're 10

2008-12-28T08:21:00.010-05:00

Ran into the 10 places to see before you are 10 for the US and realized that although my kids have seen two of them--Sears Tower (the girls did an American Girl trip one year, so the boys didn't see it) and Niagara Falls (the guys did this trip and I still have the scar from me gashing my head on a log as I trespassed on one of the Three Sisters Islands)--60% of the places listed are out west and we missed them. Maybe we'll get around to taking the grandkids some day? Until then, here are 10 places in Savannah to see before you're 10:

1. Talmadge Bridge--At 185 feet in the air and a span of 1,100 feet, the Talmadge Bridge offers up an unparalleled view of downtown Savannah and the ports along the Savannah River. If your kids play the bridge game where they hold their breath as they cross it, they are likely to pass out.

2. Tybee Island South End--Beaches are fairly alike most anywhere you go--sand, waves, umbrella, plastic bucket and shovel, dad drinking beer, etc., but the south end of Tybee Island at low-tide presents a myriad of interesting challenges. Just how far can you walk out into the ocean without being stranded by the incoming tide? And will that blue crab trapped in the tidal pool really pinch?

3. Ogeechee River--There is a swimming hole where Rt. 204 crosses the Ogeechee River before 204 crosses into Bryan County that will give a kid a chance to fish, tube, canoe, and swim in a river that isn't salty. It's best when there is a drought though because its not so deep or fast. Plus, it comes with a ready made ghost story of the Meldrim Bridge Train Wreck Disaster that happened at the spot back in 1959 (where a train loaded with propane jumped the tracks, blew up and roasted about 30 people playing in the water).

4. Savannah Wildlife Refuge--Go when its warm and count how many gators you can see--either on the bank or in the water. I would leave the family dog at home though.

5. Bass Pro Shop--Even if you aren't a sporting kind of parent, your kids need to know what is possible out there--fishing, hunting, camping. Life ain't just about the Jepson Center, violin lessons, and art camp, you know.

6. Skidaway Island State Park--If you get any outdoorsy stuff at Bass Pro Shop, Skidaway Island State Park is a good place to try some of it out. Good boardwalk trail, lots of flora and fauna (that don't have dangerous teeth), and clean, safe campsites. Plus, if things get too intense, you can always order pizza for pick-up.

7. Forsyth Park--You might think of Forsyth as a place for grown-ups--romantic walks, taking pictures by the fountain, drinks at the Mansion, etc. Kids don't care about all of that hooey. Forsyth is wide open space for kicking balls, flying kites, throwing frisbees, and just plain running around. Plus, its got a pretty neat fountain in the middle too.

8. River Street--The shops and bars are okay, I guess. But kids don't really care about either one. It's all about the river and the container ships. Kids need to see both close up.

9. Grayson Stadium--Americana is important. Hot dogs, peanuts, Cokes, foul balls, umpire's called strikes, home runs, arguments, cheering for wins and for losses. If your kids don't get baseball, teach them.

10. Fort Pulaski--No kid is immune to putting themselves in the middle of a fort in the middle of a battle. Roaring cannons, rifled shot pummeling the fort, the smoke, the courage and bravery. Most kids will sense at least some of that when they walk through the fort. Bring mosquito spray though, they're worse than the Bluecoats ever were.

Local Bailout Savannah Could Use: Prison Literacy Project

2008-11-26T12:47:00.003-05:00

I know more than a handful of kids whose fathers are in jail--either the Chatham County jail awaiting whatever awaits them--or already doing time somewhere upstate. This prison literacy project sponsored by Read To Me International, might be useful in helping prison dads connect with their kids:

"It has given hundreds of inmates a chance to choose two books a month to send to each of their children ages 2 to 10 years. Inmates use a digital recorder so their children can pop in the CD and read along with their physically absent father."

I love this idea because it makes dad's in prison more human to their kids and its bound to make the dads feel more connected to their families. In Savannah, that lack of humanity in the poorest communities is making for generations of criminals--and most of that starts very early when basic skills such as reading and math aren't taught--at the family level, before they even get to school.

Yeah, I saw the price tag and from whence the grant money came from ( a $1.25 million Promoting Responsible Fatherhood federal grant from the Department of Health and Human Services) and it sort of made me want to throw up in my mouth, but there are good bailouts and bad bailouts, right? In my opinion, small, local programs like this would do more for the community than all the local taxpayer dollars thrown at alleged problems like recycling and bike paths.

Thought Experiment On The Disproportionality Of Suspended/Expelled Students In Chatham County

2008-11-24T19:46:00.004-05:00

I was at a workshop today sponsored by Savannah-Chatham County's Exceptional Child Dept. that addressed the thorny issue of ethnic disproportionality in the district's suspended/expelled students--specifically the special education population. Disproportionality is what happens when a higher percentage of one ethnic group is identified as special education, suspended, or expelled than what the system's ethnic breakdown is. Our system is about 65% African-American, 25% white, and the rest Hispanic, multi-racial, or Asian. With that ethnic breakdown, suspended/expelled special ed students (and all students in general) should, according to federal regulations, match a school district's ethnic breakdown.

Our system? Not so much. Right now, the number of students at Scott Alternative (which houses the system's expelled students) is running 89.6% African-American with 58.7% of all expulsions being African-American boys. All told, 65% of all expelled students in Savannah-Chatham County are boys.

The Feds and the State of Georgia aren't all that interested in why this is, they just assume that these numbers are due to inappropriate practices, policies, and procedures by the school system and require that a system that is disproportionate to provide Early Intervening Services.

And that was the substance of the workshop--putting into place a team at every school that would collect the behavior data and would create and implement school-wide discipline plan and activities to reduce our district's disproportionality. As I sat there though, I took a look at some of the disproportionality right there in that room:

123 educational professionals
87.8% females
12.19% males

If you haven't noticed lately, boys are having a tough go of it in school these days and the research shows it:

"Female teachers perceived female students more positively regardless of teachers' race. White female teachers perceived White students more positively the same way that they perceived White male students more positively than Black male students, but Black female teachers made no distinction."

So my thought experiment goes something like this--put the 15 or so males at this workshop together (instead of separated by school) and have them work through the five Ga DOE modules and come up with an Early Intervention Service plan, then compare it to what the 108 or so females come up with. I bet they are different. Markedly different. In our system, which isn't so different from the state of Georgia, we have a disproportionate amount of female teachers (as compared to male teachers) who are playing their part in the suspension/expulsion of a disproportionate amount of males, particularly African-American males, who are then charged with creating and implementing school-wide plans to reduce this disproportionality without really examining how the disproportionate amount of females in classrooms impacts the disproportionate amount of boys (particularly African-American boys) suspended, expelled, and placed into special education.

Until this disproportionality is looked at, boys will likely continue to struggle--proportionately, of course.

Court Appointed Special Advocates: Dancing With Savannah Stars For Kids

2008-11-14T17:37:00.003-05:00

Summer Teal Simpson from the Creative Coast Alliance pretty much nails CASA's Dancing With The Savannah Stars event at the Charles Morris Center:

"Last night was a whirlwind of fun that left me completely breathless."

I agree. CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocates for children) put on a fundraiser that had all of the components that make a great evening for me.

1. Good food (bowtie pasta with Italian sausage, ropes of spicy cheese, ham biscuits, and asparagus (!!) made it to my plate).

2. Open bar. Maybe that should be #1, but I'm feeling decorous.

3. My wife dressed in a hot, little (meaning shorter than usual) cocktail dress. Truthfully, that should be the real #1, but, again, decorum rules here.

4. Entertaining entertainment. Chief Berkow dancing the Argentine tango and turning red because he knew his partner was working it and him and he knew that everyone in the audience knew it too. From Summer's post:

"No one was hotter than Lisa Clark, Vice President of Marketing and Technology at United Way of the Coastal Empire - and professional dancer, and her partner, Police Chief Michael Berkow. Their Argentine Tango took the thermostat up a notch. FOXY."

CASA picked up over $30,000 to run their program. I can't think of a worthier cause:

"CASA ensures that children in foster care have courtroom advocacy and access to services and resources. Their well-trained volunteers are the voice for children in the courtroom, advising the court and keeping the child’s needs and wishes at the forefront of considerations regarding his or her future. The organization provides an innovative, cost-effective solution to an urgent crisis in the juvenile justice and foster care system and certainly put on an innovative and spectacular fundraiser."

Court appointed special advocates are what I've always called guardian ad litems for kids. I've probably worked with at least a dozen over the years. Some are better than others with some being complete idiots, some overly biased for the parents (or one parent over the other), and some completely biased toward the children so they don't see what the parents are trying to do--but for the most part the special advocates provide the only real sane voice to the child in a situation that is likely to have social ramifications for life.

Kids going into foster care aren't going because its a happy time--even if its in their best interests to go. I've seen kids beaten with extension cords, wiffle ball bats (that might not seem like much but a kid getting beat with their own toy is a special kind of torment), PVC pipe, and fists; thrown down stairs, burned with flat irons and teakettles, and abandoned for days and nights unable to feed or care for themselves. Even then, even with the worst cases, the kids are being taken from all they've ever known and thrust into a totally new situation and there are mixed feelings, feelings of abandonment and of being alone. The CASA volunteer runs interference for the child--with the foster family, the courts, the parents, and the schools. A CASA volunteer has to be made of stern stuff to be effective because they are going to see and hear things that will shake them. I know I have.

Even if you missed Stratton Leopold, Chief Berkow, and Kay Ford strutting their stuff for CASA last night, and you want to support kids who wouldn't have any support without CASA's help, send them a donation or give them a call. It's a good and decent cause. Info below:

CASA
428 Bull St.
Savannah, GA 31401
912-447-8908

What Was William Ayers Doing In Savannah This Weekend?

2008-11-03T17:42:00.005-05:00

Mr. Ayers is the 5th from the left (or 2nd bespectaled male from the left) in this pic taken this weekend at Wang II on Eisenhower after the American Educational Studies Association conference held at the Marriott on River St. William Ayers, as most of you well know, is a long-time associate of Sen. Barack Obama, an unrepentant domestic terrorist, and now a professor in the college of education at University of Illinois at Chicago. Mr. Ayers, while being popular in higher education circles, does have his educational critics. Sol Stern from the Wall Street Journal, says Ayers is no school reformer, but a school destroyer:

"America's ideal of public schooling as a means of assimilating all children (and particularly the children of new immigrants) into a common civic and democratic culture is already under assault from the multiculturalists and their race- and gender-centered pedagogy. Mr. Ayers has tried to give the civic culture ideal a coup de grace, contemptuously dismissing it as nothing more than what the critical pedagogy theorists commonly refer to as "capitalist hegemony."

Stern is concerned about the influence Ayers and other reformers will have if Obama allows access (which, if you go through Obama's connections and associations to the Chicago Annenberg Challenge and the Woods Fund, has already occurred) to the educational system:

"Ayers’s school reform agenda focuses almost exclusively on the idea of teaching for “social justice” in the classroom. Ayers and his education school comrades are explicit about the need to indoctrinate public school children with the belief that America is a racist, militarist country and that the capitalist system is inherently unfair and oppressive."

This will probably matter in another day or two since Ayers has already been elected as vice president for curriculum of the American Education Research Association. Their mission is clear:

"The American Educational Research Association (AERA), a national research society, strives to advance knowledge about education, to encourage scholarly inquiry related to education, and to promote the use of research to improve education and serve the public good."

I'm all for improving education and serving the public good. That stuff matters to me. But I really do think it also matters who is defining what it means to "improve education and serve the public good." For example, here are some of the breakout sessions offered at the AESA conference on River St. this weekend:

--The Influence of Language Instruction on Hawaiian Sovereignty (Last I checked, Hawaii was still one of the fifty states)

--Hip Hop as a Cultural Genre of the African American Musical Tradition: A Critical Race Theory Analysis of Hip Hop’s Pioneers’ Experiences

--A Look at Islam in American Media and Popular Culture Since September 11
and its Educational Implications (I'm pretty sure it won't be a positive one).

--Propriety and Pedagogy on Reality TV: Flavor of Love Girls: Charm School and American Princess (Flavor Flav makes an educational conference!)

--Lewis Mumford’s Regional Survey: From Public Schooling to Public Planning/Social Reconstruction (Mumford is the guy whose utopian ideal was the medieval city and all of the social reconstruction that would take, like, uh, socialism!)

These breakout sessions (and other talks and seminars offered) might be pretty interesting taken one by one as a thought experiment where educators can take what is being said and apply it to what their real teaching life is like. But taken as a whole, this is the kind of left-leaning, pedagogy and rhetoric that is meant to inculcate a certain world-view into students. As young as kindergartners even. What's important right now is how to raise achievement so that public schools can navigate NCLB and provide rich experiences for their students so they can learn to be productive members of our society.

I guess thats the point, isn't it--being productive members of society? But according to some, William Ayers being one, our society needs radical change. Be careful what you wish for (and who you vote for). You might get what you wish.

I Kill For Blood: Boys Have It Rough At School

2008-11-02T17:29:00.005-05:00

On the front page of the Savannah Morning News on Halloween Day was the truly horrifying story of a school boy who drew a picture of a vampire for a Halloween art assignment and ended up having to get psychological testing before being readmitted to school:

"However, when Jordan's homeroom teacher, Melissa Pevey, saw the drawing, she found it disturbing. Pevey was concerned enough to contact assistant principal Valerie Johnson and Campus Police. But it wasn't blood and gore that bothered Pevey. She believed the blood looked a lot like gang-related teardrop tattoos, and she thought the words "I Kill For Blood" could be tied to an infamous Los Angeles street gang known as The Bloods."

While it's easy for the public to be outraged with the seemingly clueless teacher (the whole teardrop tattoos connection seems a little overwrought, like she had just watched 4 seasons of The Wire back to back), it highlights the cultural plight of most boys--black, white, majority, minority--in public/private schools. Boys have it rough at school.

Curiously, the story doesn't delve into why the art teacher who is male, didn't share the classroom teacher's concerns. According to the story, he even helped the student with the picture. Just guessing here, but males tend to think more favorably about gross stuff like vampires, monsters, blood, and gore more than most females do. Some research notes that boys seem to do better with male teachers:

"A study of more than 1,000 men reveals almost half of them (48 per cent) cited male primary school teachers as having had the most impact on them during their school life. In addition, 35 per cent said having a male teacher challenged them to work harder at school while 22 per cent said males had boosted their confidence in their own ability."

So what's going on with boys at school? You've heard of the achievement gap between blacks/whites of both sexes, but the achievement gap in school between boys and girls is just as large, more pernicious, and long lasting:

--For every 100 girls who repeat kindergarten 194 boys repeat kindergarten.
--For every 100 fourth grade girls who do one or more hours of homework each day 92 boys do the same.
--For every 100 tenth grade girls who play video or computer games one or more hours per day 322 boys play video or computer games one or more hours per day.
--For every 100 tenth grade girls who perform community service at least once a week 68 boys do the same.
--For every 100 twelfth grade girls who engaged in a physical fight on school property 214 boys got into a fight.
--For every 100 girls expelled from public elementary and secondary schools 335 boys are expelled.

The old paradigm says that boys lag in literacy in the early years, then catch up, but girls lag behind in math and science. The research shows that girls have a huge advantage in literacy while the boys have a much slimmer lead in math/science. And its getting slimmer:

* In writing, 32% of females score proficient or above, compared with 16% of males. In reading, 41% of females are proficient, compared with 29% of males.
* In science, 16% of females are proficient, compared with 21% of males. In math, 21% of females are proficient, compared with 25% of the males.

Naturally, a literacy deficit early on puts boys at a significant disadvantage in high school and reduces their chances at college:

"Roughly 58% of undergraduates nationally are female, and the girl-boy ratio will probably tip past 60-40 in a few years. The divide is even worse for black males, who are outnumbered on campus by black females 2 to 1."

Sensationalized or not (yeah, there were probably more important stories that should have made the front page of the paper--there is an election going on, right?) the news story showed an embarrassing example of what happens to boys in schools. When 70% of all public school teachers are female (with the percentage being closer to 95% in the elementary grades), there are bound to be misunderstandings about a boy's intent and his general nature. One answer, such as is being tried at Mercer Middle School, is same-gender classes. This separates the girls from the boys, but if the staff is not properly trained on their role in the process or the curriculum isn't tweaked for both boys (get rid of the sappy talking animal books and get some adventure/sports/action/danger books, even comic books) and girls (more emphasis on hands-on math and science), same sex classes won't make a difference.

The bottom line is that boys kill for blood. Always have, always will--unless their natural male proclivities are taught out of them by a female-heavy education system that doesn't take boys and their maleness into account. And there are already plenty of those folks running around. They're called girls.

Vampire Invasion

2008-10-09T17:23:00.003-05:00

I didn't think anything would be able to move my daughter off of Facebook. It's the first thing she checks in the morning, the last thing she does at night.

For the last two weeks though, something insidious has made its presence felt in our house. Its rendered my daughter's face slack in the morning (actually, that would be more slack), darkened the circles under her eyes, and has caused an inattentiveness that is even more acute than it usually is. She's staying up all night.

She's reading vampire books. These books have swept her school. And other high schools. Good vampires and bad vampires. Sucking blood. The walking undead. Now I haven't read any of these books, but aren't vampires the personification of supressed sexuality? Whatever vampires mean and have meant in literature, Stephenie Meyer is making a killing with her four vampire books--3 of which are in Barnes and Noble's top 10 bestsellers list (Twilight, New Moon, Eclipse, Breaking Dawn).

Vampires and/or Facebook? Can parent's ever catch a break?

10 Reasons To Love Your Kids: A Challenge

2008-10-06T18:04:00.004-05:00

From a commenter on the previous 10 Reasons to Hate Your Kids post:

"There has to be a flip side of this such as "10 Reasons To Love Your Kids". Paul Simon came up with 50 Ways To Leave Your Lover. How about it, SR? What are the 10 Reasons To Love Your Kids"? Other than the tax write-off."

Never one to back down from a challenge, here are my 10 Reasons to Love Your Kids (not including the tax break):

1. If you love them now, they will hopefully love you later when you are incontinent and can't boil an egg without scalding yourself and the dog.

2. If you don't love your kids, it is unlikely that anyone else will. (Biology can be cruel).

3. Loving your kids gives you a reason to participate in our capitalistic society to best effect--you want to leave your kids the fruits of your hard labor.

4. May as well love them. They are living with you.

5. Loving your kids will make for a lasting relationship. Maybe, if your lucky, even a lasting friendship.

6. Loving your kids gives them more opportunities to exhibit your postive qualities--rather than your negative ones.

7. Loving your kids means connecting to previous generations of your family that you might not have even met and only know through pictures. My son has his great-grandfather's eyes--a man he has never met, nor I.

8. Loving your kids allows parents to see beyond themselves and become more well-rounded individuals. Or maybe just more run-down.

9. For single dads, loving your kids is a chick magnet. (My wife just rolled her eyes).

10. God loved his only Son. If its good enough for Him...

Attention Southern Mamas & Daddies: 10 Reasons To Hate Your Kids

2008-10-04T14:55:00.004-05:00

There is a lot of joy and discoveries of the meaning of life in having kids. Parents finally see that they can create life, they can play God (or recombine DNA into pleasing mutations--whatever), but rarely do they speak to the feelings they have about their kids and how their kids have altered their lives. If parents do speak about them, its in hushed tones and there is always guilt involved. Always. So its sort of refreshing to hear parents sharing how they really feel about their kids. From Mom Logic, some reasons why she hates her kids:

--Because of them, I'll never, ever, ever, get my flat stomach back. I know they're to blame 'cause they were the last ones in there.

--Just once I'd like to hear the sound of my washing machine NOT running.

-- If it weren't for them, I would never have to set foot in that demonic mouse palace known as Chuck E. Cheese.

--I used to really like to have sex--that's how I managed to pop out two kids in the first place. Now I'm so tired, I'd rather stick a fork in my eye.

When your kids grow up though and they are no longer toddlers, elementary school aged kids, but high school and college-aged kids, you can still hate them. From my own experience:

--They grow up and after years of absorbing learn how to do it yourself lessons, they think they no longer need you.

--They prefer Facebook to you.

--They magnify, generally by a factor of 3, all of your personality faults.

--They have ZERO appreciation for what you have sacrificed in your life so that they can have a decent shot at college.

In thinking about it though, and after talking to my parents, who are comfortably retired now, they can still hate us too:

--They assume that by selling off our house when we die that they will be able to pay off their credit card debt.

--They have made no provisions for our care when we are unable to take care of ourselves. Honestly, I think they wish we would both die in a car crash and make it easier on them. (This is my mom talking).

--They all marry and divorce too easily nowadays. They are like salamanders after the spring thaw.

And so it goes. Parenting is a challenge for your ENTIRE life.

Georgia State Panthers Football: Too Late

2008-09-12T12:56:00.003-05:00

I see where Georgia State University with 28,000 students is finally going to field a football team in 2010. It's about a year too late for either one of my kids. They both looked elsewhere because of the lack of student involvement at Georgia State. The GSU president, Carl Patton, agrees:

"We quickly received pledges of more than $1 million to support the new program. Our students said the addition of football would make Georgia State a "real university." And, we're located in the heart of the South where baby clothes and coffins come emblazoned with team mascots."

What the president doesn't say is that over 60% of his student body is female. For females this isn't too big of a deal (except there is more competition for eligible college educated males) but to males it's a big deal:

"College matters because workers with bachelor's degrees earn salaries that average 62% higher than full-time employees with only high school diplomas. More important, in a global economy a bachelor's degree just gets you to the starting gate. The blue-collar jobs that once supported families are drying up, affecting males more than females. So if a focused effort isn't made to address boys' needs, as was done successfully a generation ago for girls, many boys' futures will be grim, and the nation's ability to compete will slide."

This gender gap isn't confined to Georgia State by any means. Most state colleges have gender gaps where women are 60% or more of the student body. So by all means start a football team to interest the guys. Too late for my kids, though, who both took a sniff at Georgia State but both said they wanted a football atmosphere and the relationships cheering for a team can build.

Anyway, in 2010, Go Panthers!

Spelling Is D-U-M

2008-09-07T17:39:00.003-05:00

Trying to use rules to learn to read and spell the English language is treacherous work--for kids and teachers. There is just really no good way to teach reading skills and therefore good spelling skills unless the child is immersed somewhat in books so that they can be exposed to all of the EXCEPTIONS to the rules (that they spend hours and hours practicing). Children absolutely rely on rules to spell and read:

"Children rely heavily on spelling-sound rules and those using specific associations. Spelling nonsense words correlated more highly with spelling regular words than with spelling exception words. Skill at rules was overgeneralized to exception words. Rule use in spelling correlated with rule use in reading."

The disconnect between reading/spelling rules in the English language is highlighted by the 102 year old guy from the American Council of Literacy. He's pretty hilarious:

Things They Don't Tell You (But Should)

2008-08-31T13:59:00.003-05:00

We're getting ready to get started with school (the day after Labor Day) and along with reading, writing, and math (and those infernal state tests that indicate whether your school makes Adequate Yearly Progess or not), there is always the hidden curriculum to deal with. Here's one excerpt from the Guide To Life:

Go to Virus Comix for the WHOLE story.

A Male Gender Classroom Success In Savannah

2008-08-25T19:44:00.010-05:00

Interesting gender news bouncing around out there this week--some of it good, some of it q little troubling. First, the Young Males Readiness Camp graduated 40 boys last Friday. For three weeks these kids were taught academics and social skills:

"In classrooms where men did the teaching, and a little picking, scratching and peculiarity didn't bother anybody, the boys were free to be boys while they worked on accelerated academics and social skills."

The interesting part to me, though, was how the Readiness Camp was taught:

"In classrooms where men did the teaching, and a little picking, scratching and peculiarity didn't bother anybody, the boys were free to be boys while they worked on accelerated academics and social skills."

Men doing the teaching is what is important here. There seems to be a burgeoning stack of research that supports gender-same classrooms--including the teacher. Some highlights of the most recent research:

--Having a female teacher instead of a male teacher raised the achievement of girls and lowered that of boys in science, social studies and English.

--With a female teacher, boys were more likely to be seen as disruptive. Girls were less likely to be considered inattentive or disorderly.

--In a class taught by a man, girls were more likely to say the subject was not useful for their future. They were less likely to look forward to the class or to ask questions.

This research, when coupled with the demographics of teaching, does not bode well for our boys on a large scale. Across the United States, there are about half a million PreK and Kindergarten teachers and 3.1 million elementary and middle school teachers. Here's the gender breakdown:

PreK/Kindergarten--98% Female
Elementary/Middle School--79% Female

At my school, the percentage is even greater--92% Female. 90% if I count myself. Those percentages are fairly standard across the district. What does it mean? It means more resources should be earmarked for an enlarged Young Males Readiness Camp during the summer months. Maybe more same-gender classes during the regular school year. Really, there is no shortage of young males who would love an opportunity to be educational guinea pigs--what else do they have to lose? Unfortunately, there is a dearth of male teachers--not just in the system, but nationwide.

Heck, pay me an administrators' salary and I'll go back in the classroom.

Teachers Who Pack

2008-08-18T18:06:00.004-05:00

I don't mean packing boxes at the end of the year either. I mean firearms in schools. In Harrold, Texas, teachers will be allowed to carry:

"Trustees at the Harrold Independent School District approved a district policy change last October so employees can carry concealed firearms to deter and protect against school shootings, provided the gun-toting teachers follow certain requirements."

Seems like a big deal until you look and see that Harrold, Texas has less than 300 people in it with a 2 person per square mile density. In other words, a teacher in Harrold could just about spin around until they were dizzy, empty their six-shooter into the air at random and still not be likely to even hit a house, much less a bad guy. The superintendent is not impressed with all of those soft, defenseless elementary schools out there either:

"When the federal government started making schools gun-free zones, that's when all of these shootings started. Why would you put it out there that a group of people can't defend themselves? That's like saying 'sic 'em' to a dog."

The super has 50 staff and 110 students. That's a pretty good student to teacher ratio there, pardna--or a pretty good sized 3rd grade at one elementary school around these parts. I think I'm against guns in schools because its pretty likely I would want to use one if I had it and if my staff were armed, it might be hard for me to make someone the United Way rep against their will.

Binaural Beat Baloney?

2008-08-12T19:07:00.003-05:00

I posted earlier about Australian researchers finding that certain teens that display certain psychological traits listen to certain types of music (watch the wearing of black and the goth/heavy metal stuff!) Now, Kim Komando, (the technology writer for USA Today and AM radio talk-show host) says the internet is capable of delivering digital drugs to kids--with binaural beats:

"For binaural beats to work, you must use headphones. Different sounds are played in each ear. The sounds combine in your brain to create a new frequency. This frequency corresponds to brain wave frequencies. There are different brain wave frequencies. These frequencies are related to different states like relaxation and alertness. Digital drugs supposedly synchronize your brain waves with the sound. Hence, they allegedly alter your mental state."

Supposedly there are tracks or "doses" that can be downloaded that mimic marijuana, cocaine, ecstasy, heroin, and LSD. I looked for one that replicated Jose Cuervo, but couldn't find one, which means they aren't trolling for adults with this stuff. Here's a sample of binaural beat music--just don't drive or operate heavy machinery after listening:

Hot For Teacher

2008-08-08T16:47:00.003-05:00

I remember back in the day (when MTV actually played videos) one of my education professors being outraged and indignant about this Van Halen video. I argued that it was fairly accurate as it relates to how boys see their teachers sometimes. She was not amused.

Don't miss the awesome Eddie Van Halen solo on top of the tables in the library. (The video is #30 on Nerve's 50 Sexiest Videos of All Time).

Children Exposed To Domestic Violence Affect Other Kids In Their Class

2008-08-08T09:48:00.004-05:00

As school gets ready to begin again, I'm ready to crank up more school-related posts. It helps me get in the proper frame of mind for the new year (and it helps to clear the vacation cobwebs).

Last year, we had several serious child abuse cases that seemed to have an impact on not only the student involved, but siblings, teachers, and classmates (and administration as the processes played themselves out). Here in Chatham County, 63.79% of all abuse cases (849) reported to the Chatham County Department of Family and Children Services (DFCS) were for school-aged children. This represents about 4% of all the students registered in the Chatham County public schools. (That's not to say that some of the DFCS referrals weren't from private school children). All of these kids are sitting in classrooms in our schools. And their experiences impact for more people than just themselves and their families:

"We find that children from troubled families significantly decrease their peers’ reading and math test scores and significantly increase misbehavior of others in the classroom."

Some researchers say that between 10%-20% of children are exposed to intimate partner violence and are thus manifest negative effects. So looking at Chatham County DFCS numbers for school-aged children (ages 4-18), they seem to be on the low end. Of course that is only what is reported by DFCS and what cases they deem necessary to investigate. There is probably a lot of silent suffering going on out there that school employees and medical professionals never get wind of--so there are probably close to 100 more kids (using a 15% number) out there who suffered abuse but were not reported to DFCS.

The research suggests that for every abused student in a classroom of 20 kids, test scores will decrease by 2 percentage points (on norm-referenced tests such as the ITBS, not the proficiency percentages for state tests like the GA CRCT), and disciplinary referrals increase by 16%--for the entire class. Using the broad estimates of researchers, that means that for every classroom of 20, there is likely to be 1-2 students who are abused which then affects the performance of the rest.

This isn't anything new. Every teacher knows this if they have dealt with abused children in the context of a classroom. Teachers are very aware of their students on a day-to-day basis (and in fact, generate the most referrals to DFCS), and do what they can to ameliorate the negative traits that are part of an abused child's coping mechanism. There are a few things that can be done at the school-level:

--Don't cluster these kids in one classroom.
--Start the Student Support Team process as soon as possible (a team that consists of teachers, parents, administrators, counselors, and other outside caregivers that come together to assist the student).
--Share information with families that offer suggestions and strategies that will decrease the possibility of family violence directed at children (particularly when disciplining).

Researchers Discover What Any Middle Schooler Knows: The Music Kids Listen To May Define Them

2008-08-05T15:49:00.002-05:00

From an Australian researcher comes the news that the music kids listen to may define them--psychologically.

"Doctors should ask their teenage patients what type of music they prefer to determine if they are at risk of developing a mental illness or committing suicide."

It's not really hard to establish who the goths, the metal-heads, the Britney wannabes, and the hip-hoppers are in a school situation--even with uniform dress codes. It comes through in how they talk, what they talk about, and even what stickers are plastered on their notebooks. If there is ever any doubt, just wait for an out-of-uniform day--it will all be on display. Here's what the study found about the types of music kids listened to:

POP: Conformists, overly responsible, role-conscious, struggling with sexuality or peer acceptance.

HEAVY METAL: Higher levels of suicidal ideation, depression, drug use, self-harm, shoplifting, vandalism, unprotected sex.

DANCE: Higher levels of drug use regardless of socio-economic background.

JAZZ/RHYTHM & BLUES: Introverted misfits, loners.

RAP: Higher levels of theft, violence, anger, street gang membership, drug use and misogyny.

Of course, the study didn't mention country music, which I would think has a bigger following in the US than in Australia (and no, I don't count Keith Urban as country--maybe as pop/country).

Teaching The Math--Sort Of

2008-06-25T18:24:00.003-05:00

Saw this blog rant on the Savannah Morning News website about the poor testing results for this year’s CRCT tests:

Here are the reasons, as WSAV reported, the Chatham County 8th graders did so poorly on their CRCT’s, and my suggestions:
New standards for math – The teachers all knew what they were. They should have dealt with it and taught it. Those teachers had a majority of students who failed should be fired and replaced.
Later start of the school year – Start the school year earlier or have longer school days.
Disconnect between the standards – What does that mean?
Books not aligned with each other – Why do books have to be “aligned with each other”? I’m assuming that the books our illustrious "Bored" of Education selected were supposed to be aligned with the standards while preparing the students with the foundation for some of the work they’ll be facing the following year. If they can't do that relatively simple tasl, get rid of them.
Book not aligned with the test – Why weren’t they? Determine who was responsible for selecting the text books and fire them. Replace them with competent individuals.
Then, the teacher goes on to explain her teaching methods:
She goes over what the possible answers on the test might be – Why is she going over what the answers might be? Teach them to do the math. Reviewing possible answers is a waste of time.
She then narrows it down to what the answer will be – Again, why is she doing this? TEACH THE MATH!
And the reason she does the above is “to make them make their own judgment when they’re faced with their next round of CRCT’s” – They don’t have to use their judgment if they know how and do THE MATH. TEACH THE MATH!
She also teaches them “what the common mistakes are”. – My comments for this dysfunctional teaching method are the same as above.
There you go "Bored" of Education! These are the all the stated reasons why you failed the students, their parents and our community and how to solve them… all free of charge! The next move is yours… make it count.

It’s tempting to say “Where to start?” with this mishmash of seemingly heartfelt (maybe even wholly deserved) but somewhat uninformed opinion, but rather than tee off in righteous indignation, I thought it might be more helpful, at least for me as I process the whole CRCT debacle for myself, to respond to the concerns raised.

New Standards For Math--Teachers should know what the new standards are—true. The teachers should know what the standards are and most of them do, but they know the new standards in the same way you know what the instructions to your DVD are. For example, any lame-brained idiot can set up a DVD player, usually by touch and feel and prior experience. But could you teach your children how to set up the DVD player using all of the correct vocabulary and knowing how to set the sub-woofer setting (or even what that is) and the differences between Super Gamma Selection and Digital Super Picture Selection? With half the manual written in Portugese? Take a look at the Sharp DVD manual, for example. It’s 55 pages of pure, unadulterated hell that boils down to, generally, take it out of the box without dropping it on your feet and plug it in. Don’t stick stuff that isn’t a DVD into the DVD slot. The Georgia Performance Standards for Math are the same way. It’s not just doing the math anymore. It’s applying the math into all kinds of word problems, charts and graph interpreting, and interpolating numbers into all manner of situations that are beyond the mere solving of an equation ( which equates to what is properly termed in eduspeak as rigor). Take a look at the GA DOE comparison between the old math standards at 8th grade (QCC) and the new math standards at 8th grade (GPS):

--What used to be seperate courses in Algebra I, Algebra II, Geometery, Statistics, etc. are now interwoven throughout the 6th, 7th, and 8th grades.

--You used to have to qualify to take some of these courses by showing aptitude for the subject. Now, everyone receives it in their regular math progression. This is bound to create lower scores for students who aren’t ready.

The implication stated above, that the teachers knew about the standard change, so they should have dealt with is a facile rendering of the set of complex interactions between curricula and teacher and then from teacher to student. There is no doubt that teachers will re-tool with the new standards and adjust their teaching and more importantly their pacing to meet the needs of what the new test requires. Believe me, most teachers only have to get their faces blown off once, before adapting and finding the best ways to teach kids. It’s the difference between telling kids to take the DVD out of the box and plugging it in and teaching them the entire manual plus basic lessons in Portugese.

I don’t think you will have to worry about firing and replacing these teachers though. Teachers can tell when something is futile—they are leaving on their own. Most teachers are aware of a non-supportive and relatively clueless public—those are just the conditions of the profession—but they aren’t used to their own state department of education monkeying around with a curriculum during a time of high stakes NCLB testing that lead directly to decreased scores on the CRCT.

Later start to the school year—Most school districts started in August. The state set its 07/08 CRCT testing window (April 12-May 5) to coincide with this start date. Chatham County opted for a later start date and received a concession to test later (April 29-May 9). Fulton County is scheduled to start Aug. 11 for the 08/09 school year. This is a full 3 weeks before Chatham County. Fulton County is scheduled to take the CRCT from April 16-April 23. Assuming Chatham County has a similar testing date to 07/08, testing would begin April 28. This is only 3 school days after Fulton County finishes their testing. So, already, Chatham has effectively lost about 2 weeks of instruction in comparison to other districts by starting after Labor Day. I’m sure this date will be adjusted in the future as even Cathy Cox, the state superintendent, is lobbying for later start dates.

Disconnect between the standards—What does this mean? It means that what is tested and how it is tested is not necessarily what is taught and how it is taught and vice versa. One GPS standard for 8th grade math is this:

M8A1. Students will use algebra to represent, analyze, and solve problems.
a. Represent a given situation using algebraic expressions or equations in one
variable.
b. Simplify and evaluate algebraic expressions.
c. Solve algebraic equations in one variable, including equations involving
absolute values.
d. Solve equations involving several variables for one variable in terms of the others.
e. Interpret solutions in problem contexts.

So how is that to be tested exactly? What is a fair question that would capture whether or not a student grasped these concepts? What would Do The Math mean, exactly, in this context? Here is an example of an 8th Grade CRCT math question covering this standard:

The following system of equations represents the profit margin of two major companies when x represents sales and y represents discounts to clients.

3x-4y=12
x-2y=2

Which of the following is the best approach to solving this system of equations?

__Multiply the expression x-2y by 3 and add the first equation to the second equation.
__Substitute the expression 2 + 2y of x in the first equation of the system.
__Add the first equation to the second equation.
__Substitute the expression x-2y for x in the first equation of the system.

So, in doing the math, what is the correct answer? I’m not telling. Do the math yourself. If you can’t—blame your teacher. They didn’t teach you the new standards.

Textbooks—Textbook companies write their textbooks on national standards which may or may not match individual state standards. Textbook companies tend to write their books based on the states curricula that have the most population and therefore would buy the most books (California, Texas, New York). So when Georgia selects a textbook, it selects the one that is CLOSEST to what Georgia standards are—which changed this year, so yeah, there was some disconnect. See what I mean by the state not making it easy on teachers and students? Doesn’t matter though, fire all of them too, I guess.

None of the above, including the SMN rant, is about the social part of school—the part that brings so much variability to delivering a curriculum effectively and efficiently. Teaching the new math standards to the brightest children is hard enough without going on about kids in poverty (or as they say in eduspeak—under resourced learners) kids that are ill-prepared and ill-tempered, kids from blown apart families, kids with special needs, etc. But add those issues on top of just the plain vanilla issues of a new curriculum introduced during high stakes NCLB time and you can see why State Superintendent Cathy Cox is making appearances in a Kevlar vest these days.

The blog poster is almost correct. Teach the math, at the right time, at the right pace, to students who are ready, then test them correctly on the same math that was taught--and do it better every single year so that by the year 2014, every child in the nation is passing their state tests at the 100% rate. Or be considered a failure and be fired.

Good luck with that.

Architecture Of Authority

2008-06-05T20:25:00.004-05:00

Richard Ross takes pictures of places that exert control on the individual through its architecture:

"Holding cells, interrogation rooms, isolation units -- the gamut runs to a chilling extreme in the image of a lethal injection chamber at Angola State Penitentiary. Ross' crisp, cool manner amplifies the rigidity and order of these places, their pervasive aura of control. Nothing is left to chance; there are no cracks to fall through."

So it was interesting to me to see this picture of the circle in a Montessori classroom included in this collection:

Besides providing the blueprint for where children should sit for morning circle time, the circle can be walked as an activity in relaxation and reflection for young students. In Montessori, its true that nothing much is left to chance in a proper Montessori environment--but pervasive aura of control? Maybe in a sneaky, kind of way. Maybe.

Is Brain-Based Education A Fad?

2008-05-20T21:04:00.003-05:00

A pretty good dissection for what might be wrong with some of the brain-based education information going around. Teaching colleges, school systems, schools, administrators, and teachers are sometimes guilty of finding one cognitive process that everybody knows is true (like hungry kids having lower glucose levels that make it hard to concentrate and learn) and making it a brain-based strategy. Interesting processes, but not really a strategy. The author also maintains that most brain-based strategies are just plain wrong:

Two Good Laws For School Choice In Georgia: Will Savannah Ignore Them?

2008-05-18T15:46:00.007-05:00

Two laws signed this week that will give GA students more choice (well, maybe). Will Savannah take advantage?

1. $50 million Corporate and Individual Scholarship Tax Credit Program--

"The new law allows corporations to receive a 100 percent tax credit for donations—up to 75 percent of their total state tax liability—to organizations that grant scholarships to children who want to attend private schools. Individuals can also donate up to $1,000 per person (or $2,500 per married couple) to these organizations and receive a 100 percent tax credit for these contributions. Student scholarship organizations must spend at least 90 percent of donations on scholarships."

Here's my list of companies who could really help Savannah kids by donating to organizations that would disperse scholarships for inner-city kids to attend different schools. Would private school Savannah support this? Would public school Savannah? Remember, this is about kids, not the adults.

--Memorial Health
--Wal-Mart
--Kroger
--Gulfstream
--International Paper
--Union Pacific
--(ahem) Savannah College of Art & Design

2. Expanded Charter School Law--

"A new law signed last week creates a statewide commission that can approve a petition for a charter school even if the local school board has rejected it. Charter schools are funded with taxpayer money but operate independently and set their own goals for meeting federal No Child Left Behind standards. The schools are run by groups of parents, business leaders or community members."

Supporting an expanded charter law might seem anathema to a public school guy, but really, its within the power of the local BOE to create schools that meet the needs of their community. Oglethorpe Academy is a hugely successful school in Savannah. So is Charles Ellis Montessori Academy (which used to be a charter school before the local BOE allowed the middle school portion without the charter). The new Coastal Empire Montessori school will open in the fall. Students achieve best when there is a heightened connection between home and school--and charter schools (like the KIPP Academy) or schools that behave like charters under BOE auspices (like Woodville-Tompkins) seem to give students the most interconnectedness that help them to thrive.

The Savannah community would benefit from taking advantage of these two laws. To do nothing is a tacit agreement that the status quo is worth defending for either insidious reasons or a deficit of imagination.

Even A Blind Squirrel Finds A Nut Once In Awhile

2008-05-14T20:02:00.003-05:00

Here's Marion Barry, former crackhead mayor of Washington, D.C., and current D.C. Council member on his support of school choice:

"To fix our schools, we have a responsibility not just to talk but to act. That's why I'm joining those firmly in favor of the package of federal money for D.C. schools that Mayor Fenty proposed and that President Bush included in his budget. If Congress approves this package, the District will get $74 million in fiscal 2009 for our public schools, public charter schools and scholarships, so that our lowest-income residents can attend private schools that their parents choose. I want Congress to know that the District's leaders support this package."

Down in New Orleans, where not much of anything of the old school system was left standing after Hurricane Katrina ravaged the area, public-run charters are trying to beat the odds:

"Schools with names that reflect the largely African-American student body (Akili Academy, Sojourner Truth Academy) are now competing with one another for students, clamoring for recruits by way of signs on the grassy medians of this city’s broad avenues. Veteran school principals, used to the slumbering ways of the old system, are removed quickly if they do not measure up."

Sometimes I wonder about Savannah and if it would be ready for school choice on a scale as massive as what's going on in D.C. and New Orleans. There's a massive redistricting coming up in a few years when the new schools springing up from ESPLOST come on line. Someone has to populate them. There will be upheaval and kids moving schools. Might that be the time to try something bold?

Frog Pond: Rated NC-17

2008-05-07T18:51:00.002-05:00

There's a small pond right outside of my office window that the middle schoolers dug out a couple of years ago as part of a science project. This morning, I believe, was the first day of the annual springtime Frog Bacchanalia--a kind of Woodstock/Studio 54 experience for the amphibious set.

Easily, there must have been 50 frogs in a space no bigger than a child's wading pool. Half of them were bellowing:

"I need a froggette I need her NOW. I need a slimy, nasty froggette, to take her back to my pad. I need her NOW."

It sounded like sandbar camping on the Ohoopee River, where the frogs and night noises are almost deafening. Or City Market on a Saturday night. Kids and their parents started arriving. And stopping. And watching.

There were frogs doing the slimy--everywhere. On the lilypads. On the rock sides of the ponds. Even on the back of the lone turtle that lives there. These were HORNY frogs, not horned toads.

Doing traffic duty out front, I could hear the questions, the exclamations, the surprise--and that was just from the parents. The children didn't want to go in and I didn't blame them. They wanted to know what was going on. Why was that froggy trying to push that other froggy's head under water? Are they making babies, mommy? This was better than HBO, maybe even better than Cinemax. It wasn't quite like "forest kindergartens" where the kids march off into the woods to interact with the natural world, but it was pretty cool for mid-town Ardsley Park.

Kids need to know stuff like this. They need to be able to ask questions about what is happening and what they are seeing. About frogs, I mean.

Facts Are Better Than Myths For Parents Of Special Ed Kids

2008-04-21T19:49:00.005-05:00

There was an article in the Savannah Morning News the other day about how parents of disabled kids can fight for their rights. As far as being helpful though, it was long on vague supposition, anecdotes, and myths and fairly short on actual helpful information for parents with disabled kids.

Myth #1: Schools are overwhelmed. Anne Hart writes:

"Often they are met with utmost resistance from schools, which are either overwhelmed with special education requests or simply not geared to handle children with special needs."

Schools are set up to accomodate most any child who walks through the door. Autistic child? Wheelchair bound child? The appropriate services will be scheduled in. A bus load of kids with specific learning disabilities moves in from out of state? No problem, more special education teachers will be assigned to the site. All schools in Chatham County implement the inclusion model for students identified with special needs. This is more than not being geared to handle children with special needs--its like having a $7,000 Dura Ace 10 Speed.

Myth #2: The school system works against parents. A Special Education Advocate (this usually is a fancy name for LAWYER) is quoted:

"Or the system stalls and blocks the parents' efforts, leaving parents helpless and hopeless."

The federal government and the state of Georgia generally frown on a pell-mell rush to special education identification and there are sound reasons for this. Making sure the child is evaluated and identified correctly, set up on an Individual Education Plan and provided with adequate resources is a time consuming task. It is so important that there is a 94 page document that expresses EXACTLY how it should be done. It is doubtful that most people could even read this document in the time it takes to implement it, but for the purposes of dispelling the myth that schools drag their feet, pay close attention to pp. 35-38.

Myth #3: Schools deny parents their rights. Again, to quote the Special Education Advocate (in a low, conspiratorial tone, I would imagine):

"So many rights, even the most basic, are abused regularly. Something as simple as requesting a child's educational records can become a fight. Requests for an evaluation of a child are equally as refuted. School administrators rarely comply with the 60-day deadline; often try to talk parents out of having a child evaluated; or refuse to evaluate a child citing the need to attempt certain interventions first."

This would be a good example, if your kid was in a language arts class, of sheer hyperbole. Basic rights are abused regularly? Like the stuff in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights put out by the UN in 1948? I know school lunches can be crappy sometimes but I wouldn't necessarily consider that an abuse of human rights. (Except on Leftover Fridays--that might count). Administrators that refuse to evaluate a child because a parent walks in and says test my child are merely following the law. All students must travel through what is called the Response To Intervention process. This process is designed to SLOW down the headlong rush into special education which historically has lead to misrepresentation of students into special education. Using the RTI model (here are excellent resources that go more in to detail about RTI), schools MUST consider data that the child was provided appropriate instruction in regular classroom settings, delivered by qualified personnel and data-based documentation of repeated formal assessments of achievement at reasonable intervals that was provided to the parents. That's just a small part of determining the success or lack of success of any particular student. There are 3 Tiers to travel through, including the Student Support Team process, before the school can arrive at a special education determination. All of this could take up to 3 months. Maybe longer. Usually longer if the accomodations that the teacher makes in the classroom have any success at all with the student. It is the requirements of the law that slows the process down to protect the interests of all parties--not vile and vengeful administrators and schools denying parents and kids their basic human rights.

I would suggest attending an informational class if you are the parent of a child with disabilities. Just be careful with who is putting it on. Sometimes they are more interested in stories about the bogeyman than they are with actual facts.

Running Away: Does The City Of Savannah Help?

2008-04-18T18:14:00.003-05:00

I talked to a troubled young man the other day after he told his teacher that he was going to run away. I asked him what he was going to do. He said he'd been planning to run away for 3 years and had some people that would help him.

"Like who," I asked.

"People," he said.

I didn't ask him why he wanted to run away. I knew why already. DFCS knew why too. The "people" on the street would certainly know why and would be ready to fill in the gap, that's how the "people" operate to win the minds and hearts of young men and women with tragic home lives.

I asked about clothes, shelter during stormy weather, and headaches. I asked him about food. He said his people had already figured that out.

"What do you mean," I asked?

He said, "In the summer, you can go to any park and get something to eat. They don't ask you nuthin. Everyone does it."

I told him I didn't think his people were going to take care of him without him having to give something back. I asked if he was ready for that. He said he wouldn't do anything wrong or against the law and if they tried to make him, he would just leave. I told him, generally, that's not how it works--you can't just leave after you've benefited from your people's generosity.

He said, "Yeah," and looked away, his eyes down.

I told him he'd last two days max on the street--without help. I told him to think hard about what he was thinking about doing. He nodded.

The City of Savannah serves 270,000 free meals during the summer months to kids 18 and younger. The Department of Agriculture runs this program at more than 4,000 places (Savannah counting as one) across the US, serving over 130 million meals every summer. Over 2.1 million children get served with 25% of those being older children. Amazingly, the Dept. of Ag wants more participation as only a fraction of those eligible avail themselves of the free meals. Of the most successful strategies used to publicize the program, outreach to families through posters, signs, and flyers was listed as the number one method. Word of mouth strategies finished a distant eighth in the survey. Not on the street though. Word of mouth seems to be the #1 source of information for impressionable young men who are thinking, considering, weighing out, whether or not to run away and be with the "people".

I don't think there is anything wrong with the summer lunch program. Working families, poor families, and families under stress need meals for their kids and the city's program can provide at least one meal and maybe the only meal for some kids during the day. In this one case though, the city's generosity is helping at least one troubled young man make up his mind to maybe go it on his own.

At least until his "people" get ahold of him.

Why Not A Boarding School In Savannah?

2008-04-14T20:31:00.005-05:00

Mayor Johnson outlined several strategies to bolster Savannah's families at a recent town hall meeting:

--Parent University's Strong Families Program. This 12-month pilot program will provide training in conflict resolution, communication skills and disciplinary methods for 100 parents or caregivers of at-risk youngsters. Parents will be referred to the program through the juvenile courts and the county's schools.

--Savannah Faith Coalition for Youth and Families Inc.'s Mentoring Program. This 12-month pilot program will link 75 youngsters with mentors to improve school attendance and performance. Among its goals are zero arrests for its participants. Referrals will come from the school system and the juvenile justice system.

--The Faith Coalition's StreetReach program. This initiative will contact youngsters and young adults on Savannah's streets, targeting 10 high-crime areas. A diverse group of up to 40 workers, including ex-offenders, will refer the young people to community programs such as Step Up Construction Training and Youth Build.

--A two-day job expo for young people. The expo, a project that grew from the suggestions of 180 students who attended a Youth Summit last month, will expose students to part-time job opportunities and teach them to balance school and work.

All of these strategies are good, really good--especially if the court system and school system are involved in referring parents to the help they need and can use. But I've been in this business long enough to know (and from Mayor Johnson's obvious frustration, he knows it too), that not all so-called parents or families want the city, county, or state's help with what's going on in their homes. Not every busted up family is busted up from a rotten set of circumstances though. Sometimes families are the way they are by choices that are made by adults to break or circumvent the law. Contempt for the law and disrespect for school authorities is inculcated EARLY in some families and the Parent University Strong Families Program is too late for this bunch.

In an editorial about Mayor Johnson's town hall meeting, the Savannah Morning News stomped around waving their hands like an old crotchety guy on his front porch hollering at the neighborhood kids for running through his sprinkler:

"It's not the government's job to provide a loving home life. It's not the school system's job, either. It's the job of the adults who bring children into the world. If they are unwilling to handle the responsibility of parenthood, then they should do themselves and the next generation a favor and don't conceive a child."

The editorial goes on to say to identify at-risk children early (agreed) and involve the courts to force parents to be parents. Coercing parents to raise their children in a way that will lead to greatest success in this society might work if that successful culture is understood and embraced by the recalcitrant parent. What if they oppose that culture? What if they actively work against the culture of greatest societal success? What then?

The SMN editorial is correct, I think, in identifying the most at-risk children early. That part is very doable. But why stop at a referral? Why not have the city and the school system work together to create a boarding school that will serve the needs of the city's kids most likely to disappear forever onto the streets? In Chicago, its already going to happen in 2009. The school chief in Chicago says:

"Some children should not go home at night; some of them we need 24-7. We want to serve children who are really not getting enough structure at home. There's a certain point where dad is in jail or has disappeared and mom is on crack ... where there isn't a stable grandmother, that child is being raised by the streets."

Doesn't that sound familiar? Maybe not on such a grand scale as Chicago, but drive through some of Savannah's neighborhoods. You don't even have to drive through at night to feel endangered by gangs of young people who could flare into something dangerous in a second. How many of those kids in the streets at any time of the day or night are going to end up robbing someone, doing drugs, selling drugs, or killing someone?

A boarding school in Savannah wouldn't have to be one of those Hollywood juvenile reform places where characters like Sean Penn always started off every one of their movies. For over 150 years now, private boarding schools have been the incubators for developing the nation's upper class. Savannah's boarding school could emphasize team sports as a way to experience and extend the controls of institutions (because aren't they going to be controlled in the Big House sooner than later, anyway?) provide coaching opportunities for the the faculty to act as surrogate parents and mold manly character, and help natural leaders emerge in positive ways that will lead to higher education (rather than showing leadership by being able to run a block or a corner for the local gang). Why not a boarding school that prepares Savannah's lost kids for something maybe a little more than prison?

The choices are pretty narrow now. Build more prisons or...what? What exactly is there to lose in trying--except another generation of Savannah's most needy kids?

Gaylord's Opryland Hotel In Nashville: Suites, Jungles, and Snapping Turtles

2008-04-06T15:21:00.018-05:00

The annual principal's conference was held in Nashville this year at Gaylord's Opryland Hotel/Complex/Biodome/Place To Start A New Civilization In Case Of Zombie Holocaust. A few notes and observations of this curious experience:

--By the time I got to the registration desk at Gaylord's I had waited in line at 6 in the morning to clear security in Savannah (usually this is uneventful, except this time the lady directly in front of me burst a BOIL on her foot taking her sandal off--I threw my $3.75 yogurt cup away), waited in line to board the plane, waited in a line in Atlanta to board the connecting flight to Nashville, waited in line for my luggage (note to self--put something identifiable on your luggage so I don't end up fighting over the same cheapy bag with ten other guys), waited in line at the Gaylord's Opryland kiosk by the luggage claim area, waited in line to board the shuttle to Gaylord's Opryland in a driving 55 degree rainstorm, and waited in line upon arrival at Opryland for the driver to pull my luggage out from the shuttle's belly. So when I reached the registration area and the line was set up like Mr. Toad's Wild Ride at Disneyworld--I could feel myself turning slightly murderous. But I think the hotel staff is ready for such unwelcome feelings and deal with them with an elan and sprightliness that makes it impossible to maintain the feeling of wanting to yank the Elvis replica guitar off the wall and drive it again and again into someone's skull.

--Every guest to Gaylord's receives a MAP to their room. It looks like the one from Six Flags. The impossibly peppy registration girl said a bellman (bell person?) would be glad to escort me. Hell, if I did that, I thought, I may as well wear a Minnie Pearl hat for the rest of the weekend. I decided to take my chances. The worst that could happen would be to stumble into a bar or six on the way, right?

--Here's the view from the hotel lobby. My room is on the top right from the waterfall. Yes, a waterfall:

--Most people who walk from the hotel registration desk through the Cascades do so with their mouth agape. I did. One second you are doing the perfunctory business of letting the smiling desk girl run your credit card and nodding stupidly as she says to get to the elevators go over the bridge and take a left at the waterfall and the next you walk into The Lord of The Rings set:

--I was only really half-listening to the registration girl asking me if I minded being upgraded to a suite instead of a room because something or another (maybe a hobbit got stuck in the air duct in my other room?) but the word UPGRADE usually denotes more for less. I realized once I put my stuff down in the suite that what she was saying to me was that their was a pull-out sofa bed. I have lived, sometimes for years, in smaller apartments than the suite at Gaylord's:

--During my stay, I only ate 2 meals inside Gaylord's. But I had to learn that the hard way. After settling in, I went looking for sustenance. I wandered through the benevolent jungle (nothing dangerous here--no gaboon vipers drooping down to launch a strike into an exposed neck, no bat-sized mosquitoes, no brownie-pan sized bird-eating spiders, no jaguars peering out from behind the foliage, waiting for the weak one in the pack heading to Haagen-Daas to stumble--but I'm quite sure they could live fairly comfortably inside Gaylord's, carrying off a plump tourist child every 4-6 days). I found, after walking through the Garden Walk area, over a suspension bridge, what I thought to be one of those miraculous oasis' in the middle of the jungle--a Jack Daniel's Saloon:

--With an audible yee-hah, I bellied up to the bar and orderd the local on-draft delicacy, Yazoo, and a Jack Daniels burger platter. I ordered another Yazoo and wiped my lips, pretty darned happy to be eating a burger and drinking draft beer in the middle of a jungle. Then the check came and I knew my days at the oasis-like watering holes tucked away in the lushness were at an end ($31). I think the folks at Gaylord's realize that they have you trapped and hope that you will be so insensate after being dosed with multiple viewings of tropical rain forest beauty and the sounds of water running, streaming, and falling that you will happily fork over your Visa card to eat. I think the management at Gaylord's counts on no one being that seriously cheap (I am) to walk the good 3/4 mile across the outside lawns, through the employee parking lot and bus stop (I did), to eat anywhere else but at their cleverly researched money-pits (fancy steakhouse, fancy italian place, sushi bar, an Irish pub, a sports bar, a seafood restaurant, Jack Daniel's Saloon, etc.)

--I made that walk more than several times and found, just across the street from Gaylord's Opryland, attractions and restaurants I could relate better to--Cooter's Dukes of Hazzard Museum, Willie Nelson's Museum Showcase (nestled between a discount tobacco shop and the liquor store--which discovery of emitted another heartfelt yee-hah), and the Music Valley Wax Museum of the Stars:

--On one of my trips back and forth, it was pouring rain and so I sought refuge under the tin roof of the employee's bus stop. I stood there waiting, shifting around, when I accidentally kicked a small stone. Except it wasn't a stone. It was a little baby snapping turtle (or so it looked to me--any turtle being a snapping turtle in my book). An idea took shape and I picked up the turtle and put it in my pocket. I don't usually suscribe to eco-terrorism, but it was cold out, this guy wasn't going to make it roaming around 12 square miles of freezing parking lot, and I knew of a warm jungle just a couple of hundred yards away. Once back inside Opryland, I sat inside the Cascades, on a bench by the waterfall, and let the little snapper go under some fragrant hibiscus-like plant. It occurred to me later, sitting at the Wild Horse Saloon in downtown Nashville, that there aren't even any bugs at Opryland--what was Snapper going to eat? I rationalized that he would at least starve in a snapping turtle's version of heaven instead of being smooshed in the parking lot--and maybe, just maybe, if he snagged enough leftover sushi from Wasabi's, he could make it and thrive. I hope so. Something needs to take a tourist child down at Opryland.

Tales From Romana Riley Elementary, Part I

2008-03-06T20:14:00.005-05:00

Saw this one sentence in a Savannah Morning News story about school board actions the other day:

"The Savannah College of Art and Design is offering $1.5 million for the vacant Romana Riley School building at 1108 East Anderson. The board of education gave staff unanimous approval to go ahead with the sale Wednesday."

I taught my first two years in Savannah at Romana Riley Elementary School located on the corner of Waters Ave. and Anderson St. beginning in 1986. I taught 3rd grade. To be more accurate, the 3rd grade at Romana Riley Elementary taught me.

This was my classroom, overlooking Anderson Street. My classroom was on the 2nd floor:

There was no air conditioning back then, so I would throw open all of the windows on all three sides as my first act of every day. I was sweaty and gross, generally, by 9:00 every morning. Some days the pigeons that skittered around on the window ledges wouldn't bother flying around the cornices and would just wing there way through one of my spelling tests dropping bird-doo napalm bombs. The only thing that moved the pigeons off of the ledges was the CAT bus that stopped right below my windows at least three times a day, filling the room with noxious diesel fumes. We would try to do reading groups once we all came to. One time a drunk guy tried to get on the bus and the CAT driver got in a fight with him right there on the sidewalk. I clapped (just like the kids) when the bus driver knocked the guy down, got back on his bus, and drove off. Except the drunk guy threw up on the sidewalk and before we could slam all the windows down and get the custodian to hose off the sidewalk, our room was filled with fumes infinitely worse than anything CAT could produce.

I was dumber than a sack of hair back then. I'm embarrassed to even remember how dumb I was. But, the true blessing of being dumb, is not knowing how dumb you really are. I didn't know better in doing most of the dumb things I did in my first years of teaching. I would have fired me if I was my principal. But I was a guy, in elementary education, and I was rarer than a unicorn with a golden horn.

The first time I moved Kareem out of line for tormenting a girl in front of him, he shouted in my face, called me a cracker and told me he was going to get his momma to sue me. This upset me until I realized he was 8 years old and if he and his momma were going to take my job, it would be after I burnt their house down and every person's house they were related to. Once I realized that, I felt better. Really? I hosed him in one on one basketball the next day on a nerf hoop I had nailed to the telephone pole out back. I even dunked on him and God, that was sweet--and I didn't care that it was only about a 7 ft. goal. He liked my low post moves and pronounced me unstoppable. I was Shaq Diesel a good 5 years before the real Shaq ever suited up for LSU. Kareem warmed to me and he turned out to be on my side the whole year--helping to enforce rules on the others so I wouldn't take recess time. Unfortunately, Kareem served 12 years for manslaughter--always the enforcer, I guess:

Stay tuned for Tales From Romana Riley, Part II: Life Sentences & The NFL

Food Fight History Lesson

2008-03-05T20:56:00.003-05:00

Once the foods are matched up to countries (there's a cheat sheet here), world history from World War II on is pretty tasty. The USA is burger and fries, just so you know who's kicking ass with the dill pickles:

If the film doesn't work, go to the site to see it. It's worth it.

Spank Me, Baby!

2008-03-03T21:23:00.004-05:00

This just out--being spanked as a child makes you want to be spanked as an adult:

"The core idea of this study is that being spanked by loving parents confuses love with violence, which increases the probability that violence will be part of making love."

The study found that 75 percent of students who had been spanked a lot by their parents were sexually aroused by masochistic sex. In contrast, 40 percent of students who had never been spanked were interested in masochistic sex.

Uh, we teach, even in elementary school, that correlation does not equal causation. Plus, maybe the kids getting spanked were a little deviant to begin with--kids who behave don't get spanked as much or as often, right?

I'm Just A Neurotypical Guy

2008-03-03T18:30:00.005-05:00

I'm a neurotypical. Meaning I have a standard issue brain that's not exceptional in anyway as far as perceiving my world goes. I draw stick figures, my only decent singing is to Garth Brooks songs, and I can't remember a grocery list my wife phones me with beyond 3 items. Certainly not like some auties or aspies (autistics and Asperger's):

"People with autism spectrum disorder have a number of strengths: a higher prevalence of perfect pitch, enhanced ability with 3-D drawing and pattern recognition, more accurate graphic recall, and various superior memory skills."

Most autism research money that's up for grabs is to discover the causes of autism and reverse the manifestations. But there isn't a lot of money to research the "Difference Model" of autism--meaning these kids don't have something to be fixed but are just different. The prevailing view of autism is that "their condition is tragic, their brainpower lacking." (Mainly because the tests used to gauge intelligence for autistics relies heavily on language, social interaction, and cultural knowledge--the precise areas of extreme weakness for most autistics).

This Difference Model might be best shown by this video--In My Language. Don't tell this girl that thimerosal caused her autism (a strange bit of neurotypical weirdness from John McCain) or that she is less intelligent because she flaps her arms around and incessantly twists knobs:

She can no more not be autistic than I can be autistic. It might be time for neurotypicals to learn a new language.

Five Men In A Room: Savannah's Leaders Stepping Up

2008-02-28T21:06:00.006-05:00

The spiraling school violence in Savannah is dizzying to watch. The incidents seem to be everywhere--Johnson High School, Derenne Middle School, today, Coastal Middle School. The Savannah-Chatham BOE and superintendent held a news conference today expressing their outrage and their intent to crack down on discipline. Dr. Buck said:

"Violence against students and school personnel will not be tolerated at any level. ANY and I say again, ANY acts that relate to violence-bullying, drugs, weapons, gangs, and most especially, fighting, will be pursued at the highest level of sanction. For most of these offenses supporting the recommendation means expulsion! Expulsion means that no student will be allowed to stay in public schools and that includes our alternative schools."

The crackdown might work in the short-term, but only as long as there is the will to crack down on violence in the schools. And that will is political in nature. Last year, area schools expelled 479 students (9 elementary, 154 middle school, 316 high school), representing 2% of the entire student body of Chatham County. Naturally, the highest number of expulsions are neatly correlated with the schools in the highest poverty districts of Savannah. How could that be political? 90.6% of all students expelled last year were black.

The Statements of Agreement To Colloborate that Mayor Johnson and Step Up Savannah are waving around might be the only way for disparate groups to get on board with fighting poverty in Savannah, but the stated goal is to reduce poverty by the year 2010. Ummm, it's already 2008. Looking at the Step Up Savannah Povery Action Plan, that is driving the Mayor's most recent photo op, I noticed that one of the pillars of their policy agenda is "to develop an educated and skilled workforce". Of the 20 bulleted goals for this section, NOT ONE addresses the needs of students before they reach high school age. I know, I know, kids don't drop out in elementary school, they can't legally drive in middle school, they can't get jobs yet--so why would the mayor, the county commissioner, and the Chamber of Commerce care about that? I mean aren't they all cute and carry Hello Kitty lunchboxes to school?

Well, that's where it all starts. Most kindergarten teachers, (even PreK teachers) can tell fairly quickly which students are maladapted to social situations. From experience, the sooner we can get parents of students on our side and offer the interventions they may need to become better parents, the better the educational outcome is for students. Studies have shown that offering a prevention program of positive parenting with families with histories of anti-social behavior and living in poverty, increases the responsiveness of parents to school issues and they use more positive parenting practices. This tranlates into less juvenile delinquency. We have PreK program facilitators now that keep the Atlanta bureaucracy happy and they do a marvelous job doing what they can--but they need help.

Kids dropping out of school, while it may occur in high school, actually begins much earlier. One of the easiest predictors of future dropping out is the elementary attendance record--typical dropouts have already missed about 124 days of school by the time they reach 8th grade.

Mayor Johnson got over 90 public and private leaders to sign the agreements--but I would think only five men need to be brought together to get rapid-fire help to this community (and they wouldn't have to be men, except all men occupy the spots right now). These 5 guys need to be locked into a room with all of their separate agendas and WORK IT OUT (including finding the political will to follow through with tough remedies), instead of running parallel programs that often don't intersect:

Mayor Otis Johnson
Chatham County Commissioner, Pete Liakakis
SCMPD Chief Michael Berkow
Chamber of Commerce Exec. Director Bill Hubbard
Sav-Chatham BOE President Joe Buck

First of all, no matter what Mr. Hubbard says, getting immediate help to Savannah does not have to take a long time. Hell, according the plan, Step Up only has two years to get anything done anyway. The school system took a tough stance today against violence in schools. Mayor Johnson and Commissioner Pete Liakakis should be echoing their stance. The City of Savannah put up $50,000 to help pay a Project Director to move the Action Plan forward--how about chipping in and getting the public schools some cameras, NOW? Chief Berkow should be putting something out RIGHT NOW about how SCMPD will work hand in hand with Campus Police (instead of at arm's length) to track problem kids--wherever they are. Black kids are getting expelled at a rate of almost 3 per day. There are a lot of them, but there aren't that many that each constitutiency that these 5 men represent shouldn't know about them. Schools should be funneling names to law enforcement (and I mean early), law enforcement should be sharing names with the city/county and the myriad of social programs available, and SEDA should be busy pounding out brass rings for Savannah's citizens to reach for.

Ya'll can even use my conference room. Just let me know.

Charles Ellis Montessori Community Responds!

2008-02-23T08:46:00.004-05:00

In just a little over a week's time, the Charles Ellis Montessori Community raised $4,478.82 in donations for the two Ellis families directly impacted by the Dixie Crystals SugarRefinery blast!

While money doesn't bring loved one's back, it relieves pressure on families, and relieving pressure on families helps students to achieve in a school-setting:

"Economically distressed parents reported feeling less effective and capable in disciplinary interactions with their child and were observed to be less affectionate in parent–child interactions. In turn, less than optimal parenting predicted lower teacher ratings of children's positive social behavior and higher ratings of behavior problems."

Thanks to everyone who contributed to these families and especially to these children!

Presidents' Day Skunking

2008-02-18T09:02:00.004-05:00

So we get a federal holiday to celebrate two presidents' birthdays--George Washington and Abraham Lincoln--and they aren't even in the top 10 of most famous Americans?

In fact, not one president made the list of the Top 10 Most Famous Americans (as named by the generation that will take care of you and eventually run the country--high schoolers). Asked to name the most famous Americans in history, high school students put 20th-century black Americans in the top three slots. Here are the top 10, with the percentage who chose each:

1. Martin Luther King Jr.: 67%
2. Rosa Parks: 60%
3. Harriet Tubman: 44%
4. Susan B. Anthony: 34%
5.Benjamin Franklin: 29%
6. Amelia Earhart: 25%
7. Oprah Winfrey: 22%
8. Marilyn Monroe: 19%
9. Thomas Edison: 18%
10. Albert Einstein: 16%

Oprah Winfrey and Marilyn "I Slept With Both Kennedys" Monroe over George "Father Of Our Country" Washington and Thomas "I Wrote The Declaration of Independance" Jefferson?

Rosa Parks was courageous--but more than Teddy Roosevelt? Harriet Tubman ferried slaves to freedom--but Abraham Lincoln, FDR, and Ronald Reagan liberated whole countries.

The folks in charge of President's Day really need to hire a publicist and start buying some time on MTV and producing viral videos for YouTube. To get skunked on your own day is pitiful.

I Feel Crazy And Nothing

2008-02-16T08:46:00.002-05:00

Our counselor gave the opportunity for students from the class of a student who lost her father in the Dixie Crystal sugar refinery explosion to write about or draw how they felt. The explosion touched very close to home for many students:

"I feel lucky because my stepdad and my cousin work there."

"I feel sad because my friend's dad got burned in the sugar factory. That's why I feel sad."

"I feel sad beacuse I know somebody who did not die but they worked there. He was on lunch duty."

Students shared the predominant emotions of fear, anger, and sadness:

"I feel very sad and scared because lots of lives were lost."

"I'm scared, angry, and sad!"

"I feel really sad that the people died over there. Because it must be hard for the people's family to pass away all of a sudden. I feel really sorry for the people's family to get killed and injured for that one explosion."

"I feel sad because if it was someone I knew and loved I would be devastated! The reason I am feeling this way is because I am very close to my family and friends and if something happens to them like that I don't know what I would do."

It's important to give children the opportunity to express their grief--in writing, drawing, any kind of symbolic communication (music, art, etc.). The feelings are alive in them and can be overwhelming without an outlet. Certainly with as many families that were impacted in our small community (1 fatality, 1 in the Augusta Burn Center), there are many questions that children are asking themselves, asking their friends, their teachers, and asking their families.

Children are often very empathetic toward each other:

"I feel that I was lucky because none of my family worked there. I also feel sorry for ____ because I know how she feels. I lost my dad in 2005."

"I feel very bad and scared and it feels like it will happen again and your feeling can feel very bad and you might cry. But I'm sorry for _____."

Above a picture of students gathered around a table, watching a television with a live broadcast of the disaster playing, hugging the student who lost her dad, this student wrote:

"I think it was kind of creepy because they did not see that coming. And it just came so fast. I was so scared."

Just as there will be students who will talk and draw and hug and cry--there will be students who show no emotion or don't understand how they feel:

"I don't know how I feel."

The Charles Ellis Montessori Academy community is collecting donations for the two students impacted most at our school. We will be collecting through Friday, February 22. All donations will be split between the two families--one family is on the road constantly back and forth to Augusta and could use assistance with gas, food, and lodging and the other family, even through the grieving process, is still trying to provide for birthdays and Valentine's Day for their family.

If you would like to donate to these two families, you can send a check to: (Or you can stop by)

Charles Ellis Montessori Academy (or CEMA)
220 East 49th Street
Savannah, GA 31405

We will make sure you receive a receipt for your records!

Class of 2011 Mindset: Berlin Wall? They Showed Videos On MTV?

2008-02-05T18:27:00.000-05:00

Interesting what Beloit College has collected as the mindset of the class of 2011. My son is supposed to graduate then, but I'm thinking he might be on the 5 year plan--possibly the 6 year plan. He better have taking care of his parents after he graduates as part of his long term plan because by the time he gets out, we'll be in the poorhouse. The 2011 mindset is a collection of stuff that kids born in 1989 have always known or not known--like:

--The Berlin Wall. "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall," is not something that my son is familiar with. I defy you not to get chill bumps listening to Reagan's speech. Go to the 1:59 mark for the challenge:

--Rap music has always been mainstream to my son. He grew up with OutKast, Eminem, Jay-Z, and Dr. Dre being what was on the radio and the way to relate to others in school. He has no idea about the Sugar Hill Gang and Rappers Delight. I remember though:

--The Simpsons were born on December 17, 1989. Bart Simpson is the same age as my son. For awhile there, they were indistinguishable.

--Tiananmen Square. My son has never seen the video of the lone student stopping a line of tanks. He needs to.

--MTV has never been about music videos in his lifetime. For that, I am truly sad for him. I don't think discovering the internet for him was as exciting as watching music videos on MTV for the first time was for me. The very first MTV video:

4 Year Olds Can Play The Game

2008-01-30T21:22:00.000-05:00

Kids learn to work adults with white lies and flattery as early as four years old:

"They asked a group of preschool children ages 3 to 6 to rate drawings by children and adults they knew, as well as strangers. The preschoolers judged the artwork both when the artist was present, and when he or she was absent. The three-year-olds were completely honest, and remained consistent in their ratings; it didn’t matter who drew it, or whether the person was in the room. Five- and six-year-olds gave more flattering ratings when the artist was in front of them. They flattered both strangers and those they knew (although familiar people got a higher dose of praise). Among the four-year-olds, half the group displayed flattery while the other half did not. This supports the idea that age four is a key transitional period in children’s social understanding of the world."

There are two reasons to flatter--to thank someone for a past action or to ingratiate one's self to another person as an investment in future favorable treatment. Four year olds know this and they are already working their parents, sitters, teachers, and principals. I had a PreK kid tell me the other day that he liked me tie. Right...

Seven Dangerous Things You Should Let Your Kids Do

2008-01-28T20:06:00.000-05:00

Like Gever Tulley says in this TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) talk, kids today are way overprotected. He suggests five dangerous things you should let your kids do. I've added two more for a total of seven:

1. Play with fire--Every kid should learn to build one and keep it going. I don't mean burning down the shed in the backyard, but a contained fire with kindling and wood thats rocked in. Having fire means you can leave the house and the microwave. Having a little pyromania in you is a good thing, evolutionarily speaking that is.

2. Carry a pocketknife--Bet you thought of stabbing and cutting other kids, didn't you? That stuff just doesn't happen with a pocketknife. Before our over-protective society went completely nuts with zero tolerance laws, a kid with a pocketknife was a confident problem solver. Carrying around a Swiss Army knife is like having a tool-box in your pocket. Of course, with the way our zero tolerance laws work, if a kid brings a pocketknife into school--it's an automatic suspension. If the blade is over 3 inches, its a felony and an automatic expulsion with a trip to juvenile. So don't carry a pocketknife to school. But hiking, fishing, hunting, camping, and just generally messing around in the neighborhood? Don't leave home without it.

3. Throw stuff--Hours. I mean I spent hours throwing rocks, sticks, balls, snowballs, dirt clods, eggs, apples, water balloons, anything that I could fit in my hand. We would even throw our pocketknives in a bastardized version of mumbledypeg. There really is no greater satisfaction available to a kid than to sight a target, pick up a stone, and peg the target. The combination and physics of muscalature meeting the depth perception of targeting has to be developed by practice. Throwing stuff is a great way to learn to...

4. Drive a vehicle--If you can't see your kids behind the wheel of your 17 ton SUV, then get them on a golf cart. I'm convinced that by the time my kid was the age to drive, he was ready from riding me around Bacon Park and Henderson golf clubs (and he had plenty of practice stopping, starting, and reversing because I was taking my allotted amount of strokes and way more). I would also let kids bump into stuff and run over curbs with your vehicle. They need to know what to expect, what it feels like--because it will happen, it's only a matter of time.

5. Take stuff apart--Reverse engineering basic household appliances is a great way to show how things work. There are enough thingamajiggies and whatsits in just busted toaster or radio to stimulate all kinds of questions. By taking things apart, a basic understanding for how things are built is born.

6. Climb Trees and Rocks--Literally, a kid can reach a higher vantage point. There is something majestic and awe-inspiring to climb a tree or a rock and to perch up top, surveying the kingdom. The geometery in finding the best route up a craggy rock face or a live oak tree is worth at least two years of formal schooling. There is more self-esteem gained in one tree climb than a whole semester of in-class guidance counseling.

7. Body Surf in the Ocean--Riding the perfect wave is both a humbling and exalting experience at the same time. Humbling because a kid learns his limitations when compared to the vastness of the ocean. Exalting because to figure out how to use the monstrous power of water for a thrill-ride is to know one of the secrets to the universe.

Savannah HS Lockdown: Time To Get Radical

2008-01-17T20:05:00.000-05:00

Busy day at Savannah High School:

"A 17-year-old SHS student was attacked by seven people in the hallway near the gymnasium, while the other altercation happened outside the cafeteria and involved several female students."

One kid was thrown into a trophy case and cut his head open. He could be emblematic of all of the schools in Savannah that are struggling. Bashed in and bleeding. It's time for the school system to get radical with approaches to schools that are in trouble.

--Get some partners. Savannah-Chatham County schools need a champion. Some entity that will invest in this community by providing the support and expertise to make MAJOR changes in the way school is approached. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation High Schools For The New Millenium comes to mind. (Do I dare say the Chamber of Commerce, SEDA, or even the Creative Coast Initiative?)

--Make smaller schools out of larger schools. Make them all choice academies with their own principals.

--Get your best teachers to teach in the hardest schools. What's the carrot? Autonomy to select the best curriculum that is going to work for that school. Good teachers and administrators are "good" because they do what works.

--Every company and business in Chatham County needs to pick a school and get behind it. Public and private. Partner up and make the world of work real to students and the community. Please don't wait on schools to come dragging around for coupons for silent auctions and all of that crap. If a business has only 5 employees, one of them needs to pick the closest school and walk in, introduce themselves and say WE WANT TO HELP. WHAT CAN WE DO? Start with contributing to a fund that will guarantee tuition for in-state high school graduates who go on to college.

--Every single student that is expelled or suspended long-term should have to complete a mandatory service-learning program before returning to schools.

This is do-able. It has to be do-able. It's time.

Comparing GA College Crime Rates: Getting Drunk & Crunk

2008-01-08T20:10:00.000-05:00

1 of out every 88 students gets arrested at Savannah State University (SSU). That's the highest rate out of the 5 public GA colleges I looked at. (US Dept. of Education Post-Secondary Crime Report).

The others student arrest rates?

Armstrong Atlantic State University (AASU)--1/163
Georgia Southern University (GSU)--1/162.5
Georgia Institute of Technology (Ga Tech)--1/16,841 (There was only 1 student arrest in 2006!)
University of Georgia (UGA)--1/102.4

About 75% of all college campus arrests are for alcohol offenses. Except for SSU. Only 31.2% are for alcohol--but another 56.2% are for drugs. Drinking at AASU, GSU, & UGA. Weed at SSU. There was one Ga Tech student popped for drugs in 2006--the rest of them, I suppose, have already created passable counterfeit driver's licenses and have thus far evaded Barney Fife.

Ga Tech had the highest number of criminal offenses on campus--94, with 91 of those burglaries (being downtown, I suppose). UGA--70, AASU--21, SSU--15. GSU reported 4 criminal offenses for 2006. FOUR! Everyone was too drunk to steal stuff I guess.

Hate offenses are tracked as well. Number of hate offenses reported in all 5 GA colleges combined? Zero. For the last 3 years? Zero. Get drunk, get crunk, it's all good, bro.

Back To School Evolutionary Ironies

2008-01-04T21:13:00.000-05:00

The Friday edition of the SMN had a story on the Savannah Chatham students going back to school after the holiday break. (Holiday is the word that is used instead of Christmas to be inclusive of everyone's religious belief or non-belief as the case may be). A fairly innocuous story,mainly about having to get up early and start thinking about stuff beyond iPods and cell phones.

Stuff like evolution. If you can, take a look at the picture that was included on the on-line edition (you might have to copy it to a Word document or something then zoom in):

The 2nd column from the left is Topic 1--Evolution. There are 10 vocabulary words to be learned, ranging from Darwin and natural selection to mimicry and vestigial structures. Pretty heady stuff.

There are 2 tasks listed underneath:

1. List and describe 4 pieces of evidence for evolution (4 sentences each).
2. Who was Darwin and what scientific method is he famous for? (5 sentences)

Now, I'm a firm believer that science, the scientific method, and evolution can be looked at as separate from religion--observable and testable data and all of that (here's one accessible book on the matter from the National Academy of Sciences that falls firmly in the scientific camp), and should be for classroom purposes, particularly when the scientific method is being encountered for the first time. Even though there are opportunities in the curriculum (one of the standards is "Students will evaluate the importance of curiosity, honesty, openness, and skepticism in science"), there are several ironies in shutting out religion from the public schoolhouse.

One irony, of course, is that public school students get a 2 week holiday based on a Christian celebration. Save all that Druid and pagans were there first and the Christians appropriated the holiday stuff--the birth of Christ is what is celebrated now, not winter solstice, not a tie a virgin to a stake and burn her for better crop rotation festival. Another irony, and this one is pretty serious if you care anything about closing the achievement gap between minority students and white students in the public schools, is that Black, Lation kids from intact, religious families face no "achievement gap".

"Analyses indicate that the school culture, strong parental participation and the encouragement of religious faith were factors contributing to the lowering of the achievement gap in religious schools."

Encouraging a religious faith is verboten in the public schools. As it should be, because who's to say what faith should be proselytized? This isn't Saudi Arabia. (Well, yet).

"Among the school culture manifestations, the results suggest religious schools have a higher level of racial harmony and are regarded as more racially friendly than public schools and are considerably less likely to have drug and alcohol problems than do public schools."

So the trick for most public schools that struggle with the achievement gap is to mimic (and that's a vocab word remember!) the values and culture of a private, religious school. Just without the religion.

And that's ironic.

Oedipus Complex Explained

2007-12-26T09:28:00.000-05:00

Sigmund Freud had this to say about early childhood:

"Children are driven by two major intrapsychic forces, sexuality and aggression, and parents and other socializers must impose unwanted restrictions on the child. In addition, children experience very intense conflict because they love their parents and need parental nurturance while at the same time they feel anger toward their parents and desire them sexually."

(All of that and more from the Handbook of Parenting!) Here's a graphic representation of the Oedipus Complex writ large!

Twenty One Kindergartners

2007-12-24T09:16:00.000-05:00

According to a survey I took, I could take on 21 kindergartners in a fight. That's one entire classroom + one kid who is serving a time out from another classroom. I think I could probably fight more, but my arms are short and I haven't had any martial arts training.

Here are the rules:

You are in an enclosed area roughly the size of a basketball court
There are no weapons or foreign objects
Everyone is wearing a cup (so no kicks to the groin)
The children are merciless and will show no fear
If a child is knocked unconscious, he is "out." The same goes for you.

My wife took the survey and could handle 12. Mainly, because she has moral issues fighting little kids. She said she would have them sitting in a circle singing Christmas carols within 2 minutes. I have no such moral ambiguity when it comes to a fight.

Here's the twisted survey if you want to see how many 5 year olds you could fight. (Yes, this is a joke).

Mayor Johnson & The BOE: Time For A Partnership?

2007-12-18T19:46:00.000-05:00

I read this article on the rock throwing delinquents from Groves High School (essentially breaking the face of a 12 year old girl riding home on a school bus) and wondered if our city government (and probably the county too) shouldn't look into formalized partnerships with the Savannah-Chatham BOE.

I think the city could do better with quality of life issues in Savannah and I think the school board and all of us in the education world could do better (putting aside the vexing which came first question of 'Does a better quality of life in Savannah and reduced crime lead to better educational outcomes or does better educational outcomes lead to a better quality of life and reduced crime?') But there is a point, a tipping point if you will (yeah, I read The Tipping Point), where schools are working as hard as they can, the police are working as hard as they can, the clergy and the business-people are doing everything they can, and city council and the mayor's office point at each other and at us and we point at them, and we are all frustrated because goons keep throwing rocks at girls on buses and selling rocks on the street corners after dropping out.

The BOE and the mayor's office run parallel for the most part. Separate budgeting, separate hiring and firing, separate policies. I think more opportunities for perpendicular intersection of the mayor's office and the BOE should be realized for the benefit of our community--running parallel just isn't cutting it anymore:

"The power lies not in takeovers, but in partnerships. Mayors and school boards working together in collaboration, each bringing their expertise to benefit the schools and the community as a whole, is the answer for urban districts."

Take the rock throwers. Laughing and partying in the courtroom. If they get popped for a felony, they might serve time, but if they don't, then they might get expelled--which means they don't go to school at Groves but at Scott (Pathways for Success). Will the city know anything about this? What programs does the city have in place to track the multitudes of students who are on long-term suspension or have been expelled from their regular school? Since suspended and expelled students are more likely to be incarcerated by age 30--shouldn't Mayor Johnson have a list of these kids sitting on his and Chief Berkow's desk, updated every day?

I think Mayor Johnson could "ensure that neighborhoods are safe and free from crime and that students have safe passage to and from school; help students access high-quality health care and other support services; support teacher-recruitment efforts by addressing obstacles such as housing costs; and work effectively with school districts to develop joint-use projects to make the best use of public space," if he were to partner successfully with the BOE.

And I'll say it again: The business of the Chamber of Commerce, the Savannah Economic Development Authority (SEDA), and the BOE should be to bring full-scholarships to students who graduate any of Savannah's high schools. Right now, there is nothing that a rock-throwing, rock-selling juvenile who isn't doing well in school has to look at as a goal in Savannah except a vicious, lack-of-opportunity circle that our two parallel running public institutions aren't approaching as successfully as they could be.

Mayor Johnson should partner with the BOE--I think there will be opportunities for kids at the intersection.

Baby Names And Facial Stereotyping

2007-12-06T20:46:00.000-05:00

When parents choose a baby name more than likely they'll just copy names randomly that are popular at the time. By going through baby names from the last 100 years you can pretty much (if you were so inclined, in a geeky sort of way) chart the interesting changes and different permutations of our culture. On databases like babycenter.com and babynames.com the most popular boys name for 2006 (both websites) was Aiden. (The most popular girls name was Emma on one site and Ava on the other).

Aiden and Ava!?

Do you have a prototype for what an Aiden should look like? I don't. I've never even known an Aiden. I can't think of a famous Aiden. But I guess in about 20 years, there might be an uptick in famous Aidens since it was one of the most popular names for people who sign up on babyname websites--which pretty much pegs parents who do that as parents who worry about having a child with a popular name. Here are the top 5 male baby names in Georgia for 2006 (according to the Social Security Administration):

1. William
2. Joshua
3. Christopher
4. Jacob
5. Michael

No Aiden on this list. But I bet you have a prototypical face to match with each of those names on the list. Williams should just look a certain way to me--distinguished, upright, strong (that is, of course, if the kid isn't called Billy--then that's a whole other prototype). As parents name their boys, be aware that people have facial stereotypes and will compare the child to their own prototypes of what William, Joshua, and Christopher should look like. While William is a serious name to me, my prototypical Joshua has buck teeth and breathes out of his mouth (sorry, its based on a kid I had early in my career that was profoundly retarded). So tell me your kid's name is Josh and I'm seeing a kid who can eat an apple through a chainlink fence and often had to be reminded where his lunch was. So maybe there are subtle reasons why parents go for faddish, uncommon names--to avoid facial stereotyping of the more popular names.

Or parents could avoid all of that and do like 2% of all parents do and name their kid after a geographic location of where they live. Something like Chatham or Savannah or Tybee. Maybe Port Wentworth?

Lead Levels High In Savannah (It Gets Inside Your Head!)

2007-12-02T15:55:00.000-05:00

You would think lead poisoning was a thing of the past--but its not. The percentage of kids tested nationwide who have elevated lead levels is about 1.21% (about 40,000 kids). That doesn't seem too bad unless you consider that only about 14% of the kids nationwide have been tested.

Uh-oh. That would be over 300,000 kids with elevated lead levels (actually the CDC says 310,000 between the ages 1-5). Here in Georgia, 0.29% of the kids TESTED have elevated lead levels (about 200 kids). When the total population is looked at Georgia probably has about 2,000 kids suffering from elevated lead levels.

Here in Chatham County? Not so good. 7.8% of the tested kids below the ages of 6 had elevated lead levels. This means there are easily close to 100 kids with elevated levels of lead right here in Savannah. What does this mean for those kids?

"Lead poisoning can affect nearly every system in the body. Because lead poisoning often occurs with no obvious symptoms, it frequently goes unrecognized. Lead poisoning can cause learning disabilities, behavioral problems, and, at very high levels, seizures, coma, and even death."

There are about a million things anyone can do to lower your kid's exposure to lead--one being make sure the toys you buy are lead-free. Go here for a list of recalled toys.

And here from the Yo, Yenta blog is a catchy little ditty to hum about lead poisoning from Angry Momma Productions as you de-lead your household (It gets inside your head!) Well, except for maybe the anti-WalMart stuff toward the end:

6 Things Kids With Nature Deficit Disorder Can't Do Now

2007-11-29T20:03:00.000-05:00

Just a generation ago, kids were almost expected to lead feral lives outside of the confines of their home. Maybe because I grew up in the Blue Ridge mountains of Virginia, I had more opportunity than most, but today's kids are big wusses compared to kids like myself and others from 20-30 years ago.

According to Richard Louv, author of Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children From Nature Deficit Disorder, "fear of litigation, strangers, traffic, and wilderness have all led to a generalized social anxiety, exacerbating the absence of unstructured activities in children's lives."

"Children's disconnect from nature is evident in the spiking increase in childhood obesity, attention deficit disorder, and depression."

Here are 6 things from my childhood that no suburban kid would probably do today:

1. On a trout fishing trip with my dad and his buddies, my friend and I followed a little stream up a mountain-side for 3 hours. We caught native trout all the way up until the stream was just a little ribbon coming out from under some rocks. It was behind those rocks that we saw the first of several trees that had been stripped bare of their bark and with tell-tale claw marks embedded in the trunk. It only took about an hour and half to get back down. We were 11 years old.

2. I once brought home a laundry hamper home filled to the brim with bullfrogs from the pond at the bottom of our hill. I dumped them in the front yard. There were smooshed frogs right in front of our house on the street for weeks. I was about 8 years old.

3. My friend and I took a sled with wheels that we had got at a garage sale of this old Mexican guy from California and rode down the mountain inside of a storm-water drain. The pipe was barely wide enough for the sled and we had to keep our heads down. Eventually, after going down in pitch black--we tied a flashlight on the front. That was worse because we could see the rats. We were probably 12 years old.

4. In the summer we would eat cherries, apples, and blackberries until we were almost sick. I once threw a green apple and hit a cow that was standing around in the guys orchard. It charged us. It chased us all the way down the hill and into the street. I got in trouble for that.

5. When it snowed or iced, we would get anything we could get our hands on to slide down the hilly roads and backyards. Sleds were best, but inner-tubes or even old refrigerator boxes worked. We held rat races--first one down the hill still on your vehicle won. Fighting was encouraged. During the winter monthes, we all looked like Jake LaMotta from Raging Bull.

6. We dug deep holes in the woods for no apparent reason. We set fires just to see what would happen. We tried to redirect a stream down a hill into Mr. Kauffelts backyard by damming it with rocks and logs. The only thing that did was get us wet, muddy, and my friend Chris broke his arm.

Probably kids still do this stuff somewhat, but I don't see many of them around--they're all at soccer practice or doing homework or playing video games. I know what they are missing. I wonder if they know?

John Edward's Family Leave Plan Could Make Us All Needs Improvement Schools

2007-11-14T20:28:00.000-05:00

John Edward's proposed Family Leave Act might make it more difficult for schools with a young, female teacher population to make Adquate Yearly Progress (AYP) to satisfy the NCLB legislation.

"The former North Carolina senator on Tuesday proposed spending $2 billion a year to help states create family leave programs that offer workers at least eight weeks of paid time off to care for a newborn or ill family member."

That's up from the usual 6 weeks of maternity leave. Most school districts have a 36 week calendar, so it's conceivable (depending on when the actual deed is done) for a teacher or what is more often more than one teacher since pregnancy seems to somehow get in the water supply, to miss almost 25% of a student's instructional time.

Edwards wants this to be a national goal by 2014. That's an odd date, since that's the exact year that NCLB says all schools in the nation will be achieving at 100%.

This means more substitute teachers in public schools, which means less quality control and in struggling schools or school districts the difference between making AYP or being tagged with the onerous Needs Improvement (NI), is sometimes only a few students one way or the other.

"Each day, about 5 million children walk into 274,000 classrooms nationwide and find a substitute. Students today will spend at least one full year with a substitute by the time they graduate from high school -- a figure that's higher in poor schools and destined to increase."

Shoot, its hard enough to make AYP with a full complement of teachers who never miss a day--more leave time will only make it harder. (And I didn't even mention the BILLIONS of dollars this will cost taxpayers).

Contagious Yawning

2007-11-12T07:42:00.000-05:00

Interesting quick check for parents who might be looking for early indications of autism or any of the spectrum disorders (ASD).

Contagious yawning.

I don't know about you, but anytime I see someone yawn, I do too. Not necessarily so with autistic kids:

"Contagious yawning is impaired in ASD, which may relate to their impairment in empathy. It supports the claim that contagious yawning is based on the capacity for empathy."

Interestingly enough, I don't consider myself all that empathetic. At least that's what my wife says.

I Want A Bouncing Ball Chair

2007-10-31T19:45:00.000-05:00

The principal at this Minnesota school has replaced student chairs in one 4th grade classroom with bouncy balls. Benefits?

"The colorful balls help students concentrate, burn off excess energy and get more physically fit. They've been used for years for exercise and physical therapy."

While I'm sure the kids benefit, if somewhat obliquely by the novelty of bouncy balls, I am completely enamored of the possibilities for myself. No lie, I lose about a week of school every year due to various back issues (mostly I can trace this to lifting and moving a seemingly 5 ton treadmill from Hilton Head by myself after my wife declared that she would use it EVERY day. She's used it about 4 times and that's about how many days I lose when my back goes out).

I want a bouncy ball for a chair behind my desk. And I'm not even kidding. Stay tuned.

Was The Center For Disease Control & The National Organization Of Women Notified?

2007-10-21T07:35:00.000-05:00

Just in time for Halloween, there seems to be an incubus a-loose in Portland, Maine (like a Stephen King story--maybe call it, "In, Baby, In" or "Resident Evil III: The Pregnancy"):

"After an outbreak of pregnancies among middle school girls, education officials in this city have decided to allow a school health center to make birth control pills available to girls as young as 11."

Does the Center for Disease Control know about this outbreak? The Incubus Syndrome?

According to census data, in 2000, the entire state of Maine has reported 20 pregnancies--7 births, 10 abortions, and 3 unknowns. The Maine Incubus seems to be targeting Portland:

"Portland's three middle schools reported 17 pregnancies during the last four years, not counting miscarriages or terminated pregnancies that weren't reported to the school nurse."

Portland is about the size of Savannah and their middle school birth rate is far below ours (Savannah has a 1.2 birth-rate, meaning one birth for every 1,000 girls--there were 10 births to girls below the age of 14 in 2005--8 to Blacks, 1 White, 1 Hispanic).

Naturally, the easy-breezy answer is to make birth-control pills available to girls as young as 11, right? I guess because there is inadequate information to females out there giving them the guts to say NO to the dashing incubi in their midst?

I wonder if the National Organization of Women, that stalwart bulwark of feminism, feels that inoculating young girls in Portland against the incubus seed is the only way out of the mess that is teen-aged pregnancy?

After taking a look at their Reproductive Justice manifesto, I believe so:

"Reproductive justice ensures that women are healthy, both physically and emotionally; that they can make decisions about their bodies and sexuality free from government interference."

Of course, government interference, in this case means local, state, and federal governments that impede access to birth control and abortion clinics. While NOW pursues reproductive justice, the incubi are in your community--impregnating young girls who haven't been given the tools to say NO.

WTF?

2007-10-17T20:49:00.000-05:00

Swearing at work helps let off steam for employees and helps boost their morale.

"Our study suggested that, in many cases, taboo language serves the needs of people for developing and maintaining solidarity, and as a mechanism to cope with stress."

Hell, yeah, it does!

A few bombs around the coffee station and water cooler are all it takes, sometimes, to pick up and keep going and do what's best for kids.

Enhancing Children: Moral & Ethical Duty?

2007-10-14T14:16:00.000-05:00

A lot of what we do as parents is for the purpose of giving our kids a perceived advantage as they pursue their future. In my case, I sure did pay for my kid to take the SAT three times and the ACT once. I made sure he got to the orthodontist. I enrolled him in tennis and baseball camps. In tae-kwon-do when he was a little kid. I even sprung for a trip to Las Vegas for a tae-kwon-do tournament where he placed third or something unremarkable like that. (He didn't need to know that while he was asleep in the room with his granddad, I was down in the casino wagering with his college fund). I lucked out though because he was pretty much the paragon of health throughout his life--and he's a fairly good-looking kid.

Now he's off to college and if he screws the pooch and gets some girl pregnant or fails out or gets arrested doing beer bongs in his boxer shorts--that's on him. I feel like I did my part.

So I'm not sure how to take the presumption that we (meaning parents, citizens, and scientists)should take EVERY step that we can to make the lives of our children better by enhancing them genetically or through the use of drugs.

From the author of Enhancing Evolution: The Ethical Case for Making Better People, John Harris:

"If it is right to save life, it is right to postpone death ad infinitum by stemming the flow of diseases that carry us to the grave. We should engineer ourselves to be free of such curses as cancer and dementia, instead of believing that they are acceptable inevitabilities of human life. And we should make any such technology available as soon as we can, even if it means the human race initially splitting into the strong, clever, beautiful, immortal haves and the dumber, disease-ridden have-nots."

Hmmm. Splitting the human race into haves and have-nots--those who are genetically enhanced and those who are not. Beyond the religious arguments involved I fall into Leon Kass' camp--finding genetic enhancements and cloning somewhat repellant:

"Repugnance (in this case, repugnance of genetic tampering) is the emotional expression of deep wisdom, beyond reason’s power fully to articulate it."

As a believer that whatever humans make that is good, can be turned to deviltry, one possible scenario for a rapidly approaching "post-human" world:

"A society in which some people can afford the enhancements needed to make their children disease-free and virtually immortal, and other people can’t. We will have moved to an era that he calls “enhanced evolution”, in which scientists can engineer, within a few decades, changes to the human genome that might otherwise have taken millions of years to achieve through natural evolution. In the span of that generation, the enhanced humans and normal humans might become so physiologically different that they would no longer be able to breed with each other. "

Save your money. It might not just be for tennis camp and college anymore--but for a genetic face-lift for your kid.

Right Or Left Brained?

2007-10-13T13:40:00.000-05:00

I swear I'm left-brained. Most of the attributes of left-brained-ness describe me:

LEFT BRAIN FUNCTIONS:
uses logic
detail oriented
facts rule
words and language
present and past
math and science
can comprehend
knowing
acknowledges
order/pattern perception
knows object name
reality based
forms strategies
practical
safe

But then, on the Right Brain/Left Brain Test, I see the stupid girl rotating clockwise. Maybe I'm a right-brainer, and I just don't know it?

Cold Autistic Dark

2007-10-07T20:31:00.000-05:00

I'm reading The Road by Cormac McCarthy (I didn't know it was an Oprah Book Club selection until I read it on the cover--I just like apocalyptic visions that's all!)

Anyway, here's a curious sentence that uses "autistic" in a way that I don't:

"He rose and stood tottering in that cold autistic dark with his arms outheld for balance while the vestibular calculations in his skull cranked out their reckonings."

I'm used to autistic being used to describe children with a pervasive development disorder--not as a descriptor for the night. So, is the night pervasively disordered? Maybe it's so into it's own darkness that it will never, ever give in to the light? Then I guess that's some seriously cold dark.

Damn, is this what literature is supposed to do? Confuse you and make you think about what words mean? As soon as I locate my remote, I'll put an end to that.

We Got The Funk!

2007-10-06T09:00:00.000-05:00

One of the better commercials that nails what it's like to be a guy--of any age!

Lay Off The Fat Kids, Willya?

2007-10-02T19:38:00.000-05:00

So now some national childhood obesity and fitness experts are going after kids who wear Crocs:

"Crocs? Kids can't run in them. You can't play soccer in Crocs. And if you can't run, guess what happens? You get fat."

What exactly is a national childhood obesity expert anyway? It's somebody that's about this close to being--if the child was Black or Hispanic--a racist. Maybe a fattist? A weightist? What is it with these hyper-skinny people who want to CONTROL fat kids for their own good? Dr. Sandra Hassink from the American Academy of Pediatrics obesity task force (the dreaded OTF).

"What's the chicken and what's the egg? Do we have parents not looking for active footwear because their children aren't active? Are parents and children susceptible to advertisements for shoes on a fashion basis, or a functional basis? You could be seeing a response, rather than a cause."

So there you go. Maybe fat kids wear Crocs because they're fat and fat kid's parents are enabling them to be fat.

The OTF troopers out there would have everyone out in the fields, stripped to the waist, working 10-12 hours gathering fruits and berries to stay lean. Well, that's how impoverished lean, low-body fat countries do it (see the Cuban Diet). Prosperity and technology are what modern states are all about. And that's what the OTF is really after.

Take That Matt Damon

2007-09-26T19:47:00.000-05:00

From an interview with Diane Sawyer for 20/20--Jenna Bush:

SAWYER: You know there've been people, Matt Damon among them, who have said should the Bush daughters be fighting in Iraq?

JENNA BUSH: Obviously I understand that question and see what the point of that question is for sure. I think there are many ways to serve your country. I think...what's most appropriate for me to do is to teach or to work in UNICEF and represent our country in Latin America. But you know I don't think it's a practical question. I think if people really thought about it, they know that we would put many people in danger. But I understand the point of it. I hope that I serve by being a teacher.

With the way kids act today, it might be safer in Iraq. Take that Matt Damon!

St. Vincent's Academy: Beautiful Classic

2007-09-20T20:03:00.001-05:00

I went to Follow The Schedule Night at St. Vincent's Academy the other night. My wife really wanted me to go see what my step-daughter's daily schedule and teachers are like and I really wanted her to be happy with me. Marriage is funny that way.

--I love the campus. I like the downtown location, hard up on the Confederate Cemetary. I like tight turns and shadowy spaces inside. I can envision the quiet steps of the nuns through the building. There's the Grotto and the Courtyard--spaces where the girls can reflect or pray quietly. More like text-message some lout at BC, but from a distance if you're looking on, it would seem like intense reflection. I almost knocked myself unconscious on one of the concrete stairwells. There's probably a whole generation of young women walking around in Savannah with Harry Potter-like scars on their foreheads from that thing.

--Grover Crosby, the English teacher doesn't play. He has the girls reading Machiavelli. He's going to have them reading Alexis de Tocqueville's Democracy in America. Grover doesn't know that the extent of my child's reading is pretty much Seventeen magazine and the Pottery Barn catalogue. Well, he'll know soon enough when she'll think Machiavelli is one of Tommy Hilfiger's fragrances. He doesn't publish his syllabus because he think's it's too confining. It eliminates teachable moments. This would be dangerous, herectical talk for a public school teacher. I guess that might be one of the reasons he left Windsor Forest HS to teach in a private school.

--The board in the Latin III classroom was covered with words like Pluperfect Active Subjunctive, followed by Fero, Fers, Fert. Fero is Latin for "I carry". The teacher explained that a foundation in Latin will help with any romance language and that most kids who do well on the SAT have a good background in Latin. I don't care what the colleges are telling kids today about how the SAT isn't as important, it's their life experience that counts--if you can navigate an AP Latin course with any degree of success, the secrets of the SAT vocabulary will be unlocked. Trust me, high SAT scores are still going to matter more than going to the UN Summer Peace Academy.

--My step-daughter has a "free" during 3rd period. This means she has no class scheduled and is free to leave campus to grab a bite, go study, or go get liquored up before chemistry.

--Like the rest of her classes, chemistry is college prep. Gary Ogden, the teacher, suggests reading every chapter at least three times. Then review the chapter and outline it. "Everything is in play," he says, "just like college." The St. Vincent's curriculum really is classic education--literature, science, math, history. My wife asks if he conducts tutorials for students who don't get it. His expression turns sour and I can see him starting to form the words, "What do you think this is, public school?" on his lips before he lapses into a three minute discourse on how many times in class a problem is discussed and the many different approaches he brings to solving a problem. My wife leans over to me and says, "A simple no would have sufficed."

--Ms. Vinson is the pre-calculus teacher. She is another Windsor Forest HS expatriate. She does a beautiful job of explaining why calculus is the great humbler of students--it synthesizes algebra and geometery in a way that is either mastered by a certain caliber of student or leads to the death by suicide of the less-mathematically inclined. Well, those were my words, not hers--but I understood what she meant. There are a many different ways to solve calculus problems and success favors those students who can think divergently and master the many different ways to do it. I was not one of those students--I didn't quite take up a rifle and start picking off coeds from the top of St. John's Arena at Ohio State, but I also knew when I was beaten and could go no further. I took my B- in Calculus at OSU and ran straight to the nearest Drink and Drown to celebrate. I admire my step-daughter for being able to tackle calculus but its still curious to me that someone who is so deft with numbers still can't back out of the driveway without running through the shrubs yet.

--AP History is the bane of my step-daughter's existence right now. It involves reading chapters and chapters of arcane stuff that happened at least 200-250 years ago-- events and people that were critical to the formation of our country. There's not a Britney update or an Axe commercial anywhere in sight here. Mrs. Mesaros talks fast and is as blunt as brick to the forehead. She's almost gleeful in telling the parents how the girls are bringing in thick sheafs of notes because they haven't figured out how to TAKE notes yet. She says she keeps telling them phrases, words, draw arrows, make lists--but don't copy the chapters. She said that she's told them that UGA will type in sentences into Google and if a textbook or other published source comes up, the student gets booted. We've tried to tell our hapless scholar how to shorten notetaking and get more out of it, but there is security in copying down almost every word. I'm thinking a good case of Carpal Tunnel Syndrome might be the only way for her to see the need to eliminate 85% of the verbiage and go for the key concepts.

--Religion class has always been intriguing to me. I'm of the opinion if you wade into religion and try to get a handle on it--whether you believe in God or not, you can get a lot of what people are thinking and feeling and understand them better. I'm almost positive, however, that zero linkage will be made between Hebrew history, the Israelites of the ancient world, and why the US feels such an affinity for Israel and the Holy Land today. I'm also almost certain by the time these girls get to this portion of the day, the teacher could be sacrificing goats in the classroom and it wouldn't matter as much as getting to their cars and going home.

My wife is an alum of St. Vincent's. 1983, I believe. Everywhere we went during the walkthrough, she was greeting people that have been her friends, acquaintances, or classmates from the last 25 years. In fact, its this way wherever any St. Vincent grad goes in Savannah and the southeast. St. Vincent's is one of the traditions of Savannah--a sort of finishing school for a certain type of Savannah woman--charming, traditional, classic.

My step-daughter will share her mother's legacy, I'm sure.

Top 5 Ways To Make PreK A Good Experience

2007-09-12T19:18:00.000-05:00

We're about 7 days into the new school year and the PreKindergarten kids are starting to figure out where the bathroom is, who the adult is in the classroom that is not their mommy, and how many dried black-eyed peas can fit into their ears.

Their world just went from really sort of small--home, daycare, McD's, home, daycare, Grandma's, rotate--to something really, really big and confusing. Sharing space with 20 other kids who are sharing space with 530 other kids who are sharing space with over 100 adults--all moving at a speed guaranteed to give any little kid whiplash or at least a bad bout of motion sickness if their heads start to swivel too fast. It's a big adjustment to the kids. But mostly its a big adjustment for parents.

So here are the Top Five Ways To Make PreK A Good Experience (For The Parents):

1. Put your 4 year old to work at your house. They can do a heckuva lot more than you think they can. They should pick up their toys. They should take their dishes to the sink. They should help take care of family pets and they can clean. Yes, have your 4 year olds scrub something. A pot, a dish, the floor, the beanie-weenies from the wall. Have them help in preparing snacks. Water a plant. My son's main task as a 4 year old was to keep track of the TV remote. That was his responsibility to know where it was at all times. That and helping me find my car keys every morning. Jobs and chores help 4 year olds develop purposeful movement. It helps them to concentrate. It helps them to learn how to carry out steps of a task in a sequence, and it helps a child to learn to care for their environment. Who knows? They might grow up and sign a petition for recycling in their community.

2. Provide your 4 year old experiences of control. Offer choice in their daily activities. This is not the same thing as giving them a choice between watching Cartoon Network or Nickolodeon--it's giving choices between various activities that they enjoy (and hopefully a parent would know this by observing what their child is curious about). Help your 4 year olds learn how to structure their day. Playground, then reading? Walk in the woods, then the pool? Or just skip the pool altogether because there is a large anthill out in the backyard that needs exploring? At school, having choice in activities will lead to improved task performance, interest, persistence, and most importantly, creativity.

3. Cool it on the extrinsic rewards for doing stuff. Like behaving at Wal-Mart or eating all their turkey tetrazzini. They aren't going to get a piece of candy or a cookie or a sticker everytime they complete the work that is asked of them at school. Sometimes they will, but learning to do stuff because you get stuff isn't how kids learn best. Learing to do things because there is a huge satisfaction in learning to do new things is the reward we hope to teach the 4 year olds.

4. There is no daily activity too small or trivial to make a lesson out of. Your 4 year old will learn how to be part of a community as well as learning math, reading, and all the rest of the academics. Give a lesson on how to push in a chair after dinner. Give a lesson on how to move through space without knocking over things. Give a lesson on how to blow your own nose. Give a lesson on how to make a polite request. How to live in a community will serve your child well. A graceful and courteous child, for example, rarely finds themself in an orange jumpsuit at the juvenile center.

5. Get to know your child's PreK teacher but leave your helicopter parked on the heli-pad out back of your house. Your child will most likely develop an attachment to their teacher, in the same manner most kids develop an attachment to their mother as infants. The most successful students (even through middle school) have had the strongest attachments to their PreK and K teachers. I don't mean that slavish, hang onto her leg and not let her use the bathroom kind of attachment but that genuine attachment that you can see light up a child's face when their teacher walks back into the room. Everything is right again. This is the same feeling that most children have with their parents. Your child cannot develop the appropriate attachment to their teacher if you are hovering over them like one of those WJCL traffic helicopters. You must also, under no circumstances, talk ill of your child's teacher within their earshot. That's what principals are for.

By no means is this list inclusive, nor should it be since every child and every child's family is different. But over the years, I've found these five items to be most helpful in providing a successful PreK experience for kids.

Good luck! (And yes, there will be days where black-eyed peas will be put in nostrils and ears. That's what they're there for, right?)

Textbooks As Political Footballs

2007-09-10T19:46:00.000-05:00

Reading the Savannah Morning News story on the textbook shortage in Chatham County felt like to me what it must have been like to hear the orginal radio broadcast of the War of the Worlds by Orson Welles. Panic in the streets, men and women genuinely frightened!

Like poison gas and heat rays coming from the tripods, the SMN blares out like the alien war horn:

"Procrastinating principals blamed for textbook shortages!"

For each school that didn't order textbooks, there were probably a thousand variables involved--not the least being that principals that were moving schools had to first find their new parking spot before delving into a new school's complicated infrastructure. Procrastinating means putting off a task on purpose. Maybe principals were spending their time getting teachers in place (there are over 400 new ones in the district)--textbooks with no teachers kind of sucks too.

From the SMN editorial on the textbook shortage:

"Several new school board members campaigned on a promise that all students would have books in their hands during their first week of classes. Administrators should hand them towels so they can wipe the egg from their faces."

Well, here's an idea--why not campaign on the promise to make sure that every student has appropriate access to the curriculum? Which doesn't necessarily mean having a textbook in hand. When I think of my top school experiences as a child or a young adult, not one of them revolves around a textbook. In 4th grade, Ms. Basham showed me how to prepare a slide for the micoscrope. We were supposed to be studying a piece of grass or something but in the process I broke the slide and sliced my finger open. I studied blood instead. That wasn't in a textbook. The day I figured out trigonmetery in 11th grade with Mr. Toms, it was in a small group, a chalkboard layed across several desks, all of us with different colored chalk, working problems. No textbook there either. Campaign on the promise to keep talented teachers in the system. In fact, textbooks are usually adopted every five years--new teachers rarely last that long.

From the Vox Populi, the usual heralds of doom:

"Another blunder by the principals. How are children supposed to learn without textbooks? This school system is one catastrophe after another and our children need better."

How indeed are children supposed to learn without textbooks? Let's take a look at what the State of Georgia Department of Education wants your kids to learn--let's say 3rd grade math:

M3M2-- Students will measure length choosing appropriate units and tools.

Heck, all you need for that is a ruler and some string. Or a basketball and a tape measure. Or a rope and a sidewalk--in fact you will have as many ways to measure length as you have students in the classroom once they are put on the job. Don't need a textbook for that.

Here's 5th grade social studies:

SS5CG4-- The student will explain the meaning of "e pluribus unum" and the reason it is the motto of the United States.

SS5E1-- The student will use the basic economic concepts of trade, opportunity cost, specialization, voluntary exchange, productivity, and price incentives to illustrate historical events.

Huh? Where would you find that in a textbook? Nowhere. Bet you could do this lesson with a dollar bill and a Bass Pro Shop catalogue though.

More from the Vox Populi:

"If the government cannot run a school system and get books for students, how in the world can they run a healthcare system?"

Well, there you have it I guess. Textbooks as a symbol of government mismanagement and malfeasance (and don't forget procrastination). This week textbooks are being used as political footballs to kick around, pass around, punt back and forth, and fumble.

And SMN should know better. The long term fix is E-books? Don't forget that to read an E-book you have to have an electronic device to read it. Like computers--is SMN suggesting a laptop for every student now? That's a serious investment in our students to supply over 30,000 laptops. This community is an uproar over textbooks this week--imagine the outcry in getting 30,000 laptops ordered, delivered, set-up, and maintained. That's just more Orson Welles hyberbole waiting to happen.

If every single student in every single classroom in every single school had a textbook for every single subject it wouldn't matter as much as having a teacher who cared about who they were and knew what they needed lessons on--then delivered them.

Great lessons come from teachers--not textbooks.

Short Boys Got No Reason

2007-09-09T08:56:00.000-05:00

Better watch those kindergarten teachers if you've got a short boy going to school! Research shows:

"Teachers perceive young boys who are shorter than the perceived norm as less academically capable than are boys of average or above-average height."

I'm not sure that makes kindergarten teachers ogres since most people seem to have some sort of bias that relates body image to ability and intelligence.

For example:

-- 30 percent of the CEOs are at least 6-foot-2; the corresponding percentage for American adult men overall is only 3.9 percent.

--Women who were obese according to their Body Mass Index (BMI) earn 17 percent lower wages on average than women within their recommended BMI range.

-- For white men in the United States, a 1.8-percent increase in wages accompanies every additional inch of height.

At least, as far as I know, K teachers aren't this bad.

Crack Addiction & ADHD Meds

2007-09-06T20:40:00.000-05:00

Scientists are looking at ADHD meds to give to crack addicts to break their cocaine addiction. They say Strattera is a great candidate:

"It is not addictive, it's already FDA-approved, it's available as a generic (outside the US), and it may offer a sensation similar to a mild dose of cocaine."

The reasoning is to find a drug that crackheads can take that won't lead to overdoses and other adverse reactions. Strattera is in the laboratory stage:

"The ADHD medication enhanced the increase in heart rate brought on by cocaine, but not enough to be a cause for concern. Unfortunately, it also did not consistently block the enjoyable effects of the illicit drug."

Damn. Maybe I better post an armed guard at the nurse's station.

Gifted Students: Leaving Public For Private?

2007-09-05T19:13:00.000-05:00

According to this Washington Post story, this is what the No Child Left Behind legislation has wrought on the educational fortunes of public-school gifted students:

"No Child forces a fundamental educational approach so inappropriate for high-ability students that it destroys their interest in learning, as school becomes an endless chain of basic lessons aimed at low-performing students."

No doubt NCLB has ratcheted up the pressure to perform on standardized tests. The Georgia version is the CRCT. For the 07/08 school year 66.7% (up from 58.3% last year) of my kids have to pass the Math portion of the test and 73.3% (up from 66.7% last year) have to pass the Reading/Language Arts portion.

If not, we're designated a Needs Improvement school. So yeah, we throw a lot of resources at the lower academic achieving students. One thing I noticed about our scores is that the kids with the highest CRCT scores (the gifted), particularly in math, are flatlining. They aren't exceeding the standard in the same numbers that they used to in years prior. They are still meeting the standard, but they aren't blowing the doors in of the CRCT in a vast show of superior intellectual power. I attribute that to the adjustment period the teachers are going through to meet the demands of NCLB. Naturally when your neck is on the chopping block you do what you have to do to get it off--and that means realigning energies to bring the lowest achievers up.

The authors of the WashPo article lament:

"The response of many parents to this situation was summed up succinctly by one of our numerous friends, colleagues and family members who have pulled their children from neighborhood schools: "We've learned that the real solution is called 'private school.' "

Now maybe in the rarifed atmosphere of Washington Post op-ed writers ( Susan Goodkin is executive director of the California Learning Strategies Center, an education think tank. David G. Gold is a lecturer and consultant on strategic issues in negotiation), all their friends would solve their bored, gifted child's issues by opening their checkbook and buying themselves some private school--but that doesn't make any real sense.

Differentiated instruction at a private school usually means something like giving smart kids more problems to do and less-smart kids less problems to do. Or maybe doing a skit. The textbooks are the same, the assignments are the same, the A-F's are still the same. For a public school, differentiated instruction means taking one single objective, realizing that 20 kids with 20 different academic achievement levels are learning it and devising strategies that reach the non-readers and the baby Einsteins--at the same time.

We are going to raise the scores of our lowest achievers by concentrating more on our highest achievers. By getting more kids to exceed the standard, more lower achieving kids, benefiting from the accelerated pace and emphasis on critical thinking (which is differentiated instruction for gifted kids), will be raised until they have met the standards.

NCLB can be a crushing burden, but its also a winnower of mediocrity of teachers and teaching strategies. The teachers left standing will not settle for less for any child in their care and will push for them to learn everything they are capable of learning.

I wonder, in Savannah, if gifted kids are really pulling out of public schools for the reasons the authors' of this article cite (if there are any). I doubt it.

Hot For Teacher

2007-09-03T07:33:00.000-05:00

It's a rare male student who didn't crush on at least one of their teachers during their school years.

Wives and girlfriends should take advantage of those memories--if the scent of Elmer's, pencil shavings, Play-Doh, and Crayola excites him (mostly if the guy was one of those brown-noser, teacher's pet types), then there is this:

Crayon cologne.

And you don't even have to stay in the lines.

Caffeine Fix: Get The Straight Dope Here

2007-09-01T20:38:00.000-05:00

So you can adequately plan for your mid-morning and late afternoon caffeine fixes--the top 5 caffeinated sodas by type:

Colas:

Caffeine (mg/12 oz)
Pepsi One 57.1
Diet Cheerwine 48.1
Tab 48.1
Cheerwine 47.5
Diet RC 47.3

Flavored Colas:

Caffeine (m/g 12oz)
Diet Dr Pepper 44.1
Dr Pepper 42.6
Diet Dr Pepper Berries & Cream42.0
Pibb Zero 41.2
Dr Pepper Berries & Cream 41.1

Others (The Holy Grails of Caffeine Fixes):

Caffeine (m/g 12oz)
Vault Zero 74.0
Diet SunDrop 71.5
Vault Citrus 70.6
SunDrop 64.7
Diet Mountain Dew Code Red 55.4

The Diet Cheerwine is intriguing to me because I've never had a Cheerwine before. Diet Mountain Dew has always been my jolt of choice. I think every single one of my white dress shirts has a Code Red stain on it somewhere.

40 Kids A Day Suspended In Chatham County

2007-08-29T19:33:00.000-05:00

Chatham County suspends about 17% of its student population at least once in a school year. In 06/07, about 6,700 kids were suspended from schools in Chatham County--or about 40 per day.

I let that number waft around my head for a minute and did a quick calculation--assuming our school system isn't all that much different than any others in the state and there are about 1.6 million public students in GA--all of the schools in the state are suspending about 1,500 kids EVERY SINGLE DAY across the state.

That's about 270,000 kids being suspended in a year--more than the entire population of Savannah.

But unlike other scholastic indicators like the SAT, ITBS, and graduating rates, we aren't that bad. The state of Indiana suspends about 1,700 kids per day. And that's a NORTHERN state with more than half a million less public school students.

Girls Soothe The Savage Beast

2007-08-26T12:03:00.000-05:00

During the 2006/2007 school year in Savannah-Chatham, a little over 16% (over 6,700 students) of the student population got popped for at least a day of out-of-school suspension.

35% were girls.

In the elementary grades, suspensions are about 75% male, 25% female. Middle school is closer to the 65-35 percentage, and by high school its closer to a 60%/40% split.

Research out of Israel shows that having more girls in the class improves scholastic achievement of girls and boys. It also helps with the general classroom environment:

"An exploration of the mechanisms of the gender peer effects shows that a higher proportion of females in a class leads to a better classroom and learning environment. Students who have more female peers report a lower level of classroom violence and disruption, better relationships with other students and teachers, and a higher level of satisfaction with their school."

The benefits were found mostly when the girl population exceeded 55%--so in a class of 20, at least 12 should be girls.

There has been much talk latelyof segragating classes by sex--all boys and all girls. This works fine for girls but it comes at a net loss of academic success for boys.

I'll Bust A Cap In Your Lunchbox

2007-08-23T19:49:00.000-05:00

In Mesa, Arizona, "school officials suspended a 13-year-old boy for sketching what looked like a gun, saying the action posed a threat to his classmates."

He got a 5 day suspension, later reduced to 3 days.

The school official related the drawing to the Columbine Massacre and said the drawing was "absolutely considered a threat." I'm not sure what the principal is going to do when they start covering the Civil War, World War I & II, and the current war in Iraq, where actual guns were actually used.

Study environmental issues and participate in self-esteem raising activities instead, I guess.

Obese Kids Miss More School

2007-08-19T10:29:00.000-05:00

Skinny kids miss about 7 days of school per year. Normal weight kids miss about 10 days of school per year. Overweight kids (you might call them husky) miss about 11 days. Obese kids miss about 12 days.

Researchers say the absences aren't for medical reasons though:

"They're missing school because they don't want to be bullied and called names."

Uh-oh. I hear another clarion call for action. And right on time:

"This is exactly the kind of study that will get the attention of policy makers," said Jim Bogden, healthy eating project coordinator for the National Association of State Boards of Education.

Salads are good. Fruit is good. Lean meats are good. Menu choices that include these items are good. Government cheese is slimmer and trimmer now.

Kids spend 12% of their year at school. They ain't getting fat at school.

Closing Savannah's Racial Gap In Learning

2007-08-15T17:50:00.000-05:00

Supposedly moving poverty-stricken kids to more affluent neighborhoods is the key to increasing their academics:

"Moving to more affluent neighborhoods would surround children with more educated adult role models, stronger educational values, and better community resources. The children would benefit from higher-quality schools and the peer influences of high-achieving classmates. We would be sure to see improvement in their academic performance."

I see and hear a lot of this around town. Everyone wants their kids at a few public schools--most of them out of the city, in the county. Nobody who has a choice in the matter, wants their kids to go to certain schools because of their location or their population or a combination of both.

According to this study, moving poor kids to affluent communties doesn't improve academics--about the only thing it does is increase behavior problems in boys ages 11-14. I'm talking about moving the whole family to a new community, not just moving the kids to a new school.

If Savannah had been one of the test cities that offered a voucher program for families to move into subsidized housing in a more affluent community, a family could move to Wilmington Island or Georgetown or Isle of Hope but the kids aren't going to show any appreciable academic gains. But the way our town works--that's not ever going to happen anyway. So how to increase student achievement at neighborhood schools, even if those schools are in less desirous environs?

Two very general suggestions and one specific one:

First, Geveryl Robinson's editorial the other day imploring black people to rediscover the power of unity is important because it touches on the cultural aspect of what every public educator faces in Savannah. Robinson says:

"We can no longer sit back and allow our community to implode. We don't need white people to destroy us because we are doing that to ourselves."

That destruction is evident every day in Savannah's public schools. In the book No Excuses: Closing the Racial Gap In Learning (on the superintendents book list), a close examination is made of the different cultures (Asians, Blacks, Whites, Hispanics) and how each culture approaches education. As far as the black students struggling in Savannah, there are a few indicators of poorer academic performance:

--parental education
--parental occupation
--parental income
--low birth weight
--age of mother at birth
--number of books in the home

There really isn't much a teacher can do about those variables that have the greatest impact on the racial gap in learning. How that ties in to the black culture in Savannah is grist for many more blog entries than this one. Black Savannah has to unite and stop the self-destructive behaviors that put black students behind academically before they ever step foot in a school.

The second suggestion dovetails with the first suggestion because it also calls for a cultural change--that of mostly white, middle-class teachers needing to become better "merchants of hope" for their struggling black students. It's one thing to come from a different background where different values and behaviors are cherished, but its another to use that upbringing to cudgel the brightness out of a black student's eyes because of differences that are no fault of their own. In the book, From Rage To Hope, several suggestions are given to teachers to deal with the differences:

--Children respond better when eye contact is direct, sincere, loving, and encouraging.
--Children are more likely to modify behavior when comments are directed at specific behavior, rather than at general actions. ("I need you sit down" instead of "You are disrupting my class!")
--Talk to children privately when possible.
--Teachers' comments should reflect genuine concern for a child's needs.
--Teachers should check with individual students privately to make sure their comments and feelings are understood.

Teaching is a tricky, demanding, sometimes thankless job anyway--it's doubly hard when the teacher and students aren't even on the same wave-length. I think most teachers do a great job most of the time, but usually the most with the students who most resemble them--not necessarily racially, but culturally. It takes another layer of expertise, personal control and committment to translate values to a group of students who don't share them and it takes even more energy to translate their values in reverse so that they can be understood and be cherished for who they are and not for what the teacher thinks they should be and aren't.

Finally, the one specific strategy that I would employ to bolster the academic performance of ALL the students in Savannah is configure our schools so that the middle school is eliminated or at least de-emphasized, thus making as many K-8th or even PreK-8th schools as possible. Studies in Milwaukee, Philadelphia, and Baltimore have come to similar conclusions:

In Milwaukee--

"The intimacy of the K-8 environment and delaying the transition to a new school until students were more mature may have caused the improvements."

In Philadelphia--

“Every experiment yielded statistically significant evidence and non-significant trends showing that, as a group, K-8 schools are more effective than middle grades schools serving similar communities.”

In Baltimore:

"After controlling for baseline achievement, students in K-8 schools scored significantly higher than their middle school counterparts on standardized achievement measures in reading,
language arts, and math."

Changing black culture where necessary to increase achievement in academics, changing white, middle-class teacher's culture to be more accepting and tolerant of differences and creating more K-8 schools, I think, will help close the racial gap in learning in Savannah.

What do you think?

Buckeye Prof Says Year Round Schools Suck

2007-08-13T20:12:00.000-05:00

That's not what he really said. That was a little hyberbole on my part. What he did say was this about year round schools:

"The vast majority of young children who attend year-round schools do not learn more than their peers at schools with traditional calendars."

The study wasn't all that inclusive--just kindergarten and 1st grade students (they had similar math and reading gains no matter what calendar was used), but the prof did find "that the most disadvantaged students performed slightly better in reading skills."

Two things here--one, kindergarten and 1st grade students learn to read at their own pace whether they're on a year-round calendar, the 9 month calendar, or the Grigorian Chanting calendar. When a kid is ready, they read. No manner of clubbing them like baby seals can you make them turn their reading lights ON. You can provide them will all the skills, and soak them in the warm, nourishing, reading-filled nutrient stew, but until they start to make connections that many kids make as toddlers and earlier, reading will be difficult. Second, disadvantaged students do better with year-round calendar because they are that much behind. They need the constant stimulation--just like kids from higher socio-economic backgrounds received as infants and toddlers.

No matter. Savannah-Chatham will be going to school after Labor Day for the next three years.

Go Bucks!

Thomas The Tank Engine & Autism

2007-08-04T09:37:00.000-05:00

Autistic kids love them some Thomas The Tank Engine:

"Children on the autism spectrum associate with Thomas before any other childrens character (57%)."

But why?

--The calm and clear narration which exaggerates and 'signposts' changes clearly.

--The easy to follow storylines, where something usually goes wrong but it is resolved by the end of the episode.

--The still background and scenery. (Children with autism can be easily distracted by detail and small changes either in sound or movement.)

--The easily recognisable and bold colours.

--The 'friendly' faces whose expressions are exaggerated and are set for some time and so can be understood.

--The accuracy of the models. Most interestingly, copies of the licensed toys are recognised instantly as being less accurate by some children and are rejected as 'not being Thomas'.

--The predictability of the roles played by different characters.

--The suitability of Thomas for identification, listing and collecting, all common characteristics of many children with autistic traits.

Too much of what kids see on television is frenetic, non-recognizable, action--chock full of shifting colors and visuals. It gives me vertigo when I watch some of it, so I can only imagine what it might be like for a kid who might lack the ability to distinguish between visual stimuli and make the right social connections.

Here's Thomas The Tank Engine & Friends. Just because:

Nuts To Peanut Allergies

2007-07-30T18:04:00.000-05:00

It would be really, really nice if scientists can de-allergize peanuts.

"Scientists at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University say they've found a way to deactivate peanut allergens in the lab."

Having a kid in the classroom with peanut allergies is scary business--for teachers and parents. A lot of food flows into a classroom from everywhere--other kids, the school cafeteria, snacks--and to keep up with all of that can be stressful because the consequences can be so severe.

Scientists say "it would likely be several years before a so called safe peanut hit the market."

Faster, please.

Middle Schooler Smokers

2007-07-25T20:05:00.000-05:00

UGA research shows that most anti-smoking commercials do jack to prevent middle-schoolers from smoking.

In fact most anti-smoking commercials "appear to stimulate the rebellious and curious nature of youth, making them more interested in smoking."

Effective anti-smoking commercials (ones that make a middle schooler NOT want to try smoking), highlight that their peer group is listening to the message and they aren't smoking.

Lesson here for teachers and parents: It ain't you. It's the peer group.

Psychedelic Treatment For Autism?

2007-07-19T07:36:00.000-05:00

LSD as a treatment for autism? Nothing else really works anyway, right?

From a recent study of previous studies from the 50's, 60's, and 70's:

"The justification for using LSD was often based on the default logic that other treatment efforts had failed. Several positive outcomes were reported with the use of LSD, but most of these studies lacked proper experimental controls and presented largely narrative/descriptive data. "

I guess because mainly they let the kids drop acid and watched them trip out instead of rocking back and forth--which would seem to be an improvement.

Here's a list of other treatments available to treat autism:

Secretin Therapy
Nutritional Therapies and Autism
Hyperbaric Oxygen Treatment
Fibroblast Growth Factor 2
Live Cell and Stem Cell Therapy
Anti-fungal Treatment
Antibiotic Therapy to Improve Autism
Naltrexone (NTX) Treatment
Intensive Educational Therapies
Detoxification for Heavy Metals as a Treatment for Autism
Craniosacral Therapy for Autism and Other Developmental Delays

Might be funner just to lick a postage stamp and watch Fantasia.

SAT Scores: Who Needs Them?

2007-07-16T07:39:00.001-05:00

I read with interest Anne Hart's latest offering in the Savannah Morning News about her secretly wanting her baby to be a genius. This yearning for above-average, genius level intelligence is perfectly normal. Why? Because its rewarded later. If Anne can get her baby through all the pitfalls she will encounter over the next 16 or so years (way too numerous to mention here in an aside, except to say there are pitfalls, there are about a billion of them, and once the child hits school age, the pitfalls are almost daily), she will be rewarded with having her kid sit for the SAT which must be taken (currently) in order to apply for colleges.

A high SAT score opens the doors to more exclusive colleges. A lower SAT score funnels students away from top-tier colleges to more realistic choices.

That's tough, but its accurate. Look and see what the average SAT score is to get into Georgia Tech (1339) or the University of Georgia (1241). Then look at Georgia Southern (about 25% of their students score over 1200, 80% score between 1000-1200) or Armstrong (27% score below 1000, about 58% between 1000-1200, and about 14% over 1200). It's a big difference.

The SAT is meant to ameliorate the differences between kids from a higher socio-economic environment and those who aren't. That's not how it works though. Increasingly, kids from richer environments are getting the higher SAT scores:

"The children of the well educated and affluent get most of the top scores because they constitute most of the smartest kids. They are smart not because their parents are well educated, but because their parents are smart."

The College Board's (adminstrators of the SAT) own stats tell the story:

"Approximately 90 percent of the students with 700+ scores had at least one parent with a college degree. Over half had a parent with a graduate degree."

Kids with parents who have degrees are cleaning up most of the top SAT scores. Those parents, much like Anne Hart in her Mensa baby story, have utilized parenting practices since birth to bring their child along so that by the time the SAT rolls around--those kids are ready. I know from experience that an SAT score can be increased with practice--online tutorials, those big Kaplan SAT books in which we delineated how much my kid had to get done each week, and so on. I have one that is just beginning that process of preparing for the SAT. The point is coaching a child and preparing them for the SAT is a function of what I know--not what they know. All those SAT practice materials cost money too--which tends to shut out parents from lower socio-economic backgrounds--if they even know about them.

I'm not so sure that the SAT measures anything more than which child was lucky enough to be born to which particular family. All of the controversy about the SAT being culturally biased has been proven, over the years, to be unfounded. So, in a perfect world, a highly-motivated student from a crappy school in inner-city Savannah could score as well on the SAT as a private school student from the Landings. That's in the perfect world--where student performance is independent of parental upbringing and all of the pitfalls that any child will encounter along the way.

But the SAT doesn't even correlate with future college success--particularly with freshmen entering college. High school grade point averages and achievement tests are much better predictors:

"Researchers found that achievement tests and high school grade point each had about the same independent role—that is, each factor was, by itself, an equally accurate predictor of how a student will do as a college freshman. But the SAT’s independent role in predicting freshman grade point turned out to be so small that knowing the SAT score added next to nothing to an admissions officer’s ability to forecast how an applicant will do in college—the reason to give the test in the first place."

So why bother with the SAT anymore anyway as a gatekeeper achievement test to enter college? It doesn't have as high a predictive value for college success as GPA does, its divisive for many folks who still believe the test is culturally biased, and it creates a more stratified society by maintaining a cognitive elite--that is pretty much based on what family a child was born into and not much else.

Good luck to Anne Hart and her baby--maybe by the time her child is ready for college, there will be other measures in place that more fully explore her child's potential.

I ain't holding my breath, though.

Savannah-Chatham County Schools: Fish Eggs To Caviar

2007-07-15T13:45:00.000-05:00

Notice anything different in the title of this post? I dropped the word "public" from the name of Savannah's public school system.

Kind of sounds like Savannah Country Day School now, doesn't it?

Let's face it, the Q Score for Savannah-Chatham Public Schools in the Savannah community probably isn't much higher than Enron's or George W. Bush's right about now. Nor has it ever been as a whole. Maybe the school system should drop "public" from their name, like the city of Pittsburgh did with their schools. Their reasoning?

"By dropping "public" from its name the district might be able to avoid the negative attitude often associated with public schools."

I think it would be a good move. There are pockets of brilliance and success in the Savannah public schools and those schools don't rely on the publicness of what they are presenting. Their success is based on their school community and culture.

Every successful business enterprise brands their product. If Savannah-Chatham Schools are to upgrade their brand, the negative connotations of certain words have to be taken into account.

Nobody would pay $100 an ounce, let alone eat, beluga caviar if it was called fish eggs, right?