The next big thing: smaller schools
Baltimore Sun
Across the nation, urban school districts are breaking up large schools and replacing them with smaller ones. In Baltimore, new high schools with as few as 400 to 500 students have been carved out of old ones with enrollments of 2,000 or more.
To be a good parent requires a firm, affectionate patience
Providence Journal
Julia Steiny
Standing on the beach, on one of those recent scorching days, I saw a little boy in blue swim trunks careening across the beach, a 4-year-old with a mission. He had a white rock shaped roughly like a round loaf of bakery bread. He presented it with pride to a woman I assumed was his mom.
Documentary Chronicles Pitfalls of American Education in Global Economy
Diverse Magazine
by Michelle Nealy
Diverse reporter Michelle Nealy chats with Indianapolis venture-capitalist-turned-filmmaker, Bob Compton, about his provocative new documentary, "2 Million Minutes." The film chronicles six students from India , the United States and China during their high school years. Compton highlights the pitfalls of American education in today's global economy and praises those cultures that revere academic achievement.
NEW READING FIRST DATA FROM STATES SHOWS IMPRESSIVE GAINS IN READING PROFICIENCY
United States Department of Education
Students From Nearly Every Grade and Every Subgroup Show Improvement
U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings today announced new data from the states showing impressive gains for Reading First students. The achievement data submitted by state education agencies (SEAs) and compiled and analyzed by the Education Department's contractor, American Institutes for Research, showed improvement in nearly every grade and subgroup, including English language learners and students with disabilities.
Restraint and Seclusion on Children with Disabilities in Florida Public Schools
There are many families from counties all over Florida who have children with Autism and Autism Spectrum Disorders that are being restrained, put in time-out and forced locked seclusion rooms in the public school system. Our children are being injured physically and mentally because of their disabilities and the lack of appropriate programs and highly qualified teachers and aides available to educate them. Most of the aides that are hired have little or no background in children with Autism or Autism Spectrum Disorders.
Across US, schools feel budget pinch
Christian Science Monitor
By Stacy Teicher Khadaroo
Slashed funding and rising costs are forcing school districts to cut back, even close down. Lynn, Mass. - The Fallon elementary school is a joyous place. But last week, some parents, students, and staff felt as blue as the hallway walls. On Friday, the small school in Lynn, Mass., shut its doors - not just for the summer, but for good.
EducationNews National Coverage
Poll: Half say schools aren't preparing kids
USA Today
WASHINGTON (AP) - It's not much of a report card. Half of Americans say U.S. schools are doing only a fair to poor job preparing kids for college and the work force. Even more feel that way about the skills kids need to survive as adults, an Associated Press poll released Friday finds.
Saturday, June 28, 2008
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More news from today's BCCT:
School board, teachers finalizing contract details
By JOAN HELLYER
Bucks County Courier Times
Bristol school board members and teachers union representatives “are trying to finalize” details of a new contract, according to the board's negotiating team leader.
“We hope to sign soon. We're putting forth our best effort and the teachers are putting forth their best effort,” John Hill said Thursday night after the board's meeting.
The two sides met earlier this week to discuss terms of the deal that would take effect in September. Hill declined to provide details.
Mike Girard, spokesman for the Bristol Borough Education Association, also declined Friday to provide details about the latest negotiating session.
However, representatives previously said the ongoing discussions are centered on salary, benefits and contract language.
Girard characterized the most recent meeting as “productive” in which board members gave the union some unspecified offers. BBEA representatives spent the last few days studying the offers and provided district officials with a counterproposal on Friday, Girard said.
The board's negotiating team and BBEA representatives will meet again Tuesday behind closed doors, Hill said.
The BBEA represents about 90 professional staff members.
The school board has scheduled a special meeting on July 17 in part to discuss the contract situation, Superintendent Broadus Davis said.
And yet more news from today's BCCT. I believe he represented QSRE in it's lawsuits against the new school.
County’s ‘protector’ Robert Sugarman dies
By ANNIE TASKER
phillyBurbs.com
He used the phrase “grassroots” so much that his wife finally banned him from saying it in the house.
But it was a way of life for Robert Sugarman, a lawyer and activist whose involvement with environment, civil rights and land development spanned 40 years and two countries.
Sugarman died just after midnight Friday morning after a long battle with prostate cancer. He was 70.
Though his health had been failing for months, he only recently tapered off his workload at several municipalities where he worked as solicitor. In February, after closing his law offices in Doylestown and Philadelphia, he formed the PennFuture Center for Grassroots Support with Buckingham Supervisor Henry Rowan to establish support for citizen activists and public interest organizations.
“To me it’s making the best of the situation, to be able to continue to do whatever I can do and still make a contribution,” Sugarman said at the time, acknowledging his failing health.
It’s hard to overstate the extent of Sugarman’s involvement in southeastern Pennsylvania and its struggles. He represented Buckingham in legal proceedings surrounding PennDOT’s Route 202 bypass and fought the notorious Pump, which sought to transfer water from the Delaware River to cool the Limerick nuclear power plant in Montgomery County. He served as solicitor in several municipalities including Warrington, Buckingham and Tinicum.
In Philadelphia, he fought to stop I-95 from being built as an elevated highway through Society Hill and a cross-town expressway from being built through South Street in Center City.
He also helped pave the way toward government positions for black politicians before it was the norm when, in 1971, he co-chaired the campaign of Hardy Williams in what was considered the first legitimate bid for mayor by a black candidate. Sugarman’s co-chair, Wilson Goode, would later claim the seat.
In 1978, President Jimmy Carter appointed him to the International Joint Commission for U.S.-Canada border environmental protection. Sugarman’s wife, Kathy, said she joked to Al Gore during a party that the former vice president stole the title of his movie, “An Inconvenient Truth,” from a “60 Minutes” interview Sugarman gave during his time on the joint commission.
As Kathy tells it, Mike Wallace asked Sugarman, incredulous, why a company would not stop dumping toxins into a body of water though it knew the environmental impact could last for decades.
His reply: “Because it would be very inconvenient for them.”
Sugarman’s resume spans 40 years, several fields and so many locations that even his family had a hard time coming up with a complete list of his accomplishments.
That’s not to suggest Sugarman’s children weren’t paying attention. His oldest, Karen, has a political resume that includes two years working for the state Senate, and son Ken is an attorney. Jane is about to start law school after a stint working for Bucks County Commissioner Diane Marseglia’s campaign, and Lily is thinking about doing the same after she graduates from Temple’s environmental studies program. All bets are off for how 9-year-old Gabrielle will make a living.
Ken said his father was devoted to empowering citizens at the local level to control the decisions being made where they lived. He valued his working relationships.
A few days ago, Ken said he overheard Sugarman on the phone with a Tinicum Township official, explaining that his health would keep him from working for them anymore.
There was a pause. Then, he heard his father say, “I love you, too.”
His clients loved him back. Bucks County recently declared Sugarman’s birthday, May 29, “Bob Sugarman Day.” Lower Makefield supervisors named the stretch of Big Oak Road from Oxford Valley Road to the Middletown border Robert Sugarman Boulevard, after he helped battle a plan for bigbox stores near the Oxford Valley Mall. Tinicum named the Buckingham man an honorary resident.
Colleagues remember Sugarman as someone whose ideas helped shape communities.
“Bob was the most influential force in environmental law in Pennsylvania,” said Bart Winokur, a Harvard Law School classmate and, later, a co-worker.
Sugarman was always passionate, he said. Winokur remembers sitting in the kitchen with him watching the Richard Nixon impeachment proceedings.
“Watching it with Bob himself was an experience,” he said. “He was an experience.”
Marseglia said Sugarman was able to look at a land development plan and anticipate what impact it would have on the big picture - the one who was able to connect the dots, so to speak.
“We’ve all lost an incredible friend, but Bucks County has lost a protector,” Marseglia said.
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