Don't forget that back-to-school starts Wednesday, as the cast of the hit TV show "Hellmann's Heroes" returns in their season premier.
The warm ups start at 6:30 as the Policy Committee will discuss um, ...policies.
The 2008-2009 season home opener starts at 7:30. There's been a few changes. Replacing the injured Kate Taylor in the elementary principal slot will be Karen Huggins. Replacing the departed Melanie Gehrens in the secondary principal role will be Willian Ferrara. A replacement for the departed Kim Myers at special ed has not been named. This will probably be the last chance to see the retiring Reba Dunford playing at home in the business administrator position.
NOTICE
Notice is hereby given that the School District of Borough of Morrisville, Morrisville, PA, will hold a Policy Committee meeting in the G-Hall conference room of the Morrisville Middle/Senior High School, 550 W. Palmer St., Morrisville, PA on Wednesday, August 27, 2008 at 6:30 pm. Various policies will be discussed.
Marlys Mihok, Secretary
1t August 24, 2008
Monday, August 25, 2008
More Student Testing
From the BCCT this morning.
I'm not necessarily against this idea, yet where does it end? Are the teachers, staff and administrators tested as well? Perhaps the school board should be as well. How about the parents? Should they all set an example?
“This is all about getting help. If we can save one or two kids ... what price do you want to put on a kid’s life?” Ask the Emperor and the Board of Selected Accomplices. They apparently have numbers on this topic.
The privacy issue looms large here as well. Who gets this information and how is it used?
The endpoint? Magic 8-ball says "ask again": “The success question is difficult to get a handle on.” If the question is that difficult to frame, the answer must be pretty impossible.
Do you trust the people in charge?
District considers drug testing
Central Bucks administrators plan to have more meetings with parents and students this fall to discuss a random testing program. Here’s a look at other schools in Pennsylvania that have similar programs.
By CHRISTINA KRISTOFIC
Central Bucks School District administrators are planning to meet with parents and students this fall to discuss a random student-drug testing program.
If district administrators decide to implement a drug-testing program, they won’t be the first in the state.
And they probably won’t be the last.
No state agency keeps track of how many of the state’s 501 school districts have student drug-testing programs, but the newspaper identified 12 school districts across the state, although none in Bucks or eastern Montgomery counties, that have programs in place. Some are new; some are several years old. Officials from only five districts responded to inquiries about their testing programs.
Officials at school districts with established programs said they have successfully reduced student drug use, even though they didn’t have much data to support the claim.
Others said they didn’t know if student drug use had dropped. But they thought the programs have effectively helped students who use drugs to get the counseling they need from school nurses and drug counselors and given students who don’t use drugs another way to say “no” to someone who offers drugs to them.
“There is a problem with drug use,” said Barbara Zimmerman, a member of the Hempfield school board in Lancaster County.
“Anybody in a school district that says they don’t have a drug problem is lying or they aren’t connected with reality. There’s drugs in schools. No matter what way you look at it. It might be on school grounds. It might be on the weekends.”
And Zimmerman, a registered nurse and nursing instructor at Millersville University, believes schools have the responsibility to help kids by testing them. She advocated for the program at Hempfield.
“What’s the difference from when the school nurse is screening your hearing, vision, height, weight? The same thing happens as if you fail your hearing test. What happens? You send a letter home and you’ve got to get a hearing test,” she said. “This is all about getting help. If we can save one or two kids ... what price do you want to put on a kid’s life?”
Asked if the program had reduced drug use at Hempfield in the three years that the district has had it, Zimmerman answered, “The success question is difficult to get a handle on.”
She acknowledged that much of the data school districts have is self-reported — student responses to statewide surveys about drug and alcohol use.
Fewer students at Hempfield have reported using drugs and alcohol, she said.
Zimmerman said she gives the high school students a written survey at the end of every school year, asking if they think there’s a drug problem at Hempfield, if they think the drug-testing program helps them say “no” to the peers and if they chose not to participate in extracurricular activities because of the drug-testing program.
The survey has a portion where students can write their own thoughts, and Zimmerman said most of the students have said they think the drug-testing program has helped curtail drug use at Hempfield.
“Are they saying it because they think they have to say it? Or are they saying it because it’s true?” she asked.
Gettysburg Area School District Superintendent William Hall said earlier this year that he didn’t know much about the success of the district’s drug-testing program because he’s still new to the district. The district has tested all student-athletes for three or four years, he said.
“We’re not seeing any alarming increases,” Hall said. “But I can’t say that we’re seeing any significant decreases, either.”
Solanco School District in southern Lancaster County has had a random student drug-testing program in place for several years. It received federal funding three years ago to pay for its program and has continued to fund the program out of its own budget for the last two years.
More than 60 percent of the middle and high school students were in the testing pool last year, and a “vast majority” of their tests came back negative for drug use, said district spokesman Keith Kaufman. Asked if the program has successfully reduced drug use at Solanco, Kaufman couldn’t really say.
“What the drug testing program does is that it gives our students another opportunity to say ‘no’ to drug use,” he said.
“If they’re getting any kind of peer pressure, they can say, ‘Listen, I want to be in the band. I want to be on the chess team. I want to be on the football team. I can’t risk it. I don’t want to lose my parking privileges.’ That’s a big one. Once students start driving, they don’t like the idea of going back to a school bus.”
And, when students test positive for drug use, they can get help from counselors.
Candis Finan, superintendent of Delaware Valley School District in Pike County, was able to provide a little more data about the success of her district’s drug-testing program.
Delaware Valley School District has had a student drug-testing program since 1998, shortly after a student was caught in the high school parking lot with heroin.
The school district has one of the most comprehensive student drug-testing programs of the school districts surveyed. Students in seventh through 12th grades who participate in extracurricular activities and students who drive to school must submit to drug testing.
All of the students who drive or participate in yearlong activities are tested at the beginning of the school year. Students who participate in seasonal activities are tested at the beginning of the season. And all of the students in the testing pool are tested randomly throughout the year.
Finan said the district tested 1,600 students in 2007-08 school year, and nine tested positive for drug use. The district tested 1,400 students in the 2006-07 school year, and four tested positive.
In all the years the district has had the drug-testing program, Finan said, only one student has ever tested positive a second time.
Finan said the students who participate in extracurricular activities and drive to school are the leaders of the school; and by their refusal to use drugs, they become role models for the others.
“I believe it works. I believe it is clearly a deterrent to student drug use,” Finan said.
“Is [drug use] going down? I wouldn’t have figures to support that. The students who wish to participate in activities clearly are not using drugs, I can tell you that.”
I'm not necessarily against this idea, yet where does it end? Are the teachers, staff and administrators tested as well? Perhaps the school board should be as well. How about the parents? Should they all set an example?
“This is all about getting help. If we can save one or two kids ... what price do you want to put on a kid’s life?” Ask the Emperor and the Board of Selected Accomplices. They apparently have numbers on this topic.
The privacy issue looms large here as well. Who gets this information and how is it used?
The endpoint? Magic 8-ball says "ask again": “The success question is difficult to get a handle on.” If the question is that difficult to frame, the answer must be pretty impossible.
Do you trust the people in charge?
District considers drug testing
Central Bucks administrators plan to have more meetings with parents and students this fall to discuss a random testing program. Here’s a look at other schools in Pennsylvania that have similar programs.
By CHRISTINA KRISTOFIC
Central Bucks School District administrators are planning to meet with parents and students this fall to discuss a random student-drug testing program.
If district administrators decide to implement a drug-testing program, they won’t be the first in the state.
And they probably won’t be the last.
No state agency keeps track of how many of the state’s 501 school districts have student drug-testing programs, but the newspaper identified 12 school districts across the state, although none in Bucks or eastern Montgomery counties, that have programs in place. Some are new; some are several years old. Officials from only five districts responded to inquiries about their testing programs.
Officials at school districts with established programs said they have successfully reduced student drug use, even though they didn’t have much data to support the claim.
Others said they didn’t know if student drug use had dropped. But they thought the programs have effectively helped students who use drugs to get the counseling they need from school nurses and drug counselors and given students who don’t use drugs another way to say “no” to someone who offers drugs to them.
“There is a problem with drug use,” said Barbara Zimmerman, a member of the Hempfield school board in Lancaster County.
“Anybody in a school district that says they don’t have a drug problem is lying or they aren’t connected with reality. There’s drugs in schools. No matter what way you look at it. It might be on school grounds. It might be on the weekends.”
And Zimmerman, a registered nurse and nursing instructor at Millersville University, believes schools have the responsibility to help kids by testing them. She advocated for the program at Hempfield.
“What’s the difference from when the school nurse is screening your hearing, vision, height, weight? The same thing happens as if you fail your hearing test. What happens? You send a letter home and you’ve got to get a hearing test,” she said. “This is all about getting help. If we can save one or two kids ... what price do you want to put on a kid’s life?”
Asked if the program had reduced drug use at Hempfield in the three years that the district has had it, Zimmerman answered, “The success question is difficult to get a handle on.”
She acknowledged that much of the data school districts have is self-reported — student responses to statewide surveys about drug and alcohol use.
Fewer students at Hempfield have reported using drugs and alcohol, she said.
Zimmerman said she gives the high school students a written survey at the end of every school year, asking if they think there’s a drug problem at Hempfield, if they think the drug-testing program helps them say “no” to the peers and if they chose not to participate in extracurricular activities because of the drug-testing program.
The survey has a portion where students can write their own thoughts, and Zimmerman said most of the students have said they think the drug-testing program has helped curtail drug use at Hempfield.
“Are they saying it because they think they have to say it? Or are they saying it because it’s true?” she asked.
Gettysburg Area School District Superintendent William Hall said earlier this year that he didn’t know much about the success of the district’s drug-testing program because he’s still new to the district. The district has tested all student-athletes for three or four years, he said.
“We’re not seeing any alarming increases,” Hall said. “But I can’t say that we’re seeing any significant decreases, either.”
Solanco School District in southern Lancaster County has had a random student drug-testing program in place for several years. It received federal funding three years ago to pay for its program and has continued to fund the program out of its own budget for the last two years.
More than 60 percent of the middle and high school students were in the testing pool last year, and a “vast majority” of their tests came back negative for drug use, said district spokesman Keith Kaufman. Asked if the program has successfully reduced drug use at Solanco, Kaufman couldn’t really say.
“What the drug testing program does is that it gives our students another opportunity to say ‘no’ to drug use,” he said.
“If they’re getting any kind of peer pressure, they can say, ‘Listen, I want to be in the band. I want to be on the chess team. I want to be on the football team. I can’t risk it. I don’t want to lose my parking privileges.’ That’s a big one. Once students start driving, they don’t like the idea of going back to a school bus.”
And, when students test positive for drug use, they can get help from counselors.
Candis Finan, superintendent of Delaware Valley School District in Pike County, was able to provide a little more data about the success of her district’s drug-testing program.
Delaware Valley School District has had a student drug-testing program since 1998, shortly after a student was caught in the high school parking lot with heroin.
The school district has one of the most comprehensive student drug-testing programs of the school districts surveyed. Students in seventh through 12th grades who participate in extracurricular activities and students who drive to school must submit to drug testing.
All of the students who drive or participate in yearlong activities are tested at the beginning of the school year. Students who participate in seasonal activities are tested at the beginning of the season. And all of the students in the testing pool are tested randomly throughout the year.
Finan said the district tested 1,600 students in 2007-08 school year, and nine tested positive for drug use. The district tested 1,400 students in the 2006-07 school year, and four tested positive.
In all the years the district has had the drug-testing program, Finan said, only one student has ever tested positive a second time.
Finan said the students who participate in extracurricular activities and drive to school are the leaders of the school; and by their refusal to use drugs, they become role models for the others.
“I believe it works. I believe it is clearly a deterrent to student drug use,” Finan said.
“Is [drug use] going down? I wouldn’t have figures to support that. The students who wish to participate in activities clearly are not using drugs, I can tell you that.”
Test Fatigue
From the BCCT this morning.
Schools blast state for PSSA changes
Testing will be done from April 15 to May 15, a time when juniors will be preparing for final exams and Advanced Placement tests.
By HILARY BENTMAN
On the eve of the new school year, some local administrators are positively reeling.
The source of their beef is a late announcement about a change to the testing dates for this year’s PSSA, which administrators said will wreak havoc with their already-established calendars and monopolize an entire month of instructional time at one of the most critical periods of the school year.
“It would be a lot of days lost in the fourth marking period,” said Council Rock Superintendent Mark Klein.
Each year, students are required to take the Pennsylvania System of School Assessments, which tests students in math, reading, writing and science. The math and reading tests are for students in third through eighth, and 11th grade. The science test is given to students in fourth, eighth and 11th grades. All are required under the federal No Child Left Behind Act. The goal is to have all children proficient by 2014.
The state also requires a writing test but that is not required by No Child Left Behind.
In previous years, these exams, which can last two to three hours a day, were spread out over several months, with test windows lasting several days at a time.
But the Pennsylvania Department of Education informed districts on Wednesday that the PSSAs will be given during a four-week window from April 15 to May 15, which the department said is being implemented upon the recommendation of educators surveyed around the state who thought this was less disruptive to learning.
“Educators wanted to see more time with kids in the classroom,” said PDE spokeswoman Sheila Ballen.
But shortly after the new schedule was released, the department began receiving calls from school administrators around the state upset with the move.
Council Rock administrators sent emails to the state education department and was prepared to join other Bucks County districts in sending a letter of protest to the PDE, Klein said.
On Friday, the schedule was removed from the department’s Web site and replaced with a note saying “COMING SOON: Stay Tuned for More Information on the 08-09 Testing Schedule.”
Ballen said the department would consider the administrators’ comments and “try to find a solution.”
“We truly hope they do so,” said Klein. “Otherwise it’s seven to 10 days of one marking period.”
A condensed four-week testing schedule fails to hit the mark for several reasons, said local school principals and superintendents.
For some students, particularly juniors who are tested in all four subject areas, it means they will be sitting for exams two or three days a week. Administrators are concerned they will lose what amounts to a month of productive instructional time during a period when they should be preparing for final exams and Advanced Placement tests.
Eleventh grade “is one of most crucial years for a high school student. They’re building up a transcript and getting their best foot out” for colleges, said Mario Galante, director of special services for the Quakertown School District. “It’s almost like an oxymoron. We have to get kids up to standards and they’re taking more instructional time away from kids.”
The Advanced Placement tests begin on May 5 and will overlap with the PSSA. Administered by the College Board, AP exams, which can award students college credit, must be given on specific days. The PSSAs are flexible and will have to be moved around to accommodate students.
Juniors will be pulled out of classes, interrupting not only their instructional time, but that of the sophomores, juniors and seniors who are in some of their classes, officials said.
Administrators worry about test exhaustion and question how effective students will perform on the PSSAs under this new set-up.
“It’s gone from bad to unconscionable,” said Souderton High School Principal Sam Varano. “Our 11th graders are going to think that testing is all that school is about.”
The state, he added, “has thrown high schools across the state off for a solid month. They couldn’t pick a four-week time period that was more crucial.”
Adding to their woes is the timing of the announcement.
Many school districts had already printed their calendars and were preparing to distribute them to parents.
The new testing dates means having to rework the schedules for everything from special school programs, to teacher inservice days, to community events. Families will also be unable to take trips during this time because students must be in school for the exams.
“We build everything around the PSSAs. Now I’m blown out of the water,” said Upper Moreland Superintendent Robert Milrod, who called the state irresponsible and said his initial reaction was to band together with other Montgomery County schools and draft a letter protesting the move.
Although the department of education said schools are always told that PSSA dates are tentative, “we were admittedly late in telling them (of the changes). We understand the schools’ concerns,” said Ballen, who said the PDE is hearing from
Education department officials had been waiting for the completion of contract negotiations with the test provider, DRC.
The Minnesota firm provides the state with its PSSA exams and was coming off a five-year contract. Ballen said the state could not announce the testing dates until the new contract was officially signed.
Varano acknowledged that the department indicated the schedule was tentative, but said “you don’t do anything this important on the eve of the school year.”
Schools blast state for PSSA changes
Testing will be done from April 15 to May 15, a time when juniors will be preparing for final exams and Advanced Placement tests.
By HILARY BENTMAN
On the eve of the new school year, some local administrators are positively reeling.
The source of their beef is a late announcement about a change to the testing dates for this year’s PSSA, which administrators said will wreak havoc with their already-established calendars and monopolize an entire month of instructional time at one of the most critical periods of the school year.
“It would be a lot of days lost in the fourth marking period,” said Council Rock Superintendent Mark Klein.
Each year, students are required to take the Pennsylvania System of School Assessments, which tests students in math, reading, writing and science. The math and reading tests are for students in third through eighth, and 11th grade. The science test is given to students in fourth, eighth and 11th grades. All are required under the federal No Child Left Behind Act. The goal is to have all children proficient by 2014.
The state also requires a writing test but that is not required by No Child Left Behind.
In previous years, these exams, which can last two to three hours a day, were spread out over several months, with test windows lasting several days at a time.
But the Pennsylvania Department of Education informed districts on Wednesday that the PSSAs will be given during a four-week window from April 15 to May 15, which the department said is being implemented upon the recommendation of educators surveyed around the state who thought this was less disruptive to learning.
“Educators wanted to see more time with kids in the classroom,” said PDE spokeswoman Sheila Ballen.
But shortly after the new schedule was released, the department began receiving calls from school administrators around the state upset with the move.
Council Rock administrators sent emails to the state education department and was prepared to join other Bucks County districts in sending a letter of protest to the PDE, Klein said.
On Friday, the schedule was removed from the department’s Web site and replaced with a note saying “COMING SOON: Stay Tuned for More Information on the 08-09 Testing Schedule.”
Ballen said the department would consider the administrators’ comments and “try to find a solution.”
“We truly hope they do so,” said Klein. “Otherwise it’s seven to 10 days of one marking period.”
A condensed four-week testing schedule fails to hit the mark for several reasons, said local school principals and superintendents.
For some students, particularly juniors who are tested in all four subject areas, it means they will be sitting for exams two or three days a week. Administrators are concerned they will lose what amounts to a month of productive instructional time during a period when they should be preparing for final exams and Advanced Placement tests.
Eleventh grade “is one of most crucial years for a high school student. They’re building up a transcript and getting their best foot out” for colleges, said Mario Galante, director of special services for the Quakertown School District. “It’s almost like an oxymoron. We have to get kids up to standards and they’re taking more instructional time away from kids.”
The Advanced Placement tests begin on May 5 and will overlap with the PSSA. Administered by the College Board, AP exams, which can award students college credit, must be given on specific days. The PSSAs are flexible and will have to be moved around to accommodate students.
Juniors will be pulled out of classes, interrupting not only their instructional time, but that of the sophomores, juniors and seniors who are in some of their classes, officials said.
Administrators worry about test exhaustion and question how effective students will perform on the PSSAs under this new set-up.
“It’s gone from bad to unconscionable,” said Souderton High School Principal Sam Varano. “Our 11th graders are going to think that testing is all that school is about.”
The state, he added, “has thrown high schools across the state off for a solid month. They couldn’t pick a four-week time period that was more crucial.”
Adding to their woes is the timing of the announcement.
Many school districts had already printed their calendars and were preparing to distribute them to parents.
The new testing dates means having to rework the schedules for everything from special school programs, to teacher inservice days, to community events. Families will also be unable to take trips during this time because students must be in school for the exams.
“We build everything around the PSSAs. Now I’m blown out of the water,” said Upper Moreland Superintendent Robert Milrod, who called the state irresponsible and said his initial reaction was to band together with other Montgomery County schools and draft a letter protesting the move.
Although the department of education said schools are always told that PSSA dates are tentative, “we were admittedly late in telling them (of the changes). We understand the schools’ concerns,” said Ballen, who said the PDE is hearing from
Education department officials had been waiting for the completion of contract negotiations with the test provider, DRC.
The Minnesota firm provides the state with its PSSA exams and was coming off a five-year contract. Ballen said the state could not announce the testing dates until the new contract was officially signed.
Varano acknowledged that the department indicated the schedule was tentative, but said “you don’t do anything this important on the eve of the school year.”
Education Policy: Obama and McCain
Barack Obama and John McCain will be opening up the 2008 installment of the quadrennial presidential follies shortly, and we will be treated to the spectacle of media frenzy over substance-less discussion, but education policy will be on the mind of the 44th President of the United States.
The Council for Exceptional Children has created a voter guide (pdf) that lists the education platforms of the presidential candidates.
EdWeek.org has a Campaign K-12 blog available to keep up to date.
The Council for Exceptional Children has created a voter guide (pdf) that lists the education platforms of the presidential candidates.
EdWeek.org has a Campaign K-12 blog available to keep up to date.
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