Sunday, October 28, 2007

EXCELLENT Editorial about setting Goals before asking for $ from Taxpayers

This is an editorial by a MN Chamber of Commerce official about the need for school districts to set specific goals for student achievement before just asking taxpayers to fund more of the same programming with a referendum. Again, this piece was AWOL during the last ECASD referendum and the district still is years from making progress on this topic.

Maria

William Blazar: Before voting on a levy, know your district's goals

Taxpayers would be more likely to say yes if they knew the money would
produce measurable results.

William Blazar
Published: October 28, 2007

Next month, voters across the state will be asked to pay more taxes
for their local schools. The money is proposed to pay for a variety of
things, from everyday operating expenses to buildings to improved
technology.
These are important votes for all Minnesota employers and their
employees. Companies of all sizes and types need the best individuals
to compete in a global market. Parents want to ensure that their
children can compete for jobs. The Minnesota Chamber of Commerce, as
the state's largest business advocacy organization, has a keen
interest that schools have the resources necessary to meet our
workforce needs.

That's why we encourage voters to ask the logical question before
casting ballots: What are the district's goals for the additional
dollars in terms of measurable results in student achievement?

Newspaper stories across the state have carried the foreboding message
to "Vote Yes" or our children's education will suffer. And they
proceed to detail the ramifications of a "no" vote, such as larger
classes, outdated curricula and texts, and fewer teachers and support
staff.

All these elements may be important to teaching our children. But,
frankly, we're not sure -- for two reasons. First, most businesspeople
are not education experts. Second, today's world economy and diverse
school population say that the business community and voters should
not prescribe any one learning approach -- lower class size, for
example -- on any school.

We should leave the strategies to our teachers, encouraging them (and
giving them the flexibility) to do what works. School leaders should
make the cases for their referendums in terms of measurable student
results. Districts will benefit most -- and make the strongest cases
for passage -- if they focus their campaigns on clear achievement
goals.

Most districts, unfortunately, are silent on this.

The Crookston School District provides a shining exception in its
"Annual Report on Curriculum, Instruction and Student Achievement." As
noted in the Crookston Daily Times, the report contains 2007-08 goals
for student achievement that are "unprecedented in their specificity."

For example, the district aims to narrow the achievement gap in
reading -- by 3 percent on next spring's tests -- for Hispanics and
students eligible for free or reduced-price lunches. The district
identified strategies to reach all its goals, and the report is posted
on its website.

And if goals aren't met? "Then we'll have to take another look at what
we're doing," the Crookston Times quoted Ione Swenson, the district's
curriculum, assessment and staff development director. "It's always a
work in progress."

Crookston is not seeking a referendum. But you can bet its chances for
passage would be greatly enhanced by its efforts to tell the entire
community where the district is headed on achievement.

A discussion of school funding is incomplete without acknowledging
that declining enrollment is at the root of many districts' troubles.
Schools are largely funded on head count, and it's admittedly a tricky
equation. A drop of, say, 60 students -- and the accompanying reduced
state aid -- cannot be recouped by simply eliminating two kindergarten
sections. The drops in student numbers are likely scattered among all
grades, with rarely a large enough block to eliminate an entire
classroom section.

At the same time, with our graying population, declining enrollments
are a fact of life. It's neither practical nor fiscally sustainable to
pay schools more money for educating fewer students. And so, we're
back to setting local goals for student achievement. By focusing on
results, districts have the flexibility to deal with their enrollment
and diversity issues. We should not presume that a solution that works
in one district will succeed in another.

School districts should make a pact with their communities. Share with
us what achievement results the new local money will buy and how
progress will be measured and reported. Set goals for educational
achievement within each community, and we'll be first in line to "vote
yes."

William Blazar is senior vice president of public affairs and business
development at the Minnesota Chamber of Commerce.

(c) 2007 Star Tribune. All rights reserved.

WEAC Analysis of the state budget

Here is WEAC's take on the completed state budget:

Governor signs 2007-09 state budget

The following summary of provisions was compiled by the WEAC
Government Relations Division:

K-12

Provides $76.8 million in general school aids in 2008-09.
Adds $53.6 million to special education categorical aid, which would
represent increases of 5.2% in 2007-08 and 5.4% in 2008-09. In
addition, provides $1.8 million in supplemental special education aid.
Increases the annual reimbursement rate for pupils transported over 12
miles from home and school from $180 to $220 beginning in 2007-08.
Provides $3.3 million over the biennium to increase the school
breakfast reimbursement rate from 10 cents to 15 cents per breakfast
served.
Makes no changes to the current-law inflationary adjustment to the
per-pupil adjustment, resulting in a per-pupil adjustment of $264 in
2007-08 and $270 in 2008-09.
Increases the low-revenue ceiling from $8,400 to $8,700 in 2007-08 and
to $9,000 in 2008-09.
Provides for 100% hold harmless for declining enrollment school
districts and allows the prior year's base to serve as a revenue limit
floor.
Provides $21 million over the biennium in a new aid program to
high-poverty school districts. The aid to Milwaukee Public Schools
would be used to ease the property tax burden for picking up 45% of
cost of the Milwaukee private school voucher program.
Invests $10 million in 2008-09 to boost student achievement in
Milwaukee Public Schools.
Provides $3 million for 4-year-old kindergarten start-up grants.
Expands the national teacher certification program to provide grants
to master educator licensees and award higher grants to those board
certified teachers and master educators who teach in high-poverty
schools.
Provides $3.6 million in 2008-09 in aid to small rural schools districts.
Provides $27 million to fully fund the state's commitment to increase
the SAGE per-pupil amount from $2,000 to $2,250.
Provides $500,000 over the biennium for grants to school districts for
nursing services.
Increases funding for gifted and talented by $182,000 over the biennium.
Provides $123,000 over the biennium for grants to promote education in
science, technology, engineering and math.
Provides $76,000 over the biennium for international education activities.
Creates an Office of the Wisconsin Covenant and associated positions.
Provides $500,000 for Project Lead the Way.
Increases the current school levy tax credit distribution for the
2007(08) property tax year by $79,350,000. Increases the distribution
for the 2008(09) property tax year by a further $75,000,000. Creates a
property tax credit called the "first dollar credit" with a funding
level of $75,000,000 annually beginning in the 2008(09) property tax
year, and modifies the existing school levy tax credit appropriation
to include payments for the first dollar credit.
WTCS

Provides $3 million over the biennium for the Workforce Training Grant Program.
Provides $1.25 million over the biennium to increase funding for the
Wisconsin Higher Education Grant program for need-based financial aid
to technical college students.
Provides $12 million over the biennium to help defray the cost of the
new veteran's remission by the UW Board of Regents and the Wisconsin
Technical College District Boards.
Requires a lapse of $1 million of existing WTCS general and/or
categorical aid funding in each of the 2007-09 and 2009-11 biennia.
Prohibits any technical college district from increasing its tax levy
by more than 4% annually in 2007 and 2008. Repeals this provision on
November 30, 2009. (This provision was vetoed by the governor.)
Compensation Reserves

Provides total compensation reserves of $131,197,500 in 2007-08 and
$328,026,800 in 2008-09 for the increased cost of state employee
salaries and fringe benefits.
Miscellaneous

Implements BadgerCare Plus to help ensure that 98% of Wisconsin's
citizens have access to health care coverage.
According to the governor's office, the agreement ensures quality
education for Wisconsin students. The governor's office said the bill:

Meets Wisconsin's commitment to fund two-thirds the cost of every
child's education … protecting schools while taking the burden off of
property taxpayers.
Moves forward on the Wisconsin Covenant – the promise to 8th graders
that if they work hard, maintain a B average, and take the classes
they need to go to college, there will be a spot for them in the
state's universities or colleges.
Makes sure kids get off to the right start, by investing $3 million in
4-year-old kindergarten, $3.2 million in school breakfast, and $27
million to create smaller class sizes in the early grades.
Includes reforms in the school financing system that help rural
districts with transportation costs, and treat districts with
declining enrollment more fairly.
Invests $32 million in financial aid so talented students who have
earned their way into our states universities have the resources they
need to help them succeed. The funding puts the state on pace to
triple financial aid by the end of this fiscal term.
Keeps a promise to provide free college tuition to all Wisconsin
veterans by investing $12 million.
Fully funds the University's Growth Agenda to expand enrollment and
train the next generation of nurses, engineers, chemists, biologists
and skilled workers that our economy needs.


Posted October 19, 2007; Updated October 26, 2007

Green Bay signs historic race relation agreement

Green Bay signs historic race relation agreement
The Associated Press
TwinCities.com-Pioneer Press
Article Last Updated:10/25/2007 10:27:31 PM CDT
GREEN BAY, Wis.—Police, school and city representatives signed a
historic mediation agreement Thursday designed to improve race
relations—the first of its kind in the state.
The voluntary agreement includes pledges to boost minority recruitment
and hiring in the police and fire departments, city administration and
the Green Bay Area Public School District.

It took two years to reach the agreement, which is the first citywide
agreement signed in Wisconsin, said Kenith Bergeron, a conciliation
specialist with the U.S. Department of Justice Community Relations
Service in Chicago.

Milwaukee has a similar community relations agreement, but it's only
with the police department.

Concerns about unequal treatment of minorities in the city and school
district prompted the pact.

The group met 10 times since August 2005. Their initiatives include
closing the achievement gap for students of color, implementing a
cultural competency training program for teachers and police officers
and encouraging more minority-owned business.

The city plans to provide employment advertisements in other languages
and develop an advisory system to help identify potentially racially
sensitive topics on council and committee agendas.

Green Bay's police department already has established an advisory
committee that has met monthly over the past year, Police Chief Jim
Arts said.

He admitted the department had a long way to go in its efforts to
recruit from minority communities—out of 187 sworn officers, 14 are
women, three are Native Americans and one is Hispanic. There are no
black officers on the force.

"You're going to hear that we're essentially a white department. I
don't like hearing that, but it's the reality," said Arts, adding that
they've made some modest improvement in minority applications in the
last round of recruitment.

Likewise the Green Bay School District sees a "great opportunity
coupled with significant challenges" with one-third of its 20,000 plus
students coming from minority populations, superintendent Daniel Nerad
said.

Federal Testing for NCLB passes on "Adative" Testing

October 25, 2007
Petri Calls for Better School Tests
WASHINGTON - Rep. Tom Petri took on the status quo at the U.S. Department of
Education today with the introduction of the Assessment Accuracy and
Improvement Act, a
proposal to provide more accurate tests for elementary and middle
school students. The bill,
introduced with Rep. David Wu (D-OR) as a cosponsor, would allow
states to use "adaptive"
tests to fulfill their No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act testing requirements.
Currently, under NCLB, each state is required to test students in
grades three through
eight. Each state has its own tests, which must be approved by the
Education Department. The
tests are often done on paper and are identical for every student
within the same grade in any
given state.
Petri wants the Education Department to allow states to fulfill their
federal testing
requirement by using "adaptive" testing.
"An adaptive test is a test that changes in response to previously
asked questions," Petri
explained. "It's done on a computer. If a student answers a question
correctly, the test presents a
question of increased difficulty. If a student answers incorrectly,
the test presents a question of
decreased difficulty. The test customizes itself to the student's
actual level of performance with a
great deal of accuracy."
Petri said that several states would like to use adaptive tests to
satisfy federal testing
requirements. "Delaware and Oregon are especially interested in this,
and in Wisconsin, onethird
of the school districts in Wisconsin's 6th Congressional District
think adaptive tests are
valuable enough to use them for their own purposes in addition to the
paper testing the U.S.
Education Department requires."
What's the problem? Petri said the Education Department doesn't want
to deal with a
different approach. "They have to pass judgment on the tests the
states want to give to satisfy No
Child Left Behind. Adaptive tests would, admittedly, require more
effort to review. But that's
because they are better and will give us much more useful information."
Petri became convinced of the value of adaptive tests as he met with
students, parents and
educators in a series of forums on the No Child Left Behind Act which
he has held in the 6th
District over the past year.

Racne Superintendent Search

It looks like Racine is searching for a new Supt. to be hired by July 1st (same as the ECASD) but they have not yet hired their search firm yet. HEY!! We are actually ahead of another district in this regard.

Maria

Unified superintendent search heats up

BY PAUL SLOTH
Journal Times

Wednesday, October 24, 2007 9:08 PM CDT
RACINE — The Racine Unified School Board has taken another step in its
search for a new superintendent. The board hopes to have the new
leader start July 1.

Members of a board search committee Monday finalized the details of
their recommendation to the full board. The committee has met twice in
the past two weeks to select a few firms and develop a search
timeline. The entire process will last roughly one year.

The board will first hire a professional search firm to find
candidates interested in replacing Tom Hicks, who resigned in August
after holding the job for six years.

The board will discuss the search committee's recommendations at its
monthly business meeting Monday, including the timeline and the names
of at least six firms from which the committee is interested in
hearing.

Once the board chooses a firm, members will spend the early part of
next year interviewing superintendent candidates.

A superintendent search can cost a school district from $40,000 to
more than $100,000 depending on the kind of services a school board
expects, according to the Council of the Great City Schools, an
organization of the nation's largest school districts.

Once the board picks a search firm, members will determine what to
look for in a superintendent candidate.

Sue Kutz, the board's vice president, said she hopes the board can
start interviewing candidates in February or March.

Board members will have to decide how far to cast their net for a
candidate to replace Hicks, who is on an extended leave of absence
through June 30.

Interim Superintendent Jack Parker has offered advice to the board
about some of the realities of searching for superintendents,
especially in urban districts. The pool of candidates is reportedly
very shallow, Parker told committee members.

Unified is not the only Wisconsin school district currently searching
for a new superintendent. Kenosha Unified School District and the
Madison Metropolitan School District both are searching for new
leaders, which presents even more challenges, search committee members
said.

If the full Unified board approves the plan Monday, the district will
solicit bids from at least six firms. Search committee members said
they hope to select the firm by the beginning of December and develop
and approve criteria for searching for a superintendent in early
January.

Committee members said they hope to find a firm that has some
experience with finding superintendent candidates for urban districts.

Unified has experience with at least one firm, Hazard, Young and
Associates, which helped the board find Hicks and Marguerite Vanden
Wyngaard, the district's chief academic officer.

Budget Delay Favors Wealthier School Districts

Delay favors wealthier schools

Tardiness leads to credit rather than aid, which gives Milwaukee $1.6
million less

By AMY HETZNER
ahetzner@journalsentinel.com

Posted: Oct. 24, 2007

The delay in approving a budget in Wisconsin could end up benefiting
residents in the state's wealthiest communities.

Legislators were unable to meet a Sept. 28 deadline set by the state
Department of Public Instruction that would have allowed them to
increase general aid to school districts by $79.3 million in the
2007-'08 school year in time to reduce next year's tax bills.

So on Tuesday, when they approved the second-latest budget in state
history, they did what some called the next best thing by putting the
same amount into the school tax levy credit. The credit increase is
expected to be signed into law by Gov. Jim Doyle.

That would be a boon to residents in districts such as Elmbrook and
Mequon-Thiensville, where taxpayers have long complained that their
money is siphoned off to support schools in other parts of the state.
But it would mean less money for school systems such as Milwaukee and
Racine, where the argument is that residents with less wealth need
more help to ensure their children get a chance at an education on par
with those in richer communities.

The reason for the difference is that, unlike general school aid, the
state's school levy tax credit is distributed based on the school
property tax burden in individual municipalities. That largely means
the credit goes to residents in the wealthiest areas.

This would be the second year in a row the levy credits have
increased. After a decade holding steady at $469.3 million annually,
two years of increases would bring that amount to $672.4 million. The
latest increase would take effect a year from now.

Equalization aid, in contrast, is distributed to districts in a way
that rewards those with low property wealth and below-average
spending. General aid to schools is budgeted at $4.7 billion for the
current school year.

"We didn't create that system," said Chris Thiel, a legislative and
fiscal policy analyst for Milwaukee Public Schools. "We certainly
think the goals of the system are laudable."

Elmbrook biggest winner

The biggest winner in a $79.3 million shift to the levy credit is the
Elmbrook School District, which gains nearly $1.5 million as a result,
according to a Legislative Fiscal Bureau analysis. The district with
the most to lose is Milwaukee Public Schools, where residents can
expect $1.6 million less than they would have received if the $79.3
million had been paid out in equalization aid.

Overall, the fiscal bureau's analysis shows about 25 school districts
in the five-county metropolitan Milwaukee area benefit from receiving
the payment through the levy credit instead of aid.

Under state-imposed revenue limits, both aid and credits largely go to
paying down the property tax burden in a community and do not affect
the overall revenue collected by the school systems.

"I love the school levy credit," said state Sen. Ted Kanavas
(R-Brookfield), who represents residents in the Elmbrook School
District as well as those living in another levy-credit winner, the
Pewaukee School District. "This is the only time we ever get anything
for schools."

Some get minimum aid

One of the reasons the Elmbrook and Pewaukee school systems fare so
well under the levy credit vs. an aid increase is that, under the
state's funding formula for distributing aid, both receive the minimum
amount possible from the aid system. A $79.3 million increase in the
aid pool for the state's 426 school districts would mean only $966
more for Elmbrook and $146 for Pewaukee, according to the fiscal
bureau analysis.

In contrast, Milwaukee would have gotten about $6.5 million more if
that money had been infused into the aid formula, the analysis
determined. The Racine and Waukesha school districts would have
received a little more than $1.9 million each.

With the levy credit, which would be applied to tax bills homeowners
will receive about a year from now, Racine property owners would get
about $670,000 less, the fiscal bureau analysis found. Waukesha
residents would get about $380,000 less than they would have if the
state had increased its aid payments.

That's one of the reasons state Rep. Bill Kramer (R-Waukesha) said he
is unhappy with the new budget, although he also pointed out that the
numbers were "very preliminary."

But he said putting the money into levy credits to help reduce
property tax burdens was better than doing nothing after the
Legislature missed its chance to increase aid for the current school
year.

While Kanavas said residents in districts that benefit from the school
tax credit have earned it through years of supporting other school
districts with their tax dollars, Kramer said the same is true in
Waukesha.

"Not to the extent that Elmbrook does, but we're in that donor
(category) as well and we still don't win," he said.

Unanticipated Results from Study of School "Choice"

Interesting results from a study about school "choice" in Milwaukee and its effects on school improvement.

Maria

Choice may not improve schools, study says

Report on MPS comes from longtime supporter of plan

By ALAN J. BORSUK
aborsuk@journalsentinel.com

Posted: Oct. 23, 2007

A study being released today suggests that school choice isn't a
powerful tool for driving educational improvement in Milwaukee Public
Schools.

But more surprising than the conclusion is the organization issuing
the study: the Wisconsin Policy Research Institute, a conservative
think tank that has supported school choice for almost two decades,
when Milwaukee became the nation's premier center for trying the idea.
The institute is funded in large part by the Milwaukee-based Lynde and
Harry Bradley Foundation, an advocate of school choice.

"The report you are reading did not yield the results we had hoped to
find," George Lightbourn, a senior fellow at the institute, wrote in
the paper's first sentence.

"We had expected to find a wellspring of hope that increased parental
involvement in the Milwaukee Public Schools would be the key
ingredient in improving student performance," Lightbourn wrote. But
"there are realistic limits on the degree to which parental
involvement can drive market-based reform in Milwaukee."

Even some of the most ardent supporters of school choice in Milwaukee
have seen that the purest version of the idea - in which there is
little government oversight of schools, and parental decisions in a
free market dictate which schools thrive - does not square with the
reality of what happened in Milwaukee when something close to such a
system existed.

That reality can be summed up in two phrases: "bad schools" and "little change."

Bad schools: A Journal Sentinel investigative report in 2005 of the
then-115 schools in the voucher program found that about 10% showed
startling signs of weak operations. In short, many parents were
choosing bad schools and sticking with them. Escalated government
oversight of schools' business practices and a new requirement that
all voucher schools be accredited by an outside organization have
played roles in putting most of those schools out of business.

Little change: Milwaukee has been a national laboratory for school
reform such as the voucher program, yet there is little evidence that
it has yielded substantially improved academic results - at least so
far. Test scores in MPS, especially for 10th-graders, have been
generally flat for years. The record of the voucher schools is
unclear, though results from a major study of the program are supposed
to begin coming soon.

Howard Fuller, the most prominent supporter of voucher and charter
schools in Milwaukee, has changed his position toward agreeing that
government oversight of voucher schools is needed. In a recent
interview for a workshop of the national Education Writers
Association, Fuller said empowering parents to make good choices,
improving student performance and creating good schools were proving
to be much harder achievements than many once thought.

Asked whether the voucher program was leading to improvements in the
achievement of MPS students, as was once expected, Fuller said: "I'm
one of those people who believes that we may have oversold that point.
. . . I think that any honest assessment would have to say that there
hasn't been the deep, wholesale improvement in MPS that we would have
thought."

Fuller said he remains a strong supporter of school choice, but he now
has a more realistic understanding of what it can accomplish.
Lightbourn also said he and the institute remain committed to school
choice as a principle, but other reforms clearly are needed to drive
major improvement in the success of Milwaukee students.

Methodology of the study

The new report focuses on parental choice within MPS, including
parents who select schools within MPS or who use the state's open
enrollment law to send their children to public schools in the
suburbs. It does not discuss parents who select private schools in the
publicly funded voucher program or charter schools that are not
affiliated with MPS.

The report did not analyze actual data from MPS or interviews or
surveys with MPS parents. Instead, it used data from the U.S. Census
Bureau and U.S. Department of Education analyzing decision-making by
parents from different social and economic groups when it comes to
school selection for their children and how they are involved in their
children's schools. The report applies that data to MPS parents,
assuming the same percentages of parents use the same methods of
choosing.

The overall conclusion: Only 10% of MPS parents make school choices by
a process that involves considering at least two schools and that
brings academic performance data from a school into the choice.

"Given this number, it seems unlikely that MPS schools are feeling the
pressure of a genuine educational marketplace," wrote the report's
author, researcher David Dodenhoff.

Dodenhoff also concluded that parental involvement in MPS schools is
low - he estimated that 34% of MPS parents could be considered "highly
involved" in their children's schools. And he said his conclusions
were probably on the high side because people tend to give the "right"
answers when asked questions such as whether they are involved
parents, even when the answers are untrue.

In an interview, Dodenhoff, who has written other reports for the
institute, said that while it would be better to base conclusions on
data directly about Milwaukee parents, coming up with numbers by
applying national data locally was a defensible approach. He said his
results squared with what people involved in Milwaukee schools told
him were their best estimates of parental involvement.

In the conclusion of his report, Dodenhoff wrote: "Relying on public
school choice and parental involvement to reclaim MPS may be a
distraction from the hard work of fixing the district's schools. . . .
The question is whether the district, its schools and its supporters
in Madison are prepared to embrace reforms more radical than public
school choice and parental involvement."

He did not specify what those reforms might be.

Options within MPS

Parents have numerous school choices within MPS. Each winter, the
district offers a "three-choice" registration period to parents whose
children will attend a new school the following fall. The process
allows parents to pick first, second and third preferences for
schools, and a large majority of people get the first choice.

The range of choices has been reduced somewhat in recent years,
largely with a goal of holding down busing costs, but it has been
difficult for MPS to persuade people to enroll in neighborhood
schools, despite a neighborhood school initiative launched in 2000.

Nonetheless, whether parents use the choices to pick schools that are
academically the best ones for their children is unknown.

MPS Superintendent William Andrekopoulos responded to the report in a
statement, saying: "We believe that there are many reasons why parents
choose a school. When we review parental choice in our district, we
see that parents pass up high-quality schools in their neighborhoods
for schools with lower academic performance outside their
neighborhoods. When that happens, we wonder why those parents choose a
school. Parents do make informed choices, but those choices have more
to do with talking with their relatives and neighbors than with
looking at data on academic performance."

Lightbourn said the conclusions of the report probably were relevant
to how parents make choices for private schools in the voucher
program, though Dodenhoff was reluctant to say how applicable the
conclusions were to voucher parents.

Lightbourn said, "We should continue to encourage parental involvement
in choosing for their children and for (parents) to be actively
involved in choosing based on academic criteria."

But he added, "If they're not picking on academic criteria, the impact
of choice will be minimized."

About 87,000 students are attending more than 200 schools in MPS this
year, at an average cost of more than $11,000 per student. Voucher
program figures have not been released yet but are expected to show
that about 18,000 students are attending more than 120 private schools
in the city, with the state generally providing the schools about
$6,500 for each student.

Black River Falls Supt. search

Black River Falls is also searching for a new superintendent with a Jan 1st deadline.

Maria

Published - Tuesday, October 23, 2007

The Black River Falls School Board is in the process of establishing
an advisory panel to participate in interviewing candidates and
providing input to the school board for the district administrator
position. The board would like to extend an invitation to community
and staff members and encourages involvement in the process.

Advisory committee panelists will be selected proportionately and
randomly from interested participants for each of the following
groups: service clubs/civic groups, senior citizens, local
business/industry, high school students, parent representatives, Black
River Falls School District staff members and other local entities as
appropriate.

If interested in serving on the advisory committee, please submit your
name to administrative assistant Barb Prochaska at (715) 284-4357, via
e-mail at babara.prochaska@brf.org. Those interested may also mail a
letter of interest to 301 North Fourth Street, Black River Falls, WI,
54615-1227.

If interested, please indicate the specific group you feel you can
represent. Names should be submitted by Tuesday, Oct. 23. Participants
will be notified on Wednesday, Oct. 24.

Interviews will be held on Monday and Tuesday, Oct. 29 and Oct. 30. On
Monday evening, Oct. 29, the advisory committee will meet from 5:30
p.m. until 6 p.m. for interview preparations. Interviews will be one
hour in length and depending on the number of candidates interviewed,
committee members would be expected to commit about seven hours of
time for the two evenings. Participants will be required to attend
both evenings.

Each advisory panel member will provide his/her written commentary on
each candidate, identifying perceived strengths and concerns. At the
conclusion of interviews on Tuesday, Oct. 30, the board will receive
input from the advisory panel. The board will integrate that input
with its own interview perspectives to narrow the list to the finalist
candidate(s) for the position.

Racine School District redux

It is possible that the Racine district has even more problems than the ECASD lately!!
Maria


Racine Unified's director of special education quits

By DANI McCLAIN
dmcclain@journalsentinel.com

Posted: Oct. 22, 2007

Racine - The Racine Unified School District's director of special
education resigned Monday effective immediately, district officials
said.

The resignation of Renee Pfaller follows a Journal Sentinel report
this month that an autistic 3-year-old student in the Red Apple
Elementary School preschool program had been consistently strapped
into his chair without his parents' consent. The boy's parents had
pulled him out of the preschool program after receiving confirmation
from the state Department of Public Instruction that the school's
actions did not comply with state guidelines on restraint.

Racine Unified's chiefs of academics and human relations received
Pfaller's letter of resignation Monday morning, said Stephanie
Kratochvil, a district spokeswoman. The letter did not give a reason
for the resignation, Kratochvil said.

Pfaller had been on a leave of absence for about a month and was
expected to return Friday.

Late this summer Racine Unified received a comprehensive report on the
district's special education services, the result of a months-long
study completed by a University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee education
professor. The district will not release the findings until they are
presented to the school board at a meeting Nov. 12, the district's
academic director said.

Pfaller had been Racine Unified's director of special education for
six years. She had served as a special education supervisor for two
years before taking the helm of the department.

Ann Laing, a former district area superintendent who retired in June,
will fill Pfaller's position until a replacement is hired, Kratochvil
said.



(c) 2006, Journal Sentinel Inc. All rights reserved. | Produced by
Journal Interactive | Privacy Policy
Journal Sentinel Inc. is a subsidiary of Journal Communications.

Sunday, October 21, 2007

Port Edwards' Int. Supt. is also working hard for the future

Port Edwards looks for input about school district's future
By Adam Wise
Daily Tribune Staff October 19, 2007
PORT EDWARDS -- About a year after hosting focus group meetings, the
Port Edwards School District is seeking the public's opinions about
its future once again.

On Monday, members of the School Board and administrators will host
the district's annual meeting and board workshop. While the typical
business such as setting the tax levy and mill rate will be on the
agenda, interim Superintendent Dean Ryerson hopes plenty more is
accomplished.

"Once that's been done, I want to do some discussing with the group,"
Ryerson said. "Present some information on what the future looks like
for the district."

Joe Clark, president of the School Board, said he's anxious to get the
public involved in the interactive meeting.

"I'm not sure what to expect," Clark said. "I hope people will come
out to give us a clear idea of where they see Port Edwards going."

Ryerson said if enough people attend, the gathering will break into
smaller groups to brainstorm about issues including the facility
operational and program needs of the next five years and the
district's financial situation as it relates to its declining
enrollment.

The district's administrative structure also will be on the slate.
This year, the district began its transition from three administrators
(two building principals and a superintendent) to two (a K-12
principal and a superintendent).

There are a few options district leaders can eventually choose from,
but as for how the district has handled the transition, Ryerson said
he hasn't received many phone calls about it.

"I think what people care about is, it's business as usual with their
students, and life goes on in the schoolhouse," he said. "Good news is
we haven't heard much about that, and I think when things are going
OK, you don't hear a lot."

Editorial re: Teacher Shortage

This is specifically about Minnesota but given the geographic proximity, Wisconsin could have the same problems. If anybody has any insight on this, please enlighten the rest of us!

Maria

Editorial: Expand efforts to hire, retain teachers

Recruitment, retention need more statewide attention.

Published: October 19, 2007

Half of Minnesota school districts have difficulty finding and keeping
math, science and special education teachers. And nearly half of new
educators switch districts in the first five years of their careers --
another 15 percent quit teaching altogether.
Combined, those trends spell trouble for Minnesota schools. Today's
students need more instructors in math and science -- not fewer. And
special education enrollment is growing by leaps and bounds, so
teachers are desperately needed in that specialty as well.

The scope of Minnesota's teacher shortage is well documented in a
recent report from Minnesota 2020, a local think tank. It points out
that math and science teachers are in particularly short supply, that
excessive teacher turnover gobbles up district dollars, and that rural
schools are hardest hit by the trend.

The study also focuses on a smart solutions. Researchers recommend
increased statewide use of comprehensive mentoring and other support
for teachers that will aid recruitment and retention Educators are
more likely to stay put when they have mentors and receive good
on-the-job training.

Supporting educators is crucial, but there are other factors to
consider. Salary is a major issue. In the private sector, math and
science majors can earn twice as much as the average starting salary
for teachers: $31,400. The state should consider pay adjustments and
other incentives, such as housing subsidies, to attract teachers for
hard-to-staff jobs.

Math and science teachers have always been a more difficult to find
because fewer students choose those subject areas. But the current
shortage is exacerbated by the pending retirements of thousands of
baby boomers and not enough students in the educational pipeline to
replace them. Experts estimate that schools will need 250,000 teachers
in those areas in the next decade.

Minnesota is not alone. Teacher shortages are plaguing schools across
the nation. According to the Education Commission of the States, 48
states have programs such as "Grow Your Own," in which college
students commit to teaching for several years in return for
scholarships and tuition forgiveness. Other states are rehiring
retired teachers.

To their credit, Gov. Tim Pawlenty and the Department of Education
have also been working on the issue. The state has an initiative to
help midcareer professionals earn teaching licenses, and some
districts participate in Q-Comp, a program helps districts change
teacher pay schedules.

Those are important first steps, but more must be done. Small pilot
programs cannot fill the thousands of teacher positions that are on
the horizon. State lawmakers should expand current efforts and employ
creative new strategies to attract new teachers and retain the best.

(c) 2007 Star Tribune. All rights reserved.

The Face of Milwaukee Schools is Changing

While this story is about Milwaukee schools it is an issue that all Wisconsin schools are facing.
Maria

The face of Milwaukee Public Schools is changing

Fewer students. More minorities, especially Hispanics. Less interest
in middle schools.

By ALAN J. BORSUK
aborsuk@journalsentinel.com

Posted: Oct. 15, 2007

Before your very eyes, ladies and gentleman, see the Incredible
Shrinking School System.

Well, maybe it's not incredible. But it is certainly shrinking.

It also continues, bit by bit, to become a district where the faces of
the students are those of minority children.

Official attendance figures for this fall, released by Milwaukee
Public Schools officials, show that the enrollment in the traditional
MPS schools is down for at least the ninth year in a row.

Since 1998, the number of students in elementary, middle and high
schools has declined from 96,942 to 81,381, a 16% drop.

Between a year ago and now, the drop was 3,522, or more than 4%.

Even the alternative and "partnership" schools that contract to
educate MPS children - generally run by nonprofit organizations - have
had declining enrollment over the past nine years.

Notably, one area showing increases is charter schools not staffed by
MPS employees but authorized to operate by the Milwaukee School Board.
They had 68 children in 1998 and 3,090 this fall.

Put it all together, and the schools under the MPS umbrella were
teaching 87,360 kids as of the official attendance day in September,
down from 90,925 a year ago and 100,806 in 1998.

Meanwhile, the number of students who live in the city but are going
to public schools in the suburbs has leveled off in recent years,
although it is up nearly 30% from 1998.

The voluntary racial integration program known as Chapter 220 is
allowing 2,719 minority children from Milwaukee to attend suburban
schools this fall, but that number is down for the ninth year in a
row. It was 5,120 in 1998.

But the state's "open enrollment law," which allows students to apply
to go to any public school in the state, wasn't on the books in 1998,
and the number of students using that law has risen every year since
then. This year, 3,893 city children - of all races - are enrolled in
suburban schools using the open enrollment law.

Overall, 6,612 city kids are attending suburban public schools,
compared with 6,584 a year ago, and 6,746 two years ago.

Among the 87,360 children in MPS, 10,851 are white - 12.4% of the
total. That is down from 12.8% a year ago. The white percentage has
fallen steadily for many years. Thirty years ago, the district was
more than 60% white.

The percentage of Hispanic students in MPS increased from 21% in
September 2006 to 21.8% this September, and the percentage of
African-American students dropped slightly, from 57.8% to 57.4%.

The new figures spotlight several trends, including the remarkable
decline in middle school enrollment, as more and more elementary
schools expand to offer sixth, seventh and eighth grades. The number
of students enrolled in middle schools this year is less than half of
what it was in 1998, and the MPS administration is recommending
closing another middle school, Sarah Scott, at the end of this year.

"Clearly, the middle school option is not the option of choice for
parents," said Superintendent William Andrekopoulos.

At the same time, high school enrollment has changed relatively little
over the years - it's 22,893 this fall, down from 23,863 a year ago
but up from 22,016 in 1998.

"I'm just speculating here, but I think that maybe providing more
options at the high school level has helped us maintain our
enrollment," Andrekopoulos said. There are now more than 50 choices of
high schools within MPS, many of them small programs launched in the
past several years.

Enrollment numbers for the private-school voucher program in Milwaukee
are not expected to be released for several weeks, according to the
state Department of Public Instruction. But the total is expected to
be up from last year's figure of more than 17,000. Enrollment in those
schools, as well as in publicly funded charter schools outside the MPS
system, is a factor in the overall decline in MPS totals.

Andrekopoulos pointed out that the total number of school-age children
in the city is declining.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, there were 170,984 children 17
and younger in Milwaukee in 2000. In 2006, the bureau estimated, there
were 158,695, a 7% decline.

Andrekopoulos said he viewed the declining enrollment mostly as the
reflection of changing population trends in Milwaukee. He said MPS
continues to draw a higher percentage of students than public school
systems in many other large cities.

West Bend referendum: $119 million

West Bend lines up to vote

School district seeks $119.3 million to buff up old buildings,
reconfigure others and build new sites

By DON BEHM
dbehm@journalsentinel.com

Posted: Oct. 11, 2007

West Bend - A proposed $119.3 million school building and remodeling
plan that faces the verdict of voters on Nov. 6 would be implemented
over four years beginning in 2009 to ease the impact on property
taxpayers, school district officials said.

The district's current debt of $15 million will be paid off by 2010,
Superintendent Patricia Herdrich said.

Should district voters approve the school building referendum next
month, the property tax rate would rise $1.65 per $1,000 of equalized
valuation between 2009 and 2012, to $8.01, before slowly falling in
subsequent years as the debt is repaid, Herdrich said.

The spending plan, assembled by administrators and the school board
over the past two years, will address something for each school in the
105-square-mile district, which extends from the village and town of
Jackson north to Barton and Newburg west to Big Cedar Lake.

Facilities would be replaced or improved to address current
overcrowding and future growth, entrance safety concerns and a variety
of problems that come with aging buildings, such as energy
inefficiency and poor interior air quality, according to Herdrich.

Schools now are full as overall enrollment grows by 100 students each year.

One trailer already serves as a classroom at McLane Elementary School
where 648 children spend the day in a space designed for 500, Herdrich
said.

Should the referendum fail, a second trailer would be parked at
McLane. Green Tree and Fair Park elementary schools would get a
trailer, too.

The district also would impose split shifts at the high schools by
2010 if no additional classrooms are built there to accommodate a
surge of expected students.

Largest in state

The plan's $119.3 million price tag would be the state's largest-ever
school referendum if it passes.

Jackson Village Administrator Del Beaver said he has overheard at
public meetings a few criticisms of such a large total cost but no
complaints of individual building projects.

"There's a lot of deferred maintenance in schools because the district
put its money in programs for students," Beaver said.

But some funds invested in courses and programs would be diverted to
building repairs and maintenance - reducing language, art, music and
technology offerings - if the referendum fails, Herdrich has told
district residents attending recent public meetings on the plan.
Computer labs and classrooms for art and music might be eliminated to
provide general classroom space.

In promoting the referendum, school district officials have said it
would solve district crowding problems at least through the year 2015.
Enrollment growth likely will require the district to build and open a
seventh elementary school no later than 2020, Herdrich said.

A group of citizens has registered to campaign in support of the
referendum, urging voters to check "yes" on ballots. The group, known
as It's Time, has distributed lawn signs in the district.

No opposition group has registered to campaign in the election.

Major pieces of the facilities plan are as follows:

• Convert Silverbrook Middle School to a 600-student elementary
school; close Barton Elementary School: $6.7 million.

• Build twin middle schools - each with a capacity of 900 students -
south of the twin high schools; close Badger Middle School: $57.3
million.

• Add classrooms, secure entrances and renovate libraries at the twin
high schools to accommodate 400 more students coming up through the
grades: $18.2 million.

• Build a new Jackson Elementary School for up to 650 pupils; close
existing Jackson school: $16.7 million.

• Build gymnasium/cafeteria addition to Decorah Elementary School with
other major renovations: $6.8 million.

• Provide secure front entrances and safety features at Fair Park,
Green Tree, McLane and Decorah elementary schools: $4.9 million.

• Additional maintenance and renovation at Fair Park, Green Tree and
McLane: $8.7 million.

Maintenance deferred in recent years should not be put off any longer,
said Warren Schmidt, the district's director of facilities and
operations.

As one example, about 75% of windows in district schools are energy
inefficient with single panes that leak air and boost heating bills,
he said.

Heavy winds broke a few of those old panes this summer at Badger
Middle School. His crew scrambled to install safety catches on the
others before school resumed this fall, he said.

There are roofs in need of repair, and old heating and ventilation
systems must be replaced at some schools, Schmidt said. Asbestos
flooring must be removed at others.

On Oct. 22, the School Board likely will decide how to spend funds
generated by selling the three schools targeted for closing - Badger
Middle School and Barton and Jackson elementary schools - should the
referendum pass. One option is to use the revenue to pay a portion of
the facilities plan's total debt.

At a special meeting of school district voters also scheduled Oct. 22,
administrators will ask residents to approve the sale of Silver Maple
school on S. 18th Ave. The three-room building constructed in 1955 is
vacant.

Revenue from selling Silver Maple would be used to buy land for the
proposed new middle schools if the referendum is approved by voters,
Herdrich said.

At the district's annual meeting Sept. 24, voters approved buying 20
acres northwest of the intersection of Sand Drive and county Highway G
- south of the high schools. The property, now a cornfield, would be
the home of the proposed twin middle schools.

Construction of the middle schools would begin in the summer of 2008
with the goal of opening them for classes in the fall of 2009,
according to a tentative schedule.

Silverbrook could be closed for renovation and conversion to the new
Barton Elementary School with a fall 2010 opening.

Construction of the new Jackson Elementary School would start in the
summer of 2009 with a planned opening in the fall of 2010.

--

Thursday, October 11, 2007

Comments about the 2007-08 Budget

Please go to the ECASD website link:

http://www.ecasd.k12.wi.us/budgets/2007-08-recommended/

and review the recommended Budget and share your comments and questions with others.

Next: attend the Public Hearing about the Budget on Oct. 22nd at 5:00 p.m. and voice your comments to the BOE before they approve the final budget at their 7:00 p.m. meeting following the hearing.

Maria

Amazing Political Maps of EC

Please go to the following website set up by Bob Schwartz to see some incredible political maps of the data on the School Referendum crossed against other information. Bob is a guru when it comes to data and I just appreciate that somebody likes to tinker around with this stuff and keep the rest of us informed.

Thanks, Bob,

Maria


http://www.bobschwartz.us/

LT Editorial on State Test Standards

Updated: 10/8/2007


How proficient are our kids in school? Who knows?
The issue: A study says Wisconsin sets the bar low in measuring academic proficiency.

Our view: The public is frustrated by contradicting studies and results.

We've all heard the expression, "Figures don't lie, but liars figure."

That's not always true of course, but often figures are confusing, even contradictory, leaving the casual observer confused and frustrated to the point of tuning out altogether.

Consider the front page story in the Oct. 4 Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: "State sets low test standards." The article is about a federal study that found a wide variance in what officials in various states consider students to be proficient in math and reading. This is important because under the federal No Child Left Behind Act, all students are supposed to be proficient in these two subjects by 2014, and penalties await schools that don't meet the benchmarks.

The study by the Thomas B. Fordham Institute found that under federal guidelines, only 35 percent of Wisconsin fourth-graders are reading at a proficient level, but standards set by Wisconsin education officials the number jumps to 81 percent. Similar gaps were found in the math results for both fourth- and eighth-graders.

According to the Journal Sentinel, the Fordham study found that to get a proficient rating in reading, a fourth-grader in Wisconsin could score as low as the 16th percentile nationally. This means in a representative group of 100 students nationally, the Wisconsin student would have to score better than only 15 others to get a proficient rating. Wisconsin had the second-easiest standards for reading proficiency among the 26 states in the Fordham study, the newspaper said.

Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction officials questioned the Fordham study's methadology and denied Wisconsin sets its proficiency standards low to inflate the number.

The Fordham study also concluded that many states, including Wisconsin, have harder math tests than reading tests, giving the skewed result that students are better in reading than math when that may not be the case.

Whatever the numbers show or don't show, we in Wisconsin can continue to take pride in knowing our average scores on the college-entrance ACT exam are still near the tops nationally. That only takes into account the college-bound, however.

In a twist of irony, the same day the Journal Sentinel put the test story on the top of its front page, it had a teaser right next to it with a picture of a broiled fish that said a new study advises pregnant and breast-feeding women to eat at least 12 ounces of fish a week. Of course, many previous studies have concluded such women should limit their fish intake over concerns about mercury contamination.

There's another cliche that seems to fit here: "Who knows what to believe anymore?"

- Don Huebscher, editor

Milwaukee JS Editorial on State Standards

State sets low test standards

Skills needed for students' proficient ratings vary across U.S., study says

By ALAN J. BORSUK
aborsuk@journalsentinel.com

Posted: Oct. 3, 2007

The bar for labeling a student proficient in reading and math is set lower in Wisconsin than in almost any other state among 26 in a study released Wednesday.

The study found that "cut scores" - the line between proficient and not proficient - vary widely among the 26 states, casting doubt on the question of what it means when a state says a certain percentage of its students are doing well. Those percentages are central to the way the federal No Child Left Behind education law works.

The law's accountability system, which focuses on things such as whether a school or district is making "adequate yearly progress," is driven largely by how many students meet the standards a state sets for proficiency in reading and math. The goal is that all students, with a handful of exceptions, be proficient by 2014.

"Five years into implementation of the No Child Left Behind Act, there is no common understanding of what 'proficiency' means. . . . This suggests that the goal of achieving '100 percent proficiency' has no coherent meaning, either," says a summary of the study, issued by the Washington, D.C.-based Thomas B. Fordham Institute.

To illustrate the differences among the states, the study's authors gave an example in which a fourth-grader in Wisconsin would be regarded as proficient if the child could correctly answer a fairly simple question involving cats and dogs, while a child in Massachusetts would not be proficient if he or she couldn't answer a formidable question about the meaning of a passage by Leo Tolstoy.

"No matter what one thinks of America's history of state primacy in K-12 education, this study underscores the folly of a big, modern nation, worried about its global competitiveness, nodding with approval as Wisconsin sets its eighth-grade reading passing level at the 14th percentile while South Carolina sets it at the 71st percentile," Chester E. Finn Jr. and Michael J. Petrilli, both of the Fordham Institute, said in a foreword to the study.

The study's findings regarding Wisconsin are separate from, but dovetail with, results from a national testing program released last week by the U.S. Department of Education. Federal researchers concluded that 35% of Wisconsin fourth-graders were proficient in reading, while the figure given by the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction for testing done a year ago was 81%. In four areas - fourth-grade reading and math and eighth-grade reading and math - federal researchers had a much less cheery view of how Wisconsin kids are doing in school.

Petrilli, vice president for policy at Fordham, said a low bar for proficiency signals to educators and parents that things are well when they are not. In addition, he said, there are indications nationally that some schools focus their teaching on students who need a push to get over the proficiency line, which can mean they aim for less ambitious results if the bar is low.

Petrilli said several recent national reports raise questions about what is happening in Wisconsin education.

"Wisconsin is one of the few states that is showing barely any progress over time," he said. "It is just breathtaking to me that the DPI - I would think someone there would say, 'Oh my God, we're hardly making any progress. This is a crisis.' Instead, they want to spin the results to say that everything is just fine."

"That's the Fordham party line, and we reject that," said Tony Evers, deputy state superintendent of public instruction. "We're not spinning anything. . . . We take testing very seriously in this state. We take setting cut scores very seriously. . . . To say we're not doing anything is baloney."

Evers said the DPI agreed with a statement in the study that cut scores are subjective and agreed that more needs to be done to make proficiency standards consistent across the country. He said Wisconsin is among more than 30 states taking part in an effort called the American Diploma Project Network, which has similar goals.

But he said DPI thought "absolutely" that a student rated as proficient in Wisconsin is, indeed, proficient and that cut scores had been set in an appropriate process.

Asked if Wisconsin's cut scores were comparatively easy, he said, "I don't think you can make that statement."

He also said DPI specialists had questions about the methodology of the study.

The report was based on research by the Northwest Evaluation Association, an organization that works with about 2,700 school districts across the United States, including some in Wisconsin, on improving educational programs. The organization has its own testing program, the Measures of Academic Progress.

Researchers used results from those tests to compare the difficulty of tests such as the Wisconsin Knowledge and Concepts Examination, known as WKCE, taken each year by hundreds of thousands of students in Wisconsin, and what it takes to be labeled as proficient on those tests.

The resulting report was titled "The Proficiency Illusion" because of the range of standards for proficiency.

"Proficiency varies widely from state to state, with 'passing scores' ranging from the 6th to the 77th percentile," Finn and Petrilli said in summarizing the results. " . . . It's not just that results vary, but that they vary almost randomly, erratically, from place to place and grade to grade and year to year, in ways that have little or nothing to do with true differences in pupil achievement."

The Fordham Institute sponsored the study, and the Joyce Foundation, based in Chicago, provided much of the funding. The Fordham Institute - which is not connected to Fordham University - is generally regarded as conservative in its views, and it supports national standards and assessments.

Proficiency standards

Overall, Wisconsin had the second-easiest standards for reading proficiency among the 26 states in the study, and the fourth-easiest in math.

To get a proficient rating in reading, a fourth-grade student in Wisconsin could score as low as the 16th percentile nationally, compared with an average among the 26 states of the 29th percentile. The 16th percentile would mean that in a representative group of 100 students nationally, that student would score better than 15 of them.

For eighth-graders, the bar in Wisconsin was set at the 14th percentile, while the average among states in the study was the 36th percentile.

The authors of the study concluded that "Colorado, Wisconsin and Michigan generally have the lowest proficiency standards in reading, while South Carolina, California, Maine and Massachusetts have the highest. In math, Colorado, Illinois, Michigan and Wisconsin have the lowest standards, while South Carolina, Massachusetts, California and New Mexico have the highest."

Evers, of the DPI, expressed doubts about whether the tests used by the Northwest Evaluation Association for its comparisons were valid for that purpose. He said the tests were intended for diagnostic purposes and not for assessing proficiency.

He also said the example of questions cited in the study - dogs and cats vs. Tolstoy - reflected questions used by Northwest Evaluation and not those used on Wisconsin's actual tests. (The report used the questions as example of levels of difficulty and did not say they had actually been given to children in Wisconsin or Massachusetts.)

The study found that it was somewhat tougher to get a proficient ranking in math than reading in Wisconsin. The lowest proficient score in math in Wisconsin was in at least the 21st percentile nationally for each grade from third through eighth. But there were still gaps at every grade when it came to comparing the Wisconsin standard with the average for all states studied. For example, in eighth-grade math, a score in the 23rd percentile in Wisconsin was proficient, while the average in the 26 states was the 44th percentile.

In many states, including Wisconsin, state math tests are harder than reading tests, the study concludes.

"Americans may wrongly think their children are doing better in reading than in math - when in fact less is expected in (reading)," the study says.

Racine Interim Superintendent

BY PAUL SLOTH
Journal Times
Wednesday, October 10, 2007 7:37 PM CDT


RACINE — For roughly 30 years, Jack Parker has carried around the bag
he found in a little leather shop in Sausalito, Calif.

He carried it through a lengthy education career, spent in two Racine
County school districts.

He carried it as a teacher and administrator in Racine Unified, where
he spent most of his career.

Now Parker, 69, carries it into the superintendent's office in Racine,
where he'll spend the next nine months overseeing the district's
newest struggle in the wake of an administrative shake-up.

Parker's seen a lot, but so has his trusty, timeworn bag, which has
held up after all these years.

"I've probably carried it around more than I should," Parker said. "It
sort of says more about how complicated the enterprise is."

As he nears his 70th birthday in January, Parker knows what he's
getting himself into, taking on the job of interim superintendent.


It's a temporary position in which he'll guide the district as it
searches for a new leader and tries to get its financial house in
order following the departure of former superintendent Tom Hicks and
the changes in the district's business office.

A combination of things drew Parker to the job, he said in an
interview during his second week on the job.

"I've always had the sense that we all in southeastern Wisconsin need
to know that Unified has to succeed for this county to be prosperous,"
Parker said. "If we sit on the sidelines and take potshots, it hurts."

One of the district's greatest challenges is to become something in
which the community takes pride, but the district alone can't handle
all the challenges it faces, Parker said.

Parker returns to a school district he left more than a decade ago. He
returns with a sense that he can do more than just keep the district
running while the School Board searches for a new superintendent,
which is what interim people tend to do.

Parker thinks he'll play an important role because of his history in
the district, where he started working as a teacher in the 1960s.

"If nothing else, I can provide the board and the community with some
honest opinions about how things are going," Parker said. "I think it
is imperative that I provide people with what I think got us to this
point."

A School Board search committee picked Parker from a group of roughly
seven candidates.

Even though he's truly an interim leader, School Board President Tony
Baumgardt is optimistic about what Parker might do while he's here.

"We've asked him to become our superintendent. We've asked him to be
very blunt with us," Baumgardt said in September, when the board hired
Parker. "He's a collaborator. He's a consensus builder. He's a team
player and we've asked him to come in and work with us."

This district has made many efforts to do the right thing. The
community has made many of efforts to do the right thing, but the
times are really challenging, Parker said.

"We have a deep kind of responsibility to parents. I have hope, but I
know how much work there is going to be," Parker said. "It isn't going
to be easy for people in the community or in the system.

Student Testing: Are WI Standards Low???

This is getting a lot of attention after the Fordham report came out indicating the WI state test standards were some of the lowest in the nation. More on this in other posts.

Maria

Wednesday, October 10, 2007
Opinion

Student testing reveals truth

Tuesday, October 9, 2007 9:27 AM CDT
A report on Wisconsin's student standards released last week is like a sliver.

The information gets under your skin, and it sits there and festers,
and eventually you realize how large a problem it actually is.
Unfortunately, nothing as simple as a pair of tweezers will cure the
education problem.

The report by the Fordham Institute looked at 26 states, most of them
wealthy Eastern or Midwestern or Western states with money and a
history of good schools. It found that there is no nationally
consistent means of judging student proficiency, a blow to the federal
No Child Left Behind Act, but it also found that Wisconsin has very
low standards for judging student proficiency. From 2003 to 2005, it
said, the difficulty of fourth-grade reading and math tests remained
about the same while the eighth-grade tests became easier.

The state Department of Public Instruction disagrees. One of its
officials said that while the standards are subjective, Wisconsin's
standards are set using an appropriate process. DPI experts question
the methodology of the Fordham report, and said it is inaccurate to
assert a Wisconsin student is less qualified than a student in one of
the other states studied.

However, the Fordham report notes that its results are consistent with
others from the National Center for Education Statistics. And an
example of what is demanded of students and is evidence in favor of
the Fordham report's conclusion.

In Wisconsin's school proficiency test, a fourth grader is expected to
read four simple sentences (for example, "Cats are better than dogs.")
and decide which states a fact rather than an opinion. In
Massachusetts, fourth graders read a passage from a Leo Tolstoy short
story and then must decide which of four statements presents a fact
about the story.

Take note of how much more difficult the Massachusetts test is.
Students have to master complex sentences written in 19th century
idiom, grasp their ideas, then compare those to the multiple-choice
statements written with 21st century phrasing.

The differences between tests raise questions more fundamental than
those of methodology. If Wisconsin students were truly so proficient,
truly on a par with Massachusetts, the Dick-sees-Jane simplicity of
the state exam means most of our children should qualify as advanced
readers, yet they don't. Why not?

This question stands for all educators, not just the state officials,
because it is down at the local level where the goals are set. If
public school students were being adequately challenged, again, they
should have no trouble with an unsophisticated exam. That raises the
related question of what we're getting for the tens of millions of
dollars flowing into public schools and the millions more in the
still-unborn state budget.

It used to be that even if Wisconsin students didn't score well,
parents and people concerned about education could comfort themselves
with the notion that at least Wisconsin's performance was above the
national average, that even our poorest students were still pretty
good.

That's apparently not the case. Like some twisted version of Garrison
Keillor's mythical Lake Woebegone, we have created a Wisconsin where
the women may be strong and the men good-looking, but all the children
are below average.

Chamber of Commerce in West Bend SUPPORTS referendum!

This is different! Maria

In West Bend, record referendum getting support from business Chamber leaders say $119.3 million for schools is a wise investment

By MITCH MAERSCH - GM Today Staff

October 8, 2007

WEST BEND - It's not often the West Bend Area Chamber of Commerce
jumps into the political arena, but the school district's $119.3
million referendum was too big an issue to pass up.

The chamber released a statement in August declaring its support and
referencing the community's pride in its schools' student achievement.

"It is important to make the investment necessary in order to maintain
that achievement level in the future while still remaining fiscally
conservative. We believe that this plan, while it comes with a price
tag of $119.3 million, will accomplish that goal," the statement said.

The chamber's board of directors voted 12-0 to support the referendum,
with board member Patricia Herdrich, superintendent of the West Bend
School District, abstaining, and two members absent. Herdrich said she
had no impact other than informing members about the referendum just
as she does in public information sessions.

Oshkosh is still Unhappy

Town of Black Wolff residents gathered at the town hall to hear
Oshkosh school Superintendent Ron Heilmann talk about the school
facilities plan for the district.
Lakeside Elementary parents pack Black Wolf town board meeting
Not happy with school board's plan to bus students to Merrill, North

AMANDA M. WIMMER
of The Northwestern October 9, 2007

Lakeside Elementary School parents who do not want their children to
attend Merrill Middle School or Oshkosh North High School packed the
Black Wolf town board meeting Monday.


More than 100 parents showed, many donning a pin that said Merrill and
North with a slash through them, to express their concern about the
Oshkosh school district's evolving 10-year-facilities plan.

If passed, the plan would have students living in the area bordered by
25th Avenue to the north, the Canadian National railroad tracks to the
west, Lone Elm Avenue to the south and Lake Winnebago to the east, go
to Merrill and North. Those students now attend Lakeside, South Park
Middle and Oshkosh West High School.

"They may not let us speak, but we can be visual," said Bill Kies, a
Lakeside parent who handed out the pins at Monday night's meeting.

Oshkosh school district Superintendent Ron Heilmann came to Monday's
meeting to give a presentation about the facilities plan. Heilmann
talked about the details of the Public Management Partners report,
which came out last October. The consultant's report recommended
school closures and boundary area shifts in order to create equity
among schools in the Oshkosh school district.

Kies, along with other Black Wolf community members, pressed members
of the town board to support the community and stand up against the
Oshkosh school district.

"I think we need town support to help us as a force," Kies said. "I
think the town of Black Wolf needs to display that they aren't
pleased."

However, town chairman Frank Frassetto said he thinks citizens will
have a better chance of being heard if they go to the Oshkosh school
board meetings and speak for themselves.

Kelly Spanbauer, who spoke at Monday's meeting, said she feels
Lakeside families are being treated unfairly.
"I feel that we are going to be taking the brunt of what the Oakwood
area was not able to accept," she said.

The plan that affects Lakeside families came after the board's
rejection of a plan, known as Option E, that would have balanced
attendance areas at the high schools by transferring some students who
attend Oakwood, Franklin and Roosevelt Elementary schools into the
North attendance area.

Parents and community members say it doesn't make sense to send
children from the southernmost part of the district to the
northernmost schools.

Wednesday the Oshkosh school board will hold a workshop to further
discus the Lakeside attendance area option as well as an option that
would take parts of the community around Roosevelt and send those
students to Merrill and North, Heilmann said.

A public forum will be held Oct. 17, which will give community members
an opportunity to speak about concerns. The Oshkosh school board could
vote as early as Oct. 24 on an attendance area plan.

But Heilmann told parents Monday that even the possible vote on the
attendance area plan on Oct. 24 isn't final.

"They can vote on parts (of the plan) in concept and they reserve the
right to change (the plan) in the end," Heilmann said.

LaCrosse considers Referendum

Published - Tuesday, October 09, 2007

By AUTUMN GROOMS, La Crosse Tribune

An owner of a $100,000 home could pay $36 to $117 more annually in
property taxes, depending on what the La Crosse School District
decides to ask for in a spring 2008 referendum.

The district unveiled those numbers at a special

La Crosse School Board meeting Monday as it approved questions for an
upcoming survey of district residents to gauge public opinion about
what the building and operating referendums should contain.

Superintendent Jerry Kember said the costs are preliminary and could
change depending on community response and what the school board
decides.

Board members said they will not decide on whether to proceed with the
April 1 referendums, or what they might contain, without community
input.

About 30,000 letters will be mailed throughout the district in the
coming weeks, asking residents to participate in an online survey "to
help establish future educational and facility plans."

The survey will ask about several long-term priorities in educational
programs and technology and building needs, and whether the public
would support a $20 million, $35 million, $50 million or

$65 million capital referendum to improve district facilities.

Also asked is whether residents would consider consolidating Franklin
Elementary and Roosevelt Elementary/ Coulee Montessori, both on the
city's North Side.

Options for the two schools in the survey include:

nLeaving the schools at their current sites and correcting building
deficiencies for an estimated $10.4 million;

nCombining the schools into an existing building that would be
renovated to add space, at an estimated cost of $12.9 million;

nCombining the schools into a new building at one of the current sites
for about $16.6 million, including construction and demolition.

Survey results should be back to the school board in November. Those
responses then will be used to determine the referendums' feasibility
and perhaps shape questions for the April 2008 ballot.

Information also will be gathered at public forums from 10 to 11:30
a.m. Saturdays, Dec. 8 and Jan. 12; and from 7 to 8:30 p.m. Thursdays,
Dec. 13 and Jan. 10.

Special Ed Lawsuit

Original Story URL:
http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=671918

Special school or segregation?

Some with disabilities favor Walworth's site; others object

By AMY HETZNER
ahetzner@journalsentinel.com

Posted: Oct. 7, 2007

Elkhorn - The law may have one definition for what constitutes the
"least restrictive environment" for educating students with
disabilities, but parent Julie Witt says she has another after
enrolling two of her children in Walworth County's school specializing
in such pupils.

At Lakeland School, Witt's 11-year-old son Cole is not tied to an
aide, nor does he have to leave his classroom to receive different
lessons from the rest of his peers, as he did in the Illinois school
he attended with non-disabled students.

"Here, he is totally independent," said Witt, whose family moved to
LaGrange a year ago. "He just fits, and he's loving that."

Witt's interpretation bumps up against a more traditional definition
of special-education law that, for the last three decades, has caused
massive changes in how students with disabilities are educated,
including the setting where they receive their instruction.

It's that definition, which contends that disabled students should
learn alongside non-disabled classmates as often as possible, that has
prompted an ongoing lawsuit challenging the future of Lakeland School.

Jeffrey Spitzer-Resnick, managing attorney for Disability Rights
Wisconsin, casts his group's case against the school as a modern-day
Brown vs. Board of Education. "Separate is not equal, and it certainly
is not better," said Spitzer-Resnick, whose group sued the Walworth
County Board of Supervisors to prevent a new, larger home for
Lakeland.

Students with disabilities who are taught separately miss the kind of
social networking that helps them land jobs and become full members of
their communities, Spitzer-Resnick said.

"When you segregate kids, they don't get those opportunities like
everybody else," he said. "And kids with disabilities need even more
than that."

Walworth County has served disabled students in a separate facility
for nearly 60 years, starting with a leased basement in the Elkhorn
VFW building.

Today, Lakeland School hosts more than 250 students ages 3 to 21 in a
building alongside single-family homes in Elkhorn down the street from
the grounds of the Walworth County Fair. Lakeland students largely
come from the county's 15 school districts, with disabilities ranging
from behavioral disorders that caused them to act out in their home to
cognitive deficiencies and multiple physical handicaps.

Class sizes at the school are small so teachers can give more
individual attention to their pupils. But Lakeland students also get
opportunities their peers might in any other school: playing on a
Special Olympics basketball team, attending prom and participating in
school-to-work activities to help them get ready for life after
school.

New teacher Justin Hamilton added an art class this year to appeal to
the creative impulses of his students.

Hamilton, who is certified to teach students with cognitive, learning
and behavioral disabilities, said he decided to work at Lakeland
partly to avoid the resource battles typical between regular and
special-education teachers. At Lakeland, everyone is focused on the
students, and it works, he said.

"The only thing that doesn't work well is the current school
(facility)," Hamilton said.

Space is a concern. Lakeland has been forced to move its library and
its collections into a hallway that also is utilized for indoor
recess. Many of the school's narrow hallways aren't wide enough for
more than one wheelchair at a time.

And then there are issues with its physical operations. Water leaks
have left brown streaks running along the walls. The school is no
longer compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act. A device
once used to lower students into the school swimming pool has been
abandoned, leaving it to staff members to help carry students down the
steps into the water.

But when the Walworth County Board tried to address the issues posed
by the physical structure, voting in April 2006 to build a new
Lakeland in the Town of Geneva for $22 million, it was hit with the
lawsuit by Disability Rights Wisconsin.

The group contended that an expanded facility could lead the county's
school districts to send even more students through its doors -
already an issue, according to state statistics.

Statewide, one of every 68 students with disabilities between ages 6
and 21 was educated in a segregated setting in the 2005-'06 school
year. Even in the Elmbrook School District, which supports a separate
high school for students with significant disabilities, one of every
60 students is taught in a separate facility.

In contrast, about 1 of every 10 students with disabilities in
Walworth County attends Lakeland.

But Disability Rights Wisconsin also has a problem with its lawsuit:
It was unable to find a single parent with a child in the school to
sign on as a plaintiff.

Earlier this year, a federal judge dismissed the lawsuit, saying the
group had not shown it or any of its members had been injured by the
decision to build a new school building for Lakeland. An appeal of
that dismissal is pending, with oral arguments scheduled for next
month.

Meanwhile, Lakeland parents filed a complaint with the U.S. Department
of Education's Office for Civil Rights contending that
Spitzer-Resnick's organization, which last month won a
special-education lawsuit against Milwaukee Public Schools, was not
representing the students for which it receives funding.

Like other parents with children at Lakeland, Barb McComb says
enrollment in the school is a choice, one of many allowed for students
with disabilities under the law. Other counties might not have as many
students educated outside integrated settings because the option has
become less available in the move to fully include all students in the
regular education classrooms, she said.

Choice is a key word that many of those connected to Lakeland use in
talking about the school.

Andrew Schindler, a 17-year-old sophomore who attended Burlington and
Elkhorn high schools, said he was allowed to pick what school to
attend when his family moved back to the area, and he chose Lakeland.

"I just missed coming here because I like all the teachers," said
Schindler, who attended Lakeland from kindergarten through middle
school. "The kids at the high school, they're not as decent as the
kids here. They're mean and pushy, and I don't want to be around
them."

If Disability Rights Wisconsin's lawsuit is successful, students'
options in Walworth County will be just as limited as they are for
students in other counties, McComb said. That would be a loss for
Walworth County, she said.

"I think we're doing incredible things," said McComb, who also works
as an aide in the school, which her son Tom has attended since he was
18 months old. "My son is learning to read at 20. . . . They never
quit. He's 20 years old and they're still working on those basics. I
would have given up."

But Delavan parent Cassie Hartogh said she felt like she was given
little choice other than Lakeland when school officials first
recommended it for her son Benjamin, who was born with cerebral palsy.
She said she had to fight to keep Benjamin out of Lakeland.

"I don't regret it for one moment because my son has done so well in a
regular environment, you know, a typical school," Hartogh said of her
decision to enroll him at Darien Elementary School. "Not only does my
son benefit, but the other children benefit as well because they learn
compassion of children who are different."

BLISTERING Oshkosh Editorial re: their School Board

This blistering editorial about the lack of action at the BOE in Oshkosh goes with a previous article here on the blog about boundary changes in Oshkosh. Do you think we might expect our local paper to actually notice and comment in a straightforward manner about the INACTION that has been in place here for 10 years??

Maria


This is a printer friendly version of an article from the Oshkosh Northwestern

Editorial: Time to replace school district management
October 7, 2007
One year ago, the Oshkosh School District received an urgent wake-up call.

A Green Bay-consulting firm issued a troubling report that educational
opportunity and equity in our schools were being compromised. Public
Management Partners found that Oshkosh has more schools than
comparable school systems and those buildings needed, in 2006 dollars,
$10 million in repairs.

The report painted a bleak picture of a hodge-podge of facilities that
were not meeting the needs of students, with some schools seriously
overcrowded and others with unused space. For example, some have
adequate space for media centers, art and music, while other schools
are using cafeteria space for those needs. In addition, the report
ranked school buildings based on national standards to help school
leaders objectively decide which ones were worthy of repair and which
ones needed to close.

One year later, it's sad to report that little-to-nothing has been
done to address the core educational equity issues in our schools.
Judging by results, the wake-up call was put on a 365-day snooze.

It is inexcusable and the responsibility rests on eight people. Seven
elected school board members and the superintendent of schools. Though
they may consider themselves individuals, they collectively are the
management and leadership of the Oshkosh school district. They have
collectively failed the students and the community. This is not a
finger pointing exercise. This is the hard truth. Our school district
is paralyzed and unable to make fundamental decisions about the
future.

If the managers can't get the job done on the field, it's time to
bring in new management – a new superintendent and new elected board
members.

The current management of the district has lost the confidence of the
community that it can resolve the issue. It no longer has credibility
to go to the voters at-large to get support for a $46.6 million
referendum that will be required to upgrade and repair facilities.

It's not as if there hasn't been an extraordinary effort to find a
solution. Hundreds of volunteers have been tapped, thousands spent on
public relations and other consulting services and facilitators and
scores of hours spent in meetings, listening sessions and other forms
of public outreach.

But recent efforts to redraw boundary lines have disintegrated into a
bruising, divisive and pointless detour from the core objective. The
same can be said for the time spent on re-designating elementary and
middle school class splits from K-5, 6-8 to K-3, 4–8. That's the real
"social experimentation" taking place in our schools. It's a change
backed by scant research that largely focused on K-8 school
configurations.

Consider this: Five Oshkosh schools were recognized for fulfilling the
"New Wisconsin Promise" because of impressive test scores despite high
numbers of students living in poverty. Four of those schools —Webster
Stanley Middle and Elementary, Washington Elementary and Merrill
Middle School — would cease to exist as we know them if the plan is
implemented.

The real irony is that the school board fixed a problem that did not
exist and failed to fix the problem staring our students in the eye
everyday.

One-year later, there is no end in sight to the gridlock.

Without fundamental change in the management of the district, the
gridlock will continue and our schools will fall into greater
disrepair and decline. The budget, likewise, will be in disrepair,
necessitating program and staff cuts, further diminishing
opportunities for Oshkosh students.

Continuing on the same path will not get the job done for the Oshkosh community.

The Final Thought: There must be fundamental change in the management
of the Oshkosh school district to jump the start the process of
facility planning and improving the quality of our school system.

Racine Leads in Suspensions/Expulsions

Original Story URL:
http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=671354

RUSD leads in expelling black students

District tops state in suspensions, posts high U.S. rates

By DANI McCLAIN
dmcclain@journalsentinel.com

Posted: Oct. 6, 2007

Reflecting the results of a national study, the Racine Unified School
District has a high rate, as does the state, of suspensions and
expulsions of African-American students.

According to a Journal Sentinel analysis, black students, who make up
just over a quarter of Racine Unified's population, made up 56% of
those suspended and 58% of those expelled in the 2005-'06 school year.

Figures from the state Department of Public Instruction show that 0.6%
of Wisconsin's 91,000 black public school students were expelled in
2005-'06, but that rate more than doubled in Racine, to 1.3% of the
district's black students.

Sue Kutz, who has served on the Racine Unified School Board since
2004, said the district takes a zero-tolerance approach to ensuring
school safety.

"The schools are just enforcing the policies that they have in place,"
said Kutz, a former School Board president.

Board reviews expulsions

School principals make decisions about suspensions, but monthly
expulsion recommendations are subject to board review. Kutz said a
student's demographics play no role in her consideration of
disciplinary action.

"I don't pay attention to the race or the sex or anything like that,"
Kutz said. "I look at what happened and what the consequences were."

But even setting race aside, Racine's suspension and expulsion rates
dwarfed state numbers, as has been the case for at least a decade. A
little more than 7% of Wisconsin public school students were suspended
in 2005-'06, compared with 14% of Racine Unified students.

At MPS, the state's largest district, the total number of suspensions
equaled more than a quarter of its student body and more than a third
of its black student population in 2005-'06, state figures show.

And the Racine Unified expulsion rate, at 0.6%, is three times the
state's and greater than Milwaukee Public Schools'.

No Racine Unified administrators were available to comment on its
suspension and expulsion numbers, according to a district spokeswoman.

The district has made progress in bringing those numbers down in
recent years, said Jeff Browne, director of the Public Policy Forum, a
non-partisan think-tank in Milwaukee.

Browne's organization first started producing an annual analysis of
Racine Unified in 1998 that compared it with nine other peer
districts. Back then, Racine Unified was clearly an outlier with
regard to discipline, he said.

"Its expulsion rate was way higher than any other district," Browne
said. "The Racine district accounted for one-quarter of all the
expulsions for the entire state."

The actions of both the student and the faculty member initiating
discipline should be considered when evaluating discipline patterns
with regard to race, Browne said.

"It takes two to suspend a kid," he said. "We don't know whether a
black child is more likely to be suspended because a black child is
more likely to misbehave, or whether the staff member in any given
case is more likely to react differently because the student is a
child of color."

A look at Racine Unified's 2006-'07 numbers shows that about a third
of infractions related to expulsions - 48 of 151 - were due to
"student behavior."

State ranks 3rd

Wisconsin ranks third among states that suspend a disproportionate
number of African-American students, according to a recent Chicago
Tribune analysis of school discipline nationwide. That study examined
2004-'05 U.S. Department of Education numbers and was published late
last month.

It showed that, nationwide, black students are suspended and expelled
at nearly three times the rate of white students.

In Wisconsin, the racial disparity in suspensions is even greater and
trails only Washington, D.C., and Minnesota, according to the report.
Black students here are nearly six times as likely as white students
to be suspended, the figures showed, and are twice as likely as white
students to be expelled.