A couple of interesting ideas to emerge from last Friday's Green School conference at the Nittany Lion Inn came from the table conversation with other attendees. Among others, I spoke with Donnan Stoicovy, principal of Park Forest Elementary, who has long been an advocate for environmental responsibility coupled with student engagement. I came away more convinced of the importance of approaching "green" issues holistically.
In particular, a lot could be gained by integrating our commitment to environmental responsibility with the district's wellness policy.
For example, should we rethink the district's busing policy, which currently provides transportation to elementary students who live more than one mile from school? (The secondary threshold is 1.5 miles; the state requirement is 1.5 miles and 2 miles, respectively.) Potentially, this could reduce vehicle emissions, save money, as well as give students a little more physical exercise.
Should we be trying to purchase more locally grown food - or perhaps, try growing it ourselves, as part of the curriculum? In addition to the environmental impact (less pollution from transportation), and the potential for a healthier diet, what would be the educational impact of having students seeing how their food is "made"? I suspect that our eating habits would change for the better overnight if our food production processes was more transparent.
(In a related note, Slow Food USA’s Central PA chapter recently announced a Labor Day “Eat In” to be held from 3-5pm at the Panorama Elementary School. The community pot-luck is in support of Slow Food’s goal of “getting real food into school lunches.”)
There are also clear benefits to actively involving students in these decisions, both for the educational value, as well as for the increased sense of student engagement in the school community. One presenter showed us four short student-made videos that were produced to encourage environmental awareness within their school. Locally, first and second graders at Park Forest recently took on the challenge of reducing paper towel consumption. - this involved some impressive math - resulting in "One or two will do" stickers being placed on every towel dispenser.
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Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
Small Learning Communities and Building Design
Readers: what follows is the second half of the report I gave to the Board last night. It's an extension of my April 13th post on "Professional Learning Communities"
One of the presentations I attended at NSBA's April conference was by a school district that – like State College - was facing the imperative of significant renovations to their high school facility. Marysville School District in Washington state decided this was an opportunity for them to re-vision what a 21st century high school might look like.
With a guiding committee of about 50 teachers, parents and students, Marysville began by brainstorming a "day in the life" of a high school student. This lead to the establishment of a set of guiding principles.
The central principal centered on relationships.
Their year of planning included virtual tours of successful schools, along with site visits.
One of the things they discovered was that if you ask people what they want in a new school, they'll tell you that what they want is what they've always had. This made clear the importance of giving as many people as possible the opportunity to experience successful educational systems in other communities. Most people need to see an actual example in order to imagine doing something different from what they already know.
As a result of student and faculty surveys, Marysville ended up with eight high school options: This included five "interest-area" schools of about 400 students each:
Four of these learning communities will be located in separate buildings on a new 1600 student campus, surrounding a “Community Commons” area that houses shared functions such as physical education and food service. The academic buildings are designed for future flexibility, with the load-bearing walls and plumbing located around the perimeter. This makes it easier to rearrange the interior spaces, should that become necessary.
Their Arts school and their Heritage school - this is an area with a large Native-American population - are located at a second facility. The Mountainview school, which is somewhat analogous to our Delta program, has its own building. Eventually, their original high school building will serve the approximately 1200 students who want the opportunity to explore several options.
One of the presentations I attended at NSBA's April conference was by a school district that – like State College - was facing the imperative of significant renovations to their high school facility. Marysville School District in Washington state decided this was an opportunity for them to re-vision what a 21st century high school might look like.
With a guiding committee of about 50 teachers, parents and students, Marysville began by brainstorming a "day in the life" of a high school student. This lead to the establishment of a set of guiding principles.
The central principal centered on relationships.
- Students should be known, valued and inspired to perform at their highest potential.
- Collaboration (at all levels) personalizes learning.
- Every student should have an adult advocate.
Their year of planning included virtual tours of successful schools, along with site visits.
One of the things they discovered was that if you ask people what they want in a new school, they'll tell you that what they want is what they've always had. This made clear the importance of giving as many people as possible the opportunity to experience successful educational systems in other communities. Most people need to see an actual example in order to imagine doing something different from what they already know.
As a result of student and faculty surveys, Marysville ended up with eight high school options: This included five "interest-area" schools of about 400 students each:
- Construction and Engineering
- The Bio-Med Academy
- International School of Communications
- School for the Entrepreneur
- Arts and Technology
Four of these learning communities will be located in separate buildings on a new 1600 student campus, surrounding a “Community Commons” area that houses shared functions such as physical education and food service. The academic buildings are designed for future flexibility, with the load-bearing walls and plumbing located around the perimeter. This makes it easier to rearrange the interior spaces, should that become necessary.
Their Arts school and their Heritage school - this is an area with a large Native-American population - are located at a second facility. The Mountainview school, which is somewhat analogous to our Delta program, has its own building. Eventually, their original high school building will serve the approximately 1200 students who want the opportunity to explore several options.
Friday, June 12, 2009
The budget discussion
I thought it might be useful for my readers to have the unabridged version – you can’t print everything - of my comments to the CDT in regards to its recent story on the school district’s 09/10 budget.
My concern is that we're putting a lot of unnecessary effort and administrative time into preparing for a worst-case scenario that is highly unlikely. Every state budget is a negotiation, and as I said at the last board meeting, my guess is that the eventual state appropriation is likely to be closer to the governor's proposal (which would result in a net gain to the district of about $200,000) than to what the senate passed and which the house rejected (which would have resulted in a net loss of $600,000).
The most likely outcome, therefore, is that we’ll have to cover a shortfall of $100,000-200,000. (Keep in mind that the Governor has a pretty good track record of getting what he wants.)
In the proposed budget, we have already set aside $3 million from our fund balance in preparation for the spike in the mandated contribution to PSERS that will be occurring in 2012-2013. That still leaves us with over $500,000 above and beyond the 5% that has been established by board policy - more than enough to cover any shortfall from the state. In fact, these unexpected situations are precisely the reason that you have a fund balance.
While there are savings to be found in any budget, significant cost-cutting should be approached thoughtfully, deliberately, and with consideration for all the implications. This is especially true if we are dealing with a long-term issue, which appears likely. In my opinion, this is not something we should be trying to do in the twenty days we have left to pass this year’s budget.
The long-term solution: a change in the fiscal calendar that would let school districts know the state appropriation well before they have to pass their budget. This also seems highly unlikely, but Senator Corman has indicated that he’s willing to consider it.
My concern is that we're putting a lot of unnecessary effort and administrative time into preparing for a worst-case scenario that is highly unlikely. Every state budget is a negotiation, and as I said at the last board meeting, my guess is that the eventual state appropriation is likely to be closer to the governor's proposal (which would result in a net gain to the district of about $200,000) than to what the senate passed and which the house rejected (which would have resulted in a net loss of $600,000).
The most likely outcome, therefore, is that we’ll have to cover a shortfall of $100,000-200,000. (Keep in mind that the Governor has a pretty good track record of getting what he wants.)
In the proposed budget, we have already set aside $3 million from our fund balance in preparation for the spike in the mandated contribution to PSERS that will be occurring in 2012-2013. That still leaves us with over $500,000 above and beyond the 5% that has been established by board policy - more than enough to cover any shortfall from the state. In fact, these unexpected situations are precisely the reason that you have a fund balance.
While there are savings to be found in any budget, significant cost-cutting should be approached thoughtfully, deliberately, and with consideration for all the implications. This is especially true if we are dealing with a long-term issue, which appears likely. In my opinion, this is not something we should be trying to do in the twenty days we have left to pass this year’s budget.
The long-term solution: a change in the fiscal calendar that would let school districts know the state appropriation well before they have to pass their budget. This also seems highly unlikely, but Senator Corman has indicated that he’s willing to consider it.
Wednesday, June 3, 2009
Rigor and relevance
Upon returning from the DWMP Community Dialogue last night, I did a little channel surfing to see whether the Penguins might still be playing. I stopped briefly at PCN, where Pennsylvania's Secretary of Education, Gerry Zahorchek, was testifying - yet again - to the benefits of a state-wide curriculum and state-wide graduation exams.
I only stayed for a moment, so perhaps I missed something. But in defense of state exams in Algebra II, I'm pretty sure that I heard him say, "students who successfully complete Algebra II are more likely to go to college, and far less likely to drop out of school."
Well, duh. Do I have to say it? Correlation does not imply causality.
What Dr. Zahorchek did, unwittingly, was make an excellent case for giving students opportunities to take probability, statistics and logic, instead of a required Algebra II course.
I recently had a conversation with a retired high school Math teacher, who told me that the standard Algebra-Geometry-Trigonometry-Algebra II/Calculus curriculum originated in the 1930's, in order to prepare future engineers. She questioned why everyone had to take a curriculum that was designed for less than 1% of the population. So - until the PSSAs came along - she would often teach elective courses in discrete mathematics and personal finance as a way to make math more interesting and/or relevant for students who had no intention of ever adding "PE" to their business cards.
In the national endeavor to improve public education, there is a general agreement that three critical components of educational reform are "rigor, relevance and relationship." But somehow, we've adopted a very narrow definition of "rigor" and we've applied the same definition to everyone.
For a future engineer, "rigor" might take the form of AP Physics. but for an aspiring attorney it might be a course in "Constitutional Law". Someone who wants to be an automotive technician needs to take rigorous classes that lead to industry certifications.
For what percentage of students is Algebra II relevant?
I only stayed for a moment, so perhaps I missed something. But in defense of state exams in Algebra II, I'm pretty sure that I heard him say, "students who successfully complete Algebra II are more likely to go to college, and far less likely to drop out of school."
Well, duh. Do I have to say it? Correlation does not imply causality.
What Dr. Zahorchek did, unwittingly, was make an excellent case for giving students opportunities to take probability, statistics and logic, instead of a required Algebra II course.
I recently had a conversation with a retired high school Math teacher, who told me that the standard Algebra-Geometry-Trigonometry-Algebra II/Calculus curriculum originated in the 1930's, in order to prepare future engineers. She questioned why everyone had to take a curriculum that was designed for less than 1% of the population. So - until the PSSAs came along - she would often teach elective courses in discrete mathematics and personal finance as a way to make math more interesting and/or relevant for students who had no intention of ever adding "PE" to their business cards.
In the national endeavor to improve public education, there is a general agreement that three critical components of educational reform are "rigor, relevance and relationship." But somehow, we've adopted a very narrow definition of "rigor" and we've applied the same definition to everyone.
For a future engineer, "rigor" might take the form of AP Physics. but for an aspiring attorney it might be a course in "Constitutional Law". Someone who wants to be an automotive technician needs to take rigorous classes that lead to industry certifications.
For what percentage of students is Algebra II relevant?
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