Asking the Right Questions

Rick Garlikov describes the Socratic Method as "Teaching by Asking Instead of Telling."

He has an extremely interesting experiment teaching third graders binary numbers* and writes,  

This was to be the Socratic method in what I consider its purest form, where questions (and only questions) are used to arouse curiosity and at the same time serve as a logical, incremental, step-wise guide that enables students to figure out about a complex topic or issue with their own thinking and insights. 

You will find the experiment here. (Read it! It is fascinating.) 


*By the way, it's okay if you don't know what a binary number is. First of all, if you read about the experiment, you will understand what they are by the end of the article. Second of all, the experiment is not about binary numbers, but it is about asking questions and using the Socratic method.


Memory: When I was in high school, I had a biology teacher who wrote many outlines on the board. Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus, Species. . . all nicely outlined in copperplate handwriting. (Yes, she had been raised in Catholic schools and like so many of my public school teachers, I believe she had been a nun.) All of that outlining explained the "what," which we dutifully copied. But it didn't explain the "why." I was always asking "why," and one day, my teacher asked me if there was trouble at my home. (No! Why was she asking? Clearly the line between having an inquisitive mind and being trouble for her was a fine one.) I realize now that she probably did not have a strong biology background, and she knew the basics--but she found questions that she did not know the answer to, to be threatening.

Of course, the great irony of this is that good scientists are not driven by answers--they are driven by questions, and their favorite kinds of questions are the ones that cannot be immediately answered.

Progressive Education in the 1940s

This is a really wonderful little clip about Progressive Education in the 1940s, and so many of the themes are still relevant today!

There's Lots Going On Locally

Ann Arbor Public Schools are deciding if they should be open for schools of choice. Here's the proposal, the decision comes next week. [Don't get too excited, it would only be for K-6 students.]

Meanwhile, Saline has schools of choice for the high school. [Updated: See the comment that explains this is only true for the alternative high school, which I did not realize. I wonder if there are concerns about "who" would opt in to Saline and if that is really code for concerns about African-American students from Ypsilanti coming in to largely white Saline?] Saline is now considering extending it to the middle school.  The Saline Superintendent described the motivation as "largely financial." I think that's true for every district in the county!

Student applications are still being accepted for the Washtenaw International High School (the new International Baccalaureate program which will be located in Ypsilanti at the former East Middle School). It is open only to 9th graders. There is another parent information session scheduled for March 28th at 7 p.m. (but the web site doesn't say where!). The following districts are in the consortium, which means students from those districts can apply: Ann Arbor, Lincoln, Milan, Saline, Whitmore Lake, Willow Run, Ypsilanti.

Look for Dexter to set up its own IB setup next year, and it won't surprise me if the districts on the west side of the county (Chelsea and Manchester) work out some agreement with Dexter. It is, after all, a pretty far drive from Manchester to Ypsilanti.

Washtenaw Community College has reopened the search for a new president.

The Washtenaw Intermediate School District board continues to interview candidates for superintendent. One candidate, however, Thomas Langdon, has removed his name from consideration because he took another position. And then there were five...

There's a big College and Career Fair next Wednesday March 30th at Pioneer High School from 6-8 p.m. There will be lots of colleges and businesses attending. See the list here.

And according to Annarbor.com, the Scarlett-Mitchell Lab School is still planning a fall 2011 opening. Parents in the area have until Friday to take a survey. I wish they would ask the rest of us to take a (possibly different) survey, and I really hope they don't move forward until they answer these questions:

1. Can people opt out of the school if they prefer a different school?
2. Can people opt in if they are at a different school but want the lab school?
3. How is this going to be paid for? I'd like to know about both the short-term funding and the long-term funding. We've had lots of trials that haven't lasted, and in this financial environment I'm feeling rather nervous. . . especially about the idea of "intersession" being paid for by grants. . . did we notice the report that Ann Arbor Public Schools are expecting a $15 million dollar deficit next year?

The district is already saying that the budget cuts will affect class size, mostly at the high school level. Well, at this point 4/5 of my daughter's high school classes have 32 students or more. So. . . let's have that conversation too. How big were you thinking?

And on May 3d, we will have the opportunity to vote on a special education millage. I'll write about that another day, but if you want to start reading up on it now, try here and here.

Open Classroom Conference This Weekend

The conference starts Friday night, and goes all day Saturday.
It's titled:

Get Up, Stand Up; Democratic Education as a Right

There's lots of good stuff, including:

Deborah Meier and Jane Andrias, talking about progressive education.

Review and discuss the education reform issues brought up in the film Waiting for Superman. Brit Satchwell, Ann Arbor Education Association president (that's the teacher's union) will help the group develop "talking points" in reponse to the film. [I think this is a really great idea. I haven't seen the film because I thought it would upset me; the idea of developing talking points in response to it sounds like an excellent plan.]

There will also be small group discussions led by Chris Curtis (current Slauson principal), Stewart Wood, and Irene Allen.

The conference is at Camp Ohiyesa, which is about a 40-minute drive from Ann Arbor.

Find out more and get a registration form here.

Supply. . . And Demand

Recent discussions around teachers' pay (is it too much? I don't think so) and merit pay (does it work?), are closely related to issues of student achievement and how much testing is too much testing. As Diane Ravitch points out very cogently, you shouldn't place all the credit--or all the blame--for school achievement on teachers because student achievement is affected by much more--families, poverty, the societal environment.

But I haven't heard discussion about one area that I think underlies much of this discussion: we are training too many teachers! If you are like me, you know lots of people who have been certified as teachers and are not teaching. Some of them are not teaching because they decided they didn't like it, but many, many more are not teaching because they can't find jobs.

And whom should we blame for training too many teachers? No, don't blame Teach For America. Blame your local universities. 

Within about an hour's drive of Ann Arbor, the following schools are teacher education institutions:

Concordia University
Madonna University
Rochester College
University of Detroit-Mercy
Wayne State University
Adrian College
Marygrove College
Oakland University
University of Michigan--Ann Arbor
Albion College
Eastern Michigan University
Michigan State University
Siena Heights University
Spring Arbor University
University of Michigan--Dearborn
University of Michigan--Flint

Eastern Michigan University is the #1 graduator of certified teachers, but Western Michigan and Central Michigan are close behind.

And the reason all these schools have teacher education programs? Sure, they believe in good teacher education, yada yada yada. In fact, I believe that many of them provide very good teacher education--and what's more, Michigan State University has been nationally ranked as having the #1 programs in elementary and secondary education in the country for several years.

But the real reason that these schools all have teacher education programs is that they are a cash cow. Teachers often need enough subject area credits that they have full, or almost full, majors in two subjects, and then they need the required education courses. And then they need to come back for masters' programs to keep up their certification and be eligible for a higher salary. And compared to a program that requires a lot of instrumentation and materials (say, for example, nursing, dentistry, engineering), teacher education programs are a relatively inexpensive investment for an institution of higher learning.

In fact, according to this report to the state Board of Education, over three years nearly 43,000 would-be teachers took certification tests in the state (and about 90% of them passed). And that doesn't include all the people who started the program, and before they got all the way through dropped out. Do you think Michigan schools have hired anywhere near 40,000 teachers over the past three years? Did you know that studies have shown that many teachers choose teaching so they can stay within an hour of where they grew up?

(And sure, there are some shortages. Over that three-year period, only 10 teachers got certified for the visually impaired, and only 20 got certified for Physical and Other Health Impairments. BUT--2,576 people got certified in English, and 9,184 in Elementary Education.)

Need to understand how education is valued? Look no further than student teaching. Typically, education students who are doing student teaching "get" to pay a full semester's worth of credits (often needing to quit other jobs) while they work full-time for free in a school district. Yes, they get supervision (for which the supervising teachers get a measly stipend of something like $100), but in other college programs, where there are not a surfeit of applicants (take, for instance, many psychology or public health programs), people in training often get paid for their internships, and/or don't need to pay to be enrolled at the same time.

Back in the day when many of these teacher education programs began--back when my mother-in-law became a teacher--it was common for teachers to leave (as she did) when they got married or had children. So, many teachers didn't stay that long.

It's true that a lot of teachers try teaching for 2, 3, 4 years and decide it's not for them. Even accounting for that, we still have too many teachers, many of whom had to find other jobs. And although lots of them aren't teaching, if there were suddenly more openings, I think many of those not-currently-teaching teachers would jump back into the job pool. How many certified teachers do you know who are currently waitressing, working in a small business, working as a teacher's aide or afterschool supervisor, working in an administrative position, or unemployed?

The only reason that people can assert that teachers get paid too much is because there is an ample supply of available teachers to fill in the ranks, at low salaries. (In Willow Run, for example, a new teacher with a B.A. is starting out at about $33,000/year--or approximately $16.50 an hour.)

There is a solution for this: teacher education programs should restrict the number of people they admit to their programs for the next ten years. It's Economics 101: as the supply goes down to the level that matches the demand, the pay that teachers get will seem like a bargain.  Honestly, I think it would be a discussion-changer.

WISD Superintendent Search

I'm reproducing this WISD press release in its entirety.

My Summary: There are six interviews of finalist candidates for the WISD superintendent position. Interviews begin today. All meetings are open to the public and will be held at the WISD, 1819 S. Wagner Road, Ann Arbor, MI 48103. The Superintendent will have a lot of control over many of the consolidation initiatives that are ongoing, and that will affect every public school in the county. So yes, it's an important position.

Ann Arbor, MI— At a special meeting on March 15, 2011, the Washtenaw Intermediate Board of Education selected six candidates to interview for the position of superintendent. The candidates are:

Christine Beardsley
Ms. Beardsley is in her tenth year as Superintendent of the Oscoda Area Schools. She received her bachelor’s degree from Ferris State University in business administration, her master’s degree in educational administration from Central Michigan University and is scheduled to receive her doctorate in educational leadership in May, also from Central Michigan.
David J. Campbell
Mr. Campbell is in his eleventh year as Superintendent of the Olivet Community Schools. He received his undergraduate degree in education at the University of Wisconsin at Whitewater and his master’s degree in educational administration at Illinois State University.
Thomas L. Goodney
Dr. Goodney is in his sixth year as Deputy Superintendent and Chief of Staff at the Educational Service Center of Central Ohio (Columbus, OH). He received his bachelor’s degree in mass communications at Northern Michigan University, his master’s degree in speech at Miami University (Oxford, OH) and his doctorate in educational leadership, also at Miami University.
Beverly A. Knox-Pipes
Ms. Knox-Pipes is in her ninth year as Assistant Superintendent for Technology and Media Services at the Genesee Intermediate School District. She received her undergraduate degree in elementary education at the University of Texas at El Paso, her master’s degree at Lesley College (Cambridge, MA) focusing on computers in education and is currently completing requirements for her doctorate in instructional technology and distance education from Nova Southeastern University (Miami, FL).
Thomas M. Langdon
Dr. Langdon is in his seventh year as Superintendent of the Big Rapids Public Schools. He received a bachelor’s degree from Cornerstone University in biology and physical science and a second bachelor’s degree from Calvin College in education. His master’s in educational leadership is from Western Michigan University and his doctorate in educational leadership is from Central Michigan University.
Scott A. Menzel
Mr. Menzel is in his fourth year as Superintendent of the Livingston Educational Service Agency. He received his bachelor’s degree in religion from Vanguard University (Costa Mesa, CA), his master’s degree in philosophy and social policy from the American University (Washington, D.C.) and is completing work on his doctorate from Eastern Michigan University.

The interview schedule is as follows:
Monday, March 21, 2011
6:30 p.m.    Scott Menzel
8:00 p.m.    Beverly Knox-Pipes
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
6:30 p.m.    David Campbell
Wednesday, March 23, 2011
6:30 p.m.    Thomas Langdon
8:00 p.m.    Christine Beardsley
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
6:30 p.m.    Thomas Goodney

All interviews will be held at the Washtenaw Intermediate School District, 1819 S. Wagner Rd, Ann Arbor MI and are open to the public.
The Board is selecting a new superintendent to succeed Dr. William C. Miller who retired in December of 2010 after more than 22 years of service to the district, 12 of them as superintendent. Dr. Michael Emlaw, Superintendent Search Consultant for the Michigan Association of School Boards, is assisting the WISD Board with its search. He can be reached at (734) 657.2425 or emlaw@comcast.net.

Congratulations! (I'm Not Mocking It)

Congratulations to the Ypsilanti High School and Community High School Mock Trial Teams that have advanced to the State competition. Last year, I believe they both advanced and Community went to the nationals. This time, Ypsilanti came in first and Community came in third in the regionals. The state competition is coming up--read more here.

And both teams had a major "trial." Both teams sent an "A" team and a "B" team, and in both cases, in the third round, the Ypsilanti A team and B team had to face off, as did the Community High A team and B team. [The implication is this: it's possible for both an A and a B team to advance to the states, but not if they face each other in the third round...And it can be tough to face your schoolmates!]

Rallies!

Ann Arbor Education Association Rally, Open to the Public,
Forsythe Middle School, Ann Arbor, 4:30-6 p.m. Tuesday March 15th
From Brit Satchwell, AAEA President:

Thousands from Michigan are going to Madison on Saturday. Over 100,000 are expected. I've heard that many of you plan to drive, and I wish those travelers well. My thanks to them all for standing up for all of us.

For those who cannot go to Madison, AAEA has reserved the Forsythe Middle School Auditorium for a large public-invited ...union meeting on Tuesday, March 15, 4:30 p.m. I've invited the mayor, city council, our AAPS trustees, every teacher in the surrounding districts, our local parents, a few of our heroic legislators.
This is about Synder's budget, its effect on the elderly and the poor, his plan to remove our elected official as he sees fit, the rights of public sector workers to bargain, the plans Michigan is hatching for education and educators. In a nutshell, it's about our democracy, one of hundreds of local rallies taking place next Tuesday around Michigan. We need to pack da joint. Please be there - about one hour - and pass this invitation along to your friends.

There are also rallies at the Capitol in Lansing coming up--
Tuesday (tomorrow) from AARP, from 11-1 p.m.,
Wednesday 3/16/2011 from Working Families Protest at noon,
and Thursday 3/24/2011, a Higher Education rally organized by students, also at noon.
Find more information on all of those here.

So I think we've got the bigger issues covered--pensions, earned income tax credit, K-12 school funding cuts, higher education funding cuts...I'm not opposed to taxing pensions if the lower-income pension-holders are protected. Especially if that saves the Earned Income Tax Credit. Poverty is a major driver of poor educational achievement.

We Deserve Better: Or Go Pack, Go!

By now you've probably heard about the layoffs at annarbor.com. If you haven't, well--there were layoffs. They cut their lead blogger (so much for engaging with the web), they cut their entertainment staff, they cut general reporting...you get the idea. (And they appear not to be able to report on themselves, someone else had to do it for them. But at the link above at least Tony Dearing reacts.)

Right now, they don't even have a higher education reporter, and wait a minute...isn't this a company town? How could you not have a higher education reporter with UM and EMU in your front yard and back yard respectively? That tells you how thin the reporting staff is right now.

And honestly, when it comes to news reporting, I feel that we the people of Washtenaw County deserve better. Annarbor.com cannot cut its way into prosperity when what it needs is more reporters. Sure there are Heritage Newspapers, which is set up with a small-town model and might be all that Milan or Manchester can sustain, but it's not sufficient for Ann Arbor or Ypsilanti. I love the Ann Arbor Chronicle, but they will be the first to admit that their focus is limited, and they are not trying to run a full service newspaper or news site. [If they did, though, I'm sure it would be high quality.] It's unfair to the people of Ypsilanti to have to rely on Mark Maynard's blog to report on the grapevine.

Yesterday, twitter was abuzz with news of the layoffs. (Digression: I find I really like twitter. I can follow breaking news about Madison, WI and Japan and Libya simultaneously! Follow me as schoolsmuse.)

Anyway, someone on twitter asked me what I was looking for. I said, "The New York Times, only local." What???? No, seriously, I mean that. There are still, excellent and viable local papers--and if you lived in New York, you would know that the New York Times really is also a local paper. Anyway--he said he didn't think Ann Arbor could support that. I think he's wrong. In part I am making the same argument that annarbor.com tried to make, "We're such an educated community." Exactly--so people want their news. But we're not dumb, either. We don't want dumb news, we want smart news.

On the other hand, he might be right that there is not a good for-profit model for this right now. I started thinking about nonprofit models--after all, that's basically the world I come from. I don't know that your classic 501(c)3 is the right model either.

But then, I started thinking about the most recent Superbowl. Now, I'm not really a football fan (although I do always read the sports pages), but this Superbowl attracted my attention. In it, we had two small-market teams--Pittsburgh and Green Bay--make it to the top.
Although the greater Pittsburgh area has about a million people, Pittsburgh itself has only around 300,000 (yes, you say, that's the size of Washtenaw County). But they've got major league football, baseball, ice hockey and even soccer. And Green Bay? It's slightly smaller than Ann Arbor, but it's got a professional football team.

So how, you might wonder, does Green Bay survive in the big bad world of the NFL? Well, their fans have faith. But also--they have the right type of organization. Their greatest fans are their shareholders. They are non-profit and community-owned.

According to the Packers web site:

Shareholders

Green Bay Packers, Inc., has been a publicly owned, nonprofit corporation since Aug. 18, 1923, when original articles of incorporation were filed with Wisconsin’s secretary of state. A total of 4,750,937 shares is owned by 112,158 stockholders —none of whom receives any dividend on the initial investment. The corporation is governed by a board of directors and a seven member executive committee.

One of the more  remarkable business stories in American history, the team is kept viable by its shareholders — its unselfish fans. Even more incredible, the Packers have survived during the current era, permeated by free agency and the NFL salary cap. And, thanks in large part to Brown County’s passage of the 2000 Lambeau Field referendum, the club will remain solvent and highly competitive well into the future due to its redeveloped stadium. Fans have come to the team’s financial rescue on several occasions, including four previous stock sales: 1923, 1935, 1950 and 1997.
To protect against someone taking control of the team, the articles of incorporation prohibit any person from owning more than 200,000 shares. 

Whether this is the exactly right model, I'm not positive. There are several slightly different model of cooperatives too. But there is a lot of flexibility in the way cooperatives work, and cooperatives have a long history in Wisconsin and Michigan. We've got credit unions. We've got food co-ops. We've got housing co-ops. Why not a news cooperative?  

The time for planning is now.
It's our county, let's act like it.


And in the meantime? Go, Pack, Go!

When NYC Was A Union Town

Check out this blog post from Mark Naison of Fordham University:

Things We Had When New York Was A Union Town.

I thought this was a really interesting blog post, not least because my parents--who came from working-class families--hugely benefited from policy #6, the free college educations that they got at Queens College and City College. I attribute the life I have today in large part to the opportunities they had then.

As Naison writes:

Let me leave you with some numbers. In the early 1950's when 35% of the American work force was unionized, the United States had the smallest wealth gap (between the top and bottom 20 percent of its population) of any advanced nation in the world. Now, when 11.9% of our workforce is unionized, we have the largest.

The Warmth of Other Suns

For my book group I'm reading Isabel Wilkerson's The Warmth of Other Suns. It's the story of the Great Migration of black families north in the middle of the 1900s, as told through the eyes of three families. The title, The Warmth of Other Suns, comes from a Richard Wright poem, which says in part,

I was taking a part of the South
To transplant in alien soil...
Respond to the warmth of other suns
And, perhaps, to bloom. 

I am only a short way into the book, but I caught this description of the author's mother, as seen in a photo:

The one in the pearls used to greet the train when she was little and dream of going with it. She would become a teacher and, years later, my mother (p. 12, emphasis added).

Which made me stop and think. I already wrote, in the comments of this post, about how 60% of public sector workers are women. But also, it's well documented that both public sector workplaces and unionized workplaces have been more likely to hire people of color.  (According to the AFL-CIO, public sector workplaces are the leading employer of black men, and the second leading employer of black women.) And my friends tell me that in the black community, public sector jobs are seen as a source of stability and equality--and that the crown of public sector jobs is the job of a teacher.

So--is what is going on in Wisconsin, Ohio, Indiana, and Michigan, to name a few places--simply an attack on unions and collective bargaining, a promotion of private enterprise? Or is it, ultimately, an attack on women that goes along with a "women belong in the home" mentality? Is it a racially-motivated attack? I don't say that lightly, but I also think that it has to be part of the question.

Is it an Emergency?

I don't think people have really understood the emergency financial management bill that has passed the House and Senate and is winding its way to Gov. Snyder's desk. It's not exactly clear under what circumstances a city, county, or school district can be thrown under emergency financial management, but it's pretty clear to me that with revenue sharing cuts, school aid fund cuts, and more, there is a lot of potential for many communities  to be put under emergency financial management...and not necessarily by a person, but potentially by a corporation.

Or, as a friend of mine wrote recently,

These bills will allow someone appointed by the Governor to arrive in a community, strip the locally elected school board or city council of their power, throw out contracts and not be challenged by the people, the elected officials or the courts. Governor Snyder has repeatedly said he supports collective bargaining rights, yet he will sign these bills. He also said he wants to invest in early childhood education, but his budget offered nothing. He offers us a budget of “shared sacrifice” but cuts taxes on corporations and increases taxes on senior citizens and low income working families.

So now, it seems, EVERY state--including Michigan--is Wisconsin. Governor Snyder can "say" that he is not going to mess with collective bargaining, but really, we all know that actions speak louder than words. Look no further than the emergency manager's bill.

You might be interested in Brian Robb's analysis of how all the cuts will affect Ypsilanti. 

You might be interested in the Detroit News' analysis of how the budget bills would affect eight sample taxpayers.

And here is Rachel Maddow's take on both Wisconsin and Michigan.

And in breaking news from Rachel Maddow's web site:

NBC News reports that the Wisconsin Senate has passed a bill stripping unionized state workers of collective bargaining rights without any Democrats present. It went 18-1 -- Republican Senator Dale Schultz was the lone nay. The Assembly looks likely to vote tomorrow morning. Democrats say the rushed proceedings violate the state's open meetings law and that they'll be asking the State Attorney General to intervene.

Citizens, it's time for us to find our voice. Which might be hard, because every day I find myself more and more speechless.

Good Luck With That, And More

Good Luck With That
The Ann Arbor school board has chosen Patricia Green to be the new superintendent. From what I read, both finalists seemed qualified. She is going to come in on a BIG new salary (comparable to what they are paying the New York City chancellor of schools, I understand). And then she gets to ask everybody to take pay cuts--when last year or the year before that they already gave concessions. Well, I say, good luck with that...

Trademarks
I was very happy to read this article about Ann Arbor trademarking high school logos. Faithful readers of this blog (the few, the proud!) may remember that last year I wrote a blog post titled Varsity Bear.  At a pharmacy I had found this very, very cute Pioneer bear and I had to take a picture of it. The bear on the left also has a purple P.

Liz Margolis, the district's Communications Director, wrote at the time,
"This is troubling for us in the district and especially at the high schools. The schools see no revenue from these sales. We are working to issue letters to these stores asking for voluntary percentage returns to the schools on all sales. The logos and names are "owned" by the district so the district can seek this return."

So, I'm glad to see some resolution for this issue--not just because it brings the district some revenue, but also because it's not always so easy to buy the perfect River Rat jersey. And I hope that Ann Arbor will SHARE its expertise with other districts in the county. After all, Chelsea and Manchester might want to trademark their logos too. I also hope that we can add the Community High School logo, and the middle school logos. I mean, who wouldn't want a

Rainbow Zebra sweatshirt (Community) or a

Golden Bear hat (Slauson) or a

super cute Scarlett Roadrunner!

Diane Ravitch
She's on fire! So is Jon Stewart. If you missed the pieces on his show last week--one an interview with Diane Ravitch, the other some discussion by Jon about "greedy" teachers, you can find them right here at Assorted Stuff's blog. (I was going to post them myself, but I'm feeling lazy.)

I'll tell you what I really respect about Diane Ravitch--she has shown that she has the capacity to change her mind, and admit--out loud--that she made mistakes. The rest of us (and I freely include myself) could learn a lot from her.


Mike Thompson: Those Durn Public Sector Unions
I always enjoy Mike Thompson's cartoons (he's the Free Press cartoonist) and this one seems particularly appropriate. Click on the link, you won't be sorry you did. (But my friend tells me the comments are vicious--I haven't read them.)

Ask and Tell, Please

I just noticed that tomorrow night, Thursday March 3d, there is a special forum

Do Ask, Do Tell
at the Neutral Zone, 310 E. Washington, Ann Arbor,
from 7-10 p.m.
Riot Youth presents a Free, community event- Do Ask, Do Tell to have a conversation with LGBTQQA youth activists. Be inspired to help them create positive community change. The evening includes community building, poetry, theater performances and conversation. For more information, click here http://www.neutral-zone.org/events/891/do-ask-do-tell

Now, because of a conversation I had with another parent earlier today, this is my question for you (and please, do tell us)--in the comments section:

1. If your child's school has, you believe, an environment that is friendly to LGBT youth, what is it about the school that makes it friendly?


2. If your child's school has, you believe, an environment that is not friendly to LGBT youth, what is it about the school that makes it unfriendly?

(No need to give the school's names--I'm interested in the characteristics.)

Thanks,

Ruth

So Good: Stewart Gets It Right

Here's what Jon Stewart has to say about teachers and their unions (Hat Tip to Assorted Stuff):

Superintendent Search, And More

I got this in my inbox from the Ann Arbor Public Schools today about the AAPS superintendent search:

A questions and answer session with the candidates and the community will be held on Friday, March 4th from 6:00 - 8:30 p.m. in Pioneer High School's cafeteria annex. 
You are welcome to attend the Board's final interview with the candidates on Saturday, March 5th beginning at 9:30 a.m. in the Balas Main Conference Room, located at 2555 S. State Street in Ann Arbor.
Please contact the board office at 994-2232 or visit the website at www.a2schools.org for  more information.

If you want to read about the finalists, the Ann Arbor Chronicle has a nice summary/profile of them.

Update 3/1/2011: And then there were two--finalist Shelley Redinger has accepted another job.

Apparently, the site visits to the finalists' home districts had to be cancelled because of the weather last week. They have not been rescheduled and there are no plans to do so. I find this troubling--if it was important before, isn't it important now?

In other AAPS news, the Ann Arbor Public Schools finally have a new revised web site. You can find it at a2schools.org. And I'm curious, what do you think of it so far? Feel free to comment on it below!

Public Workers Are...

...the people in your neighborhood!

I made plans a couple of months ago to come to Madison, Wisconsin for a bar mitzvah, never expecting to be caught up in some amazing, peaceful protests at the Capitol. These photos don't really do the event justice, but it was amazing. There were TONS of teachers there. I don't know if the teachers' union (WEAC) or AFSCME (the main public workers' union in the state) is bigger, but both were well-represented. The night before the bar mitzvah, at the out-of-towners' Shabbat dinner, there were 12 adults. Over half of them were public workers: a city attorney, a reading teacher, a county employee, two state employees, two federal employees. All have advanced degrees.

It made me wonder: do you know who the public workers in your neighborhood are?

It's not about the money. The Wisconsin bill is an anti-union bill that would strip workers of collective bargaining rights, and he tried to push this through in less than a week--I guess he thought, "Why use democratic process if you don't have to?" The great irony to me is that speakers were holding up Michigan's Republican governor as a model of a governor who wasn't taking on the unions.Yet what does Gov. Snyder's budget proposal actually mean? Nothing good for public workers, civil servants, that's for sure.

This is a view of the Firefighters for Labor marching through the inside of the Capitol. It's significant because Gov. Walker proposed to exempt firefighters and police officers from the collective bargaining provisions of the law. Apparently, WEAC opposed Scott Walker in the election. The police and firefighters unions didn't. But the police and firefighters are supportive of the activists at the Capitol--and the activists were very appreciative of their presence. (You can't hear the cheering in the photo.)  Right now there's only ONE Republican Senator in the Wisconsin Senate who is willing to say, out loud, that he believes in collective bargaining. Do they know who their public workers are?

My friend said to me, "My kids' schools have been closed for three days. But the kids have been down at the Capitol and it's been a great civics lesson."

Which brings us back to Michigan.
Mark Maynard has a lovely post on the impact of Rick Snyder's budget on Ypsilanti and cities like it.

Here's what Glen S. has to say in that post:

Rick Snyder really IS a political genius, I suddenly realized yesterday.

Unlike Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker — who has ignited a national firestorm over his strident and quite overt efforts to bust unions, slash pensions and other benefits, and generally dismantle what’s left of any opportunity for Wisconsin’s public sector workers to enjoy a modest, middle-class lifestyle — Snyder has a smarter, but much more insidious plan.
By dramatically slashing revenue-sharing, per-pupil student aid, and other forms of basic support for Michigan’s struggling cities, school districts, etc., to such a degree that unprecedented restructuring clearly will be necessary, Snyder is, in effect, “outsourcing” the dirty work of breaking unions, reneging on promised pension benefits, etc., to locally-elected city councils, school boards, county commissions, etc.
This way, over the next two years — while hundreds of individual Michigan cities, townships, counties and school districts are all busy fighting their own individual battles with their own individual workers and unions — Snyder will appear to be keeping his hands clean from all of the local budget “unpleasantness,” — while he continues to promote himself as as a genial, and business-minded “one tough nerd,” whose only agenda is promoting “shared sacrifice.”

The Object Lesson for me is that the real enemy of the public worker is not any particular governor. The real enemy is Apathy. How many public, unionized workers, voted for anti-union candidates? How many failed to vote? How many workers--private or public--don't realize that their weekends off, their 40-hour workweek, their environmental safeguards--are due to unions?

This is the civics lesson that we need.

Results

Community High's lottery results have been posted. It's a game of chance.

Reports are that tomorrow morning (2/16) at 11 a.m., when Gov. Snyder unveils his budget, he'll be unveiling 4% cuts in public school per-pupil funding. Is that a game of chance? I don't think so, but there sure will be losers. It's bad news for struggling schools and let's face it, all schools will be struggling. When your school's classes have 38 students in a class, and the rooms are too crowded to fit all the desks, you will know why.

Which brings me to the P-16 question. You know, should we be funding preschool through college? Because I've also heard that part of the proposal is taking money for community colleges from the School Aid Fun. And my answer is: yes, we should fund P-16, but not at the expense of the mandated K-12 education.

After school break, I'm hoping to get to the subject I know you've been waiting for: evaluating our local charter schools. So let me say this--I don't have any direct experience with any of the charters--although I do have indirect experiences with some of them (in other words, some of my friends have used them). If you want to send me a summary of some of your direct experiences with local (county) charter schools, to share, let me know.

Sports News

The Dexter school district fires their athletic director and football coach.

The ACLU of Michigan is warning the Downriver League that women's and men's basketball need to treated equally (remember: Title IX).

If you're interested, I wrote about Title IX, and how the Michigan High School Athletic Association had to be forced to abide by it, here.

Oh, and Skyline varsity boys' basketball beat Pioneer at the buzzer. I guess the Skyline students are growing up...

Betting (on the Superintendent Choice)

My friend sent me an email, asking me to "handicap" the AAPS Superintendent interviews based only on their names and school districts:

William DeFrance (Eaton Rapids Public Schools, Michigan); Patricia Green (North Allegheny School District, Pennsylvania.); Paul Long (Pennsbury School District, Pennsylvania); Michael Munoz (Des Moines Public Schools, Iowa); Shelley Redinger (Oregon Trail School District, Oregon); and Manuel Rodriguez (Baltimore County Public Schools, Maryland).

Really, I said? I don't know anything about them.

No, he said--blind speculation is more fun.

So--based solely on their school district locations, I chose as finalists the candidates from Eaton Rapids and Des Moines. ("Oh," my friend said. "Home court advantage." Well, yeah, kind of.)

But it's a good thing there's going to be some more due diligence about them.

Read about the candidates here. I've got to say that after reading about them, they don't seem worthy of the big jump in pay that the board voted to give them in order to get AAPS the very best candidates. But see what you think for yourself.

Better yet, if you have the (substantial amount of) time required to go to the interviews this Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday, that is fabulous. (Feel free to share your comments after the interviews here.) The schedule for the interviews can be found here. All interviews will be held at the Courtyard Marriott, 3205 Boardwalk Drive. 

Finalists will be brought back the week of February 28th, and the public will get to ask questions then.

Down for the Count

Yup, it's back...count day for schools. Really, there is greater count day and lesser count day...proportionally, fall count day "counts" more than winter count day.

And so I wonder about one district in particular. Is it, in fact, going to be down for the count? If so, that would be a consistent trend for more than ten years. I'm talking about Willow Run.

Ten years ago, Willow Run schools had 3,153 students.
In Fall 2010, Willow Run schools had 1,632 students.
Between Fall 2009 and Fall 2010, approximately 100 fewer students are enrolled in the Willow Run schools. And that number includes nearly 100 students who are enrolled in the Washtenaw ISD Washtenaw Alternatives for Youth program.

In September 2010, Willow Run High School had 62 twelfth-grade students, down by more than half from two years ago. There were 95 ninth-grade students. It's hard to see how that is sustainable. If I assume that the students who are the most motivated to stay in school are most likely to want higher education and challenging classes, it seems like they would also be most likely to jump ship to the Early College Alliance, Washtenaw Technical Middle College, a charter school or another school district. With continuously falling enrollment, it becomes hard to field sports teams or offer advanced classes (or remedial classes!)

This is also the district whose turnaround plan for its high school was not accepted by the Michigan Department of Education. Nor did MDE ask the district to do some minor tweaking (Ypsilanti High School's status). No, their plan got "changes required" status. That may be because their first proposal didn't meet the "turnaround" requirements.

According to state law, a district has to have a high school. So really, the life of a school district all rises and falls at the high school level. The turnaround proposal was required because Willow Run High School was designated as a failing school.

If you ask me, the big shockers in the original turnaround proposal (read it here) were these two things:
1. There are more students at every grade of the high school who live in the district but choose to go to a school outside the district, than there are students who live in the district and go to Willow Run High School
and
even more shocking--way, way more shocking--
2. The average student in the high school missed the equivalent of 16 days of school, but

teacher attendance patterns are not all that different than student attendance patterns in terms of overall absences.  There were 32 teaching staff in 2009-10 and there were 740 days of absences.  This works out to an average of 23 days per staff member.  Some of these absences were due to conferences, school business and other professional reasons.

Think there are some morale issues in the Willow Run schools? Willow Run school teachers don't get paid much, either. The starting salary for someone with a BA is a little over $33,300.

So--what's to be done? Right now, consolidation would require both consolidating districts to vote yes. And honestly, if it were your district consolidating with Willow Run, would you vote yes? What is the plus?

(Read more about the difficulties of consolidating here. Actually, there would be a financial plus for Lincoln Schools, but a major financial disincentive for Ypsilanti or Ann Arbor.)

If the Willow Run district wants to be forward thinking, perhaps it's time to think about a structured dissolution. At least, that's what I think. But my vote doesn't count (at least, not in Willow Run)--nor, I point out, should it.

In the News

MEAP "proficiency" cutoff scores are being revised. Think it will help...ANYTHING?

The Myths of International Comparisons (yes, it's also about test-taking).

Dexter Schools are thinking about all-day kindergarten.

Whitmore Lake student Jesse Burkitt dies in a car accident.

Kids Count is out. Kids Count is "part of a broad national effort to measure the well-being of children at the state and local levels, and use that information to shape efforts to improve the lives of children." You can find the data center here. Nearly 30% of Washtenaw County kids are eligible for free and reduced price lunch. (Random factoid pulled from Kids Count; really, not so random--it's a good indicator of poverty and near-poverty.)

Work & Money

Steve Norton (of Michigan Parents for Schools) pointed out this timely issue briefing by the D.C.-based Economic Policy Institute:
Are Michigan Public Employees Over-Compensated? (The report says no.)
Obviously, that's been the subject of much discussion over the past couple of weeks. Rick Snyder's administration came out with a report last week saying yes, they are.

In any case, this week Mary Morgan reports in the Ann Arbor Chronicle on the recent Washtenaw County Commissioners' (and top staff/elected officials) retreat. Since employee compensation is over 70% of the cost of most organizations--including the county--obviously what county employees get paid is relevant to the discussion.

Given what is going on with public schools, I found this description of what Catherine McClary (County Treasurer) had to say most interesting:

McClary described how she grew up in Ypsilanti and Augusta Township. Both of her parents were public school teachers – they weren’t paid well, she noted, because teachers weren’t unionized at the time. Her dad moonlighted as a bus driver because those jobs were unionized and he could earn more. Her earliest memories were going door to door to solicit support for a school millage.

 And now, the bus drivers in some districts are unionized...for the WISD they are trying to organize...teachers at public school districts are unionized, but for the most part public charter school teachers and private school teachers are not.

I'm not currently a union member (I have been a member of two different unions in the past), but I'm grateful for the unions that gave us a five-day work week, safe working conditions, and living wages.

Deja Vu

I woke up yesterday morning to WEMU reporting that a young woman had been stabbed outside of Ypsilanti High School. And then I come to find out from this annarbor.com article that a young woman's "boyfriend" lured her to a remote location after she told him she might be pregnant, and left her for dead. It's a good thing that some people still walk outside in the cold weather.It appears that this woman will survive.

And now, I've been blogging long enough (though not really all that long) that this reminds me of last year's death of Huron High School student Anna Marie List.

In March of 2009 I wrote this piece about Dating Violence. There is help in town, you know. Safe House Center's number  is 734-995-5444. Ozone House's 24-hour line (for teens) is 734-662-2222.

Domestic violence organizations talk about power and control, and the "wheel" below is modified for teens, but based on the work of a domestic violence organization in Duluth, MN. If you know of a relationship that seems to involve a lot of tension around power and control, you can call the Safe House Center hotline for advice on how to intervene.

Loss

For Tyne Mosbey and Jake Rachford, recent Community High School graduates who lost their lives in a house fire this past week. May their memories be a blessing.

I will post links to their obituaries if/when they become available.

2/2/2011: Here is Jake Rachford's obituary and funeral information.
2/3/2011 and 2/4/2011: Here is Tyne Mosbey's obituary and  funeral and visitation information

Some Things to Read

National Heritage Academies and Prep Net want to open charter schools in Ypsilanti Township. It's controversial. What do you think?

Did you watch the State of the Union talk last night? I liked most of what President Obama had to say, but not--unfortunately--the part of the speech about education. In the blogroll to the right, I've added a blog (not a new blog, but new to me) called Schools Matter, and I liked most of these two pieces (below) on the State of the Union speech.

See Jim Horn's Obama Offers Same Tired Bromides on Education with Fewer Specifics

and

Valerie Strauss Exposes Obama's Faulty Education Logic.

What is happening at the New Tech High School?

2011: Keep your eye on...

As far as I'm concerned, the #1 thing to keep your eye on (in Washtenaw County education) in the coming year is:

The Washtenaw Intermediate School District

You probably don't even know what they do! If you had asked ten years ago, I would have said they spent most of their time on three areas of services  for all the local school districts and charter schools: professional development; coordination and services for certain special education students; and data and reporting.

Well, that was then. Now, they are increasingly coordinating lots of services. . . transportation; back-end administrative services; the Washtenaw International High School; Washtenaw Alternatives for Youth.

And in my opinion, 

they are rather OPAQUE about what they do and how they do it. 

A couple of years ago, I read an article in the Ann Arbor News about school graduation rates by (I believe) income. The article said the information was based on a study had been done by the Washtenaw ISD. Unfortunately, the online version of the article didn't have the chart I wanted. When I called to ask for the information, I was told that it was "not public." Yes, I've since learned I could have probably FOIA'd it, but pack rat that I am, I found that I had a hard copy.

More recently, I had these two interactions:

Me: "Do you have a copy of the IB presentation that you have made to Saline, Ypsi, Ann Arbor... (Latest version) up on the WISD web site? If so, can you send me the link--I couldn't find it. I am also interested in other supporting documents: proposed budget, staffing scenarios, transportation information. If that is available please send me links or documents."

The WISD: "You can find the Ann Arbor presentation and related documents here:

http://www.aaps.k12.mi.us/boe.1011/files/092410_blue.pdf  Scroll to pages 9-64."

 

Ummm, seriously? You want me to open a very long presentation in a particular district's board document, and scroll through to your section? If the Washtenaw International High School is important, don't you think you could have a section of your web site devoted to it? [Side note: this is actually a really long and important piece of reading, although it was super hard to understand and had not scanned in very well. It has the consortium agreement in there. In other words: what, exactly, did the districts agree to?]

Here's another one: 

Me: "I'm also wondering about the WISD board. Is there an election for the board? Or is it appointed, and if so by whom? (I see some former school board members on the current board list.) I am confused about the board minutes. I see that you post a summary, but not the actual minutes. Why is that? The summaries don't even state who was present at the meeting. Also, how would one get the supporting documentation--for instance, financial reports or plans for service changes (e.g., consolidation)--and the actual minutes."

 

The WISD: "For more information about WISD and the Board see:  http://wash.k12.mi.us/files/WISD101.pdf. We're in the process of updating our website and board minutes will be included.  In the meantime, if you want a copy of the minutes please contact Colleen O'Sullivan at cosulliv@wash.k12.mi.us."

 

So, until recently you couldn't get the WISD board minutes online. [They are now available back to 2008, which is a VAST improvement.] And, how exactly is their board made up? They didn't tell me in the email, even though it seems so obvious to me that they could have explained in a couple of sentences. Once I looked the requisite section up it was also clear why they didn't want to do so. Here is how their board is made up: 

 

(This information is taken from the link above referring to the board. I had to scroll through several pages there as well.)

9) How are WISD Board members elected?
Members of WISD’s school board are elected biennially on the first Monday in June by a body of electors composed of one member from each constituent local school district board of education. WISD Board members’ terms are staggered. Each member serves a six-year term.
10) Who are the WISD Board members?
The following are members of WISD’s 2010-11 Board of Education:
Mark Van Bogelen, President
Gregory A. Peoples, Vice President
Dayle K. Wright, Secretary
Diane B. Hockett, Treasurer
Mary Jane Tramontin, Trustee

In other words, there is no direct election of WISD school board members. It doesn't say who creates the nominations. . . or when board members' terms are up. . . or if they get paid and what they get paid.

It's not very transparent at all.

To the WISD, I say this: If you want me, and other people who care about process, to vote for the special education millage that is coming up, then you had better find a way to be a LOT more transparent in the coming months. And I say that even though I think the special education millage is important.

To those of you who are journalists or passionate observers of the local school scene, I say: it would be a good idea to have journalists at the WISD board meetings. The WISD is becoming a more, and more, important player.

The next meeting is Tuesday, January 25th, at 5: 30 p.m., at the WISD. They will be discussing the Superintendent search (they have an interim Superintendent now) as well as Washtenaw Alternatives for Youth.

I would tell you to contact the WISD board members by email or phone and ask them to develop a better process for sharing information with the public, but their emails are not posted, only a central phone number: 994-8100 x1300.

Disintegration

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
The Word - Disintegration
www.colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor & Satire Blog Video Archive

It's Not a Black and White Question

According to the New York Times' Caucus Blog of 1/16/2011, the Children's Defense Fund has found the following:

Four in 10 black children are born into poverty. Fewer than one in 10 white children are. Fewer than four in 10 black children live with two parents, compared with three in four white children.
Black children are significantly more likely to die before their first birthday or to become obese. In school, black children are more likely to be held back, suspended, drop out of high school or end up in prison.
A report by Andrew Sum, director of Labor Market Studies at Northeastern University, documents how the Great Recession has exacerbated the lagging economic status of young black workers. Fully 40 percent, nearly twice the rate among whites, are what Mr. Sum called “underutilized” in the labor force — either unemployed or underemployed.
Moreover, the trend toward income inequality in America over all is most pronounced among blacks. The top 10 percent of black families, with average incomes of around $95,000, “received as much income as the bottom 70 percent of young black families combined,” Mr. Sum found.

But you knew that, right? The question is, how can education make a difference? And how can we stop racism--both in terms of personal actions and structural decision-making?

Reprise: MLK Day

What do you do with your kids on MLK Day? (Last year's post, but it is still relevant.)

As I said, I have wanted the Michigan Theater to have some MLK movies, and this year...they do!

This one is not appropriate for kids, at least not below high school age--it's about the Tuskegee syphilis experiments. 

UM Institute of Social Research presents DEADLY DECEPTION on Monday, January 17 at 1 PM at the Michigan Theater. Admission is FREE!

This one is appropriate for kids, I believe. In fact I hope to take mine!

BILAL'S STAND, a special MLK Jr. screening directed by Michigan's own Sultan Sharrief, is playing Monday, January 17 at 5 PM at the Michigan Theater. Tickets are $6!

Ypsilanti's Turnaround Problem

Now that you've read about Detroit, let's turn our attention to Ypsilanti. Ypsilanti has two interrelated problems. One problem is their deficit. The other problem is that their high school has not achieved adequate yearly progress in the last few years--giving it the dubious distinction of being a "failing" school. [And having said that, I also have to say that I know several people who have been very satisfied with their children's education at YHS.]

Their high school turnaround plan has been accepted by the state, and there is a lot of discussion going on about their deficit elimination plan--which includes the systematic dismantling of custodial and food service staff as district employees, as well as making YHS into a grade 7-12 school.

In Kyle Feldscher's annarbor.com article, trustee Andy Fanta is quoted as saying this:

“We’re not asking the right kinds of questions when addressing this budget,” he said. “We’re focusing on cutting, cutting, cutting. We’re not focusing on what we’re doing and what kind of district we want, and we’re not answering the parents who are asking those type of questions.”

There is some excellent analysis in Mark Maynard's post:

More school consolidation in Ypsilanti, and its long term ramifications 

Mark has been blogging for a long time about Ypsilanti, and he puts something interesting up at markmaynard.com almost every day, sometimes more often than that. Oh, and by the way--if you want to see the actual documents, you can find the submitted deficit elimination plan on the YPS financial page (scroll down). And here is the approved YHS turnaround plan.

PS I neglected this piece from the annarbor.com article: 

Trustees asked Houle to present another version of the plan at a board district operations committee meeting at 5:30 p.m. Jan. 17 at the East Middle School building. The meeting is open to the public.
The district has to turn a plan over to the state by Jan. 25.

Shell Game?

The Detroit school district is facing a huge deficit.

As it is right now, classes are overcrowded, even in the schools that are not "failing" schools; some teachers have been transferred so often they couldn't even provide grades to their students; there has been a teacher shortage in critical specialties; and there is a new technology initiative paid for by stimulus funds but it is very unclear how teachers will be trained to use the technology or how they will replace it as it needs replacement. (See John Sowash's post about that here.)

Robert Bobb is supposed to be in charge of the finances. And he estimates that if he were to balance the budget now, the average class size would be 62 students. That is what would happen with the deficit elimination plan that he was required to submit to the state. And that would obviously be a bad idea. He also doesn't prefer it.

The Detroit media has been highlighting Robert Bobb's other ideas--one of which involves splitting the Detroit school district in two. At first I thought that this idea was inspired by the division of GM as it went through bankruptcy. With GM (and I know I'm oversimplifying here), the "new" GM got to keep the GM name, and all the "good" assets--and the old GM got stuck with all the "bad" assets, but it has freed up the "new" GM to move forward. OK, that might be a controversial idea, but as Rochelle Riley said in a Detroit Free Press column, it might get people talking. And I'm all for thinking outside the box.

But what, exactly, is he talking about? NOT what I thought. No, according to this Detroit Free Press article, he's talking about

Over the past month, Bobb has also suggested two other proposals that would require lawmakers to amend state law, but he has yet to gain traction in Lansing.
One proposal would securitize $400 million in state tobacco settlement funds to distribute to all of the state’s deficit districts.
The other proposal also would require a significant -- but undetermined -- amount of state funds. That plan would split the district into two entities on paper -- one that would pay off the debts and one that would be debt-free and need start-up funding.

 Huh?

According to Rochelle Riley, Free Press columnist,

One would have 9,000 students and use all of the per-pupil dollars the state distributes to DPS next year to wipe out the debt and to operate.
The other would educate the district's other 66,000 students, using unknown start-up funds.
Bobb declined to discuss the plan, which he's still working up, but his spokesman, Steve Wasko, said the move would be "seamless to parents" and students, and a financial, not academic, step. (Emphasis added.)

Wait--the "good" district gets 9,000 students and the "bad" district gets 66,000 students? That sounds fishy to me.

In that same article,

Keith Johnson, president of the Detroit Federation of Teachers, said his first reaction to the plan was: "Brown v. Board of Education. That was the first thing that popped into my mind, separate but unequal. My biggest fear is ... that you're designating a segment of this community and children as being less than and thus educably expendable.
"We know that the schools that would be debt-free would be those schools that are consistently high-performing and those schools that are being newly built. So we're talking about the Casses, the Bates, the Ludingtons, the Langston Hughes, the Charles Wrights, the Renaissances... Who's going to be left in the debt-ridden district? Those schools that are low-performing, schools like Denby, Osborn, Central High School, some of our low-performing elementary or schools that service children with the highest degree of learning disabilities."

Think this is only a Detroit problem? Think again. We've got our own districts in this situation. You can only cut programs so far, and who would fund this other district? Let's just remember: it's one thing to put "bad assets" into a bankrupt district. But there's this sticky problem. Schools are not about assets. They are about kids. What about the kids?

Name That School!

Recognize this school?

I know what you are thinking: "That postcard says "Tappan!" But I know that's Burns Park!"

According to the Burns Park school website:

Burns Park is named after Professor George Burns who was the Ann Arbor Commissioner for a time. In 1910 the old [county] fairgrounds, located here, were changed to a park and named in his honor. Before 1925, there were trolley barns here. In January 1925, they burned and this school building was built as Tappan Junior High. In 1951, Tappan moved and took its name with it. This building then took its name from the park. (Emphasis added.)

So I guess that really, we should call Tappan Middle School: Tappan Middle School II.

By the way, this picture was found on the Ann Arbor District Library's web site, where there is a lovely and large selection of historic images and information from and about Ann Arbor.

How Do You Get to Carnegie Hall?

When we came home from the preliminary round of Future Stars last night, my husband said to me, "I don't think they sang that well at my high school!"
They didn't sing that well at my high school either.

Future Stars, if you don't already know, is a competition that is "Ann Arbor's American Idol." High school students compete in a singing and dancing competition, and move forward based in part on the opinion of judges, and in part on voting (cheering). Just like in the original American Idol, the judges' comments are often insipid. [Seriously. Could they use a thesaurus before they get to the show? Find some alternative words for "amazing," "fantastic," and "you guys?" I don't think it is too much to ask.]

The singing and dancing, on the other hand, ranged from very good to unbelievably wonderful. The competition is hosted by Pioneer's Theater Guild, and though it is open to students from all schools--and there were a few I knew from Community and Skyline, though I'm not sure about Huron, Clemente, or Stone--it is dominated by Pioneer students. At this point I also have to give a shout out to the band that backed up most of the students; they didn't get much attention but they were truly attention-worthy.

Most theater programs--including the one at my high school and my husband's high school--tend to try to offer a diverse array of theater experiences, including musical theater, but not primarily musical theater. Part of it is related to size--my high school, and my husband's high school, had about 1000 students--Pioneer, even in its reduced state, will be a lot larger.

At Pioneer, the emphasis is clearly on musical theater, which is why, if the district ever decides to do a theater magnet, it would probably make sense to put it at Pioneer. Those who prefer straight plays at Pioneer get their day, but less frequently and with a smaller audience.

The net result, in this case, is that students get a lot of practice at singing. And in fact, I know that many of those students also take singing lessons. It pays off.

How do you get to Carnegie Hall?

Practice, Practice, Practice.

The Future Stars "finals" are this coming Saturday evening, 1/15/2011.
If you want a seat, get there early.

Milan: Sad News

There have been three deaths in the Milan Area Schools in the last few months--the deaths of senior Eric Harrison and junior Brian Copiacu are believed to be suicides. The death of junior William Bowers is believed to be an accident. Milan has just under 1000 students in their high school, so this has to have a huge impact.

The Milan News-Leader has a story here.
More information is available at milanareaschools.org.

Teens and families of teens: Ozone House has a crisis line: 734-662-2222.
U of M Psychiatric Emergency Services also has a 24-hour line: 734-996-4747.

New Year, New Business

Here are a few things you might want to know about coming up VERY soon.

1. You might remember that a year ago, during the AAPS budget forums, participants were invited to indicate interest in working on strategic planning subcommittees. I had thought that would happen last spring, but it was delayed, and delayed again--at least the public participation part was. Although there are, I believe, 8 subcommittees of the strategic plan, they are only asking for assistance on three of them. [Why only three? I don't know. At the budget forums people were asked to indicate which of 8 subcommittees you might be interested in joining.] In any case, there is a January through March timeline for this--at least, that is the plan. I also can't really tell what some of these strategies mean. For instance, if you were interested in the education achievement gap, or school funding, what would you choose? Here are the details from AAPS News: 

Action Teams will reconvene in January to discuss these strategies:

• Strategy  No. 1–  “We will create a complete educational program featuring personalized learning that realizes student aspirations and meets international standards.”
• Strategy No. 5 –  “We will implement a system to ensure continuous development of staff capacity.”
• Strategy No. 6 – “We will engage and inform our constituents to engender trust and support to accomplish our mission and objectives.”

Contact Liz Margolis by Jan. 7, 2011 if you would like to be a member of one of the Action Teams listed above. E-mail her at margolis@aaps.k12.mi.us or leave a message at 734-994-2236.

UPDATE 1/5/2010: Read the comments from Liz Margolis of AAPS if you would like more information about the strategic planning process.

2.        My friend asked me last month, "Would you send your child to the International Baccalaureate school?"
           I said, "Probably not, but I'm glad it will be there for someone else. I'd be more interested in Washtenaw Technical Middle College where you could get actual college credit for the classes."
          He said, "Really? I would have thought you would be really interested in an immersion language program."

OK, so let's get something straight: International Baccalaureate schools are not immersion language schools. You can read more about them in this earlier post (and its links). It is possible--but not guaranteed--that an IB program will give you college credit. Many of our local school districts are banding together under the auspices of the WISD to set up an IB school. [Dexter is planning on integrating an IB program into their own high school.]

Why am I telling you this? Because, if you have a student entering ninth grade, you might want to check out the International Baccalaureate question and answer sessions (mandatory for application):

Please plan to attend one of the following sessions:

• Wednesday, January 12: 7:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.
  
• Tuesday, January 18: 7:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.
  
• Thursday, January 27: 7:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.
  
• Monday, January 31: 7:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.
  
• Wednesday, February 9: 7:00 p.m.  – 9:00 p.m.
  

Information sessions will be held at:
Washtenaw International High School (WIHS)
510 Emerick Street, Ypsilanti, MI 48198.
For more information, please call 734-994-8100 x1263, or visit the web site at http://www.wihi.org/

3. Ann Arbor's Community High application packets are available now and are due on or before 2/11/2011. Information can be found here.

4. Ann Arbor's Skyline High also has an application and information here, also due on or before 2/11/2011.  It looks like they have reduced the number of outside-of-Skyline-district student openings from 125 to 100. I am guessing that this is related to the fact that the number of in-district students has been increasing, but I'm not positive. (Nor am I sure about how that decision is made.) Also, if you are in-district, there is a curriculum night on January 12th (which seems early to me!).

4. Similarly, Ypsilanti's New Tech High School is also taking applications for incoming freshmen. Find more information here. Unlike Community and Skyline, New Tech High School is open to students from other districts.

4. I changed the blog design. I'm not sure what I think--and comments are welcome.