Category Archives: Education

Results of the Labor of Love at The Children’s Home

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Last February anyone who reads this blog probably got a little tired of me constantly writing about the Labor of Love project the Triad Apartment Association (the organization that pays me to work for them for some reason) took on at The Children's Home.  Well, we had no idea that Fox 8 was going to do a story about how The Children's Home is using the building but it sure made our weekend when it aired.  

BTW, you'll note in the story that they're looking to renovate another floor so they can house more kids.  We actually fixed up every floor in the building, but my understanding is that there are lots of additional safety measures that have to be in place in order to move kids in.  They are looking for $10,000-$15,000 to get that done so if you want to help out you can do so by contacting The Children's Home, or if you want just drop me a note and I'll hook you up with the appropriate people at the Home.

 

 

That room that she mentions is her favorite?  Well it was my favorite too.  Here's a photo gallery of all the work that was done to get it to its current state:

Forsyth Tech Takes Center Stage

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Thanks to President Obama's speech today our fine community college took center stage this afternoon.  From the White House blog post about the impending visit:

Today President Obama is traveling to Winston-Salem, North Carolina to visit with students and staff at Forsyth Technical Community College. Forsyth has an innovative biotechnology program that takes recent high school graduates, dislocated workers, and returning students and prepares them for careers in the biotechnology field.  In addition to training new workers, they have also developed innovative new curricula and training models to prepare their students for the biotechnology workforce that can be replicated across the nation. Forsyth also works closely with local biotech companies and academic institutions to ensure that their curriculum is preparing students to meet the demands of a career in the biotech field and helps connect students to employment opportunities.

Forsyth Technical Community College is a great example of how community colleges can play a role not only in our education system, but also in local economies. Back in October, President Obama and Dr. Jill Biden hosted a White House Summit on Community Colleges to highlight critical role that community colleges play in developing America’s workforce and reaching our educational goals.

 

Meet the President?

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President Obama is making his way to Forsyth Tech next Monday.  My oldest has a class (International Biz) at Forsyth Tech every M-W-F, so there's a chance he could see the President.  He asked me if it's okay if he misses a class or two at Career Center or West Forsyth if he has the chance to see the President.  In my mind meeting/seeing the President is about as good an excuse for a potentially unexcused absence as you're ever going to have so he's going to get the green light.

Progress

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Unfortunately the folks in Forsyth County, NC have been getting a lot of practice in dealing with teachers accused of inappropriate conduct in their school system.  In the latest instance, news came out today that a teacher and a teacher's assistant at Moore Magnet Elementary have been accused of inappropriate conduct and they've been suspended with pay until the police department completes an investigation. If you click through to the story you'll note this sentence at the end: "WXII isn't identifying the teacher or teaching assistant because neither has been charged with a crime."

While it's never good that a teacher's been accused of misconduct, this story at least shows that the folks at WSFCS and the local media have learned their lessons.  You may recall that administrators at WSFCS were accused of mishandling previous cases of teachers accused of inappropriate behavior by opting to hand investigations themselves rather than immediately contacting the police or sheriff's departments. This case makes it sound like they've finally gotten the message that they are to turn these cases over to the authorities right away.  

You also may recall that the local media has been in the habit of identifying the accused teachers, even before they're accused of a crime.  This, of course, has had a devastating effect on the teachers, some of whom have been cleared of any wrongdoing.  The fact that the media is protecting teachers' reputations from being unnecessarily damaged by a kid making false accusations because they're upset with the teacher is a good thing. (Let's hope that the rest of the local media follow WXII's lead). On the other hand the fact that the teachers have been suspended prevents them from doing any further harm if they are guilty of misconduct.

All in all this is a much needed improvement over how similar cases have been handled in recent years.

Another Reason to Hate the BCS

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I'm going to keep this simple: I hate big-tim college football's BCS.  There are many reasons for my hatred, not the least of which is that because of the BCS the national "champion" in football is determined in the same fashion that figure skaters and diving champions are crowned in the Olympics.  If you need more reasons than that to hate the BCS then all you need to do is read this Sports Illustrated article.  Here's a highlight for you academics out there:

Of the 120 athletic departments that play I-A football, 106 lost money in 2009, according to an NCAA report. Budget shortfalls forced the University of California in September to cut five sports. Virginia hit up students for $11.9 million in fees for the 2008–09 school year to offset athletic department operating expenses. Cincinnati reached two consecutive BCS bowls and still found itself $24 million in debt. All over the country, schools are turning to student fees, academic funds and taxpayer support to balance the athletic department's books, which helps explain the uptick in so-called pay games (Hey, LSU, good luck this Saturday against Louisiana-Monroe!), conference realignments and expansion of the men's basketball tournament.

Really, you need to read the article to see how bad this really is.

Personal aside: when I was at George Mason U back in the 80s the school was considering adding an intercollegiate football program, but eventually decided on building a Fine Arts Center.  Many students were aghast because we wanted a football team.  I mean, seriously, homecoming basketball games just don't do the trick.  If memory serves the school's president argued that the expense just wasn't worth it, though we students suspected that he'd used some inflated numbers since everyone knew he preferred the Fine Arts Center.  In retrospect I think he may have been right if they were looking at adding a D-1 program, but I'm still not convinced that a 1-AA program wouldn't have worked. Well, I'm proud to say that students at my alma mater didn't wait for the school's administration to put a team together.  In 1993 they started a club football team and it seems to be going pretty strong in the Seaboard Conference.  I have a lot of admiration for students who will go to that level of effort to play a game they truly love; to me they're true student-athletes.

West Forsyth High School Announcement on Cyberbullying

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Just received the announcement below via email from the Winston-Salem Forsyth County School system. I haven't watched the video yet, but I plan to:

November 1, 2010

Parents and Guardians,

Starting on November 3rd through November 10th, your student will view a video clip titled, "Cyberbullying: You Can't Take it Back" by Netsmartz through their 4th period class. Netsmartz is a site created to educate teens, parents, and educators concerning the use of technology and the Internet. In a continued effort to provide all students a safe and caring environment that enables them to work to their optimum potential, students will watch the video and teachers will hold a class discussion on the topic. The Guidance Department believes in order to be effective in addressing the issue of bullying everyone must be involved – faculty, students, and parents.

We encourage you to watch, "Cyberbullying: You Can't Take it Back." The link is provided below. If you have any questions or concerns, please call the Guidance Department at 336-712-4403.

http://www.netsmartz.org/resources/reallife.htm#realcanttake.
"Cyberbullying: You Can't Take It Back" (Part 2 of 3) A teen regrets his participation on a web site created to rate others at his school.

West Forsyth Guidance Department

And I Thought Teaching to the Test Was Bad

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AP World History teachers at a high school in Fairfax County, VA are getting a little international notoriety thanks to a piece in the Washington Post that was picked up by Boing Boing.  It seems the teachers don't want their students using any outside materials/influences for their studies.

"You are only allowed to use your OWN knowledge, your OWN class notes, class handouts, your OWN class homework, or The Earth and Its Peoples textbook to complete assignments and assessments UNLESS specifically informed otherwise by your instructor.''

That was not all. Students could not use anything they found on the Internet. They were not permitted even to discuss their assignments with friends, classmates, neighbors, parents, relatives or siblings.

What about complete strangers? The teachers had thought of that. "You may not discuss/mention/chat/hand signal/smoke signal/Facebook/IM/text/email to a complete stranger ANY answers/ideas/questions/thoughts/opinions/hints/instructions." The words were playful, but the teachers were serious. Any violations, they said, would mean a zero on the assignment and an honor code referral.

The rules are bad enough – as the Post writer notes the teachers are banning curiosity – but what bothers me even more is the teachers' apparent rationale for their rules as related by their principal:

Westfield Principal Tim Thomas told me he will decide soon whether these rules are okay. He couldn't say much on the record, but gave me the impression that the teachers, who did not respond to my request for comment, were only trying to be fair. Some students have more help and resources than others. They should not be allowed to use materials classmates cannot get. The teachers wanted them to come up with their own ideas, not borrow them from Wikipedia.

Really?

I'm all for trying to give every kid what they need to succeed, but to try and mandate that every kid use exactly the same tools in the name of fairness is just plain ludicrous.  Let's face it, some kids are smarter than others, some kids have a better work ethic than others and some kids will take initiative to learn as much as possible while others will do the bare minimum to get by.  Limiting one child's resources in order to level the playing field for another child is not only unfair to the former, it sends a terrible message to the latter. Just imagine this kind of thinking being applied when the kids get out in the working world:

Former Student: "Hey boss, I don't think it's fair that Ralph over there is getting promoted and I'm not."

Boss: "Well, he's really been doing a great job.  In fact he seems to consistently get his work done 50% faster than anyone else in the department and the quality of his work is excellent.  He always seems to find a supplier that none of the rest of you know about and they always seem to do superior work at a significant discount."

Former Student: "Well, that's because he works from home at night on his computer. His mom used to be in the business years ago and she gives him lots of advice on how to do his job. I don't have a computer at home and neither of my parents worked in this industry so I'm at a disadvantage.  It's just not fair."

Boss: "I fail to see how this is my problem.  If you want a promotion then I suggest you figure out a way to make sure you can improve your production.  If you can't do that then you might want to look for another job."

The lesson is this: fair does not mean that we all are exactly alike, have exactly the same resources at home, have exactly the same IQ, etc.  In the school's case fair is that each kid is provided with the same support from the school (textbook, chair, classroom materials, etc.); it is not hamstringing one kid to benefit another.

Basically, when we parents tell our kids "Life ain't always fair" this is what we mean.  You aren't always going to have the best tools or the most resources, but it's up to you to do your very best with what you have.  That's what you can control.

A College Dies

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I spent my freshman year of college in Nebraska attending Concordia Teachers College in Seward (now Concordia University).  I played on the school's soccer team and one of the schools we played against was Dana College in Blair, Nebraska so when I read this article in the Wall Street Journal about Dana's closing it kind of hit close to home. From the article:

Nestled amid cornfields in eastern Nebraska, Dana and Blair have grown up together over more than a century. Blair, population 7,700, was established in 1869 by railroad baron John Insley Blair. Fifteen years later, Danish Lutheran pioneers opened a seminary, which later became Dana College.

Dana's red-and-white Viking logo decorates the town. Many loyal locals dedicate free nights to whatever the "Dana kids" are doing, said Vaughn Christensen, 79 years old, who met his wife, Clarice, at Dana about 50 years ago and sent their three children there.

"We went to everything—all the music, the theater, the basketball. I don't think we missed one home game," Mr. Christensen said.Enrollment at Dana peaked in the 1970s at about 1,000. Before closing, the college enrolled just under 600 and employed about 175 faculty and staff. A 2003 study estimated that Dana contributed $20 million annually to the local economy, largely through payroll and local expenditures….

Investors proposed to buy Dana and turn it into a profitable operation. But an accrediting agency effectively pulled the lifeline away by denying the college's application to change ownership. Such accrediting agencies were facing pressure from federal education officials, who accused some of being too lenient in certifying for-profit schools with lax standards. Officials said such schools often pushed students to take on heavy debt loads without preparing them for careers.

"I feel like Dana was kind of collateral damage," said Jeremy Bouman, former vice president for institutional advancement at Dana (which rhymes with banana). "There was never a chance to be successful because of the political scrutiny."

Jersey Shore Explained

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If you ever wondered how one state could produce enough morons to cast a show like Jersey Shore you may have found your answer in a recent report from New Jersey's state Board of Education:

“The findings that result from the extensive data we collected and the portfolio information we reviewed is disturbing. While there were many struggling students whose teachers and counselors provided good evidence of work accomplished and a record of appropriate courses and local interventions, there were other students, unable ultimately to evidence even simple math skills, who were unimaginably recorded by their schools as succeeding in Algebra II or even Calculus. Equally dispiriting, there were students whose records showed failure after failure in Algebra I, or English I, who were never provided appropriate courses or interventions over the years. Finally, some students with the requisite skills had to call themselves because their school would not prepare an appeal, and we had parents in tears because they could not get anyone to review matters at the school. Clearly, for the sake of these children and their families, changes need to be made.”

In a Land of Dropout Factories, Batting .500 is an Achievement

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A very interesting article about US colleges that are "dropout factories."  An excerpt:

Certainly, Chicago State enrolls a large share of academically underprepared students compared to more selective schools such as UIC or Northwestern, so its graduation rate might be expected to be lower. But the idea that Chicago State is doing the best it can with the kind of students it serves is belied by ample countervailing evidence. As the chart below shows, there are more than half a dozen schools in the United States with student bodies that are remarkably similar to that of Chicago State in every important respect—from race to test scores to family income—but whose graduation rates are at least double, and in some cases more than triple, the graduation rate of Chicago State.

Take North Carolina Central University, which enrolls 8,500 students. About 85 percent of students at both schools are black. NCCU’s median SAT score is 840, the approximate equivalent of about 17 on the ACT, even lower than Chicago State’s average ACT of 18. The difference, however, is that NCCU tries to work with the students it has. The result: while Chicago State graduates about 13 percent of its students, NCCU graduates about 50 percent. “We have the philosophy that if we admit the students into this institution we have a great responsibility in ensuring their success,” says Bernice Duffy Johnson, dean of the school’s University College, which focuses on supporting students during their first two years.

Students entering NCCU are told from the start that they are expected to have a goal of graduating in four years. The University College keeps students together in groups and assigns them advisers who must approve all major academic decisions and meet with students frequently. NCCU students even sign a contract upon arriving, a document that lays out the goals of what they are going to accomplish. If they start to struggle, they sign an additional contract that commits them to even closer monitoring. Above all, what drives places like NCCU is a culture of experimentation and data collection. The administrators track students, and they track results. If something works, they keep doing it. If it doesn’t, they try something else.