“Learning time” by Temari09/CC/flickr
Today’s Top Picks:
Trib continues to follow the “Dead Man Walking” story. http://goo.gl/vvhrq (SLT)
Standard continues to follow the DaVinci survey story. http://goo.gl/nssT1 (OSE)
Can one teach character? http://goo.gl/tCPl8 (NBC)
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TODAY’S HEADLINES
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UTAH
Controversial play at Bingham High aimed at critical thinking Education » Project requires schools to present well-rounded look at death penalty.
Mother worries survey violates privacy of DaVinci students
Spirit of 4-H: Youth organization celebrates 100 years of activity
Wife of Cottonwood High coach killed in crash remembers husband, seeks answers
Hundreds attend funeral for Juan Diego High School student
School sustains water damage during storm
Are you ready already for back-to-school deals?
Although it may seem a little soon, retailers can’t wait
Fun run funds scholarships, honors daughter’s legacy
Stoker School lease renewed
Canyons School District Chooses Dental Select as Sole Carrier for Dental Benefits
OPINION & COMMENTARY
Utah needs help
Common Core can benefit schools
Poor judgment
Grades no basis for incarceration
The winners and the losers
Is Jordan board caving to Eagle Forum?
On second thought
Mia Love’s axing of programs good or bad for image?
Setting the Record Straight
Moving beyond the Utah “exception” to exceptional education
Why a school board?
What’s best for Jordan School District
Pre-grad info
Multi-million dollar donations to public schools
Education’s pendulum: Thinkers or test takers?
Rote learning can take a toll on building creativity in schools. The nations that can strike the right balance will gain a competitive edge.
Poverty not all to blame for lousy school outcomes
How computers can hurt schools
Parents Are an ‘Untapped Resource’ to Push STEM, Study Says
Can We Fix Computer Science Education in America?
The tech industry is one of the few bright spots in a dim economy. So why aren’t we teaching kids the skills they need to participate in it?
Under the First Amendment, religious freedom favors none, protects all
Don’t Blame Obesity for Poor Academic Performance, Study Suggests
Telling the Public About Public Schools
NATION
Governors agree: Washington broken
Memphis teachers learning new ways to teach
Aspen Ideas Festival: Can Character Be Taught?
Walking to school, sports tied to teen weight
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UTAH NEWS
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Controversial play at Bingham High aimed at critical thinking Education » Project requires schools to present well-rounded look at death penalty.
Michael Woodruff favored the death penalty at the time he was cast in the role of prison warden in Bingham High School’s production of “Dead Man Walking” last spring.
But as the 17-year-old researched his role, he began to rethink his feelings.
Jordan School District Drama Production Selection Committee policy
He read about wardens and the emotional toll arranging an execution took on some of them. He learned that other wardens felt OK with that responsibility because the punishment had been handed down after a fair trial.
“This play has taught me so much,” said Michael, who read the “Dead Man Walking” script to prepare for the play and the book it is based on for a language-arts class at school.
“After reading the play and the book, I was for the death penalty. When I was doing research so that I could play the part of the warden, I realized that I wouldn’t be able to arrange for someone else’s execution like the warden does. I wouldn’t be able to sleep at night knowing that I arranged someone else’s death. The play and the book are meant to help you think about the death penalty with arguments for both sides so that you can make your own decision.”
That sort of critical thinking is exactly what the Dead Man Walking School Theatre Play Project intends for students staging the play, said Greg Callaghan, national coordinator for the project. The play is based on a book by Sister Helen Prejean, a nun who counseled a condemned killer before he was executed.
http://goo.gl/vvhrq (SLT)
Mother worries survey violates privacy of DaVinci students
OGDEN — The mother of a student at DaVinci Academy of Science and the Arts contends a research study conducted at the charter school by a Weber State University professor violated state regulations because it was done without proper parental consent.
Michelle Kimball, a Mountain Green resident whose 14-year-old daughter, Georgia, is a student at DaVinci, is questioning how the school and Todd Baird, a professor in Weber State’s Psychology Department, administered the 10-page survey to students in grades 9-11.
DaVinci Executive Director Fred Donaldson said the school has tried to appease Kimball and has even destroyed the survey results at her request.
http://goo.gl/nssT1 (OSE)
Spirit of 4-H: Youth organization celebrates 100 years of activity
The spirit of Utah 4-H was evident from the very start of the kick-off event of the 4-H centennial at Utah State University on Thursday.
Ambassadors from across the state led their fellow 4-H members in the “Utah 4-H song” at the Eccles Conference Center. In fact, they sang it twice after the ambassadors asked them to stand and sing with more enthusiasm.
http://goo.gl/txK73 (LHJ)
Wife of Cottonwood High coach killed in crash remembers husband, seeks answers
TAYLORSVILLE — Michael Gallegos had a goal to coach high school sports for 20 years.
After that he would reevaluate and decide what, if anything else, he wanted to do next. At 39 years old, it seemed he had plenty of time. But in the early morning hours of June 23, Gallegos was struck from behind while stopped at the intersection of 9800 South and Bangerter Highway.
Police officers said the impact buckled the frame of his car until the back of the vehicle touched the back of the front seats, killing him on impact.
He had just finished his 18th year of coaching football at Cottonwood High School.
http://goo.gl/KKWY6 (DN)
http://goo.gl/akLyq (KSL)
Hundreds attend funeral for Juan Diego High School student
DRAPER, Utah – Family and friends said their final goodbyes Saturday to a Juan Diego High School student who died.
Those who knew and loved Adam Colosimo are having a tough time saying goodbye.
http://goo.gl/OfgbQ (KTVX)
School sustains water damage during storm
ST. GEORGE — Santa Clara Elementary School sustained minor damage Thursday night as a storm swept through Southern Utah and caused the roof of the school, which was undergoing repairs, to leak in several different areas throughout the school.
Santa Clara Elementary School Principal Nadine Hancey said Friday that maintenance workers from the Washington County School District had been working on repairing the school’s roof.
http://goo.gl/6T2KL (SGS)
Are you ready already for back-to-school deals?
Although it may seem a little soon, retailers can’t wait
It may be weeks before most Utah children head back to school (didn’t they just get out?), but the time to buy supplies starts now.
Discount retailers and office-supply stores have begun offering the best deals of the year on school and office supplies, including several basic items such as pencils and crayons for as little as a penny each. More discounted and below-cost items will be offered weekly, starting today, through mid-September.
Heavily discounted school supplies get shoppers through the door at a time when parents are still watching their spending.
http://goo.gl/32Ukr (SLT)
Fun run funds scholarships, honors daughter’s legacy
ST. GEORGE — Until her tragic death in a car accident in 2008, Dixie High alumna Chelsi Dawn Petersen was the picture of health.
The 20-year-old was a track star at Brigham Young University and a longtime gymnast and cheerleader while growing up in Southern Utah. She helped train young people to run and do gymnastics and was always driven to share the love she had for fitness with others, said her mother, Lisa Petersen.
That’s why the Chelsi Fun Run, a 5K run/walk scheduled for 10 tonight at St. James Chapel in Bloomington, is a perfect way to keep Chelsi’s legacy alive, Lisa said.
http://goo.gl/qRWwk (SGS)
Stoker School lease renewed
BOUNTIFUL — The city has renewed a five-year lease with the University of Utah to lease the old Stoker School.
At a recent meeting, the council voted unanimously to renew a lease with the university for use of the school, at 75 East and 200 South.
Opened in 1905, the Stoker School has been the property of the city since 1983.
http://goo.gl/KA4Jq (OSE)
Canyons School District Chooses Dental Select as Sole Carrier for Dental Benefits
SALT LAKE CITY — Canyons School District, located in Sandy, Utah, has recently named Dental Select as its sole provider for dental insurance benefits.
Prior to the decision, Canyons School District originally used three vendors to administer dental benefits for employees and families. With Dental Select as the only dental carrier, approximately more than 1,300 members from Canyons School District will now be serviced through this company.
http://goo.gl/VflNQ (Business Wire via MarketWatch)
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OPINION & COMMENTARY
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Utah needs help
Common Core can benefit schools
Salt Lake Tribune editorial
The Common Core Standards are not a federal education initiative. Let us say that again: The Common Core Standards are not coming from the federal government and are certainly not a federal mandate (or conspiracy to dictate socialist theories in schools).
One more time, in different words: The Common Core is a state-produced set of standards, adopted by 45 states and three U.S. territories to create consistency among states and a high level of academic achievement in public schools across the country.
Opponents of Utah continuing to implement the Common Core Standards are wasting the time of educators, and, quite frankly, making themselves appear woefully provincial and just a bit extreme in their fear of a fantastical federal takeover.
Poor judgment
Grades no basis for incarceration
Salt Lake Tribune editorial
Seventh District Juvenile Court Judge Scott Johansen has a reliable recipe for turning an underperforming student into a juvenile delinquent, or worse. And, unfortunately, Johansen follows his own recipe far too often when sentencing young offenders.
Johansen sent one teenage boy in Carbon County to juvenile detention for violating his probation on a theft conviction (he was accused of shoplifting a pack of gum) when the boy received a poor report card. That was the beginning of a pattern of incarceration for the boy.
But that wasn’t the first time the judge had inflicted serious punishment on a child for a minor offense. In 1997 he was reprimanded by the Utah Judicial Conduct Commission for “demeaning the judicial office” by slapping a 16-year-old boy during a meeting at the Price courthouse.
And just last month, Johansen made national headlines when he ordered a Carbon County mother to cut off her 13-year-old daughter’s ponytail in public court. The girl was being punished for cutting the hair of a 3-year-old.
Humiliation, Johansen must believe, is some kind of deterrent to crime. But, if that is his philosophy, he is at odds with child psychologists who say public embarrassment and degradation only foster feelings of hostility and rebellion in the young. A Utah law that allows judges to order incarceration for poor grades is counterproductive.
The winners and the losers
Deseret News editorial
Loser: Here’s a new one. Many grade school students say the work they’re given is too easy, according a study by the Center for American Progress. Since when do kids admit to something like that? In reality, however, the study shines a light on rigor, or the lack thereof, that ought to get the attention of educators. While the nation debates the common core curriculum, students generally feel unchallenged and un-stimulated. That doesn’t bode well for American students’ place in a future that promises to be extremely competitive globally.
Is Jordan board caving to Eagle Forum?
Salt Lake Tribune commentary by columnist Paul Rolly
The late Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart once said of obscenity: “I can’t define it, but I know it when I see it.”
Well, I can’t prove that the Jordan School Board members who want to apologize for Bingham High School’s production of “Dead Man Walking” are just trying to appease a special interest group.
But I know it when I see it.
The play, based on the book by Sister Helen Prejean, a nun who counseled a condemned killer before he was executed and took a hard look at the death penalty, received overwhelmingly positive responses from the more than 700 people who saw it during its short run in March.
But it became controversial more than two months later when the Utah Eagle Forum sent a release to news outlets condemning its content and insisting the subject matter was not suited for student productions.
It’s important to know that nobody complained directly to Bingham High Principal Tom Hicks or to the drama teacher who oversaw the project. And Jordan district officials said they only heard of one complaint before the Eagle Forum got involved.
On second thought
Deseret News commentary by columnist Jay Evensen
A recent study by the Center For American Progress found that many grade school students think the work they are given is too easy. They also would like earlier bedtimes and more vegetables for dinner.
*****
“I thought that I was a genius, as I could get A’s without studying,” one person wrote on a post USA Today created to talk about whether school is too easy. What does it mean for society to have a bunch of graduates who mistakenly think they’re geniuses? Well, for one thing we’ll have to dramatically expand Congress.
Mia Love’s axing of programs good or bad for image?
Deseret News commentary by columnists Frank Pignanelli & LaVarr Webb
Utah weather is blistering hot. Politics in these dog days of summer is plenty warm, as well. Here are some of the issues raising the temperature:
Fourth District congressional candidate Mia Love has suggested deep federal budget cuts reducing or eliminating numerous popular programs, including many in education and human services. Was it a smart move or is Love begging for disaster?
Setting the Record Straight
K-Talk commentary by Sen. Howard Stephenson
Common
Core discussion with Crockett McAdams, Jamie Gass, Matt Piccilo, and Martell Menlove.
http://goo.gl/8UyBu (KTKK)
Moving beyond the Utah “exception” to exceptional education Deseret News commentary by columnist Mary McConnell
Reader responses to my most recent blog posting, “Too many (underpaid) teachers?” followed a predictable path.
Why a school board?
Salt Lake Tribune letter from Robert Wren
Now that Utah has a waiver to No Child Left Behind, the ongoing discussion smolders in Internet exchanges.
In one exchange with state school board members, one board member stated: “Utah is developing its own tests and will not be bound to a consortium, the State Board will remain independent in determining its standards.”
Further, “The state sets minimum standards for achievement but does not enforce standards for individual students” and “the State Board will remain independent in determining its standards,” and “Despite state core standards (including the common core standards in math and English),” districts “can always customize education for a child.”
If the state standards are not “enforceable,” are they merely suggestions, and as a result can a school district adopt its own complete set of standards?
What’s best for Jordan School District
Deseret News letter from Heather M. Reich
I’ve taught sixth graders for nine years. I love my job. The only things I don’t love about it are the three P’s: Paperwork, politics, and pay.
Pre-grad info
Salt Lake Tribune letter from Haeli Hauritz
I graduated from high school two years ago. Since then, I’ve found out numerous things that would have been extremely helpful to know back then:
• I could have taken college courses while in high school.
• There are summer courses available for the classes required to graduate.
• Service-learning classes are great resume-builders.
So why didn’t I know this all before graduation? Part of the reason is the counseling system.
Multi-million dollar donations to public schools Deseret News letter from Drew Allen
While I applaud the generosity of individuals such as Cottonwood High School booster Scott Cate who give of their time and money to cash-strapped public schools, I have deep concerns as to how those funds are used.
With multi-million dollar donations going to a single school or program, it creates a huge disparity within the public school system. Donations from one donor for a single sports program may well exceed the entire athletics budgets for schools against which they compete. Considering the constant battle the Utah High School Activities Association has against recruiting and sports-related transfers, such budget inequality further compounds the difficulty less-blessed schools have in putting together competitive teams.
Education’s pendulum: Thinkers or test takers?
Rote learning can take a toll on building creativity in schools. The nations that can strike the right balance will gain a competitive edge.
Los Angeles Times editorial;
The people of a large and mighty nation wonder why their schools can’t do more to imitate those of another large, powerful nation across the Pacific Ocean. But this time it’s not the United States seeking to emulate the schools of an Asian country — it’s China seeking to emulate ours, at least to some extent.
China is pushing for more emphasis on building creative skills and less on high-stress, high-stakes testing, according to a recent article in the New York Times. Under the existing system, a single entrance exam determines whether students attend college, and which one. Talk about teaching to the test: The last year of high school is often given over to cramming for the exam. In at least one classroom, students were placed on intravenous drips of amino acids in preparation for the test, in the belief that it would help their memories and provide an energy boost; in another sad case, a girl was not told about her father’s death for two months to avoid disrupting her studies.
The recent backlash against the tests includes complaints that students are being fed facts by rote rather than being taught to think critically and create.
Poverty not all to blame for lousy school outcomes USA Today op-ed by Richard Whitmire, author of The Bee Eater: Michelle Rhee Takes on the Nation’s Worst School District
The class action lawsuit that the ACLU announced last week against Michigan and a tiny Detroit-area school district for failing to educate children raises this question: Can schools ever compensate for the ills of poverty?
In places where poor and minority students increasingly dominate classrooms, the debate about troubled schools becomes polarized around the poverty question. Many urban school teachers say they get blamed for children who arrive in school badly prepared for learning. School reformers argue that some educators hide their shortcomings behind the cloak of poverty.
Who’s right?
How computers can hurt schools
Washington Post commentary by columnist Jay Mathews
Those who hope 21st century technological wonders will save our schools should read a recent lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan. It tells the story of Melvin Marshall, a 7th-rader at Barber Focus School in Highland Park.
Parents Are an ‘Untapped Resource’ to Push STEM, Study Says Education Week commentary by columnist Erik Robelen
Sometimes a little effort can go a long way. A new study suggests that a fairly simple intervention with parents can translate into their teenage children getting more STEM education.
The field experiment involved sending parents two glossy brochures and the link to a website, all highlighting the value of studying STEM subjects. The result? Students from those families, on average, took nearly one semester more of science and mathematics in the last two years of high school, compared with a control group of families not exposed to this intervention.
“Parents are an untapped resource for promoting STEM motivation, and the results of our study demonstrate that a modest intervention aimed at parents can produce significant changes in their children’s academic choices,” researchers write in an article published this month in the journal Psychological Science.
A copy of the study
Can We Fix Computer Science Education in America?
The tech industry is one of the few bright spots in a dim economy. So why aren’t we teaching kids the skills they need to participate in it?
Time commentary by columnist Keith Wagstaff
The tech sector is set to grow faster than all but five industries by 2020. Out of those fields, half of which are related to healthcare, tech pays the best with an average salary of $78,730, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
If technology is the future, however, we are doing a woeful job of preparing our kids for it. Computer science is the only one of the STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) fields that has actually seen a decrease in student participation over the last 20 years, from 25% of high school students to only 19%, according to a study by the National Center for Education Statistics.
Meanwhile, tech companies are so desperate for talent that — in the face of a worker shortage partly due to the H-1B visa cap — a company is planning to build an 1,800-person floating city for foreign entrepreneurs in international waters off the coast of San Francisco.
Why the disconnect? If technology is, as the White House says on its website, “an essential ingredient of economic growth and job creation,” why aren’t we teaching kids how to create it?
Under the First Amendment, religious freedom favors none, protects all First Amendment Center commentary by Charles C. Haynes, Director, Religious Freedom Education Project
Louisiana State Rep. Valarie Hodges used to be a big fan of school vouchers. “I liked the idea,” she explained, “of giving parents the option of sending their children to a public school or a Christian school.”
Then last month Hodges got a First Amendment reality check when she discovered that Christian schools wouldn’t be the only religious schools getting tax dollars.
“Unfortunately, it [vouchers] will not be limited to the Founders’ religion,” she said. “We need to ensure that it does not open the door to fund radical Islam schools. There are a thousand Muslim schools that have sprung up recently. I do not support using public funds for teaching Islam anywhere here in Louisiana.”
Although Gov. Bobby Jindal’s voucher plan passed last month without her support, Hodges vowed to keep looking for alternative ways to “support funding for teaching the fundamentals of America’s Founding Fathers’ religion, which is Christianity, in public schools or private schools.”
Beyond the fact that some of the Founders were not Christian, Rep. Hodges appears confused — to put it mildly — about the implications of the First Amendment’s guarantee of religious freedom for all, including American Muslims.
Don’t Blame Obesity for Poor Academic Performance, Study Suggests Education Week commentary by columnist Bryan Toporek
Is there a causal relationship between a child’s weight and their academic performance? It doesn’t appear so, according to early findings from research funded by the Economic and Social Research Council.
The study, published online Thursday, attempted to dig further into the relationship between a child’s fat mass (separate from the standard body mass index measurement) and his or her academic performance.
A copy of the study
Telling the Public About Public Schools
American School Board Journal op-ed by Nora Carr, chief of staff for North Carolina’s Guilford County Schools
Free, open, and accessible to all students, public schools represent democracy in action. As befits a democracy, the leadership of those schools — boards of education — is elected by their communities.
School board members have one mission: to provide the best education possible for all children. Accessible and accountable to parents and the public, school boards make decisions that affect every important aspect of public schooling. The nation’s 90,000 school board members log millions of volunteer hours each year. With time served far exceeding any compensation received, school board members govern a $432 billion industry for a pittance.
With so much at stake, taking public understanding and support for granted would be foolhardy at best. I’d be willing to bet that most parents, let alone most voters, don’t understand the difference between public and charter schools, or why having publicly accountable trustees of public schools matters.
Maintaining a seat at the decision-making table matters — for us, for our children, and for our future, so we need to do a better job of communicating what we do and how we work.
Since positive public perception of public schools often begins and ends with how school boards conduct the public’s business, here are effective, low-cost ways you can remind your community to “stay local.”
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NATIONAL NEWS
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Governors agree: Washington broken
Politico
WILLIAMSBURG, Va.—The nation’s governors are unnerved by the course that’s being set in Washington, and many dread that neither party will be able to fix what’s broken after November.
The anxiety is bipartisan in scope, with deep worries about sequestration and ‘taxmageddon,’ the shorthand for federal spending cuts and tax increases scheduled to automatically go into effect at the end of the year.
There’s confusion about what federal education standards will look like when Congress finally reauthorizes No Child Left Behind and hesitation about whether to expand Medicaid — one of the biggest expenses in every state’s budget — in the wake of the Supreme Court’s health care decision that gives governors the choice. Farm state governors worry about how the final ag bill will look when it’s finished.
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0712/78521.html
Memphis teachers learning new ways to teach Memphis Commercial Appeal
Tennessee’s elementary and middle school math classes will sound more like philosophy, even debate practice, starting this fall.
Under the new Common Core standards being adopted locally and nationally, students in grades 3-8 will be encouraged to work problems in ways that make sense to them.
“Our classrooms are going to be like those you walked by and wondered why they were so loud,” said Almond Fraction, fourth-grade teacher at Klondike in north Memphis. “We thought they can’t possibly be learning anything.”
More than 13,000 math teachers across the state are in school this week and next, learning what it takes to lead students in math but not corral them in narrow thinking that there is only one way to solve a problem.
Aspen Ideas Festival: Can Character Be Taught?
NBC
On July 1st, NBC’s Andrea Mitchell discussed the role that character, grit, persistence and other non-cognitive skills can play in education with Dominic Randolph, Russell Shaw, and Paul Tough at the Aspen Ideas Festival in Aspen, CO.
Walking to school, sports tied to teen weight Reuters
NEW YORK – Teens who play a couple of team sports and walk or bike to school are less likely to be overweight or obese, says a new study.
Researchers found that of more than 1,700 teens, those who played on at least two sports teams per year were 22 percent less likely to be overweight or obese than those who did not. Those who walked or biked to school four to five times per week were 33 percent less likely to have weight problems.
The findings, however, can’t prove those activities prevented the weight problems, or whether something else could explain the link.
A copy of the study
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CALENDAR
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USOE Calendar
UEN News
August 3:
Utah State Board of Education meeting
250 E. 500 South, Salt Lake City
http://www.schools.utah.gov/board/Meetings/Agenda.aspx
August 9:
Utah State Charter School Board meeting
250 E. 500 South, Salt Lake City
August 14:
Executive Appropriations Interim Committee meeting
1 p.m., 445 State Capitol
August 15:
Education Interim Committee meeting
2 p.m.
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