TheApple

Too Many Teachers Compete for Open Positions

Associated Press — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 08:20:00 -0800

When Lilli Lackey started college, talk of a growing teacher shortage gave her confidence that a job would be waiting for her when she got out.

Now, six months after graduating, she considers herself lucky just to find work as a substitute.

Across the country, droves of people like Lackey are unable to find teaching jobs, in large part because the economy is forcing school systems to slash positions. The teacher shortage that many feared just a few years ago has turned into a teacher glut.

"I always thought that if I didn't find a job, I would be able to sub. And then once that started to be more difficult, it was really kind of devastating," Lackey, an art teacher, said during a career fair for educators at the University of Kansas.

Since last fall, school systems, state education agencies, technical schools and colleges have shed about 125,000 jobs, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

At the same time, many teachers who had planned to retire or switch jobs are staying on because of the recession, and many people who have been laid off in other fields are trying to carve out second careers as teachers or applying to work as substitutes to make ends meet.

In Texas, the Round Rock school district had more than 5,000 applications for 322 teacher openings this year and saw its pool of subs almost double to 1,200, about 2 1/2 times as many as it needs even on a particularly bad day during flu season, said spokeswoman Joylynn Occhiuzzi.

"It is a tougher job market, and you get applicants that you might not normally have because of the economy," she said.

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Just a few years ago, before the recession hit, several reports had projected a big shortage of teachers across a wide range of subjects over the next several years as baby boomers retired from the classroom and the strong economy lured college graduates into fields other than education.

But the nationwide demand for teachers in 60 out of 61 subjects has declined from a year earlier, according to an annual report issued this week by the American Association for Employment in Education. Only one subject - math - was listed as having an extreme shortage of teachers. In recent years, more than a dozen subjects had extreme shortages.

"We don't see a teacher shortage now," said Neil Shnider, executive director of the association. "The school districts aren't hiring."

Just a few years ago, "we were recruiting really, really hard just to get people to take a look at us and take a look at our profession," said John Black, deputy superintendent of the Augusta, Kan., school district, who was at the job fair even though he was already being deluged with applications for a midyear kindergarten opening. "Now we have these great applicants wanting to teach, and we don't have jobs to offer them."

Substitute teaching rolls have grown so large that some districts have increased their requirements or stopped accepting applications altogether.

Already schools like the one at the University of Kansas have been urging their education graduates to be more flexible about where they are willing to work and to receive training in areas that are still hard to fill, such as special education, said Rick Ginsberg, dean of the school of education.

Lackey took the advice and is planning to become certified to teach math. Although she is beginning to get more work as a sub, the job search remains frustrating.

"Teaching isn't really the place to go into," she said. "A few years ago it seemed like the place to be if you wanted a job."

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What is Really Sending Education Into a Tailspin

Dennis Byrne | Chicago Tribune — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 06:08:00 -0800

Social engineers just can't help themselves when it comes to keeping their hands off your kids.

Their latest plan is to base admissions to Chicago's most preferred public schools to a large degree on "socioeconomic" factors, such as the percentage of people who own homes in your neighborhood.

As dumbfounding as this might seem, it's not all that surprising for an education system operated by and for bureaucrats, social scientists and unions that think nothing of meddling in the lives of your families.

They wouldn't have done it if a federal judge a few months ago had not told Chicago Public Schools that it could no longer use race as a factor for who gets into the city's magnet and select schools. Race has been a factor for decades thanks to a consent decree designed to better achieve racial balance in the city's schools. Any racial imbalance found in the schools, of course, reflected the city's housing patterns that, like most other major cities, pretty much followed racial lines. Social engineers argued that racial balance would lead to a better education for one and all, and, oops, judging by the state of public education in Chicago today, it's easy to conclude the problem lies elsewhere.

But social engineers don't give up all that easily. Instead of deciding that admission to preferred schools should be based on merit, neighborhood proximity or random lottery, they decided on integration by class. Your -- or more properly -- your neighborhood's socioeconomic class can give you better odds.

Here's how it would work: The census tract in which you live would be examined for levels of median income, adult education, owner-occupied homes and homes in which a language other than English is spoken. Using these factors, city census tracts then would be divided into four groups, indexed lowest to highest. At magnet schools, siblings of students already enrolled there would get first crack. Of the remaining openings, half would go to neighborhood children, and the other half would be split evenly among the socioeconomic groups. At other selective schools, half would be admitted based on test scores and the other half based on test scores within the equally divided groups.

Confusing? You bet; nothing is elegant in its simplicity when it comes to social engineering. The driving principle is that everyone is better if seated next to someone from a different social class. Here, socioeconomic class serves as a surrogate for race because disproportionate numbers of poor and ill-prepared students are found in minority groups.

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Richard D. Kahlenberg, of the liberal Century Foundation, wrote in 2001 rather typically in support of class integration because, "Many blacks have come to see racial desegregation as essentially insulting. Why do black kids need to sit next to white kids to learn?" Kahlenberg and others say class integration is better because high-poverty schools, compared with middle class schools, are afflicted with more disorder, less stable student and teacher populations, less qualified teachers and principals, lower expectations, less meaty curriculum and less motivated, lower achieving peers. Mixing poor and middle-class kids together is to everyone's advantage, according to the theory.

Unless, of course, reality intrudes. Achieving a balance requires some degree of coercion, something that few parents -- black or white, poor or middle class -- want, as witnessed by the anger of parents who had to send their children out of their neighborhood to strife-torn Fenger High School. Middle-class parents don't want their own children's education endangered by the problems (whether real or perceived) that class integration implies. Socioeconomic schemes would increase the possibility of middle-class flight to better private or suburban schools. Of course, any parent who openly suggests that he doesn't want his kid exposed to greater risks for the sake of social experimentation will be immediately condemned as bigoted, narrow-minded and selfish.

Schools have spent tons of money and man-hours to hatch schemes based on doctrines of inclusion, multiculturalism and diversity. Parents who want better schools in their neighborhoods find themselves facing flying squads of "experts" who babble on about the "disproportionality" of "variables" in the "educational experience."

Every child would have a better shot at a quality education if schools would spend less of everyone's time, resources and taxes on the kind of gobbledygook that social engineers love. Instead, put that money to work actually teaching children.

Dennis Byrne is a Chicago-area writer and consultant. He blogs at chicagonow.com

Broward Teachers March for Raises

BY HANNAH SAMPSON | Miami Herald — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 12:42:00 -0800

Sandy Lobel-Witlen is about to take on a fourth job.

``I have to because I can't afford to live on a teacher's salary,'' said Lobel-Witlen, who has been teaching in Broward County for 14 years.

In addition to teaching kindergarten, she earns extra money working in before- and after-care. And soon, she'll be working nights and weekends for the U.S. Census Bureau.

She and several hundred of her fellow teachers showed their frustration at a lack of raises this year -- and the corruption scandal that has plagued the Broward school system -- at a protest outside the school district's headquarters in Fort Lauderdale Tuesday night.

``Beverly, show us the $$,'' read Lobel-Witlen's sign, referring to suspended board member Beverly Gallagher, who was arrested in September on corruption charges.

The baseball-themed protest hit on what the Broward Teachers Union called three strikes: corruption and ethics violations, waste in the school system and the lack of money from the district to provide raises or offset healthcare cost increases.

Contract negotiations started several months ago, but have so far been fruitless.

``The issue is not having the money,'' BTU President Pat Santeramo told the crowd. ``The issue is making you and you and you the priority.''

He also urged the group to ``remember in November'' -- 2010, that is, when the next School Board elections roll around.

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The union offered a page full of waste-cutting ideas that it says would save $32 million for raises, including cutting the number of assistant principals, getting rid of retired principals and administrators who have returned to work in some positions, consolidating underenrolled schools and freezing travel that isn't essential.

Though the baseball motif was new, Tuesday's noisy protest was familiar. The union also organized rallies last year when talks didn't go any better. BTU declared an impasse and teachers didn't have a contract until May 2009 when the school year was almost over. Educators last school year received an average 3.25 percent raise but no promise of an increase for the 2009-10 school year.

This year, the district is not offering any raises, but it is offering to cover health insurance increases for the employee only.

In Miami-Dade County, the union and district reached an agreement that gives teachers an average 1.8 percent raise starting in December.

Broward teachers hoisted signs wondering why their district couldn't do what Miami-Dade had managed.

As educators and supporters -- college faculty members, firefighters, musicians and other school district employees -- marched, a small band provided the music.

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``Take me out to the School Board, take me out with the crowd,'' they sang to the tune of Take Me out to the Ball Game. ``Don't let them take away our raise. We work hard and we have such long days.''

Accompanied on guitar by union secretary-treasurer Ronney Virgillito (who also tweaked the lyrics), eighth-grade teacher Nicole Blands sang into a megaphone with other union employees.

``I was drafted,'' Blands said. ``First round.''

She said she came to the protest to ``shine a light on the fact that teachers, we're really hurting.''

Although she and her fellow teachers are feeling the effects of the recession, she said, she still buys backpacks, paper, pencils and even lunches when her students need them. She thinks it would be only fair for her and her colleagues to get a cost of living increase to keep up with expenses.

``We're not asking for the world,'' Blands said. ``We're just asking for a small piece of it so that we can give it back to our students.''

Colleges Look at New Ways to Teach Teachers

By Andy Gammill | Indianapolis Star — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 12:42:00 -0800

Indiana colleges have started re-examining how they teach the state's future teachers, prodded by rising numbers of teachers who are trained through other programs and bypass traditional education schools.

Fast-track programs for those who want to teach without a bachelor's in education have been around for a while, but the popularity of Teach For America and The New Teacher Project have ratcheted up the pressure.

Indiana colleges have reacted differently, ranging from cautiously trying to compete to fully embracing the new models, some of which put teachers in the classroom after as little as five weeks of training.

Marian University has partnered with programs such as The New Teacher Project, putting its own stamp on the training. Ball State University is considering adjusting its entire curriculum to look more like that of the Woodrow Wilson Fellowships.

Indiana University, though, has resisted the pressure and moved more slowly into new programs, saying that it wants changes in its curriculum to be based on research -- not on competition for students.

Nonetheless, it's a reality for teacher education programs that there's new competition in town, said Gerardo Gonzalez, dean of IU's education school.

"Our Transition to Teaching program was created in part because of legislation and in part because of need and desire to be more attractive to career changers," he said. "Part of it is the competitive pressure being created by the fast-track programs."

Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Bennett recently proposed making it easier for teachers to go into teaching without an education degree. But that has been a possibility for a long time, and colleges have felt the pressure since well before Bennett was elected last year.

It's hard to isolate what comes from desire within the education community to shift how teachers are prepared and what is pressure from the outside programs.

Either way, though, university education schools have been closely watching the development of new pathways into teaching -- and in some cases, jumping on board.

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All universities in the state have "Transition to Teaching" programs that offer people with work experience the ability to get a teaching license after a year of studying education.

The Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation, which is piloting a new pathway to teaching in Indiana, puts students with work experience through a one-year master's degree program in science or math education.

The Wilson Fellowships aim not only to provide new teachers but also to shape a new model of education.

Teachers in that program spend much more time in schools during their training and focus deeply on the content they will teach and specific ways to convey those topics.

Ball State, which is partnering with the Wilson Fellows program, is taking that approach to heart, said Laurie Mullen, associate dean for teacher education. If the experiment goes well, she said, the lessons will be applied to the rest of Ball State's Teachers College.

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"The expectation from the foundation is that we do," Mullen said. "We want to see what can scale out to the rest of our programs. If this works with this population, how can we then take that and move it into one of our biggest programs, our elementary ed program."

Mullen said the biggest push for Ball State has been to realize that the needs of classroom teachers are different today from those in the past and that the training has to change.

"Change is hard, and you have to frame it in a way that people feel safe," she said. "In my opinion, organizations that are willing to change are the ones that will be there in the future."

Arthur Levine, president of the Wilson National Fellowship Foundation, said Ball State's program will intertwine teacher preparation with the workings of the schools where teachers spend most of their time, something he said would be "wonderful."

Education schools didn't necessarily do anything wrong, said Levine, a former president of Teachers College at Columbia University. Rather, the world has changed, and expectations of schools have changed.

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"We now expect teachers who can bring students up to standards and prove that," he said. "We're saying learning trumps teaching, that student outcomes trump process. Rather than this being a critique of traditional teacher education, we're saying we need a whole different form of teacher education to create a different breed of teachers."

Beverly Reitsma, chairwoman of education at the University of Indianapolis, said her school offers degrees that look more like traditional bachelor's degrees and paths into teaching that don't.

They don't compete, she said, but complement each other.

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"I don't think it's a matter of one is better than the other," she said. "We need a lot of different ways to train people to be effective teachers."

School leaders say that it doesn't matter much to them which way teachers are trained. New programs such as Teach For America are providing good teachers, Indianapolis Public Schools Superintendent Eugene White said, but they're not the only good teachers out there.

"We want these kind of people to come forward," he said. "That's not to say that we also aren't hiring very, very quality graduates from pre-service programs. We're hiring from traditional institutions, too."

*_© 2009 YellowBrix, Inc._*

Schools in the Dark About Tainted Lunches

By Blake Morrison and Peter Eisler, USA TODAY — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 16:49:00 -0800

RACINE, Wis. — Students at Starbuck Middle School stumbled through the halls just after lunch on Oct. 31, 2007, holding their bellies and moaning. When the vomiting began, teachers knew that it wasn't a Halloween prank.

By midafternoon, almost 70 children waited outside the nurse's office at the school near Milwaukee. "There were so many kids there, it was like, 'Holy cow!' " recalls Michael Hannes, then a seventh-grader who felt "like someone kept punching me in the stomach."

Days would pass before local health officials determined that the tortillas served at Starbuck and four other schools in Racine were to blame for 101 illnesses. An Internet search showed them the stunning particulars: The company that supplied the tortillas had a long history of making children sick.

Before the illnesses in Racine, flour tortillas from Chicago's Del Rey Tortilleria caused similar outbreaks at more than a dozen schools in two other states — in 2003, 2004, 2005 and 2006. In 2006, Del Rey recalled tens of thousands of tortillas after health officials linked them to illnesses at schools in Massachusetts and Illinois. And in a 2006 study of prior outbreaks, a panel of top scientists with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration even offered this warning: "Flour tortillas manufactured by Del Rey hold the potential to cause illness."

Despite the concerns, the FDA never shared the panel's warning with school officials anywhere.

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"That just blows my mind," says Dana Maldonado, the Racine district's food services coordinator, who first learned what the government knew about Del Rey tortillas from USA TODAY. "We absolutely would not have used them had we known."

Not until earlier this year — almost six years after the first outbreaks in Massachusetts — did the government temporarily shut down Del Rey to make the company fix its sanitation and safety problems. No more outbreaks linked to Del Rey products have been reported.

The story of how food with a history of making kids sick continued to get into schools illustrates broad failures in government programs meant to provide safe, quality meals for America's children, a USA TODAY investigation found. Parents and schools often have no idea where the food comes from. They know even less about the safety records of the companies that supply it. And if they try to find out, they face government roadblocks that put the rights of manufacturers ahead of providing information that could protect children.

Early next year, Congress will consider ways to improve the Child Nutrition Act, the law that governs school meal programs. The debate holds special meaning for the 31 million kids who rely each day on the government to feed them. Because of their size and developing immune systems, children are particularly susceptible to food-borne illnesses, and the risks they face are more than hypothetical.

USA TODAY analyzed food-borne illness cases logged by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention between 1998 and 2007, the last year for which data were available. The newspaper found more than 470 outbreaks at schools during that period. Those outbreaks sickened at least 23,000 children, and the foods responsible — pasta, chicken tenders, turkey and chocolate milk, among others — are lunchroom staples.

The true toll is likely higher. Based on its own studies, the CDC says millions of food-borne illnesses go unreported each year; no one knows how many involve schoolchildren. After the Racine outbreak, records examined by the school district's health director revealed that 47 kids at five middle schools had gotten sick on a "Taco Day" two weeks before the Halloween illnesses. The cluster would have gone unnoticed if not for the larger outbreak that followed.

When outbreaks are reported, authorities often struggle to pinpoint the pathogen that's responsible. During the 10-year period USA TODAY examined, investigators failed to identify the cause in more than half of the food-borne illness outbreaks reported in schools. In March 2005, for example, lunches served in Farmington, Ill., schools sickened as many as 738 people — students and staff — but investigators never figured out why the food made them sick.

In other outbreaks, investigators often have the opposite problem: They can determine what bacterium or virus was responsible, but they can't figure out the food it was in. That happened in Granbury, Texas, when a salmonella outbreak tied to a pre-Thanksgiving lunch at Baccus Elementary School sent 62 people to the hospital in November 2006. Investigators theorized the salmonella probably was in the gravy or the iced tea, but they couldn't be sure which.

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Such unknowns mean companies that send tainted products to schools can escape notice and punishment. That lack of information — and the inability to determine who made the food that's being served — makes preventing future outbreaks difficult.

Even when companies with problems are identified, action sometimes comes too late. In March 2006, 19 months before the Racine outbreak, FDA investigators in Chicago had catalogued so many violations at Del Rey that they recommended the Justice Department go to court to close the company's flour tortilla plant, USA TODAY found.

But because no one died or was hospitalized, and because scientists couldn't pinpoint what about the tortillas made the children sick, federal officials did not go to court until early this year.

"If it had been something where … people were hospitalized, where there were deaths, obviously we may have treated this situation very differently," says Roberta Wagner, head of compliance for the FDA's Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition. "Perhaps we would have moved more quickly."

Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., puts it in starker terms. "It's not part of the public discourse until you see people dying," says DeLauro, a longtime food safety advocate. "Then it's too late."

Continue reading on the next page: Food Source a Mystery

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Food's source a mystery

USA TODAY examined thousands of pages of records on companies that sell food to schools, including safety data and reports on scores of food-borne illness outbreaks. The newspaper also analyzed hundreds of thousands of records kept by the U.S. Department of Agriculture as part of its food distribution programs.

More than 80% of lunch items served to schoolchildren, including the tainted Del Rey tortillas, are purchased by school districts, often through food distributors who choose among several suppliers. (It's unclear how many school districts have purchased Del Rey's products over the years.) The rest of the food — 15%-20% — comes from the federal government's $10.1 billion National School Lunch Program. The program supplies commodities such as beef and poultry for nearly every school and also subsidizes lunches and breakfasts for millions of the neediest children.

Parents who don't pack their child's lunch are left to trust the government — whether at the school or federal level — to do the shopping. In most cases, USA TODAY found, that trust — like the buying itself — is blind:

•Schools have virtually no hope of figuring out where all of the food on a child's lunch tray originates. That's because the food often is handled by many processors and distributors. "There's no way I could possibly keep track," says Katie Wilson, director of the meals program for the Onalaska, Wis., public schools and the former president of the School Nutrition Association, a group of officials who oversee lunch programs.

•If schools determine who made the food they serve, the government provides no timely way for them to check the health and safety records of those companies. Inspection reports on companies that supply food are not posted publicly, and school officials must file formal requests that often take months to fulfill.

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•When the government finds problems at companies, it does little to alert parents, schools or food distributors — especially if the company doesn't supply commodities directly to the National School Lunch Program.

The systemic failures are "outrageous … alarming and unacceptable," says Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y. "Our schools and parents have a right to know where food is coming from and whether it's high-quality."

"I don't know why we're not putting better protections in place for our most vulnerable population," says Gillibrand, a member of the Senate agriculture committee, which oversees the federal lunch program. "We have to reform how we feed our children in schools."

Continue reading on the next page: From producer to plate

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From producer to plate

The path from producer to plate varies from commodity to commodity, state to state and school district to district. Take, for example, beef purchased by the U.S. government for schools.

The USDA might accept a bid from a company that contracts with several other companies to supply the initial ingredients — scraps and larger beef chunks from the slaughterhouses that aren't used for commercial cuts. That meat is shipped to a plant where it is combined and ground.

The "finished" ground beef might be shipped to a state warehouse for storage. More likely, it is sent to another processing plant where it could be made into patties, meatballs or spiced beef for tacos. Those products are then shipped to warehouses until school districts need them.

When the ground beef finally reaches the school district, it might go to a central kitchen, where it is prepared and trucked to schools each day. It might go directly to the schools, to be cooked on-site. Or it might go to a food service management company — a middleman that purchases and prepares food for the district. Like Racine, thousands of districts have contracts with companies such as Chartwells, Sodexo and Aramark to manage their meal programs. Those companies also run corporate cafeterias and stadium concessions.

The federal government has no idea who ends up eating the food. Records analyzed by USA TODAY show the USDA doesn't track where commodities go after they are delivered to a state warehouse or to a processor chosen by the state. A report earlier this year by the Government Accountability Office, or GAO, the investigative arm of Congress, noted what school food directors have known for years: "This complex distribution path can make it difficult to track food from beginning to end."

Problems might surface during any step in the process. Chicken tenders contaminated with ammonia made 110 people sick at two Joliet, Ill., schools in November 2002. Forty children were rushed to the hospital. Local and state health officials later found that ammonia had leaked onto the USDA-purchased chicken, penetrating the plastic wrapping, during storage at a Missouri warehouse. A warehouse manager was sentenced to a year and a day in jail after he pleaded guilty to ordering the chicken to be repackaged and making it appear that the USDA had inspected the boxes. They were then sent to Joliet and other schools, court documents show.

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Sometimes, the path traveled by tainted food is too complex to trace. That happened this year when nine people died and 700 were sickened — including 226 school-age children — by salmonella in peanut products from the Peanut Corp. of America, or PCA. Five weeks after acknowledging that PCA products were purchased for the National School Lunch Program, the USDA still was trying to figure out which products had gone to which processors — and which schools ended up with them.

Officials never could determine whether some of the sick children were infected at schools, and the GAO criticized government officials for not moving more quickly to keep PCA peanut products from being served. As a result, the GAO concluded, children "possibly consumed these products through the school meals program."

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Secret recipes

During the Racine outbreak, the scene at Starbuck was so striking that photos of a hallway full of sick kids memorialize the day in the school yearbook. In the foreground sit trash barrels; the school ran out of bags to catch the vomit.

Much about the following days typifies what happens after such outbreaks. Worried that a virus might be to blame, officials closed the school and custodians disinfected every surface; meanwhile, health and school officials tried to learn all they could about what the children ate.

If local officials had known then what the federal government knew for years about Del Rey, they say they never would have served the tortillas. That's because FDA inspection reports, reviewed by USA TODAY, show a pattern of sanitary violations at Del Rey that extended for years.

An FDA inspection report in 2004, for instance, reported both live and dead insects, including roaches, in Del Rey's warehouse and production areas. "In the food warehouse, there is a storm sewer on the floor through which sewage water backs up into the warehouse," one inspector wrote, noting that "the floor is never washed and sanitized after such sewage backup."

Another FDA report, this one from 2005, noted that raw ingredients for Del Rey's tortillas were being stored in plastic buckets previously used for cleaning solutions — a "repeat violation" that Del Rey had failed to correct despite being told that the practice needed to be halted "to prevent the contamination of foods."

On that same visit, an inspector reported seeing an employee blowing his nose while working on the production line, and then continue to handle finished tortillas without washing his hands.

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Even though access to such information might help schools make wiser decisions about what to serve, those reports are shielded from public view. The rationale for withholding them: The reports contain what companies and the government consider "proprietary information." Because Del Rey's inspection reports included its tortilla recipe, for instance, the FDA refused to release or post the reports without first blacking out that information. And the process of deleting those details doesn't begin until a request under the Freedom of Information Act is filed.

Such requests take so long that filing many, and expecting anything short of a months-long wait, is folly. "It would be great if we could have (inspection reports) made accessible on the Web," says Wilson, the past president of the School Nutrition Association. Without them, she says, schools are blind.

FDA Deputy Commissioner Joshua Sharfstein agrees and says the agency is exploring ways to make its inspection reports more accessible. He is chairman of an agency task force that's discussing segregating the "proprietary information" from safety and sanitary infractions. "At least that way, we could get some basic information out," Sharfstein says.

Sharfstein also says the FDA must be more vigilant about pushing companies to fix deficiencies. "The real failure is not doing something other than just documenting the problems," he says. "When we see problems, we need to act quickly."

Continue reading on the next page: Who Knew What?

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Who knew what?

For the past 17 years, the Racine district has relied on one of the nation's largest food service providers, Chartwells, to run its lunch program. "We trust their judgment," says Maldonado, the district's food coordinator.

The company has contracts with 500 school districts nationwide, public and private, and it purchases and prepares food for students at more than 4,000 elementary, middle and high schools, says Phil DelGiudice, a company vice president.

Chartwells also has staff who track food safety issues. "Recalls and advisories are monitored and communicated by our quality assurance department," company spokesman Sarah Hada says. "In 2005, we added a 'red alert' system to speed notification."

Before the Racine outbreak, Chartwells knew much about Del Rey tortillas. In 2004 — three years before it served Del Rey tortillas to students in Racine — Chartwells had served Del Rey tortillas to children at Paul Revere Elementary in Revere, Mass. Dozens of children there got sick, and Massachusetts subsequently warned school officials and the public to avoid Del Rey products.

Hada says Chartwells told its Massachusetts managers to discard remaining Del Rey tortillas but took no steps to prohibit future business with the company.

In late 2005 and early 2006, Del Rey tortillas again were linked to a group of outbreaks, this time in schools in Peoria, Ill. The Illinois State Board of Education advised schools to discard Del Rey tortillas, and Chartwells says it alerted its managers across the nation, even though the company did not manage food at Peoria schools. That alert went out on Jan. 23, 2006, Hada says. Two days later, the FDA posted a notice that Del Rey was recalling its tortillas nationwide.

Despite those efforts, Chartwells' district manager Dan Blimling and Racine school officials say they were not aware of the 2006 recall, the advisories from Illinois and Massachusetts, or the 2004 outbreak in Revere.

"You would think there would be some notification," Maldonado says.

Given its past experiences with Del Rey, why didn't Chartwells instruct its managers not to serve Del Rey tortillas in Racine? Because the tortillas were "not subject to a national recall" when they were purchased in Racine, Hada says.

After the Racine outbreak, Chartwells moved quickly to "suspend Del Rey products nationally" and prohibit all future purchases, Hada says. Chartwells made no such move after the outbreak in Revere.

Maldonado is stunned that the company hadn't shared what it knew about the Revere outbreak. "That seems like common policy that would be in any company that serves school districts, especially one that feeds kids," she says. "You'd think they'd take every precaution available."

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Critics, including the GAO, contend that bureaucracy still trumps food safety, especially in terms of school lunches. The GAO report issued earlier this year, for instance, chastised the government for failing to quickly alert schools of potential problems.

The FDA — from its Washington staff to its Chicago inspectors — was aware of Del Rey's problems before Racine. But it also felt hamstrung; not even an FDA panel of physicians and scientists who studied the Del Rey outbreaks extensively in March 2006 could figure out why the tortillas were making children sick.

One theory the panel discounted: that Del Rey was using too much calcium propionate, a preservative used in baked goods to inhibit mold. Instead, the board speculated that chemicals used to clean equipment at the plant might have gotten into tortillas made immediately after Del Rey's wash downs. The scientists, however, say they have no proof — in part because schools and local health officials did not collect much physical evidence.

"One of the frustrating parts of the investigation is we didn't have tortillas from the plate of the ill individuals," explains Karl Klontz, a medical epidemiologist on the FDA board. Scientists also lacked samples of vomit from any of the sick students.

"That would have been a marvelous laboratory specimen to analyze," Klontz says, "but we couldn't get that, either."

Continue reading on the next page: 'We're All Family'

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'We're all family'

Health officials in Racine first made the connection to Del Rey because a state epidemiologist working the case remembered reading about tortillas and previous food-borne illnesses. Then a Racine health inspector checked the Internet for details.

The situation was "a little bit out of our control," says Marcia Fernholz, the Racine health official who handled the case. "We didn't have jurisdiction over the manufacturing plant, although we knew that these tortillas were being served very widespread in many schools throughout our state and many other states."

That's more than Del Rey's general manager, Marcellina Toledo, says she knew.

Because of the earlier outbreaks, Toledo says, she understood that her tortillas sometimes were served in schools. She says she never knew which schools or how many — unless there were problems. She says she considered the food distributors to be her customers. "We really have no knowledge about where it ends up," she says.

Toledo remains pained that the tortillas her family has made for generations — she considers her 3-year-old grandson, Jovanni, to be the company's "official taster" — made anyone sick.

"Our product has been made for 50 years," she says. "Our customers are like our family."

Like the government, Toledo says she wanted to know why the tortillas sickened children. She hoped FDA officials might help her solve the mystery; they could not. Since the Racine outbreak, Del Rey has changed how it makes its signature product. Instead of mixing certain ingredients by hand, workers use a "pre-mix" that includes a set amount of the preservative.

Since Del Rey began using the pre-mix, no outbreaks have been linked to its tortillas.

Nonetheless, the U.S. government, acting on a second recommendation from FDA's Chicago office, went to court this year to shut down one of Del Rey's plants. In March 2009, the U.S. attorney in Chicago obtained an injunction that cited Del Rey for selling "adulterated" food. As the FDA's Wagner explains, "This firm, over a five-year period, just can't get its act together."

The case was settled by a consent decree, a binding agreement between the government and Del Rey that required the company to hire consultants to help overhaul its operation.

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The company fixed itself during a six-week shutdown, Toledo says. Workers cleaned the plant on the north side of Chicago. They painted equipment and repaired problems in the brick floor. The consultants also taught good sanitation practices to about 50 workers, many who speak only Spanish.

Today, the workers wear uniforms and hairnets, even in the storefront of the plant where Del Rey sells tortillas to the public.

In April, the facility passed an FDA inspection and subsequently reopened. Future violations of the consent decree can lead to fines of $6,000 a day. Toledo says the economic damage already has been substantial. "Since the recalls, we've lost like 40%-45% in sales and production," she says.

As for the outbreaks her tortillas caused, Toledo regrets what happened but pledges that the problems, whether ingredients or cleanliness, have been fixed.

Now, she's trying hard to persuade customers to give her family's business another chance.

"We're all family and we wouldn't want that to happen to our family either," Toledo says of the illnesses. "Everybody is cautious these days of what they buy, how they buy, so … we guarantee it. We want to guarantee it, for you to be safe."

Contributing: Anthony DeBarros in McLean, Va.; Eisler reported from Washington.

*_© 2009 YellowBrix, Inc._*

Selling Lessons Online Raises Cash and Questions

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 12:38:38 -0800

Chicago School Head Found Shot in River

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 10:20:00 -0800

An ashen Mayor Daley said Monday he saw no indication that close friend and Chicago School Board President Michael Scott was troubled, saying Scott’s apparent death by gunshot wound to the head “is a shock for everyone.”

“No, no. None whatsoever,” Daley said when asked if he sensed Scott was struggling with personal issues. “Mike was always helping people with troubles."

Daley said he has known Scott for 30 years and said his friend “knows more than anyone else about the school system.”

"He was truly a Chicagoan,” Daley said. “Born on the West Side, loved the West Side of the City of Chicago. Helped an enormous amount of people. He could diffuse issues at all time with his personality."

Mayor Daley was scheduled to be the keynote speaker at a conference in Michigan today but abruptly canceled his plans when he heard the stunning news about his longtime friend.

Sources said the mayor had to pull himself together before making a personal visit to the home of Scott’s widow, Diana. He also met with Scott’s two children and brother this morning.

“He’s not just the mayor’s school board president, he is his friend of more than three decades,” said mayoral press secretary Jacquelyn Heard. “He was a reliable partner — someone who unquestionably cared about Chicago neighborhoods, the West Side, and cared about children and people who were down on their luck.”

Scott had a gunshot wound to the left temple when authorities found his body in the Chicago River near the Merchandise Mart early this morning, sources said.

An autopsy will be performed later today to rule how Scott, 60, died. He was reported missing from his home in the Monroe police district on the Near West Side in Chicago Sunday, sources said.

His car — a blue Cadillac — was found parked near the river where the body was found, police said. It was towed from the scene.

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Fire crews arrived about 3:20 a.m. to recover the body just west of the Apparel Center at 350 N. Orleans St., home of the Chicago Sun-Times.

A Chicago Public Schools spokeswoman did not return calls for comment. Belmont Area detectives are conducting a death investigation.

A stunned Rev. Jesse Jackson showed up at the scene Monday morning after hearing about Scott’s death on the news. He said he spoke with him last week — and Scott sounded normal to him.

“Everyone thought Michael was their guy,” Jackson said. “People are so very sad. .. . The suddenness of it all — midday has become midnight. The sun has been eclipsed.”

Jackson described Scott as someone equally comfortable working with Chicago’s poorest children or sitting courtside at a Bulls game.

“That’s why I think the mayor leaned on Michael the most,” Jackson said.

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U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan, the former CEO of the Chicago Public Schools, issued a statement saying he was “shocked and saddened.”

“Michael cared passionately about public education and made many courageous decisions as President of the Board,” Duncan said. “He gave his time, energy and talents to improving the life chances of children. Chicago has lost a great leader and the city’s schoolchildren have lost a devoted champion. I extend my deepest condolences to his wife and family.”

Friends say Scott was extremely distraught recently about the death of his first wife, Millicent, the mother of his children.

Ron Huberman, who replaced Arne Duncan as schools CEO, was at Scott’s Near West Side condominium this morning to offer condolences to family and friends. He was joined by schools spokeswoman Monique Bond and Rev. Jackson, who was offering prayers.

They were among a stream of well-wishers who arrived at the North Ada condo. Many had tear-streaked faces. Some brought bags of food.

Chicago aldermen were stunned by the news of Scott’s death. Calling Scott an “eternal optimist” and a consummate problem-solver, some of them refused to believe he had taken his own life.

“No matter what the situation was, Michael could come up with a solution for you. He was too much of a problem-solver to say, ‘I’m gonna end my life because of some indiscretion. What could have been so tragic in his life that he’d say, ‘The hell with it. I’m gonna end it all.’ I just don’t see that being Michael,” said Ald. Carrie Austin (34th), chairman of the City Council’s Budget Committee. “How did you get a person out of the river and just automatically say he committed suicide. Without any investigation at all you just come to that conclusion?”

Austin said she has known Scott for more than 25 years and he has been a constant source of encouragement for her during some of the lowest moments of her life. The cheerleading started with the death of Austin’s husband,

Ald. Lemuel Austin (34th).

“Michael said, `You can get through this. Lemuel wants you to get through this.‚ When he found out I was in line for the appointment, he told me, `Carrie, hold your head up now. You can get this. I was like, `I have so many drawbacks. I’ve got kids.’ And he said, `You can work all that in. You did it when Lemuel was alive. You can do it now,” Austin said.

Cook County Board President Todd Stroger issued a statement through a spokesman Monday morning offering his condolences.

“My wife and I would like to extend our heartfelt condolences to the family of Michael Scott,” Stroger said. “Mr. Scott was a strong advocate for education. His contributions to the minority communities of Cook County will be sorely missed. In particular, his love for the upward mobility of residents from Chicago’s West Side where he spent his life.”

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Scott was Daley’s long-time go-to guy but raised eyebrows earlier this year when he disclosed to the Sun-Times that he had been subpoenaed by a federal grand jury investigating how students were selected for the system’s elite selective-enrollment high schools.

Scott insisted he had done nothing wrong, but the system responded with a massive crackdown on college prep principals’ ability to handpick up to five percent of their seats outside the normal selection process. An aide to Scott had requested such a pick at Whitney Young High School, but later withdrew the request at Scott’s insistence, sources said at the time.

The furor emerged after Daley had appointed Scott to serve a second stint as school board president. Scott had recommended that sports agent Rufus Williams succeed him in that job, but Williams ruffled so many feathers that he resigned under pressure and Daley re-installed Scott to head the school board and oversee the city's public schools — a top Daley priority.

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Daley said Monday that Scott was not bothered by the federal subpoena.

“That didn’t bother him,” Daley said.

Scott was an activist president, meeting on his own time with local residents, and even recently visiting troubled Fenger High School to personally observe an effort to bus kids from Altgeld Gardens to Fenger in the wake of the murder of Fenger honor student Derrion Albert. He was a calm and steady leader at sometimes raucous School Board meetings, often diffusing angry outbursts from the audience or speakers.

Scott, a West Side resident, also had served on the Mayor's 2016 Olympic committee and as former head of the Chicago Park District.

In August, he was forced to answer questions about his involvement in a development proposal near the the proposed Douglas Park Olympic site.

He insisted he would not profit from the deal.

“I would not profit . . . not at all,” Scott told reporters at a Chicago Board of Education press conference.

He was responding to a published report contending he was “potentially positioning himself to cash in” if the Olympics come to Chicago because he was helping a group of ministers try to turn some city-owned lots across from what could have been an Olympic site into affordable housing. Chicago eventually lost out to Rio de Janiero, which will host the 2016 Summer Games.

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Scott noted at the time that the ministers, whom he said he has known for years, came to him with their development idea in the summer of 2006 — a year before he was appointed to a committee that has been trying to bring the Olympics to Chicago.

Scott said he agreed to advise the ministers on how to put the deal together, navigate city departments and train people on how to sell affordable housing.

Any profits were to be split among the ministers because "I have no monetary interest,'' Scott said. "These people are my friends. They asked for my help and I helped them on a part-time basis.''

The city has shown no interest in the idea for two years, said Scott.

“The city has no formal plan or deal for any lots to be sold or conveyed for any amount of money for this proposal,'' Scott said.

Scott owns Michael Scott and Associates, a real estate development firm.

West Side Ald. Isaac Carothers (29th) praised Scott on Monday, saying “he was a great individual who added value to every position he served” in city government.

Carothers — who was indicted in May for allegedly accepting $40,000 in home improvements, meals and sports tickets from a West Side developer in exchange for zoning changes that netted the developer millions — spent a year secretly recording public officials and real estate developers for the feds, the Sun-Times disclosed earlier this year.

On Monday, Carothers cut off a conversation with a reporter when asked whether he had recorded any conversations with Scott.

He would only say, “He was just a great friend and a great individual. My heart goes out to his family. It’s just a tragedy.”

Carothers said he has known Scott for “15-to-20 years, at least.”

“He was a great negotiator, a great facilitator,” the alderman said.

Pressed further about any business dealings he might have had with Scott, Carothers said, “All I have is what I gave you.” He then hung up the phone.

A source said Carothers did not record any conversations with Scott.

Marilyn Stewart, Chicago Teachers Union president, offered her condolences. In a statement, she said she spoke with Scott on Saturday about an upcoming Board of Education meeting.

“He recently told me he didn’t think he was going to be around for long and saw his appointment as president being an interim one,” Stewart said.

She added that “his death leaves a huge void to fill at a time when the Board desperately needs stability in its leadership.”

Contributing: Sally Ho, Rosalind Rossi, Kara Spak

*_© 2009 YellowBrix, Inc._*

Teachers get furloughs; lottery staff gets bonuses

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 10:03:33 -0800

Free Kindle on PC

Chip Russell — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 09:19:02 -0800

Amazon has released a FREE version of the Kindle book reader for the PC. You can now download this software on your PC and read any Kindle book on your PC. In a school setting, this can be an invaluable resource for FREE books as well. There are literally thousands of classics on Kindle just waiting to be downloaded.

Go here to download the software:

Kindle on PC

This PC version will show books in full color unlike the physical Kindle reader which is a black and white 'electronic ink' display. There is also a MAC version coming soon according to Amazon. I think this is truly an advancement of technology and will spark the desire to read around the world by making books so accessible.

If you have specific questions on how you might set this up in a school environment, please send an e-mail to russellenterprises@me.com .

The Power of One Teacher

By Mary Ellen Flannery | NEA Today © 2009 YellowBrix, Inc. — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 06:52:00 -0800

You might be all that’s preventing your gay student from dropping out.

In 10th grade, Jeana Huie went through three sets of textbooks after bullies ripped them to shreds. She ate lunch in her car after kids threw her food to the cafeteria floor, and she avoided the bathroom in the Little Rock, Arkansas, public school after they shoved her face in the toilet.

“Any place that was unsupervised, I avoided,” says Huie, now 23. By October of her 11th grade year, she had made it to school on just 11 days. Finally, after a brutal beating in the school parking lot, which teachers watched but didn’t stop, Huie couldn’t take it any more.

She dropped out.

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An appalling one in four American teens don’t earn a high school diploma and countless thousands of them are gay, lesbian, bi-sexual, transgendered, or questioning (GLBTQ).

Even as states from Iowa to Maine embrace gay marriage, most GLBTQ students, especially those of color, don’t feel safe at school. Nearly 9 out of 10 have been verbally harassed on campus; almost a quarter have been physically abused; and an alarming number say educators saw it and did nothing. Scared and depressed, too many skip school, fail classes, and eventually just walk away.

In a new report, “Stepping Out of the Closet, Into the Light,” NEA reflects on the stunning toll suffered by gay students—or those perceived to be gay—and calls on educators, regardless of their own views on homosexuality, to stand up for kids. “This is about young people, their safety and ability to achieve,” said NEA President Dennis Van Roekel, in introducing the report.

Continue reading on the next page: Answering the Call

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Answering the Call

It starts with one adult.

That person—a single supportive adult in the lives of gay kids at school—is the most critical factor in making GLBTQ students feel safe, do well in school, and graduate, research shows.

At Little Rock Central High School, a beacon for civil rights since nine Black students faced an angry mob in 1957, that person is Lynn Smith. Smith, 54, has been teaching art for more than 30 years and, for most of that tenure, was a regular, married guy with two kids. He still is that. But his second marriage is to another man.

More than anything, Smith believes, with all his heart, that it’s okay to be yourself. Whether that’s a middle-aged Southerner with a same-sex spouse or a curly-haired teen with a penchant for Japanese food and other girls, it’s okay. And that’s a message that resonates with kids, especially those questioning their sexual orientation or suffering taunts from other kids about perceived “gayness.”

For those kids who aren’t sure what they are (although their bullies seem to know), the risks are particularly high. While GLBT students are nearly twice as likely to consider dropping out, questioning students are seven times more likely. Thankfully, for those kids at Central, they can always visit Smith’s classroom. He didn’t fit in either, he says.

“Mr. Smith is incredible!” exclaims Devon Bearden, president of Central’s Gay-Straight Alliance (GSA). The 16-year-old winner of a national courage award, Beardon knows incredible. “I’m out and I don’t mind being loud about it,” she says. “If I can help just one other person [like me] feel comfortable, it’s worth it.”

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Many gay kids can name one supportive adult at their school, and it does make a difference. Gay kids who can’t point to a single supportive adult get significantly worse grades, are twice as likely to miss school, and almost three times less likely to see college in their future, according to a national survey by GLSEN, the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network.

But you don’t have to be Harvey Milk—or even Lynn Smith. As small a gesture as a rainbow sticker in your room works wonders. Also popular these days because of their celebrity-powered TV spots, are free posters from GLSEN’s ThinkB4YouSpeak campaign. Less edgy, and more appropriate for younger children, are resources from the No Name-Calling Week campaign (January 25–29, 2010).

Even more meaningful are your own words. When Connecticut teacher Kristie Schmidt hears her teens complain, “That’s so gay!” she quickly rejoins, “You’re not using that word correctly.” (Classic English teacher!) And when they protest that they just meant something was lousy, she strikes again:#You are insulting all gay people with your negative speech. “Do you know any gay people?” she asks.

Continue reading on the next page: The Red Shirt Brigade

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The Red Shirt Brigade

This year, as spring came to Little Rock, the kids in the Central GSA put on matching red T-shirts and turned off the teen chatter. It was the Day of Silence, a national event to protest the silencing of GLBTQ youth by bullies, and even Bearden, a tireless spokeswoman for the cause of equality, did her best to stay quiet. “When [other kids] see us doing these events, they ask questions, and some are more intelligent than others,” she noted drily.

Later that day, sitting on the grass beneath Central’s iconic facade, Smith and his students reflected on the day’s success. So many supportive comments! So many red T-shirts worn in solidarity!

“We can’t say we’re changing minds, but we’re opening doors,” says Bearden. “Talk about us positively or negatively, either way the conversation is happening.”

Nearly half of gay high school students say their school has a GSA, and those kids are about a third as likely to be threatened or injured at school and less than half as likely to attempt suicide, according to GLSEN. (Sadly, gay students still have a suicide rate three to four times higher than their straight peers). Studies also found it doesn’t make a big difference if the GSA is large or small, loud or quiet—its mere presence makes a positive difference.

But at least half of all high schools don’t have GSAs, and they’re especially rare in rural areas, the South, and predominantly Black schools. Consider Yulee High School in north Florida, where a judge reminded administrators earlier this year that, yes, students do have the right to form a GSA. In their efforts to ban it, school administrators had shut down every extra-curricular activity, including cheerleading and football.

You might not expect Little Rock to be much different. Last year, just a few miles away, marchers in a Pride Day parade stepped through streets strewn with manure. But in 2005, Little Rock school board members unanimously approved anti-discrimination policies that include sexual orientation and gender identity.

“If we can do it here, you can do it anywhere,” promises Mary Ann Hansen, a Little Rock music teacher and southeast regional director for the NEA GLBT Caucus.

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Five years ago, Little Rock school officials also required educators from every middle and high school to attend training on GLBTQ#issues, where Hansen led discussions that ranged from suicide rates to “Hey, Mary Ann, when did you know you were to gay?” (Answer: “When did you know you were straight?”)

In its recent report, NEA points to four strategies that make a difference for GLBTQ kids: Policy that sends a strong message about discrimination and harassment is the first, a GSA is another, and curricular inclusion—the opportunity for gay students to learn about GLBT people and history in the classroom—is a very important third.

At Schmidt’s school in Connecticut, that means including books with GLBT characters on the suggested summer reading list.

The fourth strategy, of course, is to have adults on campus who will stand up for them. And consider this: In a few years, Jeana Huie will be one of those adults. After earning her GED, Huie is now studying to be a teacher.

For more on safety and bias training, write to Paul Santrum (psathrum@nea.org). To send comments to the author of this story, write to Mary Ellen Flannery (mflannery@nea.org).

*_Courtesy of NEA Today._*

*_© 2009 YellowBrix, Inc._*

Read more...

Supporting Social & Emotional Development

Getting Past the "Turkey Drop"

USA TODAY — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 06:48:00 -0800

It's called the "turkey drop" -- when first-year college students break up with their high school sweethearts over the Thanksgiving holiday. But there's a risk that freshmen might break up with their college, too.

The turkey drop is just one of the precipitating factors. Homesickness, roommate conflicts, academic pressures, difficulty forming new friendships -- any of them can cause college freshmen to leap to the conclusion that they've chosen the wrong school and that transferring to another is the answer.

In most cases, though, students shouldn't let a moment of self-doubt make them start the college application process all over again.

It can happen no matter how mature or accomplished a student is. Kelly Schryver, a junior at Brown University in Providence, had excelled at her secondary school and been president of her class every year since seventh grade. "But I was taken aback by the anonymity of being a freshman," says Schryver, remembering how she felt freshman year between Thanksgiving and winter break. "No one talks about how it may not be amazing at first, so you feel very alone. You automatically question whether you'd be happy somewhere else."

A need to belong

College administrators are familiar with this Thanksgiving milestone for freshmen.

"You have to find yourself in your institution," says Hannah Stewart-Gambino, dean of Lafayette College in Easton, Pa. "Belonging remains unbelievably important for students at this stage in their lives, so the self-doubt that sets in midsemester of the first year is generally about belonging, socially and academically."

Some students hit their stride from the start, but for others, finding their niche can take time, especially amid the unbridled freedom and independence of the freshman year.

"I like to say that to come to Stanford is to be offered a drink of water from a fire hose," says Julie Lythcott-Haims, Stanford (Calif.) University's dean of freshmen and associate vice provost for undergraduate education. "Whether it's the 600 student organizations or 70-some majors offered, everything is an option, and students have to learn to engage with that multiplicity. ... It takes time to get one's footing."

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Schryver quickly found her footing academically, and that pulled her through. "I came back from Thanksgiving and sobbed in the bathroom all night," she says. "But the academics were amazing. I had really close relationships with my professors, and that was the light at the end of the tunnel.

"Even if things didn't change for me socially, I knew I'd have an awesome academic experience."

Meanwhile, whether a student's concerns may be triggered by a demanding math class, a long-distance romance, or just missing Mom's home cooking, parents are not always prepared for a phone call from a distraught child. So how should they respond? "Very often, students just want to vent," Lythcott-Haims says. "They usually want parents to be a loving, supporting ear, and they want to be reassured they have made a good choice."

If those doubts persist...

For most students, these doubts are a normal part of the pattern of adjustment -- college administrators call it the "I'm miserable and need to transfer ... oh, nevermind" phenomenon. "We know from all the data that most students will settle into a pattern and be successful," says Mabel Freeman, assistant vice president of undergraduate admission and first-year experience at Ohio State University in Columbus.

If a student's homesickness or doubts persist well past Thanksgiving, though, experts agree it is probably a good idea to get counseling.

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Or forge ahead and explore transferring. Emily Wohlford enrolled as a freshman at a small university in Chicago but had a hard time establishing a group of friends with common interests and never really found her niche. When she visited the University of Minnesota, she was struck by the camaraderie and authenticity of the Twin Cities campus. She applied to transfer and enrolled this fall. "It felt like a homecoming," says the UM sophomore. "I found the place I need to be."

But parents shouldn't immediately overreact to what is a normal adjustment by hitching up the U-Haul or instigating an intervention from the university administration or counseling center. "Be a safety-net parent, not a helicopter parent," Stewart-Gambino says.

Instead, she advises, encourage your child to branch out and make connections -- join a choral group, volunteer at the campus hospital or explore a new learning opportunity such as a film society.

Schryver joined a club lacrosse team and turned a class business plan into a cake-baking service. "Now everyone knows me on campus as the 'Cake Girl,' " she says. "It made me realize it's a smaller world here than I thought it was. I'm totally happy now."

*_© 2009 YellowBrix, Inc._*

If I Wrote the NCLB Law...

By Alain Jehlen | NEA Today © 2009 YellowBrix, Inc. — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 12:36:00 -0800

On January 8, 2002, President George Bush signed the No Child Left Behind Act, a 1,100-page, bipartisan overhaul of the largest federal education aid program. Originally launched in 1965 as the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), it has been revised and renamed periodically ever since.

ESEA’s purpose was to provide extra money for schools educating low-income students. The Bush version, however, ordered schools to meet extremely difficult requirements for student test scores or face escalating punishment.

“We expect every child to learn,” said President Bush at the signing ceremony, “and you must show us whether or not every child is learning.”

At first, opposition to NCLB was muted. The law had a wonderful goal and a great name—no one wants to leave children behind.

The arithmetic formulas written into the law, which practically required states to rate enormous numbers of schools “failing,” got little attention at first.

Today, the law is nearly eight years old. It has produced much pain and little gain. According to NCLB’s formulas, roughly a third of the nation’s schools are failing.

There is a plus side: Many educators report that students who in past years were written off, now get more attention because the law makes schools responsible for their scores.

Next Page: What Teachers Are Saying About NCLB

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“NCLB has forced special education teachers to ask, ‘Is what I am doing leading to results?’ It forces administrators to say, ‘Look guys, this isn’t working. Something needs to be fixed.’”

—Peg Vanderhoff, high school special education teacher, Algona, Iowa

But by holding all students to the same standard, the law has pilloried children who face extra challenges, along with the educators who try to help them.

“The one thing I would keep in NCLB is the spirit of wanting every child in this nation to receive a high quality education. No excuses.

“One of the many things I would change is the wrong-headed, child-wounding policy of requiring special needs students to test at their chronological grade level rather than at their functional level, reinforcing their feelings of embarrassment and hopelessness.

“We can find ways to measure and correct what the schools are doing without punishing the children.”

—Renee Moore, 2001 Mississippi Teacher of the Year, high school and community college English teacher, Moorhead, Mississippi

Next Page: All About Test Scores

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The law’s single-minded focus on standardized reading and math test scores has educators—and many parents—fuming. When NEA Today set up an online discussion board to ask for members’ ideas about the law, the responses were full of phrases like “One-size-fits-all doesn’t work” and “We don’t live in a cookie cutter society.”

”Testing, testing, testing—what is the point? Do we use the data to remediate those who do not measure up? No!

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”Today, administrators applaud those teachers who teach to the test—a few years ago we fired those same people.”

—Shelley Dunham, high school special education teacher, Maize, Kansas

”It gets in my way! I am trying to teach American Literature to sophomores. But my principal says that I must spend 40–60 minutes per week (and document such time) on preparation for the state test in reading.”

—Carol Sanders, high school English teacher, Belgrade, Minnesota

”NCLB pits all teachers of elective subjects against one another for that dwindling number of kids who have time to take electives. When kids don’t make standards on the state assessments, they are put into remedial programs, taking them out of the running for electives. This is a tragedy, since often, these are the subjects students are most passionate about.”

—Yvonne Linnabary, high school art department chair, Everett, Washington

Next Page: Reading and Math Improvement?

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Despite NCLB’s focus on reading and math testing, there has been little change in reading and math scores on the National Assessment of Educational Pro-gress, the best national measure of academic skills. Apparently, teaching to the state test may boost scores on that test, but it doesn’t help on other standardized tests, never mind preparing students for life outside school.

NCLB has acquired such a bad reputation that Education Secretary Arne Duncan is looking for a new name.

The law was due to expire in 2007, but it will continue in effect until Congress replaces it with a new version. Health care and the sagging economy have pushed education to the congressional back burner, but NCLB’s turn in the spotlight must come soon, if only because the law automatically keeps raising the passing grade for schools, which will make almost every school in the country “fail” sometime in the next few years.

“NCLB was crafted by politicians. Everybody thinks they are an expert in education because they went to school. Let teachers have input into this bill.”

—Lois Jacobs, retired school librarian, Methuen, Massachusetts

So what would educators do? We posed that question on the NEA Today Facebook page, on a members’ discussion board, and in other ways.

Here’s one reform that many members proposed:

“Compare the same students year-to-year to chart their growth! Isn’t that common sense?”

—Tara Olson, seventh-grade teacher, Red Lake, Minnesota

Next Page: Credit for Improvement vs. Meeting Standards

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Under the current law, a school gets no credit for moving a student from far below the standard to just a little below standard. Even Bush Administration officials recognized the absurdity and unfairness of that, and Secretary of Education Duncan makes a point of saying he believes the new law should use a “growth” model.

Duncan also recognizes that it make no sense to use the same evaluation for all students regardless of whether they can speak English or have disabilities. He says he wants to find ways to fairly evaluate special education students and English Language Learners, and he has invited NEA members to make suggestions.

“The testing in NCLB should not be changed at all. Every child should be given the exact same test. If you give different tests, that doesn’t help you know where the problem is and what needs to be fixed. What needs to be changed are the consequences.”

—Ron Benner, school psychologist, Bridgeport, Connecticut

“The big question to me is, what is the outcome we want for kids? Why are we assessing them? Kids take test prep classes for our exit exam at the expense of vocational experience. But they’re not all going to college.

“When a student comes into high school, we should ask, ‘what’s the outcome we all want?’ Then when they leave, we should ask, ‘What have we prepared them to do?’ Every student should have a plan for transition to life after high school, not just those in special education.

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“Would that be expensive? Maybe. But we spend millions developing a test, and we prep the kids for it, and we still hear from businesses that kids don’t have the job skills, because what they learned was how to take a test.”

—Ed Amundsen, special education teacher, Sacramento, California

Next Page: Better Purposed for NCLB Law

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Many educators suggest that the enormous amounts of time, money, and energy now devoted to testing would be better used to implement scientifically proven strategies for improving learning.

“Lowering class size has proven to be the most effective in producing students who can think for themselves, progress academically, and increase test scores. Put our money where research shows it works best. Build more classrooms, hire more teachers, and reduce class size.”

—LaNelle Holland, hospital-homebound teacher, Carroll County, Georgia

And many frustrated educators say the law should spell out the duties of a child’s “first teachers.”

“NCLB has let parents off the hook by [only] holding teachers accountable. The alarming level of truancy, the work habits of unmotivated students, and behavior issues are the factors that affect the failure of students in our education system.”

—Ronda Gupton-Pruett, high school resource specialist Napa, California

Finally, there is a widespread feeling among educators that what happens in classrooms shouldn’t be dictated by the federal government.

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“Eliminate all the AYP goals and testing BS. It doesn't work. It's destructive. Return to ESEA as it was prior to the Bush years. The original intent was to focus additional resources for kids who need extra help.”

—Cal Halliburton, Middle school technology education teacher, Ames, Iowa

Some suggest that Congress look in the mirror if it wants to see who’s not doing right by children.

“AYP should be changed to AYF—adequate yearly funding. Give Congress a report card to let them know if they're providing AYF to public schools. They haven't for decades.”

—Carl Clausen, Visual Art teacher and Teaching Academy director, Bellevue, Washington.

Next Page: Give Your Advice to Secretary Duncan About NCLB

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Leave “NCLB” Behind.

To help Secretary Duncan come up with a new name for NCLB, NEA has set up a discussion group to gather members’ suggestions.

The proposed new names cover a wide range.

Idealistic: “Support All In Learning” (SAIL)

Hopeful: “Shared Responsibility”

Cynical: “No Child Left”

Descriptive: “Test, Test, Test Till They Drop”

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Most of those who commented on the discussion board want Congress to quit trying to put a spin on the law and go back to its original name: the Elementary and Secondary Education Act.

Duncan has also asked NEA members for examples of fair and accurate ways to assess the achievement of students with disabilities and students who don’t speak fluent English. Offer your ideas here.

Read what other people have to say about how NCLB should be changed, and add your own ideas here.

There’s more information here about NCLB and NEA’s work to change it.

*_Courtesy of NEA Today._*

*_© 2009 YellowBrix, Inc._*

Related Discussion: NCLB: Scrap or Rewrite?

Student Protestors Want Fired Teacher Back

The Kansas City Star — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 07:27:00 -0800

Eighth-grade students at Mission Valley Middle School in Prairie Village will not let the firing of a beloved teacher fade quietly away.

A group of about 50 cut classes today and demonstrated outside the school waving homemade signs urging drivers along Mission Road to "honk" their support for Ryan Haraughty, a science teacher who was fired Monday by the Shawnee Mission Board of Education because, he said, of a sexual innuendo uttered in class. The school district said there were more incidents.

Haraughty, who worked for the school district for the last 10 years, said in an interview that the firing stemmed from a recent incident.

Haraughty had drawn a picture of the United States and one of his students noticed that Florida was out of proportion. The student asked Haraughty about the error.

The teacher's offhand response, which he said Monday he regretted, was: "Florida got excited."

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Today Shawnee Mission official issued a statement suggesting that Haraughty was misleading parents, students and the media by calling attention to one incident.

"The termination of Mr. Haraughty's contract was not based on one incident," the statement read. "The decision was based on numerous incidents over an extended period of time."

District officials said they could not release details of these other incidents.

Some parents believe the problems stems from a personality clash between Haraughty and the principal.

When told about the student demonstration, Haraughty said he wanted them in school.

"I do not want this to impede their education. I love those kids to death," he said.

Haraughty said he is appealing the board's decision with the help of the Kansas Chapter of the National Education Association.

The day after the school board voted unanimously to terminate the teacher, an eighth-grade student at the school sent a text message to other students urging them to boycott classes today to protest the board's action.

Adam Jenkins, a Prairie Village eighth-grader, was one of the organizers.

"I think we can make a difference," he said. "With all the people who showed up Monday night and what we're doing today, we believe it will help him get his job back."

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More than 300 parents, students and teachers came to Monday night's termination hearing to support Haraughty and urge the board to keep him.

Several students at today's protest said teaching was much more than a job for Haraughty.

"He was one of those teachers who really made a difference," said Alex Mayfield, an eighth-grade student. "He understood us."

One student help up a sign that read, "Florida got excited, honk 4 Haraughty." Many motorists did.

Leigh Anne Neal, a district spokeswoman, said the student demonstrators will be marked as absent without an excuse. School officials notified the students and the parents of the students who demonstrated outside the school rather than attend class will not receive credit for missed work.

*_© 2009 YellowBrix, Inc._*

Join the Discussion: Quotes to Get Fired For

Cash for Grades Flunks Out

The News & Observer — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 07:18:00 -0800

A Goldsboro parent who helped come up with the idea to sell grades to raise money for a middle school defended the plan Wednesday, even as the school district shut it down.

Deborah Breedlove, a member of the Rosewood Middle School parent advisory council, said the group was looking for an innovative way to raise money for badly needed equipment. The school's parents were notified Friday that a $20 donation would get students two 10-point credits on two tests of their choice.

The idea sparked widespread condemnation after The News & Observer published an article about the plan. District administrators canceled it Wednesday.

But Breedlove said the idea had been misunderstood.

"Our intentions were not to sell grades," she said. "Our intention is to help our school raise money, which every school has to do."

In a prepared statement, the Wayne County school system said administrators told school principal Susie Shepherd on Tuesday to end the fundraiser and give back the money raised. The district is investigating and may take more action, the statement said.

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"Wayne County Public Schools and the Wayne County Board of Education do not condone any fundraiser or practice that allows extra credit to be purchased," the statement said.

Wayne County Schools Superintendent Steven Taylor could not be reached for comment Wednesday.

Shirley F. Sims, a member of the Wayne County school board, said she was shocked when she heard of the plan.

"I think we're walking in treacherous waters when we ask students to bring money to pay for an activity that's related to the learning process," she said.

Public schools throughout North Carolina are struggling with smaller, recession-era budgets.

Breedlove said teachers dig into their own pockets each year to buy classroom supplies for under-funded schools. She said no one voiced any objections until Tuesday.

Breedlove said that she didn't understand the criticism. "We were just trying to be creative," she said.

*_© 2009 YellowBrix, Inc._*

School Sells Test Points for $20 to Raise Money

Associated Press — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 06:11:00 -0800

A middle school in North Carolina is selling test scores to students in a bid to raise money.

The News & Observer of Raleigh reported Wednesday that a parent advisory council at Rosewood Middle School in Goldsboro come up with the fundraising plan after last year's chocolate sale flopped.

The school will sell 20 test points to students for $20.

Students can add 10 extra points to each of two tests of their choice. The extra points could take a student from a "B" to an "A" on those tests or from a failing grade to a passing grade.

Principal Susie Shepherd says it's not enough of an impact to change a student's overall grades.

Officials at the state Department of Public Instruction say exchanging grades for money teaches children the wrong lessons.

*_© 2009 YellowBrix, Inc._*

Article Update: Cast for Grades Flunks Out

In the news:

Making Teacher/Student Communication Illegal

Gunman Holds NY Principal Hostage

For $20, kids can buy a better grade

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 07:52:26 -0800

For $20, kids can buy a better grade

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 07:52:08 -0800

Published Wed, Nov 11, 2009 02:00 AM Modified Wed, Nov 11, 2009 05:14 AM For $20, kids can buy a better grade

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 07:51:51 -0800

A Dream Interpretation: Tuneups for the Brain

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 20:38:29 -0800

'Sesame Street' at 40: The importance of being Ernie -- and Bert and Kermit . .

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 20:36:57 -0800

TheApple

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Broward Teachers March for Raises

Colleges Look at New Ways to Teach Teachers

Schools in the Dark About Tainted Lunches

Continue reading on the next page: Food Source a Mystery

Food's source a mystery

Continue reading on the next page: From producer to plate

From producer to plate

Continue reading on the next page: Secret Recipes

Secret recipes

Continue reading on the next page: Who Knew What?

Who knew what?

Continue reading on the next page: 'We're All Family'

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Selling Lessons Online Raises Cash and Questions

Chicago School Head Found Shot in River

Teachers get furloughs; lottery staff gets bonuses

Free Kindle on PC

The Power of One Teacher

Continue reading on the next page: Answering the Call

Answering the Call

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Read more... Supporting Social & Emotional Development

Getting Past the "Turkey Drop"

A need to belong

If those doubts persist...

If I Wrote the NCLB Law...

Next Page: What Teachers Are Saying About NCLB

Next Page: All About Test Scores

Next Page: Reading and Math Improvement?

Next Page: Credit for Improvement vs. Meeting Standards

Next Page: Better Purposed for NCLB Law

Next Page: Give Your Advice to Secretary Duncan About NCLB

Related Discussion: NCLB: Scrap or Rewrite?

Student Protestors Want Fired Teacher Back

Join the Discussion: Quotes to Get Fired For

Cash for Grades Flunks Out

School Sells Test Points for $20 to Raise Money

Article Update: Cast for Grades Flunks Out

In the news: Making Teacher/Student Communication Illegal Gunman Holds NY Principal Hostage

For $20, kids can buy a better grade

For $20, kids can buy a better grade

Published Wed, Nov 11, 2009 02:00 AM Modified Wed, Nov 11, 2009 05:14 AM For $20, kids can buy a better grade

A Dream Interpretation: Tuneups for the Brain

'Sesame Street' at 40: The importance of being Ernie -- and Bert and Kermit . .

For Job Seekers

Interactive Map for In-Demand Teaching Jobs

10 Fastest Growing School Districts

10 Biggest Locations for Teaching Jobs

5 Insider Tips for a Successful Teaching Interview

Read more...

Supporting Social & Emotional Development

In the news:

Making Teacher/Student Communication Illegal

Gunman Holds NY Principal Hostage