- Posted by David on July 28, 2008
By WINNIE HU
MOUNT VERNON, N.Y. — Student athletes in maroon and gold uniforms filled their water coolers with more than $19,000 in donations last weekend by standing on street corners here to ask friends, neighbors and strangers alike to help revive the school district’s $1.1 million athletic program, which was eliminated last month in budget cuts.
On Long Island, a group of parents started a charitable corporation, Wantagh S O S (Save Our Students), to collect money for nearly 100 sports teams and extracurricular clubs that were dropped from the school district’s budget last month. The group has raised more than $334,000, about half of its goal, through dinner parties, car washes, a lacrosse tournament and a walk-a-thon at Jones Beach.
And come fall, middle school students in Dearborn, Mich., will have to settle for fewer games after every team’s season was cut by a quarter, or about two weeks, to save $130,000 annually on busing and coaching. The district trimmed the schedules after students and parents opposed its plan to replace the sports teams with an intramural program, in which students would not have competed against other schools.
As cash-strapped school districts across the nation scale back sports programs or try to pass on part or all of their costs to students and parents, some fear that the tradition of the scholar athlete is at risk. In Mount Vernon — where this year more than 700 students were expected to participate on 55 teams in basketball, football, volleyball, tennis, cross country, track, soccer, wrestling, swimming, baseball, softball, golf and cheerleading — many teachers and parents say that sports not only keep children coming to school but also keep them away from crime, drugs and gang activity.
“The field, the pool, the court are our classrooms, and the coaches are our teachers,” said Donna Pirro, an assistant principal who was the district’s athletic director until that title was eliminated along with the sports program. “Education through athletics should be taken seriously because it builds the kind of teamwork, self-discipline and social skills that our children need to succeed in any career they pursue.”
School officials here and elsewhere say they recognize the value of athletic programs, but have little choice as they face rising teacher salaries and mounting costs for benefits, special education classes and utility bills that are soaring with higher fuel prices and inflation. W. L. Sawyer, superintendent of the 10,046-student Mount Vernon district, said he was forced to choose between pre-kindergarten classes and sports after voters rejected the school budget twice this spring.
“There were a lot of other things that were cut before we got to the sports program,” he said, explaining that even though the district went from a $178.8 million budget last year to a $187.4 million contingency budget, it had to increase class size to 29 from 26 in the high school and lay off 100 employees, or about 6 percent of the district staff. The move away from athletics comes as many public schools, under pressure to increase standardized test scores, are also cutting back on physical education classes and shortening recess periods to free up time for test preparation.
Stewart Trost, an associate professor in the Department of Nutrition and Exercise Sciences at Oregon State University, said that while schools had a tradition of providing physical exercise that dated to the 1850s, less than 10 percent of the nation’s public schools now have daily physical education classes. “In a No Child Left Behind era, all nonmath, nonreading classes have been cut back,” he said.
But Professor Trost argued that “ensuring the health of children is part and parcel of the academic mission of schools in that you have to be healthy to learn,” citing studies showing that students who participate in a physical activity or sports perform better on standardized tests, and are less likely to smoke, use drugs, or engage in unprotected or promiscuous sex.
School officials do not dispute the benefits of sports, but instead emphasize that their primary responsibility is academics. Dr. Sawyer acknowledged that cutting athletics “leaves a tremendous hole” but pointed out that the district’s pre-kindergarten classes served 400 students, many of whom came from disadvantaged families.
“It’s a tough decision because we know cutting sports has an impact, but you have to consider what impacts the most children,” he said.
Similarly, Carl Bonuso, Wantagh’s superintendent, said that his priority was to maintain smaller class sizes — from 24 in the early elementary grades to up to 30 in the high school after the school budget failed to pass this spring for the first time in two decades.
His district’s $63.1 million contingency budget called for reducing the district’s staff of 400 by 5 teaching and 10 support positions, a number that most likely would have risen if the district had not also saved $650,000 by cutting 46 athletic teams and more than 50 activities, including orchestra and the drama and French clubs, said Dr. Bonuso, who agreed to freeze his salary, as well as those of two assistant superintendents and their secretaries.
But many parents contend that schools should also be required to fund sports and extracurricular activities. One parent, Don Desroches, said he was spending two hours a day on Wantagh S O S so that his son could play basketball and his daughter could join the orchestra and the chorus this fall, activities he considered crucial to building character and good citizenship.
“I feel like it’s a one-time effort, and we shouldn’t have to do this on a regular basis,” said Mr. Desroches, 46, who owns a company that runs soccer, basketball and baseball classes for children from ages 3 to 18. “I’m doing this now because it’s necessary, but it also takes a lot of time and effort.”
Across the country, schools have increasingly augmented tight budgets by charging students fees that can run to hundreds of dollars, a practice that is prohibited in New York State. The 17,600-student Dearborn district, in addition to shortening athletic seasons this year, also charges fees of up to $350 per family per year for students to participate in athletics and extracurricular activities.
This week, the 9,000-student Olympia district in Washington State raised its fees for middle school to $60 per sport from $40 to help cover a projected $2 million budget shortfall; the fees were introduced five years ago during another budget crisis. Three years ago, the high school diving teams were narrowly saved by a parent who covered the $4,600.
Similarly, at a Catholic high school in Somers, N.Y., freshman teams in basketball, baseball and volleyball were cut last week and then quickly reinstated after an anonymous benefactor donated $10,000.
Here in Mount Vernon, students and parents have raised more than $55,000 of the $950,000 district officials say is required to restore the athletic program (the district will pay insurance costs, bringing the total down from $1.1 million). The high-profile campaign has attracted the support of the mayor, Clinton I. Young Jr., as well as Ben Gordon of the Chicago Bulls, a 2001 graduate, who helped initiate fund-raising events, including a reggae concert and a cocktail reception with food donated by local restaurants.
But district officials say they need to have at least $300,000 in hand by Aug. 10 to start the fall season.
The uncertain future of Mount Vernon’s sports has been particularly hard on the boy’s basketball team, a perennial contender for state championships and a source of local pride. “They cut out part of my life,” said Mark Cole, 17, a senior, who continued to practice with his teammates this week in a sweltering gym with no air-conditioning. “Everybody needs sports for something, whether it’s dreaming of playing professionally or getting a scholarship to college or just staying off the streets.”
Jomo Belfor, 25, a teacher’s aide who graduated from the school in 2002, said playing basketball had given him stability and structure and “made me a totally different person.” Mr. Belfor, who played Division I basketball at James Madison University, said he could not understand how the district had failed to find the money for an athletic program that meant so much to so many.
“I just feel that everyone has expenses, and you have to budget for them,” he said. “Say you have $20 to spend at the supermarket, you’re going to buy necessities: milk, bread, and eggs. Basketball needs to be with the eggs because it affects your community.”
- Posted by David on July 25, 2008
By ARIELLE LEVIN BECKER
Courant Staff Writer
July 25, 2008
Portland's combination middle-high school was built big — so big that the district is considering renting out space in the building.
Based in part on the town's projections that the school's population would balloon to 1,070 by 2008, state taxpayers contributed $18.9 million to the $39 million building project.
But those projections were off, and the school has never enrolled more than 600 students. Because of that, the state Department of Education, which doles out construction money, asked for $4.6 million of the funding back last year.
Portland taxpayers avoided paying that bill, however. The state legislature passed a bill earlier this year allowing the town to keep the money.
Portland's case is an extreme example, but it isn't unique. When school districts overbuild, taxpayers get stuck with the tab.
Faulty enrollment projections led the state to overpay three districts for construction projects audited over the last two years. The state Department of Education initially sought money back. But in each case, state officials let the districts off the hook, leaving state taxpayers to pick up the tab of more than $6 million.
In other cases, school districts have sought state money for construction projects using enrollment projection methods that violate state law, according to a state auditor's report released last month. By potentially overestimating student enrollment, the auditor warned, districts could build schools that are larger than necessary — at a greater cost to build and operate — to state and local taxpayers than might otherwise be required.
Oops
The flawed projections happened for various reasons. Some districts projected enrollment for the entire school system rather than just the school, as state law requires. Others used 10-year projections, even though state law calls for state funding to be calculated using projections extending only eight years.Not every instance of inappropriate projections led to enrollment disparities big enough for the state to seek money back, but it did in West Hartford, New Haven and Portland.
West Hartford used a 10-year projection to estimate student enrollment for an expansion and renovation project at Conard High School, according to a state Department of Education audit. The figure overestimated enrollment by 80 students, leading the audit to recommend that West Hartford repay some of the money.
New Haven, meanwhile, didn't use any standard enrollment projection method when applying for funding for The Sound School, a $28 million aquaculture magnet school built entirely with state money.
Officials there decided how big they wanted the school to be, then determined how many students the space would accommodate, the Department of Education audit said. A 1994 proposal called for a 30,800-square-foot school for 185 students. By the time the school was built, the proposal had ballooned to a 68,600-square-foot school for 360 students.
But the school never enrolled more than 319 students in the projection's eight-year time frame, and a state Department of Education audit suggested that New Haven be docked $1.7 million.
In Portland's case, officials applying for state funding in 2001 initially estimated that student enrollment would peak at 780 within eight years, then changed the figure to 1,070 three months later.
State and Portland officials offer different explanations for how the figure was reached and who was responsible for it. School board Chairman Chris Hetrick said the state Department of Education recommended the change, which reflected estimates using housing starts. State Department of Education spokesman Tom Murphy said that's not the case.
Regardless, the school was built for nearly twice as many students as now use it. Some of the space has been used for special education, and officials have considered opening space in the school for outside educational groups to use for a fee.
Hetrick said the state should have stopped the project before construction if the figures were off, rather than letting it go forward and checking the numbers only after the school was built. But Murphy said it was the district's responsibility to use accurate figures.
The department audited the project after it was completed and recommended that Portland repay the state and taxpayers $4.6 million.
Off the Hook
That didn't happen.
In fact, the Portland, Conard and Sound school projects had one thing in common: When the districts were faced with repaying money the state said they overspent, state officials bailed them out.
In New Haven's case, state Education Commissioner Mark K. McQuillan let the city keep the money, citing the unique agriculture and aquaculture programs of the school, a regional magnet that can enroll students from outside New Haven.
West Hartford and Portland were saved by state lawmakers, who tacked amendments onto legislation that essentially forgave the money.
During the 2007 legislative session, West Hartford's potential debt to the state was washed away by a bill that allowed the Conard project to be funded based on a 10-year projection, in spite of a state law requiring eight-year-projections.
In this year's legislative session, meanwhile, as lawmakers grappled with a fiscal situation so tight that it had trouble finding $2.1 million to open a planned charter school in Hartford, Portland taxpayers got some relief. An amendment added to a bill absolved the town of repaying the $4.6 million the Department of Education said Portland was overpaid.
State Rep. James O'Rourke, who represents Portland and helped secure the money, said having to repay more than $4 million would have been devastating to the local budget and tax rate.
"It's a huge amount of money to the town," he said.
O'Rourke called the situation rare but justified. He noted that both the superintendent of schools and first selectwoman have taken office since the building project and were not responsible for the inaccurate enrollment figures. He also said the state Department of Education should monitor enrollment projections before approving funding for a construction project, rather than waiting for an audit once the school has been built, as the department's policy had been.
"You don't want school boards and superintendents to think they can just go out and do whatever they want," he said. "But I did believe that this was done in good faith, from what I could tell."
State Rep. Andrew M. Fleischmann, co-chairman of the education committee, said lawmakers determined that it made sense to help Portland because the school had already been built and the cost of repaying the money would have been a major problem for the town.
"It's a small town that was in a unique situation," he said. "It was pretty clear that they did not have the dollars to pay back."
Fleischmann, of West Hartford, said the Conard project represented a similar situation, where repaying money to the state would have posed a serious hardship to the town.
Fleischmann said towns and cities must be careful about making accurate enrollment projections and following proper procedures. But in cases when problems arise, he said, lawmakers can determine if exceptions are warranted.
"This notion of the legislature making exceptions, it's been going on as long as there's been a legislature," he said.
More Widespread
Even if relatively few school projects required infusions of cash, problematic enrollment projections may be more widespread, according to a state auditor's report.
The auditor found that at least half the school districts examined used inappropriate enrollment projection methods. Of 20 projects in 10 districts, five districts — Bridgeport, Colchester, Manchester, New Haven and Stafford — submitted enrollment numbers that reflected the entire school system, rather than specific schools, which the auditor said did not comply with the law.
Two others, Stamford and Bristol, failed to submit enough documentation to the auditor to determine how they reached their enrollment figures, according to the auditor's report.
Only three of the districts — Hartford, Groton and Middletown — appeared to be using enrollment projection figures that followed the law, state auditor Robert G. Jaekle said.
Such conflicts may be avoided in the future. In May, the state Department of Education stepped up its oversight on construction projects. School districts are now required to show documentation of eight-year enrollment projections when they submit grant applications, with proof that the projection was "the result of a bona fide projection process and subject to public review," David R. Wedge, the department's chief of school facilities, wrote in a memo to school officials.
The state audit urged the department to establish a clear set of guidelines for school districts and to review data districts submit before approving applications, rather than at the end of the projects.
"We find that's a little late in the game," Jaekle said. "The buildings have already been built."
Contact Arielle Levin Becker at
alevinbecker@courant.com.
Copyright © 2008, The Hartford Courant
- Posted by David on July 23, 2008
FROM THE CLEVELAND PLAIN DEALER on 7/22/2008
The school report cards came out in June.
Rocky River Middle School passed the 2008 Ohio Achievement Tests, earned an Excellent rating from the state and met the requirements for Annual Yearly Progress.
For all of those accomplishments, Principal David Root has only one thing to say to the students, staff and citizens of Rocky River:
He's sorry.
Root wants to issue an apology. He sent it to me typed out in two pages, single spaced.
He's sorry that he spent thousands of tax dollars on test materials, practice tests, postage and costs for test administration.
Sorry that his teachers spent less time teaching American history because most of the social studies test questions are about foreign countries.
Sorry that he didn't suspend a student for assaulting another because that student would have missed valuable test days.
Sorry he didn't strictly enforce attendance because all absences count against the school on the State Report Card.
He's sorry for pulling children away from art, music and gym, classes they love, so they could take test-taking strategies.
Sorry that he has to give a test where he can't clarify any questions, make any comments to help in understanding or share the results so students can actually learn from their mistakes.
Sorry that he kept students in school who became sick during the test because if they couldn't finish the test due to illness, the student automatically fails it.
Sorry that the integrity of his teachers is publicly tied to one test.
He apologized for losing eight days of instruction due to testing activities.
For making decisions on assemblies, field trips and musical performances based on how that time away from reading, math, social studies and writing will impact state test results.
For arranging for some students to be labeled "at risk" in front of their peers and put in small groups so the school would have a better chance of passing tests.
For making his focus as a principal no longer helping his staff teach students but helping them teach test indicators.
Root isn't anti-tests. He's all for tests that measure progress and help set teaching goals. But in his eyes, state achievement tests are designed for the media to show how schools rank against each other.
He's been a principal for 24 years, half of them at Rocky River Middle School, the rest in Hudson, Alliance and Zanesville. He loves working with 6th, 7th and 8th graders.
"I have a strong compassion for the puberty stricken," he joked.
His students, who are 11, 12, 13 and 14, worry that teachers they love will be let go based on how well they perform.
One asked him, "If I don't do well, will you fire my teacher?"
He cringed when he heard one say, "I really want to do well, but I'm not that smart."
He wants students to learn how to think, not take tests.
"We don't teach kids anymore," he said. "We teach test-taking skills. We all teach to the test. I long for the days when we used to teach kids."
Unless we get back to those days, principals and teachers all over Ohio will continue to spend your tax dollars to help students become the best test takers they can be.
- Posted by David on July 21, 2008
By Colin Fernandez
Last updated at 1:24 AM on 21st July 2008
Young people believe they are unhappier than ever before as crime, alcohol and drugs wreck their lives, according to a report.
Instead of enjoying their youth, many are in the depths of depression, the survey found.
They are under stress and terrified of being attacked in the street. Many have turned to drink and drugs in response.
Many young people are fearful of violent crime
The shockingly bleak picture of early adulthood emerged from a survey of 1,000 people in the 16-24 age group.
Four out of ten said they were unhappy with their lives, while nearly half of those aged 16 and 17 said they had suffered depression.
Some 55 per cent claimed they are more stressed now than ever before, one in three are less happy than they were a year ago, and almost two thirds - 63 per cent - said they think young people are more depressed than ever before.
More than a quarter, 28 per cent, said they 'wish they were someone else', and one in five said they had suffered problems from excessive drinking.
Girls were more likely to suffer depression than boys, the survey found.
Almost 50 per cent of 16-24 year olds know at least one person their age with mental health problems, and 56 per cent know at least one person their age with a drug addiction.
Camila Batmangelidjh, the founder of charity Kids Company, said: 'These findings are shocking.
'What young people need more than anything else is significant caring adults in their lives and fundamentally that's what's missing.
'Those with a strong family network have resilience and will manage in tougher social conditions.'
Psychologist Dr Dorothy Rowe said: 'Young people have always felt a great deal of angst, but at the moment they really don't know what the future is going to bring.
' In areas such as climate change, they fear what is going to happen to the world, and they are helpless.'
The study, by the music channel MTV, found that 24 per cent felt they could not talk to their parents about their concerns, eight per cent sought help in chat rooms and only six per cent have tried to obtain professional help.
Most teenagers were fearful about crime, with 78 per cent saying that they do not feel safe to walk the streets.
Around 20 per cent of males had been threatened with a knife or other weapon, 11 per cent had been urged to join a gang, 15 per cent felt pressured into carrying a weapon, and 27 per cent know at least one person who carries a weapon.
MTV released the survey as it launched MTVi, an online service offering support for young people.
Last year a UNICEF report found that Britain was ranked bottom in terms of child well-being across 21 industrialised countries.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1036855/The-misery-youth-Teenagers-depressed-fearful-drink-drugs-crime-toll.html#
- Posted by David on July 18, 2008
The College Board releases a positive report on the writing section, but many schools are doing their own studies.
By Stacy Teicher Khadaroo | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor
from the July 17, 2008 edition
For the past three years, when high school students have hit the SAT prep books, that's included a tuneup for a writing section. For colleges trying to predict student performance, the new test has been: (a) helpful, (b) not helpful, (c) both of the above, or d) don't know.
So far, many colleges are answering "d."
The College Board, which administers the SAT, is offering another answer this summer in a much-anticipated study. The report shows the writing section to be more predictive of a student's first-year grades in college than the math or critical reading sections. The board also noted in its study that combining the entire SAT with high school grades was an even stronger predictor of performance.
The board also touts the broader educational benefits of the writing segment. "Since the SAT added writing, high schools in this nation are focusing more on teaching writing," says Laurence Bunin, senior vice president for the SAT. "That's really important for students – for their readiness for college and success in college."
Many schools, though, have been conducting their own examinations of the writing section, rather than depending on the board's study. "For a lot of colleges, the jury is still out," says David Hawkins, director of public policy for the National Association for College Admission Counseling (NACAC) in Alexandria, Va.
Some observers criticize the writing test for not producing a larger boost in the overall value of the SAT as a predictor of performance. The new SAT is just a "longer and more expensive" version of the old one, notes Robert Schaeffer of the National Center for Fair and Open Testing (FairTest), an assessment reform group in Cambridge, Mass.
Some colleges' own studies give a thumbs up for the writing test. The University of Texas at Austin recently decided to count it in admissions decisions, and high scores will even earn credit for a freshman English course.
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University both require students to submit their scores on the SAT or ACT (a test run by a nonprofit of the same name, which offers an optional writing section). Their studies of the writing test will continue into the fall. But preliminary results at Harvard show the SAT writing test to be a good predictor of students' performance at college, says dean of admissions William Fitzsimmons.
That's not surprising, Mr. Fitzsimmons says, because the writing test has similarities to the SAT's Subject Tests, which are generally optional and assess knowledge in many academic areas such as biology and French. Harvard requires three Subject Test scores from applicants and finds those to be among the top predictors of performance.
Studies at the University of California found similar results years ago, and the UC system switched to a heavy emphasis on high school grades and SAT Subject Tests in 2001. UC played down the regular SAT partly because it had a negative impact on minority and low-income students' admissions eligibility.
The College Board added the writing section largely in response to such research. But critics say old, flawed ideas about testing IQ and the capacity to learn are still embedded in the SAT, despite its changes and its dropping of its former name, the Scholastic Aptitude Test.
"The new SAT is a test at war with itself," says Saul Geiser, a researcher at the Center for Studies in Higher Education at UC Berkeley, who conducted the UC studies.
Particularly in low-performing high schools, the main SAT sends a more daunting message, he says, because of its traditional association with aptitude. "There's a fear of appearing stupid.... Whereas with achievement tests, [a low score simply means] you haven't learned the material," he says.
A steady trickle of schools has gone the SAT-optional route. About 760 four-year schools have reduced their emphasis on the scores or made them optional, according to FairTest.
Some see playing down the SAT as part of their commitment to a fair playing field for low-income and minority students. For instance, Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, N.C., and Smith College in Northampton, Mass., both cited the correlation of high SAT scores with high family income when announcing their recent decisions to no longer require standardized admissions test scores.
Fourteen years ago, Susquehanna University in Selinsgrove, Pa., decided to let applicants send in a graded non-fiction writing sample from a class in lieu of SAT or ACT scores. The school wanted to "recruit more students who perhaps did well academically but didn't necessarily excel in standardized tests," says admissions director Chris Markle. About 15 percent of applicants choose "The Write Option," he says, and "we've found that the grades and graduation rates of those who applied with SATs were nearly identical to those who applied without them."
While liberal arts colleges may be well equipped to assess each applicant that closely, "larger universities really need this standardized tool [of the SAT] to deal with thousands of applications," says Mr. Bunin of the College Board. "The SAT is a fair national benchmark."
Peter Salins, former provost of the State University of New York and a professor at the Stony Brook campus, agrees. He says that from 1997 to 2001, SUNY campuses that increased selectivity, in part by requiring higher SAT scores, found their graduation rates rising significantly, while similar campuses that didn't boost their SAT profile saw much smaller gains.
Schools don't have to exclude anyone based on lower SAT scores, Mr. Salins says, but they can still use those scores to identify students who might need more help in certain areas.
A new independent study out of the University of Georgia Terry College of Business shows the SAT writing section predicts more than just first-year college grades, at least at large public institutions. For every 100 points more students scored on the 800-point writing test, first-year students gained .07 on a 4-point GPA scale; in English classes, they gained .18 on GPA; and they took .54 more credit hours (a full load is 12 to 15 hours). Researchers controlled for factors such as parents' income and level of education, a methodology that some observers say the College Board should have used in its study.