School Science News for Kids

The $3.1 million agreement was reached in a special school board meeting Wednesday afternoon. District teachers ratified the agreement Aug. 19 with a 98 percent approval rate.

Most Putnam City teachers will receive a raise between $1,050 and $1,950, depending on experience, district spokesman Steve Lindley said in a news release.

The raise is essentially three years’ worth of raises in one year: A salary bump for the coming year along with money equal to raises not given the past two years, Lindley said.

Teachers beginning their first or second year of teaching will receive raises of $150 and $600, respectively.

In addition to raises, the district is creating a $160,000 pool of money to pay teachers who seek an extra day of professional training.

A third component of the agreement is an increase in extra assignment compensation. Teachers receive extra pay for serving as a department head, coach, yearbook or newspaper adviser, band or vocal music director, etc. Where possible, the new agreement increases extra assignment compensation to the median dollar figure for the same duties performed in other area school districts. For assignments for which there is no median figure, the increase was 8.5 percent, Lindley said.

Compensation for Putnam City support employees and administrators is under discussion, Lindley said.

The national economy and the state’s budget troubles in recent years have caused cutbacks in school districts across the state.

In Putnam City, the district reduced school budgets, furloughed or reduced the number support personnel in schools and changed high school schedules. Lindley said the changes have strengthened the district’s financial situation over the past three years.

The district’s fund balance — the money left over at the end of the fiscal year after all obligations have been paid — has increased to $16.3 million, the highest ever for the district. A higher fund balance puts the district on sounder financial footing to handle loss of federal stimulus funds and cuts in state funding, Lindley said.

School district Superintendent Paul Hurst said after the meeting, “All of our employees have worked hard to help the district improve its financial standing. They’ve done more with less. They’ve done without. Support employees even voluntarily took furlough days. We have a keen interest in recognizing sacrifices employees made in allowing the district to strengthen its financial position.”

Exercise can be as effective as a second medication for as many as half of depressed patients whose condition has not been cured by a single antidepressant medication.

UT Southwestern Medical Center scientists involved in the investigation, recently published in the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, found that both moderate and intense levels of daily exercise can work as well as administering a second antidepressant drug, which is often used when initial medications dont move patients to remission. The type of exercise needed, however, depends on the characteristics of patients, including their gender.

These findings are the result of a four-year study conducted by UT Southwesterns psychiatry department in conjunction with the Cooper Institute in Dallas. The National Institute of Mental Health-funded study, begun in 2003, is one of the first controlled investigations in the U.S. to suggest that adding a regular exercise routine, combined with targeted medications, actually can relieve fully the symptoms of major depressive disorder.

Many people who start on an antidepressant medication feel better after they begin treatment, but they still dont feel completely well or as good as they did before they became depressed, said Dr. Madhukar Trivedi, professor of psychiatry and the studys lead author. This study shows that exercise can be as effective as adding another medication. Many people would rather use exercise than add another drug, particularly as exercise has a proven positive effect on a persons overall health and well-being.

Study participants diagnosed with depression, who ranged in age from 18 to 70 and who had not remitted with treatment using a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor antidepressant medication, were divided into two groups. Each group received a different level of exercise intensity for 12 weeks. Sessions were supervised by trained staff at the Cooper Institute and augmented by home-based sessions.

Participants whose average depression length was seven years exercised on treadmills, cycle ergometers or both, kept an online diary of frequency and length of sessions, and wore a heart-rate monitor while exercising at home. They also met with a psychiatrist during the study.

By the end of the investigation, almost 30 percent of patients in both groups achieved full remission from their depression, and another 20 percent significant displayed improvement, based on standardized psychiatric measurements. Moderate exercise was more effective for women with a family history of mental illness, whereas intense exercise was more effective with women whose families did not have a history of the disease. For men, the higher rate of exercise was more effective regardless of other characteristics.

This is an important result in that we found that the type of exercise that is needed depends on specific characteristics of the patient, illustrating that treatments may need to be tailored to the individual, said Dr. Trivedi, director of the Mood Disorders Research Program and Clinic at UT Southwestern. It also points to a new direction in trying to determine factors that tell us which treatment may be the most effective.

Other researchers from UT Southwestern involved in the study were Dr. Tracy Greer, assistant professor of psychiatry; Dr. Thomas Carmody, assistant professor of clinical sciences and psychiatry; Dr. Prabha Sunderajan, clinical assistant professor of psychiatry; and Bruce Grannemann, faculty associate in psychiatry. Scientists from Louisiana State University, South Carolina State University, the American Psychological Association, Martindale Research Corp. and Klein Buendel Inc. also contributed.

In addition to NIMH funding, the study was supported by grants and awards from the National Alliance for Research on Schizophrenia and Depression, and the National Cancer Institute.

Just how common will the common core standardsbe this year? More common than you think (whether you’ve heard of them or not). Athough 44 states have committed to adopting to the new math and English language standards for kindergarten through 12^th grade, it’s been unclear exactly when these standards would affect what kids are actually learning.

But in some states the time is now. Last week, the Palm Beach Post reported: “Kindergarten is getting tougher this year.” Why? Because in many counties in Florida, the common core standards are being phased in this year – starting with kindergarten. Next year, it’ll be kindergarten and first grade, then kindergarten, first, and second in 2013, and so on.

Many kindergartners of my generation learned counting to 12 (thanksto Sesame Street -remember that song?), days of the week, colors, and following directions. But did we all count to 100? I’m pretty positive we didn’t add to 10, or fluently subtract within 5, either. Back then, that was for first grade. Now, according to the common core standards, it’s Kindergarten fare.

For education wonks, the common core standards are old hat. They’ve been debating the national grade-level math and language arts benchmarks for quite some time. But this year, many schools will begin using the standards as a guide for class curriculum. According to a report in today’s ASCD Smart Brief, 35 percent of teachers report getting professional development around the standards, 30 percent say they’ve aligned some of their previous standards with the common core, 20 percent don’t know where their school stands, 7 percent are looking for curricular tools to help teach the common core – and only about 7 percent are from states not adopting these standards. (See the six states and four territories that haven’t (yet) adopted the standards.) Basically, they’re here to stay.

For the past few months I’ve been working on a new tool for all those worried parents and educators who are going to be dealing with the new world order of common core: grade-based, common core standards-aligned worksheets! These free worksheets can be used at home to give your child a boost or in class to help teach tough concepts, such as visualizing addition for Kindergartners or converting measurements for fifth graders. On every worksheet download page, you can see which common core standards are practiced and reinforced. Try them, share them, and please let me know what you think!

I’d love to get real feedback and incorporate your ideas into our next batch of worksheets, which will be coming soon. If you want to share your input with everyone, please comment here. Or if you’d prefer, you can . Thank you and enjoy!

Odds are you have heard that there is a huge demand for medical billing and coding professionals and it can be a very rewarding profession with a large amount of competition. Why is this such a high demand field and what is their reasoning behind vying for a position in a hospital or doctor’s office?  Below are some reasons why people make the decision to go into the medical billing and coding field.

1. The field is continuing to grow

The generation of “baby boomers” is aging and this causes the medical care field to increase their services to accommodate the increase in demand. When it comes to job outlook, according to the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics the field is expected to grow steadily approximately 20 percent or higher.

2. They find that the medical billing and coding field is not only lucrative but engaging.

The billing and coding field covers a wide range of interesting subject matter. Students find that they will learn basic medical care to medical terms and acronyms. You are also able to learn about some of the following:

• Payroll
• How to file a claim with health insurance carriers
• How to read medical charts
• Customer service

You will also learn how to interact with patients and how to answer their questions effectively and you will have better insight in hot button topics.

3.       The salary is good and there is room to grow.

The pay for this job is very good but it can vary depending on where the job is located since salary tends to be higher in large cities than in rural areas. Educational background also plays a factor in how much you are able to make especially when it comes to medical coders who need to be proficient in various areas of the coding field. Those that are entering into the field in an entry level the salary can generally range $25k-$35k and with some continued education courses you could find your salary grow to well over $40k. Some can see the fact that the increase in demand will mean that it will limit their choices of finding a work environment when this is not the case. The growth mentioned above means that you will have your choice of work environment. Some even make the decision to work from their home office. This is an option that many choose if they have children or they are saving on gas by not driving back and forth from work.

As she progressed in her career, she became a lecturer, and developed a belief that if parents better understood how to raise their children, their education would be greatly helped. She established the Parents’ Educational Union to teach parents more about their children’s needs. She then went on to write several books, which are still available and are used by educators all over the world for the methods and ideas they teach. Her basic premise for approaching education was that children are people, and should be treated with the same respect as we treat adults. She didn’t believe in talking down to children, but wanted them to study from books with substance and to have meaningful experiences in the world around them.

She said, “Provide a child with what he needs in the way of instruction, opportunity, and wholesome occupation, and his character will take care of itself: for normal children are persons of good will, with honest desires toward right thinking and right living. All we can do further is to help a child to get rid of some hindrance–a bad temper, for example–likely to spoil his life.”

Despite the fact that Charlotte suffered from ill health, she never faltered in her commitment to reform education, and that commitment is why we still follow so many of her principles today.

Memphis City Schools Board of Education members Stephanie Gatewood (middle) and Patrice Robinson (right) listen as fellow board member Kenneth T. Whalum Jr. lashes out at the City Council during a meeting Tuesday where the board approved a funding deal with the city.

The Memphis school board unanimously approved a payment plan from the city Tuesday night that means schools can open on time.

However, the undercurrent was clear: If the city departs one bit from the board’s expectations, all bets are off.

But if the council meets the criteria outlined by the school board Tuesday, students will return to schools as scheduled on Aug. 8.

Memphis Mayor A C Wharton, reached by phone after the meeting, sounded a hopeful tone.

“I am sure the council will follow through with its commitment. I will follow through with my commitment,” Wharton said.

“The most important thing is getting the children back in school and getting the teachers back in school,” the mayor said. “The rest are all peripheral matters that we can work out later.”

The first test will come Tuesday, when the City Council is set to approve the district’s budget. If it does not, schools will remain closed, board members said.

Under the payment plan, nearly 80 percent of the city’s contribution will be in the schools’ bank account by early October, in time to cover startup expenses for the year and tiding the district over until the state’s roughly $450 million begins to flow in later that month.

For the last two years, the city’s contribution trickled in through fall and winter, with the bulk arriving in late spring, creating cash-flow problems for the schools.

Under the terms of the proposal, the city must also appropriate the funds and agree that the payment schedule is binding.

“What we have before us now is something we did not have last week,” said board president Martavius Jones, who tore up one agreement and negotiated another last week with Wharton an hour before the mayor was to present it to the City Council Education Committee.

“We will receive a majority of our funding in the first few months of the fiscal year,” Jones said, asking the board members to approve the deal and reminding them that their willingness to issue last week’s ultimatum gave the board bargaining power.

“We do have a payment plan in place. We do have a calendar for school to start as originally scheduled, pending the action in this resolution,” Jones said.

For the school board, which has grappled for three years over money with the City Council, the vote was a leap of faith, taken tentatively.

The solace for school board member Kenneth Whalum is that the first payment of $12 million is due Aug. 5, three days before school is set to start, he said.

“If the amount is not deposited in our account, school does not open. The date makes me so happy and is the only reason I would be willing to support this,” said Whalum, adding over and over that he did not trust the council and doubted it would pay.

“God forbid, the City Council does not adhere to our proposal. What happens if in fact their meeting is (Aug. 2) and they decide not to approve our budget?” Whalum asked.

Answered school board attorney Dorsey Hopson: “If they do not approve our budget, this board is not going to open schools on Aug. 8.”

“I think if you go back to how we got here … every dollar is earmarked,” Hopson said to the argument that the city’s contribution is only 10 percent of the school budget. “…The way this proposal is phrased, if the conditions are not met, school will not open.”

If the teachers start work on Monday as scheduled and there is no deal, Hopson said they will be paid for the hours they have in until the contract resumes.

The biggest financial problem for the schools now may be that the council is legally required to pay only $68.4 million for the coming year. That is a drop from the $78.2 million in the school budget because the district last week learned enrollment had dropped 2,500 last year.

The city has indicated it will pay the lesser amount, which means $10 million must still be cut.

Board members, responding to the e-mails they were getting from constituents during the meeting, needed assurance that athletics, arts and optional programs are safe.

Memphis City Schools Supt. Kriner Cash, absent from the meeting, told board members via speaker phone he would have to cut the budget or make up the difference with reserve funds.

Board’s criteria for school to start Aug. 8: