School Science News for Kids

The Historica-Dominion Institute is challenging young Canadians across the country to express their views on some important issues facing Canadians today. Using the articles on the Great Questions of Canada website, students are asked to write an essay on one of the six Great Questions debate topics. Each winning entry (one English, one French) will receive a $1,500 cash prize, have their essay published on the website and win a trip to Ottawa for the award ceremonies in 2011.

Contest deadline is June 30, 2011. For more information please visit The Great Questions Essay Competition  

Rebecca Levison, president of the Portland teachers union, is upset about a district memo that unilaterally mandates that high schools switch to a new schedule. Union leaders had been collaborating with the district to help teachers learn about the change and how it might work in their school. “I am so angry,” she said.As recently as last week, Portland School District leaders said their plan to switch high school schedules from seven periods to eight would be carried out with flexibility. Each faculty would decide whether to make the switch, and students would not necessarily be prevented from taking a full class schedule.

But the district abruptly changed course this week. In a memo from district labor relations director Brock Logan, leaders mandated that every high school adopt the eight-period schedule and limit most students to seven classes.

Leaders of the Portland teachers union said they are furious that the district blindsided them and increased teachers’ workload without their consent. They say it represents an illegal breach of the teacher contract.

Some parents also expressed disappointment that the district torpedoed a new spirit of cooperation with the union and significantly cut back teaching time available to high school students without public discussion.

“To limit the amount of classes that students can take is essentially shortening the school year” but in a way invisible to the public, said Caroline Fenn, parent of a Lincoln High student and president of the Portland chapter of Stand for Children. “My gut is that they didn’t think this through fully.”

Zeke Smith, chief of staff to Superintendent Carole Smith, said principals all were directed to switch to eight periods because they needed certainty to create teacher and student schedules for next year. The memo was issued the same day that principals were told how many teachers they will have on staff in the fall.

“We believe that PAT leadership understood we needed to provide guidance to our principals on how to schedule by  April 26,” he said. 

In early March, the school district and union announced they had agreed, without rancor, on a two-year teacher contract. Both hailed a new spirit of respect and cooperation. A key money-saving element: The union agreed that the district would fund high schools as if teachers were teaching six of eight classes, rather than five of seven as they do now.

By having each teacher do more work, the district could cut 44 positions and save $4 million, they said. Teachers would get to vote on a schedule change in their building, union leaders said; but if they didn’t agree to six classes, class sizes would be huge, district officials said.

That was then. This week’s memo says, “All district high schools will observe a schedule of teachers teaching 6 of 8 alternating block.”

An eight-period schedule, with four 90-minute courses on alternating days, is the most common in Portland-area high schools. But in Portland, only Roosevelt High and one Marshall High academy use that approach.

Rebecca Levison, president of the Portland Association of Teachers, said she was baffled and angered by the memo because union leaders were working with the district to help teachers learn about how the new schedule might work in their school.

“Some of our members were really interested and felt it could be good for kids. … But to order a wholesale change at every single high school.” The change, she said, “doesn’t feel like good faith. It makes even talking to them hard.”

“They are trying to make it so they can do whatever they want,” said John Berkey, a consultant on the union’s staff. “We have told them 20 times that they do not have the authority to do this.”

The union quickly advised members not to cooperate. Levison said leaders are deciding how to stop what they say is a contract violation.

Offering students only seven classes that meet 90 minutes every other day would violate state rules that require high schools to offer students 990 hours of instruction time. A student would get 66 fewer hours of class time than one taking seven classes this year — the equivalent of three weeks less time in class and substantially less than 990 hours.

But Portland could get around that by offering a study hall led by a teacher’s aide. State rules say schools can count “instructionally related activities involving students directly,” said Cindy Hunt, legal affairs director for the Oregon Department of Education. Recess and lunch can’t count, but study hall can, she said. School districts are allowed to fall short on instruction time for two school years before they lose state funding, Hunt said.

District leaders haven’t said whether they will offer all students study halls or who would supervise them.

Lincoln High Principal Peyton Chapman said principals are grateful the district mandated the change. Now they can make schedules and figure out which teachers to retain, plus still offer a full range of choices, she said.

“It’s hard that cuts are coming at the high school level, but it’s a budget crisis,” Chapman said.

Parents, though, are concerned about students wandering off during schedule lapses, she said.

Fenn, the Lincoln parent, agreed. “Ninety minutes unsupervised for a freshman? I just don’t see how that has a happy ending,” she said. “To me it feels like they have just let this happen without actually articulating how it will work”

More than 700 students, teachers and service-program participants from across the state will gather tomorrow (April 28) at the State Capitol in Jefferson City for the 15th annual Missouri Service Day.

This celebration will recognize Missourians who participate in AmeriCorps and Learn and Serve America, two grant-based programs under the federal Corporation for National and Community Service, as well as other school-based service-learning programs. School-based service-learning combines meaningful service to the community with classroom studies in a way that improves student learning and strengthens the community. Students work in collaboration with community members, teachers and classmates to meet real community needs while applying core concepts from the classroom curriculum.

Several students who participate in service-learning will be honored for their efforts with the Inspire by Example Service-Learning Award. This year’s recipients are:

• Tanner Olson, Hannah Roney, Hannah Stotts, Samantha Stover, Levi Terrel and Taisia Zeger (Chillicothe Middle School, Chillicothe School District)
• Antonia Middle School Character Council Service-Learning Committee (Fox School District)
• Molly Buasri (CODE Program, Hickman Mills School District)
• Justin Beasley, Fashion Bittick, Denise Hodges, Devaney Houston, Heather Kelley, Trent Knowles, Brett Lyke, Sarah Maire, Benjamin McGrail, Kendra Smith and Geena Wickers (Jefferson City Academic Center, Jefferson City School District)
• Grant Hastings (Point Elementary School, Mehlville School District)
• Mrs. Poe’s and Miss Thompson’s third grade classes (Heber Hunt Elementary School, Sedalia School District)
• Maunika Harper, Katelin Knox, Tyler Root and Shy Tackett (Whittier Alternative High School, Sedalia School District)
• Dessira Barrett, Jessica Barrett, Taylor Engleman, Kayla Gjerde, Paige Highley, Dustin Isom, Jordan Jennings, Matt Lauramore, Danna Lyons and Jordan McAdams (Bailey Alternative High School, Springfield School District)
• Allyse Pagano (Troy Ninth Grade Center, Troy School District)
• Jeremy Conley, Brittany Counterman, Dylan Hanke and Linda Lingle (Troy Buchanan High School, Troy School District)

The Inspire by Example awards will be presented at noon on the Capitol’s south lawn and are sponsored by the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, the Learn and Serve Missouri office and the Missouri Service-Learning Advisory Council. (In the event of rain, activities will take place at the Truman Building in Room 490/2.)

Yesterday after signing HB 21 (Teach for America), Governor Kasich invited Ohio’s teachers to offer input into the evaluation framework (SB 5) that will be used to determine compensation based on merit.
The Columbus Dispatch reports:

“There are teachers in the state who are concerned about the criteria,” Kasich said. “I want to make sure that teachers across the state know that if they want to participate in establishing this criteria, we want to invite them to be a part of this process.

“They can contact the governor’s office. They can start there, and send an email. … I look forward to it. And even if there are several hundred that want to participate, we’ll sit them down and walk them through this.”

According to Senate Bill 5, which limits collective bargaining for all public employees, the state superintendent is to submit to the state Board of Education by April 20, 2012, a framework for judging a teacher’s performance, based at least 50 percent on student academic growth.

Even without the governor’s invitation, there would have ample opportunity for input from teachers and pretty much anyone else. The State Board is required to use a process that includes public hearings, and a web-based comment period.

I predict lots of “input.”

NASHVILLE — House Republican leaders have backed away from an earlier stand that teachers be allowed to continue collective bargaining on base salaries and benefits, clearing the way for total repeal of bargaining between teachers and school boards.

The Tennessee Education Association, which represents 52,000 of the state’s 65,000 public classroom teachers, plans to continue lobbying House members before Tuesday’s key committee vote in hopes of a last-ditch compromise. But TEA spokesman Jerry Winters said teacher morale “is horrible” and warned that if the negotiations law is repealed, “we’re going to make sure that they go before these school boards and wear them out on some of these issues.”

The Senate will likely approve the repeal bill Monday, after deferring its planned vote Thursday to give members time to review another new amendment by the bill’s sponsor. Minutes later, House Speaker Beth Harwell endorsed the Senate version, which she said resulted from talks with House Republican leaders.

“I think we have a good amendment and will be ready to start moving in the House next week,” said Harwell, R-Nashville.

The amendment and the bill by Sen. Jack Johnson, R-Franklin, repeals Tennessee’s Education Professional Negotiations Act of 1978, which established collective bargaining rights for teachers. When a majority of local teachers vote to engage in bargaining, as those in 92 of the 136 school districts do, school boards must meet them at the negotiating table to hammer out joint agreements on salaries, benefits and a range of workplace issues.

The Senate has advanced the bill totally repealing the 1978 law, but the House Education Committee last month approved a different version that maintained collective bargaining on base salaries and some benefits and work conditions.

But it allowed school boards to unilaterally enact merit and differential pay plans without teacher approval. Those substantial provisions sought by Gov. Bill Haslam and others will operate in tandem with a newly passed law weakening teacher tenure and one approved last year that bases half of teachers’ annual job evaluations on student performance measures.

Senate Republicans stood firm on an outright repeal. To gain House support, Johnson added a provision that requires school boards to create policy manuals detailing salary, benefit and work conditions. His amendment creates a formal process for teacher input into the policy manuals, but leaves their final approval and decisions fully up to the boards.

“The amendment defines a process of collaboration between school boards and teachers and does ultimately leave all authority for policies and decisions with the school boards, which is where I believe it should be,” Johnson said Thursday.

After the Senate floor vote Monday night, the House Finance Committee, which has a 16-8 GOP majority, will consider the bill Tuesday.

Harwell said she believes the Senate version “provides them (teachers) more input than they’ve ever had in the past.”

But Margaret Box, a kindergarten teacher at Cordova Elementary, said, “Teachers wouldn’t have any real input. It sounds like we would return to the day when superintendents and local boards did what they wanted to without any teacher input.

“It’s real disappointing to hear that this is the kind of compromise that was offered in the House. There is no avenue for teachers to speak with a collective voice.”

A federal court of appeals ruled in favor of the Forest Grove School District on Wednesday, absolving the district from footing the bill for a former student’s private school education.

The ruling in Forest Grove School District v. T.A. (the former student) was the fifth court ruling in a case dating back to 2003 that has reached as far as the U.S. Supreme Court.

It stems from April 2003, when the student’s parents filed a complaint against Forest Grove, claiming the district had not fulfilled its legal obligation under the Individuals With Disabilities Education Act to provide the student with specialized education.

Because the student was a minor, his name is not used and he is identified as T.A. in court documents.

The two sides wrangled over whether the T.A.’s family should be reimbursed for the $5,200-per-month tuition at Mount Bachelor, a private residential program near Prineville.  
The case began in Oregon’s federal district court, then moved through the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and to the U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled 6-3 in favor T.A.’s parents and sent the case back to the district court for further review.

The district court favored the school district, but T.A.’s parents appealed that decision.

Wednesday’s 2-1 decision by a panel of judges asserts that the district court was correct in ruling that T.A.’s parents enrolled him in Mount Bachelor because of drug and alcohol problems — not because of special learning needs.

Therefore, Judge Carlos T. Bea wrote in his majority opinion, “the district did not abuse its discretion when it determined T.A.’s parents enrolled him at Mount Bachelor for non-educational reasons.”  

The ruling absolves Forest Grove from paying the $65,000 tuition bill, as well as nearly $500,000 in attorney fees for T.A.’s family. The district is not off the hook, however, for nearly $200,000 in its own legal fees.

“The feeling is certainly some relief, and hopefully it can be over,” Forest Grove Assistant Superintendent Dave Willard said of the court’s ruling.

It remains to be seen whether T.A.’s attorney, Mary Broadhurst, will appeal Wednesday’s ruling. She could ask for a rehearing before the entire 26-member 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, or petition for a second hearing before the U.S. Supreme Court, said Andrea Hungerford, an attorney representing the school district.

Broadhurst could not be reached for comment Wednesday afternoon.

Although Forest Grove School District v. T.A. gained national attention for its potential impact on school districts nationwide, Hungerford said the latest ruling is unlikely to set a precedent.

“It’s honed down so far now that this case, this final decision, is not that significant,” she said. “Essentially, what the majority is saying is, we are just the appeals court, the district court gets to make the big factual determinations and we’re not going to mess with the district court’s decision.”
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