What's Going On?

IPS B.S. is a little tapped out on things to write about this morning so it's turning the blog over to you. What's happening in your school that's good, bad or just a low down dirty shame?

Pants on the Ground

From yesterday's Indianapolis Star

A 14-year-old high school student who wouldn't pull up his pants was arrested Tuesday after taking a swing at a police officer. Indianapolis Public School Police Officer Dawn Austin had asked the John Marshall High School student to pull up his pants and tuck in his shirt but the student ignored her and kept walking. The boy also ignored the vice-principal and a teacher who also asked him to stop and tuck in his shirt, according to an IPS police report.

At the end of the hallway, Officer Damon Boyd tried to make the boy stop. When the student refused, he told him he would be arrested. The student struggled with Boyd and knocked him against a locker. Austin tried to put handcuffs on the boy and he started swinging at her, with the dangling handcuffs hitting her in the hand, according to the report.

After officers subdued the boy, he was charged with resisting law enforcement, battery of a police officer and disorderly conduct. Boyd tore his shirt and injured his left hand and left shoulder. Austin hurt her right hand. Both officers went to a medical clinic. The boy was sent to the Marion County Arrestee Processing Center.

Reading is Fundamental

IPS B.S. won't annoy you with the story of Gene White's 3% raise when we have to make budget cuts, but instead will ask what is the best way to get 3rd graders to read so there's no need to hold them back a year?

Ain't That A B*****!!!

Although IPS is $33 million in the hole, the District is going to go ahead and give pay raises to its top administrators.

Read more here!

Express your outrage below!

Paging Dr. White

Have you ever wondered how Dr. White became Dr. White? Here is an abstract of his dissertation from Ball State.


FUND RAISING PROCEDURES AND PRACTICES IN PUBLIC HIGH SCHOOLS OF INDIANA AS REPORTED BY PRINCIPALS

WHITE, EUGENE GORDON. Proquest Dissertations And Theses 1982. Section 0013, Part 0514 114 pages; [Educat.D. dissertation].United States -- Indiana: Ball State University; 1982. Publication Number: AAT 8215986.

The purpose of the study was to investigate and report what representatives of Indiana public high schools have been doing in the areas of fund raising procedures and practices utilized in student extra curricular fund raising activities. A review of related literature was conducted to ascertain research and findings in the area.

A questionnaire was developed and field tested through a pilot study sample. The study population consisted of 355 Indiana public high school principals.

Principals returned 316 of 355 survey questionnaires. Data obtained from questionnaires were analyzed, summarized, and presented in narrative form. Tables were developed to report the raw data.

Major findings were: (1) Indiana Law prescribes the financial procedures to be followed in accounting for student activity funds through the utilization of the "Extra Curricular Account." (2) Principals are responsible for establishing policy and procedures for fund raising activities in seventy-four percent of responding schools. (3) Fifty-four percent of participating Indiana public high schools do not have an official school board policy governing fund raising activities throughout the school corporation. (4) Ninety-nine percent of responding Indiana public high school student bodies conduct fund raising activities within the school community. (5) Principals reported approximately $6,386,494 dollars raised through fund raising activities conducted in participating Indiana public high schools during school year 1980-81. (6) Candy sales are the most common fund raising activities utilized by students to raise funds.

Major conclusions based upon the findings of the study were: (1) Public high school officials in Indiana need fund raising activities to support and maintain student extra curricular activities at the current level of implementation. (2) Principals are primarily responsible for direction and supervision of fund raising activities in the high schools. (3) High school fund raising programs tend to exploit school communities and cause patrons to complain. (4) School administrators should re-evaluate fund raising activities and determine the feasibility of each activity. (5) General school board policies governing fund raising activities conducted by schools are needed.

Socially Promoted

The Indiana Senate is hearing a bill tomorrow that would ban social promotion for third graders who aren't up to proper reading levels. What do you think?

Hiring Freeze?

There's an alleged hiring freeze at IPS. Have you seen any new hires lately?

Big Loss

Anyone who wants reform in IPS needs to step up to the plate. Kelly Bentley and Mike Cohen are not running for re-election. They would always ask tough questions and not kiss Dr. White's butt. Who's going to step up to the plate?

Stopping in the Name of the Law

IPS B.S. got an e-mail last night that the Central Office is going to eliminate the district's police force as a way to save money. Do you think this is a good idea?

We Told You So

IPS B.S. told you this was coming. Twenty-two teachers have been taken out the classroom for not controlling their students or mastering the material. There's no doubt we have some bad apples in our bunch, but this can also be a reason to get rid of "troublemakers who challenge authority." Watch your back, your front and your side.

Tuning In vs. Dropping Out

The new data is out on graduation rates . IPS overall went from 47.2 to 48.6 %. Individual high schools numbers are below...

• Arlington - 48 % to 59.7 %.

• Arsenal - 44% to 46.5 %.
• Broad Ripple - 60.1 % to 59 %.
• Manual - 39.3 % to 44.4 %.
  
• Northwest - 45.5 % to 49.6 %.
  
• Key Learning - 82.8 % to 94.7 %.
• Thomas Carr Howe - 52.5 to 58.3 %.
  
• George Washington - 49.3 % to 47 %.
  

What do you think is the best way to address the dropout problem and improve graduation rates?

Alert!

There is a fire over the Arlington gym this morning. Hopefully, no one is hurt and the kids are all safe.

Need a Good Laugh

Listen to this interview Dr. White gave to District Leader's Podcast. If you can understand a word he says, try to keep a straight face. If you read between the lines he's talking about laying off teachers rather than his overpaid administrators.

Is It Time to Reinvent Ourselves?

Welcome back. We heard this story on NPR over the weekend and thought it might make for some good discussion.

********

America's teachers' colleges are facing some pressure to reinvent themselves.

Larry Abramson/NPR

Education Secretary Arne Duncan has been leading the assault, with a series of speeches calling for better teacher training. Duncan says it's crucial that education schools revamp their curricula so they can help replace a wave of baby boomers who will soon retire from teaching.

One university is trying to rebuild its teacher-training program from the ground up.

At the University of Michigan School of Education, Dean Deborah Ball and her faculty have taken apart their training program and reassembled it, trying to figure out what skills teachers really need.

Katie Westin, a senior at the University of Michigan and a student teacher, says that when she compares notes with teachers-in-training at other schools, it's clear that her program is more hands-on.

"We expect people to be reliably able to carry out that work. We don't seem to have that same level of expectation or requirement around teaching," Ball says.

Teacher Education Initiative

The program overhaul — an ongoing process that began five years ago — is called the Teacher Education Initiative. It will cut the number of classes students must take, and it will turn time in the classroom into an experience that is tightly focused on problem solving.

"Image the difference between learning about child development, which is unquestionably helpful, and learning how to have a sensible interaction with a child, which permits you to know exactly what's going wrong right now with that child's reading, or why is this error occurring over and over again in math. That's actually being able to do something with that knowledge," Ball says.

The program stresses what teachers have to do, not simply what they have to know.

Professor Robert Bain says that when the effort is finished, the education program will no longer be a series of courses students have to take, "but rather a program that's building on these experiences, much like most professional schools, like a good med school or law school."

The university has also picked up an idea from medical school: rounds.

You can see the idea in action at North Middle School in Belleville, Mich. Teacher Steve Hudock is talking to four University of Michigan student teachers before seventh and eighth graders arrive for a class on comparative religion.

This is one of several schools these budding teachers will visit as they learn to analyze various teaching problems in different settings. Here, it's how to deal with students in small groups.

Bain says that before class, he demonstrated how the teachers-in-training might approach this challenge.

"What their job is, is to practice the experience with actual students, but then also look to see how Mr. Hudock, a skilled teacher, does the exact same sorts of things," Bain says.

Student teacher Katie Westin says that when she compares notes with teaching students in other programs, she notices a big difference.

"We take on more of an interactive role, I think, than some of the other programs do, because we actually lead lessons, and we get to work with the students in group activities."

Hands-On Training

Once the religion class is over, the group sits down with Hudock and talks about what worked and what didn't.

Hudock says this is a lot different than the student-teaching experience he had 15 years ago.

Background Checks

Andy Gammill has a good story this morning in the Star on state efforts to make sure school districts can't keep records secret when a teacher has committed misconduct. Here's an excerpt.

Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Bennett, state Rep. Brian Bosma, R-Indianapolis, and state Sen. James Merritt, R-Indianapolis, plan to propose requiring that districts disclose disciplinary problems during reference checks and ban the practice of creating shadow personnel files to hide reports of problems.

They also want to require districts to alert the state to "gray area" cases in which a district thinks a teacher acted inappropriately but opted against trying to dismiss the educator because of fears it could not prove misconduct.

"We have a duty both morally and legally to make sure our teachers in this state are of the highest caliber," Bennett said.

State investigators can review cases or detect patterns only when they know about problematic behavior, he said.

The state teachers union and school boards association said they had not yet seen a proposal but that they support the general principles Bennett outlined.

They did, however, raise concerns that new rules could create complicated situations for school districts or overrule carefully negotiated union contracts.

If you are a teacher and have violated the trust of your students, you should be fired, plain and simple. You are entitled to due process, but once you've had fair and impartial adjudication, you need to go and school districts should not be hiding you.

Cadre Conundrum

Happy New Year. Here's today's question. Have the cadres done any good or are we just delaying the inevitable when it comes to laying off teachers, especially since the stimulus money that made them possible runs out in 18 months.