This post is from from my other blog here

...is reviewed at Loudoun County Gateway...check it out!

This post is from from my other blog here

..but all of you with 3rd-graders, and their teachers, already knew this.

So, the Substitute of the day is introduced to the classroom, with the following instructions...

1) "Here's a walkie talkie, so you can contact us at the front office immediately, and we'll come running, if/when there's a problem"

2) "Here's 2 pages of per-pupil behavior notes and guidelines, i.e. Susie can't sit next to Jimmy, Fred has to go the office every hour, Johnnie needs to be reminded not to throw his sn*ts at his classmates, ....etc..."

3) "Don't turn your back on the scissors bin, and count them all frequently, make sure none are missing".

4) "Don't leave your purse unattended".

Wow - this surely supports the observation of a past LCPS teacher we know, who only lasted a year before leaving the 3rd grade because she "couldn't ever get any teaching done, with all the time spent on class management and disciplinary/babysitting activities".

What's the fix, within the county budget, Virginia Laws and tolerance of the School Board?

Too expensive: smaller classes, another teacher, more differentiation, full-on multimedia learning adventures, guest speakers and field trips...?

Politically incorrect: more discipline, quicker/more frequent sending of children home, the "dunce" cap, hard labor (remember cleaning the erasers?)...?

Won't-happen-without-some-amazing-community-leadership: more parent discipline regarding school behavior at home, better-attended and managed PTA with empowere volunteer force, more frequent commuity-administration forums, more active online and offline collaboration.....?

It seems the answer lies really with some extraordinary parent involvement, with extraordinary outreach on the part of the Principals AND School Board Administration - with "hyperlocal" focus (vs. "County-Wide"). Perhaps the School Board should be expanded, with a community rep for EVERY school - sort of like a "School Parliament"....with a stipend! There's bound to be more like-minded Parents out there just itching to engage, but needing a more stimulating and accountable forum than the PTA or this Blog...

This post is from from my other blog here

It seems that the reluctance of LCPS to expand "gifted" programs or otherwise differentiate students as early as possible in Elementary School is a long-standing denial or reluctance on the part of the Board of Education, compounded by secretive and very individual decisions made by Principals with questionable theories and statistics....here's a Q/A from 2001 to Edgar P. Hatrick:

---------------
Ashburn, VA: Dr. Hatrick:

"My son is in Futura (the gifted and talented program for grades 4 and 5 in Loudoun County) and loves the one day a week when his curriculum is challenging and engaging. How can LCPS expand the regular curriculum for gifted students so that he and other gifted students also look forward to the other four days in the week?"

Edgar B. Hatrick III: "We hope that all of our classes are challenging, but often students who are identified as gifted find FUTURA to be the extra challenge we intended. I think it's important for us to work with students to help them find ways they can challenge themselves every day through enrichment activities. You might want to talk to your child's FUTURA teacher to get some ideas. "
-------------------

We "hope" all of our classes are challenging? (answer: they're not). "Often" students find FUTURA challenging? (what about when they don't?). Talk with your child's FUTURA teacher? (what about the other teachers?).

It doesn't appear things have improved much, in the past 6 years, with regards to opportunities for "Gifted" children. In fact, things are sliding backwards so quickly down here in Dulles South (at Little River), the "FUTURA" program will likely need to be renamed "NOFUTURAINAGOODCOLLEGA".

This post is from from my other blog here

Getting on the soapbox a little....

Here at our Dulles South area Elementary School, the decision has been made solely by the Principal to not allow differentiated math for 2nd grade. Having collected feedback from many teachers and parents, in addition to the Principal herself, it appears the decision is primarily based on a desire to avoid excessive traffic in the hallways. (OK, it's not just that, but it basically boils down to a decision between additional mayhem between classes, and the ability of teachers to differentiate within their classes). It also appears that the decision of this kind is in fact purely at the discretion of the individual Principal.

A representative teacher is understood to have expressed her response (not leaving us with much confidence in the decision-making process) saying (paraphrased) "well, if you want to know why we don't have differentiated math, ask the Principal. I'm also curious to hear what she says."

Now we've had differentiated math for several years, and it's worked really well in our opinion. The range of capability among 2nd-graders is vast - from those who cannot add 5 to 5 and get 10, to those who are fairly comfortable tackling 4th or even 5th grade concepts. This practice makes total sense, has worked well, and without it leaves 2nd grade teachers basically in the lurch (having to try to differentiate 5 or 6 levels within a classroom). It also completely disenfranchises the most gifted students (but doesn't, as the law requires, disenfranchise those most in need of help to catch up).

Differentiated Math works EXTREMELY well at local Private schools.

This kind of decision should NOT be left to an individual Principal. What do the rest of you Teachers think?

This post is from from my other blog here

Searching through Google listings for one of our favorite keyphrases "loudoun business", I ran across this website for Ideal Schools.

It appears to be a new private high school the founder is trying to establish in Ashburn - $20K tuition, 50 students per grade, very flexible curriculum, business-like academic setting. Kindof like opening a high school in your office building, it seems.

Here's the pitch: "This will be the ideal high school for students who are not sufficiently challenged, engaged or inspired by traditional high schools."

Sounds intriguing, but obviously lots more to work out and examine. I'm really not surprised at all by this, and frankly, more will likely crop up in the coming years...

This post is from from my other blog here

(Me) "How's School going?"
(7th-Grader) "OK, kindof hard"
(Me) "Oh, probably hard to figure out the new school?" (having moved in recently)
(7th) "Yeah - it's hard to get my mind around some of this new stuff, that I didn't do before"
(Me) "Is your teacher helpful?"
(7th) "Well, she said I should already know all this, from my last school, so she won't help me with the hard parts - it's hard to figure out"
(Me) ??? She won't help?
(7th) "No, I should know this already".

Nice welcome to LCPS Middle School. How about a bit more of the "welcome wagon" mentality, helping new kids catch up (hard to believe) and immerse.

This post is from from my other blog here

(From WashingtonTechnology.com)

The Virginia Education Department and the Virginia Information Technologies Agency will be seeking a contractor to provide a student information system for the state’s public schools. A request for proposals is expected in November.

The winning contractor must provide a scalable, user-friendly system that adheres to the technical specifications of the schools’ interoperability framework. Components must address attendance, registration and enrollment, grading and transcripts, scheduling, test management, and parent access.

...Remember the Pearson testing system flub-up earlier this year? This should help, and the timing would ostensibly line up for initial capability release by next school year. We volunteer to help with "usability and performance testing" for the "parent access" piece!

This post is from from my other blog here

Extract from this week's online conversation between Edgar Hatrick (LCPS Superintendent) and the general public, on WAPO's Loudoun Extra....

Here's our question -

---start----
South Riding, Va.: Is Loudoun County committed to "Math Investigations," or is there some flexibility on a per teacher basis with respect to how math is taught? I'm unable to find ANY positive feedback, from parents or teachers, on the Internet regarding this method of teaching. Is there any evidence this curriculum is benefiting Loudoun County students? Last year's SOL scores show a lot of drops.

Edgar B. Hatrick III: We are evaluating the use of math investigations along with other means of providing the best math instruction we can for our students. We also realize that one size may not fit all needs.
----end----

OK, we'd like to help you in your evaluations. Just let us know how we can. But not like in our last post.

This post is from from my other blog here

We haven’t to date been really critical or focused about a particular issue regarding LCPS, but today we’ve got a beef – that pretty much impacts all Parents in our opinion.

In our ongoing quest to keep up with school development and policies regarding curriculum, we’ve certainly tried to be involved, informed and work with our children’s teachers as much as possible – while acknowledging the constraints and pressures we’re all under. Most of the time, the schools have been quite helpful, reaching out and involving us in curriculum decisions (either at the school or classroom level.) Recently, however, the school system has come up egregiously short in their public objectives to be more inclusive, with respect to parent input.

Last year, our local elementary school did reach out (during a sparsely-attended PTA meeting) to involve parents in reviewing improvements regarding math curriculum, as part of the LCPS “School Improvement Program” (SIP) process. They offered participation in parent-teacher meetings with the Math Teachers….I volunteered to attend, with 1 other parent.

Several meetings since then were apparently scheduled, though with invitations sent less than 24 hours before the mid-afternoon sessions, and in one case, an hour before the actual meeting. “We will be holding a brief meeting today to go over everything we’ve talked about over the past months…”

Obviously, it would be extremely difficult for anyone to actually receive, respond and make arrangements for childcare or business meetings to attend the meeting. In fact, no parents have been attending these meetings. This past week, a similar short-turnaround message was sent….I responded by asking whether the meetings could be scheduled with more than a 24 hour lead-time. The curt reply was entirely unsatisfactory, accompanied by a document that listed all the various math strategies (to be applied to all math classes) that had been under discussion and were to be implemented, ostensibly with parent input.

I can guarantee there’s been no reasonable parent input, furthermore, the document contained quite a bit of material that would definitely have been better presented in a series of parent/teacher meetings. Things we don’t know anything about, like “Sunshine Math”, or “Mountain Math”, or “Math Early Bird”. Here’s the full list:

- Math Early Bird
- Definition Flash Cards
- Clearly Stated Objectives
- Manipulatives
- Benchmark Tests
- Beginning of the Year Assessments
- Pre-tests
- Mountain Math
- SOL Blitz
- Math Remediation
- SME
- Music and Math
- Literature Connection
- Art Connection
- Writing in Math
- Visual Reminders (posters)
- Games (centers)
- Math Word Wall
- Interactive Notebooks
- Cooperative Groups
- KWL (in pairs)
- Portfolio’s
- Enrichment Corner
- Math Challenges
- Sunshine Math

Note this post is NOT about whether these are good things, but about the lack of outreach and reasonable community inclusion.

Is there a large moving train here, that can’t be stopped? Is this the experience others have with their schools? Will the Board of Education address this fairly significant lapse in outreach, if it's widespread?

This post is from from my other blog here

Tonight's Math Homework (for LCPS 2nd-graders)....

"5 + ? = 10"
"Use counters and Workmat 2 if you need to."


Surveying the closest available representative students:

- From the 4th-Grader - "5"
- From the 2nd-Grader - "(whine)...5"
- From the Kindergartner - "5, of course"
- From the 3-almost-4 year old (after consulting her fingers)..."another 5!".

...Draw your own conclusions, but I think we need to step up the pace here in 2nd grade, no "investigations" necessary...

This post is from from my other blog here

Recently got back from the Loudoun Business Expo at the Dulles Town Center, where I received a little flyer touting "Live Homework Help!" from the Loudoun County Public Libraries. Who knew?

This seemingly great and needed service isn't advertised very much, the little flyer didn't really give a good direct URL or phone number, the actual program is buried in the LCPL website under the "Education and Careers" (for 4th-12th graders?) database section, and use of the site's search engine to find this service doesn't work. Then when you try to find out more about it, you can't, unless you've got a current Library Card number.

Perhaps this is what's called a "soft-launch", i.e. start the program, but don't tell too many people, for fear of over-running the service and outstripping the resources?

Here's an offer to LCPL - we can, very quickly and comprehensively, provide comprehensive Internet exposure and advertising about this program for free, for LCPL (through our Internet Marketing services, at KME Internet Marketing. So when you search for something like "Loudoun Homework Help" in Google, you get right to the service. Just let us know!

This post is from from my other blog here

In today's WAPO Loudoun section, an article about the new President (Sandy Sullivan) of the Loudoun Education Association brings up the issue of too much time spent by teachers in meetings. Sandy asks "...what does a teacher's work day really entail. What's the beginning? What's the end?"

This is a pretty sensitive and provacative topic. As a parent, you (should) definitely want your child's Teacher living and breathing education for your child nearly 24x7. As a Teacher, you're likely bound by conflicting needs, constraints, collective bargaining guidelines, desires and actual role desriptions and pay scales. As a LCPS administrator, it's a business, and you'd probably want as much measurable performance as possible out of your "staff", which is obviously constrained by the budgets (i.e. pay, benefits, resources, facilities and expectations Teachers are provided). For everyone, the context of teaching is necessarily a duty, from both a public service and social perspective, as well as a simple humanist one. Teachers are probably only second to public safety and emergency healthcare providers in the amount of expectations and responsibilities levied upon them by the majority of the community population, within a hugely resource-constrained environments.

That being said, role creation and description for various Teacher assignments can be done, both within general guidelines and down to specific jobs. In achieving consensus and modifying policy regarding the "work day" for LCPS teachers (as LEA is driving towards), here's some input from us:

- collect more input from Parents and children regarding teacher performance, to better inform the advancement and compensation processes

- organize, foster and manage the volunteer corps more effectively (many volunteer parents can do quite a bit more than make copies or stuff folders)

- aggregate and outsource the core lesson planning and material creation, across the county - there's probably so much redundancy in creating and documenting the basic lesson plan frameworks across all teachers, this could be outsourced efffectively to a lower-cost business provider...obviously the "custom elements" or those parts of the lesson plan that are individual to the teacher, class or student aren't included

- electronify a bit smarter - sure, we're slowly moving to less paper across the school systems, but the system could use a big leap with an "enterprise class" electronic document management system for staff and administrators...this would include a decent review of teacher information management needs and issues, for example, how much time is spent in aggregate across the county each day by Teachers looking for material on the Intranet, or on the web?

- outsource and aggregate "standard" post-school day communication - i.e., if parents or students need fairly routine assistance or help with assignments or otherwise, establish a "tiered" self-help mechanism with some centralization (i.e. a person or two who get most of the calls/emails - like a call center), this would likely reduce the amount of after-school or during-school time most teachers take in duplicative correspondence, and likely improve the overall communication turaround metrics.

- teacher "work days" - just a personal observation that this needs to be examined a bit more closely, what purpose does it really serve that can't be accommodated with smarter management of the school and summer professional schedules? (I'm on a limb with this one, so be gentle!)

Those are just some suggestions - this should be an interesting consensus-building dialogue, under LEA's moderation.

This post is from from my other blog here

According to results just posted on the Great Schools website, SOL results between last year (2006) and this year (2007) have slipped fairly substantially - for Little River Elementary's grades 3-4 (grade 5 appears to have actually increased some).

Negative Changes from 2006 to 2007

Grade 3
- English Reading from 93% to 88%
- Science from 97% to 96%
- Math from 96% to 94%

Grade 4
- English Reading from 99% to 96%
- Math from 99% to 89% (!)

A quick check on some other schools around the area showed similar negative trends, especially 4th grade Math. What's up with 4th grade Math?

This post is from from my other blog here

This Fall's election campaigns are in full swing - House District 67 covers South Eastern Loudoun County including South Riding, and Marc Cadin's been blanketing the area along with Chuck Caputo (incumbent). Marc's latest is a rundown of all the things he'd do as a Former Teacher, making sure we "adopt policies in Richmond which actually help our kids to learn and thrive in the classroom".

Here's the rundown of his ideas, and our brief comments -

1) "Provide resources to attract and retain the best teachers" - does this mean higher salaries, more benefits or some kinds of cost-of-living breaks?

2) "Smaller class sizes to give our kids the attention they deserve" - how would this happen in Loudoun's overcrowded Elementary schools, they've already run out of room, and the population continues to grow.

3) "Get more money back from Richmond so that our kids are not forced to go to school in trailers" - would the money actually go towards new schools, or new construction?

4) "Focus on the fundamentals of reading, mathematics and science" - we'd like to understand how this "focus" will be achieved; aren't these topics the majority of instruction per day already?

5) "Improve our curriculum to focus on children's unique learning style" - does this imply changes to actual course content, or variations in course difficulty?

6) "Keep our kids safe at school by cracking down on gangs with guns and drug dealers" - this is all well and good, but where exactly are the schools that have gun and drug problems in District 27?

Marc - let us know.