Friday Churn: Wrong track?
– A new report says U.S. education reforms are out of sync with what’s occurring in higher-performing countries and are unlikely to produce major improvements.The report, from the National Center on Education and the Economy, sets out an agenda for improving American schools based on efforts undertaken in those countries whose students score the highest on international assessments.
Among the steps: less frequent standardized testing and a greater emphasis on the professionalization of teaching.
“We’ve been unwilling to pay teachers at the level of engineers,” Marc Tucker, NCEE president, told Education Week will keep Jefferson County’s outdoor lab program open through 2011-12, district officials announced Thursday.
Closing the program, a popular rite of passage for Jeffco sixth-graders since the early 1960s, was part of a budget reduction package announced by the state’s largest school district in March.
But supporters of the Mt. Evans and Windy Peak Outdoor Lab schools, where students spend a week immersed in environmental education, rallied to raise dollars to keep it going. They set a June 15 deadline to raise $600,000.
Thursday, Jeffco officials said more than $625,000 had been raised – about half from community efforts, including an anonymous donor’s gift of $99,000, and the rest from matching district funds.
“As a result of conservative spending on the part of district departments during the 2010-11 budget year, Jeffco had $1.2 million in surplus funds,” district officials said in a news release. “Members of the Board of Education directed that $450,000 of that money be put toward the Outdoor Lab schools in matching funds.”
Students fees also will increase next year, from $199 per student to $300, to help support the program.
for the first time posted school and district improvement plans online, as required by the Education Accountability Act of 2009. You can access the plans via this SchoolView tool .
“We strongly encourage parents and community members statewide to explore these plans and learn more,” new education Commissioner Robert Hammond states in the news release. “Every school is unique and has its own story to tell.”
EdNews , which has written at length on the new school and district ratings required under the accountability act, checked out several improvement plans using the nifty data tool, focusing on those schools and districts rated “turnaround” – the lowest in the state.
Cheltenham School District - News
The two-acre plot is part of the former campus of Temple University's Tyler School of Art, which is up for sale. "I feel like we're trying to preserve a piece of history in a historic district," said Williams, 59, acting president of the La Mott
Four Cheltenham High School students spent two weeks making phone calls, talking to friends on Facebook and talking to other students to get them to attend the June 14 school board meeting for the vote on next year's district budget.
Montgomery County Board of Assessment Appeals, Cheltenham Township, Cheltenham Township School District, Montgomery County and Montgomery County Board of Commissioners. BEFORE: JUBELIRER, Judge; BROBSON, Judge and FRIEDMAN, Senior Judge.
Closing the program, a popular rite of passage for Jeffco sixth-graders since the early 1960s, was part of a budget reduction package announced by the state's largest school district in March. But supporters of the Mt. Evans and Windy Peak Outdoor Lab
But in 1980, when Mr Fairbanks' wife decided to start a netball competition at the then Cheltenham Heights Primary School, he was recruited to help. “I knew nothing about netball but I knew about sporting competition so started helping out,” he said.
School District to Hold June 15 'Roundtable' on Facilities and ...
The Cheltenham School District announced Monday it would hold a public discussion on plans to restructure grades and consolidate and close facilities, which could begin to take effect as soon the 2012-2013 school year.
The concept first surfaced at an April 5 school board committee meeting on facilities when Superintendent Darlene Davis introduced it primarily as a means of saving money in a stringent multi-year budgetary environment, but one which, she said, could also have positive educational impacts for students.
In her letter dated June 6 to the school district community, Davis issued an invitation “for our first in a series of roundtable discussions” on building consolidation and grade reconfiguration. In the invitation, Davis also asked that members of the community post comments and questions on the issue on the district’s website . According to Susan O’Grady, the district’s communications and development director, the postings will be an important resource for planning the specifics of the June 15 meeting. At this point, there is no word on who will speak, how the meeting will be structured and how the concerns of the public will be incorporated into the discussion.
There are four posts at the new blogspace so far. One praises the current K-4 and 5-6 (EP) structure; another questions whether start-times could be delayed at the high school, in keeping with recent research on the sleep cycles of adolescents; a third asks whether Wyncote students would be reassigned en masse, or whether boundaries for school assignments will also change; and the fourth praises the proposed changes, while asking about the timetable and suggesting detailed planning for this kind of complex undertaking.
In Davis’s April presentation, “Possible Reconfiguration of Grades/Buildings Consolidation,” she outlined a structural grade change from the current configuration of K-4 schools with Elkins Park holding grades 5-6 and Cedarbrook serving grades 7-8. The new design would have all elementary schools ultimately serving grades K-5, eliminating the 5-6 program at Elkins Park, and having grade 6 housed in a “sixth grade center” as an addition to Cedarbrook Middle School.
According to the plan floated in April, Wyncote students would move to the freed-up space at Elkins Park Elementary, where central administration would also be housed, allowing for the closing of the Administration building on Ashbourne Road and the Wycote elementary building on Rices Mill Road, both of which would be likely leased or sold.
****make that cheltenham school district
Cheltenham is really not in suburban school district smhCheltenham School District - Bookshelf
School facilities plan 1978, an element of the Montgomery County comprehensive plan
CHELTENHAM SCHOOL DISTRICT Present Adequacy of Facilities Acreage. Five of the ten Cheltenham schools have site acreages below the minimum standards set by ...Individuals with disabilities education law report
All of the elementary schools (kindergarten through fourth grade) in the Cheltenham School District, including Wyncote Elementary School, ...Atlantic reporter
Bill by George W. Long, individually and on behalf of all other taxpayers of the School District of Cheltenham Township, against the School District of ...Cheltenham Township
It was rented to the Cheltenham School District, which bought it in 1870. In 1878 the township purchased a lot at the northwest corner of Sycamore and ...Pennsylvania county court reports, containing cases decided in the courts of the several counties of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania
Municipal law — Power of school district to borrow money — Computation of amount . The total assessed value of property in Cheltenham school district was ...Perfect Information Directory
School District of Cheltenham Township
Includes links to schools.
School District of Cheltenham Township
Calendars. District Calendar. High School Calendar. Cedarbrook Calendar ... School District of Cheltenham Township. 2000 Ashbourne Road. Elkins Park, PA 19027. 215-886 ...
Cheltenham Township, Pennsylvania - Official Website
Cheltenham Township, Pennsylvania Official Website ... School District. Transportation. Youth Athletics. Business Directory. Commerical Recycling. Demographics. Main Street Program ...
Cheltenham Township School District | Elkins Park, PA ...
Cheltenham Township School District school information and rankings. Find district spending per pupil and dropout rates and compare Cheltenham Township ...
School District of Cheltenham Township
Cheltenham Cuts Costs. CLASP/Childcare. Directions. Email Access. Email Listserv Signup ... 30. June - 2011. School District of Cheltenham Township. 2000 Ashbourne ...