Brianna Boyd
Editor
For most of this past school year, Kathy Maurer’s personal mantra has been scribbled on the center of the whiteboard in her Maine Prairie High English classroom, a message she wants her teens to take with them both in school and their lives.
“Make Every Day Count – No Excuses.”
Bill Ferguson
Vacaville
There is an old saying, I think from the book Lamentations, “Those who live by the test, perish by the test.” And the perishing is very much with us.
The concept of testing has merits – tests for a driver’s licenses, tests for legal citizenship, tests for tattoo artists, tests to measure what you “picked up” while in school.
High school seniors throughout the greater Fairfield-Suisun City-Vacaville area will take that big step into their futures as a string of commencement ceremonies get going.
We saw a taste of what’s to come Thursday with commencement at Solano Community College. We gave the day a special touch by covering a kindergarten graduation ceremony at Vacaville Christian Schools. The pair of ceremonies served as bookends in terms of the age spectrum, a point-counterpoint, if you will.
The Oakland school board has called off plans to shutter its adult education programs, voting Wednesday to fund the programs for at least one more year.
The board’s unanimous vote allocates $1 million next year for the 142-year-old adult education program, the second-oldest and once the fifth-largest in the state. The program, now a shadow of its former self, became the poster child of the movement to save K-12 adult schools after the board voted earlier this year to stop funding the program. It was slated to end in June.
via As legislators debate adult ed proposal, Oakland reinstates its program – by Susan Frey.
With one in three U.S. children overweight or obese – and an even higher percentage of children in California – the Institute of Medicine is asking schools to step up and do more to keep children physically active throughout the day.
In a report released Thursday, the Institute called for schools to provide at least 60 minutes of physical activity for students a day, a regimen that could include before- and after-school activity and movement breaks in the classroom, as well as vigorous physical education classes. The Institute, an independent organization established as the health arm of the National Academies, also asked that physical education be deemed a core subject.
via Report: Schools must do more to keep kids active – by Jane Meredith Adams.
The teen pregnancy rate is at a record low, again, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Thursday. And the steady declines from 2007 to 2011 mark the most longest period in recent history for which the drop persevered.
The rate of births among girls ages 15 to 19 has been record-settingly low for the last few years, falling almost without exception since 1991. In the latest figures, the CDC said the overall rate dropped 25 percent since 2007, from 41.5 births per 1,000 teenagers to 31.3 births in 2011—and that’s about a 50 percent drop in the rate since 1991. The overall number of births also dropped to 329,797, a 26 percent decrease from 2007 to 2011.
Solano County businesses will receive 2013 Pre-Kindergarten Business Champion Awards at the May 29 Solano Economic Development Corporation breakfast event.
The First 5 Solano Commission, dedicated to supporting early childhood education and family support programs, will honor the private sector at the event.
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There was no mistaking the pride on Janeth Antonio’s face as she stood among hundreds of other Solano Community College graduates Thursday, each dressed in a cap and gown and excited about crossing the stage to receive their diplomas.
The Vallejo resident secured her degree while working and raising two young children, doing homework at night and never getting enough sleep, she said, as graduates assembled for the 2013 commencement on the Fairfield campus.
Every student deserves an effective teacher, one who is always seeking the very best ways to reach each student. While there has always been an onus on teachers to commit to improving, state and district leaders must also improve professional learning opportunities for teachers. Fortunately, as a state, we are beginning to take strides in this direction. In September, a task force convened by Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson’s office released “Greatness by Design.” This report proposes sweeping changes to the way teachers are recruited, trained, brought into the profession, mentored and evaluated.
via Evolving from professional development to professional learning – by Ellen Moir / commentary.
Breaking new ground in California, San Jose Unified has adopted an innovative teacher evaluation process that gives teachers a role in reviewing their peers and greatly revises the current – and some say outmoded – method of measuring teacher success.
The new system would deny automatic raises to unsatisfactory performers and give evaluators the option of adding another year to the probationary period for new teachers – a provision at odds with the state teachers union. Bucking a national trend, the new system will not use standardized test scores as a direct measure of performance.
via San Jose teachers, board adopt landmark teacher evaluation system – by John Fensterwald.
SUISUN CITY — Solano County is continuing its quest to get children out of cars and onto their feet for the daily trip to school.
Local cities and school districts have proposed about $6.6 million in engineering projects to make walking and biking to school safer. They’ve whittled this down to about $4.9 million in priority projects. But transportation officials expect only an estimated $2 million in grant funding to be available over the coming five years.
FAIRFIELD — The Travis School District Board of Trustees will meet Tuesday for a special meeting in closed session.
The board meets at 6 p.m. for the Public Employee Performance Evaluation for Superintendent Kate Wren Gavlak. That is the only item scheduled for the discussion.
FAIRFIELD — Sean Cowart, 21, was on a sure-fire path to some good-natured ribbing from his brother, the college graduate, Thursday after Solano Community College’s commencement.
Cowart and his parents, Ricky and Kimberly Cowart, walked through the college parking lot before the graduation, carrying a large colorful balloon bouquet while on the way to Doc Hollister Stadium to watch Marlon Cowart, 22, walk the walk across the makeshift stage to accept his diploma.
SCOE’s Youth Development Services department enjoyed a breakfast this morning with Jay Speck, Solano County Superintendent of Schools (third from right). The Youth Development Services team was randomly selected for the breakfast as part of the recent Employee Appreciation Week.
Youth Development Services is responsible for SCOE’s special events such as North Bay Regional Academic Decathlon, Educators of the Year, Solano Elementary Spelling Bee, the Student Art Faire and more.
Gov. Jerry Brown’s May state budget revision, a bleacher replacement contract, and elimination of some classified services are on the agenda when Dixon Unified leaders meet tonight in Dixon.
Cecile Nunley, the 3,500-student district’s chief business official, will lead discussion of the budget. A Democrat, Brown is proposing a $96 billion spending plan, most of which has been set aside for K-12 schools, community colleges and the state’s two university systems. He wants to spend more money on low-income schools, which means Dixon’s will benefit, since a majority of its students are considered low-income, based on the numbers receiving free or reduced-fee lunches, and English language learners. The state Legislature has until June 15 to approve a budget.
Register today for the Preschool-12 Common Core Innovision Summit! The two-day summit, on August 8 and 9, will provide you with strategies and understanding to impact student achievement.
More information: http://www.solanocoe.net/apps/events/2013/8/8/1445310/?id=0
via Register today for the Preschool-12 Common Core Innovision Summit! The two-day s….
The stakes where high Wednesday afternoon for physics students at Dixon High School: no year-end final if they could walk on water.
It was the 11th year the challenge was put before the nearly 100 juniors and seniors in physics and AP physics classes.
Outfitted with milk cartons, PVC pipe, soda bottles, paint cans, beach balls, storage bins and plenty of duct tape, 12 of the 21 contraptions were successful in their voyage to send a student “walking” from one side of the city pool to the 20-yard mark on the other side in less than two minutes.
California’s Teacher of the Year never considered a career in teaching, not as a child, not in high school and not in college – not even when she was accepted into Teach For America after graduating from Occidental College in 1999.
“To be perfectly candid, I was similar to other TFA teachers. I thought I would teach for two years and then leave teaching and go to grad school in who knows what,” laughed I’Asha Warfield in her office off the library at Frick Middle School in Oakland Unified School District, where she’s been an English teacher since TFA sent her there 13 years ago.
via Woman who never intended to teach now praised as California Teacher of the Year – by Kathryn Baron.
This Leona was not the Queen of Mean (Helmsley), but, by all accounts, the Queen of Joy, Compassion, Selflessness, Tolerance, Perseverance, Patience and Understanding.
After all, on Wednesday she wore a gold, bauble-studded crown, cocked impishly to one side on her gray-haired head, a lei, and sported a wide, winning smile. When 30 of Charmaine Lee’s kindergartners filed into the Browns Valley Elementary faculty lounge, it grew even wider.
via Browns Valley Elementary School honors former teacher’s 100th birthday.
The rates of autism for students of all races is on the increase, but students who are black, Hispanic, or American Indian are less likely to be identified with the disability compared to white and Asian students, according to a study published this month in The Journal of Special Education.
The study, “A Multiyear National Profile of Racial Disparity in Autism Identification,” compiled information collected by the federal government from 1998 to 2006 on the race and disability category of students in special education. Using that information, the researchers were able to calculate a “risk index,” or the percentage of all enrolled students from a racial group with a specific disability.
via Study: Minority Students Less Like to Be Identified With Autism.