| Newpapers; 11/17/06 | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: Nov 17 2006, 08:20 AM (284 Views) | |
| NFarquharson | Nov 17 2006, 08:20 AM Post #1 |
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Principal
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http://www.detroitnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/a...19/1026/SCHOOLS Friday, November 17, 2006 Kevin P. Casey / New York Times Math tests with high scores are put on display at the Mercer Island Kumon tutoring center on Mercer Island, Wash. Kumon, which has a global clientele of more than 4 million children in 43 countries, focuses on drilling children on basics. Math goes back to basics Lagging test scores prompt change in teaching strategy Tamar Lewin / New York Times Petter Burrows, 13, works on a math drill at the Mercer Island Kumon tutoring center. Grass-roots groups in many cities are agitating for a return to basics. Many point to California's standards as a good model. See full image SEATTLE -- For the second time in a generation, education officials are rethinking the teaching of math in American schools. The changes are being driven by students' lagging performance on international tests and mathematicians' warnings that more than a decade "reform" math -- critics call it "fuzzy" -- has crippled students with its downplaying of basic drills and memorization in favor of allowing children to find their own ways to solve problems. At the same time, parental unease has prompted even more families to pay for outside tutoring. Shalimar Backman, who put pressure on officials here by starting a parents group, Where's the Math?, remembers the moment she became concerned. "When my oldest child, an A+ stellar student, was in sixth grade, I realized he had no idea, no idea at all, how to do long division, so I went to school and talked to the teacher, who said, 'We don't teach long division; it stifles their creativity.' " Across the nation, the reconsideration of what should be taught and how has been accelerated by a report in September by the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, the nation's leading group of math teachers. It was a report from this same group in 1989 that influenced a generation of teachers to let children explore their own solutions to problems, write and draw pictures about math and use tools like the calculator alongside of learning algorithms. But this fall, the group changed course, recommending a tighter focus on basic math skills and an end to "mile wide, inch deep" standards that force schools to teach dozens of math topics in each grade. Grass-roots groups in many cities are agitating for a return to basics. Many point to California's standards as a good model: The state adopted reform math in the early 1990s but largely rejected it near the end of the decade, a turnaround that led to rising math achievement. "The Seattle level of concern about math may be unusual, but there's now an enormous amount of discomfort about fuzzy math on the East Coast, in Maine, Massachusetts and Pennsylvania, and now New Jersey is starting to make noise," said R. James Milgram, a math professor at Stanford University. "There's increasing understanding that the math situation in the United States is a complete disaster." Many parents and teachers remain committed to a goal of reform math: having children understand what they are doing rather than simply memorizing and parroting answers. Traditional math instruction did not work for most students, say reform math proponents like Dr. Virginia Warfield, a professor at the University of Washington. "It produces people who hate math, who can't connect the math they are doing with anything in their lives," Warfield said. "That's why we have so many parents who see their children having trouble with math and say, 'Honey, don't worry. I never could do math either." ' But even many of those who admire the goals of reform math want their children to have more drills. "My mother is a high school math tutor, and her joke is that this math is what's kept her in business," said Marcy Berejka, who each week takes Ben, 8, and Dana, 6, to Kumon, a Japan-based tutoring center with more than a dozen franchises in the Seattle area. "There's a lot that's good in the new curriculum, but if you don't memorize the basic math facts, it gets harder as math gets more complicated." The state's superintendent of public instruction, Terry Bergeson, a longtime supporter of reform math, said in a recent interview: "I came through the reading wars years ago, and now we're right in the middle of that with mathematics. It comes back to balance. "Of course you need to know your math facts, but you also have to understand what you're doing. "The whole country has been in denial about mathematics, and now we're sort of at a second Sputnik moment." In part, the math wars have grown out of a struggle between professional mathematicians, who say too many American students never master basic math skills, and math educators, who say children who construct their own problem-solving strategies retain their math skills better than those who just memorize the algorithm that produces the correct answer. The battle has left many parents frustrated, confused and not sure if they should trust their children's schools to give them the skills they need. Many have already voted with their feet, enrolling their children in math tutoring. Rep. Glenn Anderson, a Republican member of the state House education committee who has fought for a more rigorous curriculum, said state data showed that Washington residents spent $149 million on tutoring and other education support services in 2004, more than three times the $44 million they spent 10 years earlier. Kumon, which has a global clientele of more than 4 million children in 43 countries, focuses on drilling children on basics. Every week for five years, Tove Burrows has taken her son, Petter, 13, to the Kumon Center in Mercer Island to turn in the worksheets he has done at home, sit down to some new drills and pick up a new set of assignments for the week ahead. "If the math curriculum in the schools were different, I would not be doing Kumon," said Burrows, whose son is an A student at Islander Middle School. _________________________________________ http://www.detroitnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/a.../611170342/1003 Friday, November 17, 2006 Around Metro Detroit: Capitol Report Cervical cancer vaccination bill goes before House Gary Heinlein / Detroit News Lansing Bureau LANSING -- Lawmakers are preparing for a House vote on legislation to require vaccinations for sixth-grade girls against a virus linked to cervical cancer. A two-bill package that already has passed the state Senate would make Michigan the first state to require inoculations against the human papilloma virus, which is sexually transmitted. About 70,000 girls would receive the shots in the 2008-09 school year. The legislation is part of a national effort to reduce the number of cases of cervical cancer. The new vaccine protects against two strains of the virus that cause 70 percent of cervical cancer cases. On Tuesday, the House Health Policy Committee sent the main bill to the House floor. The committee chairman, Republican Rep. Ed Gaffney of Grosse Pointe, said he plans to gain committee approval of the companion bill right after lawmakers return from a Thanksgiving recess on Nov. 28. The goal is to send the bills to Gov. Jennifer Granholm for her signature before Christmas. "This is a remarkable breakthrough," Gaffney said. "I can't imagine too many people voting against it." Immunization requires a series of three shots costing an average of $360, according to the Senate Fiscal Agency. Most girls would be covered by private health insurance or the Medicaid program for low-income families. The Michigan Medical Society and Michigan Nurses Association support the legislation, but some parents and conservative lawmakers have raised concerns. Rep. Dave Robertson, R-Grand Blanc, a House committee member, said some parents dislike the idea that they'd be forced to have a conversation about sex with girls who are 9-11 years old. A state official said the vaccine is more effective when given to younger children. Rep. John Stahl, R-North Branch, who isn't on the committee, argued that incidence of the disease doesn't warrant a state-wide immunization program and that parents should be allowed to choose whether the shots are appropriate for their daughters. Health officials said there were 399 new Michigan cases of the disease and 104 deaths from it in 2003, the most recent year for which it had complete statistics. There are 10,000 new cases per year in the United States. For school children, state law already requires vaccinations against polio, hepatitis B, diphtheria, whooping cough, tetanus, measles, mumps and rubella. The state allows parents to opt out of the requirements for medical, religious or philosophical reasons. You can reach Gary Heinlein at (313) 222-2470 or gheinlein@detnews.com. ______________________________________________ http://www.detroitnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/a...41/1006/METRO01 Friday, November 17, 2006 Garden City school board members avoid recall Group seeking to oust five school board members over privatization deal fails to get necessary number of signatures. Darren A. Nichols / The Detroit News Just short A recall group needed to 2,200 signatures to move forward. Here's what city officials say was collected. Patrick McNally: 2,109 Patricia Ruhland: 2,140 John Thackaberry: 2,164 Dave Stapleton: 2,126 Brian Nowka: 2,115 Source: Garden City clerk GARDEN CITY -- A recall group trying to oust five school board members has fallen short of the amount of signatures needed to put the measure before voters. City officials said Thursday the recall group failed to get the 2,200 signatures to place the measure on the ballot. The final amount still needs to be verified by the Wayne County clerk's office. Still, recall leader Rick Smith says he won't stop with this apparent defeat. "We're going to protest it," Smith said. "We're not going to give up. What they did was wrong." The recall group targeted five of the seven board members because of a controversial move this year to eliminate a total of 33 custodial and food service jobs to save $2.1 million over three years. Workers picketed in protest and a court fight ensued after the district inked a three-year, $1.5 million contract with a private company. "Hopefully this will be the end of it and we don't have to worry about an additional expense to the district. This was a decision based on the finances of the school district," said school board member Patrick McNally, who was targeted in the campaign. For now, Garden City avoids a recall that plagued nearby communities such as Livonia and St. Clair Shores' Lakeview following unpopular cost-saving measures. Those efforts prompted elections this year, but failed. "If people have a problem with a decision the school board has made, they should run for the board," Superintendent Rick Witkowski said. You can reach Darren A. Nichols at (734) 462-2190 or dnichols@detnews.com. ______________________________________________________ http://www.detroitnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/a.../611170347/1006 Friday, November 17, 2006 Wayne County briefs Northville Pay freeze is OK'd for school administrators The Northville Board of Education Tuesday approved a pay freeze for the district's top five administrators that will save about $17,000 this year, according to John Street, business services director. Administrators usually receive annual pay increases of 2-3 percent, but this year volunteered to forgo them. Plymouth School district is fourth-largest in state Plymouth-Canton Community Schools surpassed Flint to become the fourth-largest district in the state in 2005-06, according to the latest update from the state Center for Educational Statistics. The recently released count showed Plymouth-Canton with 18,388 students, trailing Detroit (131,568), Utica (29,562) and Grand Rapids (20,518). Garden City Five school board members escape recall A recall group trying to oust five school board members has fallen short of the amount of signatures needed to put the measure before voters. City officials said Thursday the recall group failed to get the 2,200 signatures to place the measure on the ballot. The final amount still needs to be verified by the Wayne County clerk's office. Still, recall leader Rick Smith says he won't stop with this apparent defeat. The group targeted five of the seven board members because of a controversial move to eliminate 33 custodial and food service jobs to save $2.1 million over three years to cut costs. _____________________________________________ http://www.detroitnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/a...46/1009/METRO02 Friday, November 17, 2006 Kelsey Travis, 16, of Huntington Woods leaves Royal Oak. She says kids know right from wrong. "It's not the parents' fault." Parents could be fined for their kids' mistakes Royal Oak to vote on parental liability law Jennifer Chambers / The Detroit News Robin Buckson / The Detroit News Resident Benjamin Ward, 30, walks with his son Weston Ward, 2, Wednesday in Royal Oak. Ward says he supports the proposed parental responsibility law, on which the City Commission will vote Nov. 20. See full image ROYAL OAK -- This year school liaison officer Ann Marie Gasiorek mailed a letter to parents of all Royal Oak High School students describing what kind of trouble their child could get into if he or she broke the law. The letter was an attempt to remind grown-ups that rules do exist on matters such as curfews, skateboarding and alcohol. Yet, Gasiorek, a Royal Oak police officer, still encounters parents who think it's OK to let their teen drink alcohol at home or smoke pot. "The biggest problem I have is parents aren't parenting. They want to be their kid's best friend," Gasiorek said. A recent resurgence of heroin use among teens in Royal Oak and a subsequent increase in crimes have prompted Royal Oak city officials to consider a new approach to combating juvenile matters: a parental responsibility ordinance that would sack parents with a civil infraction and fines if their child becomes entangled in the courts. The proposed law, if approved, would require parents or legal guardians to prevent minors from engaging in a list of illegal activities, including possessing alcohol or drugs, violating curfew, skipping school or breaking any law that would cause the teen to be sent to Oakland Circuit family court. Violating the ordinance would carry a minimum fine of $100 for a first offense, $250 for a second and $500 for a third. It would also allow the city to recover some court costs. Terry Drinkwine, a city commissioner and former Royal Oak cop who suggested the ordinance, said the issue is simple -- parents are responsible for their children. "We've gotten into a situation where we forget that," Drinkwine said. "This is a simple attempt to tell parents look, when we pick your kid up past curfew at 2 a.m., you need to explain why. "If you don't take the appropriate steps to curtail your kids, we are going to hold you accountable for that. It's a shame we have even do this." Drinkwine, part of the city's Save Our Youth task force that was created to find solutions to the rise in drug abuse in Royal Oak, says such a law would not affect the majority of parents. Rather it would give the city a chance to handle some who don't meet their responsibilities. Royal Oak parents waiting to pick up their children outside the high school had mixed reaction to the proposal. Parent Mike Szajner agreed and said he supported the proposed ordinance, which is expected to be voted on by the City Commission on Nov. 20. "A lot of parents have dropped the ball," said Szajner, parent of a 13-year-old and 16-year-old. "If you make parents responsible for what their little darlings are doing maybe they will take notice." You can reach Jennifer Chambers at (248) 647-7402 or jchambers@detnews.com. ____________________________________________ http://www.detroitnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/a.../611170353/1009 Friday, November 17, 2006 Oakland County briefs Novi Retired teacher faces solicitation charges A recently retired Milford High gym teacher and wrestling coach was charged Thursday with an attempt to solicit sex from a minor over the Internet. William F. Ramsey, Jr., 56, of Highland Township was arraigned before Novi 52-1 District Court Magistrate Michael Batchik on four counts of using a computer to accost and solicit a minor for immoral purposes, a 10-year felony. Bond was set at $50,000 pending a Nov. 22 preliminary exam. Ramsey was arrested at his home by members of the state Attorney General's Child and Protection Unit, one of whom posed as a 14-year-old girl allegedly contacted and propositioned by Ramsey in a chat room. ________________________________________________ http://www.detroitnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/a.../611170351/1014 Friday, November 17, 2006 Macomb County briefs Sterling Heights Board of Education ditches meeting paper The Board of Education for Utica Community Schools is moving to electronic packets and laptop computers for its meetings. Board President Carol Klenow said in a statement Thursday the switch will eliminate the need for the more than 143,000 pages of paper it was using for its meetings. The district spent $10,895 to purchase computers for board members, who will receive their meeting agendas, draft minutes and related support material electronically. The district spends $13,948 annually to print and deliver meeting materials to board members, according to officials. |
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| ILIkeLI | Nov 17 2006, 09:18 AM Post #2 |
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Principal
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Pay freeze is OK'd for school administrators The Northville Board of Education Tuesday approved a pay freeze for the district's top five administrators that will save about $17,000 this year, according to John Street, business services director. Administrators usually receive annual pay increases of 2-3 percent, but this year volunteered to forgo them. Randy and his crew should do this voluntarily.... |
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| c3hull | Nov 17 2006, 12:02 PM Post #3 |
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Principal
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ALL staff involved with the creation of the LIe should take a freeze until the LIe is reversed and the district isn't losing millions. |
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| Grant1 | Nov 17 2006, 07:54 PM Post #4 |
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We have just begun to fight!
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Freeze!?! Hell, thay should all be taking pay cuts after the huge increases they all received before and after the LIe was announced. Increases between 8-15% over the last 2 years is an awful lot for a district that is supposedly struggling financially Doncha think? <_< |
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| c3hull | Nov 18 2006, 02:04 AM Post #5 |
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Principal
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Who got the raises? Liepa and the cabinet members? When did this happen? :ph43r: |
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