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Crazy School Attendance Rules
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Because Avery Gagliano, a 13 year old Piano Prodigy missed 10 days of school due to performances, she was considered a truant by the Washington DC school district. Avery Gagliano was a straight A student, and one of Lang Lang's Music Foundations music ambassadors.
Avery is now being home schooled because of the threats from the School District of being considered a truant.
Avery Gagliano's mother from the name, appears to be ethnic Chinese (Ying Lam) and may be a bit of a Tiger Mom.
In D.C., a 13-year-old piano prodigy is treated as a truant instead of a star student - The Washington Post
And what is amusing, is now the Washington DC School district is calling the reporter and the Mother liars, excuse me the term is "false representation"
And during the summer, the family got a letter informing them their child was truant, and "along with a helpful brochure that
outlines the possible police and Child and Family Services intervention
for students who are truant."
Petula Dvorak: No misrepresentation of piano prodigy’s treatment by D.C. schools - Washington Post Labels: Homeschooling Chinese, piano, school success, Schools
Teachers - A great one can make a difference
Good article from the LA Times -
A Times analysis, using data largely ignored by LAUSD, looks at which educators help students learn, and which hold them back.
I am hopeful the article helps. Some schools in LAUSD have a 60% drop out rate, which is a crime. The cost to society of a high school drop out can be huge. I was a student teacher in LAUSD and it had a huge impact on me. It was so different from my daughter's school where most kids want to learn and are driven by high parental expectations to do super well in school. Where I student taught, the students were so apathetic. An example was I offered a make up test for students who had missed a test, I came to school early. No students showed up for the test. I still shake my head in wonder at that. I find it incredibly sad.
A great teacher, and a poor teacher, can make a huge difference in your child's education. The headache is figuring out who the good ones are. I have noticed this with my daughter that she does so much better with a great teacher. She has been very lucky to have had a number of great teachers.
A good resource for parents to find out more about their teachers. I was surprised for my daughter's school how accurate it was on the teacher profile and how many teachers were in it. http://www.ratemyteachers.com
Labels: Schools, Tips from Our ChildBook Parents and Teachers
My school district Superintendent Fired
I just read this in the local paper. Wow. Walnut Valley Unified fires superintendent citing `change in direction' - SG Tribune And my daughters school has a new Principal. The previous one retired. I am still not very happy with her for not finding room for my daughter in an honors class for the program she was head of. It made my daughter's junior year more challenging for that class when she got into honors. But that is the headache of budget cuts. Classes are hard to come by and hard decisions were needed. My daughter's school has had to bear a lot of budget cuts. And our school district does not get as much funding as others because of the crazy way funding is apportioned in California. Labels: Schools
Plagiarism in the digital age
Summer Reads - Any Book
Its amazing how much kids lose during the summer. A three year study found ginvg low-income children access to books during the summer and allowing them to choose runs they want to read helped reduce the summer reading gap. The key is finding something kids like to do. Make it interesting and fun. A bit of structure is required since some kids would be very happy waking up at noon and goofing off for the rest of the day during the summer. For other schools its amazing on how much Summer Homework is assigned. My daughter goes to one of those schools and was busy before leaving on her vacation doing lots of work for her English, French, and IB. Summer Must-Read for Kids? Any Book - NY Times Labels: Schools
The Kindergarten Lesson
Nice article from a new teacher who is figuring out what works to motivate his kindergarten students - The Kindergarten Lesson from the Washington Post. The author finds when he can build on internal motivation that is the best way, rather than rely on external motivation. My personal experience as a substitute teacher, was I saw many teachers who were successful with external rewards. It does take a lot of work to manage these correctly, but they are a physical symbol of success that can be very helpful. Just as writing a child's name on the board with check marks for some ages can help. Other ages and schools, a stack of referrals is a good method :-) The best method depends on the culture of the class, which is always a challenge to figure out. Labels: Schools
School Challenges
My daughter has perfect attendance and recently attended the Southern California Honor Choir that required a practice on Friday. She had to be recommended by her teacher for this and went through a try out for it. Per her school district this is an absence per the Education Code. My question to them is per what specific part of the education code? My thought is since: - She was recommended by her teacher
- The practice was at a public school (Santa Monica High School)
- There were certified teachers in charge who took attendance
This should count as a school activity. My wife is talking to the district person, but it's frustrating. I am not going into a lot of detail to avoid problems such as this blogger had. History so far. 1. Referred to district. 2. District person said per education code and gave a general section and if you need to change that you need to go to the state board of education (ie brushoff). 3. I read the code and my wife then asks the district person which sub section and just reply to her E-Mail. For some reason the administration person is not very happy about putting this in writing :-) Labels: Schools
Two students, two schools -- 20 miles and a world apart
Two students, two schools -- 20 miles and a world apart - LA Times. Excellent read. There is a poem called a tale of two schools that was mentioned in the movie Walkout that chronicles the demonstrations of 1968. I would so like to read that poem, I have not found it online. Paula Christomo (Senior Director of community and government relations at Occidental College) wrote this after visiting Palos Verdes High School and comparing it to her school, Roosevelt High School of LAUSD in East LA with the difference in facilities. Palos Verdes High School is located in one of the richest areas of California. What was mentioned in the LA Times article comparing Jefferson High School to La Canada High School seems like deja vu. What was talked about here was not the differences in facilities, but the attitude. When I went through my student teaching in LAUSD I saw the same thing, very nice students, but the lack of motivation was so frustrating! Missing the PSAT because there were friends visiting. Another student missed class time because she had to take care of her baby sister, so she flunked the class and had to retake it in intermission (school was year round). And the La Canada School seems so similar to my daughters High School. Labels: Schools
Chinese American Student Time Usage
Philiphino Teachers in LAUSD
China's civil service exam cheaters go high-tech
1 in 4 California high school students drop out, state says
1 in 4 California high school students drop out, state says from the LA Times. I am glad that my state, California is finally getting a better understanding of the drop out rate. It's sad the high percentage, and in Los Angeles, I assume city, 1 in 3. I did my student teaching in a Los Angeles High School that has a 60% drop out rate. I had nice students, but many just did not see school as that important. I find the high drop out rate incredibly sad and in my opinion a huge failure of our society. In our ever increasingly technical and skills driven economy, education is key for a high paying job. The lure of a job at Home Depot that gives short term more money is nice, but in 10 years it's not going to be what you want. There was one student who dropped out of school and was a cashier at Home Depot. My friend called her the young entrepreneur. Many of the issues mentioned in Walkout, the poor graduation rate are still issues, 40 years later. I would love to get a copy of a tale of two cities, that compared Lincoln High School in East LA, with Palos Verdes High School (super rich) by Paula Crisostomo (now director of government and community relations at Occidental College in Los Angeles). Labels: Schools
Chinese and Finnish Students - Best Practices
Some conflicting articles, both from the Wall Street Journal. One about how some Chinese students are doing so much better than US students because they get more homework. The other about What Makes Finnish Kids So Smart?The Finnish students rank first in Science and second in Science, but they don't start school till 7 and don't have the standards that are the foundation of most improvement efforts in the US. Taiwan was first in Math as my dear Taiwanese wife likes to point out (guess who does the math tutoring at home - and it's now me). My understanding of the article is Finnish focuses on high quality teachers that are given general goals and figure out how to meet them. More Entrepreneurial, where the US Education uses in most schools a general factory set up that is standardized. Reading is a focus from an early age where parents of newborns are actually given books by the government. The take aways from the two articles. It's an interest of mine with my daughter on how to get Good Grades, Study Skills, and get into the right College. The Finnish and Chinese approach are opposite it would seem. What was not mentioned in either article was in China, the teachers are given more time to prepare than in US classes. For learning Math, I do believe at lower levels using rote is a good method as done with the Singapore Math Texts. This gets into the entire question of why are some School better than others? Labels: Best Schools, math, Schools, Science
School Safety
At my daughter's school there was a rumor about a gun today being in the locker room. My daughter got four or five phone calls from her friends last night. I called the school before school started, and they said it was a rumor that had been investigated by them and the Sheriff Department, and that they had their normal security (I asked if they had extra). I still noticed that a lot of students did not go to school today because of the rumor which made dropping her off easy. A friend did not have their child go to school today and was unhappy the school did not use their automatic system to alert parents and check all the lockers last night. They did cancel an assembly today and for PE had all the students walk as a group to the gym. I am not sure the Principal had many good alternatives. My opinion is the Principal and whom ever else made the decision did not know the power of the rumor network, and is paying for that by having many students miss school today (which reduces funding, because the school gets paid, say $34 per day per student. So if 1000 students miss school, about 1/3rd of the school which looking at the parking lot makes sense, that is $34,000 the school is out). Labels: School Safety, Schools
Stress and Schools
A big issue is home work and are top performing schools stressing out their students. One MA school's Principal is even giving stress reduction using yoga classes for seniors. The Principal also stopped publishing the honor roll in the local paper. The school had four students who committed suicide, which prompted a look at what is necessary. The article also mentions Doing School: How We Are Creating a Generation of Stressed-Out, Materialistic, and Miseducated Students (Paperback) which read the comment/review section. Two very different view points of one, schools are dumbing down and the real problem is making students more efficient in their studying so they can achieve more, and the other is need to lower the stress level in schools and make it so students understand that Harvard is not for everyone and not everyone needs to take 5 AP classes at a time. Labels: Schools
Almost 1/3rd of High School Students Don't Graduate
Article in Costco's Magazine mentioned this. At some schools the drop out rate is 60%. LA Times a while ago had a great series of articles that looked at one High School in LAUSD on this. Recent LA Times editorial on this. And in our increasing skills required society, what becomes of them? Challenging topic that I worry about. Their is the top tier of society who has figured out how to work the system, so their children get the best education possible, and then the lower tier that does not understand the system. Labels: Education, Schools
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