October 2009 Archives

Long Beach school board member David Barton on Wednesday announced he will seek a second term on the board in the April election.

As noted in the previous post, an unsigned, printed flier left on the doorsteps of some residences near DeMille Middle School says a proposal to convert the campus to a small high school would create a "holding tank for dropouts." But a spokesman for the Long Beach Unified School District disputes the flier's arguments.

The flier features a Press-Telegram logo but is not affiliated with this newspaper.

The district plans to convert DeMille to a career and technical education high school, designed to prepare students both for entrance to college and directly to the workforce after high school graduation. The school would train students to get jobs after graduation in fields like law, health care and engineering, categories that district officials believe will be areas of growth in the labor force.

The Long Beach Board of Education has yet to give final approval to use the DeMille campus for the new high school, but district officials have been studying the site extensively.

The flier argues that the proposed new school would be made up of "problematic students who have given up on attaining an academic education. They refuse to learn and are behavior problems for their teachers."

Chris Eftychiou, spokesman for the Long Beach Unified School District, said that the school is designed to train students to enter high-demand career fields after graduation while also offering all the courses needed to apply to state universities.

"The two are not mutually exclusive," he said.

Continued after the jump.

An unsigned, printed flier left on the doorsteps of some residences near DeMille Middle School urges residents to attend a Thursday night community meeting and express opposition to district plans to convert the campus to a small high school.

The flier features a Press-Telegram logo but includes no material published in the Press-Telegram. The flier is not affiliated with the newspaper.

"Don't buy in to (sic) the proposal" for the high school, according to the flier.

"These are problematic students who have given up on attaining an academic education," the flier read. "They refuse to learn and are behavior problems for their teachers."

The flier stated that the proposed high school would be "a holding tank for drop outs."

"Many will be driving here," the flier read. "There is no restriction on where these students come from. It will definitely change your quality of life!"

The flier also says the proposal will increase traffic in the neighborhood.

The district is holding a community forum tonight - Thursday - from 7 to 8 pm at Demille, 7025 E. Parkcrest Street.

But could candy also turn your kids to a life of crime? One study, as reported by US News, says that daily candy intake raises the probability of a child becoming a convicted violent criminal later in life. Some researchers aren't impressed with the study, however.

According to this ABC News story, a new research study says that spanking was associated with a decline in childhood IQ. 

The IQs of 2- to 4-year-olds who received regular spankings from their parents dropped by more than 5 points over four years, compared with kids who were not spanked.
"The practical side of this is that paediatricians and child psychologists need to start doing what none of them do now, and say, 'Never spank under any circumstances,'" says Murray Straus, a sociologist at the University of New Hampshire in Durham, who led the new study along with Mallie Paschall at the Prevention Research Center in Berkeley, California.

A bizarre story in Oxnard. According to this Ventura County Star story, Rio School District Superintendent Sherianne Cotterell allegedly placed a pair of high-heel shoes and sandals in her bag after removing the sensor tags. Cotterell, who received an infraction complaint, explained the incident by citing "extreme stress and physical health-related issues." She apparently was hired at an annual salary of $130,000. 

From the Atlanta Journal Constitution:

The California Space Authority has given its Buzz Aldrin Space Education and Workforce Award to a Cal State Long Beach program that has students building rockets and rocket engines.

The California Launch Vehicle Education Initiative was developed by Cal State Long Beach and Garvey Space Corporation.

Today's college classrooms are high-tech marvels, with overhead projectors and grease 

pencils replaced by document cameras, handheld clickers and interactive white boards.
"A lot of this is us catching up with the students and what they're bringing to us," says Michael Reuter, 42, director of technology operations at Central Michigan.

Faculty, for the most part, see technology as a way to better connect to students in their interactive, multitasking, apps-ready world.

"A lot of people my age see technology as a tool to check e-mail and do grades. But for kids, the technology is just the environment that they know," says Howard Pitler, senior director of curriculum and instruction at McREL, an education research non-profit in Denver.  

"Among 34 states surveyed, 63 percent of schools now refrain from selling soda or fruit drinks that are not 100 percent juice. That was up from 38 percent the previous year.
Meanwhile, the percentage of secondary schools not selling candy or salty, fatty snacks rose from 46 percent in 2006 to 64 percent in 2008."

According to this Reuters article:

The online education sector grew 13 percent last year and had been growing at about 20 percent in previous years. Nearly one in four students take at least some college courses online, up from one in 10 in 2002. Two million students, most older than the traditional 18-22 year-old undergraduates, take all their courses online and two million more take one or more online course.
President Barack Obama pledged $500 million for online courses and materials as part of a multi-pronged plan aimed at expanding access to college.

The second-highest-ranking elected official from Australia solicited ideas on education reform from LBUSD Superintendent Christopher Steinhauser on Monday, district officials said.

Steinhauser was asked to take part in a roundtable discussion on education reform with Australia's Deputy Prime Minister Julia Gillard at the Rand Corporation offices in Santa Monica.

"She was the highest ranking public official I've ever met," Steinhauser said in a statement. "But she was very down-to-earth, very friendly."

Could the capital of Australia become LBUSD's next "sister city?By the way - a bit of trivia - what is the capital of Australia? The answer may surprise you. Find the answer after the jump. 

Although this blog is about education, I occasionally like to point out some interesting and thought-provoking articles, such as this one in the Dallas Morning News about the future of zoos.  It raises some pretty interesting questions. There seems to be a tension between people's entertainment-oriented vision for zoos and zookeepers' increasing belief that animals need to be kept in a much more natural habitat. An excerpt:

As noted in this US News (HealthNet) story, researchers in the New England Journal of Medicine argue that an excise tax on sugary drinks would combat obesity and raise revenue for health care reform. But critics say that consumption would not significantly decrease under new tax rules. I'd like to add as a side note, that some research indicates that the artificial sweeteners in diet soda drinks make many people hungrier, resulting in increased calorie consumption relative to people who don't consume such drinks. So does this mean that all soda is bad? 

For consumers, the tax they suggest would increase the cost of a 20-ounce soft drink by 15 to 20 percent and lead to a minimum reduction of 20 calories a day per person from sweetened beverages. The revenue collected would benefit individual states and the federal government. "There are certain products which make a strong contribution to the obesity epidemic while, conversely, there is no plausible public health benefit [from them]," noted Dr. David Ludwig, senior author of the paper and associate professor of pediatrics at Harvard Medical School.

An interesting story in the Mercury News regarding the California School Board Association's threat to sue the state this year, arguing that it is violating the state constitution by providing inadequate education funding. Those kinds of lawsuits have been popular in other states.

The California Constitution requires the Legislature "to provide for a system of common schools by which a free school shall be kept up and supported." The suit will allege that the state violates that provision by not ensuring adequate support.
Given its low ranking in spending plus recent cuts, "nobody can rationally assert that the system is adequately supported," said Scott Plotkin, executive director of the California School Boards Association, which he said will file suit by the end of the year.

As mentioned in other of today's posts, President Obama has floated the idea of extending the school year further into the summer, arguing that kids don't spend as much time in class as in other countries. What do you think? Do you favor an extended school year? How would that impact you for good or for ill?

The Obama administration has indicated it would like to extend the school year further into the summer, arguing that students get too little class time compared with other nations. But as this news story points out, some are criticizing the move, saying it would strain district budgets and hurt travel and tourism. An excerpt:

Richard Lewis, a businessman seeking to succeed Michael Shane Ellis representing District 3 on the Long Beach school board, announced that he has been endorsed by City Council members Robert Garcia and Suja Lowenthal.

Lewis is among five candidates vying in the Dec. 29 election to replace Ellis in District 3 in downtown Long Beach. Ellis resigned Sept. 1 following a controversial tenure marked by personal legal troubles and continued absences from board meetings.

Ellis' term expires next year, when he was eligible to seek re-election at the previously scheduled April 13 election. That means that the winner of the Dec. 29 have to compete again April 13 to win a full term.

Dec. 29 may seem an odd date for an election, but school board members said the timeline was constrained by the Long Beach City Charter, which governs vacancies on the five-member board.

Lewis is a member of the board of directors of Downtown Long Beach Associates and president of the East Village Association.