This article was in the Daily Herald today. This was also the topic of discussion on Libby Collins Show on WKRS this morning.
Homework project too much for 4th grader, parent says
By Sara Faiwell
Daily Herald Staff Writer
Posted Thursday, June 30, 2005
One parent’s objection to how a fourth-grade social studies project was assigned at an Antioch [...]
Illinois has been able to get the No Child Left Behind standards relaxed. I’ll let you read the article.
To me this is just another example of the Education Establishment working together to make sure nothing for them has to change. They are working the system to allow themselves to look [...]
The lastest Education Carnival is up and running. This is an excellent week for posts. Go read them all. They are all very good this week and so I won’t highlight any specific ones.
There was a letter to the editor in the Daily Southtown today aboout the outrage of the practices of Thomas Ryan, the Superintendent of Sauk Village School District 168.
Scores of children have been mistreated by District 168 stretching back years (reported in the Southtown and elsewhere): homeless children being denied entry to District 168 [...]
District 46 held the auction this morning for the Lakeview School. It was sold for $1.9 Million to its current tenants Westlake Christian Academy. There were only 2 bidders, Westlake and First Rockford Group, a development group.
A sales contract will be signed within the next 3 days. Closing is expected within [...]
The Governor is trying to make sure the final 2 State Aid payments are made on time this year. This should help schools that are struggling at this time of year to keep their budgets balanced. Read more here.
The following is an editorial by Stanley Crouch on June 19th in the Chicago Sun-Times. In it, he talks about why the Teacher’s Unions are the enemy of public education. I agree with him to a point. I think his view that NCLB is overly optimistic.
NCLB by itself will [...]
My wife has convinced me to start writing a book about the intimidation and smears that take place when people stand up and oppose the Education Systems greed and other agendas. For this to be successful I need your help. I need you to pass this on to as many people as you [...]
My site will down for maintenance on Sunday, Jun. 26th from 8 am to approximately 9 am. Sorry for any inconvenience this may cause.
Every time I bring up the golden parachutes received by teachers and administrators I hear the same thing, “The teachers paid for it and they deserve it.”; or “What other districts pay doesn’t affect our district, they are wealthy.” These people are wearing blinders or something, but they cannot see the reality that faces [...]
The AP’s Education Writer, Ben Fuller, has an article today about states reporting inflated graduation rates. Here is a quick excerpt:
The majority of states — 36 of them — say 80 percent to 97 percent of their high school students graduate on time, according to state figures provided to the Education Department.
Those numbers show [...]
Today, I decided to do a roundup of articles dealing with Public Schools, Charter Schools and Private Schools. Enjoy the reads.
Charter Schools Outperforming Public Schools in California
What’s the difference between Public and Private Schools?
Comparison of Public Schools vs. Charter Schools in Washington D.C.
A resource about Charter Schools including what makes them successful and how [...]
The News-Sun had an article today by Marcia Sagendorph about the Education Foundation Meeting that took place last Thursday. In the article, I am mentioned.
Lennie Jarratt, an outspoken referendum opponent, attended the foundation meeting and also supported the idea.
Mrs. Sagendorph called yesterday morning to my house. I was unavailable because [...]
This weeks Education Carnival is again fun reading. Here are my favorites:
Merit pay: theory vs. practice by Katie at A Constrained Vision
Parallel Cultures vs. Core Knowledgeby Remote Access
Administrators: How Not to Handle Parents at The Common Room and her struggles with public schools in trying to get help with multiply handicapped [...]
The News Sun has a article laying out the employees that are retiring and/or leaving CCSD 46 this summer.
The Daily Herald had the following:
Grayslake schools chief says farewell at tense final meeting
By C. L. Waller
Daily Herald Staff Writer
Posted Tuesday, June 14, 2005
Grayslake Area Elementary District 46 Superintendent Kurt Anderson was lauded while he got in [...]
Below are links to 2 stories and the lessons BOE’s need to learn so they don’t suffer the same fate.
How District 150 went broke
Editorial: District 150 union leaders paid big bucks not to teach
The Illinois State Board of Education announced a plan where school districts could buy products ranging from “school supplies, furniture, technology products, physical education equipment and janitorial materials” under their contracts. This was an attempt to help the district save money without binding them to contract. This is a voluntary program and is [...]
I attended the meeting tonight of the CCSD 46 Educational Foundation. The meeting went very well. I will have the presentation that was given on my website as soon as it is emailed to me. I won’t get into all the details here since I did not get great notes and the [...]
I have been working on calculations on how much the end of career bumps are costing the Teacher Retirement System (TRS). The retirees are only paying into their retirement annuities once in the final year and at most for the final 4 years depending on sick/vacation sellbacks. This in turn is costing the [...]
I have been reading the D46 Information website the past few days. It is fun because they think I am posting and I am just reading. I decided to copy some quotes from the site from both before and after my article about Dr. Anderson’s Golden Parachute. You’ll find this very interesting [...]
In a previous post I gave an overview of the Sun-Times Article. Here is more detail and the inclusion of CCSD 46 Superintendent Dr. Anderson.
Hintz’s stipends total $217,500 and will tip his pension over the $200,000-a-year mark for the rest of his life, figures provided by Stevenson indicate.
Focusing just on the stipends added to [...]
The State is finally cracking down on private tutors. Although, it won’t affect any current firms for at least 2 more years. It is a start, albiet 2 years late.
Two years after tutoring began, the state today is expected to unveil a plan to beef up monitoring of private tutors who work [...]
This is from the Chicago Tribune. They are inviting kids to read this summer and send them the review. They will publish some between Aug 7th and Sept. 4th. There is also a “Read & Write” Young Writers Workshop this saturday, the 11th from 2 to 3 p.m. in the Park Room [...]
A California School District once again proves why we need sex-free schools. This time a School Clinic Dispenses Birth Control Without Parental Consent
This, coupled with California’s Minor Consent Laws, allows students as young as 14 to receive birth control patches, oral and intravenous birth control, the “morning after pill” and condoms, all without the [...]
Update: Here are 2 more articles about the sale:
Daily Herald
Grayslake Review
The sale of the Lakeview School is still in progress. An auction will be held sometime in late June or July with a starting bid of $1.3 Million. This should help Distirct 46 finances as well. The school is currently [...]
If you ever need to opt out of any school program. Just follow this link to the form. It is good in all 50 states from what I understand.
The latest Education Carnival is underway over at Education Wonks. Take a walk on over and look around. There are some interesting posts. I’ll highlight a few for you.
The Common Room has a post on the State of Education in California and how law makers are want to limit the size of [...]
I wrote about how students at Dartmouth were ignorant of Western Culture in a brief earlier post. I would like ask any high school teachers out there if you would be interested in doing this survey with your students and sending me the results to compile. I think this would be fun [...]
Want to help Education in Illinois? Here is a small way to show your support and help educate future teachers. Buy an Education Plate.
Money raised from the plate will be deposited into a special fund called The Illinois Future Teacher Corps Scholarship Fund. This fund will be used to provide scholarships to full-time [...]
I’ll put this graphic up for you so you can see that some teachers or educators are visiting my site. My traffic is just over 96% of prereferendum visits. The graphic would not show up in the comments so it had to go in a new post. How many other educators are [...]
