Education Matters US

The Daily Herald has a report today on how much the district paid to get the Blue Ribbon Awards they received last November. The total costs was over $40,000.

What’s not mentioned is South Carolina-based Blue Ribbon Schools of Excellence Inc. named the award winners after being paid $22,192 to assess seven District 46 schools. Documents obtained by the Daily Herald through the Freedom of Information Act show the district spent an extra $15,732 for 20 administrators and teachers to attend a five-day Blue Ribbon Schools conference and awards banquet in North Charleston, S.C., in December.

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Specifics on how Grayslake Elementary academics would benefit from Blue Ribbon Schools were not cited in the initial award announcement, but Correll in February sent a letter to all district residents outlining numerous recommendations.

Total expenses related to Blue Ribbon Schools were $40,468, according to district documents. Correll said the costs were covered by properly tapping into a combination of nearly $89,500 available in federal grants and $200,000 from the superintendent’s professional development account.

I’m not sure where the letters went, but the portion of the district where I live did not receive the letter mentioned.

In following the recommendations of the paid consultant’s awards, the district is purchasing SMART boards, electronic blackboards connected to a computer. I am still not convinced these boards will really help increase a test scores. They are like any other technology introduced as a way to help students, but in the end turn out to be a gimick of an education company.

Classroom technology similar to an electronic chalkboard is cited as one of the academic benefits from Grayslake Elementary District 46’s hiring of Blue Ribbon Schools of Excellence Inc.

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Part of the presentation noted how South Carolina-based Blue Ribbon Schools President/CEO Bart Teal found District 46 lacking in technology after studying its buildings last fall. The veteran educator’s company gives advice to schools on how to improve, and provides awards to clients typically promoted in news releases and on Web sites without mention of a financial arrangement.

SMART Technologies was one of the vendors at the Blue Ribbon Schools’ December conference.

Here are a few of the other suggestions:

• Having maps with student-friendly “I can” statements to promote ownership of learning standards at Prairieview, a pre-kindergarten through fourth grade school.

• Developing a more comprehensive new-teacher orientation plan at Meadowview, a kindergarten-through-fourth-grade school.

• Making better use of test data to drive instruction at Frederick School. The building serves fifth- and sixth-graders.

• Creating a school song at Grayslake Middle School. Children in grades seven and eight attend the school.

• Implementing a student leadership group and homework clubs at Park Campus in Round Lake, a building for kindergarten through eighth-grade.

Some of those suggestions are good, others will do nothing to educate a child better. It appears most of these suggestions appears to have come from other educrats. I have a suggestion a couple of suggestions that will increase learning:

• Replace their whole language with a phonics based curriculum
• Replace their everyday math with a direct instruction curriculum