Last weekend, I had the pleasure of attending and speaking at the NYSPTA Annual Convention. Regent Collins also attended the convention and participated in the Diversity, Inclusion and Equity Caucus. I want to thank Kyle Belokopitsky, Executive Director at the NYSPTA, and her team for organizing and hosting the convention, which included many important discussions. As Commissioner of Education, I strive to stay connected to those closest to our students: their parents and families. I admire and appreciate the work you do to ensure a high-quality education for all our students.
Last week, the New York State Museum opened a new exhibition, Votes for Women: Celebrating New York’s Suffrage Centennial . On display through May 13, 2018, the exhibition honors the centennial of women’s suffrage in New York State and raises awareness of the struggle for equal rights through the present day. The exhibition features more than 250 artifacts and images from the collections of the State Museum, State Archives, State Library, cultural institutions, and private lenders from across the state.
It’s important for everyone – especially our students – to fully understand this pivotal moment in our history. The women’s suffrage movement in New York isn’t just about the struggle for women’s rights; it also teaches us about cultural heritage, activism, democracy, and the struggle for equal rights for all. It’s up to us to inspire the next generation and show our children that they too can raise their voices and achieve great things. If you can, I encourage you to visit the State Museum with your children and see this exhibition.
In addition to exposing your children to educational experiences at the State Museum or other cultural institutions, you might also be helping them navigate the college application and admission process! If you have a student enrolling in college for the spring semester, Governor Cuomo announced that the Excelsior Scholarship application has reopened for students attending college this spring. The application is open through December 4 for students to attend SUNY or CUNY tuition free.
This week, NYSED announced that seven New York State mathematics and science teachers are state-level finalists for the 2016-17 Presidential Awards for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching (PAEMST) at the secondary level (grades 7-12). The PAEMST is one of the highest honors in the nation for teachers of mathematics and science. The award recognizes outstanding teaching and leadership in science and mathematics education. The teachers being recognized here have become masters of their craft, and our students are lucky to have them and all the other teachers who do an outstanding job every day in our classrooms. For more information and the list of finalists, see our PAEMST news release .
NYSED also recently announced that more than 95 percent of schools in receivership made demonstrable improvement in the 2016-17 school year. A total of 61 of 63 schools in receivership showed progress on performance indicators jointly selected by NYSED and the districts in which the schools are located. The two schools that did not make demonstrable improvement will now be placed under an independent receiver.
I have visited many of the schools in receivership, and I am seeing schools tackle their issues in new and positive ways, which is encouraging. At the same time, much work remains to be done in many of these schools to provide an even greater focus with more intensive interventions to ensure that progress in these schools accelerates and they improve their outcomes for students.
Finally, next week is American Education Week, a great opportunity to celebrate public education. As part of American Education Week, November 14 is Parents Day, and NYSED will join in the celebration by launching a campaign on social media. Be sure to follow NYSED on Twitter and Facebook to check out some ideas and tips for parents to help support your children in school.
Thank you for all you do to support strong family and community involvement in our schools. We have made it easier to subscribe to our parent email list, so please spread the word in your communities and help us all stay connected!
Opinion by Carol McCall — Much is written — especially nationally — about what is happening in education in Louisiana. We should be cheering for our students and teachers as we do for our athletes and their coaches. By critically important measures, Louisiana has experienced and continues to experience major wins in education.
For more than 20 years, the state has been moving for higher standards and accountability. Now led by state Superintendent John White and his staff at the Department of Education, Louisiana has been nationally recognized for progress in a number of key areas.
Teacher preparation: Recognized by the Council of Chief State School Officers, Louisiana has built a collaboration between PreK-12 and higher education institutions for teacher preparation programs that include a year-long teacher internship program, to increase competence prior to entering the classroom.
Curriculum-driven reform: According to an article by national education policy journal Education Next, Louisiana’s education administration “has quietly engineered a system of curriculum-driven reforms that have prompted Louisiana’s public school teachers to change the quality of their instruction in measurable and observable ways.” These advances are unmatched in other states.
High school graduation rate: In 2005, 54 percent of Louisiana students graduated from high school, and now that number has significantly increased to 77 percent. These results come amidst a five-year push by Louisiana’s Department of Education to increase the number of graduates earning employer-validated “Jump Start” credentials and early college credits…
Carol McCall is chairwoman of the Education Committee for Citizens for 1 Greater New Orleans.
A new class at Rutland Middle School involves everything from goats and innovative plant-growing systems to drones and wood projects. The Macon school started its agribusiness program this year, and around 275 students are already involved.
It’s a connections class that students in grades six, seven or eight can take. Andrew Reeves and Robbie Bartlett came from Houston County schools to become the agribusiness teaching team this year. Rutland Middle is one of the only middle schools in the state to have two agribusiness teachers, Principal Richard Key said.
Wisconsin Department of Public Education An American Education Week Guest Editorial by State Superintendent Tony Evers
American Education Week, Nov. 13-17, focuses attention on the importance of educating our kids: the next generation and the future of our democracy.
As a former teacher and school administrator, I can tell you there’s something magical that happens in a classroom. The special and rewarding “click” when a child reads aloud for the first time, grasps a new math concept, or keeps at a research project even when it’s difficult. But, it’s not magic. The business of education is hard work.
Teachers need to master their subject area, understand child development, and know how to teach. To really be successful, they must get to know their students and form personal, trusting relationships. Sometimes reaching a kid takes toughness. Sometimes the child needs tenderness. And, sometimes an educator doesn’t know until years later that they had just the right balance for a particular student.
But it’s not just the teacher and the students that make education what it is today. Our schools are centers of their neighborhoods. Often times in Wisconsin, the school is what holds a small rural community together. It’s school-community involvement that can truly bring success for our kids. That interest from the neighbor without kids in school, the business owner, the civic leader — these relationships cement the importance of education in our communities and bring local solutions to strengthen our school systems.
So we observe American Education Week to remind ourselves that preparing kids to graduate ready for college and careers is a community effort that takes time, takes money, and takes the passion of educators who devote their lives to teaching kids. Support your local schools. They are building the future.
It’s not a required course or an exam, but Louisiana’s estimated 40,000 public high school seniors won’t be allowed to graduate without completing it.
“It” is the FAFSA – the free application for federal student aid – and the graduating class of 2018 is the first to be affected by the policy approved by the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education in 2015.
The form is used to determine student eligibility for financial aid, such as Pell grants, work study programs and federal student loans.
BESE, the governing and policymaking board for K-12 public schools, tethered completion of the federal application as a requirement for getting a high school diploma because of the historically low number of Louisiana students using the form. The state department of education officials said when students didn’t fill out the form, it created unnecessary financial barriers to postsecondary schools or training.
“We wanted to ensure equitable access to all students,” state education department spokeswoman Sydni Dunn said. “Too few students take advantage of state and federal aid.”
Although the state’s number of submissions is improving, Louisiana’s rank near the bottom among states for submission of the FAFSA form was the impetus for the policy two years ago, Dunn said. The amount of money left on the table is “staggering,” she said.
“By not completing the FAFSA, Louisiana students forego millions of dollars each year in federal grants, state opportunities and other post-secondary funding,” Dunn said. “This year, for example, it is estimated the 25 percent of students who did not submit the FAFSA, to date, may be missing out on more than $150 million in aid…
Republican lawmakers’ proposed changes to the federal tax code are causing a stir in the education community. Teachers and others are zeroing in on the bill’s repeal of the $250 tax deduction teachers and principals can take for spending their own money on classroom supplies. But, aside from that, how could the bill impact an individual teacher’s tax bill?
Let’s examine how a couple of hypothetical teachers would fare under the legislation introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives last week and try to tease out an answer.
The following scenarios are in a world where the GOP tax bill is approved as released. Will it pass? Will lawmakers amend it? If so, how? Nobody knows the answers to those questions. Right now, House lawmakers are vigorously debating it. But let’s figure things out based on what we know is in the bill. For this analysis, we’re leaving out a lot of factors that could affect these hypothetical teachers’ taxes. We’ve also tried to keep it relatively simple, in order to get a basic idea of how the proposed tax changes could work for many teachers.
The live video stream is from the California State Board of Education (SBE) meeting originating from the California Department of Education at 1430 N Street in Sacramento, CA.
The meeting on November 8-9, 2017 will start at 8:30 a.m. Pacific Time ±
EDUCATION WEEK — Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos is visiting Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands to see schools’ recovery efforts after damage caused by recent hurricanes.
DeVos will visit the Escuela Libre de Música Ernesto Ramos Antonini in San Juan, Puerto Rico, on Wednesday, and then Charlotte Amalie High School on St. Thomas later in the day. She is slated to meet Puerto Rico Secretary of Education Julia Keleher, as well as the president of the University of the Virgin Islands, David Hall, during her trip. It’s the first time the secretary has visited the U.S. territories since Hurricane Maria struck roughly six weeks ago.
We traveled to Puerto Rico in early October to document how educators and the island’s school system were coping with Hurricane Maria’s aftermath, as well as how they were aiding general recovery efforts. Schools are reopening on the island, although many are doing so without electricity. For the first few weeks after the storm, schools that did reopen were largely serving as community centers.
By Dr. Elizabeth Primas (Program Manager, NNPA/ESSA Public Awareness Campaign)
While education officials in Ohio have identified six components for rating schools on their school report cards, they are giving more attention to making sure students don’t fall behind to begin with. Over the last four years, education leaders in Ohio have tripled their investments in the “K-3 Literacy component” and its corresponding preschool program. Ohio has also increased access to high-quality education programs for children living in poverty and low-income families. This investment is aligned with the state’s birth to third grade support system that is designed to ensure that students enter school with the skills necessary to be successful and reach third grade with skills needed to read proficiently.
In December 2011, Ohio began using Early Learning and Development Standards that address five essential domains of school readiness for children from birth to five years-old. Those same standards will continue with the state’s ESSA plan. The five domains include: social and emotional development; physical well-being and motor development; approaches toward learning; language and literacy development; and cognition and general knowledge. These standards have been expanded to provide a continuum of learning for children from birth to five years of age; that implies that there are different expectations for children depending on their age and development. Once parents and caregivers understand that children develop on a continuum, or with skills built upon what was previously learned, educators and parents can begin to work in tandem with each other; ensuring that children are learning and developing appropriately.
Ohio’s Early Learning and Development Standards provide parents with information and expectations for each of the five domains; allowing them to get a jumpstart in preparing their child for school readiness. Standards are organized by topic and age: Infants (birth to around 8 months); young toddlers (6 months to around 18 months); and older toddlers (16 months to around 36 months). The guides are organized to allow parents to easily identify where their children should be, developmentally. For instance, the Social and Emotional Development Domain chart for awareness and expression of emotion, states that infants should express sadness, fear or distress by crying, kicking legs and stiffening the body; by pre-K, children should be able to recognize and identify their own emotions, as well as the emotions of others.
In 2003, Betty Hart and Todd R. Risley, two researchers at the University of Kansas, published a report titled, “The Early Catastrophe: The 30 Million Word Gap by Age 3.” They found that exposure to a rich vocabulary in a child’s early years is critical and the disparities in that exposure result in an achievement gap. It is important for parents to speak to their children, all of the time, using “standard” English. Parents can introduce their children to new words by explaining things in the child’s environment. Reviewing the names of items in the grocery store, the names of animals they see in the neighborhood, and the style and color of their clothes are simple ways to make a big impact. If we are to close the achievement gap, we must start before the child arrives at the schoolhouse doors. From birth, parents should sing songs and repeat nursery rhymes. Reading rhyming books and alphabet stories promote language acquisition and literacy. Parents are a child’s first teachers. It is up to us to give our children the exposure necessary to close the achievement gap.
To find out more about ESSA and its opportunities in literacy visit www.nnpa.org/essa.
Dr. Elizabeth Primas is an educator, who spent more than 40 years working towards improving education for children of diverse ethnicities and backgrounds. Dr. Primas is the program manager for the NNPA’s Every Student Succeeds Act Public Awareness Campaign. Follow Dr. Primas on Twitter @ElizabethPrima3.
Dr. Elizabeth Primas talks about the Every Student Succeeds Act, the “30 Million Word Gap,” and Ohio’s ESSA state plan.
Congressman Hank Johnson of Georgia’s 4th congressional district welcomes attendees to the Region II NNPA/ESSA Black Parent’s Town Hall Meeting on Educational Excellence at the Ebenezer Baptist Church.
The congressman invited parents to join him in his efforts to ensure children receive the education they deserve by getting involved and staying engaged in their child’s school.
Republican lawmakers’ proposed changes to the federal tax code are causing a stir in the education community. Teachers and others are zeroing in on the bill’s repeal of the $250 tax deduction teachers and principals can take for spending their own money on classroom supplies. But, aside from that, how could the bill impact an individual teacher’s tax bill?
