Recently added articles from District Administration:
The constant balancing act.(Editor's Letter)
Sep 01, 2008; Hartnett, Judy Faust ... EVEN THOUGH MOUNT VERNON (N.Y.) PUBLIC SCHOOLS' $187.4 MILLION contingency budget includes an $8.6 million increase over last year's budget, this summer student athletes are fundraising to help revive their district's $1.1 million athletic program. Officials recognize that sports programs ...
Technology debate needed.(Letters)(Letter to the editor)
Sep 01, 2008; Fuchs, Monty ... I'm writing regarding the recent Gary Stager column article ("What's a Computer For? Part II, July 2008). I enjoyed it and agree. As director of technology at Buncombe County Schools in Asheville, N.C., I am at war with our technology. I have 30 years of educational technology experience ...
Notification beyond emergencies.(Letters)(Letter to the editor)
Sep 01, 2008; Powers, Rebekah ... The story about emergency notification systems by Jeanne Jackson Devoe ("The Evolution of Notification Systems", August 2008) did a great job of providing a high-level overview of the benefits and features of notification systems designed for K12 communities, though it seemed to focus just ...
Schools tighten fuel budget belt: skyrocketing costs are forcing districts to rethink standard practices.(News Update)
Sep 01, 2008; Miners, Zach ... WITH FUEL AND ENERGY PRICES soaring but also fluctuating between high and low, school districts across the country are finding ways to cut corners to keep budgets afloat. The American Association of School Administrators' new "Fuel and Energy Snapshot Survey" says that, in an effort to ...
Less pain with propane.(News Update)
Sep 01, 2008; Miners, Zach ... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] MANY DISTRICTS NATIONWIDE ARE switching from diesel to propane-fueled buses as a means of grappling with swelling diesel costs. Propane is cheaper than diesel and gasoline, and is an efficient, domestically produced fuel that reduces harmful air emissions ....
High grade consequences.(STAT BLAST)
Sep 01, 2008; Miners, Zach ... * 15% of districts are eliminating bus routes and eliminating or modifying extracurricular offerings or sports * 15% are considering moving to a four-day school week ...
Virtual schooling keen on green.(Distance Education)
Sep 01, 2008; Marr, Ginny ... VIRTUALIZATION IN SCHOOLS IS gaining more ground nationwide as more district leaders strive to reduce their carbon fooprint and save money. Some of the virtualization measures used in schools include having more online classes and professional training, green purchasing and disposal, and ...
Online ed "set to surge".(Distance Education)
Sep 01, 2008; Miners, Zach ... THE AUTHORS OF A NEW PAPER BY THE HOOVER INSTITUTE, a conservative think tank at Stanford University, predict that by 2019 half of courses in grades 9 through 12 will be delivered online. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Citing cost savings and the flexibility to tackle unmet ...
N.Y. District teaches the world to students.(Curriculum)
Sep 01, 2008; Miners, Zach ... IF TODAY'S ECONOMY AND BUSIness trends are any indication, the lesson that the world is interconnected is becoming a mainstay of the social sciences. But one high-performing Long Island school district is taking cues from globalization and also applying international studies to a more ...
Integrating the arts with flair.(Curriculum)(Brief article)
Sep 01, 2008; Miners, Zach ... CHILDREN THROUGHOUT THE 7,500-STUDENT GREENVILLE (Miss.) Public Schools, the second largest district in the state, are reaping the benefits of an art-integrated education, thanks to the pedagogical stylings of Washington, D.C.-based educational consultant Marcia Daft. "Every ...
Better communication yields success.(District Profile: MARQUARDT SCHOOL DISTRICT 15 (ILL.))
Sep 01, 2008; Parker-Burgard, Don ... IN THE AFTERMATH OF A FAILED school funding referendum in April 2002, officials and board members from the Marquardt School District 15 in Illinois realized that a shortage of funds was not their only problem. It had been 20 years since the last referendum in this district, ...
Washington's bold reformer: a young school chancellor takes D.C. by storm.(PROFILE)(Michelle Rhee )
Sep 01, 2008; Schachter, Ron ... FOR MORE THAN A year, the debate, press coverage, and buzz in Washington, D.C., have swirled over whether someone so different--and so relatively inexperienced--can deliver sweeping change. And presidential hopeful Barack Obama hasn't been the only one receiving that kind of unrelenting ...
A perfect storm: with a faltering economy, K12 districts find creative ways to cut and stretch their budget dollars.(ANNUAL SCHOOL SPENDING REPORT)
Sep 01, 2008; Pascopella, Angela ... IF IT WASN'T THE worst budget cycle in decades, it was one of the worst for school district administrators trying to juggle union-negotiated salary increases, higher fuel and food prices, and federal mandates with less money, district leaders and education experts say. While ...
Welcome to Achievement Today: achievement for all children.(Brief article)
Sep 01, 2008; Marshall, Jim ... Dear District Administrator, Welcome to the September issue of Achievement Today. In this issue, we are focusing on the incredible opportunity we share to improve achievement for all children. Since the inception of Response to Intervention (RTI), innovative ...
Questions for superintendents.
Sep 01, 2008 ... 1. Have you considered the potential of RTI to unify your school district by eliminating the silos of special and general education? 2. Are you embedding the key components of RTI into your school improvement process to maximize achievement for all students? 3. Do you ...
About Spectrum K12 School Solutions.
Sep 01, 2008 ... Spectrum K12 School Solutions, Inc., is the leading provider of Response to Intervention (RTI) and special education IEP software serving 11% of the U.S. K-12 student population including 20 of the top 100 school districts in the United States. Our patented software is a dynamic student ...
Teamwork, attention to detail are keys to improving outcomes for all students: Tom Jenkins, of Wilmington, NC, runs an educational consulting firm that provides school districts with staff development in the area of Response to Intervention.(RTI in Practice)(Interview)
Sep 01, 2008 ... What are the elements of the ideal RTI process? An ideal RTI process would be one in which all students are successful. It would be one in which all staff members are involved, where there's total collaboration between administrators and special educators and general educators, ...
Success with RTI requires attention to technology and staff training: are school districts doing a good job at implementing response to intervention? And how can administrators measure the success of their intervention strategies? To find out, Achievement Today interviewed David P. Riley, executive director of the Urban Special Education Leadership Collaborative.(RTI in Practice)(Interview)
Sep 01, 2008 ... How effectively are districts implementing RTI? [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The greatest challenge districts have in implementing RTI is scaling it across all schools in a district, and being clear that this is the way in which business will be conducted. Then, they must ...
At Miami-Dade, a district-wide RTI initiative yields strong results.(RTI in Practice)(Interview)
Sep 01, 2008 ... Four years ago, under the leadership of superintendent Rudolph F. Crew, the Miami-Dade County Public Schools began an ambitious school improvement initiative that relied heavily on Response to Intervention. To find out about Miami-Dade's use of RTI, Achievement Today interviewed two key ...
Training helps Texas district meet state and federal standards: Spectrum K12 provides IEP Goals and Objectives Professional Development training for large Houston district.(RTI in Practice)
Sep 01, 2008 ... The special education teachers in Houston's large Cypress-Fairbanks Independent School District had a problem. They were challenged to write personalized student goals for Individual Education Plans (IEPs) that adhered to both federal and state mandates requiring all students receive ...