From an article at https://1819news.com/culture/jeff-minick-some-old-school-ideas-that-worked Recently I bumbled into the 1962 Spotlight, the yearbook for Boonville High School in Piedmont, N.C. I was in fifth grade that year, and the elementary school, which was on the same property and ran from first through eighth grade, was included in the album. My perusal left me a bit thunderstruck thanks to the differences between then and now. Integration and Consolidation Schools in the South were still segregated that year. Boonville’s black school was no more than a mile or two from ours. Desegregation would begin within three years. Schools in Yadkin County were not yet … [Read more...]
High pay, low test scores: Washington state teachers earn most when adjusted for cost of living
By Carleen Johnson / The Center Square Washington state ranks highest in the nation for adjusted pay among elementary, middle and high school teachers, according to USAFacts, based on data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. According to the data, kindergarten teachers in Washington earned the highest median salary in 2024, at $87,530. In the Evergreen State, elementary school teachers earned a median salary of $99,320, middle school teachers earned a median salary of $99,150, and high school teachers earned a median salary of $99,640. The median represents the middle point of a salary distribution By comparison, the 2024 median annual wage for pre-K-12 teachers in the U.S. … [Read more...]
Southwest Washington State: School property taxes vs. results – What happened?
Property owners have seen taxes skyrocket over the past 5+ years as funding for schools has risen. Two years ago the State legislature increased State school property taxes from $1.98/$1000 of assessed value to $2.89/1000 in Clark County. Add levies (as we go to press the levy cap has been raised from $1.50 to $2.50); capital bonds and other fees and service costs and many people are nearing their wit's (and financial) end. Today K-12 education consumes more than 50% of the state budget...and for what? Have test scores risen? (No they’ve declined). Have graduation rates improved? (They are flat or down). What measures of success do we see? In this report we share the following with … [Read more...]
FLASH – Health Curriculum – Summary Review – The Good…The Bad…and The Ugly
In the five (5) part series on FLASH we provided you with the details of the lesson titles and objectives for FLASH: Overview; Elementary; Middle; High School and Special Education. That information was provided under the Fair Use Doctrine as an educational effort to help people understand the materials that may be used if FLASH is used. We have made no attempt to profit from the information. We've directed readers to the King County Health and ETR.org websites for full details. This is our review and analysis of the materials. We contacted King County Health and asked a series of questions. In this link we share their responses: KCH_Flash_Responses_July_18_2018 You can find Parts 1-5 in … [Read more...]
Sexual Health Education – FLASH – Overview – Part 1/5
This is going to be a multi-part article given the complexity, continuousness and "emotional" nature of the material. We will attempt to provide links and documents that will help you, the reader, gain an understanding of what FLASH is and what students will be "educated" about in Elementary; Middle; High School and Special Education. This article will focus on the high level information. We will devote an article to each of the four (4) educational areas. Washington State requires that three (3) topics on sex be taught: STDs, HIV, and Consent. That's it - no other sexual topics are required. Anything beyond is at the discretion of the school district and local school board. Here is a … [Read more...]
School shootings are extraordinarily rare – Facts
Some people in the public believe that school shootings are a HUGE problem and happen with great frequency. Indeed, some school districts and legislative bodies are using the most recent shooting in Florida as a vehicle to support school bonds or introduce more gun control laws. We decided to go looking for data and ask some questions. We hope you find this information useful. What is defined as a "mass" school shooting? Answer: There is no definition. The media appear to use one (1) as a definition. We first turned to Wikipedia and found this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_school_shootings_in_the_United_States We found an article at Politifact that attempts to address … [Read more...]
Wrong for district to penalize child for refusing to take test
From The HeraldNet .... By Philip M. Falk Published: Saturday, May 14, 2016, 12:01 a.m Elementary school parents attend a workshop in March of 2015 at Whittier Elementary introducing parents to the new online Smarter Balanced Assessment testing system Everett Public Schools and other schools districts adopted that spring. The schools of our state are currently in the middle of “Washington State Testing Season.” The story I am telling is one local story but I'm positive this is happening all across our state, and because of this I wish to bring attention to the issue of standardized testing in my local school district that I feel is not in the best interest of my students … [Read more...]
The Parent Bill Of Rights For Education
From Exceptional Delaware ..... Since the Center for American Policy, Delaware Governor Jack Markell, and the President of the National PTA want to get 10,000 signatures on their Testing Bill of Rights within the next month, I think it is only fair parents who opt their children out of high-stakes assessments do the same. With that being said, this article needs 20,000 commenters, or official signatures, within the next month. We need to tell these corporate education reformers: NO MORE! If we get 50,000, even better. Our parental bill of rights regarding opt out or refusing the test bill of rights will be a work in progress, morphing and changing based on the need. We will make … [Read more...]
The New Preschool Is Crushing Kids
This article appeared in The Atlantic ***************** Step into an American preschool classroom today and you are likely to be bombarded with what we educators call a print-rich environment, every surface festooned with alphabet charts, bar graphs, word walls, instructional posters, classroom rules, calendars, schedules, and motivational platitudes—few of which a 4-year-old can “decode,” the contemporary word for what used to be known as reading. Because so few adults can remember the pertinent details of their own preschool or kindergarten years, it can be hard to appreciate just how much the early-education landscape has been transformed over the past two decades. The changes … [Read more...]