The article in this link provides details about funding per student broken out by state. Please note that it shows WA State at almost $22,000/student/year. Read the article for full details. Below we share examples of what you will see. Some of the charts are interactive so reading the original article may be helpful. Article USA Facts … [Read more...]
Screen time
From the Facts They Don't Teach You The world spent years pushing screens into classrooms. Tablets replaced textbooks. Digital assignments replaced handwritten notes. Schools were told that the future of education was sitting behind a screen. Now some European countries are starting to reverse course. Sweden, Finland, Norway, France, Italy, and Denmark are all moving away from heavy classroom digitalization and bringing back something many schools thought was disappearing: printed books, handwriting, and traditional reading. And this shift is not happening because of nostalgia. It is happening because researchers have found that writing by hand and reading … [Read more...]
Vancouver School District – 2025 Levy
The original article was published at ClarkCountyToday.com on January 18, 2025. Opinion: Why does the Vancouver School District need capital operations money at all given the massive bond in 2017? Larry Roe & Dick Rylander for Clark County Today The Vancouver School District is asking taxpayers and voters to approve a new levy. Approval would be a 6-year levy (the longest allowed and two times in length of the last) that will collect over $83.36 million. This is for tech and capital operations. (Question: why do they need capital operations money at all given the massive bond in 2017 that you are still paying for in taxes through … [Read more...]
Washington State levy and bond data
If you love data and facts please add this site to your "must have" sites: http://www.schooldataproject.com This website was created by Jeff Heckathorn. Jeff has a passion for data and has been spending huge amounts of time gathering and dissecting data regarding Washington State school levys and bonds. We've been corresponding for months on this and today we bring to you some of the materials he has shared. Feel free to go straight to his site. We will provide updates and articles as we get them. You'll find information about those that passed and those that failed in February 2021 "special elections". This article will be updated as new information becomes available. Here is … [Read more...]
Woodland school district – Levy Feb 2020
Well they are coming back asking for an increase in levy money. This is our review of the information in an attempt to make sure you have the complete picture so you can vote. And vote you should. Please don't let 20% of the people make important decisions. Reach out and ask questions. Woodland School District Levy February 2020 From the woodland school district website: https://www.woodlandschools.org/levy-2020 Facts as they state them and comments/observations: The Replacement EP&O Levy contains no tax rate increase. Maintaining the Woodland Public Schools' long-held tradition to serve as responsible stewards of community funds, the Board of Directors elected … [Read more...]
Is memorization good or antiquated?
Growing up I was taught to memorize some thing such that I could explain, repeat and show I understood. Fast forward 50 years and today it seems like the movement has shifted to NO memorization. So, it memorization good, bad or makes no difference? We went looking for writing of others to see what we could find. We offer the following for your consideration. What say you? From a blog article at Successful Teaching from 2008: Memorization is Good for the Brain I have heard some fellow teachers argue that rote memorization doesn’t teach our students anything but I disagree. I think it is an important part of our learning process and should be encouraged every year. We learned to … [Read more...]
The three stages of learning: the Grammar stage, the Logic stage, and the Rhetoric stage
In today's busy world of education we have gotten to involved in computers, social emotional learning, positive behavioral intervention support, common core, ESSA...the list goes on and on and on... Those in charge of education have decided that the old ways are no longer valid or useful or appropriate as we wend our way into the 21st Century. But...is that really true? Can we still learn from the past and are there basics that can and should be part of our education foundation that have been pushed aside? We say yes. We reached out to Mr. Peabody and his Way-back-Machine and bring you this treatise on the best of the past that is still valid today. If you agree ask your local school … [Read more...]
Why is the Battle Ground School Levy too much? Vote No = Voting Yes!
This is going to be direct and to the point... From our point of view there IS a need for a local levy. Heck, we like local levy's much better than the Feds or the State giving us money and telling us what to do. However, along with asking tax payers to approve a local levy the School Board Directors need to show that they are aware of the needs of the district as well as how much the tax payers can afford. There are two things you can do (if you agree with our position): #1 - Share this Fact Sheet with everyone in the district you know. Open, download and email to them 2017_BGSD_Levy_Fact_Sheet #2 - Share this Vote No! poster (it's 8 1/2 x 11). Print it and put it in your home … [Read more...]