Neosho teen turns her life around

The Friday Neosho Daily News included a feature written by Wes Franklin about a Neosho High School student who turned her life around after being in trouble with the law at her former school. The article is reprinted below:

By Wes Franklin / Daily News Staff Writer

Krystil Steffen, a junior at Neosho High School, doesn't think of herself as necessarily special, but she realizes she's come a long way.

Today she received the Better Choices Award from Newton County Presiding Circuit Court Judge Timothy Perigo in recognition for having the courage and fortitude to change her life for the better.

But it's been a rocky journey.

About a year ago, while living in Stone County, Steffen found herself in more trouble than she would like to admit. Only 16 at the time, she became involved in drugs which eventually landed her in a rehabilitation center. Brazenly “escaping” with an accomplice from rehab, she stole a car but ended up getting caught.

Afterwards, when Steffen was placed into foster care with Neosho couple Kathi and Roy Stephens, she said she wasn't too enthusiastic about going back to the normal routine of high school.

“When I got here I could really care less,” Steffen related. “I didn't even want to be back in school.”

But on advice from her caseworker, Steffen re-enrolled in class. And that's when she noticed things starting to turn around.

“I've made straight ‘A's all my life, so obviously I was kind of obligated to make ‘A's, and I got into some accelerated classes that started motivating me a little more and things just kind of came alongŠ,” she said. “There's a lot more opportunities for me here than I had before so I just kind of went for them all as I get more motivated in school.”



However, education can only do so much. A negative perception on life can void whatever attributes may be gained through attending even accelerated classes. It takes a different world outlook to lift one's self up out of whatever funk they've fallen into - something Steffen said she realized soon after arriving in foster care and enrolling at Neosho High School.

“It was kind of a wake-up call,” she described. “I mean, my (real) parents were abusive so, before, I could really care less what my life was like. And then when I got here I realized, you know, life's not all crap. It can be fun if you make it and you can have a lot of opportunities thrown at you.”

Besides being involved as a tenor saxophonist in the Wildcat Band, Steffen's high grades and changed attitude about life have created a domino effect of consistent honor roll awards, a selection by a committee of teachers to represent Neosho at Missouri Girl's State this summer, an April Student of the Month award and a vote by her fellow classmates to the Neosho High School Student Council.

Applying to run for council was something she almost didn't even go forward with, but was strongly encouraged by her new friends - an example, Steffen believes, of her changed life.

“All my friends were like ‘dude, if you don't apply, what are you going to say if nobody else applies and you could have made it, a shoe-in; you're going to be kicking yourself all next year,' ” she related.“I definitely got that support system there that's like, you know, ‘if you don't do something that's going to put yourself in a better position, don't talk to us. If you're just going to be a bum, leave us alone.' I didn't like that. I wanted to keep the friends I had made here. They're really good friends.”

According to Rob Lundien, high school A+ coordinator and guidance counselor, Steffen was recommended to receive the Better Choices Award by high school resource officer Cameron Kruse, a corporal with the Neosho Police Department. The nomination was seconded by high school teachers and faculty.

“Earlier in the year, I knew this award was coming up and I kind of thought, ‘of any student in this school that I know of, Krystil is definitely a student who has made better choices,' ” Lundien said. “She's self-determined, she's self-motivated. She's very unique in the sense that she's had a period where she's made some not so good choices and she's decided she's not going to do that anymore. I think that's what that award is pretty much all about.”

Steffen said she was completely taken by surprise when Lundien called her into his office last Monday after lunch and told her she was chosen to represent Neosho by accepting the honor.

“When he told me I was like ‘oh, that's so sweet,' ” Steffen related. “I didn't really expect to be picked, you know. I'm just your average juvenile delinquent trying to get her life straight.”

After graduation next year, Steffen hopes to be accepted into the United States Army Military Academy at West Point, N.Y.

Teens protest sex and violence in media

Cape Girardeau teenagers are protesting what they call the destruction of our values, according to an article in today's Cape Girardeau Southeast Missourian.

How do they get into teaching, part 2

Now, we have the case of a man who continues to get teaching positions despite being a racist and occasionally letting his beliefs find their way into the classroom. How do these people keep getting hired? Please read the article from the WLTX website in Columbia, S.C.

Search for weapons uncovers 800 cellphones

Is anyone safe in New York City schools?
Today's New York Times features another article about the cellphone ban, revealing that a search for weapons uncovered a few, but also unearthed 800 cellphones.

Politician puts career on hold to save his teen daughter

Don't let anyone tell you all politicians are bad. One New York politician is setting his ambition aside, according to this New York Daily News article, so he can donate a kidney to his teenage daughter.

Parents' group to sue over cellphone ban

We've had a couple of posts about this recently, but the story continues to grow. Now, some New York parents plan to sue a school over its ban of student cellphones. Please read the article from the New York Daily News.

Teenager's project saves prom for Katrina victims

Today's Washington Post features a heartwarming story about a teenager whose simple idea of collecting prom dresses for Katrina victims snowballed into something much, much more.

Nixa schools consider crackdown on fundraisers

Sick of complaints about students selling one thing after another, the Nixa Board of Education is considering a new policy which would severely limit fundraising activities. Please read the article from today's Springfield News-Leader.

School authorizes criminal background checks on prom dates

If you think your school's policies are tough, try the policy at the Dennis-Yarmouth Regional High School. You cannot bring a date to prom until that person undergoes a criminal background check. Please read the article on the Cape Cod Times website.

How do these people get into teaching?

A teacher at a Latino charter school in the Chicago area is in hot water after making a discriminatory remark against Hispanics who had allegedly gotten paint on her jacket. You can read the story at the CBS2 website in Chicago.

Cruzan lawyer featured in Post-Dispatch column

Each year, students in Mr. Randy Turner's communication arts class at South Middle School discuss the Nancy Cruzan case, in which a Carterville couple fought for the right to disconnect the feeding tubes that kept their daughter alive after she ended up in a persistent vegetative state following an auto accident near Carthage in 1983.
The Cruzan family's lawyer, Bill Colby, pictured, spoke Monday about the right-to-die, in cases ranging from the Cruzan case to Terri Schaivo. You can read more in this St. Louis Post-Dispatch column.
column.

New York schools ban MySpace

The controversial MySpace has been banned from New York school computers, according to an article in today's New York Post.

Soft drink decision praised in editorial

The decision by the companies that make Coke, Pepsi, and Dr. Pepper to pull their high-caloried soft drinks out of schools is praised in an editorial from today's Houston Chronicle.

Teens actively work to eliminate violence in Boston

Fortunately, it's not the kind of problem we have to deal with in Joplin, and hopefully, it never will be, but students in a Boston school have far more serious things to worry about than ballgames and who is going out with whom.
A group of students are serving as mediators in an effort stop deaths from gang violence. Please read the article from today's Boston Globe.

An example of how not to run a school

Today's Denver Post features a cautionary tale of how not to run a school system. Manual School in Denver had all of the money it needed, but due to faulty leadership, the once highly-regarded institution will close later this year.
Among the problems cited: removal of advanced placement classes causing students to leave, rusty water coming out of fountains, principals fighting over who should get what textbooks, and a principal who kept coming up with new plans, but never gave enough time to allow any of them to work.

Teen suspended for creating top 25 list

A Mount Lebanon, PA teen who created a top 25 list of his fellow students, which included racial slurs and crude sexual information, has been suspended from school. Find out more from the article on the WPXI website.

Nutritionists want sports drinks added to soft drink ban

Nutritionists believe the deal announced yesterday that would ban soft drinks in public schools does not go far enough. According to an article in today's Boston Globe, they are concerned about the exception given to sports drinks.

State officials want MySpace age to be raised from 14 to 18

Middle school and high school students would be booted off the popular MySpace if company officials follow Massachusetts' lawmakers request to raise the minimum age for participation from 14 to 18. Check out the CNN article.

Springfield schools consider testing for body fat

Concerned by the growing obesity problem (no pun intended), Springfield school officials are considering a proposal which would require all students and teachers to have their body fat percentage checked. The Springfield News-Leader criticized the proposal today in an editorial.

Pop machines to be eliminated from schools

Bans on soft drinks currently available at American public schools will go into place soon, according to an article in today's Washington Post.
According to the article: "The agreement calls for eliminating sales of sodas, diet sodas, sports drinks, juice drinks, apple juice or grape juice in elementary schools. Water and more healthful juices such as orange juice could continue to be sold, but in only eight-ounce or smaller containers, according to sources who were briefed yesterday. They spoke on condition of anonymity because the plan had not yet been announced." At the middle school level, the article said, students would be able to drink 12-ounce containers of the same types of drinks.
High schools will be able to have diet soft drinks with a 12-ounce limit.
The official announcement of the agreement, which has been signed off on by Coke, Pepsi, and other major soft drink manufacturers, is expected to be made today. Soft drinks have come under fire in recent years due to the negative effect experts say they have on children's health.

Illinois school tries to make senior year more productive

Today's Washington Post features an article on a Winnetka, Ill., school that is trying to make the senior year more than just a layover for college.

Teachers join students in opposing cellphone ban

New York teachers are supporting parents and students who oppose a cellphone ban. Read the story from today's New York Post.

School told to prepare for bird flu

American schools are being told to prepare for the possibility of a bird flu pandemic, according to an article on eschoolnews.

New project to seek writing from teenage girls

Magazine company CondeNast has announced a new initiative which would use writing from teenage girls, according to an article in Business Week.

Is recess an endangered species?

The drive to milk every bit of teaching time out of school in order to raise scores on standardized tests has prompted some schools to eliminate recess for elementary students. Read the article in today's St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

Is school too much for students?

A Washington Post article explores the stress school causes for students.

Teen hacker breaks into school files

Today's Boston Globe features an article about a teenager who has been arrested after hacking into his teacher's computer.

Column explores values issue in public, private schools

Boston Globe columnist Jeff Jacoby has written a thought-provoking column on the teaching of values in public and private schools.

Parents, students upset by cellphone ban

Parents and students are upset by a New York school's decision to ban cellphones. Find out more by reading the New York Times article on the controversy.

Sex education bill receives House approval

A sex education bill which would require Missouri students to have permission slips before they could take sex ed classes received approval from the House of Representatives Tuesday. Read the article from today's Kansas City Star.

JHS student favors replacing MAP with ACT

Joplin High School sophomore Danielle Crosthwait favors a proposal which would eliminate MAP testing for high school juniors and replace it with the ACT. Read her letter to the editor from today's Joplin Globe.

High school student may be forced to leave country

An award-winning New York High School science student may soon be forced to leave the United States. Read today's New York Times story of Amadou Ly, whose parents, Senegal residents, abandoned him in the U. S.

The perils of marching band

Do marching band members catch colds more often than other students? That was one of the experiments high school students conducted during a recent epidemiology conference. A tongue-in-cheek look at that conference is featured in a column in today's Washington Post.

School officials wrestle with problem of student blogs, journals

This week's situation in Riverton, Kan., will likely keep school officials debating the question of whether they should keep track of blogs that students do on their own time. The Christian Science Monitor recently published an informative article on this subject.

Psychologists say standardized tests may damage students

Standardized tests may have some unintended results, according to some psychologists consulted for this Santa Cruz, Calif., Sentinel article.

Students stage walkout to get more security

Though our area schools are by no means free of problems, we can certainly appreciate not having the problems faced by Kennedy High School in Chicago where students recently staged a walkout to protest the lack of security. Check out the Chicago Sun-Times article.

Online courses growing in popularity

Online courses for high school students are skyrocketing in popularity. Check out the Christian Science Monitor's article.

Springfield considering crackdown on underage drinking

The city of Springfield is considering a number of measures to curb underage drinking, according to an article in the Friday Springfield News-Leader.

Students slip porn into classroom DVD player

Another example of why teachers should never do paperwork while their classes are watching a DVD. Associated Press has a report on students who were expelled for slipping a pornographic DVD into the player while the teacher's back was turned.

Riverton students arrested in murder plot

The news that five Riverton High School students were arrested Thursday for allegedly formulating a plot to murder students and teachers at their school has thrown a major shock wave into this area. The Joplin Globe has an article and a sidebar on the situation.

Teen barred from wearing controversial t-shirt

Students in my communication arts classes during the 2004-2005 school year will remember the discussion over Webb City High School student Brad Mathewson, who was not allowed to wear gay pride t-shirts to school.
The exact opposite has occurred in San Diego where the 9th District Court of Appeals has ruled a student may not wear an anti-gay t-shirt. The ruling is featured in an article in today's Los Angeles Times.

MySpace hires official to help protect teens

Under attack from many corners for being a hunting ground for sexual predators, MySpace is taking steps to correct the situation, according to an article in today's New York Times.

Recipe to stop teen drinking given in column

St. Louis Post-Dispatch columnist Mandy St. Amand writes about a recipe to stop teen drinking in a column from today's edition. With prom season here in most school districts, this makes for thought-provoking reading.

Post-Dispatch series examines teen depression

A recent St. Louis Post-Dispatch series takes an in-depth look at teen depression.

Cop posing as high schooler leads to drug arrests

The Boston Globe has an interesting story this morning about a police officer disguised as a high school student whose work led to nine arrests in Falmouth, Mass.

Eminem files for divorce

Eminem filed for divorce this week. You can read USA Today's article to find out more.
(Students in Mr. Turner's Communication Arts classes should go to the following link to take the test over this article.)

Police call for boycott of new video game

A new video game, 25 to Life, has come under attack by police for its violent content. The issue is examined in an article from Teen Newsweek.
(Students in Mr. Turner's communication arts classes should go to the following link to take the test over this article.)

Students work to cut down price at proms

Believing that the price of proms was getting out of hand, students at a Long Island, N. Y. school have taken matters into their hands, according to this article from Associated Press.

(After they read the article, students in Mr. Turner's Communication Arts classes should go to the MAP Practice Test at this link and answer questions 5 and 6.)

Laptops for students may not be a good thing

Esther J. Cepeda, a schoolteacher and writer, believes laptops for students may be keeping them from learning to think on their own. Her column ran in today's Chicago Sun-Times.


BY ESTHER J. CEPEDA
People today are accustomed to using computers for nearly every task in life. For most of us, it was a gradual transition. We learned how to balance our checkbooks using our bank statements before we had Quicken to do it for us. We learned how to search through the encyclopedia to find who invented the light bulb. We had to actually read Shakespeare's ''Othello'' to learn the intricacies of the relationships between Othello, Desdemona and Iago before Google was invented.

Will those skills be lost if the I-Connect Initiative (House Bill 5244) is passed by the Senate? The initiative, proposed by Lt. Gov. Pat Quinn, would provide about 13,000 public school seventh-graders and their teachers with laptop computers -- the "textbooks of the 21st century." The estimated cost would be $5 million including hardware, software, technical support and teacher training.

The laptops would come loaded with science and math tutorials, and a full suite of word processing and spreadsheet software. The premise is that students need to learn from an early age how to use these tools to be better prepared to compete for the high-tech jobs that will surely dominate the economy as they enter the work force.

In Maine, where seventh-graders were given this same technology in 2000, the Maine Education Policy Research Institute found that students, parents and teachers reported an increase in enthusiasm for school and homework. The Maine eighth-grade test scores, however, showed no change in reading, writing, math and science compared with the previous two years. And the funding issues associated with keeping the gadgetry and training up to date is threatening the future of the program.

Walk into any high school math class and you will find students adept at using calculators. Every kind from the cheap colorful ones you find at the Dollar Store all the way up to expensive TI-83s which can convert fractions and percentages for you with the touch of a button and will also solve and graph equations -- a skill essential to any student pursuing higher education.

But behind those calculators, oftentimes, sit students who can't pull from their memory banks the basic addition, subtraction, multiplication and division facts necessary to solve real-world math problems. Sure, many students can figure out advanced logarithms because of the endless skill and drill which takes place to get kids to pass state standardized exams. But take the calculator away and many fall flat on their faces when asked to calculate the total price for a $65 pair of shoes with an 8.35 percent tax using just a pencil and paper.

Will the same happen in all curricular areas if the endless stream of information known as the Internet is constantly a key stroke away? Is there any reason to learn how to spell correctly when all word processing software comes with instant, automatic spell and grammar check? Do you need to remember the order of the presidents, how many ounces there are in a gallon, the capitals of all 50 states, or who wrote The Lottery?

If information is out there for us to use and manipulate at a moment's notice, the skills we need to impart to students who will navigate the 21st century must be in the areas of critical thinking and problem solving. That task will lie at the feet of well-trained, dedicated teachers with a strong grasp of how the world has changed since they got their teaching certificates.

It has been proved in study after study: The major factor in the success of students is a low student-to-teacher ratio. Knowing that, any money Illinois can scrape together to fund student achievement should be spent on getting more well-trained teachers into classrooms so students don't have to be packed together like sardines. It shouldn't be spent on silver bullets.

(Students in Mr. Turner's Communication Arts classes should go to the following link and answer questions 1-4 on the MAP Practice Test.)

My Space removes 200.000 profiles

MySpace.com will remove 200,000 objectionable profiles, according to an article in Financial Times. The removals took place following concerns about predatory adults using my.space information to stalk teens.

Is emphasis on reading and math hurting other subjects?

A New York Times article questions whether the emphasis on reading and math brought on by the No Child Left Behind act is shortchanging other subjects.

Massachusetts seeks to raise driving age to 17 1/2

Today's Boston Globe features an article on a move in Massachusetts to raise the age at which teenagers can receive their driver's licenses from 16 to 17 1/2.

Poll reports hearing loss for teens

A Newsday article reports on a poll that showed more teens reporting hearing loss.

Positives, negatives of teen blogs discussed in series

The Springfield News-Leader offers a comprehensive package today on the positives and negatives of teen blogs. Many news media outlets have completely stressed the dangers of blogging while neglecting the good things that can come from it.

L. A. Times story explores dropout problem

This one's long, but it is worth it. The Los Angeles Times explores the problem of school dropouts. Does it start when students are so easily promoted despite failing work during their elementary and middle school years? What can be done to solve this problem?

Should school start later?

An article in today's Washington Post says school begins too early for students.

College textbook prices rapidly increasing

An article in today's Washington Post indicates college textbook prices are increasing at a rate far surpassing the rate of inflation.

Do suspensions really punish students?

The Washington Post recently carried an article posing the age-old question "Does out-of-school suspension actually serve as a punishment or a reward to people who violate school rules?"

A proposal to ban pencils?

A column suggesting the banning of pencils was featured this week in Education World. The proposal is not a serious one, but it notes that you could make the same arguments for getting rid of pencils that school administrators use to ban such things as the Internet, IPods and other technological devices.

Columnist challenges sex education

Syndicated columnist Cal Thomas examines sex education in his most recent column.

By CAL THOMAS
More than the weather gets hot in Tampa, Fla.

A survey of the Hillsborough County school district has revealed nearly half of high school students and one in five middle school students claim to have had sexual intercourse.

And this is surprising news to many Hillsborough parents.

The Youth Risk Behavior Survey, compiled in four thick volumes by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, polled more than 5,000 randomly-selected Hillsborough students finding that nearly one-third said they were propositioned to buy, bought or sold drugs while at school. More than 9 percent of male students and nearly 12 percent of female students said they had been forced to have sex.

Reporter Marilyn Brown, in the Dec. 11 edition of the Tampa Tribune, reported on a small PTA meeting of Hillsborough parents and grandparents, who said they didn't know about the survey, but were interested in the results.

Sex educators promised that more information about sex would mean, if not less sex, than "safer sex." The CDC survey reveals the opposite to be true with younger kids having sex and condom use declining with age, dropping from 78 percent usage in eighth grade to 61.4 percent for high school seniors.

Leaving out the emotional and spiritual damage caused by early sexual activity (which is significant), the physical and societal consequences of teen sex are considerable. According to a Heritage Foundation policy paper by Robert E. Rector, sexually transmitted diseases, including incurable viral infections, are now epidemic. While we contemplate a bird flu pandemic, 3 million teenagers contract STDs every year, afflicting about one in four sexually active teens.

Rector writes about research that has shown a correlation between sexual activity among adolescents and the likelihood they will engage in other high-risk behavior, such as tobacco, alcohol and illicit drug use. Pediatrics magazine (vol. 87, No. 2 Feb 1, 1991, pp 141-147) reports that sexually active boys aged 12 through 16 are four times more likely to smoke and six times more likely to consume alcohol than those who describe themselves as virgins. With fewer models in culture, or at home, for stable, two-parent families (one child in three is now born out of wedlock), by the time teens reach their 20s, many are living together and having babies in a nonmarital environment that has been modeled before them through personal experience, the media and their peers. Nearly half of the mothers who give birth outside of marriage are cohabiting with the child's father at the time of birth.

Though true abstinence-only programs have been effective in altering sexual behavior, the so-called "sex education" programs in government schools do more to promote sex than prevent it, giving lip service to chastity while spending most of the class time teaching kids how to use condoms.

If parents care enough about their children to want to do more than fret about such things, they are going to have to radically alter their approach to childrearing.

Step one is to pull them from the government schools that serve as hothouses for this kind of behavior and thinking. Step two is to reduce lavish lifestyles so that parents work less and invest more time in their children, with one parent actually staying home to make the home a safe haven. Step three is no television in the home. Television has become hostile to the things most parents want their children to believe and embrace. It is deadly to their moral development; it encourages disrespect for fathers and undermines those things that used to make families a strong, positive cultural force.

The government schools and the sex and entertainment industries aren't about to fix the problem. The responsibility to properly raise children belongs to parents. The state and various interest groups have no right to develop the moral fiber of a child and, in fact, they are speedily undermining that development.

If parents don't want any more surprises like those in Tampa, they have to rescue their kids from a hostile culture, just as they would rescue them from a burning building. In fact, those "buildings" are enveloped in the flames of self-indulgence. And the damage is not only to their bodies, but also to their minds and souls.

Blogs create controversy at schools

Teacher and student blogs are creating concerns about privacy and First Amendment problems. Read the story from the Chicago Tribune.

Football players suspended for violent remarks in class journals

Two high school football players were suspended in California for writing in their English journals about how they intended to kill their English teacher, according to an Associated Press article.

Sex education programs cause states to opt out of federal money

Stateline.org carried a story this week about Maine, joining California and Pennsylvania as states that have opted out of federal money rather than restricting sex education programs to the teaching of abstinence.

Tennessee student newspapers seized

School administrators in Oak Ridge, Tenn., confiscated student newspapers that carried stories about birth control and tattoo parlors. Were the students' First Amendment rights violated? The story is featured in a CNN article.

Openly gay student sues principal for telling parents she was gay

I don't understand how this lawsuit can be allowed to continue, but apparently is is going to. The following article came from Friday's New York Times.

Openly Gay Student's Lawsuit Over Privacy Will Proceed
By TAMAR LEWIN
In a case involving a California high school girl who was openly gay at school, a federal judge has ruled that the girl, Charlene Nguon, may proceed with a lawsuit charging that her privacy rights were violated when the principal called her mother and disclosed that she is gay.

Ms. Nguon filed suit in September after a year of run-ins with Ben Wolf, the principal of Santiago High School in Garden Grove, Calif., over her hugging, kissing and holding hands with her girlfriend. Ms. Nguon was an all-A student ranked in the top 5 percent of her class, with no prior record of discipline. But last year, after Mr. Wolf said he wanted to separate her from her girlfriend, she transferred to another school. Her grades slipped, and her commute grew from a four-block walk to a four-and-a-half mile bike ride.

Judge James V. Selna of the Central District Court of California ruled Monday that Ms. Nguon had "sufficiently alleged a legally protected privacy interest in information about her sexual orientation."

"This is the first court ruling we're aware of where a judge has recognized that a student has a right not to have her sexual orientation disclosed to her parents, even if she is out of the closet at school," said Christine Sun, a lawyer at the American Civil Liberties Union, who brought the case. "It's really important, because, while Charlene's parents have been very supportive, coming out is a very serious decision that should not be taken away from anyone, and disclosure can cause a lot of harm to students who live in an unsupportive home."

Alan Trudell, a spokesman for the school district, would not comment on the litigation. In its motion to dismiss the case, the district argued that Ms. Nguon had no legally protectable privacy right because she was "openly lesbian" and "constantly" hugging and kissing her girlfriend.

"A reasonable person could not expect that their actions on school grounds, in front of everyone else on the school grounds, would remain private," the motion said.

The district also said Ms. Nguon had "an issue with authority" and was disciplined because of her defiance, not because of her homosexuality. Both Ms. Nguon and her girlfriend were suspended twice, once for a day and once for a week.

The district saw Ms. Nguon's behavior and legal case as inconsistent, its motion questioning why "she can be openly gay in public, but should be permitted to hide her homosexuality from her parents."

Ms. Nguon said yesterday that the day on which the principal called was a difficult one for the family.

"My mom picked me up from school and her eyes were all watery," she said. "I just went to my room and cried. We didn't talk about it for about a week."

After the A.C.L.U. sent a letter to the school in late July, Ms. Nguon was allowed to return to Santiago High, but to date the school has not agreed to clear her disciplinary record.

Conservatives criticized the judge's reasoning. "This court ruling is so unrealistic that it borders on ridiculous," said Carrie Gordon Earll, a spokeswoman for Focus on the Family, a socially conservative group based in Colorado. "In a disciplinary action by the school, you can't expect them to lie to the parents and not give details of what happened. It seems ironic to raise privacy as an issue in a public display of affection. She'd already outed herself."

Advocates for gay rights, however, welcomed the judge's decision to let the case proceed, but said it was too soon to celebrate.

"I wouldn't yet go out and tell a kid in Iowa to walk down the halls at school holding hands with his boyfriend," said Brian Chase, a lawyer with the Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund. "It isn't fair, but gay kids expressing affection are not treated the way straight kids are."

The lawsuit seeks to clear Ms. Nguon's record and create a districtwide policy and guidelines for the treatment of gay students.

Springfield schools have Christmas problems

Springfield public schools are having a problem with Christmas and holiday-related activities, according to a story in today's Springfield News-Leader.

Thirteen suspended for foodfights

The following article was posted today on KYTV Channel 3 in Springfield's website:

Kickapoo High School suspends 13 for food fights
by Laurie Patton, KY3 News
SPRINGFIELD -- Thirteen Kickapoo High School students are suspended from classes, some for as long as 10 days, after food fights in the school cafeteria. The melee was on Wednesday, Nov. 23, a day when classes were dismissed three hours early in every school in the district to stretch the four-day Thanksgiving break.

A spokesman for the Springfield School District says Kickapoo faculty members got wind of the planned food fight a couple of weeks ago. He says Principal Doug Bloch warned all students several days before the food fight about the district's policy on punishing disorderly conduct

Math, reading emphasis pushing arts aside?

An interesting article on stateline.org talks about efforts by Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee and others to keep the fine arts from being pushed aside by schools' increased emphasis on math and communication arts to meet No Child Left Behind guidelines.

Times article: More problems with No Child Left Behind

Today's New York Times featured an article which describes more of the problems facing the federal No Child Left Behind act.

Students Ace State Tests, but Earn D's From U.S.
By SAM DILLON
New York Times
After Tennessee tested its eighth-grade students in math this year, state officials at a jubilant news conference called the results a "cause for celebration." Eighty-seven percent of students performed at or above the proficiency level.

But when the federal government made public the findings of its own tests last month, the results were startlingly different: only 21 percent of Tennessee's eighth graders were considered proficient in math.

Such discrepancies have intensified the national debate over testing and accountability, with some educators saying that numerous states have created easy exams to avoid the sanctions that President Bush's centerpiece education law, No Child Left Behind, imposes on consistently low-scoring schools.

A comparison of state test results against the latest National Assessment of Educational Progress, a federal test mandated by the No Child Left Behind law, shows that wide discrepancies between the state and federal findings were commonplace.

In Mississippi, 89 percent of fourth graders performed at or above proficiency on state reading tests, while only 18 percent of fourth graders demonstrated proficiency on the federal test. Oklahoma, North Carolina, Alabama, Georgia, Alaska, Texas and more than a dozen other states all showed students doing far better on their own reading and math tests than on the federal one.

The chasm is significant because of the compromises behind the No Child Left Behind law. The law requires states to participate in the National Assessment - known to educators as NAEP (pronounced nape) - the most important federal measure of student proficiency.

But in a bow to states' rights, states are allowed to use their own tests in meeting the law's central mandate - that schools increase the percentage of students demonstrating proficiency each year. The law requires 100 percent of the nation's students to reach proficiency - as each state defines it - by 2014.

States set the stringency of their own tests as well as the number of questions students must answer correctly to be labeled proficient. And because states that fail to raise scores over time face serious sanctions, there is little incentive to make the exams difficult, some educators say.

"Under No Child Left Behind, the states get to set the proficiency bar wherever they like, and unfortunately most are setting it quite low," said Michael J. Petrilli, a vice president of the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation, which generally supports the federal law.

"They're telling the public in their states that huge numbers of students are proficient, but the NAEP results show that's not the case," Mr. Petrilli said.

Other educators and experts give different reasons for the discrepancy between state and federal test results. A Standard & Poor's report this fall listed many reasons for such differences, among them that the National Assessment is a no-stakes test, while low scores on state tests lead to sanctions against schools.

The report noted that the National Assessment is given to a sampling of students, whereas schools administer state tests to nearly all students. The tests serve different purposes, with the federal one giving policy makers a snapshot of student performance across the nation, while state tests provide data about individual performance. Because of these differences, some state officials say it is unfair to compare the test results.

But the report by Standard & Poor's, which has a division that analyzes educational data, also noted some states' tests are just easier.

G. Gage Kingsbury, director of research at the Northwest Evaluation Association, a nonprofit group that administers tests in 1,500 districts nationwide, said states that set their proficiency standards before No Child Left Behind became law had tended to set them high.

"The idea back then was that we needed to be competitive with nations like Hong Kong and Singapore," he said. "But our research shows that since N.C.L.B. took effect, states have set lower standards."

Not all have a low bar. In South Carolina, Missouri, Wyoming and Maine, state results tracked closely with the federal exam.

South Carolina is a state that set world-class standards, Mr. Kingsbury said. The math tests there are so difficult that only 23 percent of eighth graders scored at or above the proficiency level this year, compared with 30 percent on the federal math test. South Carolina officials now fear that such rigor is coming back to haunt them.

"We set very high standards for our tests, and unfortunately it's put us at a great disadvantage," said Inez M. Tenenbaum, the state superintendent of education. "We thought other states would be high-minded too, but we were mistaken."

South Carolina's tough exams make it harder for schools there to show the annual testing gains demanded by the federal law.

This year less than half of the state's 1,109 schools met the federal law's benchmark for the percentage of students showing proficiency, a challenge that will get tougher each year. As a result, legislators are pushing to lower the state's proficiency standard, Ms. Tenenbaum said, an idea she opposes.

Because of the discrepancies, several prominent educators are now calling for a system of national testing that counts, like those at the heart of educational systems in England, France and Japan.

"We need national standards and national tests," said Diane Ravitch, a professor at New York University who is a former member of the National Assessment's board. "I conclude that states are just looking to make everybody feel good."

Ms. Tenenbaum too says the differences among states have convinced her of the need for a national test. "I think we should all just take the NAEP," she said. "Get it out of the states' hands."

But Representative John A. Boehner, chairman of the House Committee on Education and the Work Force, defended states' rights to define proficiency as they see fit and said that over time comparisons with the federal test would force them to draw up better tests.

"The bright lights of accountability are going to shine on the states who are kidding themselves," said Mr. Boehner, Republican of Ohio.

The battle lines have long been sharp in the testing debate. Most corporate leaders favor national testing, said Susan Traiman, a director at the Business Roundtable, a group that represents corporate executives.

Opponents include liberal groups that dislike all standardized testing; the testing industry itself, which has found lucrative profits in writing new exams for all 50 states; and political conservatives who fiercely resist any intrusion on states' rights to control curricula and tests.

Margaret Spellings, the secretary of education, says that the comparison of state and federal tests provides useful information. "It allows us to shine a light," she said. "This is a truth-in-advertising type deal."

But Ms. Spellings has declined to criticize states whose tests appear to overstate the percentage of their students who are proficient. The law leaves it to states to calibrate their accountability systems, including how difficult they make their exams, she said. "We're not going to sit up in Washington and look at all those moving parts," Ms. Spellings said.

The National Assessment uses three performance levels to classify student results: advanced, which denotes superior performance; proficient, which indicates that students have "demonstrated competency" and basic, which indicates students have attained only "partial mastery of prerequisite knowledge and skills." Many students also score below basic, which the National Assessment's governing board does not classify as an achievement level.

On Oct. 19, the day the federal results were released, Ms. Spellings urged reporters to compare the percentage of students performing at the proficiency level on state tests with the percentage of students performing at the basic level on the federal test.

Many state officials said they also preferred that comparison, which greatly softens the discrepancies. In Tennessee, for instance, the 66-point gap between the federal and state results in eighth-grade math shrinks to just 26 points if the state results are compared with the federal measure of basic skills.

"NAEP's basic is comparable to our proficient," said Kim Karesh, a spokeswoman for the Tennessee Department of Education. "Now whether Tennessee's test is stringent enough is something that we're reviewing constantly. Nobody here would say we have a perfect test."

Officials in many other states whose scores differed sharply from those of the National Assessment cried foul over the very idea of comparing the results.

"The comparison to NAEP is not fair," said Mitch Edwards, a spokesman for the Department of Education in Alabama, where 83 percent of fourth-grade students scored at or above proficient on the state's reading test while only 22 percent demonstrated proficiency on the federal reading test. "Making comparisons to the NAEP becomes very difficult without giving the impression that some states are not measuring up to others or to the nation."

In Georgia, 83 percent of eighth graders scored at or above proficient on state reading tests, compared with just 24 percent on the federal test. "Kids know the federal test doesn't really count," said Dana Tofig, a spokesman for the State Department of Education. "So it's not a fair comparison; it's not apples to apples."

'Small Town News' available from author

For those who are not comfortable with giving out their credit card numbers to order information over the Internet (or those who are truly desperate for Christmas gift ideas), I am accepting orders for autographed copies of my novel, "Small Town News."
Send $20 to cover the cost of the book, tax, and shipping costs to: Randy Turner, 2306 E. 8th, Joplin, MO 64801.
For those who have already bought the book and would like to have their copies signed, feel free to mail them to me at the above address and enclose a self-addressed, stamped envelope. I would be happy to sign them.

School is most stressful thing for teens

School, not peer pressure or violence, is considered the most stressful thing by teens, according to a Hartford Courant article.

Is Power Point evil?

The question in the headline, "Is Power Point Evil?" is being posed by an Education World article.

Too may fire drills?

New York schools have too many fire drills, some education officials think. Read the story in the New York Post.

Update on 'Small Town News'

The first Joplin signing for my novel, "Small Town News," has been scheduled for 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 12 (next Saturday) at Hastings. Approximately 50 books will be available and should we run out, orders will immediately be taken for books and I will autograph those books.
The book is on the shelves at Hastings, as well as at the Changing Hands Book Shoppe in Joplin. Those from outside the area who would like to buy it or those who can't make it to the signing or who want to avoid the Joplin traffic, can buy it online at Amazon.com, Booksamillion.com, Barnes & Noble, Borders or from the IUniverse website.
More information about the novel can be found at its website.

Joplin Globe article features South teacher

The creator of this blog, plus The Turner Report, South Middle School eighth grade communication arts teacher Randy Turner, is featured in an article in today's Joplin Globe.

Does Internet usage interfere with growing up?

Today's New York Times features a fascinating article about whether teens are spending too much time online and are not becoming involved in other activities.

Parents Fret That Dialing Up Interferes With Growing Up
By MIREYA NAVARRO
KATHERINE KELIHER, 9, of Lakeville, Minn., could sleep an extra hour every weekday morning if she wanted to. But she would rather get up early, sit down at her computer and spend that time trading instant messages with her best friends, five girls she will soon see at school.

"We just talk about, like, 'What are you going to do today?' and stuff like that," Katherine said.

Her mother, Judy Keliher, says she isn't looking to deprive Katherine of her messaging access. "For fourth graders this is critical," she said, understanding that video games, cellphones, iPods and other high-tech gear are just part of growing up in a digital world. But Ms. Keliher is concerned about the amount of time her children, including a son, Matthew, 14, spend there.

So she is asserting some control. She says she will allow only one computer in the house and limits Matthew's and Katherine's screen time each night. "I don't like them to be home and be lazy, not at the expense of doing other things that need to get done," said Ms. Keliher, 43, who is divorced and works full time as the manager of a hardware store. "I just put it into the whole scope of a healthy lifestyle."

In interviews and surveys many parents say that their children spend too much time in front of computers and on cellphones. Some parents worry that long, sedentary hours spent at a computer may lead to weight gain, or that an excess of instant and text messaging comes at the expense of learning face-to-face social skills. Some complain of having to compete for their childrens' attention more than ever.

A report on teenagers and technology released this summer by the Pew Internet and American Life Project found that teenagers' use of computers has increased significantly. More than half of teenage Internet users go online daily, up from 42 percent in 2000, the report said; 81 percent of those users play video games, up from 52 percent.

Instant messaging has become "the digital communication backbone of teens' daily lives," used by 75 percent of online teenagers, according to the Pew report. "Parents are really struggling with this," said David Walsh, the president of the National Institute on Media and the Family, a nonprofit educational organization in Minneapolis that began a program this year to help families reduce screen time and increase physical activity. "As the gadgets keep evolving, they keep consuming more and more of our kids' time. Our kids need a balanced diet of activity, and the problem is that it's getting out of balance. I don't think as a society we're dealing with it yet."

Technological advances have produced generational conflicts before, of course, whether the gadget was a rabbit-ear television set, a transistor radio or a personal computer. The young would find the latest thing exciting and freeing. Parents would worry that it was distracting and cramping academic and social development. So it goes today. Only now it is not a single high-tech wonder that concerns parents but a seemingly constant and ever-more-sophisticated tide of them.

As new technological devices beckon - Apple recently rolled out an iPod that can play video - young people are not necessarily shedding old media. A survey of 8- to 18-year-olds by the Kaiser Family Foundation this year found that the total amount of media content young people are exposed to each day has gone up by more than one hour over the past five years, to eight and a half hours.

But because they are multitasking, young people are packing that content into an average of six and a half hours a day, including three hours watching television, nearly two hours listening to music, more than an hour on the computer outside of homework (more than double the average of 27 minutes in 1999) and just under an hour playing video games.

Neither the Kaiser nor the Pew report found evidence of impending doom in all that exposure. The Pew report noted, for example, that despite their great affection for technology, teenagers still spent somewhat more time socializing with friends in person than on the telephone or through e-mail or instant and text messaging. And as teenagers get older, the report found, they tend to be less interested in diversions like online games and more inclined to use the Web for information.

"It's not something I think is a crisis," said Elizabeth Hartigan, the managing editor of L.A. Youth, a newspaper and Web site for high school students in Los Angeles. "Teen pregnancy is a crisis."

For a great number of young people, Ms. Hartigan said, high-tech gear was not an issue because their families can't afford much beyond a television set. Others are just not that interested. "Some kids get really into it, but some kids are obsessed with fashions or boyfriends or cars," she said.

Ariel Edwards-Levy, 16, a staff writer with L.A. Youth, agreed that computer use is "a sedentary activity, and if you let yourself be obsessive, it's an issue."

"But some parents don't understand that it's a different medium," she said. "It's mostly just a tool, and it can be used very well. The resources online are amazing. You can meet people and reconnect with people."

Many parents say they are limiting screen time, checking their children's Web-surfing histories and using filters to block objectionable material. Another strategy is to keep only one computer in the house and to place it in a common area, like the family room, better to monitor children's online habits.

Paula Hagan Bennett, a lawyer from the San Francisco Bay area, says she uses a variety of methods to manage how and when her four boys - ages 16, 14, 12 and 5 - are connected. For the two older boys that means controlling the use of their cellphones. "It's not for them to be chattering," said Ms. Bennett, 48, who insists that calls are for contacting parents, not friends, and should last no longer than three minutes.

For the 12-year-old it means limiting computer screen time and disabling the instant messaging function. He was unhappy about it, she said, and had no trouble reinstalling it when she wasn't looking. (Ms. Bennett prevailed.) But she said she views instant messaging as she does most cellphone conversations among young people.

"It's a waste of time," she said, "because most of the time they're talking about nothing." As for her 5-year-old, technology is not yet an issue, but Ms. Bennett said that in affluent Marin County, where she lives, she has seen young children watching "Barney and Friends" on portable DVD players in the backs of cars.

Linda Folsom, a media producer for the Walt Disney Company theme parks, decided to stick to a "motherly nag mode" rather than impose restrictions on her 14-year-old daughter, Alana, who "tends to be constantly on the I.M.," Ms. Folsom said.

While doing homework Alana will write a paragraph, respond to an instant message, then go back to her schoolwork, her mother said. "She says the I.M. is related to the project she's working on," Ms. Folsom said. "But if I hear giggling, I put in a comment: 'It doesn't sound like homework to me.' "

But Ms. Folsom, 46, and her husband, Scott, 57, a PTA leader in Los Angeles, said they had no reason to crack down on Alana because she earned good grades and behaved well. But they have insisted that she eat dinner with them and that she practice her clarinet and play soccer.

Alana sees her instant chatting as harmless. "It's just rambling," she said. And it is fun to be able to have a five-way chat with friends, she said. But she said she knows when it's time to type the message: "I'm doing homework. Leave me alone."

"If it starts controlling you rather than you controlling it, that's when you stop," Alana said.

Ms. Folsom said she felt that the technology was robbing her of her daughter's company more and more. There was a time, she said, when father, mother and child would listen to the same music in the car. "Now she plays the iPod, and she's in her own music world," Ms. Folsom said.

David Levy, a University of Washington professor who studies high-tech communications and quality of life, acknowledges that the young have become adept at managing multiple sources of information at once, but he questions whether the ability to multitask has curbed their "ability to focus on a single thing, the ability to be silent and still inside, basically the ability to be unplugged and content."

"That's true for the whole culture," he said. "Most adults have a hard time doing that, too. What we're losing is the contemplative dimension of life. For our sanity, we need to cultivate that."

Some parents seem to be getting that message. When the National Institute on Media and the Family went looking for a few hundred families in Minnesota and Iowa to participate in a research project this year that calls for reducing the amount of time third to fifth graders spend in front of a computer or television screen, 1,300 families signed up.

Ms. Keliher, a Lakeville school board member, is one of the participants. She thought the project would help 9-year-old Katherine "acknowledge the amount of time she spends on the screen."

But as parents try to monitor their children's habits, some said there is also a need to be realistic. "We as parents tend to overreact a little bit to this," Mr. Folsom said. "This is the virtual playground. It's part of growing up."

Teen sex attitudes explored in Boston Globe column

Some disturbing attitudes about teen sex are explored in Jeff Jacoby's column in today's Boston Globe.

The pressure to sell

One of the most common problems at schools across the United States is the incredible amount of fund raisers that are held. The subject was addressed in a recent Detroit Free Press article.

'Small Town News' available at two Joplin stores

My novel, "Small Town News," the story of a high school junior whose internship with a local TV station enables her to see the dark side of the media, will be available at two Joplin stores. It is already for sale at the Changing Hands Book Shoppe at 528 S. Virginia Avenue, and as of Monday, Oct. 24, it will be on sale at Hastings. I am reprinting The Turner Report posts below:
HASTINGS


Hastings in Joplin will carry my novel, "Small Town News" beginning Monday. A signing at the store will be held on a Saturday in November. A specific date will be announced early next week.
As of Monday, the book will be available locally at Hastings and the Changing Hands Book Shoppe. It is available online through Amazon.com, Books-A-Million, and IUniverse.

Changing Hands Book Shoppe

As of this afternoon, "Small Town News" is available at the Changing Hands Book Shoppe, 528 S. Virginia Avenue, Joplin (for those of you unfamiliar with Joplin, Virginia is one block east of Main).
I am particularly pleased that Changing Hands is the first retail outlet for the book since the owners are John and Susie Davidson, and John is a graduate of my alma mater East Newton High School
The store is open from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Saturday. The phone number is 417-623-6699. The photo that accompanies this post comes from the book's first signing, which took place Thursday, Oct. 20, at the Neosho/Newton County Library.

No Child Left Behind fails first test

The following article on the first national tests which offer any evidence of the success or failure of "No Child Left Behind" ran Friday in The New York Times:
Bush Education Law Shows Mixed Results in First Test
By SAM DILLON
WASHINGTON, Oct. 19 - The first nationwide test to permit an appraisal of President Bush's signature education law rendered mixed results on Wednesday, with even some supporters of the law expressing disappointment.

Math scores were up slightly but eighth-grade reading showed a decline, and there was only modest progress toward closing the achievement gap between white and minority students, which is one of the Bush administration's primary goals. In many categories, the results indicated, the gap remains as wide as it was in the early 1990's.

By some measures, students were making greater gains before the law was put into effect.

"The absence of really bad news isn't the same as good news, and if you're concerned about education and closing achievement gaps, there's simply not enough good news in these national results," said Ross Wiener, policy director of the Education Trust, a group that seeks to bring attention to the needs of poor and minority students and has consistently supported the federal law.

The National Assessment of Educational Progress, a comprehensive reading and math examination given to hundreds of thousands of students periodically since 1990, including in 2003 and last spring, was the first nationwide exam to allow a direct comparison between two successive test administrations since Mr. Bush signed the law in January 2002.

Mr. Bush, meeting with Education Secretary Margaret Spellings at the White House, said he was pleased with the test. "It shows there's an achievement gap in America that is closing," Mr. Bush said.

In an interview, Ms. Spellings called attention to the improvement in math by fourth graders. She said the less robust increases and outright declines in some reading scores were understandable in part, because the nations schools are assimilating huge numbers of immigrants.

"We have more non-native speakers, there are lots of so-called at-risk, hard-to-educate students, and in spite of that, steady progress is being made," she said. "We're on the right track with No Child Left Behind."

Department of Education officials administered the test to 660,000 students in the 50 states and the District of Columbia, and on military bases around the world from January to March. It uses a 500-point scale, with scores assigned to achievement levels: below basic; basic, which denotes partial mastery of grade-level knowledge and skills; proficient, which represents solid performance and competency, and advanced, signifying superior performance.

This year's fourth-grade reading scores were almost flat, with the average score rising one point, but with 31 percent of students scoring proficient this year, the same percentage as in 2003. The decline in eighth-grade reading came as 31 percent of students scored as proficient, compared with 32 percent in 2003.

Fourth-grade students improved in math, with 36 percent scoring proficient, compared with 32 percent in 2003. Among the fourth-grade math scores there was another important gain, with the proportion of black students performing below basic declining to 40 percent from 46 percent.

Eighth-grade math scores also rose, with 30 percent of students proficient in math this year, compared with 29 percent in 2003.

But even the math improvements at both grade levels compared unfavorably with progress made from 2000 to 2003, said Jack Jennings, president of the Center on Education Policy, a nonprofit group that has mixed criticism of the law with praise for its accomplishments.

From 2000 to 2003, before the federal law took full effect in classrooms, the percentage of fourth graders scoring proficient in math rose eight percentage points, compared with four points this year, Mr. Jennings said, and the percentage of eighth graders proficient in math rose three points before the law, compared with the one-point rise this year.

"The rate of improvement was faster before the law," Mr. Jennings said. "There's a question as to whether No Child is slowing down our progress nationwide."

Gage Kingsbury, director of research at the Northwest Educational Evaluation Association, a nonprofit group based in Oregon that carries out testing in 1,500 school districts, said the results raised new concerns about the feasibility of reaching the law's goal of full proficiency for all students by 2014.

Fourth-grade math students showed some of the most rapid progress in closing the achievement gap between black and white students, Mr. Kingsbury said. Extrapolating from those results, he said, black and white students would probably be performing at equal proficiency levels by 2034. Other results, like eighth-grade reading, suggest it will take 200 years or more for the gap to close, he said.

"The change is moving too slowly," Mr. Kingsbury said.

When results of a smaller, long-term trend version of the National Assessment were released in July, Darvin M. Winick, the chairman of the National Assessment Governing Board, which oversees the test, warned against attributing the solid gains it showed among elementary students to No Child Left Behind. Mr. Winick pointed out that when that test was administered in late 2003 and early 2004, the law had been in effect for only about a year.

Administration officials, however, credited the law for the positive results, even though a proliferation of early childhood and kindergarten programs and efforts by states to impose curriculum standards, increase testing and reduce class sizes, begun during the Clinton administration, may have contributed.

The test results pointed to some clear standouts. Massachusetts students outperformed those of every other state in both reading and math at the two levels tested. District of Columbia students scored lowest, by far, in both subjects at both grade levels. California, where tax-cutting initiatives have driven down per-pupil spending and schools are crowded with immigrants, registered the nation's second-lowest reading scores.

Calculations made by New York officials showed the state's black and Hispanic students had made gains exceeding national averages.

But New York was also among a group of states singled out for criticism on Wednesday by the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation, a group that supports charter schools.

Foundation analysts used the federal test scores to evaluate assertions by many states that their students had made impressive gains from 2003 to 2005. States set proficiency levels for their own tests at widely varying levels.

Comparing the scores released Wednesday with previously released state scores, the foundation found that the gains trumpeted by more than 15 states were not confirmed by the federal results.

In New York, the percentage of students scoring proficient in eighth grade reading on the state's own tests rose by three points from 2003 to 2005, while the percentage scoring proficient dropped two points during the same period on the federal tests, the Fordham study showed.

But New York was not among the worst offenders, the foundation said. They were Alabama, California, Idaho, Arizona, Maryland, Virginia and Kentucky, it said.



Copyright 2005 The New York Times

'Small Town News' story runs in Carthage, Neosho papers

A story on my book, "Small Town News was featured in today's editions of The Carthage Press and the Neosho Daily News. It is reprinted below. The photo ran with the story in The Press.

Former Press editor releases book, ‘Small Town News’

By Ron Graber Of The Press Staff
Randy Turner just might get a little more respect from the eighth graders he instructs in his Communication Arts class at Joplin South.

The former Carthage Press editor knows words - he estimates he has written 20,000 newspaper articles in his career.

But he has now added a new accomplishment to his resume - published author.

“Small Town News” a book about journalists but inspired by the events in Diamond, Mo. that took place on Oct. 31, 2001 when the school’s superintendent committed suicide and the Diamond Community Bank and Trust were robbed.

The book, Turner emphasizes, is fiction. “Like Law and Order, ripped from old headlines,” he said.

“I didn’t want to tell the story of what happened to Dr. Smith,” said Turner, who was a teacher in Diamond at the time of the incident. “I wanted to tell the story of how the media reacts to events in a small town and how people react.”

The book’s plot focuses on a high school journalist named Tiffany Everett, who is taking part in a one-week internship at an area television station, and watches a week of turmoil surrounding the community’s crisis.

“During seven exciting days, Tiffany Everett sees the permanent damage that can be done when the media circus hits a small town...and if she’s lucky, she may live to see football homecoming,” says the synopsis on the back cover of Turner’s book.

While the novel may not be a thesis on the role of journalists in society, it may get readers thinking, said Turner.

“It poses some questions about journalism ethics,” said Turner. “It may get people to think about just why do journalists do things that way.”

Although “Small Town News” is not the first fictional story Turner has written, it is the first he has had published, something he credits to his maturity and the current availability of “print on demand” publishers.

He said he knew his writing had improved when the rejection letters he received were handwritten notes of encouragement. Not just standard form letters.

Another thing Turner has going for him is his blog, “The Turner Report,” a running analysis of news, politics and the media that can be found at http://www.rturner229.blogspot.com

“I told my kids that if I am going to make you write everyday, I am going to write everyday,” said Turner of the origin of his blog.

His job as a teacher makes a national book tour impossible, but Turner’s web site allows him to market his book from home, he said.

“It’s a different way of doing things that didn’t exist just a few years ago,” said Turner.

“Small Town News” can be found through Turner’s web site as well as via Amazon.com, Books-A-Million (web site and store) and IUniverse.

Turner will hold a book signing at 7 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 20 at the Neosho Library.

Dirty dancing banned

Perhaps the day of the Joplin High School Football Homecoming Dance is not the day to post this article, but school officials in Spokane, Wash., have banned school dances because of a sexually explicit type of dancing known as freaking. Read the article from the Associated Press.

More information on 'Small Town News'

Everything is moving rapidly on the "Small Town News" front.
My first signing has definitely been set for 7 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 20, at the Neosho Library. I will have 40 copies of the novel available and I will definitely be happy to order more if there are not enough copies to accommodate the audience (and, of course, I am hoping that turns out to be the case).
***
As of yesterday, "Small Town News" can be ordered through Amazon.com as well as Books-A-Million and IUniverse. It can also be ordered at any Books-A-Million store, which will save you shipping costs. I plan on having some outlets set up in the Joplin area sometime in the next few weeks.
***
I was interviewed yesterday by Carthage Press Managing Editor Ron Graber for a feature that will run sometime next week.

Graduation requirements increased

Missouri's State Board of Education voted this week to increase graduation requirements beginning with students who are in eighth grade this year. Read about the decision in this Department of Elementary and Secondary Education news release.

'Small Town News' now available through Books-A-Million

Today was a pretty exciting day for me. After my seventh hour class ended at 3 p.m., I went downstairs to check the mail slots in the counselor's office. I noticed a UPS box and it contained my 10 free copies of "Small Town News."
It is hard to describe the feeling; after 35 years of just dreaming of being in print, I can now hold a book with my name on the cover and (unfortunately) my picture on the back cover.
Things have been moving rapidly on the promotional end. One of my former students, Ashley Nickolaisen, a freshman at Diamond High School, e-mailed me earlier this week and asked if I would be interested in speaking at an event being set up by a teen group which was recently formed to draw young people to the Neosho Library. Students from Diamond, East Newton, Neosho, and Seneca are involved. I will have my first book signing there sometime the week of Oct. 16-22 (the date will be set sometime in the next couple of days).
Any of you who think you might be there and be interested in buying a book, let me know so I will know how many to have available that night. If I understand it right, people will also be listening to me speak and the public at large is going to be invited. (Obviously, we will have to check for weapons at the door.)
I also discovered today that, for the first time, "Small Town News' is listed on the Books-A-Million website. So you can order it over the Internet or ask the people at Books-A-Million to order it for you. It will soon be available through the Hastings, Amazon.com, Borders, and WaldenBooks sites, among others. I will update you as I find out more.
I have also been contacted by two area newspapers already for interviews (I will tell you who they are, once the interviews have taken place.) Last weekend, I was interviewed by a reporter for Missouri Southern State University's magazine, "Crossroads."
I will be honest with you, I have been stunned, but deeply gratified, by the high level of interest in this book.

New page added to 'Small Town News' site

As readers of this blog are aware, my novel, "Small Town News," which is based on the events of Oct. 31, 2001, when the Diamond bank was robbed and Diamond school superintendent Dr. Greg Smith disappeared, was made available for order from the publisher last week, and will soon be available for order through local outlets.
Links to the Joplin Globe's articles about Dr. Smith's disappearance are featured on a new page "Events of Oct. 31, 2001," at the Small Town News website if you would like to acquaint yourself with the real-life events before you read the novel.

Hay is cheaper than gas

Hay his cheaper than gas. That's what some Utah teens said when they started riding their horses to school...until school officials put a stop to it. Check out the following web address for this article:
http://www.suntimes.com/cgi-bin/print.cgi

Evolution vs. central design

The question of whether evolution or intelligent design or both should be taught in public schools is headed for court in Pennsylvania. Please read the following article from Reuters:

New evolution spat in schools goes to court

PHILADELPHIA, Pennsylvania (Reuters) -- A new battle over teaching about man's origins in U.S. schools goes to court for the first time next week, pitting Christian conservatives against educators and scientists in a trial viewed as the biggest test of the issue since the late 1980s.

Eleven parents of students at a Pennsylvania high school are suing over the school district's decision to include "intelligent design" -- an alternative to evolution that involves a God-like creator -- in the curriculum of ninth-grade biology classes.

The parents and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) say the policy of the Dover Area School District in south-central Pennsylvania violates the constitutional separation of church and state, which forbids teaching religion in public schools.

They also argue that intelligent design is unscientific and has no place in a science curriculum.

Intelligent design holds that nature is so complex it must have been the work of an God-like creator rather than the result of natural selection, as argued by Charles Darwin in his 1859 Theory of Evolution.

The school board says there are "gaps" in evolution, which it emphasizes is a theory rather than established fact, and that students have a right to consider other views on the origins of life. In their camp is President George W. Bush, who has said schools should teach evolution and intelligent design.

The Dover school board says it does not teach intelligent design but simply makes students aware of its existence as an alternative to evolution. It denies intelligent design is "religion in disguise" and says it is a scientific theory.

The board is being represented by The Thomas More Law Center, a Michigan-based nonprofit which says it uses litigation to promote "the religious freedom of Christians and time-honored family values."

The center did not return phone calls seeking comment.

The trial begins on Monday in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, and is expected to last about five weeks.

'Orwellian' efforts
Dr. John West of the Discovery Institute, which sponsors research on intelligent design, said the case displayed the ACLU's "Orwellian" effort to stifle scientific discourse and objected to the issue being decided in court.

"It's a disturbing prospect that the outcome of this lawsuit could be that the court will try to tell scientists what is legitimate scientific inquiry and what is not," West said. "That is a flagrant assault on free speech."

Opponents including the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the National Association of Biology Teachers say intelligent design is an attempt by the Christian right to teach creationism -- the belief that God created the world -- in public schools under the guise of a theory that does not explicitly mention God. The Supreme Court banned the teaching of creationism in public schools in a 1987 ruling.

"Intelligent design is ultimately a science stopper," said Dr. Eugenie Scott of the National Council for Science Education, a pro-evolution group backing the Dover parents.

"It's a political and religious movement that's trying to insinuate itself into the public schools," she said.

But the American public appears to back the school district.

At least 31 states are taking steps to teach alternatives to evolution. A CBS poll last November found 65 percent of Americans favor teaching creationism as well as evolution while 37 percent want creationism taught instead of evolution.

Fifty-five percent of Americans believe God created humans in their present form, the poll found.

Earlier this month a top Roman Catholic cardinal critical of evolution branded scientific opponents of intelligent design intolerant and said there need not be a conflict between Darwin's and Christian views of life's origins.

Cardinal Christoph Schoenborn, a top Church doctrinal expert and close associate of Pope Benedict, said Darwin's theory did not clash with a belief in God so long as scientists did not assert that pure chance accounted for everything from "the Big Bang to Beethoven's Ninth Symphony."

'Small Town News" website set up

The publication of my novel, "Small Town News" is only a few days away. Those wanting to find out more about it can check out the new Small Town News website at http://rturner229.tripod.com/smalltownnews . A link has been set up on the links panel on the right hand side of this page.
To review some basic information that is not on the website:
I was inspired to write "Small Town News" after the death of Dr. Greg Smith, the superintendent who hired me to teach creative writing at Diamond Middle School in August 1999. I was always disturbed by the ease with which some local media linked Dr. Smith's disappearance and the robbery at the Diamond bank, which occurred on the same day...even after it was proven that he had nothing to do with that robbery. I was bothered by the way Dr. Smith's family was treated and I decided in the spring of 2002 that I would write a novel based on those events.
I have always loved to write murder mysteries, so the story has been heavily fictionalized, taking only the basic premise, then sending it off in some different directions than what happened in reality.
The book has considerable differences from the e-book version that circulated three years ago.
The publisher is IUniverse and yes, that is a print-on-demand company and I am paying a small amount to have it set up. This is not a John Grisham or J. K. Rowling deal. I had five publishers and two agents tell me that the book was good, and encouraged me to keep trying to get it published, but it is almost impossible to get published they told me, unless you are one of the two authors named above, or someone with the notoriety of a Paris Hilton or a Pamela Anderson. The reaction surprised me, since the last time I tried to sell a book, 26 years ago, all I received from publishers were form rejection letters. This led me to believe that I might have something a little more substantial on my hands.
My hope is to sell enough to make the novel a viable project for a larger publishing company, and my deal with IUniverse permits that step to be taken at any time that an offer is made to me.
I will update everyone, both on this page and on the Small Town News website when the book is officially available.
Thanks to everyone who has asked me for more information on the book. Your support has been much appreciated. Thanks especially to my students, who have encouraged me in my writing as much as I have encouraged them in theirs.

How about coffee bars for students?

Maybe some coffee is just what sleepy students need to get the morning started right. Check out the following article from the Dallas Morning News.
http://www.dallasnews.com/cgi-bin/bi/gold_print.cgi

Are we placing too much emphasis on math and reading?

The increased emphasis on reading and math caused by No Child Left Behind have lessened the time spent on courses such as history and science. The Washington Post addressed that issue in the following article:


Teachers Stir Science, History Into Core Classes

By Jay Mathews
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, September 20, 2005

Two years ago, W.H. Keister Elementary School in Harrisonburg, Va., began to take the No Child Left Behind law very seriously. Intensive 120-minute reading classes were installed, along with more math. Physical education went from 150 to 90 minutes a week. Music time was cut in half.

This was part of a national movement to make sure all children, particularly those from low-income families -- as were 50 percent of Keister students -- mastered reading and math skills essential to their lives and the rest of their educations. But such parents as Todd Hedinger, whose son, Gabe, attended the school, reacted negatively, saying there was too much emphasis on a few core subjects.

"The emphasis on instructional time pushes everything else out of the way," Hedinger said.

Such concerns have been part of the continuing debate over No Child Left Behind. The time devoted to reading and math has increased. And in many places, the increase has brought results. Between 2002 and 2004, Keister Elementary's passing rate went from 81 to 92 percent on the state English test and from 86 to 90 percent on the math test.

But critics of the federal law say children need a more complete education.

The Washington-based Center on Education Policy reported this year that 27 percent of school systems say they are spending less time on social studies, and nearly 25 percent say they are spending less time on science, art and music. "This tendency results in impoverishing the education of all students, but particularly the education of students who perform less well on the tests," said Robert G. Smith, Arlington County school superintendent, who said his schools have resisted the trend.

Many educators defend the focus on reading and math, as long as it is done properly. Lucretia Jackson, principal of Maury Elementary School in Alexandria, said that basic skills are very important and that many children need extra time to acquire them. Her school made significant test-score gains this year by scheduling after-school classes and enrichment activities three days each week.

"They need to develop the quality of skills that will enable them to meet the needs of the future society," Jackson said.

Rob Weil, deputy director of the educational issues department at the Washington-based American Federation of Teachers, said reducing time for nonacademic subjects has been going on much longer than people realize and until now has had little to do with federal achievement targets. "Districts started cutting art, music and physical education over 15 years ago, in an effort to save money, not in an effort to increase performance," he said.

Andrew Rotherham, co-director of the nonprofit group Education Sector and a member of the Virginia state school board, said: "When faced with disappointing achievement in math and reading, the first reaction of too many schools is to just teach those subjects more and consequently squeeze out other subjects. This 'solution,' however, ignores one common culprit for low achievement -- teaching. Instead of using data to determine if teachers are teaching the material, are able to teach it and what exactly students are struggling with, too often schools decide to just extend the time on these subjects. The problem is, if your instruction is weak for 60 minutes a day, it's going to be for 90 minutes, too."

Mary Alice Barksdale, associate professor of teaching and learning at Virginia Tech, agreed: "There is lots of evidence that the one thing that really makes a difference in the classroom is the teacher and what she knows and does."

Several elementary school programs have shown good results by inserting science, social studies, art and music into reading lessons, rather than removing them from the curriculum. The Core Knowledge program, based in Charlottesville, has first-graders reading about ancient Egypt and second-graders learning about Martin Luther King Jr. and Cesar Chavez. New York University educational historian Diane Ravitch called it "the best national program available."

Project Bright IDEA, which has produced good test results in lower elementary grades in North Carolina, uses advanced materials such as nonfiction books and techniques used previously with just gifted students. "We believe in teaching all children from kindergarten through high school a highly academic program," said Margaret Gayle, the project's manager and co-designer.

Nancy Scott, who teaches English to children from non-English-speaking families in Fairfax County, said she applauds the integration of science and social studies with reading and writing classes but said it might be dependent in some cases on which subjects are on the state test. In her fourth-grade classes, she said, she puts more emphasis on history and lets science take a back seat because that is the year of the Virginia social studies test.

Barksdale said that among the activities teachers have told her they dropped because of test pressure were silent reading, book talks, science experiments, picnics, field trips, classroom skits and creative writing.

"The logic of the fundamental importance of reading and mathematics is universally accepted," said David P. Driscoll, Massachusetts state education commissioner. "However, the testing of those subjects leads people to spend more time out of fear. While some extra focus particularly around test-taking skills and the most common standards is appropriate, this pushing other subjects aside to concentrate on reading and math is not. A full, robust program whereby kids are actively engaged in their learning produces the best results."

At Keister Elementary, test scores are up not only in reading and math but in science and social studies, despite fears of a negative result. Hedinger congratulated the "dedicated, loving, smart and creative people" who teach at the school but said he still does not like the long reading classes and athletic and music cuts because they reduced his son's love of learning.

"Is the meaning of education cramming as much knowledge in, to pass a standardized test, or is it meant to include something else -- creativity, reflection, synthesis, hypothesizing, daydreaming?" Hedinger asked. "What happens to all of that in the process?"

Walking to school is good for you

An article from Reuters indicates that walking to school may be one of the best forms of exercise:

WALKING TO SCHOOL GOOD FOR TEEN HEALTH

NEW YORK - Teens who walk to and from school may get more exercise throughout the day — including during school hours — than those who travel to and from school by car, bus or train, a team of Scottish researchers reports.

“We are unlikely to be 'helping' people by chauffeuring them everywhere they need to go,” study author Dr. Leslie M. Alexander, of Edinburgh University, told Reuters Health. “Moderate and vigorous physical activities are good for us — walking to and from school contributes to this,” the researcher added.

Previous researchers found that walking to school affects overall physical activity among 10-year-old children also, but adolescents are known to be less active than their younger peers.

To determine the impact of walking to school among adolescents, Alexander and co-authors fitted students aged 13 to 14 years with accelerometers to measure activity. They were asked to wear the accelerometers on their hip at all times, from waking until bedtime, unless showering or participating in some other water-based activity.

At the end of the up to 10-day study period, students who walked to and from school were the most physically active overall, the researchers report in the online edition of the British Medical Journal.

These teenagers all spent about an hour or more participating in moderate to vigorous physical activity on weekdays. The same was true of 90 percent of those who walked one way and 87 percent of those who traveled by car, bus or train, findings show.

“So given that we were able to examine data minute by minute, what we found was that even when we looked at specific times during the day (which did not include travel times to and from school), young people who walked both ways to school were more active during these times,” Alexander told Reuters Health.

'Trust your legs'
Specifically, students who walked both ways also accumulated 52 minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity while at school, slightly more than the 50 minutes accumulated by those who walked one way. Those who traveled by car, bus or train, however, accumulated only 43 minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity during school hours.

The researchers did not investigate the reasons for the increased level of physical activity among those who walked to and from school, but they speculate that “walking in the morning may stimulate further activity and social facilitation.”

And, Alexander added, “there are likely to be other benefits from walking, such as opportunities to explore one’s environment, be alone or socialize, a chance to unwind or have a think, and the health-related risks from traffic would be far less if more people walked or cycled.”

Based on the findings, Alexander advises: “Trust your legs if you can and take time to walk to school or work. Even walking one way will boost the amount of activity you get during the day.”

Students have a say in designing uniforms

Would school uniforms be a better option if students were given a say in their design? That's what one school tried.
Read the article at:
http://www.educationworld.com/a_admin/admin/admin418.shtml
(Sorry, guys; the hyperlinks in Blogger aren't working, so you will need to type in that address. I will try to do something about that.)

Athletes have to make the grade to play

New NCAA rules are going to require athletes to make the grade as well as the plays while they are in college. The following article was taken from Education World:

College athletes soon will have to work harder in the classrooms if they want to stay on their teams. Starting in December, the National Collegiate Athletic
Association (NCAA) expects college coaches to keep better track of students’ progress in the classroom.
The NCAA is worried that too many athletes are leaving college without getting a diploma. Most college athletes do not end up playing professional sports, so
they need to be prepared for careers in other fields.
To keep track of how well players on college teams are doing, the NCAA will start using a point system. A perfect score for any college will be 1,000 points. Each player on a team is worth two points. A player who stays in school and keeps up his or her grades earns two points.
If a player leaves school early or gets failing grades, the team loses one point. Every team must have at least 925 points or they will face penalties from the NCAA.

Breathalyzer tests for students planned in Lawrence

Lawrence, Kan., students will have to take a breathalyzer before coming to school. Is this a good idea? Check out the Kansas City Star story at:
http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/news/local/12606921.htm