Chairman suggests changes be made in No Child Left Behind

Those of us who think the federal No Child Left Behind law leaves a lot to be desired were heartened Monday when Rep. George Miller, D-Calif., said changes need to be made in order for the law to continue:

But Miller said yesterday that schools should be able to include measures besides the reading and math tests in determining progress, such as graduation rates or the number of students passing Advanced Placement exams. "Many Americans do not believe that the success of our students or of our schools can be measured by one test administered on one day, and I agree with them," he said.

Jefferson City students to wear uniforms

Students at a Jefferson City High School
will wear uniforms for the first time when the 2007-2008 school year begins:

The uniform - developed by a committee of three students, three parents, three faculty members and the dean of students, Stan Ochsner - is extremely versatile.

Male students will stick with the traditional khaki dress pants. Female students can wear khaki slacks or plaid skorts. All students will wear either polo shirts or button-down collar dress shirts embroidered with the Crusaders logo.

The polo shirts come in navy, white or sunflower, both in long and short sleeves; the dress shirts in white or light blue only in long sleeves. They may also wear navy sweaters or sweater vests along with navy or gold crew neck sweatshirts, all embroidered with the Helias logo.

All shirts, sweaters, sweatshirts and skorts are purchased directly from Helias. Pants can be purchased by the students from an approved list which Helias keeps updated on its Web site. Students will also wear sturdy, leather dress shoes (closed heel and toe).

The concept of moving to a uniform came when Ochsner and other administrators had to re-define the dress code every year.

"With changing styles and students seeking loopholes, it was becoming more and more difficult to make the dress code professional," said Ochsner. "The decision was easy because we knew a fool-proof dress code was a battle we couldn't win."

Carthage student receives one-year suspension for shooting air soft gun

The parents of Carthage High School student Stefan Hukill, suspended for one year for shooting an airsoft gun at school are protesting the suspension:

In a letter to Hukill's mother, Superintendent Gary Reed said the student had violated school policy by possessing and firing an airsoft gun at another student on or adjacent to school property. He said district policy called for a 10-day suspension, with a recommendation for long-term suspension or expulsion. He said Kandy Frazier, then assistant principal, had suspended the student for 10 days, starting May 10, and would recommend an additional suspension.

"Based on the serious nature of Stefan's misconduct, the potential danger to himself and other students, and the possession and use of a weapon," Reed said he had affirmed the 10-day suspension and extended the suspension to one year. In addition, he said he had determined that Stefan "poses a continuing danger" and barred him from school pending the outcome of a disciplinary hearing.

In information prepared for the appeal hearing, Lasley said the decision meant that Hukill missed final examinations his junior year. He said the yearlong suspension was unreasonable and, if upheld, would mean that his client would be prevented from attending his senior year and graduating with his classmates.

Lasley said the incident was "a prank," and that Stefan shot a friend one time with a plastic, spring-operated airsoft gun that shoots round, plastic or rubber balls about the size of a pencil eraser. He said the incident happened on Main Street near the high school during the open lunch period. He said the friend was not hurt and lodged no complaint, and that no report on the incident was made by Sgt. Vann Bennett, school resource officer with the Carthage Police Department.

Lasley said the incident "is not on a par with a firearms violation,"
and that an airsoft gun is not listed among the weapons cited in school policies and regulations. He said the gun is see-through plastic, and the barrel is tipped in orange to distinguish it from a real weapon. He said the gun "obviously is not a firearm as described in school regulations and by the gun-free requirements of the No Child Left Behind Act."

School time down for everything except math, reading

One consequence of No Child Left Behind has been the decrease of time allotted to all subjects besides math and reading, according to an article in today's Washington Post:

The report by the District-based Center on Education Policy, which focuses on a representative sample of 349 school districts, found recess and physical education the only parts of the elementary school day holding relatively steady since enactment of the No Child Left Behind measure in 2002.

The survey provides grist for critics who say the federal testing mandate has led educators to a radical restructuring of the public school curriculum in a quest to teach to new state tests. But backers of the law, which is up for renewal this year, say that without mastery of reading and math, students will be hampered in other areas.

Final Joplin signing set for Devil's Messenger

What is expected to be the final Joplin signing for South Middle School eighth grade communication arts teacher Randy Turner's second novel, Devil's Messenger, will be held 1 to 5 p.m. Saturday, July 28, at Hastings Books, Music and Video in Joplin.

Mr. Turner's first novel, Small Town News, was published in 2005. He is working on a third book, this one non-fiction, this summer.

New study indicates misinformation has been given about Internet dangers

A new study indicates sharing personal information does not increase the chances of teen internet users becoming victims:

victimization is more likely to result from other online behavior, such as talking about sex with people met online and intentionally embarrassing someone else on the Internet.

"For a long time, we really didn't know," said Michele Ybarra, one of the study's authors. "It made sense if you post or send information you increase your risk. It's also a very easy message: Don't post personal information and you'll be safe."

But Ybarra, who is president of the nonprofit Internet Solutions for Kids, warned that parents and educators must now reassess the lessons, saying resources may be wasted on tips that do not address the underlying problem.

Instead of discouraging children from communicating, she said, the better approach is to teach them about what at-risk behaviors to avoid and warning signs to spot.

"We now need to be a lot more specific and accurate in our message," she said.

The research, published in February, was based on telephone surveys of 1,500 Internet users ages 10 to 17.

In a separate study of 2,574 law-enforcement agencies, researchers found that online sex crimes rarely involve offenders lying about their ages or sexual motives. The 2004 study, published in Journal of Adolescent Health, said offenders generally aren't strangers, and pedophiles aren't luring unsuspecting children by pretending to be a peer.

"Most of these sexual-victimization (cases) happen at the hands of people they know, and a lot happen at the hands of peers," said Janis Wolak, co-author of both studies and a researcher with the University of New Hampshire's Crimes Against Children Research Center.

Study: 60 percent of young people don't follow the news

A Harvard study indicates 60 percent of young people do not follow the daily news:

Researchers interviewed 1,800 people between January and March and found that 28 percent of Americans between the ages of 12 and 17 said they pay almost no attention to news every day. Another 32 percent said they pay only casual attention to one news source a day.

"News is not something that gets a lot of time or attention or interest from teens," said Thomas Patterson, a professor of government and the press at Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government.

Among people aged 18 to 30, the poll found 48 percent said they are inattentive to daily news. Only 23 percent of older Americans said they largely ignore news.

In general, soft stories about celebrities interest young people more than hard news stories like congressional votes or developments in Iraq.

One reason teenagers may pay less attention to news than older Americans is only one in 20 young people rely heavily on a daily newspaper, according to the survey, which had a margin of error of 2 percent to 3 percent.

The poll was released amid tough times for many American newspapers, with falling readership and advertising revenue.

Even the Internet, the preferred way for teenagers and young adults to get news, is not stimulating interest in current affairs, Patterson said. Internet-based news, receives about the same attention from older adults as it does from younger ones, the survey found.

Unsuccessful cheerleader candidate sues school

A Victoria, Texas, teenager who failed to make the junior varsity high school cheerleading squad is suing the school:

Incoming freshman Wycoda Fischer was cut after tryouts were held for six positions on the squad. Seven girls tried out. The family contends that because an exception was made for the varsity cheer squad, nine girls were allowed on instead of the eight called for in the high school's cheerleader constitution, that an exception should also be made for allowing Wycoda on the squad. The high school principal and cheerleading sponsor approved the expanded JV squad, but superintendent Deborah Kneese ordered tryouts.

The Fischers, Billy and Wysenda, took their grievance to the school board on Monday, but the board upheld the superintendent's decision with a 5-1-1 vote.

According to testimony during the grievance hearing, the varsity was expanded to nine members because the sponsor made a mistake and told eight of the cheer candidates they had made the squad and there would be no tryouts, because it was believed the ninth candidate had withdrawn. She had not, and was allowed on the squad.

Kneese told the school board, "There was an error with regard to the varsity cheerleading tryouts. The decision was made to allow nine cheerleaders on the squad despite the provision in the constitution. The district was not going to penalize the student for its own error. No such mistake was made during the JV

tryouts. The mistake concerning the varsity squad has no bearing on the JV squad."

The threat to students' liberty

New York schools are coming under fire for violations of students' Constitutional rights as they increase security, according to a column by writer Nat Hentoff:

One of the many stories in the report concerns Wadleigh, a Manhattan public high school, where "every student, in order to enter the building [as at other schools], was required to walk through the metal detectors [and be searched]."

Over an eight-month period last year, police confiscated more than 17,000 items at numerous schools, but only a tiny number could be considered weapons, and none were firearms. The vast majority "were cell phones, iPods, food, school supplies." A young girl with a pacemaker at Wadleigh said that she needed her cell phone in case of a medical emergency, but the phone was seized nonetheless.

Survey: Bullying occurs more often offline

A Pew survey indicates that while one-third of teenagers indicate they have been bullied online, more than double that total say more bullying and harassment take place offline.

L. A. Times column takes issue with Supreme Court ruling

The backlash from Monday's U. S. Supreme Court ruling against the student who held the "Bong Hits 4 Jesus" sign continues in a column in today's Los Angeles Times:

For the last decade, I've taught a history course with that title at New York University. My students and I examine the different purposes that Americans have assigned to public schools, including:

A. to teach the great humanistic traditions of the West;

B. to develop the individual interests of the child;

C. to promote social justice;

D. to prepare efficient workers.

Over the last four centuries, Americans have struggled to balance these goals — and many others — in their schools. To Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, however, there's only one right answer:

E. to instill discipline and obedience

That's what Thomas wrote this week in his strange concurring opinion in Morse vs. Frederick, better known as the "BONG HiTS 4 JESUS" case. A banner with those words was unfurled by senior Joseph Frederick outside his Alaska high school, and he was suspended.

Ruling 5 to 4 in favor of the principal who censored the banner, the court decided that the school's interest in discouraging drug use outweighed the student's free-speech rights. But Thomas went further, insisting that the student had no right to free speech in the first place and that the history of American education proves it.

He's wrong. Simply put, the accurate history in Thomas' opinion is not relevant. And the relevant history that he recounts is not accurate.

Let's start with what he got right. As he correctly asserts, America's first schools primarily promoted discipline. "Early public schools were not places for freewheeling debates or exploration of competing ideas," Thomas wrote. The mostly male teaching force in the early 1800s brooked little or no dissent, often whipping children who challenged adult authority.

True enough. But so what? Here's the part that Thomas leaves out. From the very birth of the common school system in the 1830s, the strict discipline that he celebrates came under fire from a host of different Americans. The most prominent champion of common schools, Horace Mann, warned teachers against excessive force and the suppression of students' natural inclinations.

That's one reason Mann and his generation backed the hiring of female teachers, who were seen as more kind, tolerant and nurturing. (The other reason was that schools could pay them less.) By 1900, roughly three-quarters of American teachers were women.

The early 20th century would bring another burst of change to American schools, centered on the question of democracy. To reformers like John Dewey, schools based on strict discipline — and its pedagogical companion, rote memorization — could never give citizens the skills they needed to govern themselves. Instead of fostering mindless obedience, then, schools needed to teach children how to make up their own minds — that is, how to reason, deliberate and rule on complex political questions.

To be sure, plenty of Americans still wanted teachers to bring the kids to heel. And it's fair to ask whether schools today promote the kind of inquiry that Dewey envisioned.

The point is not that Dewey was "right" or that everyone agreed with him. Rather, history teaches us that Americans have always disagreed on the proper goal for schools.

Post editorial: Supreme Court was wrong in bong hits decision

A decision handed down by the U. S. Supreme Court Monday limiting freedom of speech for students was wrong, according to an editorial in today's Washington Post:

Issues of drug use and drug policy are matters of serious contention. High school students must be able to debate them frankly -- and that might even involve students taking the position that bong hits are not that bad.

School apologizes for removing gay kiss from yearbook

Under the category of how times are changing, officials at a Newark, N. J. school have apologized to a high school student for removing a picture of him kissing another male student:

Andre Jackson, the student, said he was disappointed that the superintendent had not delivered the apology face-to-face and in public. Because of that, he said he didn't accept it as sincere.

"I would accept an apology -- a public apology," said Jackson, 18.

The school not only apologized, but said it would pay for providing copies of the yearbook with the photo to any student who asked for one.

Maryland students use candid Facebook photos to fill out yearbook

Some students at a high school in Bethesda, Md., thought their privacy had been invaded by the yearbook staff when it used photos from their Facebook sites to fill up the yearbook:

In addition to the usual images of blurry hallway traffic, lockers and teens slumped at desks, this year's Walter Johnson Windup included scenes of student life clearly not intended for the yearbook: impromptu snapshots at house parties and random weekend gatherings; portraits taken at arm's length on cellphones; and at least one image of students at what looks like a tailgate party, drinking from telltale red plastic cups.

One student, venting in the school newspaper, said seeing her Facebook pictures in the yearbook was "kind of stalker-y."

More information on Supreme Court student speech decision

School administrators are pleased with the decision handed down by the U. S. Supreme Court Monday limiting students' First Amendment rights, but the decision did not go as far as some of the administrators and the Bush Administration would have liked, according to an article in today's Washington Post:

Still, the court did not accept the broadest claims of Juneau school officials and some of their supporters, including the Bush administration, who had urged the justices to empower schools to restrict messages contrary to their "educational mission."

Two members of the majority, Justices Samuel A. Alito Jr. and Anthony M. Kennedy, made it clear that they gave Roberts the fourth and fifth votes he needed on the understanding that yesterday's ruling applied only to advocacy of illegal drug use.

In a concurring opinion joined by Kennedy, Alito wrote that yesterday's ruling "provides no support for any restriction of speech that can plausibly be interpreted as commenting on any political or social issue," including student opposition to the drug laws themselves.

U. S. Supreme Court limits students' free speech

Students in my eighth grade communication arts class last year discussed the U. S. Supreme Court involving an Alaskan student who carried a sign that said, "Bong Hits 4 Jesus" as the Olympic Torch was making its way through Juneau.

Today, the Court ruled that the student, Joseph Frederick, did not have his First Amendment rights violated when he was suspended from school for the incident. This is the Supreme Court decision:

SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES
MORSE et al. v. FREDERICK

certiorari to the united states court of appeals for the ninth circuit

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No. 06–278. Argued March 19, 2007—Decided June 25, 2007

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At a school-sanctioned and school-supervised event, petitioner Morse, the high school principal, saw students unfurl a banner stating “BONG HiTS 4 JESUS,” which she regarded as promoting illegal drug use. Consistent with established school policy prohibiting such messages at school events, Morse directed the students to take down the banner. When one of the students who had brought the banner to the event—respondent Frederick—refused, Morse confiscated the banner and later suspended him. The school superintendent upheld the suspension, explaining, inter alia, that Frederick was disciplined because his banner appeared to advocate illegal drug use in violation of school policy. Petitioner school board also upheld the suspension. Frederick filed suit under 42 U. S. C. §1983, alleging that the school board and Morse had violated his First Amendment rights. The District Court granted petitioners summary judgment, ruling that they were entitled to qualified immunity and that they had not infringed Frederick’s speech rights. The Ninth Circuit reversed. Accepting that Frederick acted during a school-authorized activity and that the banner expressed a positive sentiment about marijuana use, the court nonetheless found a First Amendment violation because the school punished Frederick without demonstrating that his speech threatened substantial disruption. It also concluded that Morse was not entitled to qualified immunity because Frederick’s right to display the banner was so clearly established that a reasonable principal in Morse’s position would have understood that her actions were unconstitutional.

Held: Because schools may take steps to safeguard those entrusted to their care from speech that can reasonably be regarded as encouraging illegal drug use, the school officials in this case did not violate the First Amendment by confiscating the pro-drug banner and suspending Frederick. Pp. 5–15.

(a) Frederick’s argument that this is not a school speech case is rejected. The event in question occurred during normal school hours and was sanctioned by Morse as an approved social event at which the district’s student-conduct rules expressly applied. Teachers and administrators were among the students and were charged with supervising them. Frederick stood among other students across the street from the school and directed his banner toward the school, making it plainly visible to most students. Under these circumstances, Frederick cannot claim he was not at school. Pp. 5–6.

(b) The Court agrees with Morse that those who viewed the banner would interpret it as advocating or promoting illegal drug use, in violation of school policy. At least two interpretations of the banner’s words—that they constitute an imperative encouraging viewers to smoke marijuana or, alternatively, that they celebrate drug use—demonstrate that the sign promoted such use. This pro-drug interpretation gains further plausibility from the paucity of alternative meanings the banner might bear. Pp. 6–8.

(c) A principal may, consistent with the First Amendment , restrict student speech at a school event, when that speech is reasonably viewed as promoting illegal drug use. In Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School Dist., 393 U. S. 503 , the Court declared, in holding that a policy prohibiting high school students from wearing antiwar armbands violated the First Amendment , id., at 504, that student expression may not be suppressed unless school officials reasonably conclude that it will “materially and substantially disrupt the work and discipline of the school,” id., at 513. The Court in Bethel School Dist. No. 403 v. Fraser, 478 U. S. 675 , however, upheld the suspension of a student who delivered a high school assembly speech employing “an elaborate, graphic, and explicit sexual metaphor,” id., at 678. Analyzing the case under Tinker, the lower courts had found no disruption, and therefore no basis for discipline. 478 U. S., at 679–680. This Court reversed, holding that the school was “within its permissible authority in imposing sanctions … in response to [the student’s] offensively lewd and indecent speech.” Id., at 685. Two basic principles may be distilled from Fraser. First, it demonstrates that “the constitutional rights of students in public school are not automatically coextensive with the rights of adults in other settings.” Id., at 682. Had Fraser delivered the same speech in a public forum outside the school context, he would have been protected. See, id., at 682–683. In school, however, his First Amendment rights were circumscribed “in light of the special characteristics of the school environment.” Tinker, supra, at 506. Second, Fraser established that Tinker’s mode of analysis is not absolute, since the Fraser Court did not conduct the “substantial disruption” analysis. Subsequently, the Court has held in the Fourth Amendment context that “while children assuredly do not ‘shed their constitutional rights … at the schoolhouse gate,’ … the nature of those rights is what is appropriate for children in school,” Vernonia School Dist. 47J v. Acton, 515 U. S. 646 , and has recognized that deterring drug use by schoolchildren is an “important—indeed, perhaps compelling” interest, id., at 661. Drug abuse by the Nation’s youth is a serious problem. For example, Congress has declared that part of a school’s job is educating students about the dangers of drug abuse, see, e.g., the Safe and Drug-Free Schools and Communities Act of 1994, and petitioners and many other schools have adopted policies aimed at implementing this message. Student speech celebrating illegal drug use at a school event, in the presence of school administrators and teachers, poses a particular challenge for school officials working to protect those entrusted to their care. The “special characteristics of the school environment,” Tinker, 393 U. S., at 506, and the governmental interest in stopping student drug abuse allow schools to restrict student expression that they reasonably regard as promoting such abuse. Id., at 508, 509, distinguished. Pp. 8–15.

439 F. 3d 1114, reversed and remanded.

Roberts, C. J., delivered the opinion of the Court, in which Scalia, Kennedy, Thomas, and Alito, JJ., joined. Thomas, J., filed a concurring opinion. Alito, J., filed a concurring opinion, in which Kennedy, J., joined. Breyer, J., filed an opinion concurring in the judgment in part and dissenting in part. Stevens, J., filed a dissenting opinion, in which Souter and Ginsburg, JJ., joined.

More states testing high school athletes for steroids

More states are testing high school athletes for steroids, according to an article on Stateline.org:

A year after New Jersey became the first state to mandate random steroid testing for high school athletes, Texas and Florida are on the verge of launching their own testing programs, and Illinois may not be far behind.

Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R) on Friday (June 15) signed into law the nation's most ambitious attempt to keep illegal performance-enhancing drugs out of high school sports. Florida's legislation still awaits the signature of Gov. Charlie Crist (R).


The Illinois High School Association also has plans to move ahead with a testing program as soon as next year, with or without the General Assembly’s help.

The programs will cost the states a considerable amount of money:

Texas’ program, which Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst (R) steered through the Legislature, will be the nation’s most expansive. Between 20,000 and 25,000 students in all sports in the coming school year — or about 3 percent of the state’s nation-high total of 742,341 high school athletes — will have their urine tested for steroids, according to Charles Breithaupt, athletics director for the University Interscholastic League, which will put the program into practice. The Texas Legislature has allotted $3 million a year for testing. Officials in neighboring Louisiana have shown interest in emulating the program.

Florida’s one-year pilot program would be much smaller, calling for testing of 1 percent of the state’s almost 59,000 high school athletes in football, baseball and weightlifting. The Legislature has allotted $100,000 for testing.

And as early results indicate, the cost may not be worth it:

In its testing program’s first year, New Jersey reported that every test for the fall 2006 sports season came back negative for steroids. The results from winter and spring sports have not yet been released. But the executive committee for the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association, the organization in charge of the testing, has voted unanimously to renew the program for another year.

Emmett Till act passes House

The Emmett Till Act, named after the African American teenager whose brutal murder in 1955 helped spark the Civil Rights Movement, passed the House by a 422 to 2 margin.
The act calls for looking into cold cases of murdered African Americans. One of the sponsors of the bill was Rep. Kenny Hulshof, R-Columbia.
The Emmett Till story is one that has been written about dozens of times during the third quarter research project in Mr. Randy Turner's communication arts classes at Joplin South Middle School.

Columbia schools considering uniforms

In her Class Notes Blog for the Columbia Tribune, Janese Heavin writes about the possibility of uniforms for Columbia public school students:

School board vice president Darin Preis knows the idea might not go anywhere, but he still wants to throw it out there -- school uniforms.

Preis plans to talk about the possibility of requiring uniforms during tomorrow's board retreat.

Research about uniforms at schools show mixed results. I've read testimonials from schools saying uniforms cut down on fights and distractions. Other studies, including one from a University of Missouri-Columbia professor, say uniforms don't really do anything.

Preis said he's aware of the concern that uniforms take away students' freedom of expression.

"But right now my desire for freedom of expression is butting heads with my desire for kids to be successful," he told me.

New York schools to pay students for good grades, attendance

How would you like to receive money just for showing up at school and making good grades?
That's what will happen to New York City students beginning this fall, according to an article in today's New York Times:

Under his plan, fourth-grade students will receive up to $25 for a perfect score on each of 10 standardized tests throughout the year. Seventh-grade students will be able to earn twice as much — $50 per test, for a total of up to $500. Fourth graders will receive $5 just for taking the test, and seventh graders will get $10.

Officials expect up to 40 schools to participate this fall, with a total of 9,000 students, in the pilot phase of the program, which will be monitored by Professor Fryer. After two years, they said, they will evaluate it for possible expansion.

Principals in the system's empowerment initiative — who have more autonomy to run their schools — can choose to join the program.

Similar, smaller programs for cash incentives to raise schoolchildren’s performance have been put in place elsewhere in the country. In Chelsea, Mass., for instance, students can receive $25 for perfect attendance. And in Dallas, some schools hand over $2 for every book a child reads.