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Things to do this weekend!

Body Worlds 3

Houston Museum of Natural Science

The Royal Tombs of Ur
Houston Museum of Natural Science
Through
August 13, 2006

HISD Approves Plan to Cut Funding of Project GRAD
The Future of the Drop Out Prevention Program in Houston is in Limbo

On March 9, the Board of Education voted along racial/ethnic lines (Who knows why? This is not a racial issue!) 5-4 to approve a "plan, (in which) small schools will get a $9.6 million subsidy, while middle and high schools will receive more than a $2 million increase in per-pupil spending." I expressed to the Board of Education my opposition to the funding cut before they voted, then I had to leave in disgust over what I had witnessed. More about that later.

"'In times of budget constraints. the basic needs of our schools must be our top priority,' said Trustee Kevin Hoffman.'We have an obligation now to these students.'"

"But other trustees argued that the small schools should apply for the money on a case-by-case basis rather than receive it automatically. And they questioned the logic behind seemingly rewarding some poor-performing schools that have lost students to better-run campuses. Trustee Natasha Kamrani said district administrators need to work harder at figuring out why some schools are struggling. 'I'm not convinced an excellent education is obtained through a funding formula,' she said."

Here's the tale of HISD's myopia in Thursday's (3/9/06) Houston Chronicle: "A national program designed to get more poor and minority students into college could be on the verge of extinction in its birthplace because Houston Independent School District leaders say they can no longer foot Project GRAD's $3.2 million annual bill.The HISD school board will vote today on whether to use $1.9 million of the scholarship program's budget to create extra stipends for small schools districtwide."

"Seventy HISD schools — roughly a quarter of all campuses — use the Project GRAD program that promises $4,000 scholarships to students who graduate with at least a 2.5 grade-point average. Those schools also use the nonprofit's educators, math and reading curriculum, and strict disciplinary practices."

HISD Bureaucrats Leave As Many Behind As Possible

The HISD bureaucratic idiots use standardized testing to knock the program. "An October 2004 analysis by the district showed that students at five comparable non-Project GRAD schools had higher passing rates on the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills than at the Project GRAD schools. But reports generated by Project GRAD show dramatic increases in the graduation rates of participating high schools. Of the Project GRAD scholars who go to college, more than 40 percent graduate with either bachelor's or associate's degrees, officials said."

"Former (chief executive officer of Tenneco) James Ketelsen — who founded Project GRAD at Davis High School 13 years ago — said the program is the cornerstone of creating the college-going culture that Superintendent Abelardo Saavedra has been touting this year. 'Preparing children for college begins in prekindergarten, when children must be taught fundamental math and reading skills and parents must be coached on the importance of attending college,' he said. The remaining $1.3 million of HISD funding that is expected to be available to Project GRAD next year wouldn't be enough to sustain a quality program...", he said.

"'This program cannot be funded on just the backs of plain people. We need help,' said Ketelsen, 75."

"In the 13 years since Project GRAD took root at Davis High School, it's been expanded to more than 142,000 students at 230 schools nationally. About 45,000 of those students attend campuses in Houston, including all the elementary and middle schools that feed into Davis, Yates, Wheatley, Reagan and Sam Houston high schools."

"Project GRAD has spent $90 million on those schools in the past five years, including $21 million in HISD funds and $69 million in private and federal funding.
About $10 million of that was used to award 3,000 students college scholarships. The rest of the money pays for 82 employees, parent-education programs, a discipline system, and math and reading curriculum for elementary students"

"'If this falls through, we're out of business,' Roy Hughes, executive director of Project GRAD Houston said of HISD's $1.9 million."

"About 4,000 high school students are already in the pipeline to receive the $4,000 college scholarships that Project GRAD awards to each eligible student. Ketelsen vowed Wednesday to honor those scholarships even if the program leaves HISD before they graduate."

"Janet Kavanagh, who teaches string instruments to Jefferson Elementary and Marshall Middle School students through a Project GRAD program, said it would be shortsighted of HISD to cut the program. 'I'm just devastated,' Kavanagh said. 'They don't even know what we do. They should come into our schools and see what these children are producing — the pride.'"

"More than 170 low-income students play in school orchestras because of Project GRAD, she said. More than 300 others are in Project GRAD-funded bands, she said."

"Ketelsen said he's devastated that HISD won't acknowledge the results and fully support the program. In other cities, districts fund up to 65 percent of the program.' There's just too many kids whose lives have been changed for the better to say that. I refuse to accept that,' he said."

"A large part of the program's focus is eliminating barriers that exist for first-generation college goers, especially financial worries. Parent Lydia Perez said she decided to enroll in college herself after becoming active in Project GRAD. Her oldest daughter, a senior at Reagan High School, is expected to go to college next year. 'I'm a walking role model for my children for what college is,' she said."

Superintendent Saavedra's logic is so flawed. Why take from Peter to pay Paul? Second there's no guaranteee that the new uses will be more effective than the current application of resources. They're just moving money around. HISD Trustee Larry Marshall is quoted in the Wednesday's Chronicle, "I could care less where the money comes from. They are supplementary programs. They are not base programs." Another ignorant elected official.

Houston Ties Teachers' Pay to Test Scores

The school district that brought us "No Child Left Behind" Rod Paige (or as I like to call him: Coach Paige), Bush's first Secretary of Education, on Thursday, January 12, "over the objections of the teachers' union,...unanimously approved the nation's largest merit pay program, which calls for rewarding teachers based on how well their students perform on standardized tests." The program "would distribute up to $3,000 annually per teacher and up to $25,000 for senior administrators." It is the largest school district in the U.S. to implement such a plan.

"...Gayle Fallon, president of the United Federation of Teachers, which represents about 40 percent of the district's 12,300 teachers, condemned the program as misguided."

"'No one has been able to show us one ounce of research that paying teachers for test scores improves performance,' she said."

"The 9-to-0 vote at the board meeting of the Houston Independent School District, the largest in the state, with 210,000 children, opened a new front in the national dispute over teacher merit pay and excited particular emotion in a city bruised by a cheating scandal that called some schools' test results into question."

"Houston has had a teacher pay-performance program in place since 2000, but officials said the latest version was an effort to tie the rewards more closely to student gains attributable not only to schools but to individual teachers."

"Andrew Gass, a lawyer, said the plan 'fails to reward teachers of special ed students or pre-K or kindergarten teachers' and 'forces teachers to teach to the test rather than focus on real academic achievement in the classroom.'"

"Rigorous statewide testing to gauge student achievement has been an article of faith in Texas for years. But in 1999 the Texas Education Agency began investigating Houston and other districts because of suspicious results on the statewide test. Last year, the Houston school board said it had found evidence of cheating at four schools and testing irregularities at seven more. A half-dozen teachers were fired, and several principals were demoted or reprimanded."

Judge Bars 'Intelligent Design' from Pennsylvania Public Schools

On 12/20/05, a federal judge ruled that "'Intelligent design' cannot be mentioned in biology classes in a Pennsylvania public school district," the Associated Press reported.

"Dover Area School Board members violated the Constitution when they ordered that its biology curriculum must include the notion that life on Earth was produced by an unidentified intelligent cause, U.S. District Judge John E. Jones III said. Several members repeatedly lied to cover their motives even while professing religious beliefs, he said. The school board policy, adopted in October 2004, was believed to have been the first of its kind in the nation."

The article continues, "The Dover policy required students to hear a statement about intelligent design before ninth-grade biology lessons on evolution. The statement said Charles Darwin's theory is 'not a fact,' has inexplicable 'gaps,' and refers students to an intelligent-design textbook, 'Of Pandas and People,' for more information." Of pandas? I want a copy of that book for Christmas!