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Friday, September 9, 2011

The Anniversary of a Horrific Day

Sunday will be a special day across the U.S. as we remember (rather than celebrate) 9/11.  Most of us have a very clear remembrance of where we were, what we were doing, and the impact that the Twin Towers and other related events had upon us at that time.  I was in Caldwell, ID and was delayed getting to work due to some family issues.  As a result, I got to hear and see the early reports of the Twin Tower "accident" with a "small plane" colliding with one of the towers.  I further saw the on-going saga until I needed to get to my District and deal with the obvious damage control that we all faced across the country.  Do you remember ALL flights being immediately grounded and then people trying to figure out how to get home anyway they could?  What a horrific day and event!!

The interesting part is that MOST of our students have limited, if any recollection of the issue as they were at best in 1st or 2nd grade, and most were much younger or not even BORN.  Therefore, it is important to make sure that our students learn about what happened on that day.  We will be blessed on Monday to be able to share with some of our HS students at 3 schools primary witnesses to the event (e.g. Terry Abbott, who was with President Bush on that fateful day along with Riversider Dave Austin, who was one of the early responders).  Pearson Corporation has provided learning materials for 9/11 learning (including some very engaging video resources)  May we consider the impact of that day and what we should, will, and do differently as a result?

The times of these events at the 3 High Schools on Monday will be

North High School-- 8-8:56 AM (all times are Pacific)

Ramona High School-- 10:06 -11:01

Arlington High School -- 12:51-1:48

and the link to view a live stream of this is HERE

Wednesday, September 7, 2011

Annual Report

We have published and you should be receiving the ANNUAL REPORT provided by the Board of Education to our community.  I bring this to your attention as this is the second time that we have provided this report in RUSD.  As such, you should be aware of a variety of pieces regarding this annual report:
  1. This report is provided in color to enhance its legibility and interest.
  2. The report will be delivered to the homes of parents in RUSD for ease of access.
  3. The report will also be available for community distribution sites (e.g., Chamber of Commerce, local businesses, etc.).
  4. The intention of the Board is to provide an informative report that is also authentic -- and not necessarily a "glitzy" marketing report.
  5. The entire cost of this report is paid for by Altura Credit Union.
  6. We will be providing similar reports every year, as we progress forward.
We hope that this annual report will be helpful to you and inform you of just a few of the things that are happening in our School District.  Of course, we continue to provide daily updates on any number of topics through our District webpage at: http://www.rusdlink.org/

Friday, September 2, 2011

NCLB Waiver??

Over the course of this summer, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan signaled his potential willingness to “waive” some of the requirements for NCLB based on an application, etc. from individual states.  This seems to be the solution, rather than the 4-years-late reauthorization of ESEA (i.e., NCLB).  AND it seems to feel a lot like the coercive approach they took with Race to the Top [RTTT] – remember sign-on and we will tell you about all the details later.  In fact, as I understand this issue, there is once again not a clear definition of what is required to qualify for the “waiver” of the NCLB requirements and sanctions.
The beltway discussion seems to suggest that the requirements would include things like: 
  • continued turn-around of poor performing schools [not bad],
  • adopting and implementing teacher/adm evaluations based on student test data [this will probably create comment and concern], and
  • adopting rigorous college / career-ready standards [so is this different than common core standards?].
In any case, California’s Superintendent of Public Instruction [SPI], Tom Torlakson, sent Duncan a letter on August 23rd to apply for the waiver.  The need for the waiver was based on:
  • a significant number of schools falling into Program Improvement,
  • “insufficient” funding in California to meet NCLB requirements, and
  • “NCLB’s flawed accountability system.” 
As a result the SPI requests a freeze of all AYP designations and sanctions for THIS year (11-12), and in return we in California will:  continue to work on improving schools, and will do something regarding teacher/principal evaluations in regards to data.  Torlakson further voices concern that the apparent requirements for the waiver would require a serious commitment without commensurate funding [sounding like RTTT?].