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By George Basler When New York State adopted the Common Core math standards, leaders of the 500-student Sherman Central School District in Chautauqua County knew teachers would need support and training. But Superintendent Kaine Kelly knew he did not have staff trained to "unpack the standards" and explain how classroom teachers could make the transition. So the district established a close relationship with Erie 2-Chautauqua-Cattaraugus BOCES to provide some help, he said. Instructional support specialists from BOCES became familiar faces when Sherman contracted for staff development services from BOCES and created a professional development schedule. One advantage of being a small district is that information sharing is easier, Kelly said. "In a small school, change can happen fast. You have less people who need to buy-in, and less area to cover." |
| On Board Online • December 15, 2014 By Courtney Sanik May 2015 may seem far away, but now is a good time to make sure that your policies regarding the budget vote and member election are current and are being followed. First, be sure your district's timeline for key steps, such as publishing legal notices and accepting nominating petitions, matches the timeline required by law. For a timeline researched by NYSSBA Senior Attorney Kimberly Fanniff, see page 15 of the Nov. 24, 2014 issue of On Board or go to http://goo.gl/EmgJlW. Policies that specifically relate to the budget vote and member election are largely concerned with ensuring the public receives various notices in a timely fashion. There is some area for board discretion, but mostly these are dictated by law. Here is a summary of the relevant policies in NYSSBA's codification system. Your district may use a different numbering system, but the same topics should be addressed. It should be noted that your district's board may have unique policies pertaining to the budget development, public hearings and voting. It is good practice to review these policies annually and update them as appropriate. |
| On Board Online • December 15, 2014 Merryl Tisch
Excellent teacher preparation is the hallmark of countries where young people are outpacing our own, such as Finland and South Korea. Here in the U.S., a powerful consensus has emerged that we need to do more, including ensuring that our teacher education programs are producing graduates who are well-prepared to take challenging jobs and help their students succeed in the classroom and beyond. In late November, the U.S. Department of Education announced that states will be required to develop systems to rate and track their teacher preparation programs. In New York, the quality of teacher preparation has been a focus of the Board of Regents for years. In 2009, we approved a program to upgrade the examinations for potential teachers. We began to develop a new performance assessment in addition to three academic and subject matter-specific exams already mandated - a truly comprehensive assessment of teachers' readiness to succeed in the classroom. This effort dovetailed with a recommendation by Gov. Andrew Cuomo's Education Reform Commission that the state create a "bar exam" for prospective teachers and principals. The state's 2013 budget was enacted with a provision requiring development of such an exam. |
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| On Board Online • December 15, 2014 In 2015, NYSSBA will bestow a new award called the Champion for Change Award. The criteria for this honor will change annually. In 2015, it will go to an outstanding school board president. The award will go each year to a current school board member, who, in the judgment of the NYSSBA Awards Committee, should be recognized for innovative and ethical leadership to bring about ground-breaking improvements in school district programs and operations. Nomination forms and guidelines are online at www.nyssba.org/CFC. The deadline is April 20, 2015. Please note that all nominations must be done online. |
| On Board Online • December 15, 2014
Sandra Ruffo of Conklin joins the NYSSBA Board of Directors in January as Area 4 director. She will represent school districts from Broome, Cayuga, Chemung, Chenango, Cortland, Onondaga, Schuyler, Tioga and Tompkins counties. Ruffo is a 30-year veteran of school board service. Since 1995, Ruffo has been on the Broome-Delaware-Tioga BOCES Board and has been president for the past 10 years. She also served on the Susquehanna Valley Central School District board for 18 years, with 15 of those years as president.
In addition to her current board service, Ruffo is a member of these school board committees: Scholarship Planning, Worker's Compensation, Audit and the Board Retreat/Goal Planning. Ruffo graduated from Binghamton University with a bachelor's degree in biology and has a nursing degree from SUNY Broome. She was elected by school boards in Area 4 to succeed Douglas Ann Land, who chose not to seek reelection to the NYSSBA board. Land remains a member of the Trumansburg and Tompkins-Seneca-Tioga BOCES boards, as well as member of the boards of the Rural Schools Association, the Central New York School Boards Association and the BOCES Executive Board. |
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Gayle Simidian Education majors tend to receive higher grades than their peers, according to a study by the National Council on Teacher Quality. About 44 percent of education majors graduate with Latin honors (e.g., cum laude) compared to 30 percent for all graduates. It could be that education majors are smarter and harder-working than their peers. But the report, called "Easy A's," suggests a lack of rigor in assignments accounts for these high grades. The group reviewed student readiness or preparation in their given field by comparing GPA-based honors rates of graduating teacher candidates to those of all graduating students (inclusive of teacher candidates) at more than 500 colleges and universities. Of 23 colleges in New York that were rated on the group's "rigor standard," 11 were rated as meeting the standard. Six partially met the standard and the remaining six were deemed as not meeting the standard. Notably, 214 universities and colleges didn't have any drastic differences between the grades of teacher candidates and all graduating students. The report called that "powerful evidence that teacher preparation programs can hold their grading standards in line with those of other majors on the same campus." |
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| On Board Online • December 15, 2014 By Fred Langstaff When a child who is not accompanied by a parent or legal guardian is apprehended by immigration authorities, the child is transferred to the care and custody of the U.S. Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR). Federal law requires that the government feed, shelter, and provide medical care for unaccompanied children until they are able to release them to safe settings with sponsors (usually family members) pending immigration proceedings. These sponsors live in many states. Data from the ORR website indicates that, between October 2013 and September 2014, New York State received 5,955 such children, placing it second only to Texas in the number of unaccompanied children released to sponsors. A breakdown by county reveals that Nassau and Suffolk on Long Island have received 1,446 and 1,600 children, respectively, with a combined total that outnumbers even New York City. The surge in migrating children, primarily from El Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala, is reportedly being driven by fear of gang violence and poverty in these countries. While politicians point fingers and share political rhetoric about the cause of the influx and who or what is to blame for the recent surge, the educational community is tasked with providing a free and appropriate public education for these school-aged students when they arrive in our school districts. As has been the case throughout American history, the immigrants who are coming to this country are heading to locations where an enclave of previously arrived immigrants from the country of origin already exists. The majority of districts that are receiving these students on Long Island are high-needs districts where affordable housing exists. |
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By Cathy Woodruff All around New York, high school students are diving more deeply into academic programs and activities that reflect economic development priorities set by their communities. Several - such as semiconductor manufacturing, computer information technology and architecture - may sound familiar as focus areas designated for the new P-TECH high schools. But at the Brushton-Moira school district in rural Franklin County, the student members of the Future Farmers of America are tapping a distinctive sweet spot for potential economic growth in the North Country. Maple syrup. In just over five years, the Brushton-Moira students have grown their maple syrup operation to a scale that involves the collection of sap from more than 2,500 taps inserted into trees on school district property each year. The sap is gathered in buckets and boiled using a state-of-the-art, fuel oil-powered evaporator in the FFA's own sugar house. |
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On Board Online • December 15, 2014
The most important thing we can do in the classroom for our students is make sure that they have an excellent teacher in front of it. That starts with improving how we prepare new teachers.
On Board Online • December 15, 2014
On Board Online • December 15, 2014