Monday, July 29, 2002

Pertinent Columns

Mike Bowler writes about the problems of maintaining schools in sparsely populated rural areas in Crisis in the rural classroom. He writes about what happens and may happen to communities when their local school is closed or consolidated and the kids bused away to a larger school in a larger community. Often, the school in a small town is the social mixer of the community. It brings together a diverse group of people that have the common bond of their children attending the school or at least an interest in school activities.

Classroom surprise from the New York Daily News tells that the extra 100 teacher minutes per week called for by the new teachers' contract in New York City may not produce extra contact time for many students.

The "Pledge Ruling" was officially appealed last Thursday by the state of California. The San Francisco Chronicle's State appeals ruling banning the pledge relates that federal and local appeals are probably in the works as well.

A "conservative think tank" in Boston has released a report purporting that higher teacher salaries and reduced class size don't improve kids' test scores. Think tank finds small classes don't help MCAS scores makes one wonder just how the "think tank" analyzed the scores!

Mensah M. Dean tells in the Philadelphia Daily News about Privatized schools looking for teachers. Evidently the schools taken over by Edison and others are having difficulty retaining teachers.

The New York Times Middletown Teachers Edge Closer to Contract (free registration required) tells about contract talks progressing in the community that saw 228 teachers jailed last year during a strike.

The Boston Globe's Agnes Blum interviews incoming NEA President Reginald Weaver in NEA president Weaver offers his vision for public education.

The New York Times Tamar Lewin reports that the ACT will no longer flag the test scores of "disabled students who have taken the test with extended time." In ACT Ends Flags on Test Scores of the Disabled (free registration required), Lewin quotes ACT CEO Richard L. Ferguson as saying, "It's one of those issues where you can see both sides. This is our own independent decision, after a thorough review. But we do think it would be a mixed signal out there if one test used flagging and the other didn't." 

Software

Mattson Software has updated their $5 Mac shareware, Fraction Fusion. Fraction Fusion 2.0.1 (1.7 MB) guides students to "identify how much is displayed in fractional form in various ways, including fraction circles and number lines." The ReadMe files notes, "Designed for fourth grade students, Fraction Fusion will be useful for many 3 - 5 students as well."

On the Windows side, Ray Le Couteur has updated Ray's Spelling and Word Games (v. 3.3) and Kids Tables and Time (v.1.3).

Back to School

I'm headed back to school this week to continue setting up for our August 14 first day of school. I was in and out of the building all last week and have been steadily working on school stuff all summer at home. My school is a rural school system, centered in a city of 3,000, much like the small rural systems described in Mike Bowler's excellent column that leads today's posting. Things are usually casual at school, with teachers pretty much coming and going at will all summer. (Everyone has an exterior door key.) The summer school staff is finishing their second and last session of summer school this week, as other teachers like me prepare their classrooms for fall.

While I'm getting a good start on setting up, I've still got a stack of software to review that I haven't even touched. So, while it certainly isn't winter yet, Educators' News needs to return to its Monday-Wednesday-Friday "winter" publication schedule this week, or something close to it.

What's with Amazon?

I had an interesting shopping experience last week. One of the big ticket items I needed to buy for my classroom was a good, durable USB printer. I've been using an Epson C80 at home for several months and have been satisfied with its performance. When I began to shop for price on another C80, I found a Deal-Mac posting for a refurbished model at $90. Unfortunately, when the vendor added shipping, the refurb came out to $116.

When I looked around the web, I was pleasantly surprised to find that Amazon.com had the best combined price (item plus shipping) I could find anywhere on a new C80. While Amazon's base price is the $149 MSRP one sees around the web, occasionally discounted a dollar or two, their free Super Saver Shipping promotion clinched the deal.

Then on Saturday I saw a posting by Dana Baggett on MacsOnly that noted one could get a $50 rebate from Amazon on the purchase of Mac OS X 10.2! While I followed Dana's link to the coupon (176K JPEG file), Amazon's page on the Jaguar update currently makes no mention of the rebate. That effectively makes the Amazon price for the Jaguar update $79.

If you remember the EdNews posting from July 16, Amazon ran a $100 off all laptops special (expired July 28) that put their price on the 14" iBook $5 below the best education price. It would appear that Amazon is beginning to compete effectively on computer hardware and software and may merit more than just an occasional check when shopping for computer items. I also wonder how long Apple will allow Amazon to violate their usually strictly enforced MSRP's (manufacturer's suggested retail price).

Devotion For July 28-August 3, 2002

Zach Wood's weekly devotional for this week is Immobilized By His Word. I hope it adds a bit of brightness to your week. Zach also maintains an archive of previous devotionals.

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Wednesday, July 31, 2002

Pertinent Columns

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg's selection of Joel I. Klein, "a lawyer best known for leading the antitrust prosecution of Microsoft," as Chancellor of the New York public school system has produced a number of columns in the New York Times (free registration required).

• Bloomberg Picks a Lawyer to Run New York Schools by Jennifer Steinhauer
• Noneducator as Chancellor Seems a Growing Trend by Karen W. Arenson
• Hoping an Outsider Plus a Bottom-Line Approach Equals Reform by By Anemona Hartocollis
• Schools Chief With Traits That a Mayor Prizes Most by Jennifer Steinhauer

From the NEA Site

The National Education Association's site has been updated again with a series of new postings. In a public news release Educators to Congress: IDEA Should Focus on Better Services for Kids, outgoing NEA President Bob Chase said, "But we are disappointed that the Commission walked away from recommending full funding for IDEA and instead recommended federal funding for vouchers. Vouchers to private and religious schools -- schools that likely won't accept special needs kids -- is a false promise."

Also new to the site are Bipartisan Ed Funding Plan Gets Educators' Support and NEA Annual Meeting Sets Course to Influence Public Education.

More from Mark Marcantonio on OS X Apps for Education

Mark Marcantonio follows up in this week's column, The Apple of Politics, some comments from educators on his previous piece, Apple Education's Blind Spot. He writes, "It seems as though many people agree that the gang in Cupertino have lost track of education software development." Mark had previously bemoaned the lack of educational software that runs native under Mac OS X and suggested Apple invite education software developers to Cupertino for a free University of X to get things going.

I read Mark's column Monday evening after having just heard that day from a major special education software vendor, whom I'd been bugging about a native version of a great writing program all summer. While I can't say enough about how helpful their tech support was in getting the software to run in Classic, the verdict was that no OS X update would be available before next January, if at all. It would appear that Apple Education needs to move very swiftly in helping education software developers make the jump to OS X.

Thanks to Mark for the link to Educators' News at the end of this week's column and for the kind words about the site.

Changing Colleges

Jay Mathews Class Struggle column for this week, When in Doubt, Transfer Schools, talks about choosing a college and about transferring from one institution of higher learning to another.

SchwabLearning.org Newsletter Message on the President's Commission on Excellence in Special Education

This week's Schwab Learning Online Newsletter (link expires 8-4-02) carries a special message to parents and teachers concerning the report from the President's Commission on Excellence in Special Education (PDF document [266K] or a Word document [590K]). Rather than summarize the concerns expressed in the newsletter, let me just reproduce it here for you.

For months, Washington, D.C. has been buzzing with activity surrounding the reauthorization of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). On July 1st, The President's Commission on Excellence in Special Education (PCESE) submitted its long-awaited report to President Bush. The report, A New Era: Revitalizing Special Education for Children and their Families, offers more than 30 formal recommendations, many of which concern children with learning disabilities who receive (or should receive) special education services.

 

We'd like to alert you to three PCESE recommendations that concern children with LD:

 

1. Benchmarks in the IEP should be eliminated to reduce paperwork. Parents and LD advocates object to this recommendation, arguing the need for periodic checks to measure and report a student's progress during the school year.

 

2. The classification of "learning disabilities" would be eliminated. Special education students would be grouped under three simple classifications:

 

* Developmental disabilities (including LD)

* Sensory disabilities

* Physical and neurological disabilities

 

LD advocacy organizations oppose this idea as it would lead to the demise of teachers certified in teaching students with specific learning disabilities. (Note: Students with LD currently comprise almost 50% of all children in special education.)

 

3. The routine use of IQ tests in assessing students for LD would no longer be supported. While many LD advocates agree the ability-performance discrepancy model used to identify LD isn't always accurate, IQ testing still has a place in assessing some students for LD.

 

To learn more about the Commission's recommendations and to express your viewpoint, please visit the following Web site: Great IDEAs

This new site is asking for recommendations from parents, teachers, and others on how to improve the IDEA.

New content this week on the Schwablearning.org site includes an Advocacy Tutorial.

Virus Definition Updates

It's the end of the month, so new virus definitions should be posted soon by the major antivirus providers.

• Symantec (Mac), (Win) -- Norton Antivirus
• McAfee -- Virex, VirusScan, Dr. Solomon's Anti-Virus
• intego -- VirusBarrier
• Computer Associates -- eTrust, InocuLAN, and InoculateIT,
• F-Secure Anti-Virus

Science@NASA

With all the publicity of the near miss of an asteroid earlier this month, Science@NASA has put up a couple of new pages on the subject. Caveat Impactor relates mostly to the July 9 discovery of 2002 NT7, while Look at that Asteroid tells about the asteroid 2002 NY40 which will be visible with binoculars around August 17.

Crossword Express Adds OS X Version

Gordon John Stevens has again updated his excellent crossword utility, Crossword Express. This update brings Mac users full OS X compatibility. The Power PC and 68K Mac versions, as well as the Windows version of the $35 shareware, remain at version 5.6. For teachers who want to add a crossword here and there to enliven their vocabulary lists and such, Crossword Express is an ideal utility. It's loaded with features, most of which I don't use, and one registration, one time, pays for both the Mac and Windows versions and has to date, covered all updates as well.

Friday, August 2, 2002

Pertinent Columns

The Philadelphia Inquirer reports the Philadelphia School Reform Commission has signed five-year contracts with the seven groups selected to run 45 of the city's schools. Inquirer staffers Susan Snyder, Martha Woodall and Dale Mezzacappa note in 7 groups to get $120 million to run city schools, that the schools will receive per pupil funding in excess of what the schools received last year. Edison Schools will receive "an additional $881 per pupil over what was spent at those schools last year."

The Washington Post's Shankar Vedantam reports on positive results with placing children with autism on an antipsychotic medicine. The new "off-label" use of "Risperdal, a member of a new class of schizophrenia medicines," is controversial among physicians, parents, and educators, but in Study: New Drug May Aid Autistic Children, Vedantam relates that a comprehensive study published recently in the New England Journal of Medicine found positive results for use of the drug with autistics. The conclusion of the abstract for Risperidone in Children with Autism states, "Risperidone was effective and well tolerated for the treatment of tantrums, aggression, or self-injurious behavior in children with autistic disorder. The short period of this trial limits inferences about adverse effects such as tardive dyskinesia."

Note: "Tardive dyskinesia is a movement disorder caused by neuroleptic or "antipsychotic" medications." I found definitions here and here.

Arthur Greenburg has an interesting op-ed piece in the New York Times, One Man Can't Fix New York's Schools (free registration required). The column title sorta tells it all, but the entire column is a very good read.

Software

The Mac OS X freeware chemistry helper, Beware of Molecules, has been updated to version 3.0.

BaseMaster is a Macintosh application by John A. Vink, author of PhotoPage, that shows "several bases of a number simultaneously. It shows 7 edit fields representing decimal, binary, hexadecimal, octal, vinkadecimal, IP address, and 4 character long. As you type in any of these fields, all the other fields are updated."

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