5-2-14 Perdido Street School

Perdido Street School:

UFT Contract Open Thread

Pretty negative reaction to the contract news at my school.The feeling I get is, quite a few people are angry enough to vote no.What were you hearing out there?

by reality-based edu... / 8min 

Here's How You Know The UFT Contract Deal Is A Bad One - The NY Post Likes It

One of the measures of any UFT contract deal is what the neo-liberals at the Daily News and Times and the neo-cons at the Post think about it.If these editorial boards, who never saw a merit pay proposal they didn't like, a teacher they didn't want to fire or a traditional public school they didn't want to turn into a non-unionized charter school, like the new UFT contract deal, then you know ther

by reality-based edu... / 53min hide  //  save

Will UFT Members Approve This Teachers Contract With So Much Delayed Compensation?

James Eterno at ICEUFT has all the details of the tentative UFT contract and you should go over to ICEUFT blog and get the scoop.Yesterday I focused on two parts of the tentative agreement I find very troubling - the termination proceedings ATR's will face if they don't find permanent placement after two "trials" in schools and allowing the city to run 10% of NYCDOE schools outside of th

5 by reality-based edu... / 2h 

5-1-14 Perdido Street School

Perdido Street School: UFT Contract Agreement Has HitchesJuan Gonzalez details the fissures between the "uniformed" unions and the "civilian" unions over the tentative UFT contract deal:The tentative UFT deal includes two years of 4% retroactive pay increases for teachers, who have been without a contract since November 2009 — longer than nearly all other city unions. Increases

by mike simpson / 8h 

What Selfies Can Teach us About Education

What Selfies Can Teach us About Education:

What Selfies Can Teach us About Education

But first, let me make a personal reflection.

A selfie is an image that serves as a form of external self-expression. This trend may seem jovial to many of an older generation; however, to educators it should verify that students are bursting at the seams to communicate. If many students are excited to express themselves through pictures, then why limit their opportunities for expression when in school?

While a selfie communicates information about our exterior, there are ways for students to express their internal individualities through other mediums.

Personal reflections speak about our interior and express our truest emotions. When we reflect, we think, write or speak about past experiences and determine what our feelings are about those events. We decide what worked and what did not, develop emotions, brainstorm alternatives, and overall relate to the events that occurred.
These reflections become valuable learning experiences in schools, and become even more powerful when they are shared with others.

This year, I made a large push toward incorporating student reflection as a form of learning. The method that I used is known as Backchanneling. This tactic allows a student conversation to transpire alongside or outside of the traditional classroom instruction. The hope is to build student interest in classroom content by providing them with an informal means to communicate.

In my class, a calendar was created with each student’s name. The day the student’s name appeared, they were asked to moderate a group discussion at home on a secure virtual discussion forum. The student moderator would create conversational questions related to that day’s content. Students were asked to join the conversation, reflect on what they learned, and take class discussions to whatever depths they wanted. This created an avenue for students to speak without a teacher regulating the information. Students were provided with trust, support and confidence. The results What Selfies Can Teach us About Education:

Seven challenges to getting the Common Core right | EdSource Today

Seven challenges to getting the Common Core right | EdSource Today:

Seven challenges to getting the Common Core right

May 1st, 2014 | 1 Comment | 
By Morgan Polikoff / commentary

Morgan Polikoff

The rollout of the Common Core standards offers California – and most of the nation – an opportunity to address some of the issues that have plagued education reform in the past. Foremost among these issues is the generally poor quality of state assessments of student achievement and a resulting negative effect on instruction.

State tests in the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) era tended to be: a) highly procedural, ignoring the conceptual skills in the standards, b) heavily or exclusively multiple-choice, and c) predictable in their coverage of a narrow slice of content in the standards. These features undoubtedly contributed to the narrowing effects of the NCLB law, leading teachers to spend substantial time in test preparation and focus heavily on English and math at the expense of other subjects.

California’s new assessments will come from the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium, one of two federally funded consortia designed to measure student mastery of the Common Core. While there are promising signs about these new assessments, they also present several challenges. In a recent report for the Center for American Progress, I laid out seven of the most important challenges that must be addressed if the new assessments are to live up to their promise and support effective standards implementation.

The first challenge is making the case for and standing firm on higher definitions of proficiency. One of the goals of Common Core is to set more accurate definitions of proficiency so that, for instance, “proficient” students can enroll in college without remediation. Setting a higher target means that more students will be labeled as below proficient. As we have seen in New York, lower rates of student proficiency than parents and educators were used to seeing under the former state standards can sometimes produce political blowback. Making the case for the new, more rigorous targets, perhaps with public-service announcements, op-eds and targeted mailings to parents and educators, may help reduce backlash.

The second challenge is meeting the technological needs of new assessments. The consortium has guidelines in terms of the technology needed to take new computer-adaptive Seven challenges to getting the Common Core right | EdSource Today:

NYC Scraps 3rd Grade Guarantee As Ohio Adopts It–Based on ALEC Model Law | janresseger

NYC Scraps 3rd Grade Guarantee As Ohio Adopts It–Based on ALEC Model Law | janresseger:

NYC Scraps 3rd Grade Guarantee As Ohio Adopts It–Based on ALEC Model Law

Posted on May 2, 2014 by janresseger

Ohio’s acting state superintendent of public instruction, Michael Sawyers claims that Ohio’s new 3rd Grade Guarantee will help Ohio’s children.  After all, Governor John Kasich has consistently alleged that children behind in reading by third grade are more likely to drop out of school than stronger readers.

Sawyers extolls the 3rd Grade Guarantee as a dropout prevention program that will primarily support students who have fallen behind in Ohio’s poorest urban school districts.  TheCleveland Plain Dealer reports that the percentage of children projected to be held back in third grade at the beginning of the 2014-2015 school year across Ohio’s urban districts is:  Youngstown, 59.8 percent; Cleveland, 57.8 percent; East Cleveland, 57.2 percent; Warren, 55 percent; Warrensville Heights, 54.1 percent; Euclid, 52.1 percent; Lorain, 51.3 percent; Columbus, 49.3 percent; and Dayton, 47.7 percent.

Contrary to Kasich’s and Sawyers’ belief that the 3rd Grade Guarantee will lower the dropout rate, this blog has covered a mass of expert research demonstrating that repeating a grade is not only unlikely to improve reading but also very likely to result in students dropping out later as they become over-age in grade during adolescence.

Expert research, however,  hasn’t stopped the American Legislative Exchange Council from developing and distributing across the legislatures of the 50 states model legislation to require that children pass the standardized reading test before they can be promoted to fourth grade.  The Ohio law taking effect in 2014 is a replica of ALEC’s model legislation.  According toChapter 7, Section 2 (C) of the ALEC model law, “Beginning with the 20XX-20XY school year, if the student’s reading deficiency, as identified in paragraph (a), is not remedied by the end of grade 3, as demonstrated by scoring at Level 2 or higher on the state annual accountability NYC Scraps 3rd Grade Guarantee As Ohio Adopts It–Based on ALEC Model Law | janresseger:

NYC Public School Parents: NYS Assessment blues and statement from NYSAPE on latest exam fiasco & call for John King & Tisch to resign

NYC Public School Parents: NYS Assessment blues and statement from NYSAPE on latest exam fiasco & call for John King & Tisch to resign:

NYS Assessment blues and statement from NYSAPE on latest exam fiasco & call for John King & Tisch to resign

Thanks to Howie Ratem for the below video and song; and NY State Allies for Public Education for their statement below on the latest fiasco from NY State Education Department: an unknown number of  3rd graders received Pearson math exams yesterday, with pages and questions missing -- calling into question the validity or the results.  NYSAPE is demanding that the Commissioner and Chancellor Tisch resign.



For more on parent distress at the Common Core testing regime, see Rebecca Mead in the New Yorker, and comedian Louis CK's recent tweets.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: May 2, 2014

More Information Contact:
Eric Mihelbergel (716) 553-1123; nys.allies@gmail.com
Lisa Rudley (917) 414-9190; nys.allies@gmail.com
New York State Allies for Public Education (NYSAPE) www.nysape.org

NYS 3rd Grade Test Invalid, Chancellor Merryl Tisch and

 Education Commissioner John King Must Resign

The leaders of the New York State Allies for Public Education (NYSAPE), a coalition of more than 45 parent and educator groups from throughout the state, are calling for the NYS 3rd Grade math test to be deemed invalid, since many questions were missing today from one of the four forms. This week, once again, parents are reminded of the grossly inappropriate practice of subjecting 8 and 9 year olds to 6 to 12 hours of testing over the course of six days. In light of the high stakes attached to these tests for children, schools and teachers, an error of this magnitude calls NYSED’s leadership and relationship with Pearson into serious question. This is yet another major misstep by our Commissioner of Education and the Board of Regents who oversee NYSED.

Commissioner King and the Board of Regents have been criticized extensively for not listening to parents or educators on the need to revamp the Common Core standards, lessen the focus on testing, and to cease and desist from thrusting one-size-fits-all statewide curriculum on local schools. And despite repeated issues with its testing vendor, NYSED has failed to take meaningful action, ignoring criticism from all corners of the state.

After repeatedly witnessing NYSED and the Board of Regents leadership fail to act within their authority, New York State Allies for Public Education now calls for the termination of Commissioner John King and the resignation of Regents Chancellor Merryl Tisch. The concerns of parents and educators throughout New York State have been casually dismissed at the detriment of their children for far too long.

“This comedy of errors has gone on too long. From the overly long, obscure and confusing ELA exams, with commercial product placements, and now with missing questions from the math exam, it is clear that the educrats at NYSED who have flunked, not our children,” said Chris Cerrone, Springville parent, Western New York Educator and founding NYSAPE member.

“While NYSED is eager to impose high-stakes on our schools and our teachers, where’s the accountability for them?” asked Jeanette Deutermann, North Bellmore public school parent and founder of Long Island Opt Out, “We need to stop the excessive testing and test prep, with defective modules and exams, and get back to educating our children once again.”

“Even as Louis CK has brought attention to the inherently flawed nature of the Common Core test prep materials this week, parents throughout the state are opting out their children in even larger numbers. In our school district, more than 48% refused to take the math tests. But it is unfair to all children and teachers to be assessed and compared with others through an invalid exam with missing questions. Enough is enough! John King and Merryl Tisch, resign!” said Stacey Serdy, Worcester Central School District parent and founder of Worcester Community for Education.

###

Teachers For Social Justice: UIC Social Justice Initiative Events

Teachers For Social Justice: UIC Social Justice Initiative Events:

UIC Social Justice Initiative Events

MAY 1, 2014 LEAVE A COMMENT

Follow us on Twitter Friend us on Facebook University of Illinois-Chicago Upcoming SJI              Events @UIC

Greetings, Join us at our Teaching and Learning Freedom event on May 7th at the WBEZ Little Village Bureau. Next week's Eyes on the Prize community dialogue facilitators are Jackson Potter and Asif Wilson. Lastly, make sure to participate in our May 21stTwitter Town Hall and also attend the UIC Feminist Film Series taking place this week! In solidarity! - UIC Social Justice Initiative   UIC Feminist Film Series Hosted by: GWS Feminism and Social Change 390 Students & Dr. Sekile Nzinga-Johnson   A documentary film series that will engage students on issues of sexual violence, community responses, restorative justice, envisioning a feminist future, and more. Nights of critical conversations, dialogue, and sharing of resources. [Information about the films can be found here.]   April 22nd & April 23rd @UIC Latino Cultural Center (B2) April 24th and April 25th @PUJA Gallery (729 S. Maxwell St.) (Both spaces are accessible) RSVP HERE All Film Screenings 5:30pm-8:00pm   Save the Date! SJI Freedom Summer Twitter Town Hall  Wed, May 21, 3pm  Beyond Allyship: Raising the Bar on Freedom Struggles Featured tweeters: Barbara Ransby, Mariame Kaba, April Callen (April Scissors), Mia McKenzie, Moya Bailey, Andrea Smith, Molly Adams (Vocalo), Maya Schenwar (TruthOut), Coya Paz, Gary Younge, Kevin Coval   Freedom Dreams…Freedom Now!  May 28th - 30th, 2014 The Social Justice Initiative invites you to attend a conference commemorating the 50th Anniversary of Freedom Summer ’64.  REGISTER NOW Space is limited. Emails questions to: sjiuic@gmail.com   Dr. Barbara Ransby: UIC Summer 2014 Course on Justice Movements

The 2008 Common Core Sales Job: Part One | deutsch29

The 2008 Common Core Sales Job: Part One | deutsch29:

The 2008 Common Core Sales Job: Part One

May 1, 2014

In 2008, the National Governors Association (NGA), the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO), and Achieve, Inc., released a report, Benchmarking for Success: Ensuring U.S. Students Receive a World-class Education.

The Gates and GE foundations funded the report.

The content of this report begs for careful examination. Thus, I plan to examine it closely in a series of posts. This first posts centers upon certain economic issues raised by the assumptions in the report, which happen to connect to the title term, “benchmarking.”

According to the authors, the “benchmarking” idea must go beyond the definition in American education (“comparing performance outcomes” or “setting performance targets”) and must consider the business definition, which happens to correspond to the “competitive” definition of “benchmarking” in education in other countries (“identifying top performers or fast improvers, learning how they achieve great results, and applying those lessons to improve one’s own performance”).

In other words, I learn from you, but I do so in order to beat you.

Nice.

The purpose of the report was to promote a now-familiar spectrum of  “education reforms,” including the Common Core State Standards (CCSS). In doing so, NGA, CCSSO, and Achieve assure America that our education system would then be “globally competitive”:

Five Steps Toward Building Globally Competitive Education Systems 

Action 1: Upgrade state standards by adopting a common core of internationally benchmarked standards in math and language arts for grades K-12 to ensure that students are equipped with the necessary knowledge and skills to be globally competitive.

Action 2: Leverage states’ collective influence to ensure that textbooks, digital media, curricula, and assessments are aligned to internationally benchmarked The 2008 Common Core Sales Job: Part One | deutsch29:

Retroactively Paying It Forward (On The City - UFT Contract) - The Jose Vilson

Retroactively Paying It Forward (On The City - UFT Contract) - The Jose Vilson:

Retroactively Paying It Forward (On The City – UFT Contract)

by JOSE VILSON on MAY 1, 2014

in MR. VILSON

Michael Mulgrew, Carmen Farina, and Bill de Blasio

In case it hasn’t already flooded your airwaves already, the De Blasio administration and the United Federation of Teachers reached a tentative agreement to finally get teachers their just due. While I haven’t pored over the details of the contract, I’m certainly happy with any salary increase at this point. After four years without contract, the cost of living has jumped higher and higher without matching recompense for some of the most essential members of any flourishing society.

Of course, lots of people doubted whether the union would get retroactive pay or any contract at all this year after the mess Mayor Bloomberg left, but in fact, two rational sides worked out something they believed would advance the teaching profession.

The reason why so many of us feel comfortable with diverting the conversation around teacher contracts is to “unions” is because teachers themselves aren’t supposed to seek money for themselves. They’re supposed to keep their mouth shut, stay underpaid, and let others negotiate

- See more at: http://thejosevilson.com/retroactively-paying-forward-city-uft-contract/#sthash.A0jVWIHU.dpuf

New Contract! ATR's Thrown Under the Bus! VOTE NO!!! southbronxschool.com

http://www.southbronxschool.com:

New Contract! ATR's Thrown Under the Bus! VOTE NO!!!

I have always said that I will take respect and dignity over a big pay raise in our new contract. Today we found out we are getting neither.

I was with my wife in Valhalla, having just gotten in the car, when the contract announcement came over the radio. I delayed our trip home to tweet and text information that was coming from the Farina/Mulgrew love fest. One thing was on my mind the most. And it wasn't the raises, it wasn't the retro. It wasn't any of the givebacks or little deals made behind our backs. The most important thing to me was the status of the ATR's (Absent Teacher Reserves). To me and The Crack Team that was the deal breaker.

At another time we can delve into the raise, the added hours, the merit pay, etc... But for this evening, the topic of discussion are the ATR's.

The Crack Team and myself have spoken and with and read the blogs of several prominent bloggers.Chaz, Reality Based Educator, and Urban Ed. Now remember, not all the details have been released about the ATR's, but we have been able to get a pretty good general idea. But remember, this post is open to any revision coming down the pike.

It seems that if one is an ATR, you will not be forced into a school that you don't want to be in nor will a ATR be foisted upon a principal. It is has to be mutual.

The ATR will have to interview and if offered a job will have (according to Chaz) a 50 day try out (If the principal thinks you have cooties you are gone), though Farina said it can be as little as 1 day. After that 50th or 1 day, the ATR gets one more chance at remaining in a school. If you flunk out again, that's it, your career is over. There is an expedited hearing to be had within 1 month that is not to be http://www.southbronxschool.com:

5-1-14 Ed Notes Online

Ed Notes Online:

Video and Press Release: NYC High School Teachers Refuse to Administer Test

International HS at Prospect Hts has children from 35 nations speaking about 25 languages. Making them sit through a MOSL test that has nothing to do with their education but only to do with rating their teachers is obscene. These 30 teachers said NO.Was this event worth getting 5 hours sleep? Hell yes. Below this photo is the video of the press conference held across the street from the Prospect

by ed notes online / 5min 

Change the Stakes Next General Meeting - Friday May 2, 6-8pm - CUNY Grad center

Greetings All, As today marks the first day of the math state test, Change the Stakes begins to move the conversation to "What's next?"  Opt out numbers tripled in NYC and almost 35,000 statewide, parents found support in many schools, some difficulties in other schools, teachers spoke out, principals spoke up, parents rallied, the press covered the issues of testing daily, if not multip

by ed notes online / 1h hide  //  save

Even more Louis CK Tweets this time about CC and "Bill Hates"!!!

I'm not that much aware of Louis C.K., whose daughter attends a public elementary school in Manhattan. I know he uses lots of unprintable words. So holy shit, how great are these tweets? Louis C.K. ‏@louisck  2hdidn't mean to write Bill hates. I meant to write "doody faced rich guy". Oh just kidding. Alright I'm done. Go ahead and rip my head off.Expand Reply  Retweet  Favorite Louis C.K

by ed notes online / 1h 

4-30-14 Ed Notes Online

Ed Notes Online: Breaking: 26 Teachers and Staff of International High School at Prospect Heights Campus in Brooklyn refuse to give NYC ELA Performance Assessment TestOy! Can I get up that early tomorrow to cover this? Well, the Brooklyn Botanic Garden plant sale is still on tomorrow and it's right across the street. Maybe I'll have some sleepy video for you by Friday. Much irony in that so many P

by mike simpson / 8h 

Teachers may begin a “Quinn for #5″ Prison Fan Club | Reclaim Reform

Teachers may begin a “Quinn for #5″ Prison Fan Club | Reclaim Reform:

Teachers may begin a “Quinn for #5″ Prison Fan Club

Posted on May 1, 2014by Ken Previti

Pat Quinn could be Illinois Governor #5 to be jailed. 
Teachers may even start a “Quinn for #5″ Fan Club. They would jail him for one set of reasons; federal prosecutors are considering a separate set of reasons.

Why? According to federal prosecutors who are investigating Quinn’s behavior, the old slush fund game got out of control. Take money from where it was supposed to be paid and put it elsewhere while making sure that your cronies get a piece of the action – that kind of thing. Read the Chicago Sun-Times article HERE.

What a coincidence! As all the active and retired teachers and state employees know, he gleefully signed the anti-constitutional pension cutting bill, SB1. Of course the state has not paid its legally required share for decades. This used to be called theft but is now euphemism-ized as “underfunding” which sounds better but steals nonetheless – or none of the money stolen is less.

Quinn repeated his personal message from God at various events. According to Quinn, he was put on earth by God to cut teacher pensions. Read HERE.

Gov. Quinn chose the infamous Paul Vallas as his running mate for November’s election. Vallas has cost Louisiana about $1.5 billion in fines for what he did to public school teachers and was declared “legally unqualified” to be a school superintendent by the Supreme Court of Connecticut. Democratic voters in Illinois have been wondering if this was Quinn’s (D) way to throw the race for billionaire Tea Party candidate Bruce Rauner (R) to win. Illinois Teachers may begin a “Quinn for #5″ Prison Fan Club | Reclaim Reform:

Testimony to the CPS Truancy Task Force Parents United for Responsible Education

Parents United for Responsible Education » Blog Archive » Testimony to the CPS Truancy Task Force:

Testimony to the CPS Truancy Task Force

Student drawing from Wheelock Bebell Haney study

I prepared testimony for one of two public hearings held by the Chicago Public Schools Truancy Task Force, a body mandated by state legislation. The meeting, held in a bank community room on the South Side, attracted more than 150 people, most of whom (including myself) were not given a chance to speak due to the very leisurely manner in which the chair conducted the meeting resulting on only 45 minutes of a 2-hour meeting actually consisting of public comment.

I was able to submit my testimony as written. Here are some excerpts:

Since 1996, the Chicago Public Schools has used various standardized tests as high-stakes measures first just for students, for their promotion after grades 3, 6 and 8, and, more recently as high-stakes measures for teacher, principal and school evaluation. My purpose in testifying here today is to share some concerns about the connection between the high-stakes testing and over-testing of our students and student motivation, truancy and drop out

My comments today will highlight some points raised in three scholarly reports, and offer some recommendations.

The first report is the 2003 paper, “The Effects of High-Stakes Testing on Student Motivation and Learning,” by Audrey L. Amrein and David C. Berliner.

The authors pose the question “Do high-stakes testing policies lead to increased student motivation to learn? And do these policies lead to increased student learning? No, according to four independent achievement measures.”

They add, “The evidence shows that such tests actually decrease student motivation and increase the proportion of students who leave school early. Further, student achievement in the 18 high-stakes testing states has not improved on a range of measures, such as the National Assessment of Educational Progress, despite higher scores on the states’ own assessment.”

The second report is the 2000 study, “High Stakes Testing and High School Completion,” by Clarke, Haney and Madaus. The conclusion of this report is that “high stakes testing programs are linked to decreased rates of high school completion.”

Some of the report’s finding:

• In schools with proportionately more students of low socio-economic status that used high

- See more at: http://pureparents.org/?p=21292#sthash.nXw2QLmm.dpuf

Classified School Employees of the Year for 2014 - Year 2014 (CA Dept of Education)

Classified School Employees of the Year for 2014 - Year 2014 (CA Dept of Education):

State Schools Chief Tom Torlakson Announces California's
Classified School Employees of the Year for 2014

SACRAMENTO—State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson today announced the selection of six outstanding classified school employees in recognition of their roles in school operations and student success.

"I offer my congratulations to six hard-working and devoted school employees who exemplify what commitment to school and student really is," said Torlakson. "These highly skilled and talented workers make the extra effort to support their students, schools, and communities."

The annual program recognizes six outstanding classified school employees, each representing one of the following categories: Child Nutrition; Maintenance, Operations, and Facilities; Office and Technical Support; Para-Educator and Instructional Assistance; Support Services and Security; and Transportation.

The 2014 Classified School Employees of the Year, who will be honored by Torlakson at a luncheon held May 22 in Sacramento, are: (The information contained in the following biographical sketches was excerpted from their nomination forms.)

Child Nutrition

Sharon Cliffman, Assistant Cafeteria Manager, Millville Elementary School, Millville Elementary School District, Millville, Shasta County (11 years in current position)

Mrs. Cliffman provides a positive, compassionate, and encouraging approach to serving healthy meals for Millville students. She is responsible for ordering supplies, creating menus, preparing breakfasts and lunches, cleaning up, and then organizing for the next day. She is familiar with state nutrition guidelines and understands well what is required for proper nutrition. From preparing a living history day feast to serving green eggs and ham on Dr. Seuss's birthday to laying out an impeccably displayed salad bar, Mrs. Cliffman has an unwavering commitment to her work and to the children. Part chef, part nutritionist, and part mother, she goes above and beyond all aspects of her profession.

Maintenance, Operations, and Facilities

Marcus Board, Painter, Department of Buildings and Grounds, Oakland Unified School District, Alameda County (seven years in current position)

Mr. Board has a passion for his job. He is well-known throughout the Building and Grounds Department for his compassion and his energy. A highly skilled craftsman, his high ethical standards and vast experience enable him to be an excellent mentor to his colleagues and to the students who intern during the summer. Last year, Mr. Board was called upon to temporarily step in as shop manager and provided a comfortable and open environment for his coworkers. He worked hard, often coming in early and staying late to ensure the work was properly completed and on time. He possesses wisdom beyond his years and knows how to motivate people. He exudes warmth, humility, and compassion and always expresses appreciation to others for their efforts.

Office and Technical

Diana Vita, Account Clerk II, Carmel High School, Carmel Unified School District, Carmel, Monterey County, (six years in current position)

Ms. Vita is an exemplary employee and more importantly an outstanding person. She sees no boundaries of time or defined job parameters when she comes to work. She is the school's financial secretary and that entails managing money, fundraisers, clubs, minutes, rosters, the student store—the list goes on. What she sees are responsibilities and needs—for students, parents, faculty and staff, and the community. When she sees a need you can be sure she will be either leading the charge to address it, or will be working tirelessly to meet it as part of a team. At no time will you find her to be less than professional and she consistently brightens the day of others with her cheerful attitude and willing spirit.

Para-Educator and Instructional Assistance

Lisa Nowels, Instructional Assistant, Sun View Elementary School, Ocean View School District, Huntington Beach, Orange County (eight years in current position)

Ms. Nowels serves as an Instructional Assistant for English learner students and brings to that job a wealth of experience that allows her to suggest changes to improve district procedures and practices on implementing state and federal English learner regulations. She often participates on district-level committees and is a valuable resource for her colleagues. She helps administer the California English Language Development Test, works on English learner related paperwork, and attends English learner staff meetings. She is a team player who is focused on helping meet the needs of English learners district-wide. Described as professional, efficient, helpful, reliable, and dedicated, Ms. Nowels' work performance is summed up in one word: outstanding.

Support Services and Security

Treavor Maddux, Campus Monitor, Oak View High School and Education Center, Yucaipa-Calimesa Joint Unified School District, Yucaipa, San Bernardino County (eight years in current position)

Mr. Maddux is the campus monitor at a community day school where students are considered at-risk because they were expelled or frequently absent from a traditional high school or are substantially behind in credits to graduate. Next door is an education center for emotionally disturbed students. He has the ability to deal with the most challenging students on the high school site and also to interact with a distressed elementary student at the center. He consistently demonstrates that time spent building relationships and by being firm, fair, and consistent shows students that authority figures can be trusted. These relationships have kept many potential issues at a minimum. He is a role model for staff and respected for his high-moral conduct and common sense in difficult situations.

Transportation

Henry Bell, School Bus Driver, Transportation Department, Roseville Joint Union High School District, Roseville, Placer County (12 years in current position)

Mr. Bell is an amazing person to work with and is a true leader in his field. He is respected not only for his ability to maintain a safe and effective bus, but also for how he communicates and builds relationships with students and staff. He works effectively and patiently to resolve issues with students and parents and demonstrates a climate of trust and teamwork. He often gives discouraged students a positive pep-talk about responsibility and making good choices. This has helped students know what is expected of them, and also shows how much Mr. Bell cares about them. He is an outstanding role model for students and a positive representative for the district.

# # # #

Tom Torlakson — State Superintendent of Public Instruction
Communications Division, Room 5206, 916-319-0818, Fax 916-319-0100