Thursday, September 30, 2004

Getting ready for a parent-teacher conference

With progress reports soon to be sent home, it may be time to schedule a parent-teacher conference. The first quarter marking period ends in November with report cards going out around Nov. 19, so this can be a good time to check in with your child's teachers and nip any problems in the bud.

The NEA (http://www.nea.org/parents/ptconf.html) has some good tips on how to prepare for a parent-teacher conference. They give a list of questions to ask such as: Is my child in different groups for different subjects?, How well does my child get along with others? Does he or she participate in class discussions or activities? What kind of tests will my child take this year and what will we be able to learn from these tests? How does my child handle test-taking?

For more tips on meeting with your child's teachers, see the NEA website. But remember, open house is not the place to stage a parent-teacher conference. This makes it too difficult for all the parents who are waiting to meet the teachers and check in on their child's progress. If you have issues that take more than 10 minutes to discuss, schedule a conference!


Tuesday, September 21, 2004

Report on Monday's CPC Meeting

Last night was the first Citywide Parent Council meeting of the year. “How to help your child succeed in school” featured Lorraine Burgoyne, principal of the Varnum School, who explained the format of the new report cards and the new math and literacy programs. Social workers Fred Mcosker (Bailey School) and Amanda Wilson (Reilly School) talked about things parents can do to ease the transitions that children face as they progress through school, and Pat Lysz, Director of Title I in Lowell, spoke about afterschool programs. The new report card is very interesting. It will be used for all students in grades one through four this year. For each major subject area (i.e., “Reading” has five subgroups that are graded), students will receive a number grade (either 4, 3, 2 or 1) for mastery of content and a letter grade (A, B, C or D) for effort. We hope to have a sample of the report card on the CPC website later today.

Friday, September 17, 2004

Stoklosa School Fiasco

Some disturbing news about the under-construction Stoklosa School was disclosed at Wednesday’s school committee meeting. When the cost estimate of the initial design of the school was calculated about two years ago, it was about $1.2 more than the amount of money budgeted. All parties agreed to work together to try to save that amount of money before going back to the city council with a request for more money (of course, 90% of any money spent on this project will be reimbursed by the state). Many months ago, the architect suggested eliminating an entire wing of the building as a cost savings measure. That would save the needed money but would also eliminate three classrooms. Considering those classrooms vitally important, the school department representatives to the building committee said no to that suggestion. When the foundation for the building was poured, the school department representatives saw that the foundation for this disputed wing was not there. They asked those responsible about it and were told, don’t worry, it will be there. Now we learn that the wing is not there, that if it is to be built it will cost an additional $500,000 and will delay the project which is already a year behind of schedule. This whole thing stinks. The school committee has to get to the bottom of this. Who decided to eliminate part of the building? Who knew about it? Why wasn’t anyone in the school department informed of this?

Thursday, September 16, 2004

Schools in Need of Improvement

As expected, a number of Lowell schools have been put on a federal watch list for not meeting the standards of the No Child Left Behind Law. The Lowell schools had a lot of company. In all, 384 schools in Massachusetts made the list including some of the highest performing when it comes to overall MCAS scores. Next year, even more schools will make this list. Eventually, every school in the country will be there, too, which only illustrates the absurdity of the law. The real shame is that this law had such promise when it made its way through Congress. Its premise is that many subgroups of students, particularly minorities and those receiving special education services, were being forgotten by school systems whose average test scores were quite impressive. But the noble objectives of this law were corrupted by the ideologues in Washington who are using the law to dismantle the public school system in favor of vouchers and to dilute the power of teachers’ unions.

Wednesday, September 15, 2004

Under Performing Schools

The state Department of Education is supposed to release this year’s list of “under performing schools” as defined by the federal No Child Left Behind law. In the past, we’ve said that a more accurate name for that law is the “No Child Left in the Public Schools” act, since it’s predictable that every school in America will ultimately be labeled as “under performing.” This will bring increasingly harsh sanctions against the schools leading ultimately to their closure. So don’t be alarmed if a number of Lowell schools appear on this list – it’s inevitable. Of course it’s also inevitable that the Lowell Sun will use this as another opportunity to bash the Lowell public schools, so check back here tomorrow for the latest news.

Non-Performing Schools

The state is supposed to issue its list of so called non-performing schools under the guidelines of the Federal No Child Left Behind law. In the past, the Blog has frequently criticized this law, saying a more appropriate name would be No Child Left in Public Schools, because that's the apparent intent of the administration in Washington that is implementing this law. For example, a school might have 99% of its students in the Exceeds Expectations level of MCAS, but because a small group of students, perhaps those in the fourth grade who receive special education services, are making progress but not as rapidly as the law requires, then that entire school is labeled as non-performing and subject to increasingly harsh sanctions ending with the closure of the school.

Tuesday, September 14, 2004

School Committee Meets Tomorrow

The Lowell School Committee will meet on Wednesday, September 15 at 7 P.M. The meeting is televised on Lowell's government access cable channel 10. One topic to be discussed is the proposed merger and movement of the Demonstration School and the City Magnet School. The Demonstration School is a relatively small pre-K to grade 4 school that's located on the former UMass Lowell West Campus. It's the "former" campus, because UML has moved out completely. The City Magnet School has grades K-8 and is located in the McDonough Building adjacent to Lowell High. Last year Lowell High took over half of the McDonough Building and this plan would give the rest of the building to the high school which desperately needs the space. The City Magnet and the Demonstration would combine to form a single K-8 school that would occupy the present Bartlett Junior High. The Bartlett, in turn, would move into the newly constructed Stoklosa School. It's very complicated, but it seems like a good approach to addressing space needs and making maximum use of the available buildings.

Monday, September 13, 2004

New Look for the CPC Website

Welcome to the new Citywide Parent Council website. We have tried to simplify the first page and make the Blog more prominent since it's the part of the website that's kept most up to date. If you have any suggestions about things that should be included on www.lowellcpc.org, please use the comment feature below to share your thoughts with everyone and check back tomorrow for a new Blog entry. Finally, don't forget to vote on Tuesday, September 14 in the state primary election.