The Emerging Leaders…

• Have been in the profession approximately 5–15 years;
• Demonstrate a passion for teaching, learning, and leadership;
• Have not previously been involved with ASCD in a leadership capacity;
• Collectively exhibit a broad range of diversity in position, location, cultural background, and perspective;
• Hold promise as leaders; and
• Are committed to ASCD’s beliefs and to pursuing leadership opportunities.

For me, I get to connect with up-and-coming leaders in the field over the next two years, share best practices, learn, and grow. This starts with the Leader to Leader Conference they send me to in July. I may also be paired up with a with a coach or mentor to create and implement a learning and leadership action plan for my two year commitment.

I’d like to congratulate my fellow “classmates” as well.  There are 26 of us from as far away as Hong Kong.

http://grantwiggins.wordpress.com/2012/05/06/value-added-why-its-use-makes-me-angry-or-good-idea-gone-bad/

“…my teacher says that we need to do good on them. She’s nervous about us taking the tests. Now here’s what I think. I am supposed to learn in school, right? But either you are test-taking or you are learning—can’t be doing both at the same time.”

A couple of interesting items from the article:

 The LSAT for Law School admissions takes 2.9 hours plus a 35 minute writing sample.

·        The NYPD Officer Written Exam designed to measure the cognitive ability, observational skills, and mental acuity of applicants to the NYPD takes one hour and 30 minutes to complete.

·        The NCLEX (National Council Licensure EXamination) is an examination for the licensing of registered nurses. Nurses are permitted up to six hours to complete it.

·        The Series 7 exam, which licenses stockbrokers, is a six hour test, too.

Read the rest here.

One small outtake…

While at Hadley-Luzerne, Bain-Brink (at that time just Bain) was the first player in Section II girls basketball to score 50 points in a game. Her 52-point game still ranks second all-time.

During the same 1983-84 campaign, Bain-Brink set a record for points in a season with 621.

The Eagles won the Adirondack League for the second consecutive year. One year prior, as a junior recovering from chicken pox, Bain-Brink led Hadley-Luzerne to the Class C championship.

Check it out here.

A local superintendent wrote to the Guv.  It’s very succinct laying out the problems facing many districts this year.  I strongly urge you to give it a read…

Read it here.

Economically disadvantaged? Probably more frequently absent.

Absent in Kindergarten? Absent at least through 5th grade.

Absent in 5th grade? Absent in 10th grade.

One item I found interesting for our purposes.  The researchers found that chronic absenteeism is higher in rural areas. In urban areas, absenteeism is higher in the upper grades.

Check it out here.

Before you think this doesn’t apply to you, keep in mind that not only will ELA and Reading teachers be teaching literacy/reading, so will Social Studies, Science, and the technical subjects.

Take a look.

Now the governor has waded into the fray. In his budget speech, he drew clear lines in the sand.  He told SED and the state teacher unions to sort out their on-going lawsuit (over the APPR) within one month.  If it is not sorted in one month, he will include his own APPR in the budget amendments.  There is some question about how much the governor can change or rewrite law; that is generally the legislature’s job.

He went on to set out two dates.  If districts have the new eval system in place by September of this year, they would be eligible for bonus points in another competitive grant ($). If districts do not have the new eval system in place by January of 2013, no state aid whatsoever. “The equation is simple at the end of the day—no evaluation, no money.”

I can’t tell you how much of any of this will happen.  NYSUT and SED could settle tomorrow, who knows.  But you should be aware of the conversation.

Here’s a nice summary from EdWeek.

Check it out here.

To me, the spelling list looks difficult for today’s 8th grade. The arithmetic section looks like mostly real-world problems. Most of the rest- grammar, geography, physiology, civil government, and history- seem pretty low-level knowledge questions. “Name,” “Define,” List” questions abound. I only spot one “Why” question.

So, while the amount of “stuff” to know is great, it’s all Google-able. And really, if it’s Google-able, how much thinking are the  students doing?

Currently you can find three ELA examples ( one elementary, one middle, and one high) and four Math examples (1st, 2nd, middle, and high).

I know for some levels, CC is still another year away.  But resources are arriving. Check them out.