Although we are only at the mid-point of this school year and have accomplished much, we still have a great deal more to do before June. Concerns about the Alternative Accountability Model, the High School Exit Exam (HSEE), how we will implement the necessary course work and added state requirements for graduation (specifically Algebra I) in our schools, dealing with more and more students who are functioning well below their grade level, dealing with all the peripheral challenges in education today and trying to maintain our sanity, makes this the most challenging period in education we have ever experienced. Sometimes we wonder if it is worth the effort, but when we see the smile on a student's face as he/she finally "gets it", or hear the profound thanks from their parents at graduation, or look back on the number of lives we have "touched" during the school year, somehow, it re-energizes us enough to continue trying to make a difference. And, we are making a difference.

There are currently close to a half million students in some form of alternative education in the state of California. A large percentage of these students attend continuation high schools and would be dropouts if we were not there to provide the safety net for them that allows them to earn a high school diploma and move on with their lives. But, we are facing a major challenge on this front. Unless we can prepare our students to successfully pass the HSEE beginning in 2004, we will not see them all earning a high school diploma and I predict the dropout rate in the state will soar. Therefore, we owe it to ourselves, and our students, to do everything possible to ensure that they have the OPPORTUNITY TO LEARN so that they will be able to demonstrate competency on this high stakes test. Start preparing now! Don't wait until next year or the year after. Take a critical look at your instructional strategies, your own attitudes and your resources. Then, up the ante on the rigor of your course work. Our students can learn the material and pass the HSEE. Open the lines of communication at your elementary, middle and feeder schools. Remember that these students belong to EVERYONE, not just the continuation high schools. Develop strategies together that will help prepare all students to demonstrate understanding and competency in the math and English/language arts arenas. Involve your parents and community in this issue. Have a spaghetti feed and invite them all to come and talk about this test. Have a plan for them to participate in helping prepare the students to pass. Be positive about the opportunities. Believe that your students can gain the necessary skills to prove to themselves and the world that continuation high school students are just as capable as their peers attending the traditional high schools. I know this is a huge challenge, but it can be won! It will take hard work and dedication on the part of everyone, but unless we have commitment, we are not setting the best model for our students to follow. We must all do our best and then go beyond that to do even better.

Our State Conference will address some of these concerns this year. There will be workshops dealing with Preparing Students for the High School Exit Exam; The Alternative Accountability Model; Using Standards in Assessment; Classroom Management and Student Achievement; Model Schools; Teaching Reading to Achieve Literacy; Literature Circles that Engage Reluctant Readers; a Legislative Update; and many more topics. Look elsewhere in the newsletter to see a partial list of workshops to be presented and make plans to attend May 4, 5, 6, 2001, at the Hyatt Regency San Francisco Airport Hotel. If you did not receive a registration form, you can access our website at www.cceanet.org and either register online, or download the form and mail it to Bill Pierce at Alta Vista High School in Mountain View. On Friday, May 4, we are planning three workshops presented by commercial vendors. These will be held from 3:00 until 4:30 and will provide interesting perspectives on activities and instruction specifically designed for the continuation high school student. They promise to be an exciting part of our conference. This year we have added two additional statewide recognition categories. District Presidents should have received not only the information for their Teacher of the Year candidate, but also a packet for Classified Employee of the Year and one for Administrator of the Year. These last two awards will be made Friday evening at our banquet. Of course, we will recognize our new Model Schools on Sunday, as well as Exemplary Programs. Don't miss out on the best staff development and training available to continuation educators! I look forward to seeing all of you at this year's conference, "2001: An Education Odyssey."

This summer CCEA will be offering a Continuation Educators' Institute. This Institute is designed for everyone involved in continuation education: teachers, administrators, instructional aides and other classified personnel. The dates will be June 25-28, 2001. The Institute will be held at the Kellogg West Conference Center and Lodge, located adjacent to Cal Poly Pomona. Your only costs above registration will be for two dinners and your transportation. This will be an all-inclusive package beginning with lunch on the 25th and ending at 11:30 AM on the 28th. We are planning to have some outstanding presenters and presentations, a Ropes Course, a visit to the Museum of Tolerance and great opportunities for networking and continuation education staff development. Mark your calendars now to save the dates, and watch for a flyer soon.

CCEA Legislative Update       [ top ]
Peter Birdsall & Theresa Inslee

· Cost-of-Living Adjustments (COLAs)A $1.184billion COLA (3.91 percent) for school districts and county offices of education apportionments ($1.037 billion), summer school ($20.6 million), and special education ($126.5 million). This includes a 3.91% COLA for continuation high schools.

· Categorical Growth and COLAAn augmentation of $233.9million for growth ($71.9 million) and a 3.91percent COLA ($162.0 million) for categorical programs, some of which include: Economic Impact Aid ($38.8 million), adult education ($37.3 million), Regional Occupational Centers and Programs ($22.8million), class size reduction ($18.7 million), school improvement programs ($17.9million), instructional materials ($8.1million), and the Charter Categorical Block Grant ($5.7million).

Longer Year for Middle School

The Budget proposes to increase instructional time in middle schools to improve educational performance and assist students with the transition to high school without further exacerbating current teacher shortages. Accordingly, the Budget proposes $100million as the first step in a three-year effort to increase the length of the instructional year by 30 days for all middle schools.

Intensive Professional Development in Reading and Mathematics

the Budget includes $335million to provide 252,000 teachers and 22,000 instructional aides with standards-based professional development training in mathematics and reading. Modeled after the existing Professional Development Institutes, but structured as a $2,500 per teacher/$1,000 per instructional aide incentive payment to school districts.

Principal Training

the Budget includes $15million to enhance the leadership skills and content knowledge of principals and vice principals through the provision of a new standards-based professional development training program.

Intensive Algebra Initiative

The Budget includes $30million to provide incentives to school districts to increase the number of students enrolled in Algebra classes.

Using Assessment Data to Improve Student Achievement

The Budget provides $20million in incentive funds to purchase or develop software and related training to aid in analyzing Standardized Testing and Reporting (STAR) test data.

Governor's Performance Awards

The Budget provides a $123million budget year augmentation to fully fund the Governor's Performance Awards at $150 per test taker in grades 2 through 11.

School Accountability       [ top ]

State Conference Workshops       [ top ]
Taking Shape

Susan Adler/Barbara Williams
Teen Issues Teaching What They Want to Know Through Literature and Art

Rhonda Anchales
Practical Business for Practically Nothing

Patricia Beal
Using Standards in Assessment

Sue Bennett
The Alternative Accountability Model (PSAA)

John Bernardi
Classroom Management and Student
Achievement

Peter Birdsall
Legislative Update

Gerry Catanzarite
Overview and Features of the CCEA Website

Linda Coyne
Global Options in Community Education

Pat Demetreos/Mosita Mollison
Team Building/Stress Relieving Activities

Bob Ehlers
Forum for Overburdened Administrators

Dennis Fisher
Model Schools

George Gallaher
Student Electronic Accountability Systems (SEAS)

Brenda Lyle-Gray
Creating Conditions for Success

Shawn Hamilton
Positive Reporting Using Local Media to Promote Your School's Public Image

Jennifer Hawes
Teaching Reading to Achieve Literacy with Learning 100

Bill Howard
Elevate Your School's Image with a Promotional Video

Jay Kessler
Get-a-Life . . . Skills Class

Janet Knoeppel
Preparing for the HSEE

Cathy Dahl Kunkel
Everything You Wanted to Know About Work Experience but Were Afraid to Find Out

Sherie Labeois/Gary Litke Senior Exhibit

Terry Lawton Continuation Students Return to Junior College

Pauline Loades
Stress The Good, Bad and Ugly

Barbara Lonergan
Skills for Managing Anger

Barbara Lonergan
Conflict Resolution

John McCotter
Incredibly Cheap Units in Science and Social Studies

Mike Mince
Basic Group Dynamics

Vicki Phillips
Empowering Discipline

Vicki Phillips Building Respect, Responsibility and Resiliency in Today's Adolescents

Richard Puppione
Building a Community of Character

Marilyn Reynolds
Teaching Tolerance Through Young Adult Fiction

Karen Roberts
Using Power Point to Enhance Student
Learning

Shari Sack
Storytelling-Applications in Your Continuation
Classroom

Sara Salmon
Aggression Replacement Training A Documented Change Strategy for Violent and Aggressive Youth

Steve Sussman
Project Toward No Drug Abuse Past, Present, Future

Bernard Vigallon
Assisting Students Through a Transition Center

Nancy Watanabe/Barbara Williams Literature Circles Engaging Reluctant Readers in Literature

Chuck Abel Aligning Student Learning Activities with
California Standards

Jodi Garabedian
Teaching Algebra in Continuation High Schools

Kathy Dahl Kunkel
Everything You Wanted to Know About Work Experience but Were Afraid to Find Out-Basics of a Quality Program

Gary Nelson
Creating a Living and Interactive Greenhouse in Your Classroom

Dana Smith
Creating a Standards Driven Social Science Curriculum in Continuation Education

CCEA Website News       [ top ]

In this article, we will review the latest feature of CCEANet, the eDirectory of Continuation High Schools. Future articles will focus on other components. The California Continuation Education Association eDirectory of Continuation High Schools is a database-driven web application. It is designed to provide easy access to the information about California's Continuation High Schools contained in the database. Each year every school principal is requested to review the school's information and send an update to our Webmaster. The accuracy of the information contained in this database is based on these updates.

The eDirectory of Continuation High Schools contains several special pages. These include: the eDirectory Home page, the Keyword Search page, the School Programs Search page, the School List page, the School Detail page, and the Help page.

The Home page provides easy access to specific schools by allowing the user to select from one of three search engines:
a School Name Search, a CCEA District Search, or a School Enrollment Search.

The Keyword Search page provides a powerful search engine that searches the database for the keyword or words entered in the search text box. The user may choose one of three operators used for the search: contains, equal to, or begins with.

The School Programs Search page is a specialized search page that contains 29 checkboxes, each representing an aspect of the school program. The user may check any number of these boxes to select schools that match the criteria.

Clicking the Go button for the selected search provides a list of schools (using the School List page) matching the search criteria. This list may then be sorted by School Name, City, or CCEA District to make the list more usable. Clicking the School Name link on the School List page sends the user to the School Detail page for the selected school. The School Detail page shows all of the data contained in the database for that school. Both the School List and Detail pages contain navigation buttons to move forward and backward through the pages.

The eDirectory of Continuation High Schools can be accessed through the CCEANet Home Page at www.cceanet.org or directly at www.cceanet.org/directory/eds/. More specific instructions for using the eDirectory of Continuation High Schools may be found on its Help Page.

For more information or comments regarding the website, contact the Webmaster, Gerry Catanzarite, at pgcatan@cceanet.org.

Call for Candidates       [ top ]

Pre-Conference Workshops       [ top ]
Joe Stits, CCEA Secretary

This year there will be a special feature for the state conference for early arrivals on Friday, May 4, 2001 from 3:00 ? 4:30 pm. We will be presenting three pre-conference presentations by commercial vendors who have been invited to present their product and demonstrate its application to your school. The vendors will present at the same time and they will be available to answer all your questions. The topics are highly varied and touch upon key areas of our programs, basic standards-based education, real-world experiential learning, and learning about conducting one's personal life. We think you will appreciate this special event. The presenters are:

Great Adventures in Education

Custom designed tours for curriculum-based educational adventures. From start to finish the adventure is hosted so the school doesn't have to be in the travel industry. Tours are economical, hands-on, cross-curricular and a spectacular way to provide real experience in learning.

Riverdeep Interactive Learning

Riverdeep Software, which correlates to state standards and SAT 9, is the fastest selling interactive learning system in California. Riverdeep designs, develops, publishes, markets and supports interactive learning solutions for K-12 education that integrate the best in curriculum with the power and flexibility of the Internet and other computer-based technologies. Programs include Destination Math and Tangible Math, SimLibrary Science, and EDVantage language Arts.

Premier/A Franklin Covey Company

Premier is the leading provider of time management and personal effectiveness training for students, educators and parents. The program empowers students to develop planning, prioritization, goal setting, and personal leadership skills. Includes training on the "7 Habits" and character education.

Exhibitor and Vendor Roster       [ top ]

California Healthy Kids Resource Center
This program is a statewide dissemination service of innovative and promising tobacco-use prevention/intervention model programs, and safe and drug free schools and communities programs.

Perfection Learning Corp.
Provides books for reluctant learners in literature, grammar, high-interest topics for reading and represents Accelerated Reader Software.

Daily Bite Educational Materials
All of the products are transparency based review materials to provide daily practice of fundamentals and preparation for standardized testing.

Saddleback Educational Inc.
Publishes and distributes thousands of high interest, supplementary textbooks, workbooks, read-alongs, videos, and paperback books for adult and at-risk learners.

Zahorik Company, Inc.
A financial planning company.

Lakeshore Learning Materials
Lakeshore offers high interest materials, in all curricular areas, for students reading below grade level.
 

Thank You Raytheon       [ top ]

To Read or Not To Read       [ top ]
Teacher of the Year Michael Vetrie

Right after the reorganization of our district, my school had an impromptu visit by one of our new superintendents. He came into my classroom with my principal but I didn't notice because I was sitting behind my desk reading a book. Busted! as my students might say. What was a teacher doing sitting at his desk reading a book? As a matter of fact, every one of the twenty students in my class was also intently engaged in reading. Each had a reading log at hand, writing down important moments or quotations from their book in one area of the log and commenting on it later in another.

The superintendent commented that he had never seen a class of students in any school so engaged in reading. I explained that this was our 20 minutes of daily sustained silent reading, a time when the students can select any book I have in the classroom to read, chart their understanding of the book with a reading log or journal, and then, after they finish reading the book, receive credit by writing a book report. It is an important time in my classroom. Nothing interferes with SSR. To prove it, I sit and read with my students.

One of the most prized moments in my teaching is when a student hands me a book report and announces in a very quiet, but prideful tone that this is the first book ever read from cover to cover . How did it happen? It begins with the selection of the books.

Each semester, with two hundred dollars from the school budget, I seek out the most popular young adult paperback books at Amazon.com. I compile a list and then go to our local Barnes and Nobel where teachers receive a twenty percent discount (I would use Amazon but their 20 per cent discount is erased by the shipping cost). I am very careful to select books that I feel will tap into the schemata or background and experience of the students (which I discussed in my last column).

Next, I organize what is called a book pass. The books are passed out among the students. They are allowed to read for five minutes. When I call time, they stop reading, evaluate the book on a chart, then pass the book to the right, receiving a new book from the left, which they read for five minutes and so on until the class period is over. The book pass whets the appetite of the students for the new books and is very popular.

So successful has the sustained silent reading time been in the language arts classroom, our school has set aside a twenty-minute SSR time for the entire school to read. This includes the principal, office manager and parent representative.

If you would like to have a copy of the reading log, the book report form or the design of the book pass, contact me at mvetrie@lausd.k12.ca.us