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Just before the start of
Christmas vacation, I received a frantic call from a mother of one of my
students. It was at least her third call to inform me that her son refused to
get up and go to school. Now, her son lives less than 100 yards from our front
gate so I asked my campus security person to walk over and bring him to campus.
Upon arrival to my office the student informed me that he wasn’t happy about
having to come to school that day and that since he was a worthless piece of
&*#@! humanity, why did I care if he came to school or not. When I asked him
how he had come to the conclusion that he was worthless, he looked up and said,
“I always have been! It’s just the way things are.” This student’s
father had been in and out of state prison for a number of years. The police
search the family home every 3 or 4 months. This student sleeps 12-14 hours a
day. He is not a problem student. He just doesn’t see any purpose to his
getting a formal education.
Our student, unfortunately, is
not unlike many of the students that we see at our continuation schools. They
come to us with years of previous school failures, family troubles and a history
of personal disappointments. Too often, their home school was too large or too
impersonal to provide needed specialized services. The result: the student
becomes viewed as a worthless trouble-maker who needs to be dumped off to the
continuation school. Those same nameless institutions where much more often than
not there are no regularly assigned counselors, no intervention specialists, no
school nurse, no campus security, few elective courses and no one to make
community referrals for outside help. Put another way, the Continuation school
where full time administration is a luxury and the instructional day is
180 minutes.
The efforts of “caring
continuation educators” have always been the first line of help for all of
these discarded students. Much too often, however, our students need more than
T.L.C. to overcome their deep seated problems and to get back on the learning
curve. The CCEA leadership has worked tirelessly over the past five years to
rally the legislature to provide more funding that would secure for our students
access to needed services and opportunities. In mid November we were all excited
to learn that Governor Davis had signed AB961, the High Priority Schools Grant
Program, designed to improve academic performance for students at low performing
schools including continuation schools.
Finally, this was to be
Continuation Education’s year to see increased funding from Sacramento that
would provide the needed help to improve the lives of our students. But
September 11th continues to impact the lives of countless innocent
victims far from the horrors of New York and Washington D.C.. I am sure that you
are aware of the difficult state of the California economy! Governor Davis only
weeks after having signed increased funding for California schools is now
cutting $843 million from this year’s education budget. The cuts that affect
continuation education include: AB961 ($197 million), Beginning Teacher Support
and Assessment Program ($20 million), Peer Assistance and Review ($50 million),
Teaching Standards NBPTS ($5 million), Teaching as a Priority Block Grant ($20
million) Professional Development Institutes ($6 million), K-12 Per Pupil Block
Grant ($68 million), and Digital High School ($15 million). The recent cut of
the Attendance Audit is the only positive measure among the governor’s cuts.
While funding will be limited in
the short run, we can all continue our learning curve by seeking new
opportunities for professional development and attaining skills that will allow
some of us to better serve our special student population. I can think of no
better place in which to gain this educational knowledge than by attending this
years’ CCEA State Conference in Costa Mesa on April 26-28, 2002. Many
informative workshops and special in-depth sessions will be offered to help
educators improve student performance and conduct.
There even will be sessions to
assist teachers and administrators in overcoming stress and enjoying life to its
fullest.
Registration forms are included
in this newsletter and also may be found at the CCEA website www.cceanet.org.
Make reservations today for Fiesta on the Beach in Costa Mesa. Become a
Professional Member and your first soft drink or libation is on me.
Governor
Davis released his proposed 2002-03
Budget. Overall, the budget has received praise from statewide education groups
for honoring the Proposition 98 funding guarantee and for providing funding for
enrollment growth and a cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) for all major K-12
education programs.
Of
particular concern to K-12 education are the Governor’s proposals to use new
federal special education dollars as an offset to pay for special education COLA
and growth, his proposal to eliminate PERS reduction and equalization funding in
the current and budget years, and a new proposal to cut funding for district and
county office independent study programs by 10%.
COLA and Growth
Of particular interest to CCEA
is the Governor’s proposal to provide an across the board COLA and growth
funding, including continuation high schools and all major categorical programs
that received a COLA in 2001-02. However,
the COLA has been revised downward to 2.15% from earlier estimates.
The statutory COLA would increase K-12 district revenue limits by $96 per
ADA for elementary districts, $116 per ADA for high school districts, and $100
per ADA for unified districts. The
proposed budget provides funding for K-12 education growth of 1.07%.
Mid-Year Budget Cuts
The Governor’s proposed budget
would restore only a few programs proposed for reduction or elimination in the
current year. As you are aware, the
Administration proposed to suspend funding for 18 education programs in
mid-November, in an effort to provide potential savings to address the state’s
budget shortfall. While the
Legislature has yet to act on his proposed mid-year cuts for 2001-02, the
Governor’s proposed 2002-03 Budget assumes that all the cuts will be approved,
and further proposes to continue those cuts into the budget year with the
exception of three key programs he hopes to restore.
Specifically, the proposed
2002-03 Budget would restore the High Priority/Low Performing Schools Block
Grant Program ($197 million), Before/After School Program Expansion funding
($29.7 million), and the proposed mid-year cuts to the Teaching as a Priority
(TAP) Block Grant Program ($20 million).
The Governor’s 2002-03 Budget
proposal would continue all of the other reductions and eliminations proposed
last November, including the elimination of four programs of particular concern
to the school community: PERS
Reduction funding ($35 million), equalization funding ($40 million), K-12 Per
Pupil Categorical Block Grant Program ($67.8 million), and the Energy Relief
Block Grant Program ($250 million).
Independent
Study
With regard to independent
study, the Governor’s budget summary states, “Chapter 892, Statutes
of 2001, reduced funding for non-classroom based charter schools by up to 20 percent
in 2002-03. Recognizing that
non-classroom instruction (independent study) is less expensive than instruction
provided in a classroom setting whether provided by a charter or by a
traditional public school, the Budget proposes a 10 percent, non-waivable
reduction in funding for all other independent study instruction.
This reduction applies to all public non-charter K-12 schools, and will
save an estimated $43 million in the 2002-03 fiscal year.”
Special
Education
Although the Governor's proposed
budget provides COLA and growth for special education, they are provided from
the increased federal dollars, not from state Proposition 98 funding.
This means the Governor is proposing to use new federal special education
dollars in large part to fund COLA and growth.
However, the Governor stated his hope that this use of the federal
increases as an offset to state funding would be a one time occurrence, noting
it was necessary due to the severity of the state’s current fiscal condition.
The following excerpts from the
Governor’s press materials provide more details on other key components of the
Governor’s K-12 Education Budget:
Instructional
Materials Block Grant
“$250 million for
schools to purchase standards-aligned instructional textbooks in core curriculum
areas for students in grades K-12. Once schools provide standards-aligned
textbooks to each pupil, the funds can be used for a variety of instructional
materials purposes, including school library and classroom library materials.
This block grant replaces the existing Instructional Materials K-8,
Instructional Materials 9-12, School Library Materials, and K-4 Classroom
Library programs. The Administration also intends to propose additional
increased funding for future years consisting of $100 million in 2003-04,
$200 million in 2004-05, $300 million in 2005-06, and $350 million
in 2006-07.
Textbook
Block Grant
“$200 million in
onetime Proposition 98 Reversion Account funding for instructional
materials for school districts that certify they will provide each pupil with a
standards-aligned Reading/Language Arts textbook by the beginning of the 2002
school year.
School/Classroom
Library Grant
“$100 million in onetime
Proposition 98 Reversion Account for school districts to purchase school
library materials or K-4 classroom library materials.
Science
Lab Equipment
“$75 million in onetime
Proposition 98 Reversion Account for school districts to purchase science
lab equipment and materials to provide standards-based science instruction in
grades 7-12. These funds will build upon efforts such as the
adoption of standards-aligned instructional materials and curriculum frameworks,
already begun by the Administration to develop high standards for science
learning.
Mathematics
and Reading Professional Development Program
“The 2002-03 Budget
continues the Administration's commitment to provide K-12 instructional staff
with quality professional development by increasing second-year funding for the
Mathematics and Reading Professional Development Program by $30 million to
$110 million. Chapter 737, Statutes of 2001, enacted the Mathematics and
Reading Professional Development Program, which is modeled after the successful
University of California-operated Professional Development Institutes and serves
both teachers and instructional aides. The goal of this program is to ensure
that all reading and mathematics teachers receive standards-aligned training as
quickly as possible.
Principal
Training Program
“$7.5 million for
the Principal Training Program established by Chapter 697, Statutes of 2001. The
goal of this program is to provide 15,000 principals and vice-principals with
training in instructional standards and effective school management techniques.
Over the three-year period of this program, the State will spend $45 million
to provide $3,000 per person trained, with school districts providing a local
match of $1,000 per individual. However, the Administration has secured a grant
from the Gates Foundation which will provide the local match of $1,000 for each
principal and $500 for each vice-principal.
Beginning
Teacher Support and Assessment Program
“$88.3 million for
the Beginning Teacher Support and Assessment Program, which will be sufficient
to serve over 24,600 teachers. While this funding amount maintains the
proposed $20 million decrease in base funding proposed for 2001-02, it also
includes $3.6 million for program growth and COLA
Peer
Assistance and Review Program
“$87 million for the Peer
Assistance and Review (PAR) program, which includes a continuation of the $50 million
base funding decrease proposed for 2001-02. The Administration's proposal would
reduce the funding rate for this program by 50 percent and specify that any
funding captured in excess of the $50 million in proposed savings would be
provided to school districts that certify they have been using PAR funds for
specified activities. The PAR program funds are used to provide mentoring
services to veteran teachers or to supplement other staff development programs,
such as the Beginning Teacher Support and Assessment Program and the Alternative
Certification Program.
School
Development Plans and Resource Consortia – SB 1882
“Elimination of this
$21.6 million program…this program provided funding for the participation of
teachers in development and implementation of curricula, instruction, and
student assessment.
Teaching
As A Priority Block Grant
“$118.7 million
for the Teaching As A Priority Block Grant, thereby restoring the $20 million
funding reduction proposed for 2001-02. This program provides low-performing
schools funding to offer recruitment and retention bonuses to credentialed
teachers.
High
Priority Schools Grant Program
“$197 million for
the High Priority Schools Grant Program (HPSGP), which was delayed until July 1,
2002, due to current year budget constraints, will provide grants to the State's
lowest performing schools to improve academic performance. Priority in funding
will be provided to schools with the lowest API scores. While in the program,
participating schools will receive annual grants of up to $400 per pupil to
implement an action plan focusing on the following essential components:
-
Pupil literacy and achievement.
-
Quality of staff.
-
Parental involvement.
-
Facilities, curriculum, instructional materials, and support
services.
Before and After School Program
Expansion
“The Governor's Budget
includes a $75 million augmentation to expand the Before and After School
Learning and Safe Neighborhoods Partnerships Program, providing a total of
$162.8 million for the program. This program provides homework assistance,
other academic support, and access to safe before and after school care for
children with working parents. This increased amount includes $29.7 million
for expansion of grants that were suspended in the current year and $45.3 million
for additional expansion, $30 million of which reflects a shift from
savings in other programs due to the child care reform proposal. This expansion
will provide services to at least 79,000 additional school-age children.
Adult Education
“A reduction of $36 million
to reflect the deletion of funds allocated for services to CalWORKs recipients.
These funds were primarily used to allow Adult Education and Regional
Occupational Center and Programs (ROC/Ps) to claim funds above their average
daily attendance cap if they used the additional funds to provide instruction to
CalWORKs participants. Due to recent program augmentations, these CalWORKs funds
are no longer necessary to ensure that the State meets its maintenance-of-effort
requirement for the federal Temporary Aid for Needy Families grant. CalWORKs
recipients can still be served in adult education and ROC/P programs or through
other CalWORKs employment services and training funds provided by the
counties.”
If you have any questions about
this memo, please give us a call at 916.441.3302.
Dropout Prevention: Mystery
or Mastery?
I get phone calls almost daily from parents, students,
schools, government agencies, or the media about dropout prevention, recovery
and retention. Callers want to know how many dropouts there are and what is
being done to prevent kids from dropping out.
Depending on the background of the caller, these calls can
get pretty long. They’re great opportunities to raise awareness of the
challenges and successes we face in alternative education.
I usually start by demystifying the reasons that students
drop out. I explain that any child can become “at-risk” depending on the
circumstances of their lives. I describe how the system fails the student rather
than the student failing the system. We talk about the critical role of families
and the community.
I give an overview of all alternative programs, including
opportunity education, continuation education, independent study, juvenile court
and community schools, community day schools, alternative schools, adult
education, and other educational options. We discuss how these alternatives
should be coordinated district-wide, based on early assessment, intervention,
referral, follow-up evaluation, and continuous program improvement.
By this time the caller understands that in theory dropout
prevention is not mysterious. The strategies are based on common sense, adequate
resources, district support, and enlightened concern for the well being of all
students. In reality, implementing and sustaining a district-wide dropout
prevention system is challenging. Adequate resources and district support are
often the missing components of an effective dropout prevention system.
However, many examples of excellent dropout prevention
programs exist. I give the caller a list of Model Continuation High Schools in
their area and invite them to visit. I almost always end the phone call by
referring the caller to other resources, especially the CCEA web site, the
single best site for all things related to continuation education.
After callers visit a model school, they call me back
astonished at what they’ve seen. They report how wonderful the school and
students are. They are amazed that such effective and compassionate education is
taking place right in their community. It seems miraculous that the school has
mastered all of the components of dropout prevention.
I recently received such a call about Aliso High School in
Reseda, Los Angeles County. Aliso High School was selected as a Model
Continuation High School last year, a second designation.
The news reporter that visited Aliso could not praise
Principal Jay Kessler, his staff, and students enough. The reporter was
especially impressed with one student who was staffing the receptionist’s
desk. The young woman was so professional that the reporter felt any business
would be fortunate to hire her.
The following student quote from Aliso reflects what I
observed during my site visit there last year: “ Student success is, in a way,
a gift of appreciation for the hard work and dedication of the staff. The great
feeling of pride in one’s accomplishments opens my eyes to a new life hidden
by a false thought that education isn’t important. Aliso has given me the
desire in my heart and mind to find my purpose and reach personal excellence.”
During my site visit to Aliso, another student said to me
about his teacher, “Mr. Trapani is so great. How could I not do my best work
for him?”
There are many reasons that kids drop out of school. Model
Continuation High Schools such as Aliso High School demonstrate every day why
kids stay.
Now is the time to plan to attend the 2002 CCEA State Conference in Costa Mesa.
Registration forms are in this
issue of the newsletter. There will
be new additions to the conference, such as new all-day sessions on Friday,
April 26th. For those
attending on Friday we will have among others, a six hour CPR
certification course for a $10 fee. This
course will cover the whole range of CPR information and will be a boon to those
who have not yet had the course. As
always, there will be a full slate of programs at the conference as well as
terrific vendor displays and hospitality opportunities to mix and mingle. Costa
Mesa is near the beach and in the heart
of Southern California’s Orange County, featuring many popular tourist
attractions. Plan to attend now! You may also register online on our
website www.cceanet.org.
Social Science Teacher, Sonoma County
My name is Bill Halliday and I'm an Alternative Education Principal in
beautiful Sonoma County. My site houses a Continuation High School, a Small
Necessary School, a Community Day School, Independent Study and Adult Ed. The
district is Cotati-Rohnert Park. I have a full time opening for a Social Science
Teacher beginning February 1st. The position is temporary, as our current
teacher is going on a one year Willie Brown leave. The position will be formally
listed next week. He may not come back at all AND alternative ed. programs are
expanding in the district and county. The potential for permanent employment for
a well skilled and well-matched teacher is high.
Please call 707-588-5700 if you have any further questions
or need information. Thanks for your assistance.
RSP Teacher, Ventura
Thanks for your note in the CCEA newsletter.
I am looking for an RSP teacher at Pacific High School in Ventura, CA.
The job description is on our website:
www.vtusd.k12.ca.us
Contact person
is:
Nancy Maxson, Principal, (805) 641-5250
This position is open immediately. Thanks.
A Continuation Educators’
Institute was held November 16, 17 and 18, 2001, at the Kellogg West Conference
Center in Pomona. Designed as a way
to provide staff development opportunities specifically for those individuals
working in continuation high schools, the Institute was well attended by people
from up and down the state.
Following registration Friday
afternoon, a wine and cheese reception gave the participants a chance to unwind
from a challenging week and do some networking. After dinner, we were privileged to have Dave Pelzer as our
kickoff speaker. His presentation,
“The Real Heroes,” was funny, thought provoking and wonderful!
Dave is the international best selling author of A Child Called
“It”, The Lost Boy, A Man Named Dave and his most recent novel, Help
Yourself. The first three books
chronicle Dave’s life as the third most abused child in the history of the
state of California, through his being rescued, growing up to serve in the
United States Air Force during Desert Storm and assuming his place as a
productive citizen of his community. All
four of these books have been on the New York Times Best Seller List and
two have been nominated for the Pulitzer Prize.
Dave’s presentation was a tribute to the educators who saved his life.
His impersonations of Robin Williams, Arnold Swarzenegger, Clint
Eastwood, George Bush and Bill Clinton added a note of humor to an emotionally
charged theme. At the end of his
presentation, Dave had copies of his books for all of the participants that he
had personally signed. These books
occupied many of the participants that evening, as they sat up reading into the
wee hours of the morning.
Saturday the attendees split
into two groups. Half of the
participants attended the workshop presented by Brad Greene. Brad’s topic was “Choice Theory and Quality Schools.”
When Brad was the Principal at Apollo High School in the Simi Valley, he
had the opportunity to work with William Glasser in helping his school become a
Quality School. The result of this
work led Brad to join forces with Glasser.
The workshop was a highly visual presentation that reaffirmed our beliefs
in the work that we do in continuation high schools.
The other half of the group
attended a workshop given by Joe Stits on “Implementing Standards-based
Instruction.” Joe led his people
through the development of curricular lessons that aligned with the standards.
They wrote rubrics and discussed the factors for measuring student
achievement. They also worked on
developing the benchmarks for understanding and integrating the content
standards in other curricular areas.
Sunday morning following
breakfast, Janet Knoeppel presented a workshop on “Finding the Resources to
Help Students Pass the CAHSEE.” Janet
discussed the implications of the latest legislation to affect the CAHSEE,
including AB 1609 and AB 961. The
Governor signed both bills in October this year. She provided examples of the types of questions that were
used on the first test given in 2001. Based
on these examples, Janet provided
many strategies teachers can use to help students develop the higher level
thinking skills (analysis, synthesis and transference) needed to pass the CAHSEE.
The institute was well received
by the participants, and CCEA will present some all day in-depth sessions on
April 26th, the first Friday of conference.
Classroom
Management Technique: Mobility
in the Classroom
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top ]
Susan Stone, State Teacher of the Year
As educators in alternative education we teach students who
have been turned off by education, who have found themselves lost in the back
row of the comprehensive classroom, and who sometimes found it easier to
misbehave rather than to expose the fact that they could not read to understand
what was being taught. Our
challenge is to provide a classroom structure and management style which
promotes learning and eliminates the back of the classroom.
One way to meet this challenge is to walk away from the front of the
classroom and simply circulate around the students as you deliver your material
or monitor their work to ensure they remain on task.
I consider myself fortunate to
have had university advisors in the education program who taught me the
importance of moving about the classroom, as there would never be a student lost
in the back row if there wasn’t a back row to begin with.
I learned within my first semester of teaching in continuation the value
of mobility. It was apparent that most of my students were not used to a
teacher who moved about the classroom. No
longer could they “look” like they were actively engaged in their classroom
work, nor could they write notes or create doodle art.
Nine years later I believe that much of my success with the students
comes in part from my classroom management.
There are other advantages to moving about the classroom,
which carry a more serious tone than monitoring student work.
In a recently published article on a yearlong narcotic sting operation in
Los Angeles public schools one undercover officer reported that of the
percentage of students he busted 40% of the drug transactions occurred in the
classroom. The students would be in
the back of the classroom conducting drug deals while the instructor was in the
front of the classroom teaching.
Take a moment to assess where you spend most of your time
during the class period and look at the arrangement of your classroom. Does the
arrangement hinder or allow mobility? Can
you restructure your teaching techniques to enable you to spend more time in and
around your students? The challenge is to provide a classroom environment where
the student is able to be actively involved in the
learning process and being a mobile teacher is just one way to fulfill
that challenge.
In this article we will look at how we store our documents
in our website and how best to access them.
Our website is primarily built on Microsoft products and it is served to
the Internet by servers running Microsoft 2000 Server software.
The website can be viewed using any of the more recent web browsers, but
it is best viewed using Microsoft Internet Explorer version 5.0 or later.
The latest version of Internet Explorer may be downloaded at no cost from
Microsoft at http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/default.asp.
Many documents on our website are not only formatted in
html format (Web format), but they are also available in Portable Document
Format (pdf format). This format
provides an exact copy of the document that can be read online and also printed
to your local printer.
We use this format for our newsletters, brochures, important forms,
flyers, letters, and the like. To
view these documents, you must have the Adobe Acrobat Reader plug-in installed
in your browser or the Adobe Acrobat program on your computer.
A free copy of the Adobe Acrobat pdf Reader plug-in can be downloaded
from Adobe’s website at http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep.html.
We are now also including some of our documents, especially
forms, in Rich Text Format (rtf). RTF
format can be read by most of the current word processing programs thus allowing
these forms to be opened in the word processor and filled in electronically.
Forms such as those in the Model School Application provided by the CDE
are an example. Generally rtf files
are compressed using a Zip program so that they can be downloaded more easily.
To access these zipped document files after they are downloaded to your
computer, you must have an unzipping program such as WinZip.
WinZip can be downloaded from the Internet at http://www.winzip.com/downauto.cgi?winzip80.exe.
Along with serving the files in rtf format, we are also
making them available in native Microsoft Word 2000 format.
This is a better choice for people using Microsoft Office 2000 products.
Generally, we will include both an rtf version and a Word 2000 version in
a downloadable Zip file.
Occasionally, we will also give the option to download a
self-extracting zip file. This type
of file includes an unzipping program with the download. It is an executable file that, when run, will automatically
unzip the files to a location that you specify on your computer
Parts of our website are database driven.
This means that the web page displayed on your computer is dynamically
created on the server with data that you requested and then it is sent to your
browser for you to view. We use Microsoft’s Active Server Page (asp) Technology to
provide this function. For asp
pages to work properly, your browser must be set to run scripts.
We also use cookies in some instances.
Cookies are simple strings of textual information used to remember
important data from one page to another. The
cookies we use are temporary cookies that are usually stored on the server and
they are erased soon after you leave the site.
For these pages to work properly, you must have cookies enabled on your
browser setup. Most browsers have
both “running scripts” and “accepting cookies” set as part of the
default settings.
If you have further questions or comments, please contact
the CCEA Webmaster, Gerry Catanzarite, at pgcatan@cceanet.org.
The Newsletter always needs interesting new
material, so if you have something you would like to say to your
colleagues in the Continuation Education Field -
write it! We reserve the
right to edit all material for form, fit and function. Chances are that your
article will be printed “as is”. Then you can tell your friends that you
have been “Published”.
Pictures of a relevant nature and graphics of all kinds are
likewise encouraged. As mentioned elsewhere, we would like to receive articles
in Word format, since that allows easy insertion into the desk top publishing
program that we use to create the newsletter. Articles can be emailed, or if
that is not a comfortable method for any of you writers, mail a diskette to Nancy Christopher, Secretary. The
address is: Willow Park High School, 21905 Nisqually Road, Apple Valley, CA
92308. Phone: (760) 240-4252 (Work). Email: nchristopher@eee.org
Click Here for more information.
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