Earlier this week, Bob Dunning had a column in which he described the letters sent from the Davis School District that told him his three children in elementary school were truant for missing three days of classes due to a trip to Disneyland.
The Davis School District is conducting a survey to determine whether parents think teachers are assigning too much homework to their kids. They sent out surveys to parents and district administrators now plan to use the findings to reshape the district’s homework policy. We will find out officially next week what the results of the more than 2000 parental responses.
The Sacramento Bee ran a story on this yesterday and it was suggestive that the results would indicate that there is too much homework.
Score one against the over-reliance on testing for determining whether or not a school is achieving its goals. Montgomery Elementary school has for the past five years been designated a high achieving school by scoring over 800 points on the state’s API schedule. However, that’s not good enough under the Federal System because their score dropped modestly from last year to this year. As a result they have achieved a status of Program Improvement.
Some will argue that this demonstrates what we already have known for sometime that the federal standard is unachievable because the standards rise up to the unachievable level by 2014. The NCLB benchmarks have been described as a hockey stick because the achievement line rises at a steep angle which ends at a benchmark at 100 percent student proficiency by 2013-14.
How does one have high performing schools as rated by the California Department of Education (CDE) and yet fall into the category of “Year One Program Improvement” under the federal No Child Left Behind Law (NCLB)? That is the puzzle that is the federal legislation that has been a subject of much controversy for several years now – and things are about to get much worse, especially in California where funding is collapsing due to statewide economic problems.
So here’s the skinny. The Academic Performance Index (API) compiles scores out of a possible 1000 points). Any school that rates over 800 is considered by the CDE to be a “high performing school.” Davis not surprising has had every school in the district achieve in that range.
The Vanguard has learned that the H1N1 case at Holmes Junior High is definitely NEGATIVE. Therefore, the County Health Officer has given the district permission to re-open Holmes and resume normal activities.
Below is a letter sent out by the district.
Late Saturday, the Vanguard received word that the Davis Joint Unified School District was directed by the County Health Department that they had to close Holmes Junior High School due to a probable case of H1N1 Influenza.
In May 1, 2009 letter from Linda Legnitto, Deputy Superintendent from the Yolo County Office of Education:
“When a confirmed case of the H1N1 virus is found in a child, the local Yolo County Public Health Officer, Dr. Joseph Iser, will contact the Yolo County Office of Education and the school district in which that child attends school to order a dismissal of students from that school district. All extra curricular activities for students should also be cancelled during the dismissal period. There is an important distinction between student dismissal and a school closure. In a situation where students are dismissed, school staff is still required to report to their site; the school is not closed. Dr. Iser has directed that the siblings of ill children should also stay at home. The siblings of children dismissed from school who have no symptoms of illness should be closely monitored, but should continue to attend school.”
Responding quickly to what has been described as a “probable” case of the swine flu, district officials have decided to close Holmes Junior High for 14 days. The Holmes student was one of two flu cases reported by Yolo County health officials Friday. The second case involves an adult.
According to a memo by Superintendent James Hammond:
“Holmes Junior High School is closed to students for a period of fourteen calendar days as now recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and the California Department of Public Health and directed by the Yolo County Health Department. This is an extension of the time period originally announced. Your Holmes Junior High student(s) must remain away from campus and are highly discouraged from congregating in groups. All Holmes students are prohibited from attending any District sponsored activities (i.e. All-City Band, All-City Orchestra, Chorus, Athletics, etc.)”
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Here is Davis Media Access’ Press Release which also includes for the first time the first round of broadcasts on Cable Channel 15. In addition to some 30 questions that have been submitted directly on the blog, the Vanguard has received at least as many questions via email.
SchoolsDavis Media Access (DMA) and the Vanguard will host a Virtual Townhall Meeting on Tuesday, December 2, 2008 with the Davis Joint Unified School District.
The event features:
SchoolsIt was a meeting in stark contrast to the previous board discussion on the issue of truancy. The meeting was such a stark contrast to the point where people were openly shaking their heads wondering why the original meeting in September had to go as poorly as it did.
To her credit, Pam Mari, Davis Joint Unified School District Director of Student Services admitted that the previous conversation did not go as well as was hoped. However, she suggested that communications have drastically improved.
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