Baldwin County Public Schools, Daphne AL
| August 1, 2008 | ||
| 10:00 am | to | 12:00 pm |
Speaking to Career Education teachers, administrators, and the Business/Industry Advisory Council at the Eastern Shore Baptist Church at 6847 Park Drive in Daphne, Alabama on the topic “How to Transform Educational Systems into World Class Organizations”.
Pasco WA Public Schools
| June 24, 2008 | ||
| 12:00 am |
Helping Students Graduate: Tools and Strategies to Keep Students from Dropping Out of School
9th Annual Alternative Education Conference, Hot Springs Arkansas
| July 21, 2008 | ||
| 12:00 pm | to | 4:00 pm |
Lunch Keynote: Building Global Competitiveness: From The Schoolhouse to the Workplace
Breakout: Helping Students Graduate: Tools and Strategies To Stop Children From Dropping Out of School
Southern Regional Education Board (SREB) Summer Staff Development Conference, Nashville, TN
| July 9, 2008 12:00 pm | to | July 12, 2008 12:00 pm |
Three Presentations:
Helping Students Graduate: Strategies & Tools To Prevent School Dropouts
Turning School Cultures into Supportive Learning Enviornments
What Do Successful Leaders of At-Risk Learners Do To Raise Academic Acheivement
Listen to my free radio webcast today
Yesterday I did an hour nationwide radio broadcast for the National Dropout Prevention Network called, “From At-Risk to Academic Excellence: What Successful Leaders Do“. It has been archived by the National Dropout Prevention Center and they have generously made it available for free and it can be used for professional development. I hope you enjoy it.
PDF Slides from April 22, 2008 Radio Webcast on National Dropout Prevention Center/Network
Click blue play button to listen…
Why do children come last?
I know that there are many important issues in this upcoming presidential election. To mention a few, the mortgage crisis, health care, the funding for social security, the cost of gasoline, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and our policy toward China. But our country’s future depends on our young people.
Our federal budget reflects our nation’s priorities. And in a report issued by First Focus (www.firstfocus.net/Download/CBook.pdf) in the past five years, children have lost significant ground in the federal budget. “While overall spending on children’s issues increased by about 1.4%, in real terms, total federal non-defense spending grew at nearly 10 times that rate. As a result, the children’s share of the federal non-defense budget declined from 11 percent in 2004 to 10 percent in 2008. This drop continues a trend in which the budget share allocated to children has declined 23 percent since 1960. President Bush’s fiscal year 2009 budget proposal continues this trend. While spending on children’s health programs will increase by 2.2 percent, discretionary spending in this are would drop by 12 percent from 2008 levels. 42% of all federal spending goes to the military, 16 percent goes to health care and only 4.4 cents goes toward education, training and social services. (Source: Public Education Network Weekly Newsblast, 4/18/2008).
As the presidential candidates come to your neighborhood, it is critical that educators ask, “Why do children come last?”
Regional Education Center XV, San Angelo TX
| June 16, 2008 | ||
| 9:00 am | to | 4:00 pm |
Helping Students Graduate: Tools and Strategies to Keep Students in School
No Community or School is Immune
Nine third graders were suspended this week after school officials in WAYCROSS, GA uncovered a plot that they planned to attack their teacher. The children allegedly brought handcuffs, a knife, a heavy crystal paperweight and several rolls of duct tape to school. The Waycross police said that the 8- and 9- year olds were seeking revenge against the teacher because she had scolded one of their friends.
School violence is nothing new. In the 1960′s a film called “Black Board Jungle” was made about violence in an inner-city school. What is new about school violence is that it is taking place in small town, rural and suburban America (and the world – Finland had a school shooting incident) and it involves guns and automatic weapons. Parents moved out of inner-city schools to escape violence, drugs, gangs and crime and guess what, these things have followed them
What can schools do to protect themselves, their staff and their students from school violence? First, they must remain vigilant and need to recognize that no school or community is immune. School leaders and staff need to read their school safety plans, update them if necessary and make sure that EVERY staff member knows what they are to do in case of an emergency.
The FBI and the Secret Service have written two reports which can be downloaded. The FBI report is called “The School Shooter Report” and the Secret Service’s “The National Threat Assessment Report.” Every school should have at least two copies, one in the principal’s office and one in the school library’s teacher reference file.
Parents, staff and most importantly, students need to be protected from violence.
Join my free Webcast – April 22, 2008 at 3:30 p.m. Eastern Time
| April 22, 2008 | ||
| 3:30 pm | to | 4:30 pm |
Mark your calendar for the next National Dropout Prevention Center/Network Radio Webcast on…
Solutions to the Dropout Crisis
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
3:30 – 4:30 p.m. Eastern Time
www.dropoutprevention.org/webcast/
- How do school leaders build school cultures that diminish the likelihood of children dropping out
of school? - What are the determinants of school success?
Participation in this radio Webcast is free and no registration is required. The program will be archived in its entirety on the National Dropout Prevention Center web site. On the day of the Webcast, link to the broadcast at http://www.dropoutprevention.org/webcast/.
Based upon Franklin Schargel’s recent book, From At-Risk to Academic Excellence: What Successful Leaders Do, this Webcast will bring together the wisdom and experience from over 50 schools that have been categorized as “high performing, high minority, high poverty.” Mr. Schargel will show us how the leaders of those schools succeeded in raising academic achievement, motivating students, boosting parent and community involvement, and applying the Three R’s””Rigor, Relevance, and Relationships.
Supplementary materials are now available online at www.dropoutprevention.org/webcast/ for this radio Webcast. All necessary information about participating fully in this professional development opportunity is found on the Web site at http://www.dropoutprevention.org/webcast/. If you have any further questions, feel free to contact the National Dropout Prevention Center at ndpc@clemson.edu or 864″¢656″¢2580.
National Dropout Prevention Center/Network
College of Health, Education, and Human Development
Clemson University, 209 Martin Street
Clemson, SC 29631-1555 Telephone: 864-656-2599
email: ndpc@clemson.edu
This Webcast is produced with support from Penn Foster.
Education’s Dirty Secret
America’s Secretary of Education, Margaret Spellings has proposed that the U.S. Department of Education require states to use a standard measure for calculating graduation rates. Although No Child Left Behind legislation presently requires states to publish graduation rates, states decide what formula to use. While Ms. Spelling’s proposal has merit, I see two problems with it.
First, all of the data reported to the U.S. Department of Education is self reported and therefore is and will still be dependent of the accuracy of self-reported data. Second, Ms. Spellings and the Bush Administration has less than a year to go in office and therefore by the time the proposal is promulgated, the administration will be no more.
