Integumentary (referring to something that covers or encloses, especially an enveloping layer of an organism) was the winning word in the 22nd Annual Reaching Heights Adult Community Spelling Bee, held April 17, 2013, at Cleveland Heights High School. The Barratrous Orthographers, a team representing the law firm of Squire Sanders with spellers Bonnie Bealer, Becky [...]
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New Calculation of Graduation Rates on State Report Card Doesn’t Add Up
When you hear about high school graduation rates, what do you think they measure? The number of students in the 12th grade who finish their required courses plus the few brainiacs who graduate early, right? The U.S. Department of Education has redefined “graduation rate” on state Report Cards (starting with the 2011-12 school year) to [...]
Evaluation: A Tool for Building Effective Teachers
There’s little argument that high quality teaching is crucial, but determining who is up to snuff is more problematic. What does an effective teacher do? Teaching is complex and individuals develop expertise through experience. In this article, local public education advocate and former Reaching Heights Executive Director Susie Kaeser examines what teacher evaluation looks like [...]
Changing Culture to Provided Our Kids Needed Skills
By Krista Hawthorne It’s not just the economy that makes employers nervous about the future, says Dr. Ronald F. Ferguson, a Senior Lecturer in Education and Public Policy at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. “Big employers are scared that we will not be able to replace the baby boomers when [...]
One in Five American Children Live in Poverty
Child poverty increased in 38 states from 2000 to 2009, and nearly 15 million children – 20 percent of the child population – were poor in 2009, a 2.5 million increase from 2000. These are among the findings in the 2011 Kids Count Data Book from the Annie E. Casey Foundation. Nevada has the highest [...]
Ohio School Rankings Raise Questions
Ohio’s biennial budget for fiscal year’s 2012-2013, signed into law by Gov. John Kasich on June 30, includes a provision to rank the state’s 3,500 public schools. Here’s an article about the new rankings that ran in The Columbus Dispatch on July 8: From best to worst School rankings rate low with educators Friday, July [...]
A Good Man or an International Competitor?
Here’s a thoughtful article that raises questions about what our goals are – and should be – as we educate our children. It was written by William J. Mathis, managing director of the National Education Policy Center at the University of Colorado at Boulder and the former superintendent of schools for the Rutland Northeast Supervisory [...]
Sam Chaltain’s Three Most Important Questions in Education
Writer and education activist Sam Chaltain works with schools, school districts, and public and private sector companies to help them create healthy, high-functioning learning environments. He spoke recently at a TED conference about the three most important questions we need to be asking if we want to create schools worthy of the 21st century and [...]
‘Failing schools’ fallacy: Low test scores aren’t signs of nation’s economic decline
Here’s a recent article by Diane Ravitch on the link, or lack of one, between the performance of American students on standardized international tests and global competitiveness. Ravitch is Research Professor of Education at New York University and a historian of education. In addition, she is a nonresident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution in [...]
2012 Summer Music Camp
