Columbia Public Schools' Superintendent Chris Belcher, left, listens in as contractors bid for construction rights on the new high school estimated to cost $75 million. The district receives more than 400 bids for the project, which will be compiled and presented at the school board meeting on July 15.

It could also mean new revenue for the Columbia Public Schools. Here is an article I wrote about what $4.3 million over 10 years could mean for the school district.

Read it here or (http://www.columbiamissourian.com/stories/2010/05/24/ibm-could-bring-43-million-school-district-slow-cuts/).

What do you think IBM’s possible presence in Columbia could mean for CPS?

This is Molly, your friendly Missourian education assistant city editor and editor of this blog. Due to the summer intersession, there will be fewer posts on this blog for a while. I hope that we will occasionally be able to update, but it won’t be with regularity.

Thanks!

Paddles are being used to punish students who break school rules. Photo courtesy of Google Image.

Growing up in a Catholic family, I had always heard horror stories about how nuns used to slap my parents knuckles with a ruler when they were in trouble. The idea that physical abuse was still being used as punishment in schools never even crossed my mind.  Surely its not legal, I thought. An article stating 223,190 kids were legally beaten in U.S. schools during the 2006-2007 school year proved my thought wrong.

According to the United States Department of Education Office for Civil Rights, 5,129 Missouri students were paddled during the 2006-2007 school year. That is roughly about 0.6% of the overall student population in Missouri.

Paddling is being used as a type of “discipline” in schools, and it is not just in elementary schools. According to the article, this type of discipline is being used in kindergarten classrooms, all the way up to high schools. Students can be paddled for minor infractions of school rules, including violating a dress code, being late for school, talking in class, etc. There are dozens of schools in Missouri who have punishments like spanking in their rule books.

In a few weeks, Rep. Carolyn McCarthy (D-NY) will be presenting a bill to Congress instituting a federal ban on corporal punishment in all U.S. schools. Do you think this bill will pass?

In McCarthy’s opening statement, corporal punishment is still legal in 20 states, including Missouri. Using violence toward students teaches them that violence is acceptable, McCarthy states.

Corporal punishment was made legal after the 1977 U.S. Supreme Court case Ingraham v. Wright ruled schools may use corporal punishment. According to Missouri law Code Section 160.261, “Spanking, when administered by certificated personnel of a school district in a reasonable manner in accordance with the local board of education’s written policy of discipline, is not abuse within the meaning of chapter 210, RSMo.”

Do we want our children to grow up thinking violence is okay? How does this effect violence in schools among the students themselves? What about school shootings? Is it not a bit contradicting to say violence is okay when a teacher is punishing a student, yet not when you bring a gun to school? Or being a school bully?  I am interested in hearing your thoughts readers. Is discipline of this nature okay with you? If your child was spanked with a paddle at school without your permission, would you be okay with it? What ever happened to just getting detention?

ROCK BRIDGE HIGH SCHOOL

Alan Hatfield, Rock Bridge High senior, was named on May 3 by U.S. secretary of education Arne Duncan as a 2010 Presidential Scholar along with 140 other high school students nationwide.

Recipients of the award may ask their “most inspiring and challenging teacher” to accompany them to Washington D.C. for the recognition ceremonies. Alan invited Marilyn Toalson, education coordinator of the Rock Bridge gifted students program to receive a Teacher Recognition award from the U.S. Department of Education.

Alan will be recognized along with all other Presidential Scholars in Washington D.C. from June 19-22.

JEFFERSON JR HIGH and SMITHTON MIDDLE SCHOOL

Two CPS students will represent Missouri at the National History Day competition in Washington D.C. in June. Nidhi Khurana, 9th grader at Jeff Jr.High School and Oliver Worthington, 6th grader at Smithton Middle School. They won a statewide competition in April to advance to the national competition in Washington D.C.

Seems like there has been a change of thinking, with Oklahoma’s state government responding to a plethora (n: “a bunch”) of studies which indicate early childhood education is not just a good idea, it’s a life-changing benefit for children who have access to it.

A study released this week by Rutger University’s National Institute for Early Education Research ranked the state first in the nation for availability of public pre-K education.

According to a Drum Major Institute for Public Policy report,  Oklahoma’s education department began research into public preschool education in 1980. A 1983 education report prompted then Gov. Henry Bellmon to seriously investigate universal pre-K availability.

In 1990, voters approved a doubling of funds for state K-12 education, and in 1998 the bill, “Early Childhood Four-Year-Old Program,” mandating universal access to public pre-K.

A New York Times article, “Bridging Gaps Early On in Oklahoma,” was written about the pre-K program in a Tulsa school in early 2007. Here is an excerpt which describes the literacy-promoting potential of pre-K attendance:

At McClure Elementary School here, where 97 percent of families are poor enough to qualify for free or reduced-price lunches, one whole class of kindergarteners started writing full sentences last month. Before the preschool program existed, teachers would celebrate if every student knew the alphabet by the end of kindergarten.

Three years after that NYT article, and 18 months into a recession, the question is how long the state can keep funding the program as state revenue decreases.

Still, its an encouraging step the state and its voters have taken for education. As Missouri cuts funding for similar programs, how will communities step into the gaps?

A recent Washington Post blog linked to an article about an elementary school that imposes some “food rules” on what students can and cannot bring in their lunches.

Children’s Success Academy in Tuscan, Ariz. is a public charter school founded and run by Nanci Aiken, a doctor of physiology and a healthy foods enthusiast. She set up some rules concerning the content of her students’ lunch boxes. Permitted foods include fresh fruits and veggies, natural cheeses and 100 percent whole grains. White bread, lunch meat and food containing white sugar make the “not allowed” list. The school provides no lunches, so students must bring their own.

Now, I’m not suggesting that public schools everywhere are going to start adopting this system anytime soon, but it’s interesting to see how far some schools are going to promote a healthy lifestyle. It’s one thing to cut down on the number of candy bars students have access to at school, but this seems to be affecting parents too. They are the ones, afterall, who must bypass the convenient fruit cups, applesauce and bologna at the grocery store for other lunch items.

So, is banning certain foods from school lunches a good idea or is it crossing the line? On the one hand, childhood obesity IS a problem and maybe schools need to go to extremes to combat that. On the other, let a kid have a cookie.

I know finals are coming up and projects are yet to be finished, but when the weekend rolls around, it’s family time. So, I got out this morning with my family and went to an MU grad school-sponsored event called “Adventures in Education,” which was held from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday, April 24 at Jesse Hall. It’s an annual event organized by graduate students, giving them a chance to share what they do with local students.

A few minutes after arriving, I had made a quick survey of the booths and was surprised at how many people were already there for the event. It was a diverse Columbia group. Being a journalist-in-training, I thought, “somebody should report this.” I called the paper, but nobody could get free to come down.

So, I let the idea go and visited some booths with my daughter. She got to extract DNA from wheat germ at the biology graduate students’ booth, which was called “Become a Junior Geneticist.” She learned how to say “automobile” in German (“das Auto”) at the German grad students’ booth, called “Deutsch ist einfach wunderbar!” (German is simply awesome!). At the chemistry students’ booth, we saw and touched a “non-Newtonian solid.” This substance feels very hard if you push on it quickly, but turns soft if you rest your hand on it slowly.

More people kept arriving, and the place was getting crowded. There were still many booths that we had not visited.

“Somebody ought to cover this,” I kept thinking. Basic reporting students don’t usually cover stories unless they are assigned, but some of the topics at this event were not commonplace. Seeing a “sense of discovery” (for lack of better description)  showing on the faces of so many young students was worth sharing.

One that really got my attention was a booth hosted by grad students from the Textile and Apparel Management department, called “Travels of My T-Shirt.” When we got to this booth, we were asked to check the tags on our clothes to find out where they were made. My shirt was made in Honduras, my daughter’s was made in Pakistan — most likely with U.S. grown cotton. The U.S. produces the majority of the world’s fiber for clothing.

Amanda Muhammad, one of the grad students, said the point was to get us to think about why the cotton is shipped to the other side of the world to be made into clothing and then shipped back. Wouldn’t money be saved if the shirts were just made here where the cotton is grown?

I reflect on questions like that during a normal day — so I knew the answer to the question; but it was news to my kid. Clothes are made in other countries because the people who work there don’t get paid very much for their work. That’s something to think about.

After visiting that booth, and deciding there were more than 200 people in attendance, I decided to cover the event. I had a camera out in the car, a notepad and a pencil, so I got started.

I talked to graduate students, parents, children, an event organizer, and I did not forget to talk to my 8-year-old. We visited all the booths she wanted to see before we took off.

That’s how my Saturday went — now it’s back to studying. Stay dry, CoMO!

New York Teacher, a magazine that circulates among 600,000 teachers, was outraged by the Newsweek article and decided to fight back hinting that teacher unions are the answer.

This echoes some conversations I’ve heard in the boardroom lately. In fact, last Monday’s meeting CMNEA and newly named Columbia MSTA disagreed on possible collective bargaining. CMNEA wanted to consider a timeline for collective representation, but Columbia MSTA’s President Laura Sandstedt is adamant about remaining outside of a union.

“I can’t think of a decision that would be worse,” she said, but despite her disappointment, she said she would never want either organization to lose its opportunity to be heard.

All this talk of teacher performance and unions can’t come without a discussion of merit pay as well, which I’m sure Missourian readers have heard a lot about over the past couple years.

Here is some merit pay background straight from the Missourian.

• UPDATE: School Board wants to continue merit pay discussion
• Merit pay system debated at School Board candidate forum

No one can really be certain what the “key” to education is, but you can bet more of these debates will be popping up as long as education systems are in need of money.

I would love to hear what the community thinks about these issues and, as always, keep an eye on ColumbiaMissourian.com for more updates on the district.

In elementary school, that was about as good as I, a native English speaker, or any of my classmates could do in a Spanish conversation: “Hello. My name is Kelly. I like red apples.” To be fair, I doubt there was much my teacher Mrs. Reyes could hope to do with more than 20 restless fifth graders in 30 minutes per week. But apparently, had she been more dramatic, we could have followed a steeper learning curve.

A St. Louis Post-Dispatch article Sunday explained that Kreitner Elementary School in Collinsville, Ill., is collaborating with the Metro Theater Company to help native Spanish-speaking students learn English more quickly through drama and body movement.

“Acting, in a kinesthetic way, can help kids learning vocabulary,” said Emily Kohring, education director for the company.

The program, which began this semester and places Metro educators in a semester-long residency position at the school, has been getting results, according to the article.

“We’re seeing kids feel more empowered to take academic risks and share their feelings,” said Vicky Reulecke, principal of Kreitner.

While the value of programs such as these in allowing Spanish-speaking students to acquire better English skills is clear, it makes me wonder about expansion. I’m curious: could this program be implemented to teach native English speakers other languages at the elementary level? The Kreitner collaboration targets first and second graders.

With state funding cuts a major concern for Columbia public schools, it’s difficult to say whether such programs could be considered, let alone implemented right now. I know the Spanish program that kick-started my love of the language was cut from my elementary school back home years ago.

What do you think, Columbia? Would you like to see programs like this implemented not only for non-native English-speaking students, but native English speakers who might benefit from being bi- or trilingual?