Schoolhouse Missives

Statewide education topics

School bus tickets are no joke

Earlier this week I wrote a story reminding drivers and families to be careful traveling through town as children head back to school. Today, the Washington State Patrol released an advisory reminding drivers to always follow school-bus rules. Not doing so can yield a whopping $394 ticket that drivers would apparently have a tough time [...]

School’s just around the corner

Good-bye, summer — hello, school! The 2010-11 academic school year kicks off this week for most area schools. Get ready to see school buses, kids with backpacks, and lots more activity around school zones starting this Tuesday. I’m putting together a report on Monday on safety tips for driving, walking and riding by schools and [...]

Some school news

It may be summer, but there are still some exciting things happening in education locally. By the end of this week, Walla Walla Public Schools will have selected a new principal for Walla Walla High School. This week, a team of district and community people will be helping with interviews of candidates. The selection of [...]

Are free meals good or bad for kids?

I’ve gotten a couple of calls and e-mails from readers about the poor quality of food being served in our public schools. One reader was particularly shocked to learn that children in our elementary schools are given the choice to eat pizza 10 times a week. (For breakfast and lunch. Yes, there is a breakfast [...]

Let the testing begin

It’s out with the WASL, in with the Measurements of Student Progress this month! Starting this week, some area middle school students will start taking an online version of the MSP, which replaced the WASL state standards exam this year for elementary and middle school students. (High-schoolers take the High School Proficiency Exam). Locally, 6th-8th [...]

Interesting study on bilingual education

Education Week has an interesting article this week on the effectiveness of English immersion versus bilingual education. The study finds that whatever the model, children whose native language is not English (in this case, who speak primarily Spanish at home) learned just as well in both models. In Walla Walla, this could give some confidence [...]

The winners and losers

The first round of the federal “Race to the Top” competition ended this week with just two states cashing in. Delaware and Tennessee were the two states chosen out of several candidates to receive federal money to drastically improve schools. Delaware will receive about $100 million, and Tennessee about $500 million, USA Today reports. Among [...]

Not looking good for education funding

On Tuesday, state Superintendent Randy Dorn put his partial weight behind the House’s supplemental fiscal year 2010 budget. Both budgets cuts the state’s share of K-12 public education funding, but according to Dorn, the Senate version cuts entirely too much, at $650 million for the 2010-11 school year. Dorn said the Senate’s budget has the [...]

Slightly behind

A couple of weeks ago State Superintendent of Public Instruction Randy Dorn stopped by the Union-Bulletin office. He went over some of the things the state education agency is hoping to do in the next couple of years. We talked for a while on the Legislature and the uncertain state of education funding. Dorn said [...]

A timely update

A new policy is in place for Walla Walla public schools that helps make sure teens are learning what they should about sex. The school board last night approved policy 2125, which puts the district in compliance with the Healthy Youth Act, a state law that says districts shouldn’t be teaching abstinence exclusively during sexual [...]

Powered by Wordpress | WP Premium theme by Premium Wordpress Themes
Copyright 2010 Schoolhouse Missives. All rights reserved

• What I do