Technical Education

POULSBO — The North Kitsap School Board agreed Thursday to reduce district teaching staff the equivalent of 27.3 employees.

The district plans call for cuts across most programs. Parents and students engaged in the district’s music and American Sign Language courses were out in force at Thursday’s meeting to plead for those programs.

The district’s two high schools will no longer offer German classes. ASL will be offered at Kingston High, but not North Kitsap High. North Kitsap will lose two class periods of band and choir, but the marching band program won’t be cut.

The district anticipates the equivalent of 18.7 employees will resign or retire, leaving 8.6 staff positions that will be laid off or reduced.

Board members said the budget picture could change once the Legislature passes a budget during the upcoming special session, but layoff notices have to be out by May 15 so affected teachers can look elsewhere for work if they need to.

By Associated Press May 6, 2013 11:02 a.m.

Changes in the GED, or the General Education Degree, program are leading to scams in Wisconsin.

The GED is an equivalent to a high school diploma. Those seeking one must successfully finish their tests by January or they will have to start over.

Test administrators say the deadline is resulting in scams where fake diplomas are offered for a fee.

Blackhawk Technical College’s testing coordinator told the Janesville Gazette that people running the scams trick people into paying $250 to $1,300. They change their phone numbers often and often are located in other countries so they can’t be caught.

GED tests will be computer-based starting next year. Also, an essay question will be added to bring the test in line with high school standards.

© 2013, Journal Sentinel Inc. All rights reserved.

Today the Learning First Alliance (LFA) and Grunwald Associates, with the support of AT&T, are releasing a report, Living and Learning with Mobile Devices, that documents survey results of parents’ attitudes and perceptions of the value of mobile devices as learning tools for their school-aged children.  Not surprisingly, parent perceptions are influenced by the level of personal usage they have with mobile technology and, as parental usage goes up, comfort level with the notion of their children’s use of this technology also increases. 

The report is an important reflection of just how far we’ve come in the use of and advocacy for appropriate use of technology in schools and classrooms.  As someone who has spent the past 25 years advocating for innovation in teaching and learning supported with technology and expanded connectivity, my view is that we’re at an important crossroads in transforming both the formal and informal learning spaces with new, less expensive, and more powerful technical devices.  As the survey found, more than 50 percent of high school students take a cell phone to school with them every day, and 24 percent of those surveyed use those cell phones in structured educational activities in school…commonly referred to as a Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) school policy.  At a recent conference sponsored by LFA member the National Association of Secondary School Principals (NASSP), three award-winning Digital Principals described their innovative approaches to school leadership that enshrined policies friendly to student-owned handheld devices in the classroom and supported their use in activities supporting the curriculum. 

Another finding in the Living and Learning with Mobile Devices report was the increased support for use of mobile technologies among parents of pre-school and early grades students.  For these students and their families mobile devices have been a ubiquitous presence from birth and thus accepted as a daily tool providing information and communication throughout the day.

The report draws some useful conclusions and important recommendations for educators, parents and policymakers.  It’s clear that there’s an unmet desire for more content and mobile applications with educational value that support learning for students of all ages.  Based on parent feedback, it’s also imperative that schools partner with parents on establishing guidelines for use of mobile devices in and out of school; that educators make an effort to share what they experience and learn from peers on successful approaches to learning supported with mobile devices; and that schools and parents partner with industry to communicate issues related to student needs and technology effectiveness for improving teaching and learning.

Finally, it seems impossible for educators to ignore the increasing presence of mobile technology in all our lives and to do so would further distance the relevance of public schooling from the demands of daily life and student growth.  This important report provides valuable information to guide planning for expanding the use of mobile devices in partnership with parents of children in our schools to build a dynamic learning environment for all our students.

After a late night session imploded with partisan bickering on Friday, Colorado lawmakers took a fresh run at the first new school finance legislation in nearly 20 years on Monday morning — and pushed it through the Democrat-controlled House by a 37-28 party-line vote.

Senate Bill 213, which Democratic Sens. Mike Johnston and Rollie Heath guided through the Senate before Democratic Rep. Millie Hamner carried it in the House, lays out a new template that supporters say creates greater funding adequacy and equity among Colorado’s 178 districts.

Amid fractured support among lawmakers, the measure now faces an even bigger challenge: An initiative effort must persuade voters to approve an estimated $1.1 billion tax increase before the new law could take effect.

Despite two years of preparation that sought to create bipartisan support for education finance reform, the bill advanced without a single Republican supporter in both legislative bodies from committee to the floor.

“So it’s disappointing to me that we were not able to demonstrate that (bipartisan support) in either of the chambers,” said Hamner. “

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April is the Month of the Military Child and has been “set aside to honor and celebrate the significance and resilience of military children and youth.”

All of us at K¹² recognize the great sacrifices military families make and the unique daily challenges they face. We have many military families currently attending K¹² schools who have found online education to be the right option for them given the many unique challenges they face like frequent moves, new schools, new friends, long deployments, and much more. Through all of these challenging experiences, military children learn to be flexible and adaptable. Whether they know it or not, they contribute to unit readiness and mission success for their military parents. They develop character and courage, and make sacrifices daily.

In honor of military children and their families everywhere, let’s see all of the unique and innovative places they get to learn!  

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