District Administration articles from April 2009

District Administration archives from April 2009

The recession generation.(From the Editor)
April 1, 2009... AT THE YOUNGER END IT WILL BE THOSE BORN INTO IT. 0N THE OLDER END IT WILL be those now emerging out of high school into a bleak job market. They will always be remembered as part of the "recession generation." How students are affected by it...

Celebrating acts of kindness.(Letters)(Letter to the editor)
April 1, 2009... The district profile ("Deep Is the Heart of Texas," November 2008) is a very touching snapshot of a district that provides an excellent example for many other districts to learn from. With so many stories in the media focusing on what is wrong...

Clarifying Georgia's security.(Letters)(Letter to the editor)
April 1, 2009... In the story on Georgia's school security plan ("School Security Plans Skirt Law," February 2009), I found that if you read the law, you would find that nowhere does it state that the school district must have approval from Georgia Emergency...

Taking over.(PEOPLE WATCH)
April 1, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Tony Bennett, Indiana's state superintendent of public instruction, plans to funnel help to struggling schools like never before, but he also has aggressive new plans to take over those that fail and run them...

New concepts.(PEOPLE WATCH)
April 1, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Conn. Gov. Jodi Rell is proposing a merger of the state's technical high schools and community colleges. She claims it would give 10,000 technical high school students a seamless transition to their associate degree....

Moving on.(PEOPLE WATCH)
April 1, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Abelardo Saavedra, the Houston Independent School District's first Hispanic chief, is stepping down after a five-year run leading the district. During his tenure, the number of top-rated HISD schools doubled to 157.

Exit strategy.(PEOPLE WATCH)
April 1, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland wants to eliminate the state's 10th-grade graduation test, which has prevented thousands of students from graduating high school. He plans to replace it with a modified ACT test.

Tech changes.(PEOPLE WATCH)
April 1, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Jeff Weidenaar has been elected president of the board of directors of the Triangle Coalition for Science and Technology Education, a nonprofit organization dedicated to science, technology, engineering and math...

Colo. district does away with grades.(BRIEFINGS: Assessment)
April 1, 2009... STUDENTS AT THE ADAMS COUNTY SCHOOL DISTRICT 50 IN METROPOLITAN Denver may be excited to return to school this fall--they won't get any grades. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] At least not traditional grades. In an effort to reverse dismal...

Atlanta superintendent receives top honor.(Conversations: Beverly Hall)(Interview)
April 1, 2009... BEVERLY HALL, SUPERINTENDENT OF ATLANTA PUBLIC SCHOOLS since 1999, was named the National Superintendent of the Year by the American Association of School Administrators (AASA) during its annual conference in February. After accepting the...

Newark's chief reaches out to disabled.(Administrator Profile: SUPERINTENDENT CLIFFORD B. JANEY)
April 1, 2009... AMID SERIOUS CONTROVERSY surrounding outgoing Superintendent Marion Bolden, Gov. Jon Corzine appointed Clifford B. Janey as superintendent of New Jersey's largest school district, Newark Public Schools, in June 2008. While new to the district,...

Capturing the interest of AD/HD students.(District Profile: FAIRFAX COUNTY (VA.) PUBLIC SCHOOLS)
April 1, 2009... CAN WE PLEASE HAVE YOUR attention? With everything competing for your students' attention--MySpace, SportsCenter, Twilight and Gossip Girl, to name a few--how can your teachers capture the interest of students with...

Education's shot in the arm: the federal stimulus plan will provide a healthy jolt to struggling districts.(AMERICAN RECOVERY AND REINVESTMENT ACT)
April 1, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] THE FEDERAL STIMULUS PACKAGE PROVIDES badly needed aid to school districts, allowing them to avoid massive staff and teacher layoffs and injecting them with a healthy dose of funds for many programs ranging from...

Columbine's 10th anniversary finds lessons learned: substantial strides have been made in school security, but glaring gaps remain.(SPECIAL REPORT: The State of School Security)(Cover story)
April 1, 2009... WHEN SCHOOL ADMINISTRATORS HEAR that the 10th anniversary of the Columbine High School attack will arrive on April 20, 2009, most shake their heads in disbelief. They are amazed that 10 years have passed since this watershed event, which...

Keeping track of technology: the latest IT asset management programs can do more than just inventory.(TECHNOLOGY)
April 1, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] IN 2005, CYNTHIA SHIEH, chief financial officer of the Los Gatos (Calif.) Union School District, noticed a serious problem: More than $100,000 of technology equipment had gone missing that year. Her report to the...

Classroom technology integration: having technology is one thing--maximizing the investment is another.(PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT)
April 1, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] OVER THE PAST 20 YEARS, SCHOOL reform efforts have identified teacher professional development as a key component of change and as an important link between standards and student achievement. After all, as students...

Hazlet Township (N.J.) School District: www.hazlet.org.(How Well Does This Web Site Work? LEARN WHAT OUR WEB ANALYST SAYS IS RIGHT AND WRONG WITH THIS DISTRICT SITE)
April 1, 2009... THE HAZLET TOWNSHIP (N.J.) School District, located in Monmouth County in central New Jersey, has approximately 3,300 students and 400 teachers. There are six elementary schools, a middle school and a high school in the district. Design...

The DNA of an effective school board: maximizing the potential of your governance team.(PROFESSIONAL OPINION)
April 1, 2009... DNA (DEOXYRIBONUCLEIC ACID) may be the greatest discovery of the 21st century in understanding the physical makeup of living organisms. It's also known as genetic code, since it contains the instructions to create a complete functioning...

iWork '09 and iLife '09 Office and Multimedia Suites: Apple.(New Products: THE LATEST IN HARDWARE, SOFTWARE, BOOKS & MATERIALS, FACILITIES, AND THE INTERNET)
April 1, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] APPLE iWork '09 and iLife '09 Office and Multimedia Suites Software, $79 each Apple's new software suites offer a variety of features useful to educators. An office productivity suite, iWork...

School Loop Standard Web Site Design Program: School Loop.(New Products: THE LATEST IN HARDWARE, SOFTWARE, BOOKS & MATERIALS, FACILITIES, AND THE INTERNET)
April 1, 2009... SCHOOL LOOP School Loop Standard Web Site Design Program Internet, Free to first 100 districts School Web site design company School Loop has recently made its Standard product free to the first 100 districts who sign up....

Creative Suite 4 Master Collection Design Program: Adobe.(New Products: THE LATEST IN HARDWARE, SOFTWARE, BOOKS & MATERIALS, FACILITIES, AND THE INTERNET)
April 1, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] ADOBE Creative Suite 4 Master Collection Design Program, Software, $2,499 Adobe's Creative Suite 4 line is the company's biggest software release ever and increases the collaboration between designers...

U.S. History I Coursework: American Education Corporation.(New Products)
April 1, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] AMERICAN EDUCATION CORPORATION U.S. History I Coursework Software, $1,000 per installed site, online pricing varies U.S. History I is the first full-semester component of a yearlong course...

PowerLite G5000 Projector: Epson.(New Products)
April 1, 2009... EPSON PowerLite G5000 Projector Hardware, $2,499 [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The PowerLite G5000 is the latest addition to Epson's line of installation projectors. This model offers XGA (1024x768) resolution, 4,000 lumens of...

Mini 2140 Netbook: Hewlett-Packard.(New Products)
April 1, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] HEWLETT-PACKARD Mini 2140 Netbook Hardware, Starting at $499 HP continues to take advantage of the popularity of netbooks with its latest release, the Mini 2140, a small yet powerful and durable PC...

Edugaming: playing to learn.(Product Focus: A GUIDE TO ONE SEGMENT OF EDUCATION TECHNOLOGY)
April 1, 2009... EDUGAMING IS IN THE MIDST OF A RESURGENCE. AFTER THE INITIAL SUCCESSES OF THE 1970S AND 1980s, intense competition from console game systems from companies such as Nintendo, Sega and later Sony severely cut into demand for PC-based educational...