News Cut Category Archive: Schools

A school board member in the Perham-Dent School District has given public voice to something we old cumudgeons have been muttering since the days when we dropped our kids off at school: how do those girls get out of the house dressed like that?

"They looked like they were at a brothel rather than at a football game," said Bridgit Pankonin at a recent school board meeting, as reported by the Worthington Daily Globe (registration possibly required).

The Minnesota State High School League spectator conduct policy says only that attire must cover the entire torso.

In the end, the school board decided not to try to legislate the attire girls -- or boys for that matter -- wear away from school, figuring that merely raising the subject would start a conversation in the district.

Gov. Tim Pawlenty and his education commissioner, Alice Seagren, are flying around the state today to talk about his education reform proposals for the 2009 legislative session.

The pair drop into an airport, do some interviews with the local media, get back on the state airplane, head to the next stop and do more interviews. Rinse. Wash. Repeat. Flying around the state is a good way to get your mug -- and point of view -- on TV, newspapers, and radio around the state.

How much does it cost?

The governor is using the state airplane, N70MN, a Beechcraft Super King Air 200. You can follow its flight history via FlightAware.com.

It started its day at St. Paul's Holman Field, flew to Moorhead, then Duluth, then St. Cloud, and then back to St. Paul, on to Winona, then Albert Lea, and back to St. Paul.

A 2003 survey put the hourly fuel use of a twin-engine King Air 200 at 106 gallons per hour.
It took 52 minutes to fly to Moorhead, 44 minutes to fly to Duluth, 41 minutes to St. Cloud, and 22 minutes to St. Paul, according to FlightAware.com.

Flight planning software that calculates today's winds shows the plane flies at an average speed of 201-250 miles per hour (it can fly much faster and does in cruise but, obviously, flies slower during takeoff and landing). So its flights to Winona, Albert Lea, and back should last 29 minutes, 28 minutes, and 21 minutes for a total flying time today of about 4 hours. Add in 15 minutes in each location for taxiing and you're left with about 5 hours and 45 minutes at 106 gallons of fuel per hour.

Fuel at St. Paul Downtown Airport (where, by the way, it's ridiculously overpriced compared to other airports) is about $6.50 a gallon or $689 per hour.

Total cost? For fuel: $3,755.05, or about $1,500 more than a teacher can earn in performance pay under the governor's Q-Comp program.

How often is the plane used? Not that often (based on filed flight plans). Total in-flight time in the last 4 months: 47 hours.

Two cases of box-cutters at school have been in the news this week.

In Blaine, Tony Richard, 17, was suspended for 10 days and could be expelled after a box cutter was found in his car. Richard says it's there because he uses it at his after-school job at Cub Foods.

The school, like many others, has a zero-tolerance policy on "weapons."

What was the school worried about? Probably what the officials over in Sheboygan, Wisconsin were. A 16-year-old student faces charges after his mother called the school to say he planned to "handle the situation" of another kid who chased him with a baseball bat on Monday. He was picked up on Tuesday with a box cutter.

A week or so ago, a kid in Naperville, Illinois was suspended under a zero-tolerance policy. He had a Swiss Army Knife. He was to be expelled until officials considered the fact he's a special needs student.

The American Bar Association has looked at the zero-tolerance movement and found it lacking.

The ABA Journal story noted how unfair zero tolerance policies have become. One private attorney in Virginia observed that children are able to understand that there is a difference between being treated equally and being treated fairly. She said, "Kids are not going to respect teachers and administrators who cannot appreciate the difference between a plastic knife and a switch-blade."

The lawyers association said in a 2001 report that "most current policies eliminate the common sense that comes with discretion and, at great cost to society and to children and families, do little to improve school safety."

Do you favor zero-tolerance policies?

Remember the story about the high school girls in Gloucester, Mass., who made a pact to get pregnant? It was a heck of a story until people started checking the facts and found no evidence that it was true.

What's happened since then? Plenty. The principal of the school, cited as the source for the pact claim, has resigned effective tomorrow. He says the mayor of Gloucester and other officials slandered him by refusing to invite him to a news conference back during the height of the controversy, and questioning the existence of the pact, a word Sullivan says he never used. As with any small city newspaper, the "comments" section of the newspaper article on the subject provides more insight than the article itself (Worth noting, by the way, that a post comparing Gloucester to the rest of the state and, oddly, Minnesota, could've only come from News Cut).

An editorial in the paper provides a glimpse into the politics of it all:

Sullivan has said he doesn't recall using the term "pact," but then again, he was never really given the chance to confirm, deny or explain. When the media storm broke, Sullivan -- like all other school personnel -- was ordered by (School Superintendent Christopher) Farmer not to comment. He was barred from participating in any of the multiple press conferences. Mayor Kirk spoke for him, saying Sullivan's memory was "foggy," and that he couldn't recall what he had told the Time reporter.
...

Not only was he ordered to remain silent while his reputation was tarnished, but since then he has not been consulted or even involved in the discussions that will eventually lead to policies on birth control and sex education for the school. These may well prove to be policies he might not support, but would be expected to enforce. That is not only insulting, but as Sullivan realized, it made it impossible for him to continue. No administrator can function effectively when he is being undermined and muzzled by his superiors.

Media critic Dan Kennedy writes today that the story here isn't the "pact," it's the poor reporting from a national magazine, that cost a man his job.

Still, it has struck me as exceedingly odd that here, in Oprah Nation, not one of these young women would step forward. Let's not forget, too, that one pregnant 17-year-old Gloucester High student appeared on national television and denied there was any such pact. Rather, she said some of the students became close after they got pregnant, a claim that comports with some inside knowledge I had picked up around the same time.

Time magazine shouldn't just be given a pass on this.

Minnesota is falling further behind in the No Child Left Behind-motivated ranking of schools making annual yearly progress, according to a story by MPR's Tim Nelson today. In many ways, anecdotal evidence suggests, we've almost stopped being alarmed by the steady drumbeat of bad education news. If you listen to enough politicians -- and talk shows -- you'd swear our kids are stupid, and our teachers are relatively incompetent, and there's not a heck of a lot we can do about it.

I'll see your anecdotal evidence, and raise you one week in Minneapolis where kids have actually chosen to spend the gorgeous weather inside three schools, learning algebra concepts, from teachers who have taken a pay cut to teach them.

The week is being coordinated by Elizabeth Bortke, who's been working on this week's program -- called B.A.S.E. (Believe, Achieve, Support, Educate) camp -- since last March. She talked to more than 4,500 students earlier this year, to convince them that algebra can be interesting, and relevant, and that a week indoors can prepare them for whatever they want to achieve in life. Four-hundred-forty-one kids took her up on the offer. She also recruited 44 teachers.

The state is pushing down the curriculum for math. Kids will have to learn it sooner. "Instead of having algebra taken in high school, now, our 5th graders from last year will be the first class to have to take algebra in the 8th grade," according to Bortke.

Bortke looked for a program that would teach algebra differently "instead of the 2x + 4 = 6 approach." The kids first learn concepts through a visual manner -- they were playing games involving numbers on dice when I was at the Field School this afternoon. Then they learn the formula behind the game, which is -- if you're like me -- the kind of scrawling that gave you bad dreams at night well into your adult years. We had to learn the formula and then try to figure out what that had to do with "real things." These kids see "real things" and then see the formula. (Listen)

"I'm learning a lot," one teacher told me. "I have a classroom of girls and it's interesting to see the difference from a classroom where you have both genders. Girls have their work and they seem to be a little bit quieter and they get down to business. When I've had mixed genders, the girls don't get that opportunity because the classroom tends to be louder with both the boys and the girls together."

More girls than boys are attending this week's sessions.

"I don't think the District is thinking this week is going to change things dramatically, but it's our first baby step in helping our kids improve and arming them with the tools
they need to be successful," Bortke told me. The Minneapolis Public Schools will track the students who attend this week's B.A.S.E. camp over their school years to see how well -- and if -- this approach works.

The kids seem to get it. One 8th-grader-to-be called her cousin to tell her, "you have to be here, it'll give you a step up." While I visited today, the cousin showed up, smiling, introduced herself to Bortke and nearly ran with her to the classroom.

Kids today, eh?

Stick a fork in it. The Pregnant Teen Pact story is over.

Lindsey Oliver, one of the pregnant teenagers in Gloucester, Mass., says there was no pact among the teens to get pregnant. She told Good Morning America today that the 18 pregnancies in the high school are a coincidence. She said she was using birth control when she got pregnant.

She also disputed claims that movies like "Juno" are glamorizing pregnancy. She said the claim doesn't make sense because the character couldn't care for her own baby and had to give the child away.

Not that anyone has let the facts get in the way of this story.

Of all the "teachers of the year" who've been named since I moved to Minnesota in the last century, Carleen Gulstad stood out more than any other, mostly because of the credit she gave her brother at the luncheon honoring her last month. Her brother killed himself when she was 15.

"He was an amazing teacher for me, and taught me about the glaciers and lakes and rocks and all that," Gulstad said. "He took me for walks. He taught me to read, he taught me to love music. And I wanted to carry on his work in teaching. And also, he was a guy that needed somebody to be there for him. And I wanted to be that teacher, to be there for some other kids."

"Because he was the kind of kid who struggled (with depression) and because he was a loner, I think about those kind of kids a lot. So a part of my teaching is to reach out to those kids, too, and to let them know that there's somebody there for them," she told MPR's Gary Eichten the next day.

Gulstad has resigned her title "for personal reasons."

During her appearance on MPR's Midday, Gulstad seemed reluctant to talk about the politics that surrounds teaching. Questioned by a listener, she shied away -- mostly -- from the question of teacher salaries, and put emphasis instead on mentoring programs for teachers, saying that young teachers leave the profession because they feel alone.

She also displayed a neat insight into kids. "Kids are kids," she said, "but now they're developing in a world that's moving faster than ever."

A replacement will be named soon. Presumably they'll come from the other finalists: Joe Beattie of Hastings High School; Rose Regan, Pine Bend Elementary School; Diane Weiher, Lake Harriet Community School; John Bade, Northfield Middle School; Julie Buryska, Wilson Elementary School (Northfield) ; Gordon Westendorf, Proctor High School; Steve Brehmer, Mayo High School; Lynne Meyer, Greenleaf Elementary School (Rosemount area) and Derek Olson, Afton-Lakeland Elementary School.

Thanks to the communications department at the Minnesota Department of Education, we've got a sample of the Minnesota reading test I referenced in the post earlier today.

This is just one sample question, but try your luck at it . First, read the following editorial from the Star Tribune:

It's pointless at this late date to lay blame for the sports facilities mess Minnesota now faces. Let's just say that no other metropolitan area has amassed a more illogical stadium/arena configuration.

Based on national trends, the optimal arrangement is this:

• A cozy outdoor baseball park with 40,000 seats, real grass and an atmosphere that captures the timeless charms of the great summer pastime in an urban setting.

• A 70,000-seat pro football stadium--either domed or retractable--that delivers adequate revenues to the NFL team and doubles as a convention hall and venue for a variety of big-space attractions.

• A separate outdoor, on-campus football stadium (capacity 50,000) for the local university team that wants to maintain a collegiate atmosphere.

• A single downtown sports arena (capacity 18,000) shared by NBA basketball and NHL hockey teams that doubles as a concert/convention hall.

On this test, Minnesota scores zero; it has none of the above. Rather, it has separate and competing hockey and basketball arenas and a single football revenue (the Metrodome) that satisfies neither its football tenants nor the baseball team that has endured "temporary quarters" for 18 seasons.

Unraveling this mess seems impossible given Minnesotans' fierce change of heart on helping to fund sports venues. Metropolitan Stadium, the Metrodome and Xcel Arena were all built with public money, but the mood now ices up when the Twins or Vikings enter the room. And recently the university has chimed in with a plea for its own oncampus football stadium.

But again, none of this should surprise Minnesotans, given this state's irrational sports setup. The Metropolitan Sports Facilities Commission, designed to bring order, has been unable to prevent chaos. And so teams and cities are left to freelance. The ever-growing popularity of sports has created space issues for the state of Minnesota.

Minneapolis interests continue to investigate a small-scale, privately funded urban ballpark, possibly in the Warehouse District. A financing plan is expected to be announced. . . . The Twins, meanwhile, have their own citizen-based study underway that may, or may not, merge with the Minneapolis effort by year's end.

As for football, the Vikings want a joint deal with the university, but the university worries that a big, domed, ultra-commercial NFL stadium would spoil the collegiate atmosphere it wants. Successful college programs in NFL cities (Boston College, Georgia Tech, Cal, Washington) have been careful to retain their own venues.

To complete the picture, Minneapolis now struggles to afford $30 million of improvements so Target Center can compete with its sparkling new, state-funded rival in St. Paul. And the Metrodome slouches toward monster trucks and pro rasslin' jamborees.

Idealists keep claiming that the public is fed up with subsidizing pro sports; that Americans have finally resolved to say no. But they haven't. Voters in Phoenix, Houston and Green Bay just approved new playpens. Philadelphia last week decided to move ahead on two new stadiums. Eleven are now under construction, adding to the 49 built in the 1990s--with two-thirds of the cost borne by the public. The boom continues unabated.

Perhaps Minnesota's stadium mess cannot be fixed, given the toxic political atmosphere. Fatigue has set in. But Minnesotans must also understand that their sports configuration runs opposite to the national market--and that's why teams and a few die-hard citizens feel compelled to keep pressing for change.

OK, good job, you've read down this far, but did you retain what you read. Let's find out. Answer these questions and ignore the varying formatting: that's just me flunking the state's comprehensive html standards.

Question 1:

Question 2:

Question 3:

Question 4:

Question 5:

Question 6:

But wait! There's more. There's a seventh question that calls for a written answer, with the student stating at least four causes of the stadium mess that the author mentions.

There are 38 questions in all. The full sample, including a scoring system for the "in your own words" answers can be found here.

By the way Education Commissioner Alice Seagren will be Gary Eichten's 11 a.m. guest on Tuesday's Midday on MPR.

(H/T: Randy Wanke, Brianna Chambers)