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Elementary and middle schools nationwide are putting a new spin on parent-teacher conferences by asking students to lead them, according to the New York Times.

In many schools, this non-traditional model has proved beneficial. At Tefft Middle School in Streamwood, Ill., only 75 parents attended conferences five years ago, compared with 525 parents attending the student-led conferences this year. Mark Heller, principal at Plano Middle School in Plano, Ill., garnered an 82 percent attendance rate by using the new model and providing parents with flexible meeting times.

For parents who recently immigrated to the U.S., having students attend conferences can make the process more comfortable. Some schools have also opened conferences to grandparents, siblings, aunts and uncles, and even family friends.

Overall, parents, teachers, and students have shown support for the change. John Osgood, principal at C. L. Jones Middle School in Minden, Neb., recalls attending the old-style conferences for his own children. "We’d get back home, and try to talk to our kids about something we heard, and it would end up with me getting angry and yelling, and the kids telling me what I heard wasn’t true. It always turned into, 'Who’s the liar here?' "

One parent at Tefft was pleased that the conference gave her 7th grader a heightened sense of accountability. "My daughter is learning that the teacher is not responsible for her learning. [She] knows that she is responsible for her own success."

Posted by Liana Heitin at 10:48 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Over 500 national board-certified teachers in Florida’s Broward County school district are still awaiting a $10,000 incentive promised to them under the district’s Effective Teacher Program, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel reports. The program provides money to bring teachers with national board certifications to Title I schools in the district.

The district has reportedly been unable to pay the incentives due to a shortfall in the federal funding that it expected to receive this year. The delay has created some serious financial problems for teachers that were relying on the extra money.

Sharon Hepburn, a Broward school district teacher, estimated that she’d earn an extra $500 per paycheck with the incentive money.

Without the money she’s had to, “delay buying a house and cut fresh fruit off her grocery list” as well as “[scale] back on her children's activities.”

District officials say that they’ll find a way to pay the teachers the money they’re owed.

“The district is looking for ways to make up the shortfall and pay the teachers,” said associate superintendent for human resources Lynn Strong in the Sun-Sentinel. “The money will be paid.”

This could potentially be the last year the district uses the Effective Teachers Program. They are in negations with the Broward Teachers Union to determine whether the program is a viable way to boost student performance. This has some administrators and teachers worried about hiring and retaining quality educators in needy schools.

"It's very frustrating because now I can't attract teachers who are already nationally board certified,” Hepburn told the Sun-Sentinel.

Posted by Josh Cohen at 4:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

A group of students in Montgomery County, Md., have begun tricking local speed cameras in order to get citations sent to innocent drivers, including teachers and fellow students, reports DailyTech.

In a prank that has been dubbed "the pimping game," students replicate a license plate by printing it on glossy paper with a downloaded font similar to that on Maryland plates. They then tape the fake plate to the back of a car and speed past one of the cameras. A few days later, the unsuspecting owner of the real license plate receives a $40 ticket in the mail.

Edward Owusu, assistant principal of Wootton High School, had not heard of his students pulling the prank, but said, "It is unfortunate that kids have a lot of time on their hands that they can think of doing such a thing."

Montgomery County Council President Phil Andrews hopes to cracks down on the pranksters before things get out of hand. "I am concerned that someone could get hurt . . . because they are speeding in areas where they know speeding is a problem," he said.

Posted by Liana Heitin at 4:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

A kindergarten Christmas show at the Murrayville Elementary School in Wilmington, N.C., generated an unlikely church-state controversy when a mother at the school complained about its inclusion of the song “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.” The parent objected to the song’s “religious overtones,” reportedly complaining in particular about its use of the word “Christmas.” As a result the song was temporarily pulled from the program line-up.

After many other parents complained about the decision, however, school officials give the matter further study. “School board members, administrators and attorneys listened closely to the song's lyrics and decided the song was secular,” according to local news station WRAL.

“Rudolph is a secular song,” proclaimed assistant school superintendent Rick Holliday. “It was about a flying reindeer, not a religious symbol.”

School officials decided to return the song to the kindergarteners’ holiday show, a decision that sat well with many parents.

“I think it's great that they let the kids sing because all the kids love that song,” said Anne Vanslyke, a parent of a student.

Posted by Josh Cohen at 1:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (37)

In 2000, the Evergreen Freedom Foundation, a conservative think tank, filed a complaint with the state of Washington alleging that the Washington Education Association illegally spent nonunion member fees on political campaigns, according to the Seattle Post Intelligencer. The state eventually sued the union and on December 4, 2008, the WEA settled with the state. The WEA agreed to return $240,000 to nonunion members who paid fees between 2003 and 2007 and another $735,000 to the state.

In 2007, in a related case, the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously upheld the state requirement that teachers’ unions must get approval from workers when spending dues on political campaigns. According to the National Right to Work Legal Defense Fund, the decision, known as Davenport v. Washington Education Association, "avoided the more critical and far-sweeping question—whether union officials should be able to automatically collect forced dues for politics from nonunion members in the first place," as reported by Education Week.

Posted by Josh Cohen at 5:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

To the disappointment of some of her supporters, a teacher subject to controversial computer-pornography charges has settled her case. For Julie Amero, surrendering her teaching license was well worth the price to end a four-year nightmare.

In October 2004, as a 7th grade substitute teacher in Norwich, Conn., Amero was charged with accessing pornographic Web sites and exposing students to sexual images, according to the Norwich Bulletin. Amero’s defense contended that she didn’t call up the images intentionally, saying that she was new to e-mail at the time and was being bombarded by pop-up ads as a result of the computer’s expired software license. Nonetheless, in 2007, a jury convicted Amero on four counts of endangering minors, which carried a maximum sentence of 40 years in prison.

Subsequently, a team of lawyers and computer-security experts, led by Alex Eckelberry of Sunbelt Software, took on Amero’s cause and succeeded in getting the guilty verdict overturned. A retrial was being pressed, but last week Amero accepted a bargain with state prosecutors, pleading guilty to a misdemeanor charge of disorderly conduct. She paid a $100 fine and lost her teaching license.

Amero’s supporters, many of them technology professionals, are frustrated that she pled guilty at all. Yet, having suffered from stress-related health problems, including a miscarriage and heart complications that landed her in the hospital, Amero told Rick Green of the Hartford Courant, "Oh honey, it’s over. I feel wonderful."

Posted by Liana Heitin at 4:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

After a year-long courtship, 28-year-old Melody LaLuz and 30-year-old Claudaniel Fabien sealed their wedding vows with a kiss. Their first kiss.

According to the Chicago Tribune, the bride and groom teach abstinence courses to Chicago public school teenagers and made a commitment to practice what they preach. While dating, in addition to abstaining from kissing, the two made sure they were never alone. They watched movies together, but remained vertical rather than lying down or cuddling on the couch. Fabien found other ways to show his affection—such as cleaning LaLuz’s car and washing the dishes. "It really tested us and encouraged us to grow closer in our hearts and our minds, just expressing things verbally," Fabien said.

With the long awaited words "You may now kiss the bride," the couple locked lips for two minutes, reported the Associated Press. Behind them a cacophony of claps, stomps, and cheers resounded from their 500 wedding guests.

The newlyweds will spend their honeymoon in the Bahamas. They have no plans to go snorkeling.

Posted by Liana Heitin at 12:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

Some private New York City schools are scaling back their student community service requirements as a result of questions about how students view them, reports The New York Times.

The volunteering requirement, to complete as many as 100 hours by graduation, has become commonplace for college-bound students, particularly over the last fifteen years. But community service coordinators at some New York City private schools say that instead of instilling a sense of compassion or volunteerism, students have become obsessed with stocking hours. According to critics, such a hefty requirement can also motivate students to lie about their service and, if they have the money, to buy their hours.

Service requirements have even resulted in a cottage industry of community service vacations, like a $4,000 three-week trip to pick up trash on Costa Rican beaches with ample time for kayaking and scuba lessons. Sandra R. Bass, editor of The Private School Insider, a Manhattan newsletter, explained that schools may be strict about the requirement, “but not so strict about how you fulfill them.”

This school year, Patti Schackett, a community service coordinator at Manhattan’s Columbia Grammar and Preparatory School slashed 40 hours from the 100 hour service requirement. She hopes this will help students “choose quality projects that do the most good.”

Posted by Jeff Lambert at 4:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)