Mark
the Dates! Day of Influence - April 13-14, 2010
A
chance to join the team!
Illinois ASCD will be hosting a
workshop and opportunity to meet with your local
legislators on April 13 and 14, 2010 in
Springfield, Illinois. IL ASCD members are
encouraged to join the team who will train and
visit the Capitol Building on April 14. The
primary message is to tell our state
representatives who we are, what we do and that
we would like to become a "go to" person for
educational issues and activities. For more
information, please contact Richard Lange at richardelange@hotmail.com.
For registration and information
Click Here.
Urbana High Earns Praise
Urbana High School has put some new initiatives
into place last year, to try to keep struggling
students from falling through the cracks.
Principal Laura Taylor said the efforts are
paying off - attendance and graduation rates
have increased, the number of truant students
has dropped and suspensions have decreased. In
addition, the high school was just named one of
America's best high schools by U.S. News & World
Report. And, other districts have taken notice
and are hoping to learn from Urbana's success.
Read more...
Federal Student Aid Process Improved
Early in December, the Secretary of Education
joined more than 6,000 officials from colleges
and universities in Nashville for the
Department's annual Federal Student Aid (FSA)
Conference. In a morning keynote address, he
outlined the Obama Administration's higher
education agenda and its plans to improve
college completion. Specifically, he emphasized
the administration's commitment to college aid
and assistance programs, calling it the biggest
investment in student aid since the GI Bill, and
praised the House passage of the
Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act.
That legislation authorizes up to $87 billion
for student aid over the next decade, including
$40 billion for mandatory inflation-indexed Pell
Grants and $10 billion to strengthen community
colleges. The Secretary also discussed the need
to eliminate prohibitive, time-consuming
administrative hurdles by streamlining the Free
Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA),
working with the Internal Revenue Service to
electronically retrieve tax return data, and
reducing the paperwork for financial aid
administrators. Furthermore, the administration
proposes saving Americans billions of dollars by
transitioning all student loans to the Direct
Loans program. FOR MORE INFORMATION, PLEASE GO
TO
http://www.edgovblogs.org/duncan/2009/12/secretary-duncan-is-committed-to-making-it-easier-for-students-to-attend-and-pay-for-college/.
New State School Board Members
The Governor announced three new members of the
State Board of Education and a new member of the
P-20 Council. You can read about all of them in the
Governor's press release
here.
The State Journal-Register profiled one of those new
members, former Springfield School Board member and
retired educator Melinda LaBarre.
Read more...
2009 State Report Card Released
The state report card is out, and it shows the same
persistent and troubling themes as past years. First,
the state's standards are too low. Second, the
achievement gap remains too high. You can read all
about it, and see where your school ranks, in the
Chicago Tribune,
the
Chicago Sun-Times,
Rockford Register-Star,
Daily Herald,
State Journal-Register
and the
Peoria Journal-Star.
You can also access the report card at ISBE's
website .
The Sun-Times also wrote an
editorial.
New Consortium Study on Turnaround Schools
The Consortium on Chicago School Research released a
report on turnaround schools. As Advance Illinois
Executive Director Robin Steans told the Tribune, the
study shows "the quality of the school a kid attends
matters." Read the Tribune
article
or the Sun-Times
editorial
RTI
and the Disproportionate Representation of Culturally
Diverse Students in Special Education by the
RTI
Action Network
In this feature, the
RTI Action Network addresses the issue of the
disproportionate representation of culturally and
linguistically diverse students in special
education-specifically, the impact that RTI models have
on disproportionality. Response to Intervention (RTI)
models can become a tool for tackling disproportionality
in schools because of their focus on data-based
decision-making. Rather than view disproportionality
only in terms of the proportion of students in special
education, the RTI Action Network proposes that
researchers and educators look at educational outcomes.
RTI models have the potential to help us tackle this
problem by exposing struggling students to a variety of
research-based interventions and evaluating academic
achievement throughout the entire process. RTI can be a
beneficial tool for early identification and the
prevention of ethnic/racial disproportionality in
special education programs if implemented appropriately.
Read
RTI and the Disproportionate Representation of
Culturally Diverse Students in Special Education for
further information about how to utilize RTI
interventions to improve education access and equity for
all students.
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Illinois ASCD and North
Central Association (NCA) Announce Professional Development
Partnership
Illinois ASCD is pleased to announce a partnership has been
formed with Illinois NCA to offer IL ASCD members a five percent
discount on all professional development events offered by
Illinois NCA throughout the school year. A table of the complete
line-up of scheduled events has been posted on our website and
is accessed via the Calendars/Conferences, Affiliate
Workshops link. To view all professional development event
descriptions, locations, and registration details; go to
www.nca.uillinois.edu/, select the Professional Development
tab. Upcoming September workshops include: School Improvement
Planning for SIP Teams; PSAE Reading/Writing: From Planning to
Practice; and Let's Have a T.E.A. Party: Teaching, Engaging, and
Assessing! In order for ASCD members to receive the 5%
discount, access the Professional Development tab from
NCA's website, and go to "Get all the workshop details."
This is a hyperlink located immediately after each workshop
description. Click on the hyperlink and print the Registration
Form to complete your registration information. Under the
Payment Information Required section, specify the
Discount Code as "IL ASCD Member." Fax your completed
form to the NCA state office at 217.244.1132. For questions or
assistance, please contact the Illinois
state office at 866.292.1781 .
Batavia Schools Teach
about nutrition through example
In the district of Il ASCD
member Dr. Jack Barshinger, teaching children about good health
is an important part of education. Now the
Batavia schools are going a step
further by incorporating healthy eating in the lunch room. The
district has adopted the Hops (Healthier Options for Public
School Children) program and curriculum in all of the elementary
schools The HOPS program emphasizes good nutrition based on
the food pyramid. Behind the curriculum is Dr. Danielle Hollar,
director of research for the Agatston Research Foundation, a
nonprofit research foundation with the mission to improve the
heart health of our nation. Go to:
http://www.studentsfirst.us
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