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Mrs.
Scott Receives Teacher of the Year Award
Mrs.
Delores Scott from Collington Square School
has been named Patrick Groff Teacher of
the Year by the National
Right to Read Foundation. The Patrick Groff
Teacher of the Year Award is a national award
given to an outstanding reading teacher who
uses the essential components of reading instruction
validated by research for a minimum of five
years and has successfully taught all students
to read proficiently.
Mrs.
Scott has taught at Collington for 12 years;
2 years with first graders and 10 years with
kindergarteners. She is an excellent teacher
who motivates her students to achieve academic
excellence. During several recent tours of her
Kindergarten class, visitors were impressed
by being able to approach any student in the
class and have them fluidly read a story out
loud. A sign posted outside Mrs. Scott's classroom
reads: "When you love what you do, you
are passionate about it." She says this
quote is "the code she lives by."
Mrs. Scott's passion for teaching is evident
as she talks about how she became a teacher.
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| Mrs. Scott
teaches a reading class using Direct Instruction. |
When
she began teaching, 21 years ago, Mrs. Scott
was working at the Bolton Hill Nursery School.
One of the children attending the school would
frequently tell her Grandmother about all the
incredible things she learned from Mrs. Scott.
The grandmother turned out to be the principal
of nearby Mount Royal Elementary. Much impressed
with Mrs. Scott's teaching ability, the principal
offered her a job. Mrs. Scott quickly went from
educational assistant to substitute to full-time
teacher.
In
a ceremony for Mrs. Scott last week at Collington,
citations and letters of recognition were read
from US Education Secretary Margaret Spellings,
US Reading First Program Director Chris Doherty,
Maryland Governor Robert Ehrlich, State Superintendent
Nancy Grasmick, Mayor O’Malley, and Superintendent
of Baltimore City Schools Bonnie Copeland. The
President of the National Right to Read Foundation,
Robert Sweet, indicated that Mrs. Scott will
be receiving congratulatory letters from the
President and First Lady.
Mrs.
Scott’s award will also be recognized at an
upcoming meeting of the Baltimore City Board
of School Commissioners. We are very proud of
Mrs. Scott and extend our congratulations to
her for this prestigious and well-deserved award.
BCP
Schools Receive MSDE Grants
BCP's
three schools - City Springs, Collington Square,
and Hampstead Hill - have received Maryland
State Department of Education (MDSE) planning
and design grants worth $50,000 each to assist
with their conversion to charter schools. BCP
submitted the grant proposals for these awards
and will use the additional funding to expand
services in the schools.
Combined
with the per pupil funding received by the schools
as charters, these resources are allowing the
schools to implement several improvements including:
hiring new staff members such as art and music
teachers, expanding the school day to allow
for additional instructional time, and a host
of planned activities to come. BCP would like
to thank MSDE for these generous awards.
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| WHAT'S HAPPENING
IN OUR SCHOOLS |
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News
from City Springs School (#08)
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| City
Springs School in East Baltimore |
City
Springs' conversion to charter school
status has brought with it
a variety of new programs and improvements.
Over the summer the Creative
Alliance, a community based non-profit
organization that presents and promotes
the arts and humanities, offered an
arts education program at City Springs.
Students
awarded for perfect attendance. On
September 28, City Springs awarded students
who had perfect attendance between August
29 and September 21 with one of two
field trips. One hundred Pre-K through
second-graders visited Safety
City in Druid Hill Park to learn
about traffic safety and street signs.
One hundred seven students from grades
3 - 8 toured the National
Great Blacks in Wax Museum.
News
from Collington Square School (#97)
New
State-of-the-Art Library. A
state bond will finance the renovation
of Collington's library. The new library
will feature: a production studio, a
computer lab, an independent study/reading
area for intermediate students, and
a read aloud/reading area for primary
students. The library's design was donated
by Murphy
and Dittenhafer Architects and the
renovation should be completed by Spring
2006.
Brenda
Kahn, Collington's Direct Instruction
Curriculum Coordinator, helped write
the bond for the library renovation.
Mrs. Kahn trains teachers at Collington
in Direct Instruction and supervises
classroom instruction. She also recently
received a grant from The
Abell Foundation to purchase Classroom
Library Collections for each teacher
at Collington. BCP would like to thank
Mrs. Kahn for all her hard work. We
would also like to thank the State,
the Abell Foundation, and Murphy and
Dittenhafer Architects for their generosity.
New
Library Needs Books, etc.
Collington's new library still needs
books and other materials to fill its
beautiful new shelves. If you would
like to donate money, books, computer
programs, videotapes, DVD's, please
call BCP at 410-235-0015 or email bcpinfo@baltimorecp.org.
News
from Hampstead Hill Academy (#47)
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| Hampstead
Hill Academy in Patterson Park |
Hampstead
Hill is full. The positive
buzz about Hampstead
Hill Academy last year is making
more families want to choose the school.
For the first time in years, Hampstead
Hill is completely full. In fact, they
have an extensive waiting list of families
that live outside of their attendance
area that would like to attend.
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| Hampstead
Hill's new playground |
Hampstead Hill’s playground
has been in use since last spring. By
all accounts, students and the community
love it. Little friends in the community
and students are welcome to use the
playground during non-school hours.
Hampstead
Hill Expansion. Staff and parents
are thrilled to continue the expansion
of Hampstead Hill Academy with the addition
of 7th grade for the 2005-2006 school
year. New curricula and a new science
lab will be in place for their rising
6th and 7th graders for the fall term.
Struever
Bros. Eccles & Rouse Renovate BCP
Schools
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| This
sign hangs outside of City Springs
School |
Over the
past year, Struever
Bros. Eccles & Rouse, Inc. (SBE&R)
donated time and materials to give Hampstead
Hill and City Springs a beautiful makeover.
At City Springs, they installed new
windows, created a new learning garden,
and built a new middle school science
lab. At Hampstead Hill, SBE&R installed
new windows, flooring, cafeteria tables,
a new school sign, and a new exterior
chain link fence.
They also
painted hallways, renovated and repaired
bathrooms, and created new landscaping.
BCP would like to thank Struever
Bros. Eccles & Rouse for their
generosity and for continuing to be
a major contributor to the revitalization
of Baltimore's schools and neighborhoods.
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• BCP Homepage
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Governor's
Commission on Quality Education Releases Report
On
September 14, 2005 Lt. Governor Michael S. Steele
released the final
report (PDF file) from the Governor’s Commission
on Quality Education in Maryland. The report
includes several recommendations on charter
schools. Below is BCP's analysis of the recommendations.
The
report recommends allowing multiple chartering
authorizers. BCP opposes this recommendation.
As the primary chartering authority for Baltimore
City, the Baltimore City Public School System
(BCPSS) is responsible for reviewing charter
applications and for developing a public charter
school policy for the district.
As
steward of the Charter School Act for the City
of Baltimore, BCPSS has a responsibility to
implement the Act in the way that best reflects
the district’s priorities, resources and needs
and best serves the needs of all Baltimore City
public school students. Maintaining the Local
Education Authority as the single chartering
authority facilitates development and implementation
of a comprehensive and coordinated charter policy
that compliments each district’s over arching
efforts at educational reform.
The
report recommends that Maryland "provide
facility funding to public charter schools."
BCP opposes this recommendation. Local public
school systems should not be subsidizing charter
school facilities.
In Baltimore City, existing
BCPSS facilities are underutilized and the system
is in the process of contemplating school closings
to address this excess capacity. The school
system should not be forced to take on additional
facilities burdens at this time. Also, with
an ever growing list of restructuring schools
in the City, BCPSS should place a priority on
charter school applicants that propose the conversion
of existing, underperforming schools, in their
existing facilities – not the creation of wholly
new schools.
As
a second tier priority, BCPSS should work with
charter school applicants proposing wholly new
schools to facilitate the co-location of those
programs in some of the excess space in existing
public school facilities. Resources should not
be diverted from serving students to subsidize
the creation and maintenance of additional facilities.
Relevant
Lessons from Freakonomics
Steven
Levitt and Stephen Dubner’s wildly popular book,
Freakonomics,
includes a number of valuable lessons for those
of us interested in education reform. One such
lesson relates to school choice and underscores
an idea many of us already had – that there
is a vital need to revitalize and reform existing
schools that are under performing, particularly
those in high poverty areas.
While
it might help individual students, the creation
of new schools is not the answer to improving
the outcomes of existing schools, the students
that continue to attend them or the system as
a whole. Unfortunately, there are large numbers
of students and families who can not or will
not take advantage of school choice options.
Freakonomics
points out that in Chicago’s experiment with
school choice, only half of the parents and
students took advantage of the opportunity to
participate in the school choice program. One
key lesson learned by that experiment was that,
while attendance at the students' school of
choice did not impact the students' educational
outcomes, students who chose to participate
in the application lottery were much more likely
to graduate from high school than those who
did not participate. In other words, it was
not the outcome of the lottery that mattered
(whether the student did or did not get to attend
their chosen school) but the student’s participation
in the lottery itself that indicated their likelihood
of succeeding in school.
Students
who are motivated enough to find out about and
participate in a school choice option are our
schools’ most successful students and they deserve
high quality educational options. However, those
students who, to date, have not been high performers
and, as such, are not likely to take advantage
of school choice options, are entitled to educational
opportunities that are equally sound. Whole
school reform and the conversion of existing,
low performing or restructuring schools ensures
the provision of a high quality education to
all of Maryland’s youth.
Special Education
in Baltimore City
If you've
been following the local news lately you've
heard plenty about special education in the
Baltimore City School System. A recent ruling
by Judge Marvin Garbis allowed the State to
send nine administrators into the City school
system to ensure that special education students
are provided with appropriate services. Interestingly
enough Direct Instruction, which is used in
all BCP-operated schools, tends to decrease
the number of students who need special education
services.
Research
demonstrates the effectiveness of DI with special
needs populations. (Carnine, Silbert, Kame'enui,
& Tarver, 2004; Adams and Engelmann, 1996;
Forness, Kavale, Blum, and Lloyd, 1997) By grouping
students into skill levels instead of grade
levels, and by carefully monitoring student
progress, DI instruction can enable students
with learning disabilities to participate successfully
in general education classes.
References
- Adams,
G. L., & Engelmann, S. (1996). Research
on Direct Instruction: 25 years beyond DISTAR.
Seattle, WA: Educational Achievement Systems.
- Carnine,
D., Silbert, J., Kame'enui, E., & Tarver,
S. (2004). Direct instruction reading (4th
ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.
- Forness,
S. R., Kavale, K. A., Blum, I. M., & Lloyd,
J. W. (1997). Mega-analysis of meta-analysis:
What works in special education. Teaching
Exceptional Children, 19(6), 4-9.
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