 | Bits'n Pieces, Spring 2008
Bits ‘n Pieces is provided by MESPA as Champions for Children™.
Feel free to use any of the content in newsletters, Web sites,
speeches, or as a part of other communications with stakeholders. These
are just the facts on our school leaders, P-16 education, cause for
pause, parenting, public perceptions, communications, congratulations,
tax talk, and red flags -- plus quotes and quotables on leadership, citizenship, progress, education, and red flags for 2008.
The
following are excerpts.
Scroll down and click on the PDF link below to download the
complete document, filled with Bits'n Pieces for use in your school
communications.
School Leaders
• Experts agree principals serving as instructional leaders are critical to helping teachers form teams and rally around teaching approaches. – Pioneer Press, August 31, 2007
P-16 education
• Nine states mandate that full-day kindergarten be offered.
• Sixty percent of American children are enrolled in full-day public or private kindergarten programs.
Cause for Pause
• According to a study led by Dr. Philip Shaw, a psychiatrist at the National Institute of Mental Health and reported in the Proceedings of the National Academy Sciences, children with attention deficit disorders suffer primarily from a delay in brain development, not from a deficit or flaw.
• A study of 16,000 children indicates that kindergartners who are identified as troubled do as well academically in elementary school as do their peers. – The New York Times, November 13, 2007, "Bad Behavior Does Not Doom Pupils, Studies Say," Benedict Carey
Public Perceptions (taken from the 39th Annual PDK/Gallup Poll of the Public’s Attitudes Toward the Public Schools—Lowel C. Rose and Alec M. Gallup)
• Knowledge about NCLB among the public has increased from 45 percent (those who feel they know a fair amount or great deal about NCLB) in 2006 to 54 percent in 2007.
• The percent of people with an unfavorable opinion about NCLB has gone up over the past year from 31 percent in 2006 to 40 percent in 2007.
• 68 percent of the public believes NCLB in its current form is either making no difference or hurting the schools.
Bits_n_pieces_spring_08.pdf
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