Extended Kindergarten Program in schools is in limbo

Read Elizabeth Stuart's entire article at www.deseretnews.com
"Citing a need for more comprehensive data about the success of extended-day kindergarten, legislators on the Education Subcommittee declined to make a decision last week about whether to recommend continued funding for a statewide program."

'We are closing the gap by the end of kindergarten,' said Reed Spencer, elementary language arts specialist for the State Office of Education. 'There is no question about that'.

"Legislators raised questions, however, about whether students maintained those gains as they moved though first, second and third grades."

Rick

Ogden/Weber PAC Recommends Legislative Candidates

The Ogden/Weber UniServ Political Action Committee finished their candidate interviews last night and has made the following recommendations:

House District #6 No Recommendation
House District #7 Recommends Ryan Wilcox
House District #8 Recommends Gage Froerer
House District #9 Recommends Neil Hansen
House District #10 Recommends Randy Rounds
House District #11 Recommends Brad Dee
House District #12 Recommends Richard Greenwood
Senate District #18 No Recommendation

Rick

Jordan Education Association settles for steps and lanes

Jordan Education Association has finally settled negotiations after going to mediation and fact-finding. Jordan teachers will receive their contractual steps and lanes this year. You can read the entire article at www.sltrib.com

Rick

Utah to get funds for school testing

A coalition of 31 states, including Utah, was awarded $160 million in federal funding to develop an adaptive testing sytem for use in public schools. Judy Park, associate superintendent for student services and federal programs for the Utah State Office of Education, cochairs the executive committee of the partnership of states known as the SMARTER Balanced Assessment Consortium. Utah was one of two states that applied for and received federal Race to the Top money to develop an assessment system. The tests the consortium plans to develop will be administered on a computer and given multiple times a year to students in grades 3-6 and 11, and will provide real-time results and a chance to chart student progress thoughout the school year.

For more information, visit www.k12..wa.us/SMARTER/ and www.corestandards.org/

Rick

Feds to send $101M for Utah Schools

Read Joseph M. Dougherty's article in it's entirety at http://www.deseretnews.com/

"The U.S. Department of Education announced Monday that Utah will receive $101 million in stimulus funding geared toward teachers' jobs, despite earlier controversy over whether the state should apply for it and ongoing questions about exactly how much school districts will have to spend."

The money must be used for salary and benefits for educators, classified, and school administrators. It could mean as much as $5.6 million for Weber and $2.1 million for Ogden. The legislator must meet in a special session to accept the money. We are asking all of our teachers to contact their legislators (don't use your school computer or school email) and ask them to allow the money to come to the districts for the correct purpose.

Both OEA's and WEA's mediation meetings have been on hold until we know more about the money.

Rick

Deadlines for UEA Awards approaching

Go to the UEA Website at www.utea.org to nominate your colleagues for the Excellence in Teaching Award (deadline Sept. 17). The Honor Roll Award (deadline Sept. 24) is given to community members, legislators etc who are friends of education and the Charles Bennett Award (deadline Sept. 24) is for community members who do work for Human and Civil Rights. All three are given at the UEA Convention.

Rick

USA Today Editorial: Education

Thursday, Sept. 9, USA Editorial page had a debate over "value added" teacher evaluations being made public. Go to www.usatoday.com to read both opinions.

Rick