by | March 20, 2007 · 11:47 am

Young at Art March 3rd thru April 15th State Street Gallery in the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art at 227 State Street.

Organized biennially,Young at Art presents works of art by Madison Metropolitan School District students in kindergarten through Grade 12. The exhibition is the result of a long-standing collaboration between MMoCA and the school district’s Fine Arts Department. Each of Madison’s public school art teachers is invited to submit up to three works of art for the exhibition. This process yields a full range of technique,subject matter, and media, including drawing, painting, collage, photography, sculpture, jewelry, ceramics, fiber, and computer-generated art. All works on view in Young at Art demonstrate students’ imagination and talent.

Young at Art underscores the value of early and continuing exposure to high-quality art education. The exhibition calls attention to children’s creative potential, to the scope and variety of individual expression, and to the excellence of art instruction in Madison’s public schools.

Young at Art is organized by the education department of the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art and Madison Metropolitan School District. Funding has been generously provided by a grant from James and Sylvia Vaccaro; the Theda Clark Smith Family Foundation; the Dane County Cultural Affairs Commission with additional funds from the Madison Community Foundation, the Overture Foundation, and the American Girl Fund for Children; a grant from the Wisconsin Arts Board with funds from the State of Wisconsin; and the Art League of the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art.

The Memorial Art Department is proud to announce its deep participation in the 2007 ‘Young at Art’ exhibit taking place at the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art (MMOCA). The dates of this biennial exhibition run from March 3 to April 15th, 2007, and features the . Young at Art features works of art by Madison Metropolitan School District students in kindergarten through grade 12. The location for this exhibit is the State Street Gallery in the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art at 227 State Street. Memorial community members are encouraged to view this show and see these artists represented by their art works:

Anna Hutchcroft submitted an 8×10 digital photo she created using photoshop techniques she learned in Photo 2 after being asked to write a paper on a professional photographer and then create work inspired that photographer.

Samantha Starich painted a watercolor self portrait for her painting and printmaking class.

Daniel Kazel’s work is in nickel silver with black onyz bezel settings.

Grisha Kamyshnikov’s Charcoal Drawing is a reconstructed composition from a photo, his attention to details make this piece stand out.

Spencer O’Rourke’s Charcoal Drawing is also reconstructed from a photo, his subtle treatment of texture brings this portrait to life.

Lauren Peterson’s silver gelatin print is a self-portrait, impeccable printing technique as well as hand coloring add to this images story.

Randa Soubra’s submission is a 5 part illustration created in Adobe Illustrator that contemplates life’s journey
with images and text.

Sarah’s art uses subtle color and detail to allow a moment of thoughtful reflection and was created in Adobe Photoshop.

Maggie Peterson’s art is a statement about the connection between consumer necessity and the animal spirit and was crafted in Adobe Photoshop.

Alex Renier created a ceramic tea bowl capturing the elegance and spirit of the tea ceremony, while adding a beautiful surface through employment of engobes and salt-glaze firing.

Samantha Starich designed and sculpted a very refined and detailed mask based upon a myth, while doing a superb job of revealing emotion and character.

Claire Ostroms’ form is perfect for the 2oo year-old Japanese Raku firing, and is equally well-married to her inventive and expressive motivations.

CONGRATULATIONS TO THE FOLLOWING EAST HIGH SCHOOL ART STUDENTS:
Grade 12: Julie Meyer, Lauren Knepper, Ashton Schwerin, Amanda Murray, Lewis Oleksy
Grade 11: Amy Hoag, Alexandra Jefferson, Natiesha Bailey
Grade 10: Catherine Kim.
Their artwork was selected to be featured in the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art’s “Young at Art” exhibition.

Posted by Janet Morrow

2 Comments

Filed under AMPS

by | March 19, 2007 · 2:57 pm

Educating the Whole Child

Excerpt from TeacherKen (posted here and here)

As a teacher I know that what occurs in my classroom is a small part of educating my students, even in my own domain of social studies. As a music major who teaches government and also coaches soccer, it has always been clear to me that school is about far more that mere intellectual development. History is replete with examples of the damage done when we develop the intellect and fail to develop behavior, morality, concern for others, physical awareness, and so on. And in a liberal democracy (for those two words are an accurate description in political science terms of our form of government) we should not be attempting to force all students to be the same – our society is enriched and enlivened by our variety and our differences, and our educational practices should be informed by an awareness of the importance of and respect for those differences.

The post is about a report from the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development

Reading the post and the report, I was struck by how many of the ideas and approaches are similar to the work of the MMSD Equity Task Force. For example, the report calls for “cooperative effort by communities, schools, and teachers, each responsible for providing part of the necessary context,” and the charges to each include:

Communities:

family support and involvement
Government, civic, and business support and resources

Schools:

challenging and engaging curriculum
a safe, healthy, orderly, and trusting environment
a climate that supports strong relationships between adults and students

Teachers:

evidence-based assessment and instructional practices
rich content and an engaging learning climate
student and family connectedness

The Equity Task Force draft guidelines include:

Create a climate that welcomes and values all students, families, and community members.

Engage families and community members in schools, children’s education, and the success of all students.

Challenge teachers and students to develop an appreciation for all cultures and to learn to thrive in a multicultural society.

Make opportunities and resources available for teachers and staff to promote recognition that students must take different roads to learn.

Adopt consistently rigorous, culturally inclusive, evidence-based curriculum, and teaching and assessment practices district-wide.

The Equity Task Force is currently scheduled to present to the Board of Education on April 9th.

Thomas J. Mertz

Leave a comment

Filed under AMPS, Best Practices, Equity, Local News

by | March 18, 2007 · 5:32 pm

School Board Election Update Information

Election Day is April 3. Madison has a mayor’s race, several city council races and three city-wide Board of Education races. In the next two weeks, there will be a multitude of candidate forums for the public to learn first-hand what each candidate is all about. Please see the calendar section of madisonamps.org for details on upcoming forums.

And remember, Election Day is during spring break. madisonamps.org has detailed information on absentee voting in its elections section. March 29 is the last day you can request an absentee ballot. Any ballot not received by April 3 will not be counted.

Beth Swedeen

Leave a comment

Filed under AMPS, Elections, Local News

by | March 16, 2007 · 3:24 am

Finally, a big bright light to shine on Reading First

Coverage in today’s NYT of yesterday’s Congressional hearing on the Reading First program saw Education Secretary Margaret Spellings defending the program that has been plagued by accusations that states were steered toward a handful of commercial reading programs and testing instruments. Madison was the focus of a recent Times article outlining some of the program’s problems and why our district declined Reading First money.

Money quote from today’s reporting comes from Robert Slavin of Johns Hopkins University, whose Success for All reading program was shut out of many states under Reading First. He said “he did not think the secretary’s promises went far enough. “I haven’t seen the slightest glimmer of even intention to change,” Dr. Slavin said.

Because schools had already chosen their readng curriculums, promises to clean up Reading First now meant little, he said. He compared them to finding eight innings into a baseball game with a score of 23 to 0 that the opposing team had been playing with cork bats.

“Then they say, ‘From now on, we’re using honest bats.’ ” Dr. Slavin said. “I’m sorry, it’s 23 to nothing. You can’t just say, ‘From now on.’ ” “

Robert Godfrey

1 Comment

Filed under AMPS, Best Practices, Local News, National News, No Child Left Behind

by | March 16, 2007 · 2:52 am

Truthiness in Education

Most reports from education policy think tanks are not worth the paper on which they are printed, according to a new education policy research center called “The Think Tank Review Project,” a collaborative research project at the University of Colorado at Boulder and Arizona State University. It seeks to review reports from think tanks and to comment on their research methods, reliability, and validity.

The worst offenders, according to the Project, are the Arlington, Virginia-based Lexington Institute, the Washington-based Thomas B. Fordham Institute, the Harvard Program for Education Policy and Governance (PEPG), and the New York City-based Manhattan Institute. These think tanks, according to reviewers, published reports that were “selectively data-mined” and “seriously lacking in methodological rigor.” To list a few charges, Welner and Molnar criticized these organizations for their presentation of “conclusions that their own data and analyses flatly contradicted” and also for their “resolute use of statistics to achieve a desired outcome.” You can read the report here.

Robert Godfrey

Leave a comment

Filed under AMPS, Best Practices

by | March 16, 2007 · 2:31 am

Think Recent Test Scores Show Schools are Failing? Think Again!

Despite some recent media reports about declining student test scores, some with problematic methodologies, the author of this piece suggests such reporting has obscured some real successes and that we lose sight of the gains taking place in education.

Excerpt:

Average test scores, despite the play they get in the media, have very little meaning as measures of student achievement, because they can hide gains made by increasingly large minority populations. This is known as Simpson’s paradox, which is explained here. For example, the twelfth grade NAEP data for English language learners showed a slight increase in the last 15 years (though not by a statistically significant amount). ELL students, who tend to score lower, make up a much greater percentage of students today than in 1992, and thus have the effect of “bringing down” the average despite stable or improved performance.

As Michael Martin, a research analyst at the Arizona School Boards Association, has noted, today’s population of students are much harder to teach. Minority populations, English language learner populations, and populations of students from single-parent or foster homes have all increased. In addition, more students today are in college preparatory programs; many of the students who are today achieving lower scores would have, in past decades, been tracked into non-college preparatory classes such as vocational education.

Finally, Martin also notes that graduation rates for students of all races and backgrounds are significant higher today than in previous decades and are increasing. Lower twelfth grade test scores, he argues, are the result of our successes in keeping students in school who would otherwise have dropped out. We are looking at the wrong measures of success, he argues, and we are therefore drawing the wrong conclusions.

When we judge the achievements and failures of students based only on a few selected test scores, we lose sight of real measures of success in education and do ourselves and our children a disservice. If we want to grade our schools, we should do it based on figures that matter – graduation rates, preschool enrollment, or other real measurements of the quality of education schools are providing. In these areas, states around the country have seen marked improvement, and that is something worth talking about.

Robert Godfrey

Leave a comment

Filed under AMPS, Best Practices, National News, No Child Left Behind

by | March 15, 2007 · 11:05 pm

Are you listening Gov. Doyle?

COLUMBUS – Gov. Ted Strickland yesterday laid out a dramatic series of new spending proposals and budget cuts in the first State of the State speech by a Democratic governor in almost two decades.

Strickland proposed eliminating the state’s school voucher program except for the Cleveland program, giving record funding increases for Ohio public universities and ending a tax break for gasoline producers to save money in a budget that will shrink state spending next year.

Among his education goals, Strickland wants a moratorium on new charter schools and a ban on for-profit management companies running charter schools.

Concerned about the state’s high tuition costs, Strickland will recommend record funding increases for public colleges and universities in exchange for no tuition increases next year and only 3 percent the following year.

Strickland called for large increases in the state share of education funding, including a 7 percent increase in funding to close gaps between rich and poor schools.

His plan would boost the state share of education to 54 percent, the biggest portion since the state’s school-funding system was repeatedly declared unconstitutional by the state Supreme Court.

More here, full text here.

Overviews of Ohio school finance are here and here

Thomas J. Mertz

Leave a comment

Filed under AMPS, National News, School Finance

by | March 15, 2007 · 8:33 pm

In broad daylight

Former Madison Mayor, Paul Soglin has been looking at a number of issues surrounding our school funding problems.
He concludes that:

Much of the cause of this is the strangling legislation which is driving Wisconsin public schools down the disastrous path of California, after the Golden State enacted Proposition 13.

The schools need more money. Wisconsin businesses need a productive and trained workforce. We are not only destroying children’s futures, but we are destroying the future of our state. The strangulation of our economy is not under the cover of darkness; it is happening in broad daylight.

He also discusses the impact of underfunding for special ed here. It would be helpful too if more attention were given to the ever growing number of kids enrolled in the critical but underfunded “Limited English Proficiency” program (ELL/ESL).

Robert Godfrey

Leave a comment

Filed under AMPS, Budget, Local News, School Finance

by | March 15, 2007 · 8:01 pm

If You Care, Help

If you care who is elected to the Madison School Board on April 3d, then help the candidate(s) of your choice.

All the candidate’s web pages (linked here) have places where you can sign on. Not everyone can afford large donations, but everyone who cares should be able to find an hour or two to help shape the future of our district. The election is only a little over two weeks away. Now is the time.

Thomas J. Mertz

Leave a comment

Filed under AMPS, Elections, Local News, Take Action

by | March 15, 2007 · 7:50 pm

Profiteering off of kids

Who are the profiteers who’ve collected billions from NCLB? The answers might surprise you.

It begins here and continues here. The author promises more to come.

Robert Godfrey

Leave a comment

Filed under AMPS, National News, No Child Left Behind, School Finance