K12 ADMINISTRATORS
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Salaries of School Administrators go to new heights.
Districts, competing to give the children of their affluent residents every advantage, have helped create a seller's market for management talent that has pushed some superintendents into the thin air of the $300,000 salary-and-benefit package. Meanwhile, the $200,000 milestone the floor for superintendent pay has become increasingly common among deputy and assistant superintendents. Fifty-six school administrators in Westchester now make more than $200,000 in total compensation, and 19 of them are assistants or deputies. Critics dismiss the talk of low supply and high demand and say that cozy relationships between boards and administrators are the reason for the large pay packages.
American Association of School Administrators also reports Nonsalary items given like car allowances, gasoline reimbursement, big severance payouts, and other expense account items -- allow boards to bump up pay without drawing scrutiny. NYT 5/06
According to the Educational Research Service, the national average salary for superintendents is just over $134,000, up about 43 percent from a decade ago. Average salaries for central office managers range from about $72,000 for subject area supervisors to $122,000 for deputy superintendents, reports J.D. Solomon. Who in K-12 administration deserves the biggest salary adjustment? According to Bruce Hunter, from the American Association of School Administrators., "No one puts in more time than a superintendent, but high school principals come close.
12 Ethical Commandments for Educational Leaders
The American Association of School Administrators (AASA) has released a new code of ethical conduct for school leaders. The AASA Statement of Ethics for Educational Leaders outlines 12 key standards for school system leaders. The document affirms that the educational leader: (1) Makes the education and well-being of students the fundamental value of all decision making; (2) Fulfills all professional duties with honesty and integrity and always acts in a trustworthy and responsible manner; (3) Supports the principle of due process and protects the civil and human rights of all individuals; (4) Implements local, state and national laws; (5) Advises the school board and implements the board's policies and administrative rules and regulations; (6) Pursues appropriate measures to correct those laws, policies and regulations that are not consistent with sound educational goals or that are not in the best interest of children; (7) Avoids using his or her position for personal gain through political, social, religious, economic or other influences; (8) Accepts academic degrees or professional certification only from accredited institutions; (9) Maintains the standards and seeks to improve the effectiveness of the profession through research and continuing professional development; (10) Honors all contracts until fulfillment, release or dissolution mutually agreed upon by all parties; (11) Accepts responsibility and accountability for ones own actions and behaviors; and (12) Commits to serving others above self.
WHERE ARE THE ETHICS?
Persistently Dangerous Schools No Child Left Behind Act, each state must define a "persistently dangerous" school and allow parents to transfer their children out of them. But the Schools and the State don't report the information. The analysis also found that the dangerous schools provision does little to foster accountability on school safety issues -- and could actually discourage accountability in some schools and states. In many cases, the schools lose dozens of students to ones that are presumed to be safer.
SILENCE OF SCHOOL OFFICIALS PUT PARENTS AT ARMS LENGTH
Schools nationwide are calling on parents to get involved, reports Jay Mathews in the Washington Post. The Maryland State Board of Education endorsed a broad range of family outreach initiatives in a 2005 report that called public education "a shared responsibility." Yet some Maryland parents and elsewhere have discovered limits on the get-involved policy when they ask questions about individual teachers, whether those queries are about alleged abuse of students or a decision to fire a popular instructor. School officials said they are required to hold back information because of privacy laws, union contracts and potential lawsuits. Some acknowledged that a more open policy would help families handle the repercussions of incidents involving teachers. But the officials said there is little they can do.
School districts must set aside money for future retiree benefits. Districts that fail to comply could see their bond ratings fall, making borrowing more expensive. More than 20 states are considering plans to cap or limit traditional retirement plans in favor of private savings accounts.
Jim Collogan, director of research for the National School Foundation Association has been urging school foundations to think beyond ''candy, calendars, and candles," and cultivate big donors, such as corporations or wealthy residents, whether they have children or not. School foundations should learn from colleges and universities, which tend to get the bulk of donations to education, Collogan said. Public schools are more accustomed to demanding money from state and local governments. [source]
"Common Elements of High Performing, High Poverty Middle Schools" (Middle School Journal, March 2002), Susan Trimble reviews the research and points to some common characteristics among a group of high-poverty high-performing middle schools in southeast Georgia which were the subjects of a three-year case study. During a three-year case study, Trimble found that all the successful schools used a grant writer or a team of grant writers who knew how to generate grant proposals that obtain additional funds to implement reform initiatives; they used teams to do their reform work, and they developed goals and used specific strategies to meet their goals. Research Another common element of high performing schools is a good library program which includes a good collection, but more than that it is one where the librarian is actively involved and collaborating with teachers.
N.Y. Teachers Cheating, Records Show
7:20 am PST, 28 October 2003
Cheating in some New York state schools changed scores so much that it invalidated the "school report cards" used by parents, taxpayers and the state to evaluate the performance of schools and educators.
-- Records indicate 21 New York teachers have been caught cheating on behalf of students on standardized testing from 1999 through 2002, though some indicate the practice is more widespread than the record shows.
No Child Left Behind requiring schools to report student data from every state. The efforts are costing taxpayers several billion dollars a year. Building a data system to collect information from all the schools in a state can be extraordinarily daunting, involving the integration of computer systems used in hundreds of districts, each of which may have multiple databases using distinct operating systems and they won't work with each other. State Data managers and State Education Technology Directors do NOT know what they are doing.
Focus/SIS 1.0
A number of open source projects have been developed to help educators and administrators manage student data. With this application, users can utilize the web-based interface to create grade books, submit attendance, generate reports, and so on. This version of Focus/SIS 1.0 is compatible Mac OS X 10.1 and newer.
Technology Standards for School Administrators
What Should the School Administrator Know About Technology?
- ESSENTIALS OF A SCHOOL DISTRICT WEBSITE
- TSSA Draft (v4.0) November 2001
The Collaborative for Technology Standards for School Administrators (TSSA Collaborative) has facilitated the development of a national consensus on what P-12 administrators should know and be able to do to optimize the effective use of technology. This consensus is presented by the Collaborative as Technology Standards for School Administrators (TSSA). - K-12 COPYRIGHT LAW PRIMER for teachers DO'S AND DON'TS IS VERY IMPORTANT.
- What is Legal in the K12 Classroom?
- The Myth About Homework
- The National School Boards Assn.
Features articles on leadership, planning and educational technology. - The Southern Regional Education Board on Education Technology
Presents a technology standard for school administrators. - Virginia Department of Education
Provides a guide for technology training for administrators. - Technology Intitiatives by State
- Develop The Tech Plan
- "Level of Technology Integration" instrument
A self-survey that does not ask teachers to find specific progress points within their teaching, but does have specific levels of integration hallmarked and therefore one can track their progress. - Computer Technology and Instructional Reform
- Develop Technology Skills of Professors
- K12 Testing, Assessment, Evaluation, Standards, Retention, Drop Out Rates, and Statistics
- National Center For Technology Training
- The power of ubiquitous computing by Ray Rose
- Assessment tools help principals and school administors assess a teacher's technology proficiency.
School Surveillence - Technology Security
Computer-use contracts for students, parents and teachers. Teacher, Student, family Rights
Employers are searching you out online as a reference check for potential teenage hires, and military recruiters use it to investigate a student's character.
Cyber- Bullying occurs online and off campus. How far should schools go in controlling student online conduct but at the same time respect First Amendment rights.
- School's computer-use policy should explain everything.
- Cyber-bullying policies should be included in the schools student planner.
- Policy should spell out the consequences from apologies to disciplinary action.
- Parents should monitor their children's computer use at home to prevent cyber-bullying.
- Online gossip and the use of obscene and profane language on the Internet.
- Incriminating pursuits such as drinking alcohol or smoking marijuana will be grounds for the police to called school officials to order a search of the student on campus.
Violation of school rules, or behavior that causes school strife, can result in all parents called, and some kids suspended:
- Online evidence of using alcohol, drugs or vulgar gestures can lead to suspension from the sports team.
- Camera pictures taken in the school locker room and posted online.
- Slandering a fellow classmate online which then causes hard feelings and the conflict spreads onto school grounds.
School crime and safety data
National Center for Education Statistics: Crime and Safety Surveys (CSS)
Compilation of school crime and safety data and reports, including the annual Indicators of School Crime and Safety (2002 to the present), and surveys of principals, teachers, and students. Includes reports on student discipline, victimization, gangs, bullying, weapons, drugs, and other school violence and crime topics. From the National Center for Education Statistics, U.S. Department of Education.
URL:
First Ammendment Rights
Speech that takes place on a personal Web pages and from home. No school connection, no action taken.- Children are private people with privacy rights.
- It isn't the school's job to alert parents to things that are outside the school because of First Amendment rights.
- School Boards can decide that illegal or inappropriate behavior online could be cause for disciplinary action, but the school district can be sued for it and lose.
- Schools don't have the right to impose discipline for off-campus student speech.
- Online student activity has to break school rules on campus to merit punishment.
Teachers
- On school district's computers teachers have no rights.
- District AUP, spells out that they will monitor all email and web usage.
- Teachers have been and can be dismissed for what they write in email or say in IM or Chat rooms.
- The will and can monitor the desktop - log into your computer and watch what you are doing.
- Watch your monitor and any active (inactive)
application you have going. - COPPA is a law that applies to children under 13 that says parents must first approve providing information to any commercial web site. There is aprovision that allows teachers to also give permission.
- FERPA does not give permission to teachers to give children's information to any site.
Schools can create different standards for the
appropriate school level elementary, middle, and high school and then get signed parental permission.
School Admin Systems
What is the Schools Interoperability Framework
SIF is an industry initiative to develop a specification for ensuring that K-12 instructional and administrative software applications can share information seamlessly. To date, SIF compliance criteria have not been determined.
How does it Work?
Industry vendors pay dues to belong. Members who have paid the fees get to use the logo and say they PARTICIPATE in the SIF initiative.
"The term PARTICIPATION describes an organization's interest and effort to further the development of the SIF specification. PARTICIPATION does not indicate an organization's level of compliance to the SIF specification. In other words, PARTICIPATION can not be associated with a company's goods or services." SIF compliance criteria have not been determined.
Satellite Streaming Video Broadcasts from Dept. of Ed.
Satellite Town Meetings 1-800-USA-LEARN
Apple Streams these meetings
Government Grants from the big 6
Remarks by Chairman Alan Greenspan ....
Structural Change In The New Economy July 11, 2000
Equally critical to our investment in human capital is the quality of education in our elementary and secondary schools.
Read More...
"An Educated Workforce is an Issue of National Security" -- Secretary of Education Rod Paige 2001
SECURITY
Find out how to :
CLEAN INFECTED COMPUTERS, FILTERING SOFTWARE, ABOUT HACKERS, TOOLS, RESOURCES, TROUBLE FINDERS, PRIVACY, CENSORSHIP, COPYRIGHT / COPYLEFT ISSUES, COMPANIES, ARTICLES, HISTORY
ADMINISTRATOR | TEACHER TRAINING
State Directors for Educational Technology
Technology Staffing Guidelines
ABOUT TECHNOLOGY
Technology and Learning
Technology and Schools and Teachers
We Won The Grant, Now What Do We Do? webquest for admins.
DON'T BUY IT GET IT FOR FREE
Why Use Linux?
The money Admins save will buy online curriculum, professional development and IT help!
Think.com is currently available, free of charge, to any public K-12 school.
Upgrades or modifications to Think.com will also be free; 100% of the cost will be absorbed by Oracle. Oracle Corporation provides this service in an effort to help bridge the growing digital divide in education. Oracle also offers one day of professional development training to two Think.com trainers per school. This training is also provided at no cost to the participating schools.
Buying Learning Management Systems
Ask if their systems have been designed to be accessible for students with disabilities. None of them were accessible a couple years ago. Now most are working hard to change that. Blackboard is largely complient with Section 508 but what about WebCT, eCollege, Prometheus,Virtual Ed, Angel, Jones Knowledge, Learning Space, Learning Springs, etc. If a school buys an inaccessible system, in case of a suit, it is the school and not the vendor who gets sued.
Blackboard and Jones are section 508 compliant, but that also comes with a caveat. They may have set their navigation and controls as compliant, but the content that is added by the user may, and most commonly may not be easily read through screen readers. And the content is what the user learns from, not how to navigate through the software. It is also important for those who may be looking at content providers who run on these platforms to make sure that the content is easily read through a screen reader for those with disabilities.
EvaluTech - Evaluation of instructional materials
Database contains more than 7,000 reviews of instructional K-12 materials, including computer software, CD-ROMs, videos and books.
Interactive School Technology and Readiness (STaR) Chart
A self-assessment tool designed to provide schools with the information they need to better integrate technology into their educational process. Here, you can complete an online, multiple-choice questionnaire that will provide you with instant feedback on how well your school is doing in this process. Provides a model for the integration and innovative use of education technology. The STaR Chart is not intended to be a measure of any particular school’s technology and readiness, but rather to serve a benchmark against which every school can assess and track its own progress.
| Find all of these Applications and Tutorials listed below |
| ORIENTATION | PROGRAMMING | Mac | ASP | COLD FUSION | (D)HTML & CCS | |
| JavaScript | Perl | CGI | PHP | SQL | VB | XML |
Associations
National Association of Elementary School Principals
National Association of Secondary School Principals
BC Principals and Vice Principals Association
The monthly journal of the BCPVPA - Canada
Adminfo is the monthly publication, September through June, of the BC Principals' & Vice-Principals' Association. Adminfo publishes both practical and theoretical stories. Richard Williams, Editor
INTEGRATE THE INTERNET
** Read about the Advantages of DIGITAL Online Curriculum:
Online learners have a multisensory experience, by combining audio, video, text, and graphics where they can control the information they want, and when they want it all through Hypertext.
Read what internet savvy students say about their teachers, admins, their classrom curriculum and the internet. The Digital Disconnect: The widening gap between Internet-savvy students and their schools
The Need For Digital Learning
The Power of Digital Learning: Part I
The continued success and quality of American public education depends on our collective ability to close the gap between technology's mere presence and its effective integration into the curriculum to enhance student performance and deliver the skills necessary for the 21st century. The CEO Forum believes the solution begins with what we term digital learning.
Virtual Schooling and Online Courses
Palm Applications in Education
Reviews of Palm OS applications are updated monthly on this Website from the Concord Consortium
DO NOT RELY ON TEXTBOOKS
SUCCESSFUL SCHOOLS BUDGET FOR ONLINE DIGITAL CURRICULA
Educational CyberPlayGround Online Curricula
School District Options for Providing Access to Appropriate Internet Content
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