Dr. Randal A. Lutz knows that it's not an easy job—for him or for anyone who works under him in the .
But that doesn't change their duties, and Lutz, in his first year as Baldwin-Whitehall's superintendent, says that he's ready to work even harder.
During a B-W School Board meeting on Sept. 5, district administration reported that . The board responded by charging Lutz with the task of leading the district to drastically improved scores on students' standardized tests—sooner rather than later.
"There was a lot about it (the AYP report) that was very difficult to see," Lutz said a week later during Wednesday night's board meeting. "It was very difficult to hear ... The sweat was rolling down my back, and I know that it was rolling down a lot of other people's backs, too."
In accordance with the federal No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act, the Pennsylvania Department of Education (PDE) determines AYP performance based on students' scores each year in the Pennsylvania System of School Assessment exams (PSSAs). According to the PDE website, NCLB requires that all students reach at least a proficient level in the subjects of reading/language arts and mathematics by 2014. School districts and schools must show adequate yearly progress on several measurable indicators, including attendance or graduation rate, academic performance and test participation.
Baldwin-Whitehall is not on track. Specifically, hit 17 out of its 19 AYP targets this past school year, while hit 12 out of its 15. All targets must be hit.
Lutz said on Wednesday that he believes that full AYP is possible in Baldwin-Whitehall with a "back-to-basics" educational-practices approach.
"What is it that we're here for?" Lutz asked rhetorically. "What are the most important things? And how do we maintain the focus on those items?
"We've (educators) been pulled in many different directions, oftentimes. Even for my (past) role as assistant superintendent, (I've) been involved in many things that did not impact curriculum, instruction and diversity."
Lutz said that that split attention will be a thing of the past.
He also talked about "implementation of accountability measures" in the district, and although his handout to board members on Wednesday could not be seen by the audience, Lutz said that "administrative counsel meetings, leadership excellence forums (and) monthly principal reports" have been implemented to stress that educators are being held responsible for their work.
"We have the resources in place," Lutz said. "It's a matter of using them with fidelity and using them in a consistent manner across all classrooms, across all grade levels."
He also pointed out that educators are having success in some parts of the district. For example, the B-W schools that made AYP this past school year were (13 out of 13 targets) and (29 out of 29). ( students are not tested for AYP.)
"There are people that are doing great things," Lutz said, mentioning that educators could be copying some best practices. "How do we build a structure to ... ensure that that knowledge is shared?
"How can some teachers move some kids forward, and in other situations, it doesn't happen? And that's the essence of what we need to dig deeper in."
Lutz acknowledged that, because of its standardized scores, Whitehall Elementary has fallen to the PDE's "School Improvement II" level, meaning that the B-W School District must now offer supplemental education services to offset poor AYP there.
But Lutz is taking things a step further, saying on Wednesday that each B-W school will receive the same services as Whitehall.
"Whitehall's required to do it this year," he said. "All schools will do it, regardless of their status.
"What it forces you to do is have those deep conversations about, really, the sacred things in the building: curriculum, instruction and how kids learn—looking at assurances, looking at assumptions.
"It really forces a school-level team ... to have those very, very difficult conversations about where they're really not meeting success and how to break down the processes to move forward."
School board President John B. Schmotzer instructed Lutz to share his educational-practices plan with the parents of students in schools that need improvement.
Board member Larry Pantuso took that a step further and requested Lutz to share the plan with the entire B-W community, at least on the district website.
"AYP affects everybody," Pantuso said, "whether you have a child in school or not. If you have a school district that has AYP issues for a couple years in a row, you're definitely gonna see your real estate transfer taxes affected. People don't tend to rush to buy a home in a school district that has AYP issues, so I think it's important that every citizen get this."
Board member Kevin J. Fischer said that, in addition to making AYP across the district, he would like to see at least one of B-W's schools earn a Blue Ribbon Award from the U.S. Department of Education.
"We still need that marquee school, that marquee achievement," Fischer said.
"I know we need to crawl before we can walk. We need to achieve this (AYP) first. We need to do so consistently. I can't harp that enough. But we also need to put a mark on this district that makes it stand out as opposed to just being in the middle of the road as just an adequate achiever."
Check back with the Baldwin-Whitehall Patch throughout Thursday for more from Wednesday's board meeting.
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My suggestion would be to focus on more actual time on task, instructional time, and not so many teacher meetings and extra projects. Use diagnoticians and then you don't need as many "remedial specialists". NEVER have a meeting just because "it's Tuesday". Most importantly, parents must be behind their children, realize the importance of good nutrition, family meals, consistent bed times, limits on time using electronics. Provide a clean quiet place for homework, and actually look to see if the homework is done and packed ready to return to school the next day. These are the things that really help raise achievement.
So a test is set up to measure a year's growth, and students aren't getting a full year of instruction between tests. There are just too many tests, test companies are getting rich and everyone else suffers. More tests don't make smarter students. The number of days lost to required and optional testing would be better spent providing instruction. But BW can't change the federal and state mandates overnight, so good luck doing the best you can with what you have.
Do you even have children in the school district?????
Paula you are right about the education having my oldest graduate in 2001 and my youngest is in 11th grade at the high school. Things have gone down hill since 2001. Back in the day a home in Baldwin/Whitehall wouldn't be up for sale for more than a week or two. Now some of them sit up for sale for more than a year, and hope they don't plan on wasting any more money making video's to showcase Baldwin/Whitehall School District. Until we get a new school board and administration, I don't see much improvements in our school district.
Test dates 2013: PSSA Writing Field Test February 4-13, 2013 3 - 5 PSSA Writing March 11 – 15, 2013 5, 8 Writing Make-Ups and Return March 18 – 22, 2013 As Needed PSSA Math and Reading April 8 – 19, 2013 3 - 8 PSSA Science April 22 – 26, 2013 4, 8 Math, Reading and Science Make-Ups and Return April 29 – May 3, 2013 As Needed PASA Math and Reading February 18 - March 29, 2013 3 - 8, 11 PASA Science May 6 - 31, 2013 4, 8, 11 ACCESS for ELLs January 28 - March 8, 2013 K – 12 NAEP January 28 - March 8, 2013 4, 8, 12
11:46 am on Friday, September 14, 2012 Folks, as a general rule, please do not post claims on here without evidence. ```````````````````````` Right!
United States is behind other countries in Educating Children. They go to school year as to our students going 180-185 days per year.
My nephew teaches World History at Peters High School and he was invited to come to their next meeting and give a 5 minute presentation on ways he thinks teaching could be improved. They also ask different students each month to come in and answer the same question. Student Representatives are voted in by the Students and not picked because they are family members. Why doesn't our School Board do this? Seems that schools that are top notch still want to improve on their students education
If you think that meaningful instruction continues with the same strength post test dates, then you are clueless there too. But you are still, LIKE I AM, entitled to put your OPINIONs on here, which you do for every news item in the Patch.
If you are TRYING to say that our children get less time in school than other countries, consider some evidence to dispell another MYTH: In India, grades 1-5 have 800 instructional hours per year,220 days/1,000 instructional hours grades 6-8 (World Data on Education). Chinese students (gr 1-5)nearly 900 hours of instruction per year, which is similar to or less than many U.S. states, including Florida, New York, Texas, and Massachusetts, and IDENTICAL to PA. India’s 800 hours at elementary school level is less than required at elementary level in CA (840 hours), FL (900 hours in grades 4-6), NY(900 hours), TX (1,260 hours1), and MA(900 hours). NO US state requires as few hours as Finland, though Finland scores near top of nearly all international assessment. VT – a high-performing state-- requires the fewest hours (700 hours) for elementary students (grades 1-2) than any other state, and it still requires more than Finland. VT’s requirement is more than 612 hours Korea requires of its early elementary students. MINIMUM required hours in PA are: grades 1—6 900 hours for the school term grades 7—12 990 hours for the school term. more...
Nearly half (22) the states require more instructional hours than Korea. Moreover, the vast majority of states (42) require more hours of instruction than the OECD average of 902 hours. Again, there’s no evidence that students in other countries are required to receive more instruction than students in the United States. U.S. does not require schools to provide less instructional time than other countries. Basing policy decisions on this false perception alone could be costly and provide no clear benefits. Additional source: Center for Public Education. Dang, another MYTH busted!
China 243 Japan 243 Germany 240 South Korea 220 Italy 220 Israel 216 Luxembourg 216 Netherlands 200 Scotland 200 Thailand 200 England 192 Hungary 192 Swaziland 191 Finland 191 New Zealand 191 Nigeria 190 France 185 Spain 185 Sweden 185 United States 180 once again ml cuts and paste different articles together but doesn't past the correct facts in
I posted data from cited sources. And I am truly sorry for those who work for you in your business or maintaining one of the many homes you own if you cannot see that it is the HOURS that matter, not how many days on a calendar one shows up. by your way of thinking, if you have two workers and one comes to work M-F for 8 hrs per day (40 HOURS) and another works seven days a week for 4hr per day (28 HOURS), you would claim that the second one put in more time just because she showed up more DAYS! LOL! BTW, number days and required hours for public schools vary in different states in the USA. Finland 191 days---777 hours PA 180 days-- 990 hours minimum required. data from same sources previously cited.
Let the educators run the schools and keep the politics and government out of it. Things were fine years ago and anything the government puts their hands on goes to shambles anyways, hence our national debt because of the entitlements we keep handing out. 16 trillion and counting........
YES I DO. Well, have you seen the DATES, sisi?
to the board meetings & place their input on how we can improve things for our children. It certainly wouldn't hurt. After all, they are the ones who spend the most time with our children. Stop bashing each other & lets pull together for the welfare of our kids. If we don't ,their going to suffer when the time comes to get out in the world and become productive members of society.
PA and most of USA still have more student HOURS each school year than many other countries.