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TECHNOLOGY
ENABLES A VISIT TO THE TITANIC
“As we explore
the Titanic, it speaks to you.” On June 14, 2004, Dr. Robert Ballard,
marine explorer and discoverer of the Titanic, and Governor Jim Douglas
met with Vermont students in their classrooms, for a lively discussion
of Ballard’s ocean explorations. Just two days back from his most
recent expedition to the famous site, Ballard met with students from schools
across Vermont simultaneously, using the technology of the Vermont Interactive
Network, or ILN. Governor Douglas welcomed Ballard and the Mystic Aquarium’s
Institute for Exploration, newest partner to join the ILN. Click
here to read the press release (in PDF), or
here to read an article published in the
Rutland Herald about the event.
EDUCATION
TRAINING SERVICE CUTTING STAFF--Times Argus, April
9, 2004 (PDF)
The organization that does extensive teacher training and program evaluation
for state government and many school districts is laying off 36 percent
of its staff because of a reduction in its state funding. Vermont Institutes
in Montpelier is reducing its staff from 55 to 35 for the fiscal year
that begins on July 1, executive director Doug Harris said Friday. Most
of the reductions will be among employees who help the state and school
districts prepare to comply with federal and state assessment requirements.
Education Commissioner Richard Cate said most of its contracts with the
Institutes are not being renewed because the department is doing some
of the assessment activities itself and because most of the preparatory
work for the new standards is finished. "We have been preparing for
the day when this will happen," he said. Harris said the reduction
of state funds "wasn't a complete surprise. It has been a good relationship
and we look forward to continuing to help them do some of their assessment
work." Click here
or on the title above to read the rest of the article (PDF).
LOCAL
MATH INSTRUCTION GETS A BIG BOOST--The Rutland
Herald--Apr. 8, 2004
A new collaboration between
Castleton State College and a federally funded education program should add
up to improved math instruction in
southern Vermont schools. Castleton Center for Schools, a program that
supports K-12 education in southern Vermont, recently received funding
from the Vermont Mathematics
Partnership. The alliance between the two groups will provide up to $750,000
to bolster math teaching over the next three years, according to Peter
Mello, director of Castleton Center for Schools. The Vermont Mathematics
Partnership, a five-year initiative now in its second year, was created
by a National Science Foundation grant of $1.5
million to strengthen math teaching throughout Vermont. Click here or
on title to read the rest of the article.
SCHOOLS TACKLE
EQUITY, DISCRIMINATION: CLOSING THE GAP EQUITY CONFERENCE TO EXPLORE
ISSUES, SKILLS AND NEXT STEPS
At Vermont’s
second annual “Closing the
Gap” Equity Conference, teachers and school administrators statewide
will address equity and diversity issues that impact student achievement,
social success, and school climate and safety. “CLOSING THE GAP:
Creating Schools Where All Students Thrive Through Equity, Diversity,
and Character Education,” took place in Burlington at the
Sheraton Conference Center on March 23. A special session on “Responding
to Harassment Complaints” will begin the afternoon of March 22
and continue through the conference. Click on title above
to review press release, or here for downloadable
PDF version.
VI FEATURED
IN TWO STORIES IN MARCH 12, 2004, TIMES ARGUS (ALSO OTHER SCHOOLS RECOGNIZED
BY VI)
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VI's work was featured in two articles in the Times Argus on March
12, 2004. The first features VI's study of Vt. schools with significant
gains in math scores over the past several years, and mentions three Central
Vermont schools: Northfield Middle and High School, Twinfield Union School
and Smilie Memorial School in
Bolton. Text of this clip available here.
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SEE ALSO: articles
(all in PDF) on more schools receiving recognition: Bethel,
from the Randolph Herald, Feb. 26, 2004; Brighton
Elementary, Craftsbury Academy,
and Derby Elementary, from the Orleans Chronicle, Feb./Mar. 2004; and Addison
Central
School, from the Addison County Independent, Mar. 22, 2004.
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The second mentions
the VI Student Film Festival held over the ILN in January: three winning
films from the festival will also be featured at the upcoming Green
Mountain Film Festival in Montpelier. For the full article, go to http://www.timesargus.com/Arts/Story/80466.html.
Excerpt as follows: "Other
shorts by Vermont students that will be shown at the festival include the
winners of a statewide filmmaking
contest arranged by the Vermont Institutes, a Montpelier-based education
organization. The three films include "Right Of Way," a 10-minute
historical look at Route 9 by middle school student Marty Cain of Marlboro,
which will be shown in conjunction with "OT: Our Town"; "Remember
Me," a two-minute short by high school students from Wilmington,
which will be shown with the Nora Jacobson film on March 27; and "Vermont's
Civil War," a 26-minute piece by Burr & Burton Academy students
Luke Eriksen and Konrad Fitzgerald that explores the state's civil
union debate, which will be shown with "Daddy and Papa" on
March 27. "
ILN STUDENT
FILM FESTIVAL HELD JANUARY 29
Vermont
students had the opportunity to showcase their film-making talents
statewide
on
January 29. The Vermont Interactive Learning
Network (ILN), a video-conferencing system set up throughout the state
in high schools, shared these films via a conference.
Twenty-three films were shown between the hours of 8:45 A.M. and
2:00 P.M. They ranged from half a minute to 35 minutes in length and cover
all genres—comedy, documentary, drama stories, etc. "This
is a great venue for students to show their films to a wide audience,” says
Peter Drescher of The Vermont Institutes, the organization arranging
the festival. “Students will have access to all the high
school students in Vermont. We have films from all corners of the state
as well.” Schools represented include Lamoille Union, Burr and
Burton Academy, South Burlington High, Whitingham School, Blue Mountain,
and Montpelier High School, as well as others."
NETWORK-BASED ASSESSMENT
IN EDUCATION
Assessment, for both the improvement of performance
and evaluating learners, is most effective when it reflects learning
as "multidimensional,
integrated, and revealed in performance over time" (Walvoord & Anderson,
1998). With that in mind, what do networks and new media have to offer
that can assist and improve educational assessment? This paper asserts
that network-based assessment offers fundamentally new possibilities
for knowing what students know. So
begins a recent article about network-based assessment
by David
Gibson, VI's Director
of Research and Development, published in the CITE
journal. Click here or on the title above to read the article in its
entirety.
TESTING COMPACT MAY AFFECT EDUCATION STANDARDS
Vermont Public Radio's (VPR) Nina Keck reports (October 23,
2003) Vermont will join a
compact with New Hampshire and Rhode Island to develop new tests to meet
the requirements of the No Child Left Behind
law. New math and reading tests must be in place by 2005 and federally
approved science tests by 2007. State officials say the regional collaboration
will save time and money. State
education officials say joining the compact will save the state up to
$2 million. Click here to read the entire
story from VPR (PDF).
VERMONT
CELEBRATES TOP TEACHERS
The Project for Accomplished Teaching celebrated its top Vermont
teachers on October 23, 2003, at the Inn at Essex. Forty-nine Vermont
teachers have earned
their profession's top honor by achieving National Board Certification®.
The Vermont Project for Accomplished Teaching is using the advanced certification
process designed by the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS)
to help create a powerful network of teachers able to help Vermont students achieve
higher standards. Click here to read the press
release.
VI
WINS PT3 GRANT TO BUILD SIMSCHOOL
In September 2003, Vermont Institutes was awarded a grant from
the Preparing Tomorrow’s Teachers to Use Technology (PT3) program,
in partnership with researchers at Western Oregon University, University
of Nevada, University of Minnesota and others, to build “SimSchool,” a
web-based e-learning application for teachers. The new project, slated
to receive 1.8 million dollars over three years, is an outgrowth of the
eTIP Cases Project, which constructed simulated school sites with online
case challenges and an assessment system for preservice teacher education.
Click here to read more.
STATE'S
TOP EDUCATION LEADERS GATHER--Summer Academy Addressed School Leadership Challenges
Over
200 of Vermont’s education leaders—superintendents,
principals, and other district leaders—gathered for Vermont’s
third annual Leadership Academy in Killington in early August. Entitled “Leading
with Integrity,” the Academy ran from August 5-8, 2003 at
the Killington Grand Resort.
“Leadership has become the focus of intense attention in our state,” said
Nicole Saginor, Associate Executive Director of The Vermont Institutes.
She noted that many groups in Vermont have committed themselves to building
conditions that develop, support and sustain school leaders. “Leadership
is work that cannot be done alone,” added Jill Mackler, Director
of the VT Consortium for School Leadership. “Principals can be
more isolated than teachers, and urgently need opportunities for information,
interactions, and support.” The Academy has become a forum for
discussions on strengthening school leadership in Vermont, and also
provides high-quality professional development for school leaders.
Click here
to read the press release (August 1, 2003).
VERMONT WRITING
SCORES TOP NATIONAL AVERAGES
Vermont
students scored well above the national average in writing skills,
according to the results
of America’s academic
performance test for writing. The scores and state rankings of the National
Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP)–also known as the Nation’s
Report Card–were released by the U.S. Department of Education
in Washington, D.C., July 10, 2003. Click here to
read the press release. (July 10, 2003)
TECH SAVVY GIRLS BRING
SUMMER CAMP TO NEK
Tech
Savvy Girls, a technology and equity initiative sponsored by VI, is bringing
a Summer
Technology
Camp program to girls in the Northeast Kingdom. Through the support
of
Chittenden
Bank and the Vermont Women’s Fund, 20 girls will be eligible
to receive scholarships to the Tech Savvy Girls Summer Program. Click here for
more information. (June 2003)
GAIL HALL HONORED
AS ONE OF TOP SCIENCE TEACHERS IN THE COUNTRY
Vermont Institutes employee Gail Hall was named by
the National Science Foundation
(NSF) as one of the nation’s top science teachers for the year 2002. In
a ceremony held in Washington, D.C., on March 21, Hall received a special citation
signed by President Bush, a $7,500 cash award to improve science and mathematics
instruction, and various other donated gifts. Teachers honored by the NSF annually
are nominated by their peers in each of the 50 states. Click here to
read more. Congratulations, Gail! (March 2003)
VERMONTERS IN THE
NEWS--A PERVASIVE DISMAY ON A BUSH SCHOOL LAW
In all the world, the loneliest people must be that handful of men
and women of the Department of Education dispatched by the Bush administration
to wander the country, defending the new No Child Left Behind Act.
Talk about friendless. Michael
Sentance, the department's Northeast representative, sat before Vermont's
joint House-Senate committee
on education not long ago, and
sustained two hours of hammering by Republicans and Democrats alike.
You never saw such bipartisan contempt. He looked miserable, but as he
bobbed and weaved through the questions, this Bush appointee remained
polite and understated. "It is an audacious and challenging piece
of legislation," he conceded. "No doubt about it." Click here to read the rest of the story from The New York Times. (March 2003)
VERMONT'S CLASSROOMS
GAIN 19 NATIONAL BOARD CERTIFIED TEACHERS
The Vermont World Class Teaching Project recently
announced 19 teachers in Vermont earned their profession's top honor in
2002 by achieving
National Board Certification®. With the new certificates, the state
now has 53 National Board Certified Teachers (NBCT's). "National Board
Certification is beginning to have an impact on the quality of education
in Vermont,” says Laurie Lawrence, director of the Vermont Project, “especially
in schools that have clusters of National Board Certified Teachers.” The
Vermont World Class Teaching Project is sponsored by the Vermont Teacher
Quality Enhancement Program (TQE), a VI partner. Click here to
read the entire press release. (January 2003)
VISMT EQUITY INITIATIVES
AWARDED VT WOMEN'S FUND GRANT
VISMT Equity Initiatives and Technology and Equity Specialist
Lucie delaBruere have been awarded a Vermont Women's Fund grant for the
2002-2003
school year. The grant will support a new program, "Tech Savvy Girls in
the Northeast Kingdom," to increase the number of girls interested in technology.
delaBruere will work with high school girls on Technology and Equity Leadership.
Click here to read more
about this program.
VERMONT RECEIVES MAJOR
MATH GRANT
The Vermont Mathematics Partnership (VMP) announced
October 2 that Vermont will receive a Federal Mathematics Partnership grant
totaling $7.4 million over the next five years. The VMP will promote student
achievement in mathematics by focusing on improved teacher quality, curriculum
development, school support and leadership strategies. To read the press
release, click on format choice (PDF or html).
(October 2002)
GOOD NEWS ABOUT VERMONT
SCHOOLS--from the NEA Website
Click here to
read a listing of positive facts about Vermont's public schools (external
link).
VISMT'S DELABRUERE's WORK
WITH GIRLS FEATURED IN NATIONAL TECHNOLOGY JOURNAL
Girls Summer Technology Camps at Marlboro College--It's
no secret that young women aren't flocking to careers in high tech
at the same rate as young men.
A 2001 study from UCLA confirmed that while young women use the Internet just
as much as their male peers, they still don't feel confident about their computer
skills, with many citing boredom or lack of interest in technology. To help build
the next generation of confident, tech-savvy women, Mary Greene, director of
community and special programs for Marlboro College's Technology Center, and Lucie
deLaBruere, camp director and graduate of Marlboro's master's program in
Internet engineering, developed a summer technology institute specifically for
girls. Read the
article in Technology & Learning Magazine. (April 2002)
VERMONT CHOSEN FOR NATIONAL
EDUCATION PROJECT--Colleges and Classrooms Project Will Improve
Educator Preparation
Vermont is one of five states chosen by the National
Governors Association and the National Conference of State Legislatures
for a two-year project on improving educator preparation, the Association
announced Thursday. The National Governors Association (NGA) Center
for Best Practices and the National Conference of State Legislatures
selected five states to participate in a two-year project to improve
educator preparation and ensure quality teaching for every child.
Click here to review the press
release. (February 2002)
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