MassMutual focuses on families dealing with Autism

Autism: Coming of Age is proudly sponsored by MassMutual

MassMutual sponsored this documentary which was produced by public television station WGBY (Springfield, MA) to help raise awareness of the challenges faced by individuals with autism and their families. Learn more at http://www.massmutual.com/planningtools/additional-resources/special-needs/special-care/autism-coming-of-age

The Central New York Agency/MassMutual Financial Group is a SAANYS corporate sponsor

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Spring Vanguard: “Why Boys Fail” and more on at-risk students

In his book, Why Boys Fail, Richard Whitmire, a highly regarded journalist who has spent two decades on the front lines of education, lays out a compelling case underscoring a widening gender gap in schools. Consider these indicators offered by Whitmire: In elementary school, boys are two times more likely than girls to be diagnosed with learning disabilities and to be placed in special-education classes. Nearly twice as many boys as girls repeat a grade. About 54 percent of female high school sophomores are enrolled in a college-preparatory curriculum, compared to 48 percent of males. Among 12th graders, more than 25 percent of males rate as “below basic” writers, compared to 11 percent of females. Twice as many girls as boys were members of the National Honor Society in 2007.

In addition to these statistics, teachers and administrator from the elementary level on up to high school encounter the problem daily. The gender gap is plain to see in ways large and small. One can observe it in the fidgety boys in the back of the classroom who can’t seem to sit still during a quiet reading session and tap their pencils on the desk, flick the head of the boy in front of them, or simply stare out the window. One sees it in the line, made up of nearly all boys, forming outside the principal’s office for acting out in class, disrupting the teacher and causing various disciplinary problems. It’s not surprising that the number of boys who said they didn’t like school rose 71 percent between 1980 and 2001, according to a University of Michigan study.

“The problem is that the world has become more verbal, but boys have not,” said Whitmire, a former USA Today education reporter and editorial writer who served two years as president of the National Education Writers Association. “A kindergartner today is asked to handle reading and writing assignments that a 2nd grader would have done 25 years ago. The girls have quickly picked up these more complex verbal skills at a young age, but the boys have not. In the past, the boys used to catch up to the girls in middle school. But that’s not happening as much anymore. Every subject now requires heightened verbal schools and the boys are falling so far behind that by the time they reach high school they’re become discipline problems or they simply give up and drop out.”

Read the rest of the story and interview in the Spring 2011 issue of the SAANYS Vanguard magazine, mailing to members soon. Also featured, the Hillside Work-Scholarship Connection, bullying in our schools, and other submissions from practitioners on supporting students at risk.

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“Race to Nowhere” Screening at 2011 Annual Conference

Join fellow school administrators at the 2011 SAANYS Annual Conference in Rochester on October 23-24 for inspiring keynotes, practical workshops, and a pre-conference screening of the film, “Race to Nowhere.”

Keynotes:

Anthony S. Muhammad – Transforming School Culture: How to Overcome Staff Division
This address will deal head on with the issue of conflicting agendas within schools. Successful schools have a very clear purpose – learning for all students. We will examine the barriers to aligning adult agendas with the school agenda and what leaders must do and what teachers must do to develop the synergy necessary to guarantee learning and transform every school into a healthy school culture.

Jeff Livingston –The Enlightened Administrators Guide to the Future of the American High School
Senior vice president of College and Career Readiness for McGraw-Hill Education, will discuss how the Movement for Career and College Readiness is partnering with advances in Digital Technology to challenge what we thought we knew about how high school works.

About the film:

A concerned mother turned filmmaker aims her camera at the high-stakes, high-pressure culture that she says has invaded our schools and our children’s lives – in what she calls a “race to nowhere.”

CNN video of interview with the film’s producer:

http://i.cdn.turner.com/cnn/.element/apps/cvp/3.0/swf/cnn_416x234_embed.swf?context=embed_edition&videoId=living/2011/04/18/nr.teachers.race.to.nowhere.cnn

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This May, SAANYS is proud to honor our 2011 statewide award winners. The SAANYS awards program highlights educators who are committed to students and learning and have been chosen by their colleagues and community as exemplars of exceptional school leadership.

These awards are given during a period of unprecedentedly toxic, and often misleading, attacks on public educators. Recently I wrote of the fallacy of the statement, often repeated by the governor and lieutenant governor, that New York is 34th nationwide in educational results. This number was based upon a dated census figure of limited relevance; one which did not consider the state or country of origin where one may have gone to school. The more thorough and relevant Education Week study of educational quality places New York 2nd nationwide.
Then came the next round of mailings by the Committee to Save New York, a group largely made up of wealthy bankers and real estate investors that practically accuses administrators of being thieves, but artfully crafts the mailings in innuendo and implication. A favorite ploy is to compare the governor’s salary (without consideration of benefits) to the compensation (salary and benefits) of the top third of superintendents, without disclosing the different basis of the comparison. We also hear those citing the comparison use the more broad-brush title of “administrator”’ when seeking to generate public animus directed at educators.

The latest salvo is an article that appeared in the April 4 edition of the New York Post entitled “Supervision Bloat Hikes Overhead of the Class.” It is alleged therein that “…the ranks of education administrators…” have grown 34 percent over the last fifteen years while student population declined 4.6 percent during that time period. During the same time period, states the article, teacher positions increased 9.8 percent. A Cuomo spokesperson described the “…huge growth in school bureaucracy…” as “disturbing.”

This data is not new, but is presented in a misleading manner. In April 2010, E.J. McMahon, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute and director of research at the Public Policy Institute (the research arm of the Business Council of NYS), wrote that between 2000-01 and 2008-09 New York schools added 14,746 teachers and 8,655 non-teaching professionals such as administrators, guidance counselors, nurses, psychologists, and social workers. The Post lumps all these titles into the generic phraseology of “education administrators.” McMahon noted that nearly half of the new staff members were hired in New York City, where Mayor Bloomberg was advocating for reduced class size. These explanations did not make it into the Post article, nor did the Post include an analysis of the state and federal mandates that have necessitated the increased staffing in areas such as special education.

For the most part, the recent public discourse on education issues is superficial, and many participants are not interested in real analysis but rather are engaged in advocacy. They stand in marked contrast to our award winners, for whom substance is a necessity and posturing a distraction.

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