In my new position, I have a unique opportunity to learn about educational systems from all around the country.  We certainly have challenges in South Dakota that need to be addressed.  Sometimes we tend to believe that our issues are as bad as or worse than other states’ issues.  I took some time to pull information from other states regarding some of the budget cuts that are being made.  This information is clearly the “tip of the iceberg” but certainly an indication that times are tough all over.  The purpose of this information isn’t to depress you, but rather to encourage you during the upcoming budget season that our struggles seem small compared to other states around the country.

Alabama:  The state plans to lay off 4,000 teachers and 2,000 support personnel in the spring, after laying off 2,000 teachers in the previous three years. 

California:  An estimated 3,800 experienced teachers did not return to classrooms statewide—not including the less-experienced temporary teachers who were not asked back—and nearly 9,000 secretaries, bus drivers, clerks, and other non-teaching employees across the state have also lost their jobs. More than 80,000 portable classrooms are being used by schools around the state.  The first state in the nation to require physical education in public schools now has extremely overcrowded gym classes, with an official average of 43 students per class.

Colorado:   The number of children served dropped by nearly 1,900 this school year, and the Denver public school system went from funding 56 full-day kindergarten classrooms to 14.

Florida:  The state has cut the amount of learning that a student needs to receive a high-school diploma in order to keep class sizes from increasing; students can now graduate by earning the bare minimum of 18 credits in three years rather than 24 credits in four years.

Illinois:  School districts across the state laid off thousands of teachers and support staff, leaving class sizes of nearly 40 students in some schools. 

Iowa:  Well over half of Iowa’s school districts have already laid off teachers or support staff, increased class sizes, or cut back or delayed purchases of textbooks, materials, supplies, and technology.  Over the past few years, the average class size in Des Moines public schools has grown from 25 to 38 students.

Michigan:  Across the state, funding for gifted and talented students and services was slashed by a whopping 95 percent, and some districts are asking parents to pay fees to participate.

Minnesota:  The state recently eliminated physical education as a graduation requirement.

Utah:  The state now has the largest class sizes in the nation, ranks 50th in per-pupil spending, and is facing up to 100,000 new students over the next 10 years. 

Here in South Dakota, we need to continue to spend our available dollars to provide our students with the best education possible.  Working together and trying to do more with less will help us stretch our dollars as far as possible.  In next month’s Administrative Memo, I will address how we can provide more services with fewer dollars.  Stay tuned!

Beginning this summer the state will no longer hold its Technology in Teaching and Learning (TTL) academies. Please share this announcement with school staff who may be watching for information on the once-annual events.

The academies have been a popular professional development activity during the last seven summers.  Approximately 6,900 teachers as well as network administrators, para-professionals, and school administrators received start-up training in the use and integration of technology into the teaching and learning processes since the events began in the summer of 1997.   Participants learned basic computer applications, including word processing, desktop publishing, spreadsheets, databases, web authoring, presentation programs and best practices of curriculum integration. 

Having created a basic knowledge and comfort level among school staff, and knowing that the use of technology is widespread in the state’s classrooms, the Department of Education plans to shift the focus of its technology-related professional development efforts from learning the tools of  technology to using the tools of technology to improve student achievement in local classrooms.

DOE will award sub-grants to local schools through a competitive process using federal Enhancing Education Through Technology (ED Tech) funds; the awards will help districts analyze their own data, create a plan for quality professional development based on the results of the analysis, and carry out the professional development with technology being a tool rather than the focus to reach the results.  The efforts will concentrate on the areas of mathematics, reading, and science.

For more information, contact Dr. Tammy Bauck, 605-773-6118, tammy.bauck@state.sd.us, or Peg Henson, 605-773-2489, peg.henson@state.sd.us.

For more information on past TTLs, please visit this website: http://www.sdttl.com/ 

The Citigroup Outstanding Teacher Scholarship program offers 30 students currently majoring in education in South Dakota colleges/universities a scholarship of $2500 for their senior year.  Deadline for applying is April 15, 2004. 

The program was recently announced by Citibank.  Eligible applicants are current college/university students who will be in their senior year during 2004-2005.  Candidates will be chosen by the institutions based upon academic performance and commitment to teaching in South Dakota in the following areas:  Elementary, Middle and Secondary school. 

If you have university students observing and/or student teaching in your school, please bring this to their attention and tell them to contact the financial aid administrator at their institution.

Dakota Corps scholarships are available to encourage high school students to obtain their post-secondary education in a South Dakota college/university and to stay in the state and work in an area of critical need, including teaching, nursing, and allied health occupations.  Applications must be postmarked by February 1.

Candidates must apply within one year of their high school graduation, or within one year of their release from active duty in the armed forces.  They must have graduated from an accredited South Dakota high school with a GPA of 2.8 or grater, and a composite ACT score of 24 or better.  Alternative provisions are available for home-schooled students.

The student must attend a participating college or university in South Dakota as an undergraduate in a program that will prepare the student to work in a critical need occupation.  The applicant must be a US citizen or national.

In order to accept the scholarship, the student must agree in writing to stay in South Dakota and work in a critical need occupation after graduation for as many years as the scholarship was received plus one year.

High school seniors can get further information on the Dakota Corps Scholarship from the guidance counselor or from the financial aid office at a participating college or university in South Dakota.

The United States Department of Education has designated the following areas in South Dakota as “teacher shortage areas” for the 2003-2004 school year: 

The designation covers all subjects taught at the elementary and secondary level in schools located in the designated areas.            

This federal designation of “teacher shortage area” enables teacher/borrowers who had no outstanding Federal Family Education Loan (FFEL) program loan on July 1, 1987, but who had an outstanding FFEL program loan on July 1, 1993, to qualify for deferment of loan replacement under the Federal Stafford and Federal Supplemental Loans for Students (SLS) programs anytime within the life of the borrower’s loan(s).

The principals at the schools are the delegated authority to provide certification that the borrowers or scholars are teaching in the teacher shortage area.

For information concerning deferment under the Federal Stafford Loan or SLS programs, the borrower should contact the lender that currently holds his or her loan or the Federal Student Aid Hotline at 1-800-4FED-AID.

In addition, this designation allows Paul Douglas scholars who are teaching in the designated area to qualify for the reduction of teaching obligations under the Paul Douglas Teacher Scholarship Program.

Details concerning the reduction of a teacher's obligation under the Paul Douglas Teacher Scholarship Program can be obtained from Roxie Thielen, Department of Education, 700 Governors Drive, Pierre, SD 57501-2291, roxie.thielen@state.sd.us, or telephone 773-5669.

South Dakota Public Broadcasting (SDPB) invites South Dakota students in grades K-3 to write and illustrate their own stories and to enter them in the 10^th annual Reading Rainbow contest. The contest rules and entry forms are available at www.sdpb.org in the “Learning K-12” section.

Every child who submits an entry to SDPB will receive a Reading Rainbow bookmark and a certificate signed by LeVar Burton, the host of the Reading Rainbow series.

Called the Young Writers and Illustrators Contest, the program is a nationwide event to encourage children to create their own stories.  SDPB notes that the Reading Rainbow series is one of the most used series in America’s classrooms; it is designed to promote children’s love of literature and appetite for learning.

Teachers may wish to have their students write a story for the contest as a class project, or students may enter individually from home.  Stories must be submitted to SDPB by March 5, 2004.  Prizes will be awarded for the first, second, and third place stories from each grade.

For more information, please contact the Education office at South Dakota Public Broadcasting, 1-800-456-0766.

The South Dakota Board of Education has scheduled a public hearing in Pierre at 9:45 am, January 26, on a proposal to delay implementation of its requirement that completion of all sections of the grade 11 state assessment be documented on a student’s transcript before a diploma can be granted to the student.  The rule became effective January 1, 2004; the proposed amendment will delay it one year.

Other proposals that will be open to comment during the public hearing include:

·         an amendment to an existing rule that will allow a licensed clinical psychologist to administer and interpret individual student psychological evaluations as long as the person is employed by a psychiatric residential facility;

·         a proposal to allow coursework completed by January 1, 2004, to be used towards certificate renewal;

·         rules that will set up an alternative route to certification for Teach for America participants;

·         rules that will offer a certificate to school social workers who meet certain criteria.

The proposals are available on the DOE website; paper copies may be requested from the department.  Written comments will be accepted by the department on behalf of the board until the day of the hearing.

South Dakota’s 2003 recipients include:

·         Barbara Desnoyers, Early Childhood/Generalist, Clark School District;

·         Thomas Grode, Adolescence and Young Adulthood/Social Studies-History, Brandon Valley School District;

·         Lori Keleher, Adolescence and Young Adulthood/Mathematics, Wolsey School District;

·         Reva Potter, Early Adolescence/English Language Arts, Belle Fourche School District;

·         Christle Robinson, Early Adolescence through Young Adulthood/Art, Lead-Deadwood School District;

·         Mary Williams, Early Adolescence through Young Adulthood/Career and Technical Education, Wall School District.

National Board Certification is the highest credential in the teaching profession.  A voluntary process established by NBPTS, certification is achieved through a rigorous performance-based assessment that takes between one and three years to complete and measures what accomplished teachers should know and be able to do.

The National Board for Professional Teaching Standards is an independent, nonprofit, nonpartisan and nongovernmental organization governed by a board of directors, the majority of whom are classroom teachers. Its mission is to establish high and rigorous standards for what accomplished teachers should know and be able to do. For more information about NBPTS, please visit http://www.nbpts.org.                                              

Johnson Controls in South Dakota in cooperation with the National Energy Foundation is sponsoring a statewide “creative energy” contest for students in grades K-5, 6-8, and 9-12.  Entries are due Feb. 9.

The program challenges students to design a project, essay, program, artwork, music/video to promote the conservation of energy resources, a new energy-efficient procedure of technique, or any project which encourages students to learn more about energy and the environment.  There will be one winner in each category; each will receive a $1000 savings bond or a laptop computer.

Winning South Dakota entries will be forwarded to the Johnson Control National Contest.  More information about the national contest is available at www.ignitingcreativeenergy.org .

Entries into the South Dakota contest can be submitted to:
Dianna Miller
2220 E. 54^th St. North, Suite 100
Sioux Falls, SD 57104

Entries must be submitted on the official national contest entry form that can be found on the website www.ignitingcreativeenergy.org/entryform.html.  Entries must relate to the theme “Igniting Creative Energy” and must be the student’s original work.  Contest information was sent to school principals in December.

Deadline is Feb. 9.  Winners will be notified in early March.

The American Traffic Safety Services Foundation invites children, grades K-6, to submit their impressions of the daily life of America’s roadway workers.  Cash prizes of $300, $100, and $50 will be awarded to the winners, with matching prizes for their schools.

Purpose of the contest is to reduce the number of people who are killed in work zones each year by helping children learn at a young age about the dangers that are involved in roadwork projects.

All the rules and requirements for the contest are available on the association’s website at http://www.atssa.com/found/PosterContest.htm .

The Martin Luther King “Kindness & Justice Challenge” invites schools to register for its January 2004 program at www.dosomething.org.  The initiative challenges students in grades K-12 to perform Acts of Kindness (helping others) and Acts of Justice (standing up for what is right) for two weeks following the Martin Luther King Jr. national holiday, the period of January 19-30, 2003. 

The Do Something Kindness & Justice Challenge honors Dr. King’s life and legacy by inspiring young people to take positive action to improve their communities.  The group believes that the national holiday should be more than a day off.  According to information from the group, more than 4 million students in all 50 states participated in the program in past years.

The Board of Regents has tuition scholarships available for paraprofessionals who want to take courses in order to meet the requirements of the No Child Left Behind Act.   Some of the undergraduate courses are available through distance learning.  The public university system offers two associate’s degrees to meet the NCLB requirement: an Associate of Science Degree in Paraprofessional Education and an Associate of Arts Degree in General Studies .

The scholarships are $100 per undergraduate credit hour for up to $600 for 6 credit hours per semester.  The scholarship reimburses the paraprofessional for tuition paid upon satisfactory completion of the course.

More information is available at http://www.hpcnet.org/euc/paraprofessionals.
 

2 Day GIS Training to be held


The Department of Education is excited to have Dr. Joseph Kerski from the US Geological Survey in Denver, CO conduct a 2-day GIS training in Pierre on February 6^th and 7^th.    This training is FREE to 30 teachers across the state of South Dakota.  The workshop is for teachers who have taken advantage of the TTL-GPS two-week training and also for schools that have requested the ArcView software from DOE.

Please join Joseph Kerski and teachers from across South Dakota for a hands-on investigation using GIS and Global Positioning Systems (GPS) that will engage you and your future students.  These investigations will include:

*analyzing population growth and decline of South Dakota's counties from 1900 to 2000;
*determining the best location for a fire tower in the Black Hills given criteria of slope;
*elevation, and roadways;
*analyzing neighborhood demographics in your own community;
*collecting field data and locations with GPS receivers and mapping them with a GIS;  
*studying the pattern of earthquakes and tornadoes across South Dakota;
*locating the best site for studying needle grass (stipa comata) given criteria of proximity to school, distance to streams, and soil and;
* studying the pattern of snowfall across the state over a 40-year period.

For more information on this workshop contact Gay Pickner at 280-3613 or Gay.Pickner@state.sd.us.  To register go to: http://www.state.sd.us/deca/DDN4Learning/statewide/GPS/.