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In Every Issue:
Secretary's Column
CANS
In This Issue:
Governor makes Board of
Education appointments
Teachers: Who needs to take Praxis tests?
Reauthorization of IDEA means changes ahead
Guidelines for use of new assessments issued
Special Education to announce new round of RFPs
Celebrate health care professions
Women in Science
conferences to be held in March
Career and Tech Ed’s summer institute to focus on new 3-Rs
Secretary’s
Column
By Dr. Rick Melmer
South Dakota Department of Education
DOE’s wish for 2005: More flexibility
All of us have hopes and dreams for 2005. Many of them are personal in nature and involve family members and friends. As an organization, the Department of Education is busy planning for the upcoming year, and we should have some well-defined goals prior to the 2005 legislative session. However, one of our greatest hopes is for increased flexibility within the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act. Some recent meetings have given us hope that we may have more options in 2005.
I attended a meeting in Washington, D.C., in early December. The purpose of the meeting was to propose changes in the current administration of NCLB. Many issues were discussed, but there was particular emphasis on the following areas:
We are hopeful that movement will occur in each of these areas.
In addition to the areas mentioned above, the department is currently reviewing our own flexibility in the administration of NCLB in South Dakota. We have recently discussed the following areas to determine if we can assist the schools in our state as they attempt to meet the standards of NCLB.
We do recognize that schools have worked extremely hard to meet the standards of NCLB. It is our hope that we will see increased flexibility from the U.S. Department of Education along with additional assistance from the South Dakota Department of Education.
Best wishes for a prosperous 2005!
Back to Top On-site monitoring required for school lunch Every year, each school food authority (SFA) with more than one school shall
perform no less than one on-site review of the lunch counting and claiming
system employed by each site under its jurisdiction. The on-site review must
take place prior to Feb. 1 of each school year. The review should be conducted
by the authorized program representative. The worksheet, as found in NSLP Memo
#52, should be used as the assessment tool to document the review. If the review discloses problems with a school’s meal counting or claiming
procedures, the SFA shall: 1) ensure that the school implements corrective
action and 2) within 45 days of the review, conduct a follow-up on-site review
to determine that the corrective action resolved the problems that had been
noted. Each on-site review shall ensure that the school’s claim is based on the
counting system, authorized with Child and Adult Nutrition Services, and that
system, as implemented, yields the actual number of reimbursable free, reduced
price and paid meals served for each day of operation. The on-site monitoring review worksheet needs to be kept on file for the
program year. During a Coordinated Review Effort (CRE), the worksheets will be
verified for completion.
Governor makes Board of Education appointments
Gov. Mike Rounds has appointed Jan Nicolay of Chester and Clint Waara of Sioux Falls to the South Dakota Board of Education. Each will serve a four-year term. He also reappointed Kelly Duncan-Clark of Dakota Dunes, who has served on the board since 1996.
Nicolay has an extensive background in the education field. For nearly 40 years, she worked in the Sioux Falls School District as a teacher and principal. She was the principal of the State Training School in Plankinton, and most recently, the interim director at Southeast Technical Institute in Sioux Falls.
Nicolay served 14 years in the South Dakota state legislature, chairing the House Appropriations Committee for 10 years. During her tenure, Nicolay chaired numerous education task forces.
Waara is a member of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe and will bring experience in business and education to the board. He currently serves as an assistant vice president/community development officer at Wells Fargo Bank.
Waara coordinated the University of South Dakota and Sitting Bull College Entrepreneurship Partnership, which focused on infusing economic literacy into curriculum. While at Roosevelt High School in Sioux Falls, he initiated the Academy of Finance model of instruction, designed to develop high school students’ economic skills.
Teachers: Who needs to take Praxis tests?
New rules concerning teacher certification – and the newly required Praxis II content tests – take effect July 1, 2005. This article attempts to answer one of the biggest questions surrounding the new rules: Who needs to take the tests?
Basically, three groups of people need to take the Praxis II content tests:
Individuals applying for an initial teaching certificate after July 1, 2005, must meet the qualifying score range for both the content-specific Praxis II test and the Praxis Principals of Learning and Teaching test that most accurately matches their level of preparation. Teachers new to the profession will take these tests as part of their teacher preparation program beginning in fall 2005.
Existing educators are not required to take a Praxis II content test to stay certified in South Dakota, unless they want to add a new authorization. After July 1, 2005, existing educators who wish to add an authorization will be required to take the appropriate content-specific Praxis II test. If these individuals complete their coursework and submit their applications for a new authorization prior to July 1, 2005, they will not be required to take the content-specific test. If there’s not a test associated with the content area, they simply must complete the proper coursework.
Out-of-state teachers seeking certification in South Dakota after July 1, 2005, will need to take the Praxis II test for each content area for which they apply. If the teacher has taken the matching Praxis test in another state and his or her score meets South Dakota’s qualifying range, that score will be accepted.
For further information on Praxis tests, contact Melody Schopp in the
Office of Accreditation and Teacher Quality at (605) 773-5232.
melody.schopp@state.sd.us.
Reauthorization of IDEA means changes ahead -
http://www.state.sd.us/deca/Special/news/MemoSchoolsIDEA2004.pdf
On Dec. 3, 2004, President Bush signed into law H.R. 1350, now known as
the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act of 2004. Visit
this link to get a summary of the act’s major provisions. Once implementing
regulations from the U.S. Department of Education have been received, the
state will begin the process of revising its Administrative Rules to align
them with changes in the law. Guidelines for use of new assessments issued In the past year, several intellectual assessments have
been revised. As a result, the administrative rules for determining a specific
learning disability no longer reflect the psychometric properties of the
tests. In response, the Department of Education’s Special
Education Programs and the South Dakota Association of School Psychologists
developed the following guidelines as best practice when determining
eligibility for a specific learning disability. Previously, when using a measure of intellectual ability
such as the WISC-III, a total score was to be used unless the following
occurred. When there was a difference of more than one standard deviation
(meaning 16 points) between the verbal score and performance score, the higher
of these two scores was used to compare to the student’s achievement score.
Now, the following is recommended. When using a measure
of intellectual ability, the total score must be used unless there is an
unusually large discrepancy between IQ, Index or Factor scores. To warrant
this course of action, each IQ, Index or Factor score must be comprised of at
least three subtests and the magnitude of the discrepancy found is to be in
the 10 percent or less base rate of the normative sample. If there is such a
discrepancy, the higher score must be used.
Special Education to announce new round of RFPs The department’s Project ENRICH will announce its next round of request for
proposals (RFPs) for regions 1, 2 and 4 in mid-January. Project ENRICH, South
Dakota’s State Improvement Grant, has three main goals: Funding would provide for evaluation activities and services over a
three-year period, with contract continuation re-evaluated each year. The
amount of funding is estimated to be between $100,000 and $120,000 for the
first year. Celebrate health care professions Gov. Rounds has proclaimed Feb. 6-12, 2005, as Healthcare
in Partnership with Education (HIPE) Week in South Dakota. During the week,
the Departments of Education, Health and Labor, along with South Dakota health
care providers, will promote the industry’s future workforce needs. The South Dakota Labor Information Center forecasts a 26
percent increase in health-related jobs from 2002 to 2012, one of the fastest
growing industries in the state. Packets of materials will be sent to schools in hopes
that they will participate in HIPE week. For more information, visit
www.sdjobs.org/sdhott. Or contact the following Department of Education
staff: Steve Rounds, (605) 773-7006,
steve.rounds@state.sd.us, or Mona Yanacheak, (605) 773-4527,
mona.yanacheak@state.sd.us Women in Science conferences to be held in March Students in grades
6-12 are invited to attend a free Women in Science Conference, promoting
science, math and technology careers as a pathway to success for young women.
Female students will participate in hands-on career exploration activities
led by professional women working in science and technology fields. Parents
and teachers also are encouraged to attend. Conferences are scheduled as follows: Career and Tech Ed’s summer institute to focus on new
3-Rs Rigor, relevance and relationships – the new 3-Rs – will
be the focus of professional development sponsored by the department’s Office
of Career and Technical Education in July 2005. Trainers from Dr. Willard Daggett’s International Center
for Leadership in Education, Rexburg, N.Y., will conduct the institute. It
will focus on the Rigor/Relevance Framework and how to use it to plan
instruction, design assessment and develop curriculum. Participants will learn
and practice techniques to ensure that teaching and learning are driven to
higher levels of cognitive skill development and to more in-depth real-world
applications of these cognitive skills. Participants also will learn how the
third R – Relationships – contributes to academic success. The institute will be held July 18-20 at the Ramkota
RiverCentre in Pierre, beginning with registration 11 a.m.-1 p.m. on July 18
and ending at 5 p.m. on July 20. Cost of the workshop is $75, which covers
materials and breaks. Expenses for registration, travel, lodging and meals are
allowable Perkins costs for approved career and technical education programs. A block of rooms will be reserved, and that information
will be available on the department’s Web site soon. Registration deadline is July 1, 2005. The workshop is
limited to 100 people. Participants may receive one unit of graduate credit
through Northern State University or one CEU. Cost for graduate credit will be
approximately $60. There is no charge for CEUs. If you have questions, please contact Gloria
Smith-Rockhold at (605) 773-4747 or
gloria.smith-rockhold@state.sd.us.
Watch your wail for the RFP announcement. Questions can be directed to Angie
Boddicker, Project ENRICH director, at (605) 773-2594.
angela.boddicker@state.sd.us. More detailed information on Project ENRICH
can be found at
http://www.state.sd.us/deca/Special/SIG/index.htm.
March 7, Hot Springs (contact: kmt1@mammothsite.com)
March 8, Aberdeen (contact: lisa.johnsen@noaa.gov)
March 9, Watertown (contact: lorikwas@itctel.com)
March 10, Pierre (contact: kristiemaher@sd-discovery.com)
March 11, Sioux Falls (contact: czepeda@washingtonpavilion.org)
Sponsors of the conferences include: South Dakota Department of Education,
National Weather Service, South Dakota Department of Labor, South Dakota
Discovery Center & Aquarium, South Dakota Experimental Program for Stimulating
Competitive Research, and South Dakota Space Grant Consortium.