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Mounds View
VIEWER
www.mvviewer.org
Friday, October 26, 2012
Volume 60, Issue 3
Budget cuts create rumors among students by PETER OLSON and ALISTAIR TANG news editor and staff reporter
photo by Anders Nygaard
Michael Kauls teaches his ninth grade Economics class, which is required for all freshmen.
Cushioning the jump The transition from middle school to high school is difficult by MAXIMILLIAN WANG and TRISTAN ASCHITTINO editor-in-chief and business manager At the last School Board meeting, the most recent set of student evaluation scores were presented. Mounds View schools were meeting or exceeding the expectations set by state and federal guidelines. However, there was one place where district students fell behind: the growth targets, as scored by the NWEA test, for students moving from fifth to sixth grade. Most likely, this was caused by the difficult transition from elementary school to middle school. A similar trend may be occurring at the other “jump”— from middle school into high school--though this problem can’t be detected using NWEA scores, as the test is only administered through eighth grade. Students have named a number of problems they faced with the transition. Tyler Fairchild, 9, said that “[In high school], the tests are harder and you get more of them.” Many students said that the harder classes they took in middle school helped them adapt to the rigor of high school classes. For example, Fairchild found that Brent Crooks, a Chippewa science teacher, adequately prepared him for high school by giving many quizzes, which reflects the high school setting to some degree. It isn’t just homework and tests that are challenging for students. Tommy Oswood, 9, is having problems adjusting to the earlier school-start times. “I’m still getting used to it,” said Oswood. The only objective way school administrators found to evaluate student growth in the district during the transition from middle school to high school is by comparing results from the EXPLORE test, taken fall of eighth grade, with that of the practice PLAN test, taken spring of ninth grade. As analyzed by Mary Roden, the district’s coordinator of assessment and evaluation, 74 percent of
students saw growth over this two year time period. This is still not the same measure as the NWEA test, which establishes targets for growth among students, but it does give some indication of satisfactory student growth during this transition. A study done by Guido Schwerdt of the Ifo Institute and Martin R. West of the Harvard Graduate School of Education found that in Florida schools, students moving from middle school to high school “suffer a small but statistically significant drop in relative achievement.” In order to safeguard against any problems with this transition, the district has introduced new measures to address the problem. Each student in the district now has an Individualized Learning Plan (ILP), a “living, breathing blueprint of a student’s education plan through high school,” as Rick Spicuzza, the district’s deputy superintendent, described it. Spicuzza, who is spearheading the effort to ease transitions between schools, has also helped organize Pathway Alignment meetings for the math curriculum, which will include school principals, math teachers, and the instructional strategy facilitator (ISF) from every building. The meetings are organized into two groups, depending on which high school students from that school will later attend (for example, Chippewa Middle School and Turtle Lake Elementary School faculty would belong to the Mounds View High School Pathway Alignment meeting). As Mounds View Principal Jeff Erickson said, “The primary purpose [of these meetings] is to look at key transition points in the district.” Mounds View High School Principal Jeff Erickson is holding his first Pathway Alignment meeting with building math teachers on Oct. 24, after Viewer goes to press. Erickson said that this was an “informational meeting, focusing on just the math teacher’s worries.” Full meetings with representatives from every school in the Mounds View High School pathway will be occurring in November, February, and May. Erickson hopes that these meetings will result in easier student transitions. As he said, “the proof will be at the end.
When Jeff Erickson took over as principal this year, one of his first challenges was dealing with a five percent budget cut from the building’s supply budget—the budget that pays for everything from copying and postage to renting the Roy Wilkins Auditorium for graduation. “As the principal, it is my responsibility to ensure that we live within our means within the supply budget. As this is my first year, we are working to determine the exact need for each department,” said Erickson. The cut was made by the district early on because district officials predicted low enrollment. According to Carole Nielsen, the Director of Finance, the school received about $205,000 last year for supply allocations. This year, the initial supply budget was $195,000. One strategy Erickson is using to cope with the cut is to cut back on printing by encouraging teachers to print only what they need. “I’d prefer not to spend significant resources on consumables (i.e. paper), but I recognize that currently it is a major way we do business in high school,” said Erickson. “We are always looking for ways to conserve resources.” Erickson stresses the importance of wasting little. “We need to be more conservative in the beginning and adjust as we go,” said Erickson. Students, however, took the supply budget cuts as evidence that the school is running out of money. “We no longer have [new] calc. textbooks; the ones we have now are outdated,” said Ben Schugel, 10. Other students also have misconceptions about what the budget affects. Some believe that the budget cuts are the reason why lunches portions are smaller. The real reason is due to Michelle Obama’s Healthy Lunches Plan. The rumors are dispelled even further as the budget was readjusted in October to meet the actual number of students; it is now $203,000. Erickson plans to review each department’s budget and reallocate. However, do not expect any changes to the printing policy. “I still think we need to be careful [with printing materials],” said Erickson. No matter what budget changes there are, Erickson assures the student body that this cut will not interfere with the classrooms. “The last place I want to cut is in our classrooms,” he said.