Saturday, August 7, 2010

“Education & Family” plus 1 more

“Education & Family” plus 1 more

Education & Family

Posted: 07 Aug 2010 07:08 AM PDT

7 August 2010 Last updated at 09:50 ET

The number of young people taking Open University courses has seen a sharp rise, the educational body has said.

Its figures show an "unprecedented" 34% increase in 18 to 24-year-olds doing a distance learning degree.

Some 70% of Open University students study part-time, allowing them to earn money while taking a degree.

The university says this can bolster students' chances of getting a job at the end of their studies, and frees them of student debt.

'Download record'

The Open University (OU) now uses the internet to publish lectures and recently recorded 22.5m downloads on iTunes.

The university claims this is a world record for the number of iTunes downloads. They are distributed through the "iTunes U" educational area of the online service.

The OU now has 525 courses available on the internet, with 162,000 students taking online courses.

In any 24-hour period, there will be 45,000 Open University students working online.

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Olivia Scott says her passion for education gives her the edge

Posted: 07 Aug 2010 09:00 PM PDT

By MARC VLAERO

Highlands Today

Published: August 8, 2010

AVON PARK - Olivia Byron Scott, who retired in 2008 after 35 years in education, seeks the District 1 school board seat.

Scott graduated from Seabreeze High School in Daytona Beach and received her B.S. degree in education from Florida Southern College and her master's degree in education from Nova Southeastern University.

Scott's teaching experience includes elementary classrooms in Polk, Orange and Pinellas counties. Upon being transferred to Highlands County by the JC Penney Co., Scott taught kindergarten at Lake Placid Elementary School and at Avon Elementary School.

Scott worked as a staffing specialist representing Exceptional Student Education in Highlands County for 10 years.

In 1995 Scott took a leave of absence to write a new multi-county project to provide services for children with disabilities. Scott was hired as the director of the project and worked for 12 years until retiring in 2008 after 35 years in education.

Since retiring, Scott has been an independent educational consultant throughout Florida providing professional development to teachers on products developed by the University of Kansas through the Center for Research on Learning.

Also, Scott has been assisting her husband, David, with his business Ridge Air Conditioning. She is an active and involved parent and grandparent, and next year will have three grandchildren enrolled in elementary schools in Highlands County.

Why are you running for a seat on the school board?

I have a deep passion for education and over my 35-plus year career I have done it all. I have been a teacher, district staff member and an administrator. I have written grants, hired and fired personnel, taught teachers how to teach and how to manage students. I have diverse experience and I have worked with staff in all of the schools in the county. I am ready to take my leadership and organizational skills to the next level as a member of the school board. Due to my experience I will be a valuable member of the school board as we continue in these difficult economic times.

Describe your personal experience and involvement with the public schools in the past five years that qualifies you as a school board member.

From January 2005 - December 2007, I was still the director of the multi-county project, the Florida Diagnostic and Learning Resources System (FDLRS) working directly with Highlands County Schools.

In addition to being the director I was the professional developer (teacher trainer) for a long list of programs including how to teach basic subjects, how to handle discipline problems, social skill development, how to create research projects, learning strategies, and teaching routines. I offered sessions in Lake Placid at the center or I took the sessions into the schools or held them at the district office.

I also worked with families and teachers directly. During this time I was also a Take Stock in Children Mentor of a middle school Hispanic girl. I continued to see her one day a week until she graduated with honors from Lake Placid High School.

After retiring I set up a consulting business and worked with several school districts providing live teacher training and online course facilitation. I continue to participate in a state advisory committee, The Strategic Instruction Model, and I also continue to attend the update sessions each year to maintain my trainer credentials.

I also mentor new teacher trainers around the state of Florida.

This year I provided two days of Substitute Renewal training free of charge to the Highlands County School Board. My knowledge of the Highlands County educational system is extensive and would qualify me to be an outstanding school board member.

What major challenges do you see now or in the future for the school district?

One is the declining enrollment that is tied to our declining funds and the economic down turn we are experiencing in our county. The state of Florida and the school districts depend upon sales tax. We have less sales and less tax being collected, but the school district must provide the same level of services to all of its students.

Another challenge is the school grades, particularly the grades of the high schools. All three high schools are currently scored at a D. The reading, math and writing proficiencies need to improve at all three schools.

Another challenge is students with chronic discipline problems.

Another challenge is students with chronic attendance problems.

Do you believe the board or the superintendent should have addressed any issues differently such as the seven period day for secondary teachers, personnel reductions or personnel assignments, budget decisions, etc?

A consistent dress code is one area that a few of the schools have approached, but they have not communicated well with families. The schools have been inconsistent with enforcement. Then they have allowed students to be waived out of the dress code. When students are dressed appropriately they behave better and improve the learning environment.

The seven-period day for secondary teachers and the school personnel reductions needed more input from the school staff involved with this decision. Let's give a voice to our educators (teachers, administrators and support staff). Let them sit down at each school and solve the problems their school is facing. We may be pleasantly surprised at the solutions they may develop. We have a vast amount of experience and expertise within this group at each school site.

What changes or new initiatives would you like to see in Highlands County Schools?

I would like to see an increase of vocational offerings at each of the high schools and middle schools. Large business wings were built at each high school in the past and our students would benefit from a new focus on business/office management. There are models in other counties in the state to replicate.

The earlier we can impress upon students the skills they will need in the working world the faster we can convince them of the importance of an education.

The county's FCAT scores continually trail state average and the district's three high schools have been underperformers with D or C accountability grades, what is needed to boost students academically in Highlands County?

Each school needs to have an active leadership team that is representative of each department or grade level, administration and support staff. These leadership teams need to be skilled at digging into the school's data and determining which students need interventions.

There needs to be a focus within each academic class beginning at fourth grade to ensure that the students are developing "content literacy." Developing the vocabulary knowledge, reading comprehension and written language skills to be content literate in math, science, history etc.

Each of these subjects has vocabulary that is specific to that subject. In order to accomplish this our teachers need to have the skills to assist the students. In some cases the teachers may need to win the trust of the students. Teachers who develop procedures and routines build trust and respect with their students.

Can you think of any district expenses that should be cut?

Currently all of the school sites lease a variety of copiers. I would like to look into centralizing the copying to eliminate all of the leases. The items needing to be copied are sent electronically to the central location and the teacher receives their requested copies the next day. This would require advance planning, but is a practice in other school districts that could be replicated. This would also ensure that our teaching staff would be able to spend their time consulting with colleagues, meeting with families or planning lessons.

Do you support merit pay for teachers?

No, instead of merit pay we need to change the way we evaluate teachers.

Teachers may benefit from an evaluation by a group of their peers in addition to the evaluation by their administrator. We also have a large resource of retired educators in the area that could be evaluators or mentors.

Ineffective teachers need to be informed early in their career, so they will have the opportunity to retrain for another career.

I do support changes in the way teachers are paid. Teachers need to have a career ladder to encourage our best and brightest teachers to remain in the classroom. It could be as simple as a Novice, Proficient, Mentor and Master teacher levels.

The first three to five years would be the Novice teacher working with a Mentor teacher. After three to five years the teacher would be considered proficient. They could finish their entire career at this level or become Mentor teachers, those teachers willing to take on extra responsibilities to work with Novice teachers.

Master teachers may be those teachers with national board certification and/or advanced degrees in their subject area. Each of these levels would have increased pay scales or bonuses attached to them and the calendar year would be longer for the higher levels of responsibility.

Should the superintendent be elected or appointed?

I would say appointed. If the board is elected, they will answer to the voter. The board will set goals and objectives for the school district and hire a superintendent. The superintendent will hire the rest of the school district's personnel. The superintendent would then report to the board.

The school board can set education and experience requirements appropriate for the job.

Currently the elected superintendent only has to be 18 years old and registered to vote in the county.

The appointed superintendent may be recruited from outside the county.

The elements of the appointed superintendent's contract will be crucial for the appointed superintendent to be successful. Initially the superintendent may be given annual contacts to avoid huge payouts due to parachute clauses. The process for evaluating, terminating or offering a multi-year contract for the appointed superintendent must be clear and concise.

What is the most important responsibility of a school board?

The most important responsibility of the school board is to ensure that the classroom with the students and the teacher are preserved at all cost. The board's policy decisions must not negatively impact on the classroom in any fashion.

Highlands Today reporter Marc Valero can be reached at 863-386-5826 or mvalero@highlandstoday.com

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