Walking in Monona

A recent Dane County Sheriff's department evaluation of Monona has added the entire length of Winnequah Road to the list of "Unusually Hazardous Traffic Areas". This designation is related to high traffic combined with a lack of sidewalks, crosswalks and controlled intersections. This means that the walk zone for Winnequah school will be limited on the west by Winnequah Road.

(A similar evaluation will be done in Cottage Grove after the road project is completed.)

One of the attractive attributes of a community like Monona is that its size makes walking and biking to destinations around town a viable option. I do wish that we had the infrastructure to make this option safer for pedestrians, particularly for kids. I think that safer walking/biking corridors through the city would make it a more attractive and livable place.

What can we do?

Everything you wanted to know about School Finance but where afraid to ask.

At tonight's Business Services Committee meeting Business Services Director Mary Ellen Van Valin reviewed the wealth of information on the WI DPI website. The site features an overview of the finance system; presentations explaining school finance; data and reports by district; handy pie-charts and explanations of everything from Aid Information to WUFAR.

Complete MG finance information (through the 2006-7 school year) is available on the site for anyone interested in knowing nearly everything about WI school finance.

All this and more can be found at http://dpi.wi.gov/sfs

One in 172

I had heard that Alex VanAbel achieved a 36 on his ACT test this year, but I was previously unaware of the rarity of his accomplishment:

From: Galen.Johnson@
Sent: Fri 6/20/2008 9:33 AM
To: Breisch, Bill; O'Connor, Edward

Subject: Congratulations


Bill and Ed,

I just received an internal memo showing 172 students across the nation that earned a perfect ACT score of 36 on the April exam. I was pleased to see that one of these is a Monona Grove student. Congratulations! This represents an outstanding academic achievement for the individual student, but also indicates the strength of programming support from Monona Grove. Thank you for all that you do to make sure your students have access to such a high quality education.

Galen

Galen W. Johnson
Assistant Vice President and Regional Manager
ACT Midwest Region

Good Job Alex!

Positive Stories from 2007-8 wanted.

On the board we tend to only hear from people with complaints or when things go wrong. Yet as a commenter earlier pointed out many on our dedicated staff regularly go above and beyond in service of our students and community.

At the close of this school year I would like to give you an opportunity to relate your stories of how a staff member might have provided extraordinary service over the last year. Please share!


(On topic comments only please!)

Rumors?

Yesterday we heard a rumor that the board was secretly planning to move CG elementary students to the Monona schools to alleviate overcrowding in CG schools. Of course this isn't true, next year's grade arrangements create sufficient room in the CG elementary buildings.

So I am curious to know what other rumors are out there. What have you heard?

Congratulations class of 2008!

Wear sunscreen...

MAP testing in the news

Today's WSJ has a nice write-up on MAP (Measures of Academic Progress) testing used in elementary schools. It features examples of its use in the MG district by 3rd grade teachers Mary Sullivan and Kym Davick:

A recent experience illustrates its effect upon top students. Early in the fall of the 2007-08 school year, Sullivan noticed that half a dozen of her 21 students had exceptionally high math scores on the MAP test.
Sullivan and Kym Davick, another third grade teacher who also had students with high math scores, devised a plan to challenge those students, including Davick 's daughter, Anika, a student in Sullivan 's class.
Before each unit of the regular math curriculum, all students took a test to see what they already knew.
Those who scored high enough were sent into an accelerated program. For example, in a unit focusing upon measuring lines and volume, the high-flying students were given more complex problems.
The flexible grouping worked.
MAP tests this spring showed that all students ' math skills progressed well, and the skills of Anika and many of her peers advanced nearly twice as many points as would have been expected for students with similar skills.
"This group did amazing things because we were diligent about the instruction, " Davick said. "That 's what 's happening everywhere. "

It takes time to develop these sorts of strategies, as teachers become familiar with the power of the tools they have at their disposal.

Open Houses

At Wednesday's meeting the board tentatively scheduled open houses for the Glacial Drumlin School and the renovated Winnequah school. The Glacial Drumlin event is scheduled for Sunday August 17th and the Winnequah event for Sunday September 7th. The construction schedule prevents us from having the Winnequah event before school starts.

The Glacial Drumlin School is on or ahead of schedule although Mike Huffman reports the recent weather has delayed the landscaping. Recent pictures of the school can be found here.

The two story atrium behind the curved glass wall in the front of the building is just crying out for a big piece of art - such as a suspended mobile.

2007 WKCE

The results for the WKCE test administered in November 2007 were finally released on May 30th. That is more than six months after the test was given. Worse, the data files containing the detailed results that can be used for proper statistical analysis of the results are STILL not available for download. Assessments are information that degrades over time. The fact that it takes six months to get the data out (whatever its other shortcomings) cheats the taxpayers of the full value of their investment.

At the very least the WI DPI should be embarrassed by the fact it takes this long to release the test results. Personally I find it outrageous. I had an email exchange with DPI officials concerning this long delay and the loss of value, this is an excerpt from part of that response (italics mine):

... The WKCE is a large-scale assessment designed to provide a snapshot of how well a district or school is doing at helping all students reach proficiency on state standards, with a focus on school and district-level accountability. A large-scale, summative assessment such as the WKCE is not designed to provide diagnostic information about individual students. Those assessments are best done at the local level, where immediate results can be obtained. Schools should not rely on only WKCE data to gauge progress of individual students or to determine effectiveness of programs or curriculum.

Does anyone else find the fact that the state issues WKCE results to individual students surprising given the above statement?

Anyhow - the WKCE results were published in the WSJ and on the Cap Times website. As in previous years they show Monona Grove near the top in Dane County, with Waunakee out in front. We do well against tough competition, Dane County schools average the highest in the state.

Ed O'Connor notes that the MG 3rd Grade scores as printed in the paper appear to be incorrect:

The numbers reported in the WSJ (79% Reading/74% Math) are inconsistent with reports we have received from CTB McGraw-Hill and reports provided on the DPI WINSS site. These other sources both show our percent of students at Proficient/Advanced to be 84% for Reading and 81% for Math.

The DPI website agrees with Ed's numbers.

I will do a little analysis when the DPI posts the results files and get back to you when I can. I neither want to put too much emphasis on a flawed assessment nor speak about what it shows without proper analysis.