As a father of daughters, I've had the usual fatherly reaction to some of my daughters' outfits. So, when I saw this headline, "Ohio Cheerleaders Told Uniforms Are Too Short for Class", I figured this Fox News piece was a typical argument between a school and cheerleaders over a uniform.

Monroe Schools Superintendent Elizabeth Lolli told WLWT TV that cheerleaders were instructed to wear long shorts and T-shirts underneath their uniforms at a pep rally Friday.

"The skirts that the cheerleaders wear are very short, and they're very tight and they're slit so they can do the gymnastics that are required of a cheerleader," Lolli told WLWT.com.

Lolli said the skirts are allowed only during assemblies and games.

"You want to have students wear appropriate clothing during the educational period of the day, and then after school, wear the appropriate clothing for the event," she said.

The uniforms have not been an issue in previous years because the district's dress code was not specific on required length for shorts and skirts. The policy was clarified earlier this year, requiring that the bottom of shorts and skirts be no more than 3 inches above the knee.

That sounds reasonable to me. The last thing that schools need are cheerleaders running around in outfits that distract their fellow male students. While I question whether they should be allowed at games as well, I applaud the school's efforts to create a positive learning environment.

I looked down through the article and noticed that it mentioned parents. I thought, "Oh good. The parents are supporting the school." Ummm.... no.

Parent Becky Daniel said the school's dress code should not apply to cheerleader's uniforms.

"My daughter is a senior, this is her last year," Daniel told the station. "We paid for uniforms and they should be able to wear them on game day."

What is Becky thinking? He major concern seems to be that her daughter gets to wear this uniform to class. Why isn't she concerned about whether the uniform is too short or whether it distracts from classroom instruction?

This is an example of where parents' priorities are completely messed up. I can't help but wonder if Becky is what my kids used to call a "cool mom." My son Alex had a middle school experience with a "cool mom" who ended up being arrested for signing kids out of school and giving them pot. Fortunately, my son wasn't one of them, but it did change his attitude towards "cool moms".

I think too often, parents try too hard to be friends to their kids and not hard enough to be parents. Our kids already have lots of friends, but they only have one set of parents. We owe it to them to be a parent. We need to make the hard decisions that no one else will make for us. These parents should be supporting this school's efforts to create an environment where their children can learn instead of worrying about what they paid for a cheerleader uniform.

In a nice change from the articles bemoaning the State Board of Education's decision to test all 8th graders in Algebra I, this San Francisco Chronicle story actually recognizes that Algebra exists in the real world.

Laptop computer. The computer is just an implementation in electrical circuits of a special form of algebra (called Boolean algebra) invented in the 19th century. Ordinary algebra is used to design and manufacture computers, and is at the heart of how to program them.

Cell phone. A cell phone is a particular kind of computer. An important feature of cell phones is that your phone receives all the signals sent to every cell phone in the region, but only responds to signals sent to your phone. This is achieved by using signal coding systems built on algebra.

Parking cop. Today's parking enforcement officers may carry equipment connecting them directly to a central vehicle database that registers your parking fine before you get back to the car and see the ticket on the windshield. Without algebra, such a system could not exist.

Hybrid car. Modern cars often come equipped with GPS, a highly sophisticated system that is designed using enormous amounts of mathematics that builds on algebra.

Delivery truck. Large retail chains use mathematical methods to determine the routing and scheduling of their delivery trucks; algebra is fundamental to those methods.

Stoplight. These days, stoplights are centrally controlled by computers, so there is even algebra involved in turning the light from red to green.

IPod. This is a math device in your hand. The iPod stores music using sophisticated mathematics built on algebra. And the iPod shuffle mechanism uses regular school algebra to order your songs randomly.

In real life Experts in science, computers, sports - even marijuana - use algebra in everyday work

• Brett Wingeier, San Francisco, 34
  Biomedical engineer working on brain implants for epilepsy
  Uses algebra and geometry to calculate the size of the hole to put in a skull to accommodate an electrode.
• Patrick Paulitz, Orangevale, 43
  Computer programmer
  Converts blocks to megabytes, calculates percent increase or decrease in disk space usage.
• Chris Conrad, El Cerrito, 55
  Court-qualified cannabis expert
  Calculates area, mass, bulk, weights, yields and dosages and compares against police findings.
• Marcia Benjamin, San Leandro, 51
  Swim coach
  Calculates a swimmer's lap pace to swim, for example, a 200-meter freestyle race in 2:28.
• Jim Hahn, San Jose, 47
  Corporate trainer, quilter
  Resizes quilt patterns.

I thought this Tennessean article was very interesting. Frequently, we look for a silver bullet in public education. We want a single curricular program, textbook, or professional development program that will boost student achievement without the need to make any other changes. This district raised proficiency scores in math by 11 points doing something simple:

Martin attributed the progress to a fundamental change in how teachers delivered classroom instruction last year.

"Instead of having the prescribed 'this is what we're going to do today and tomorrow,' we look at where our students are and pull them up," she said.

"Before, instruction didn't take into account where the students were at any given time. … We just didn't have a systematic way of being student centered, of addressing students more individually."

Math teachers underwent professional training to learn the new approach, which incorporated frequent testing to track student progress. Teachers also relied on classroom discussions and presentations to see if their students grasped the material.

For example, if students solved quadratic equations, they were sometimes asked to explain their thinking process behind deriving the answer. That way, teachers could check if their pupils understood the concept and could apply it correctly.

At another school, they had even better results:

At Stratford High School in East Nashville, the proficiency levels in math skyrocketed, said Cynthia Hicks-McCall, school's math specialist. Last year, 91 percent of students tested at least proficient on the Gateway math test, compared with 55 percent the year before, she said.

"We all taught the same information from day to day and then tested all our math kids every three weeks on the same benchmarks," Hicks-McCall said.

"When we found shortcomings, we went back and taught it again. We pulled kids for tutoring. I just break it down to little pieces of math and show (students) what they mean so they can remember. I'm also big on homework to keep them on their toes."

Hicks-McCall said she came up with this teaching approach of breaking down concepts into smaller chunks after teaching students with special needs. She said they responded well, so she rolled out the technique to the entire school.

So these schools found that if they modify their instruction to meet student's individual needs and remediate when they didn't get the concepts, they had higher percentages of students reaching grade-level. There's nothing Earth-shattering here. This is just good teaching practice. More schools need to be doing it, more often.

According to Lisa Snell in this post, the Americans think the post office is doing a better job than public schools.

An August 2008 poll conducted by Education Next and Harvard University finds that Americans think less of their schools than of their police departments and post offices. When asked to grade the post office, 70 percent of respondents gave an "A" or "B." In contrast, only 20 percent of Americans said public schools deserve an "A" or a "B." Twenty-six percent of the country actually gave their public schools a grade of "D" or "F." And African-Americans are even more down on public schools, 31 percent gave public schools a "D" or an "F."

Lisa goes on to discuss the 2008 STAR test results and a California Charter School Association paper which found that African American students do better in charter schools. While that discussion is interesting, I was really more interested in the post office vs. public education survey.

I think the comparison of the post office and public education is an interesting one. The changes at the post office since the major reforms of 1971 that established it as separate entity have allowed it to compete with a variety of competitors and outside influences including UPS, FedEx, email, etc. Now, 37 years later, it is getting a A or B grade from the majority of our citizens, while public education, where reforms have been mostly lip service, is fundamentally the same as it was 37 years ago.

Maybe it is time for a 1971 Post Office-style reorganization of public education. Without this dramatic level of action, real reforms are going to be limited to individual schools where brave administrators and teachers are willing to make the extra effort needed to get students to grade-level, regardless of their ethnicity, income level, parental education level or school funding levels. Until that happens, students aren't going to get the education they need to be successful in college or in the world of work.

Tuesday, State Superintendent Jack O'Connell "responded" to the State Board of Education's recent decision to require that all 8th graders be tested in Algebra I with a $3.1B plan to address this requirement. From the San Jose Mecury News:

California's schools will need an additional $3.1 billion annually - $2,100 more for every middle school student - to implement the governor's new eighth-grade algebra testing requirement, California State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O'Connell said Tuesday.

That would be more than a 6 percent increase to the state's $50 billion in education spending. The money would be used primarily to extend the school day or the academic year and lower class sizes for middle school students, according to a plan O'Connell and state education leaders presented in Sacramento.

Without the funding, O'Connell said, California can expect an overwhelming failure rate in the algebra tests.

"The governor absolutely must deliver the resources needed to make this mandate succeed," the superintendent said in a morning teleconference.

O'Connell's plan and its eye-popping price tag appear to be his volley back at the state Board of Education, which voted last month to implement Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's proposal to require all eighth-graders to be tested in Algebra I within three years.

I have to admit I have some doubts about the bulk of the expenditures in the plan:

Increase instructional time for middle grades so all sixth-, seventh-, and eighth-grade students receive sufficient mathematics, pre-algebra, and algebra instruction and support. Cost: $1.5 billion in General Fund for local support.

While lengthening the instructional day might be a good thing in some cases, it isn't necessarily so. More time with an effective teacher will have a positive impact, but more time with an ineffective teacher isn't going to get students where they need to be. I think some of this $1.5B would have been better spent on merit pay pilots or research-based, well-implemented professional development.

Expand the Morgan-Hart Class Size Reduction Program to include pre-algebra and Algebra I in seventh and eighth grades. Cost: $492 million in General Fund for local support, $369 million in General Fund for school facilities and $305,000 in General Fund for state operations.

So, here we have nearly another billion dollars for class-sized reduction (CSR). CSR is already the largest categorical program after special education. While it makes logical sense that having smaller class sizes would help achievement, in practice it hasn't demonstrated the expected results. What happened was that in order to implement CSR, districts had to add a bunch of classrooms and hire new teachers. The result has been increased school construction costs and a lowering of hiring standards for teachers in poor schools. As with increased classroom time, CSR only works if those students are in smaller classrooms with a good teacher. Smaller class sizes with poor teachers doesn't bring much improvement.

Provide funding for districts to establish and operate "Boost Classes" in elementary, middle, and junior high schools, for no more than 15 students per class identified by a student success team as needing specialized curriculum, instruction, and counseling to address the new algebra requirement. Cost: $175 million in General Fund local support and $185,000 in General Fund for state operations.

This is just more CSR with a new name. It is basically a remedial program and again, it is only likely to be effective if taught by a good teacher.

Expand school counseling services in grades four through eight to identify and provide services for students not adequately prepared to take Algebra I in eighth grade. Cost: $40 million in General Fund for local support and $185,000 in General Fund for state operations.

I'm a little unclear on how expanding counseling services for grades 4-8 will improve academic achievement in Algebra I. I suppose some students could benefit from this extra attention and in the scheme of a $3.1B program, $40M probably isn't too much to ask.

On the positive side, I do agree that increasing funding for existing programs such as MESA and AVIID is probably a good approach. Unfortunately, this is a tiny portion of the funding.

Between the increased class time and CSR, Jack's program devotes $2.536B of the $3.1B plan to activities that will directly benefit his overlords at the California Teacher Association (CTA) in increased dues. Perhaps he should have called it the CTA Success Initiative.

I think in the end, as a colleague told me, this whole discussion of Algebra I for 8th graders is really just a red herring. The real issue is getting all students to grade level, every year. If we do that through their elementary years and the beginning of their middle school years, by the time they get to 8th grade, they'll be ready for Algebra I. This $3.1B proposal is just a band aid attempting to fix a problem that took years to create (K-7) at the back end, rather than focusing on the front end of elementary math instruction.

Thanks to Henry at Why Home School for mentioning my petition to make California State Board of Education meetings available online. The number of signers of the petition is climbing, but not very quickly. If you're a California registered voter and you haven't already signed it, be sure to visit http://petitiononline.com/sbeonnet and sign it today.

Thanks to John Fensterwald from the San Jose Mercury News who mentioned my petition to make State Board of Education meetings available online on his blog Educated Guess. I really appreciate John mentioning the petition. Hopefully, that will being a little more attention to the issue.

If you haven't already signed the petition, be sure to check it out at http://petitiononline.com/sbeonnet.

Cornell graduate Carol sent me a note about Bronze Inc., her entry in the ideablob. If her idea is selected as the best of the month, she'll receive $10,000 that she can use to make her project a reality.

Her idea has already been discussed at EdReckoning and the Core Knowledge blog.

I think the basic idea is a sound one.

Putting Fun where it Belongs:

Engaging students in the learning process has changed the purpose of teaching from ensuring mastery of content to making sure students are entertained. Much like diet pills and programs that promise you’ll lose 10 pounds without adjustments in diet and exercise, this approach insists students can learn without any hard work. This simply is not true. As with any other skill, practice is needed to ensure understanding and retention. Instead of diluting effectiveness by forcing lessons to be entertaining, Bronze saves the entertainment for after students have completed their tasks for the day. This helps students learn to value and understand that the learning process can be both difficult and rewarding in and of itself.

Video games, simulated experiences, indoor miniature golf, bowling, small in-house movie screening rooms and more will eventually be part of the entertainment options waiting for students who complete their work. Each game or experience will cost students a certain number of points earned from their assignments, producing incentives that are not as far off on the horizon as college and a good job, but don’t crowd out the rigor of the days lesson.

Here's a visual representation of her idea:

| View | Upload your own

Combining these simple incentives with a rigorous academic program of direct instruction makes a lot of sense. If well implemented, it could make a difference. Visit her blog. If you think her idea is worth supporting, go to the ideablob page to vote for her. Good luck Carol!

A technical glitch (Yes, I have them) caused part of the story about online access to California State Board of Education meetings to be left off the daily email update. Since I'm trying to get you to sign my petition, I thought I'd better do this short post to make sure the word gets out. Here's what you missed:

So, in order to right this wrong, I've started an online petition, [http://petitiononline.com/sbeonnet] which I will send to the State Board of Education if I can get a significant number of signers. So, if you're a California registered over, please sign my petition. Feel free to forward the petition to other groups or individuals who you think might support my cause.

I'd really love to see these meetings available online. Please help me do that by signing my petition.

As I read the news stories about the California State Board of Education's recent decision regarding 8th grade Algebra, the thought came to my mind: "That was probably an interesting meeting to watch." After I slapped myself for a fall into extreme education-geekiness, I decided to look and see if the meeting was available online.

The first place I looked was the Board of Education's own web page but no luck there. Printed copies of the minutes and other materials are available, but that doesn't really capture the discussion of the meeting. Second, I looked at the California Channel web site since they stream lots of legislative hearings and other meetings. No luck there either. It struck me as extremely odd that these meetings aren't available online. Not only are legislative sessions available online, but even the individual legislative committee meetings are available online.

A quick check of state education web sites for the other 49 states revealed that at least 15 other states already make their State Board of Education meetings easily available to the public through audio, video or telephone conferencing. These states are Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan, North Carolina, Oregon, Tennessee, Texas, Utah and Virginia. The citizens of these states can either participate live, or at the very least watch or listen to the meetings after the fact.

Local school district boards also have public meetings, but typically those meetings are only a short drive for an interested parent. Those meetings are clearly open. I question whether the California State Board of Education meetings are effectively open meetings since it is simply impractical for the majority of California's citizens to take one or two days off work and drive to Sacramento for a Board meeting. If you live in Crescent City that's a 6 hour drive. For a San Diegoan, that's an 8 hour drive. Even though the room in Sacramento is open to anyone, the meetings are not really open from a practical standpoint. The majority of the people attending these meetings are not the average parent, but instead, they are representatives of various organizations such as the California Teachers Association, who have a vested interest in the decisions of the board.

Conversely, because they are available online, legislative sessions and committee hearings are much more effectively open meetings.

I contacted the California Department of Education (CDE) and was told that CDE had no plans to make the meetings available online.

So, in order to right this wrong, I've started an online petition, which I will send to the State Board of Education if I can get a significant number of signers. So, if you're a California registered over, please sign my petition. Feel free to forward the petition to other groups or individuals who you think might support my cause.