New SC-SIC Board of Trustees member cited in 2011 Congressional Record:
From the offices of Rep. James T. Clyburn:
"Lt. Col. Blum is the recipient of the 2011 Tony Snow Public Service Award, presented by the Great Comebacks Program. This program raises awareness of quality of life issues for people with Crohn’s disease, ulcerative colitis, colorectal cancer and other diseases that can lead to ostomy surgery. Since receiving this award Mr. Blum has continued to work hard and his determination is shown again through being selected as the 2011–2012 JROTC National Instructor of the year. This is the second time Mr. Blum has received the JROTC National Instructor of the year award, also receiving the award in 2003. Being a twotime recipient, demonstrates his commitment and dedication to the JROTC, a program which is near and dear to my heart as a former educator and the grandfather of a JROTC student.
Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to take the time and get to know JROTC instructors, like Lt. Col. Blum. Their devotion to uplifting American youth is worth our time and help. These instructors motto is, ‘‘Instruct Young People to be Better Citizens.’’ With this dictum we see the uplifting manner of the JROTC and why the instructors are such an influential part of America’s youth. Please join me in congratulating Lt. Col. Justin Blum of Florence, S.C. for being chosen as a the JROTC National Instructor of the year from a group of amazing individuals who are changing the lives of scores of young people every day."
Congratulations LTC(R) Justin F. Blum!
Blum_CREC-2011-07-20-pt1-PgE1370.pdf
School Improvement Councils in the News
Stone, Harvey: Meadowfield leading way in innovative education
By SUSAN STONE and FALICIA HARVEY
Guest Columnists
The State
05/05-2009
Last week, Meadowfield Elementary in Richland District 1 became the first school in South Carolina to earn the distinction as a National Paideia Center Model School. More than a simple award or acknowledgment of hard work, this marks the culmination of a three-year transformation and the continuance of an active learning process. It also provides a model other schools could follow as they seek innovative ways to improve student learning.
Paideia (py-dee-a) is a Greek word meaning the nurturing and upbringing of a child. This comprehensive approach to education, introduced by Mortimer Adler in 1982, is focused on equity and academic rigor. Students who learn in a Paideia school are prepared to participate fully in a democratic society.
The Paideia instructional model incorporates three complementary teaching practices: 1) direct instruction, for factual knowledge; 2) academic coaching, for skill development; and 3) seminar discussions, for deeper understanding of ideas and values.
Paideia schools have a higher average daily attendance, experience increased test scores and produce students who are able to express and support their ideas better than those at comparison schools. And students in Paideia classrooms consistently experience less friction and alienation.
At Meadowfield, we no longer have parent-teacher conferences. Now, our children lead the discussions on “Success Night.” They explain the progress and challenges they have faced in the nine-week period to their parents. Then, with their parents by their side, the students set their individual goals for the next nine weeks. From kindergarten to fifth grade, Meadowfield Elementary students own and participate in all aspects of their education.
Our students participate in regular seminar discussions. This may be a school wide topic with seminars in each classroom, a curriculum-related seminar that enforces a current lesson or a spontaneous seminar generated by a student discussion. Our children are learning to own their ideas and values, and they are learning to understand the ideas and values of others. While the teachers start the discussion with a thought-provoking question, the students work together to assure their comments are on topic and each individual is included. As a result, our children strengthen their own understanding of a topic, a concept and the views of their peers.
Our students grow intellectually through coached projects. Meadowfield faculty members develop project ideas that incorporate concepts from across the curriculum (math, language arts, science, social studies and related arts). Then, the students select from a variety of choices and develop their project.
For example, our kindergartners study health, science and language arts as they learn about human anatomy and develop an exercise video. First-graders study world geography, economics and other cultures as they develop village and marketplace models of foreign countries. Second-graders incorporate language arts and science into their study of animal habitats as they transform their classrooms into jungles, ponds and oceans. Third-graders incorporate concepts from mathematics and language arts as they create math-based board games and teach them to the fourth-graders. Fourth-graders expand their understanding of social studies and language arts as they build Indian villages. Our fifth-graders become experts on various wars in our world’s history as they merge the standards for social studies and language arts.
The entire community already is benefiting from more parental involvement and more ownership of the learning process. Paideia at Meadowfield means a future for our students that includes enhanced academic opportunities in an environment that supports their growth as citizens and participants in a democratic society.
Mrs. Stone is School Improvement Council chairwoman and Dr. Harvey is the Parent Teacher Organization president at Meadowfield Elementary. For more on the Paideia model, go to www.paideia.org.
© 2009 TheState.com and wire service sources. All Rights Reserved.
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Supporting schools: Community volunteers help fill gaps
By Carolyn Click
The State
04/20-2009
When 50 volunteers fanned out across Richland 1 schools last week, they returned with stories.
Stories of second-graders throwing dice to determine probabilities, of young scientists analyzing epochs past, of youngsters clamoring for the second and third book to be read out loud.
“What took place today was the breaking of a lot of urban legends,” said U.S. Army Col. Kevin Shwedo, a Fort Jackson officer who volunteered as “principal for a day” Thursday at Meadowfield Elementary School.
It’s this kind of community participation across the Midlands — whether volunteering in classrooms, supporting supply drives or finding better ways to gain parent participation in schools — that will bolster schools during this time of economic uncertainty, say school officials.
Budget cuts have forced districts statewide to lay off teachers and reassign others.
Planning for next year is even more difficult, with districts in a holding pattern because of uncertainties with state funding and federal stimulus money.
That means now, more than ever, schools are turning to their communities to help fill the gaps by providing mentors, assisting classroom teachers and bolstering after-school programs.
Les Sternberg, dean of the College of Education at the University of South Carolina, said he thinks something good could emerge from today’s turmoil.
“It could conceivably spark something,” Sternberg said — “really, in terms of a community saying, ‘They don’t have enough staff, they don’t have enough supplies, they don’t have enough of anything — so what can we do to help schools?’”
Often, he said, volunteers who work inside schools help dispel lingering suspicions about districts — such as those urban legends of which Shwedo spoke.
So a “gang school” turns out to have a wonderful arts program, or a “poor” school turns out students who are upbeat, polite and academically focused.
“Perceptions are reality,” Sternberg said. “And this is one way to create perceptions that are based upon real reality.”
Columbia Mayor Bob Coble, who is leading the Together We Can initiative, a city partnership with Richland 1, also sees greater community involvement as part of a larger “moral vision” for the Midlands.
So does Richland 1 board vice chairman Jasper Salmond.
“A little difference can make all the difference in the world,” he said.
© 2009 TheState.com and wire service sources. All Rights Reserved.
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Petition aims to improve education system in SC
Web site encourages support for 'high quality' schooling
By: Sierra Kelly
The Daily Gamecock
03/31/09
The Web site GoodbyeMinimallyAdequate.com gives the state a chance to have better schools and higher quality education.
History of the ongoing fight toward public education and a petition for students and the community to sign is provided on the Web site.
Bud Ferillo, Ferillo & Associates Inc.'s president, was the producer, advertiser, public relations agent and director of the film "CORRIDOR OF SHAME: The Neglect of South Carolina's Rural Schools." This film is a documentary some of the state's leaders and foundations asked Ferillo to create in order to educate South Carolinians about how the problems in these schools impact the entire state.
"These are the districts where a funding gap has contributed to an achievement gap," Ferillo said. "In turn, these academically distressed districts pull down the state's averages in virtually every area, from reading levels in elementary school to high rates of dropouts in high school. The state has done nothing to address this disparity in funding."
Ferillo is coordinating a statewide campaign for constitutional action, aiming to raise the state's standard and expectations for public education.
Ferillo said every South Carolinian of school age and above can sign the petition to support this effort at www.GoodbyeMinimallyAdequate.com. Florida, Virginia and Maryland have adopted this language in their constitutions and it has led to better funding of their public school systems from preschool to graduate school.
"That is what we need in South Carolina," Ferillo said, "nothing less."
South Carolina School Improvement Council Executive Director Cassie Barber said ago the General Assembly put into state statutes more than 30 years ago that every K-12 school in S.C. would have a School Improvement Council made up of at least two parents, selected by parents, and two teachers, selected by teachers.
"These School Improvement Councils are more than 15,000 people strong at this point, in more than 1,164 public schools," Barber said. "This is the largest education organization in S.C."
Barber said the board and the state office decided to sign a resolution in support of the Goodbye Minimally Adequate campaign.
"What that campaign is, folks may be familiar with the lawsuit where several school districts along the I-95 corridor sued the state about the idea that public education that was available along the corridor was not good as what was available as other parts of the state and that all children in our state should have access to equally good education," Barber said.
The lawsuit didn't come out as well as the other districts had hoped, "with the judge ruling some changes needed to be in early childhood and what was available."
Barber also said the lawsuit is being appealed and they are waiting for the Supreme Court to make a ruling on the appeal. Former state Supreme Court Justice Ernest Fenning supports the Goodbye Minimally Adequate campaign.
Barber said if one quarter of the population of this state sends a message to the General Assembly, it should get their attention that public education needs to be the number one focus of this state. She said people can also get involved with PTO, join a committee or mentor a child.
"Once the million signatures are obtained, then the campaign would present it to the legislature and they would propose legislation to put this question on the ballot in 2010," Barber said. "Hopefully, the General Assembly would support that and then it would come down to the people who need to support high quality education for our children or not."
Ferillo said the court case brought by the 36 rural school districts is now before the South Carolina Supreme Court awaiting a final decision.
"The whole country needs to wake up to the crisis in America's education," Ferillo said. "We are slipping in our standing in the world and our economy depends entirely on a creative, educated workforce, one that has been schooled in math, science, technology and foreign languages. I think the Obama Administration gets it, and I think we'll see more leadership and initiatives from the federal government now that we have more enlightened leadership in Washington."
© Copyright 2009 The Daily Gamecock
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Mission: Helping schools
By Devon Copeland
The State
02/19/2009
Students need more than challenging school work and highly qualified teachers.
They need programs that recognize their accomplishments, parents and community members say.
And, in these uncertain economic times, they need advocates.
That’s exactly what School Improvement Councils (SICs) aim to do, supporting schools through activities such as working on improvement plans, marshalling resources, going after funding and more.
Sixteen such councils have been named to the 2009 Honor Roll — among them Richland 1’s Satchel Ford Elementary — as well as four other area councils from Doby’s Mill Elementary in Kershaw County, Pineview Elementary in Lexington 2, Pleasant Hill Middle in Lexington 1 and Round Top Elementary in Richland 2.
Five finalists will be named Monday, and from that group, a winner of the annual Dick and Tunky Riley School Improvement Award will be selected next month.
“The kinds of things an SIC does are as varied as the schools that we have,” said Cassie Barber, director of the Columbia-based S.C. School Improvement Council.
“That’s what’s wonderful about the SIC. They can look at their schools as a unique entity.”
In Satchel Ford’s case, the school reviewed administration’s strategic plan to create a series of academic incentive programs.
The council also partnered with the school’s Parent Teacher Organization to sponsor the Welcome Wagon program to improve parent involvement in school activities.
“Involvement is getting in there and making sure that the programs (and principles) are in place to make it the best school it can be,” said member Thomas Kepley.
Unlike school volunteer organizations, SICs are mandated by state law, with a council in each of South Carolina’s more than 1,100 public schools.
Members — which include teachers, parents, community members and, at some school levels, students — are elected and appointed.
The SIC program was created more than 30 years ago.
Kepley said being a member of the SIC helps better familiarize him with the needs of the entire school during a tough economy.
“If you get in there and get involved, then it’s going to help the entire community,” he said.
“The SIC committee is vital in helping to do the legwork and work with the schools to go after (program funding and other needs.)”
Barber said state budget cuts will increase the need for the types of services given by SICs, as administrators look for new ideas to creatively address needs.
“You’re leveraging good will in the community when you bring them in and give them ownership in the schools,” she said.
“Now is the time when they can really fill those gaps.”
© 2009 TheState.com and wire service sources. All Rights Reserved.
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What is a School Improvement Council?
The State
02/19/2009
The School Improvement Council (SIC) serves as an advisory committee to a school's principal and faculty. Councils often include involvement from parents, educators and community stakeholders.
Unlike PTA/PTOs and other voluntary school organizations, councils are mandated by law to exist in every public school in South Carolina.
Among duties, SICs work with their schools to develop and implement a five-year school improvement plan, monitoring and evaluating success in reaching those goals and objectives; write an annual report to parents about the progress of that plan; advise on the use of school incentive awards; and assist principals with any requests.
SICs do not have any of the powers and duties reserved by the local school board.
DICK AND TUNKY RILEY SCHOOL IMPROVEMENT AWARD
This year, 16 schools named to the S.C.-SIC 2009 Honor Roll are in the running for the annual Dick and Tunky Riley School Improvement Award.
Named for the former U.S. Education Secretary and S.C. governor and his late wife, the award was created in 2002 to recognize councils’ contributions to public schools.
Five finalists will be named Monday; from those, a winner will be named March 14 during a luncheon in Columbia.
© 2009 TheState.com and wire service sources. All Rights Reserved.
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