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Monitoring & Reporting
compiled by education new york online
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Scroll down to read entries organized by topic alphabetically OR use the topic links at the right to jump to categories of interest.
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Updated Wednesday June 20, 2007 03:11 PM
AccountabilityBaltimore school officials at risk of firing| Date Captured | Saturday May 19, 2007 08:52 AM | | Baltimore Sun reports, "At a recent school board meeting, Gittings [president of the administrative union of Baltimore City public schools] said principals have trouble updating records because of high student turnover in city schools. He said that other systems do not have the same issues and that it can take up to a day to update just one student file." |
| Class SizeCalifornia class size scandal goes a little deeper| Date Captured | Sunday April 15, 2007 09:27 AM | | LA Times reports, "The state [California] has two class size reduction programs. The first, aimed at kindergarten through third grade, provides as much as $1,024 annually per student in classes with an annual average of 20 students or fewer per teacher. The second program, known as Morgan-Hart, is aimed at ninth-grade core classes and requires an annual average of fewer than 20 students per teacher, no more than 22 students at any one time, with brief exceptions. This fiscal year, the latter program will provide $204 per pupil in classes with the same student-teacher ratio." |
| EquityACLU Urges Rhode Island Supreme Court to Review Truancy Courts | Date Captured | Thursday May 03, 2007 09:32 AM | | The American Civil Liberties Union of Rhode Island today asked the state Supreme Court to review a case that raises fundamental questions about the procedures used by so-called “truancy courts” that prosecute students who are absent from school. The ACLU filed a friend-of-the-court brief in the case arguing that essential due process safeguards are absent from the operation of these courts, which have become increasingly prevalent in public schools across the state.
“The ACLU is very concerned about the increasing numbers of parents and children pulled into the truancy court system,” said Amy Tabor, an ACLU cooperating attorney and author of today’s brief. “Some school districts treat children as truant whenever they arrive at school a few minutes late, even though their lateness has resulted in only a few minutes of missed homeroom.”
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| Information PolicyComputers hacked at Hilton Head Island High| Date Captured | Friday June 01, 2007 07:03 PM | | The Island Packet reports, "It’s unclear how a hacker could have penetrated the computer network to get access to the students’ attendance records, both Ryan and Hudson said.
'We thought we had put in as many stop-gaps as we could,' Ryan said. She said the records are maintained on a 'statewide database — it’s not a local system they hacked into.'”
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| IPS leak exposes fact of digital life; Experts: Schools especially at risk in security lapse| Date Captured | Sunday May 20, 2007 09:46 AM | | Indianapolis Star reports, "Indianapolis Public Schools students and staff got a new lesson on an old threat: This is going on your permanent record.
The district's accidental exposure of personal information on about 7,500 students and some staff via the Internet illustrates the pitfalls of trying to keep such data under wraps -- and the cross-country maneuvering that has to be done to permanently erase it from the Web once it has been compromised.
Social Security numbers, addresses, phone numbers, real estate transactions and other bits of information are easy to find on the Web -- sometimes even if they aren't intended to be. And schools, repositories for a vast amount of personal information, are particularly vulnerable to leaks if they don't properly secure their systems, experts say." |
| Protecting the Privacy of Student Records| Date Captured | Sunday May 13, 2007 11:24 AM | | Guidelines for Education Agencies -- NCES and National Forum on Education Statistics (1997) |
| ACLU Urges Rhode Island Supreme Court to Review Truancy Courts | Date Captured | Thursday May 03, 2007 09:32 AM | | The American Civil Liberties Union of Rhode Island today asked the state Supreme Court to review a case that raises fundamental questions about the procedures used by so-called “truancy courts” that prosecute students who are absent from school. The ACLU filed a friend-of-the-court brief in the case arguing that essential due process safeguards are absent from the operation of these courts, which have become increasingly prevalent in public schools across the state.
“The ACLU is very concerned about the increasing numbers of parents and children pulled into the truancy court system,” said Amy Tabor, an ACLU cooperating attorney and author of today’s brief. “Some school districts treat children as truant whenever they arrive at school a few minutes late, even though their lateness has resulted in only a few minutes of missed homeroom.”
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| Editorial: Where are you now?| Date Captured | Tuesday May 01, 2007 08:58 AM | | The Post (Ohio) reports, "Big Brother is watching, and he wants to know why you didn’t show up for your math class all last week.
Ohio University’s Student Help Center has paired up with Residence Life to keep track of student class attendance. Using swipe-card technology — used in some science, math and art classes in Morton and Walter Halls — resident assistants are notified when one of their residents misses two consecutive classes (a not-so-uncommon occurrence) in the same course. The resident assistants are then required to check on the students."
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| How'd You Do In School Today?| Date Captured | Tuesday May 01, 2007 08:33 AM | | Washington Post reports, "Sherry Turkle, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor, warns against 'overtechnologizing.' A grade-tracking system like Edline, Turkle says, 'sounds to me terribly intrusive.'
The best way for parents and students to communicate is to talk about what is going on at school, she says. "When you just see a grade as a number, it's not necessarily opening the possibility of dialogue. Potentially it's closing down dialogue."
Turkle says Edline reminds her of the panopticon, an 18th-century idea for a specially designed building that would enable jailers to watch prisoners without the prisoners knowing they were being observed. The panopticon has become a metaphor for Big Brother."
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| California Senate OKs bill banning student monitoring devices| Date Captured | Tuesday April 17, 2007 08:08 PM | | AP reports, "Legislation approved Monday by the [California] state Senate would ban public schools from using radio-wave devices containing personal information about students to take attendance and monitor students' movement around campus." |
| NCLBSchool truancy bill moving forward| Date Captured | Thursday May 03, 2007 10:26 PM | | MaineCoastNow.com reports, "Under the federal No Child Left Behind Act, attendance is one of the markers measuring how well a school is doing overall.
Some Augusta schools have been cited for not meeting that standard." |
| NewsPrincipals respond to truant sweep| Date Captured | Wednesday June 20, 2007 03:11 PM | | Maryland Gazette reports, "The law states that starting in October, students will have to present their school attendance records to the Motor Vehicle Administration to get a driver's permit. Students under the age of 16 with more than 10 unexcused absences in the prior school semester will not be allowed to get a permit."
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| Auburn schools fight poor attendance | Date Captured | Saturday June 02, 2007 10:35 AM | | Post-Standard reports, "He [Auburn schools Superintendent John Plume] addressed the problem in this month's district newsletter and said the district will take these steps in 2007-08:
*Attempt to list attendance records on student transcripts that are reviewed by colleges and businesses.
*Make more calls to parents and dole out more consequences for unexcused tardiness and absences.
*Give students with the best attendance first crack at taking driving classes in the summer.
'However, little will change unless students want to be in school and parents and community members help boost the importance of improved attendance,' he said in the newsletter."
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| California k-12 school funding reform| Date Captured | Friday May 04, 2007 08:14 AM | | Contra Costa Times opines, "At the top of any K-12 funding reform should be greater local control, meaning fewer state mandates and less categorical spending. Let school districts decide how they can best spend the money.
The state also should put an end to ADA funding and use enrollment figures instead, updating them once or twice a year. The time and money spent compiling the daily attendance of every student in California is wasteful and unnecessary. Fluctuations in ADA have no relationship to the costs of running a school. Total enrollment does.
School districts also need to take a closer look at just how much of the revenue they get goes directly into the classroom -- the higher the percentage the better."
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| School truancy bill moving forward| Date Captured | Thursday May 03, 2007 10:26 PM | | MaineCoastNow.com reports, "Under the federal No Child Left Behind Act, attendance is one of the markers measuring how well a school is doing overall.
Some Augusta schools have been cited for not meeting that standard." |
| NYS Education Department | PolicyNew York City Schools Attendance Memo re: Law and Policy| Date Captured | Wednesday March 07, 2007 01:21 PM | | The New York City Department of Education is committed to the academic success and social development of all students. Our objective for the 2006 – 2007 school year is to ensure that all students are provided with the necessary intervention and supports that encourage regular school attendance. Regular attendance is critical to successful achievement in school. Conversely, poor attendance is one of the most significant indicators of potential risk. It is our goal to ensure that students are provided with every available resource to support and facilitate their successful completion of school. To this end, the accurate tracking of student attendance is fundamental to the implementation of effective educational services. The Department of Education has established a clearly defined system for recording, tracking and monitoring school attendance. This system is supported and implemented by a series of attendance guidelines and procedures set forth in Chancellor’s Regulations, State Education Laws, and descriptive memoranda distributed to school staff. This Memorandum provides information about attendance law and policy, attendance procedures for this school year, the implementation of attendance services, clearance of register procedures, revised procedures for addressing student absences, requirements for reporting educational neglect and child abuse, and discharge and transfer procedures including the process for conducting and tracking planning interviews on the ATS system. Additionally information about, “ILOG” the new student intervention screen on ATS, will be provided. |
| PrivacyIPS leak exposes fact of digital life; Experts: Schools especially at risk in security lapse| Date Captured | Sunday May 20, 2007 09:46 AM | | Indianapolis Star reports, "Indianapolis Public Schools students and staff got a new lesson on an old threat: This is going on your permanent record.
The district's accidental exposure of personal information on about 7,500 students and some staff via the Internet illustrates the pitfalls of trying to keep such data under wraps -- and the cross-country maneuvering that has to be done to permanently erase it from the Web once it has been compromised.
Social Security numbers, addresses, phone numbers, real estate transactions and other bits of information are easy to find on the Web -- sometimes even if they aren't intended to be. And schools, repositories for a vast amount of personal information, are particularly vulnerable to leaks if they don't properly secure their systems, experts say." |
| Chronology of Data Breaches| Date Captured | Saturday May 12, 2007 10:34 PM | |
| SafetyHigh school attendance, discipline, grades available to parents online| Date Captured | Sunday April 08, 2007 04:40 PM | | Eagle Tribune (MA) reports, "The program also includes student biographical information, some of which, Hill admitted, is incorrect. He's hoping making that information available to parents will help clear up those errors." |
| School ChoicePerfect Attendance?| Date Captured | Saturday May 12, 2007 12:42 PM | | Education Week reports on Ohio online charter schools, where "Twenty of the state’s 41 online charters reported perfect attendance last year [2005]."
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| Student MobilityCharter school for at-risk youth announces layoffs| Date Captured | Saturday April 28, 2007 05:39 PM | | Austin American-Stateman reports, "Schell [director of development for the school] said several factors, including having a high percentage of economically disadvantaged and homeless students, make it difficult to accurately predict attendance."
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| TechnologySchools Discover Automated Calling And Go Wild| Date Captured | Saturday May 12, 2007 04:38 PM | | Wall Street Journal reports, "But snafus in some systems across the country have resulted in parents' being bombarded by calls five nights a week. Schools send endless repeats of the same messages, or place calls at 2 a.m., or send updates about kids who don't even go there anymore.
At Whittier High School, the system hasn't been fine-tuned to differentiate between absences and lateness. [Name deleted] says she gets calls saying her grandson [name deleted], a 10th grader at Whittier, skipped class, so she goes with him to the school office to clear his record.
'He has water-polo practice and he's sometimes a little late to class,' she says. But 'there's no talking to this recording.' The school district says if a student arrives in class after the teacher submits the day's attendance list, that can register as a skipped class and trigger a call home."
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