Columbia University has created a multimedia African American history Web site, offering free access to historical materials covering the Civil Rights and Black Power Movements for teachers to incorporate into lessons.

The “Amistad Digital Resource,” as it is called, was developed by Columbia University’s Center for Contemporary Black History and the Electronic Publishing Initiative at Columbia.

In just browsing around the site, I’ve found it to be quite powerful. One photograph, for instance, shows the fury on a white woman’s face as Elizabeth Eckford – one of the Little Rock Nine who began the desegregation of the Arkansas school system – braved her way into the Little Rock Central High School in 1957.

There are also an array of videos, maps, timelines and other useful resources.

The Ardsley Board of Education has selected Charles Khoury as its final candidate for the position of  schools superintendent. He is currently the schools superintendent in Cresskill, N.Y. (He has not yet been formally appointed by the board.)

Read on for more information…

Yonkers Mayor Phil Amicone Tuesday discussed the September opening of the city’s College Board Academy high school. (Click here for the video.) The new school is a collaboration among the school district, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the College Board, which is best known for the Scholastic Aptitude Test. The College Board Academy’s goal is to create a rigorous academic environment targeting low-income and minority students with the goal of sending at least 90 percent of its graduates to college.

(Courtesy of Ernie Garcia.) 

Students at Spring Valley High School participated in a mock presidential candidate debate this evening, taking on the mannerisms and opinions of the candidates for the country’s highest position.

Many of the teens who participated were just back from the Yale Mock Congress, prompting bemusement on the part of several parents at how their children were maturing.

“Would you believe our sons would grow up to be politicians?” was how the mother of one of the students greeted the mother of another.

From the Putnam Valley school district….

Edward Hallisey started his educational career as a music teacher, and the walls of his office are dotted with Beatles memorabilia. Now the principal of Putnam Valley Middle School, Mr. Hallisey is focusing his creative energies in a new area, one that he says is every bit as important in the development of “right brain�- style thinking as are the visual arts or music. That area is technology.

PVMS is the home of the four-year-old 1:1 Laptop Program, the innovative educational approach that by the autumn of 2008 will have put a school-owned laptop computer into the hands of every Putnam Valley student from grade five through grade twelve.

“When the program was launched in 2003, the students in grade seven were given 150 laptops to use during the school year,� Hallisey explained. “Now we have 1,250 laptops in grades six through eleven. Next fall everyone from grade five through grade twelve will have them. Imagine that: our youngest 1:1 Laptop Program participants will have had eight years of technology experience before they ever get to college. It will put them at an entirely different level than any other high school seniors in this area. This is what’s going to make our students special.�

In his state of the union address, President Bush proposed federal education grants for students in grades K-12, calling them Pell Grants for Kids. The program would offer $300 million in scholarships that low-income students could use to attend the school of their choice.

The President’s proposal would give Pell grants to student stuck in public secondary and elementary schools that have failed to meet federal testing benchmarks for five years or that suffer high drop-out rates.

Sounds a lot like a voucher, no?

Pell grants for college last year went out to 5.3 million students, for a total of $14 billion. That’s up from 4.3 million students receiving $8.8 billion at the start of the Bush Presidency, according to the Wall Street Journal.

First of all, sorry about the hiatus here on The Hall Monitor. I can only speak for myself in saying that I was pretty tapped out after the S&P project and needed a little bit of a rest..

Now on to some education news!

In its annual report on prekindergarten to 12th grade education, Education Week reported that New York, followed by Massachusetts and Maryland, received the highest grades overall.

Education Week rated states in several specific categories, as well as overall.

New York received an A in Standards, Assessment and Accountability and an A in Transitions and Alignment from preschool through higher education. New York was above the national average in each category.

In the Teaching Profession category, New York received only a C+ (versus a C for the nation). Yet New York scored an A- for accountability for quality of teachers.

New York received a B+ for School Finance.

New York got a B under Chance for Success, which measures demographic criteria such as parental education and income.

Finally, New York received a C- for K-12 Achievement (versus a D+ for the nation).

State Education Commissioner Richard Mills said, “New York’s ratings overall show we are taking the right steps to reform education, improve achievement overall, and close the achievement gap, and remind us how much we still need to do.�

You can use this database to get details on Gov. Eliot Spitzer’s state aid proposals for specific districts.

Source: NYS Budget Office, 1/22/08

in his 2008-09 budget, Gov. Eliot Spitzer aims to increase education spending by a record $1.46 billion. Schools would receive $21.01 billion in the executive budget, a 7.45 percent increase from 2007-08. Total aid to Hudson Valley schools would top $2 billion, up from $1.9 billion or 6.2 percent.

Specifics on the proposed awards for individual school districts are expected this afternoon. However, a release on the state Budget Office’s website gives some details:

• Total aid to Westchester school districts will increase from $566.9 million in 2007-08 to $602.1 million in 2008-09, an increase of $3.53 million or 6.23%.
• Total STAR property tax relief to Westchester County residents will increase from $486.3 in 2007-08 to $503.2 in 2008-09, an increase of $16.9 or 3.4%.
• Total NYS School Aid to Yonkers school districts will increase from $211 million in 2007-08 to $223 million in 2008-09, an increase of $15.1 million or 7%.

When more details are released you can find them here.

UPDATE: Search for aid proposals by district here.

The newest list of nationally certified teachers includes seven local educators who have reached the highest level of proficiency in their subjects.

By far, the largest number in this year’s local group comes from Ossining: Matthew Clayton, Tanya Panossian-Lesser, Stephanie Esposito and Marcie Variano. Also qualified were Catherine Marmisto of Putnam-Northern Westchester BOCES; Lee Lee Wong of Briarcliff and Stefanie Pacheco of Somers.

They were among  85 New York teachers who earned what educators consider the “gold standard” of teaching.

Yonkers schools Superintendent Bernard Pierorazio spoke this morning at the Nepperhan Community Center’s 22nd-annual Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Breakfast. Pierorazio received the organization’s Drum Major for Justice Award in Education for his appointment of an unprecedented number of minority administrators and for an improvement in student performance under his leadership.

Click here for a video of Pierorazio’s speech.  

(Video courtesy of Ernie Garcia.) 

According to our bosses at The Hall Monitor, this week’s five-part series Our Schools, Our Money, was a hit with readers in print and online. The stories, which explored the links between student achievement, school performance, school property taxes and spending, were among the most viewed news on LoHud.com each day. We got lots of comments and readers showed particular interest in our 11 school-related databases, which included Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) scores, details on school finances and administrator and teacher salaries.

The series concluded yesterday. Now that you’ve had a chance to read all of the stories, let us know what you think and what you’d like to see us cover in the future. You can comment on this blog or visit our forums here. You can also catch up on pieces of the package you might have missed at LoHud.com or visit SchoolMatters.com to download a copy of A Data User’s Guide to School Performance, Home Values & Property Taxes in the Lower Hudson Valley.

The Hall Monitor would like to thank all of the schools, teachers, parents, students and experts who participated in the series and our readers for their interest and comments. We will continue to keep a close eye on our local schools and your tax dollars.

Below, you’ll find video of an appearance of that reporters Dwight R. Worley, Diana Costello and Randi Weiner made on RNN’s Richard French Live yesterday to discuss the series. Enjoy.

Download:

Click here for the full “Our Schools, Our Money” report. 

Peekskill superintendent Judith Johnson was named the 2008 New York State School Superintendent of the Year by The State Council of School Superintendents.

The state wide group said Johnson, who has served in the position since 2001, has greatly improved education in the district. Among her accomplishments, the state council cited gains in the districts’ graduation rate, the doubling of students participating in Advanced Placement classes, double-digit gains on some state tests and twice being cited by the state education department as “a most improved district.” The council said Johnson also led the way in the formation of the Peekskill Education Foundation, a not-for-profit group that raises money for district projects.

The Hall Monitor congratulates Mrs. Johnson. Read on for the official press release. Read more of this entry »

Every day on my iGoogle homepage, an Albert Einstein quote of the day pops up. Today’s quote relates to education, so I figured I’d post it and see what you all thought.

“It is almost a miracle that modern teaching methods have not yet entirely strangled the holy curiousity of inquiry; for what this delicate little plant needs more than anything, besides stimulation, is freedom.”