Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. is supporting the Renaissance Theatre Academy, an educational, professional youth theatre training program produced by the White Plains Performing Arts Center, with a sponsorship of $40,000.

The announcement came during a ceremonial check presentation on March 25 at the theatre, which was attended by Jack W. Batman, Executive Producer of the White Plains Performing Arts Center; representatives from WPPAC, Wal-Mart and the White Plains store; children of the Theatre Academy and Joseph M. Delfino, Mayor of the City of White Plains.

Wal-Mart will also provide school items for students of the theater throughout the year.

For the second year in a row Wal-Mart is supporting the Theater Academy with a major donation. Last year’s donation of $30,000 enabled the Academy to initiate their premiere season and to produce two productions: You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown and Pippin. In 2007, Wal-Mart’s philanthropic efforts in the State of New York totaled more than $10.4 million. Nationally the Foundation gave $296 million in 2007 to benefit more than 4,000 U.S. communities.

“Wal-Mart is proud to continue our relationship with the Theatre Academy,” said Steve V. Restivo, Director of Corporate Affairs – Northeast Region. “This Academy has grown to become one of the premier theatre training programs in the region and offers cultural enrichment and educational value to children throughout White Plains and the surrounding area.”

In today’s paper, we write about local districts who are continuing their criticism of Newsweek’s annual high school rankings. Read it here.

While many school districts are critical of the ranking methodology – which looks at the ratio of students taking advanced courses – others welcome their placement on the list. Indeed, the Edgemont school district, which joined a group of districts asking to have their schools removed from the list, has withdrawn its support of the effort. Also, school officials in Nanuet declined to sign on to the effort back in March.

Many schools use such lists for bragging rights. But how valuable or useful are these types of rankings when it comes to evaluating a school?

A severe brain injury left 3-year-old Alexis Wilhelm without the ability to speak, walk or even sit up on her own.

Yet by using assistive equipment such as a special chair and talking device, the White Plains youngster is learning how to do all these things in her own special way.

But it’s not always been easy, and her mother, Angelique Wilhelm, says she’s too busy dealing with today to even think about what will happen once Alexis moves on to kindergarten.

The Westchester Institute for Human Development, however, is already working to make that transition at least a little bit easier.

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Creating what are called SWAT Teams – or Schools in Westchester Assistive Technology Teams – the WIHD has partnered with local public schools to train educators and expand the use of various assistive technologies.

There are large keyboards for those with motor impairments. There are electronic Braille systems for those with vision difficulties. There are special reading programs for those with dyslexia, and the list goes on.

“It helps to open up access to learning for everyone,” said Lydia Lavin, former director of pupil personnel for Briarcliff Manor schools.

In the past two years, the group has worked with the Pleasantville, Briarcliff Manor, Mount Pleasant, Valhalla, Pocantico Hills, Irvington, Tarrytown and Elmsford school districts to develop the pilot program. Now other schools will be able to buy in.

The focus on public schools builds upon services the WIHD already offers to children, from infants to preschool, including Alexis.

Click here for the full story.

Dobbs Ferry has joined several other local districts in asking Newsweek magazine to no longer rank their schools in its list of top high schools. The districts say any system that ranks schools based on a single indicator, including the percentage who take advanced courses which Newsweek uses, is flawed.

We’re running down the story, but you can read a letter that Dobbs Ferry superintendent Debra Kaplan sent to parents here.

UPDATE: A total of 39 38 school districts in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Illinois and Massachusetts signed on to a letter sent to Newsweek editors, criticizing the ranking methodology and seeking to be removed. Here’s the list:

New York: Ardsley, Bedford, Blind Brook, Brewster, Bronxville, Byram Hills, Chappaqua, Dobbs Ferry, Edgemont, Greenburgh-North Castle, Hewlett-Woodmere, Katonah-Lewisboro, Mamaroneck, Mount Pleasant-Cottage, Nanuet, North Shore, Ossining, Rye Neck, Scarsdale, Spackenkill, Tuckahoe and Valhalla.

New Jersey: Montclair, Montgomery, Tenafly, Verona

Connecticut: Darien, Simsbury, Stonington, Wilton

Illinois: Decatur, Deerfield/Highland Park Township, Evanston, Glenbrook, Lincoln-Way, New Trier, Oak Park and River Forest HS District 200

Massachusetts: Amherst-Pelham, Masconomet, Wayland

UPDATE 2: This issue also reaches up to colleges. Read a previous post about the U.S. News and World Report College rankings here.

The Garrison Institute is holding a summer workshop for educators to help them deal with the growing stress of their jobs.

Last month, the Institute hosted a symposium outlining what Patricia Jennings, the organization’s head, described as a crisis in education rising, in essence, from the continued emphasis on judging the worth of a school district based on test scores.

Teachers come in for much of the pressure to improve scores and a lot of time and research has gone into getting students to do better.

But very little research has gone into helping teachers deal with the stress of being on the front lines and working with a diverse and difficult population, stress which ultimately affects how well they do their jobs and how well their students learn, Jennings said.

She pointed to a 2006 report of the National Education Association that stated that half of the country’s teachers leave the profession within the first five years of teaching.While there is no one reason why the number is so high, Jennings said she felt the lack of emotional support and growing stress were among the top reasons.

The danger in not addressing teacher stress she put this way: “Emotionally exhausted teachers may become cynical and callous and may eventually feel they have failed and so drop out of the teaching workforce. Others may stay—although unhappily—coping by maintaining a rigid classroom routine bitterly working at a suboptimal level of performance until retirement. In either case, burnout takes a serious toll on teachers, students, schools, districts and communities.”

The Garrison Institute is suggesting that research into contemplation and contemplative practices could be one of the answers. Last month’s symposium explored subjects like cultivating emotional balance in the classroom and awareness and concentration in teaching to help defuse stress.

The Institute is holding a summer retreat for teachers from Aug. 16 through 21 to concentrate on those issues. For details, visit www.garrisoninstitute.org or e-mail Erin Koch at retreats@garrisoninstitute.org.

Nine Ossining High School students were recently notified by the National Merit Scholarship Corporation that they have qualified for the 2009 National Merit Scholarship Program. They are among 50,000 students in the U.S. who scored high enough on the 2007 PSAT National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test to compete for National Merit Scholarships next year. More than 1.5 million high school students took the PSAT qualifying test.

Augustus Boehling, Sabina DeMatteo, Oliver Donson, Talia Fox, Samuel Gissen, Molly Plotkin, Ilana Rice, Gregory Robins, and Corey Rogers will be notified of their status in September: 16,000 students will be named Semifinalists; 34,000 will be recognized as Commended students. Semifinalists have the opportunity to compete for 8,200 Merit Scholarship awards that will be offered during the students’ senior year in 2009.

The other day, I was going through my reams of e-mail and found this note from the New York State School Boards Association (NYSSBA, to those in the know) that outlined the results of a state Ed Department “outreach effort to determine how the department could better ‘support student learning and school improvement.’”

They used a written survey, consulted with various groups (including NYSSBA), held large group discussions with thousands of educators and small group discussions with a total of 400 of the department’s own staff.

These are the top 10 recommendations:

1. Increase recognition of the good work going on every day in our schools statewide.
2. Increase the opportunity for the field to share input and feedback on important policy decisions before the Board of Regents and the department take action.
3. More timely availability of data; streamline data collection and reporting processes; roll out improvements to the nySTART data collection and reporting system.
4. Provide more flexibility to schools and districts – less micro-management.
5. Streamline regulatory processes, including monitoring, reporting and required plans; provide more support and technical assistance to individual schools; and eliminate or reduce unfunded mandates.
6. Reduce the number of “lists” of schools/districts in need of improvement and increase the available supports to these schools.
7. Provide advance notice to schools and districts before the Department shares data and reports with the press, the community and others.
8. Improve the coordination of responsibilities within the Department and designate a single point of contact for the field on a particular topic or function.
9. Strengthen communications so they are more regular, less complicated and timely.
10. Support schools, share responsibility, and increase collaboration across the P-16 continuum.

And if anyone knows what a P-16 continuum is, please let me know.

Dr. Ruth Westheimer, a psychosexual therapist whose radio program “Sexually Speaking,” debuted in 1980 and helped make frank talk about sex mainstream, will be the commencement speaker at graduation ceremony for the Hudson Valley Center of Empire State College, State University of New York, at 3 p.m. on Sunday, June 8, at Purchase College.

Just in from the New York State Education Department…

The Office of the Attorney General has been investigating law firms and lawyers who have improperly characterized themselves as school district and BOCES employees to receive state benefits to which they would not otherwise be entitled. The State Education Department has been working closely with the Office of the Attorney General in this statewide investigation.

Today, Commissioner Richard Mills sent a memorandum to the BOCES District Superintendents advising them of certain findings of the Office of the Attorney General’s investigation and informing them of the actions that the State Education Department intends to take to address issues that have come to light during this investigation.

Attorney General Cuomo said, “I’m pleased to work with the Education Department on this issue. My office’s investigation has revealed long-term, widespread fraud wasting tax dollars all across the State. These practices never should have been allowed to continue for as long as they have, but they end now.”

The Commissioner thanked the BOCES for cooperating in the Attorney General’s investigation and added, “The Regents and Department are committed to doing all we can to ensure the proper use of public funds. The actions I have outlined today will help to do that.”

The Office of the Attorney General and the State Education Department will continue to work together to resolve individual cases of wrongdoing and to propose regulatory and other reforms as needed.

This year, fourth grade students at Columbus Magnet School in New Rochelle are working on a math and design project funded by a $2500 grant from Cappelli Enterprises of New Rochelle.

Students, working under the guidance of architect-in-residence, Yves Roger, from the New York Institute for Architecture, will be transforming their school’s 100’ by 60’ gymnasium into a convention-style display area for their “Math, Science and Technology EXPO to be held May 29th and 30th.

The public EXPO hours are 9 a.m. 11:30 a.m. and 1 p.m. 3 p.m.  The EXPO will also be open on Thursday evening from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.

Through this project, students are learning about the mathematical concepts of measurement, area, perimeter, scale and budgeting as well as the architectural principles of building, design and safety.

The art show features student artwork from the district’s high schools – Lakeland High School, Walter Panas High School and the Lakeland Alternative High School. Work ranges from photography and oil painting to watercolor and drawing.

The Lakeland Week of the Arts at the Jefferson Valley Mall will be held May 12-18 2, 2008. The show will be located on first and second floors of the Mall, located off of Route 6 in Jefferson Valley.

The Jefferson Valley Mall has been welcoming the Lakeland School District’s artists to the mall for more than 15 years.

“The show gives community an opportunity to view the magnificent work that our students do in their art classes. It communicates the outstanding talent of both the students and the art department staff,” said Lakeland’s Superintendent of Schools Kenneth Connolly.

Members of the Nyack High School mock trial team, which won the Lower Hudson Valley competition on Sunday, are presenting their trophy to the Nyack Board of Education tonight.

The team goes on to state competition May 19 and 20.

Julie Suchman, a Byram Hills parent, says she and other parents are “stunned” that school psychologist Dorrie Bernstein did not receive tenure. They plan to protest at the Board of Education meeting at 7:30 p.m. tonight. The meeting will be held in the administrative building near the high school.

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Steven White, who is running for the East Ramapo Board of Education, is holding a rally at 7 p.m. Tuesday at the Kurtz Center, 9 N. Main St. in Spring Valley.

White said his rally would include information on the upcoming May 20 school board and budget vote.

There are six candidates for three seats, but school board members in East Ramapo are elected to specific seats, not at large. School board President Nathan Rothschild is running unopposed, while incumbent David Resnick is challenged by Aron Weider and White, and incumbent Steven Rosenstock faces a challenge from Moshe Hopstein.

Our candidate database with complete information on all the candidates will be live soon. Check LoHud’s education page, here.

This week and next week, SUNY and the Teacher Resource and Computer Training Centers of New York State will be offering live Regents review classes online. The classes begin today at 4:30 p.m. with a review of the English Regents. All of the classes are from 4:30 to 6 p.m.
Here is the rest of the schedule:
Tuesday: Math A
Wednesday: Math B
Thursday: Earth Science
Friday: Living Environment

Week of May 12:
Monday: Chemistry
Tuesday: Physics
Wednesday: Global history
Thursday: U.S. History
Friday: Spanish

Week of May 19:
Monday: French
Tuesday: Italian
Wednesday: German

To view the classes, visit this Web site.