Hold My Chalk

Today Dr. Barresi held her press conference to dispel any myths about the Reading Sufficiency Act and forced retention.  I have posted previously about this topic and so have several others.  If you would like to learn more about it check out OkEducationTruths , Rob Miller , Jason James , and Claudia Swisher's blogs. In Oklahoma we have always had a tendency to look at what is happening in Florida, California, & Texas to determine our education policy.  Each of these three states implement a change and Oklahoma follows suit, but not until the other states are ready to abandon it or have determined that it doesn't work.  The world is constantly changing, I get that.  As a result, we should be changing and adapting all the time.  Anyone in education that is worth their salt is constantly reviewing their practice and improving. We look at what others are succeeding with & we incorporate what we can into our own instruction.  What we don't want to...

I grew up on a farm in central Oklahoma, graduated from high school with thirty other people.  Then I moved to western Oklahoma to attend college and have been in this part of the state since then.  I may not have gone to school in a large district or attended one of the big universities in the state, but I know I received a quality education.  That education ingrained in me a very logical and common sense approach to life.  I have something that seems illogical to me that I want to share with you.  Maybe my small town upbringing has rendered me incapable of rational thought. For just about every school in the state of Oklahoma school begins sometime in August and ends the last week in May. This means that the academic year begins in August and ends in May. Leaving June and July not counting as part of the academic year. This is logical to most people. For the purposes of testing we use the acronyms FAY (full academic year) and NFAY (non full academic year). ...