Notice: State Board of Education Meeting

The State Board of Education will hold a meeting April 30 and May 1 at the West Des Moines Marriott, 1250 Jordan Creek Parkway in West Des Moines. To view the agenda, go to: http://www.iowa.gov/educate/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1749&catid=831&Itemid=2474

Students Help with Alburnett Tornado Cleanup

ALBURNETT — Students walked off the school bus and into the field in Alburnett, their clothing a spot of color in land covered in debris from Sunday’s tornado.

About 80 percent of Alburnett’s middle and high school students and 13 teachers spent two hours Tuesday helping locals pick up what the storm left behind.

“It just seemed like the right thing to do,” said eighth-grader Mitchell Hagerman, 14.

English teacher Karen Franck and band director Vicki Meadows organized the event Monday, contacting homeowners who were hit by the EF1 tornado. Armed with a list of people who needed help, the teachers sent home permission slips with students that afternoon. More than 200 signed forms were returned Tuesday.

“The kids really wanted to do this,” Franck said.

Students were divided into teams among six homes, picking up trash, stacking tree limbs and raking cornstalks. Nearly 90 students descended upon Richard and Faith Martin’s farm, which sustained considerable damage.

“It took the machine shed,” said Paul Martin, Richard’s father.

The tornado damaged the roof on one corn bin and moved a small shed off its foundation. A toddler play saucer, which was stored underneath the front porch, crashed through the couple’s living room window.

“The living room was covered in cornstalks and glass,” Paul Martin said.

Traces of glass are still embedded in the carpet. An upper corner of the living room shows where the roof was raised from the beams. Several windows will need to be replaced.

“It’s devastating,” said senior Kyle Beyer, 17.

“I didn’t know the tornado was that bad until I saw the damage,” added 18-year-old Sarah Longfellow, also a senior.

National Weather Service spotters reported tornado touchdowns near Alburnett, Coggon and about five miles west of Central City within a six-minute span starting at 4:53 p.m. Sunday. Richard and Faith Martin watched the tornado touch down a mile from their home before seeking shelter in their basement.

“The house shuddered — I swear I heard it moan — and there was this pop,” Faith Martin said. “Your ears pop and then there was that freight train sound.”

Friends, family and people the couple doesn’t even know assisted with clean-up efforts Monday. The students’ help, Faith Martin said, is typical of the community.

“That’s small town life,” she said. “They’re great people.”

Iowa Students Support Shriners

More than 150 Iowa high school students will participate in the Iowa Shrine Bowl Game this summer.

Iowa Shrine Bowl officials recently announced rosters for the two teams in the all-star game — a total of 92 football players — and the game’s 60 cheerleaders. These student athletes will travel the the Twin Cities Children’s Hospital from their training camp to visit patients and learn firsthand the purpose of the Iowa Shrine Bowl Game.

The annual football game, now in its 37th year,  will be played July 25 at Jack Trice Stadium in Ames. Contributions from this event total more than $2 million dollars in support of the Shrine Hospital programs for children.

The “Write” Stuff

The following students recently made a name for themselves– with their handwriting.

— Allison Hagensick, first grade student at East Elementary School in Waukon.

— Marry Crompton, third grade student at Regina Elementary School in Iowa City.

— Payton Evans, sixth grade student at Regina Elementary School in Iowa City.

— Campbell Mitvalsky, first grade student at St. Matthews School in Cedar Rapids.

— Stefanie Ramirez, second grade student at St. Matthews School in Cedar Rapids.

— Jack Rooney, fourth grade student at St. Matthews School in Cedar Rapids.

— Hunter Didriksen, fifth grade student at St. Matthews School in Cedar Rapids.

These students are the 2009 state winners of the 18th annual Zaner-Bloser National Handwriting Contest. The students emerged as superior from about 200,000 national entries from students in first through eighth grades.

Entries were judged on the printing skills of first and second grade students, and the cursive abilities of second through eighth grade students. Winners were selected by a panel of professional handwriting experts.

All state winners will next pit their entries against each other in their respective grade level for national honors. One of the national grade level winners will be named Grand National Champion.

Education Chief Stresses School Reform

CEDAR FALLS — It’s time to be aggressive.

That was the message U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan had during his visit Friday to the University of Northern Iowa.

The country’s education system needs to throw out dated practices, Duncan said. The Recovery Act, which includes more than $100 billion for education, isn’t a permission slip to maintain existing conditions, but an opportunity to embrace new ideas.

“If all we do is invest in the status quo, then we’ve missed this once-in-a-lifetime historic opportunity to give our children the education they desperately need and deserve,” Duncan said.

Iowa will receive $411 million for education in the first round of Recovery Act funding. This includes more than $300 million to help save teachers’ jobs and balances the education budget, $25 million for schools with large low-income populations and $65 million for special education students.

To receive this money, states must commit to a set of education reforms — including data systems to better track students’ progress, higher standards and an investment in teacher quality programs.

“We think with historic levels of investment, we can’t simply invest in status quo,” Duncan said. “We have to push very strong for an agenda.” A second round of funding — $268 million for Iowa — will be released later this year. States must have reform ideas in progress or a plan in place to receive the money.

“(States) must be mindful of the fact that this is two-year funding,” Duncan said. “There’s a cliff at the end, so (states) must identify investments that do not continue to carry costs.”

The Recovery Act also includes a $5 billion Race To The Top fund. This money will be used to reward states that move the furthest and the fastest on education.

A share of that $5 billion — $650 million — will ago directly to innovative districts and non-profits that spur innovation. Some ideas Duncan shared included paying the best teachers to coach their colleagues, investments in early childhood learning and year-round education.

“Our school calendar is still based upon the agrarian economy,” Duncan said. “We know that doesn’t make sense, even in a farm state like Iowa.”

Duncan spoke in favor of alternative teacher certification and said the country should attack its decades-long math and science teacher shortage by paying higher salaries to educators in those fields. He also suggested transforming schools into family-centered learning facilities.

“Our schools have to be community centers, open not five days a week, six hours a day, nine months a year, but six, seven days a week, 13, 14 hours a day, 11, 12 months out of the year,” Duncan said. “The more our schools become the hearts of our community, the more families are learning together, the better our children are going to do.”

Arne Duncan at UNI Friday

CEDAR FALLS — Arne Duncan will make his first visit to Iowa as U.S. Secretary of Education Friday. Duncan will deliver a policy address at the University of Northern Iowa at 11 a.m. at the Gallagher-Bluedorn Performing Arts Center.

The event is free and open to the public. It will also be streamed live at:  http://mm1.uni.edu:8080/ramgen/broadcast/live-duncan.rm

“I am honored to have Secretary Duncan share his priorities for education with our campus and the citizens of Iowa,” said Benjamin J. Allen, UNI president. “Our country is facing difficult challenges. Ensuring strong education systems is vital to preparing our students for the global economy.”

Before’s Duncan’s appointment as secretary of education, he served as the chief executive officer of the Chicago Public Schools from June 2001 through December 2008.

City High Student Wins Award for “Racquet”

IOWA CITY — Iowa City High School Junior Susanna Howard received a Youth Activism Award from the Iowa State Education Association (ISEA) at the group’s annual meeting in April.

Howard earned the Paul Mann Youth Activism Award, given by the Peace and Justice Caucus, for her work in raising money last fall to help clean up the Iowa River. “Raise a Racquet for the River,” a tennis marathon fundraiser, raised more than $3,500 in donations. Tennis players from all over eastern Iowa — as well as local businesses and the University of Iowa — contributed to the event.

Howard was nominated by City High English teacher Tom Yates, an ISEA member. The award is given in the memory of Paul Mann, an Iowa teacher who passed away three years ago, and who was active in promoting causes of peace, justice, and international education.

As a state winner of this award, Howard has a chance to attend the National Education Association national meeting in San Diego in July.

Kennedy Teacher and Students Going to South Africa

CEDAR RAPIDS — Jason Cochrane, a science teacher at Kennedy High School and Discovery Education advisor, has been selected for a tour of South Africa in June.

Cochrane and four Kennedy students — Sean McQuade, sophomore, and Iman Kashmola, Sanjay Sudhir and Stephanie Wenclawski, all freshmen — will experience South Africa through the Discovery Education program.

Discovery Education, a division of Discovery Communications, LLC, provides digital resources to schools and homes with the goal of making educators more effective, increasing student achievement, and connecting classrooms and families to a world of learning. 

Cochrane and his students will join teachers and students from two other schools — one from Texas, the other from Arkansas — for the journey. In the months prior to their departure, students are provided with pre-trip assignments, destination videos and other communications in preparation for their journey. Teachers also are offered a variety of educational resources, including lesson plans and videos related to each destination. This materials can be used in their classrooms and to engage students traveling with them.

The group leaves June 2 and returns June 16.

Got Books?

CEDAR RAPIDS — Polk Elementary School students have no excuse for checking out the same library book week after week. The school is one of three in Iowa to receive a Laura Bush Foundation Grant.

The $6,000 grant will be used to update the library’s collection, with the money going toward the purchase of 430 new books. Polk students already laid claim to their favorites. During class library parties to celebrate the good news, each student was allowed to reserve the book they would most like to read.

Nearly 200 school libraries across the country received grants for the 2008-09 school year. A total $1,097,104 was awarded.

Eastern Iowa Students Receive International Internship

Two Eastern Iowa high school students recently received a 2009 Borlaug-Ruan International Internship through the World Food Prize Foundation.

Ellen Franzenburg, a senior at Benton Community High School, and Lauren Schefter, a senior at Mount Vernon High School, are recipients of an eight-week, all-expenses-paid internship to foreign agriculture research institutes. 

A total of 15 seniors — nine from Iowa — were selected to travel to Bangladesh, Brazil, China, Egypt, Ethiopia, Kenya, India, Mexico, Peru, Philippines, Taiwan, and Turkey to get a firsthand view of pressing food security and nutritional problems in poverty-stricken areas and take part in ground-breaking field and laboratory-based research.

Franzenburg accepted an assignment at The World Vegetable Center in Taiwan, which focuses on the alleviation of poverty and malnutrition in developing countries through improved production and consumption of safe vegetables.

Schefter is headed to the Philippines to work for the International Rice Research Institute, a group that helps with sustainable rice production and cutting poverty among rice farmers.

Upon their return, each intern will submit a research report and reflection paper documenting their personal experiences and the outcomes of their research projects.