District Administration - June 2008 - (Page 16)

BRIEFINGS Technology By Zach Miners Students “Talk About” Abusive Teachers IN LATE 2007 ADMINISTRA tors at Westﬁeld High School in Houston, Texas, were notiﬁed of a 42-year-old teacher engaging in sexual contact with a student in a barn on campus. The teacher admitted to having an improper relationship, was terminated and jailed. The notiﬁcation was made through a communications system in a test roll out of a new tool for students to report incidents of inappropriate student-teacher relationships. Developed by AnComm, the A student at A.J. Moore Academy at the Waco (Texas) Independent School District logs in to “Talk About It.” system, called “Talk About It,” recently announced the formal roll out of students—say it helps both to bridge the the enhancement, which company reps communication gap between students say make it the nation’s ﬁrst online report- and staﬀ and to eliminate an unwritten ing service that allows students to anony- “code of silence” that kids often feel promously report cases of abusive teachers. hibits them from speaking out. Students enter into an anonymous The tools set it apart from other initiatives districts have launched—such as Inter- back-and-forth conversation through the net chat rooms in Aurora (Colo.) Public system with the adult. Some problems Schools, covered in the March issue of are solved through the electronic mesDA—to provide anonymous forums for sages exchanged; in other cases students become comfortable enough that they reticent students. School administrators using the agree to meet face-to-face with the adult. At Brewton City Schools, which in service—currently in place at 150 U.S. schools and utilized by more than 150,000 the 2007-2008 academic year became the ﬁrst district in Alabama to use the system, administrators are conﬁdent in Talk About It’s ability to support healthy relationships. “Even if a reported case of teacher misconduct is not factual but based on rumor,” says Assistant Superintendent Baxter Baker, “it can taint how that person is viewed, and we’d want to address that.” Brewton oﬃcials plan on incorporating the new tool in the coming months. The New Fairﬁeld (Conn.) Public School District piloted the new tool in January, and students there have taken such ownership of the system that they are beginning to manage themselves better, district administrators say. “The most important thing is that it lets the students know we trust them to take control of their own environment,” says board member Ralph Langham. But perhaps the most telling evidence of the program’s eﬀectiveness can be seen in the growing amount of New Fairﬁeld students that are not even using the system anymore, says Langham, instead opting to go straight to faculty and administrators when potential problems arise. When Technology Views Clash STUDENTS AND EDUCATORS may agree on the importance of 21st century technologies in preparing youth for the future, but how well they are used in schools is a bone of contention among the groups, according to the recently released Annual Speak Up survey, the largest annual survey of K12 students, teachers, parents and administrators. According to the online survey, which was conducted by the education nonproﬁt group Project Tomorrow and collected unﬁltered views and ideas from over 367,000 education stakeholders nationwide, 66 percent of administrators, 47 percent of teachers and 43 percent of parents say “local schools are doing a good job preparing students for the jobs and careers of the future,” but only 23 percent of students who assessed their technology skills as being “advanced” feel the same. The majority of students polled also expressed discontent over school policies that they say prohibit them from using technology, with almost 50 percent indicating that tools meant to protect them, such as ﬁrewalls and ﬁlters, are inhibiting their learning. For more of the ﬁndings go to www.tomorrow.org. 16 June 2008 District Administration http://www.tomorrow.org

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of District Administration - June 2008

District Administration - June 2008
Contents
Editor’s Letter
Letters
News Update
Technology Update
Inside the Law
Conversations
Online Edge
Speaking Out
Professional Opinion
Crisis Response
Administrator Profile
District Profile
Cutting Costs from the Inside Out
New Literacies: Entering the Future
Online Videoconferencing
Achievement Today
Transporting Special Needs Students
How Well Does This Web Site Work?
New Products
Problem/Solution
Calendar of Events
Understanding the Times

District Administration - June 2008