Dropout Factory Update

Oak Harbor High School has been removed from the now famous list of "Dropout Factories" generated by researchers at Johns Hopkins University. The national study compared the number of high school students entering with those graduating three years later.

Oak Harbor H.S. should not have been included in the original list according to the university. In a letter, Robert Balfanz, a Johns Hopkins University researcher, said:

"Oak Harbor High School does not currently meet the criteria for 'fitting the profile' of a dropout factory and should not be characterized as such."

According to a note in today's Everett Herald, students at Oak Harbor are not counted by year class, but rather, students advance based on credits and course grades earned.

Tuesday Tidbits - Nov. 20, 2007

In today's Tuesday Tidbits, we're cleaning out the inbox to make room for all those Thanksgiving leftovers we'll return to next week. Savor and enjoy!

• Recess, Then Lunch: At least three elementary schools in the Vancouver, Wash. area have flipped recess and lunch, allowing students to play first, eat second. The theory is that students have better appetites, make better meal choices, have fewer playground disputes and trips to the nurses office as a result. Read more on recess first here.
  
• What About Books?: Public school librarians are banding together to ensure school libraries don't go the way of chalkboards with a grassroots campaign. According to an article in The Seattle Times, budget cuts in the Spokane Public Schools reduced 10 librarians to half-time and other school libraries around the state are also looking for creative ways to bring students and staff back into the stacks. (Quick! Somebody call Nancy Pearl!)
• Customer Service: Here's a great customer service tip sheet for schools and district compiled by school PR leader Brian Woodland, APR, from Peel District School Board in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada. Think twice before someone in your front office says, "that's our policy..."
• There's Two Os in Proof: A printing error has invalidated U.S. students' reading scores on the Program for International Student Assessment or PISA exam. The test in reading, science and mathematics is administered every three years to evaluate the progress of 15-year-olds around the world. Apparently, directions sending students "to the opposite page" were blurred during the printing process, and the printing company changed the order of the pages, which interrupted the question flow. As the Washington Post reported, questions about two essays about graffiti instructed students to look at the "opposite page" when the essays appeared on the previous page.