Minds In Motion
About 200 pre-kindergartners in Bartow County, Georgia, will receive lessons on their bus rides to school this fall. Realizing that many of the 4-year-olds would be riding 45 minutes each way to the county new pre-K center, the school board has introduced the program to make better use of the kids travel time. Paraprofessionals will lead the students in songs and other activities.
No Takers
Recently, in separate incidents, two governors rejected student challenges to take their states tests. Governor Paul Cellucci refused to try the high school Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System exam, saying that he faces a test in the voting booth every four years that is “a lot harder than the MCAS.” Governor Bill Owens declined to take the Colorado Student Assessment Program exam, declaring, “I will not give in to the threats of a group of high school students.”
Parent Prep
Starting this semester, Chicago schools will send parents a series of checklists they can use to gauge how well they are preparing their kids for school. The lists, which will be sent home every five weeks, remind parents to feed their children breakfast and make sure their kids complete their homework, among other things. “We see this as a mechanism to reach out to parents,” says Paul Vallas, the chief executive officer of the 430,000-student district.
Stay Away
Leaders in the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, a polygamist Mormon sect in southern Utah, are urging followers to leave public schools, the Salt Lake Tribune reports. If teachers and students from plural-marriage families stay away, it could force four public schools in Hildale, Utah, and Colorado City, Arizona, to close. Almost all students in these towns come from polygamous households.
