We value and appreciate the educational system provided to our children from Amherst, Leverett, Pelham, and Shutesbury. This website is intended to create a safe and dynamic public space for people to share information, exchange thoughts and engage in discussions about our shared commitment to sustaining and continuously improving our high-quality school system. Continue reading
Thanks for visiting our site again. As it is summer and a lot of the usual contributors are busy (or busy relaxing) we encourage you to come visit us again at the start of the 2011/2012 school year when we expect to have articles of interest to share or discuss.
By Marietta Pritchard
Daily Hampshire Gazette May 21, 2011
AMHERST – When the announcement came to put away all electronic devices, the young woman next to me on a cross-country flight put away the iPhone she’d been surfing and talking on. She pulled out a paperback book – Stieg Larsson’s “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo” – and said, “Now for some old-fashioned entertainment.”
My informal tally of the other passengers on this plane during a couple of walks up and down the aisle suggests that about a third of the people were reading – either books on paper or on electronic readers such as Kindle – another third were using laptops to work, play video games or watch movies and the rest were sleeping, eating, staring into space or dealing with small children.
What interests me here is what the young woman described as old-fashioned entertainment – otherwise known as reading. I was pleased to see the survival and even the promotion of that purely verbal skill on recent visits to two public elementary schools 3,000 miles apart. I have always enjoyed visiting classrooms, where I can see children and grandchildren in one of their natural habitats and in a non-holiday setting. Continue reading
Superintendent Maria Geryk has announced the selection of Monica Colley as Principal of Fort River School. Colley visited the district as one of three finalists last Thursday and spent her day touring Fort River, visiting classes, meeting with staff and administrators, and finally with parents and guardians at an evening Public Forum. Colley will begin her work in the district on July 1. Continue reading
From http://www.arps.org/node/2924
Fort River Principal Search 2011
Three finalists have been selected for the position of Principal of Fort River School:
The visit schedule and bio of each candidate follows. Continue reading
MCAS results are publicly available at the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) website, at http://profiles.doe.mass.edu/state_report/mcas.aspx. While the Bulletin story says only 13 percent of low-income students in the Amherst Regional district scored Proficient or Advanced on the 2010 MCAS in English, according to the DESE website the actual figure is 70 percent.
Similarly, the Bulletin’s 22 percent of low-income Amherst Regional students scoring Proficient or Advanced on the 2010 math MCAS turns out actually to be 52 percent.
We should also note that the Amherst schools are doing better than the state average with low-income students. On the most important MCAS test – the 10th-grade test that shows the effects of 11 years of schooling – Amherst low-income students score 10 percentage points higher than the state average for low-income students in English (69 percent vs. 59 percent Proficient or Advanced) and 8 percentage points higher in Math (65 percent vs. 57 percent).
Overall, 85 percent of Amherst 10th-graders score Proficient or Advanced on the MCAS.
Should our schools rest on their laurels? Of course not – the data show that Amherst, like most other districts, has significant achievement gaps to close, and our goal should be 100 percent. But our discussion of solutions is likely to be more thoughtful and productive if we are clear about where we’re starting from.
Andy Churchill
Amherst
Note: The original article was referenced in a CSE post on March 18, 2011.
Great things happen when different groups come together to support students and education. “Let’s Move Amherst Elementary!” is an exciting collaboration between the Amherst College Swim and Dive team, the AC Athletic and Center for Community Engagement Departments, the Crocker Farm, Fort River and Wildwood Parent Guardian Organizations, area businesses and the Town of Amherst’s Police, LSSE and Health Departments. Representatives from these groups, inspired by First Lady Michelle Obama’s Campaign for Public Health, are planning a free, family fitness event with the goal of promoting active lifestyle choices that build healthy families, schools and communities.
The March 22nd meeting of the Amherst School Committee, to be held in the Town Room of the Amherst Town Hall at 7 pm, will be a forum to discuss the new K-12 Math Action Plan recently presented to the Regional and Amherst School Committees by Beth Graham, Director of Curriculum and Instruction. It is expected that in addition to Ms. Graham some members of the K-16 Math Council will be at the forum to answer questions and/or listen to comments regarding the plan, as well as Dr. Andrew Chen’s Review of the K-12 Math Program. This promises to be a very imformative meeting and I encourage all who are interested in the math program in the Amherst and Regional schools to attend.
Update: These answers to Frequently Asked Questions regarding the new K-12 Math Action Plan were posted yesterday on the ARPS website.
email
Print
Facebook
RSS
Twitter
PDF
Google Bookmarks
MySpace