Proposition MM has received the Project Achievement Award from the Construction Management Association of America (CMAA) San Diego Chapter. The award recognizes the efforts of district employees and contracted professionals to successfully complete the $1.51 billion bond program on time and on budget. For more information, please contact Cynthia Reed-Porter, facilities community liaison, at (858) 637-3607.

Have you ever wondered where excess, obsolete, beyond economical repair, district-owned equipment ends up after it is removed from a site? Materiel Control employees process the equipment and prepare it for recycling; more than 647,000 tons over the past three years. As a result, the General Fund has received more than $141,000. For more information, please contact Rose Gustafson, materiel control manager, at (858) 522-5850.

Starting Monday, June 2, the district will expand its lunch tray recycling program to include all district elementary school cafeterias. The program began as a pilot project with 66 schools. During the pilot year, 28 tons of polystyrene trays were recycled. The program teaches students about the importance of recycling, saves water and energy, eliminates chemicals that pollute our waterways, and reduces waste in our landfills. For information, please contact David Wray, food facilities supervisor, at (858) 627-7304.

The San Diego Unified Special Projects Division is sponsoring a five-session study group for Title I principals actively seeking ways to improve their schools. The book, It’s Being Done: Academic Success in Unexpected Schools by Karin Chenoweth, is the foundation for this study. The study group will also focus on addressing characteristics identified by the author that make a difference in school quality and make sure schools are teaching all their children to learn at high levels. For more information, please contact Debbie Beldock, executive director, special projects, at (619) 725-5605.

Daniel Walker Howe, recipient of the 2008 Pulitzer Prize in History, will lead a discussion with San Diego teachers about his book, What Hath God Wrought: The Transformation of America, 1815-1848, on August 28, 2008. Details about this event will be forthcoming. Howe, an emeritus professor of history at Oxford and University of California at Los Angeles, has also agreed to appear at a public event for students and community on that day. Participating teachers will receive standards-based lesson plans developed by the History/Social Studies Department. Teachers who RSVP by next Tuesday, June 3, will receive a complimentary copy of Howe's book for summer reading. For more information, contact Kirk Ankeney at kankeney@sandi.net.

Harlan Klein, principal of the new Innovation Middle School (iMiddle), welcomed students and parents to the new Clairemont neighborhood school opening this fall at what is currently CPMA. Klein and the new staff answered questions and conducted tours. Students enjoyed pizza, received t-shirts with the school’s logo, and filled out Course Request forms for elective preferences. Electives include courses focused on hands-on learning using engineering, math and science skills to solve everyday problems. Modules include Automation and Robotics, Design and Modeling, and Flight and Space. Every student will have access to a personal laptop computer and technology will be integrated into all curricular areas. For more information, contact Harlan Klein at (858) 273-0294.

Cherokee Point Elementary School has been awarded a $300 grant by the Greater San Diego Mathematics Council to support Family Mathematics games and activities. The award recognizes the school’s outstanding efforts in involving parents in mathematics over the last three years. For information, please contact Rachel Clark at (619) 641-3400, x3076.

Wangenheim teacher Felicia Ryder was one of only two teachers in San Diego County to receive a Partnership Award from the San Diego Science Alliance. Ms. Ryder was selected for her exceptional efforts to enhance K-12 science education in San Diego County.

The Point Loma High School Sailing Team recently won the prestigious Roy Disney Trophy as the # 1 High School Sailing Team in the Pacific Coast Interscholastic Sailing Association. This award was the result of over 13 regattas competing against over 55 other west coast high schools throughout the 2007-08 school year. Nationally, PLHS was the most dominant overall high school in the U.S., being the only high school to medal in both fleet racing nationals - 2nd place and team racing nationals - 3rd place. For more information, contact Jan Kraklow, Point Loma High School, at (619) 223-3121 x1106.

The Madison High School “Devil Duckies” Robotics Team will be competing against other local robotics teams at the San Diego County Fair on June 14, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. The award-winning team had another successful season, including winning the Chrysler Team Spirit Award in San Diego, the prestigious Engineering Inspiration Award in Las Vegas, and the Chrysler Team Spirit Award at the Championships in Atlanta. For more information, contact Andrea López, Madison High School, at (858) 496-8410 x2214.

• Mason Elementary students Jonelle ¬Yabes and Kendra Hall have been selected to participate in the Old Globe’s Globe Readers Project Sampler on July 2, in Sacred Heart Hall on the University San Diego campus. A variety of student authored stories will be presented. Jonelle is the author of “Mike the Lonely Boy”; Kendra wrote “My Day as a Pirate”. For more information, please contact Mason Elementary at (858) 271-0410.
  
  
• Bethlehem "Betty" Leman, Wangenheim Middle, and Christine Guillen, Marshall Middle, have been selected to attend Tech Trek 2008 by the American Association of University Women San Diego. Tech Trek is a week-long Science, Math and Technology summer camp at the University of California San Diego.
  
  
• Marshall Middle School students Saara Chaudry and Marisa Romo have been selected to participate in the San Diego Science Alliance Better Education for Women in Science and Engineering (BE WiSE) Program. For more information, contact Marshall Middle School at (858) 549-5400.
  
  
• Point Loma High student Christine Goguen was one of six high school students who joined Team SPAWAR (Space and Naval Warfare System Center) for a two-month internship, part of the Educational Outreach Initiative under Business & Education Direct Connect, an Education Partnership between SPAWAR and San Diego Unified. For more information, contact Jan Kraklow, Point Loma High School, at (619) 223-3121 x1106.

District parents, staff and community members are invited to attend a choir concert on Saturday, May 31, at 7 p.m., in Brown Chapel at Point Loma Nazarene University. Students from 16 San Diego Unified middle and high school choirs will be performing. Admission is free. For information, contact Ann Marie Haney at ahaney@san.rr.com.

• Reshaping High Schools: Creating Excellent and Equitable Schools
  For many high schools, especially large urban schools that lose most of their students before graduation, attaining substantially different results will require more than just teachers "trying harder" within traditional bureaucratic constraints. The latest Educational Leadership examines how some high schools have made changes and implemented new organizational structures to offer an education that not only helps students achieve academically, but also dramatically transforms their life prospects. Read More.
  
  
• Critical Ninth Grade Year Gets Least Experienced Teachers
  In "The Linchpin Year" in the May 2008 Education Leadership, Billie Donegal questions current practices surrounding the teaching of the ninth grade in public high schools. More students fail in ninth grade than any other year, discipline referrals are at their highest, and drop out rates are greatest between the ninth and tenth grade. Despite this, novice teachers are routinely assigned ninth grade classes, student to teacher ratios are highest, and the most qualified teachers are reserved for honors classes and seniors. Donegal suggests a number of measures that will begin to remedy the problem, including a change in staffing practices; effective, high-impact freshman classes with the top teachers, including remedial classes; and interdisciplinary teacher teams to work with the same group of ninth graders and provide support. Read more.
  
  
• What Teachers Really Want
  In an effort to inform the national dialogue about what teachers in the national public education system think and want, Education Sector and the FDR group surveyed 1,010 K-12 public school teachers about the teaching profession, teachers unions, and reforms aimed at improving teacher quality. The survey also tracked trends by asking some questions identical to a 2003 survey of K-12 public school teachers. The survey found that, among other things, 76 percent of teachers feel that too many burned-out veteran teachers stay because they don't want to walk away from benefits and service time accrued. 55 percent said it was difficult to remove teachers who shouldn't be in the classroom, only 26 percent said their most recent evaluation was helpful, and 79 percent support strengthening the formal evaluation of probationary teachers. Read more .
  
  
• Saturate Before Soak: Early Learners Can Handle Big Words
  Researchers now believe that students in primary grades can acquire more advanced words earlier than previously thought, reports Laura Pappano in her article "Small Kids, Big Words: Research-Based Strategies for Building Vocabulary from Pre-K to Grade 3" in Harvard Education Letter. It is now felt that the mechanism for learning new vocabulary isn't the same as that for learning new math skills, where easier concepts are the building blocks for more complicated skills. More advanced words enrich conceptual understanding and enhance reading ability as a student progresses. It's especially important in closing the achievement gap for students who arrive to early grades with a limited vocabulary, and for English Language Learners. Read more.
  
  
• Teaching Math So Students are Ready for College
  "Rethinking High School: Supporting All Students to be College-Ready in Math," a new report by WestEd, profiles three public high schools that are successfully preparing diverse students to be college- and career-ready. Researchers found that the high schools in Bellevue, Wash.; Norfolk, Va.; and Boston, Mass. share three elements that all work together: offering high-level math courses and support for all students; providing intensive professional development for teachers to improve their subject knowledge and teaching skills; and using student progress and evaluations to help teachers tailor their lessons. Read more.
  
  
• How a Failing Grade Becomes a Passing Grade
  In districts across the country, schools and teachers are grappling with grading reform as a means to help failing students catch up, writes Steve Friess of USA TODAY. In some places, such as at Las Vegas High, administrators issued a policy that said that students should receive no score less than 50 for a failing grade, a policy known as minimum-F. The minimum-F policy is part of a larger debate nationwide about grade inflation on the one hand, where students are arriving to college with As and Bs but still unprepared, and a crisis in the dropout rate, where students stop trying to succeed at all. Even supporters of the policy acknowledge that it should only be one of a many-pronged approach to motivate low-achieving students. Read more.
  
  
• Low Graduation Rate Draws Florida Lawsuit
  The Christian Science Monitor
  Amid mounting national frustration over high school graduation rates, the School District of Palm Beach County in Florida has been thrust onto center stage. In a class-action lawsuit, the American Civil Liberties Union is demanding that the district boost its graduation rates and reduce the gaps in those rates and reduce the gaps in those rates between racial and socioeconomic groups. The lawsuit is the first in the United States to make such demands of a school district, the ACLU and other sources say. Read more.
  
  
• Earthquakes Bring Attention to Seismically Unsafe Schools
  In the wake of the disastrous collapse of over 7,000 "classrooms" and the death of an estimated10,000 students in China after the devastating earthquake on May 12, American seismologists are assessing the sturdiness of schools in the U.S., writes Andrew Revkin in the New York Times blog Dot Earth. The Pacific Northwest, especially, seems vulnerable. According to Yumei Wang, geohazards team leader for the state of Oregon, approximately 1,300 schools there have "a very high probability of collapse." Washington State is similarly vulnerable. Read more.