Category Archives: Schools and Assessment

Next Generation Skills

By Steve Atwater | Published: August 14, 2011
One of the basic tenets of education is that it will prepare students for life after school.  Until recently, the future endeavors of our students were somewhat predictable.  But now, due to the off-the-charts rate of technological change, it is likely that more than two-thirds of our elementary students who come to school next week […]
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AYP, Only a Part of the Story

By Steve Atwater | Published: August 7, 2011
About ten years ago the federal Elementary and Secondary Act was reauthorized under the title No Child Left Behind (NCLB).  Much of what was included in this reauthorization was a radical change from the original act that was designed to help educate children living in poverty.  NCLB set a series of bold targets with sanctions […]
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Poverty and Test Scores

By Steve Atwater | Published: July 9, 2011
Each spring our students take the state’s  Standards Based Assessment (SBA), a test that assesses skill levels in reading, writing and math.  As has been the case in the past, this year, KPBSD students’ SBA results were far better than those of their Alaskan peers.  We should all feel good about this.  The SBA is […]
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Personnel, A Moving Target

By Steve Atwater | Published: June 20, 2011
Early in my career as a school superintendent I received a phone call from a teacher on New Years Day.   She was calling to let me know that she was quitting her job and would not be returning to her village school for the second semester-the Christmas break was scheduled to end two days later.  […]
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Getting Smarter with Smart Phones

By Steve Atwater | Published: June 13, 2011
One of our on-going challenges is figuring out how to effectively use personal computing devices in our classrooms. I know that some of our teachers struggle with how to make use of the smart phones that rest in many of our students’ pockets. There is little question that the phones can be a distraction to […]
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Supporting our Graduates

By Steve Atwater | Published: May 28, 2011
The last week of school is one of those stretches of time when there is so much going on that things quickly blur into an endless series of events.  In the late afternoons and evenings of this week, high schools hold their graduation ceremonies, the culminating events of the year.  This week, I was fortunate […]
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Keeping Things Half-Full

By Steve Atwater | Published: May 19, 2011
Earlier this week I listened to public comment taken on the borough assembly’s ordinance to raise the salary of our borough mayor.  Those who spoke against the ordinance referenced the peninsula’s poor economy stating that it was not fair for this position to receive such an increase while many residents were economically suffering.  On the […]
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BP Teachers of Excellence Applying What is Learned

By Steve Atwater | Published: May 13, 2011
A basic strategy of good teaching is applying the taught concept in a local context.  An example of this when teaching the sine wave, is to have students graph our ever changing amount of daylight; it graphs to an almost perfect shape of this wave.  Last night we held our annual BP Teacher of Excellence Awards dinner.  The brief […]
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Teacher Unions Not To Blame

By Steve Atwater | Published: May 9, 2011
One of the more interesting developments from the nation’s mid-term elections is the labeling of organized labor as a reason for the country’s economic downturn.  As I am sure you have seen, teacher unions are at the top of this list of those to blame.  While I am not always in agreement with all of our teacher […]
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Math, It’s Elementary

By Steve Atwater | Published: May 6, 2011
During the first week of May it was my privilege to take part in the Seward Math Bowl.  This is an annual event that brings together our upper elementary students from around the district.  The teams compete in two half hour exercises.  It is a  great venue for the participating students to showcase their excellent math […]
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