For Kansas City, KS Public Schools’ director of transportation, maintaining the district fleet of 160 buses is no easy task.  Incrementally-rising maintenance and diesel fuel costs prompted the director to start researching newer and more efficient buses.

So in 2010, the district learned about the Kansas City Regional Clean Cities Coalition, an initiative that supports alternative fuels for transportation fleets.  After becoming a citywide partner, the district received a $4 million grant from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA).

In August of that year, the director of transportation was able to order 47 natural gas powered buses, roughly one-third of the district’s fleet.  Because they are powered by natural gas, there are nearly no emissions.  The elimination of diesel fuel is projected to save the district tens of millions of dollars in expenses.

Also, the rear-engine buses are quieter for the driver, increasing their ability to hear and monitor the students on board.

To learn more about the benefits of the district’s new transportation fleet, click here to access the article.

How does your school or district solicit bids from prospective vendors? 

For the purchasing director at Utah’s Granite School District, posting bid notices on their website was not necessarily the most efficient way to solicit bids.  The district subsequently took on a bidding service that served as an exchange between them and vendors and allows for the transmission of documents, proposals and questions.

As a result of the transition, the new procurement service has increased the efficiency of the purchasing department, as well as saved the district thousands of dollars each year in paper, ink and labor expenses.

According to the purchasing director, not only has the new service increased efficiency and lowered expenses, it helps match them with the best bidder for each product and service, too.  Because the services shed a lot more visibility into the proposal process, it increases competition amongst bidders.

Another benefit of the service is that districts can collaborate to consolidate products or services needed, in effect lowering the overall cost for both.  They can also share experiences on pricing, market conditions and proposal process strategies.

Click here to learn more about how these procurement tools are helping schools save money.

A while back we told you about a computer program that had the preliminary ability to grade written assignments such as essays.  Findings at that time indicated the technology was far from producing an accurate evaluation of student writing.

Most recently, a study concluded that these programs have advanced to automatically read and grade as well as, (or even better than), a teacher.

Conducted at the University of Akron, the study ran 16,000 middle and high school essays through the software.  The essays had already been graded by teachers.  The findings?  The computer scoring returned nearly identical accuracy levels, with an actual increase in consistency over human grading.

How does a computer program grade an essay, you might ask.  In short, by many of the same techniques a human teacher would use to evaluate one.  Word usage, sentence structure, syntax and subject-verb agreements are scanned to determine the grammatical accuracy of the writing.

Whether or not the context is correct is something the readers need improvement evaluating, according to those related to the study.

To read more about this new technology, click here.

The end of the 2011-2012 school year is right around the corner.  For many, especially high school seniors, the anxiety to finish is overwhelming.  In this post, we’ll discuss three tips for teachers to keep their students on track until the very last day.

1.       Plan engaging lessons for spring.  Although there may not be a lot of flexibility, teachers who plan more-engaging lessons in the spring are better able to keep the attention of their students.  Interactive lessons with group activities help keep students stimulated against end-of-year excitement.

2.       Allow students to choose.  Many teachers have chimed in, agreeing that allowing students to choose the completion of their assignments allows them to be more enthusiastic because they “call the shots”.  According to one teacher, “giving students a choice as far as what they can do for a projectmakes it more relevant and fun for them.”

3.       Make your classroom mobile.  Weather permitting, teachers should consider bringing their teaching outdoors.  Incorporating lessons into an environment outside the classroom is always anticipated by students looking to escape the indoors.

If a new bill is passed by the Tennessee House of Representatives, thousands of children set to enter kindergarten this fall would be required to pass a new “maturity test” first.

Though kindergarteners are already required to be at least five years old before September 30 of each new school year, new legislation could restrict those from entering at the age of four without successfully passing this test. 

According to sources, the test would be in a standardized format.

Prompted by the recommendation of state kindergarten teachers, proponents of the test agree that birthdays don’t determine maturity levels for each child, thus needing a test.  Slated to affect more than 4,000 students next school year if passed, the reform is expected to help teachers who struggle with students not necessarily ready for a structured school environment.

The new legislation is also expected to save the state of Tennessee millions of dollars in education expenses.

What do you think of the proposed legislation?  Click here to access the rest of the article.

The Flipped Learning method, as it is most commonly known, is the fundamental idea that students view or listen to lectures and lesson plans individually from their homes, and complete homework, projects and collaborative group work while in school.

The method is quite literally flipped from conventional teaching, where lessons and lectures are delivered in class so students can subsequently go home and complete their assignments.

Flipped Learning has been around for a while.  When Harvard’s Dr. Eric Mazur began researching the concept back in the early 90’s, many thought it would completely transform education.  According to the research, Flipped Learning allows students to build off of their preliminary subject knowledge by answering questions and reviewing course material from their homes.

Once in class, students work together to solve problems and answer questions based upon the self-taught materials.  Teachers listen to conversations and engage when needed.

Have you had any experience with this kind of teaching?  To learn more about the method, click here to read the rest of the article.

Is there such a thing as too much homework?  According to a group of Australian researchers, yes, there is.  In an evaluation that compared the number of hours a student spent on homework to their academic performance, a correlation was discovered.

In essence, the more homework a student was tasked with completing, the lower their average test scores were.  Results were consistent internationally for all standardized testing, according to the researchers.

While multiple hours of homework can be overbearing, researchers did not discount homework completely, stating that a few hours per week bolsters academic achievement and reinforces lessons learned while in school.

Experts also stressed the importance of pertinent homework, not “busy-work” that lacks stimulation and knowledge retention among students.

So what should students be focusing on during their after-school hours?  Though there is no clear answer for every student, learning a musical instrument or participating in extra-curricular activities also helps keep students engaged with their school and classmates.

Share your thoughts with us! Reply to this post on our blog.

Though virtual schools have sprouted up all over the country, traditional schools are now employing new techniques to foster individual learning.  One of these techniques is the use of Skype in classrooms, or allowing students to sit-in virtually on lectures no matter where they are.

Should Skype in fact be used in schools?  The topic has many pros and cons.  In addition to providing students with the flexibility of learning from the location of their choice, some have said it can help build self-study skills required in higher education.  Conversely, opponents of the use of Skype in the classroom say it creates a sense of impersonal learning only realized by face-to-face interaction.

Also, while individual learning is a good fit for some, it requires a considerable amount of diligence and responsibility some say high school students are too premature for.

Because technology has made it possible for such an option to exist, schools are beginning to offer students the option of video-conferencing to class.  To read more of the article, click here.

Following an elaborate cheating scandal, the SAT and ACT college entrance exams are now tightening their rules and security.  The scandal, which involved several Long Island high school students submitting fake identification in order to complete the test for a peer, resulted in arrests and a major reformation to the ytests areadministered.

Required by nearly all American colleges as part of the admissions process, the SAT and ACT exams will now require students to submit a recent photograph upon registration, which will be cross checked to photo ID on the day of the test.

Also new are guidelines that require test results to be sent directly to students’ high schools, which wasn’t an option before.  According to principals and administrators, this gives greater visibility into detecting suspicious results that might otherwise go unnoticed.

To learn more about the preparations needed, review the following links for the SATs or ACTs.

Are you keeping up on the latest school meal requirements set forth by the USDA?  School cafeterias now have to offer fruits and vegetables daily, according to new standards issued in an effort to reduce childhood obesity and provide students with a more balanced meal.

Sodium, saturated fat and trans fat also have to be reduced, in addition to more whole grain and low-fat milk offerings.   The new standards come at a time when as many at 17% of American children are obese, according to the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies.

Also new are standards that limit the number of calories per serving, segmented by age group.  For example, students in grades K-5 must contain between 550 and 650 calories, with lesser amounts for older students.

The question now remains, will students eat the food?  Although schools are now mandated to offer fruit and vegetables, they can’t force students to eat them.  Early observations report students rejecting and trashing healthier meals for junk food snuck into schools.

While the new requirements are projected to cost nearly $3 billion over the next several years, nutritionists hope the creativity of school chefs nationwide will provide students with wholesome food that is also appealing to them.