Commissioner's Update
September 19, 2006

Dear Superintendents, and Leaders of Charter Schools and Collaboratives:

In this Update I have seven announcements and nine items recently posted at www.doe.mass.edu for your review.

Update

Health Care For All

Health Care For All, a non-profit consumer advocacy organization dedicated to assisting Massachusetts parents enroll their children in free or low-cost health coverage, would like to invite your schools to join the Covering Kids and Families' 2006 Back-to-School Campaign. This campaign is a national effort coordinated by the Covering Kids and Families initiative at Health Care For All, in partnership with Watch Your Mouth, a public awareness campaign for children's oral health.

Children who are healthy do better in school, and children who are insured are more likely to get the health care they need. In mid-September, Health Care For All will mail you a package containing information on how to get uninsured children and their families enrolled in health care. I hope that you will distribute this useful information widely in your schools. For more information, please go to www.hcfama.org.

STEM Summit III

Please join us for the STEM Summit III: "Closing the STEM Achievement Gap," on Wednesday, Oct. 25 in Sturbridge. U.S. Education Secretary Margaret Spellings will be giving the keynote address. For registration information, go to: http://www.massachusetts.edu/stem/index.html. Please forward this message to your science, technology, engineering and math faculty members and department heads.

High Schools of the Future II: Lessons from Reforming Schools

The High Schools of the Future II conference will be held on October 12 at the Best Western Royal Plaza Hotel and Conference Center in Marlborough, from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. The conference is intended to assist school and district leaders develop ideas/plans for high school redesign and to help improve the state's graduation and college and career readiness rates. It is a follow-up event to our highly successful High Schools of the Future conference held in January 2006. Keynote speakers for this full-day conference include Pedro Noguera, Professor at the Steinhardt School of Education at New York University, and Olivia Ifill-Lynch, Director of Professional Learning for the School Redesign Network at Stanford University. The day will also include several morning and afternoon breakout sessions presented by high school practitioners.

The conference is co-sponsored by the Rennie Center for Education Research & Policy, the Center for Collaborative Education and the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. For more information, please go to http://www.doe.mass.edu/hsreform/conference/hsfutureII.html.

Family Literacy Month

As has become a Massachusetts tradition, we will celebrate Family Literacy Month in November. Most experts agree that children whose parents are involved in their children's education achieve at higher levels than students whose parents are not involved. Massachusetts Family Literacy Month is an opportunity to support parents in their roles as children's first and most continuous teachers and partners in their children's education and celebrate the partnership between parents and schools. Our family literacy website http://www.doe.mass.edu/familylit/ has resources that can help.

I hope you will take advantage of this occasion to strengthen and expand your partnership with parents and thank you for your efforts to make Family Literacy Month a vibrant tradition in the Commonwealth. Working together, we will achieve success for all Massachusetts families.

New & Closed Schools

If public or private schools in your districts will be opening or closing, or if your public schools are undergoing grade span changes, please notify us by using the notification forms posted at: http://www.doe.mass.edu/infoservices/data/diradmin/default.html.

Directory Administration (DA)

Please review your district and school contact information in the District and School profiles at http://profiles.doe.mass.edu/. The Department has established several list serves that are used to communicate with school district staff. Please ensure that the email address for each member in your district and school is up to date. The functions listed below are maintained in DA. If a member of the district is not selected the communication will be automatically directed to the Superintendent.
*Assistant Superintendent, Career and Technical Education Director, Curriculum Director, Dropout Prevention Liaison, Educational Technology Director, Educator Preparation Director, English Language Learner Director, Grants Coordinator, Guidance Director, Homeless Liaison, Human Resources Director, Library/Media Services Director, MCAS Test Coordinator, METCO Director, Nutrition Director, Professional Development Director, School Business Official, SIMS Contact, Special Education Director, Superintendent, and Title I Director.

Fall Data Collection Trainings

The Information Services group will be providing training during the last 2 weeks in September. The trainings will cover SIMS, the School Safety & Discipline Report, and Directory Administration. For more information and to register please go to: http://www.doe.mass.edu/conference/.

Postings at www.doe.mass.edu:

1. Amendments to Student Records Regulations on Access by Non-Custodial Parents
   
2. MCAS Assessment Development Committee (ADC) Recruitment
   
3. Ordering Test Material for the November 2006 MCAS Retest
   
4. 2007 Educator Manual for MCAS Alternate Assessment (MCAS-Alt)
   
5. Arrival of John and Abigail Adams Scholarship Letters
   
6. Fall 2006 Statistical Reports
   

     Superintendents

     Principals

     Principals of Non-Public Schools

7. Graduation Rates
   
8. Gifted and Talented Services RFP
   
9. College Funding Grants
   

Sincerely,

David P. Driscoll
Commissioner of Education