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The Principals’ Office will be taking a break for the next two weeks. Check back in with us in January for continued discussions of the complexities of the principalship and engaging posts that connect you with your colleagues.
We wish you a wonderful holiday season and all the best for the new year!
The January/February 2008 Speaking Out article addresses whether or not 
to give students a zero grade for an incomplete or missing assignment. The author of the current article believes that students should never receive zeros because it results in loss of learning, lower motivation, and, ultimately, failure. As such, she helped implement a school program in which students are given after-school opportunities to complete missing assignments, requiring them to earn a grade on all their schoolwork.
Do you agree that zeros should be eliminated from grading scales? What methods have you found effective in decreasing student failure while maintaining integrity of student grades and learning? Speak out and let us know what you think!
Over the last few weeks, there have been a number of articles published on the issue of “highly qualified” or “highly effective” principals, including a December 12 article (“Policy Focus Turning to Principal Quality”) in Education Week. NAESP opposes the establishment of a federal definition of a “highly qualified” or “highly effective” principal (or any similar definition). Listing criteria in federal law would, we believe, lead to judging principal quality fully or in large part on the basis of test scores. The best way for the federal government to help create and maintain excellent principals is to require states and districts to provide principals with high-quality ongoing professional development, beginning with mentoring in the early years and lasting throughout a principal’s career, and to provide funds to help states in that work.
NAESP supports the authorization of funds for an independently designed and implemented program of voluntary national certification for principals. We believe the model of the board certification program for teachers established by the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards is an excellent one, and would like for the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards to create and implement it.
NAESP’s ESEA reauthorization recommendations detail what the Association believes should be changed to make ESEA more effective and less punitive on the nation’s schools, including ensuring that schools are well-staffed by well-qualified professionals.
FreeRice.com donates 20 grains of rice to the U.N. World Food Program every time a player selects the right definition for a particular word. This vocabulary quiz site, which debuted in October, has generated interest from children and adults alike, to the tune of more than 8.2 billion grains of rice to date. The rice is paid for by advertiser income.
The site was created by a computer programmer seeking to help his son prepare for the SAT’s verbal section. Teachers of all grade levels have encouraged their students to take a stab at this “game,” which includes words ranging from “solve” and “quickly” to “ebullient” and “spelunker.”
On Friday, Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings announced that all eligible states are welcome to adopt the “growth model” for assessing student progress under NCLB. Educators have complained that the current method of measuring progress unfairly lumps the scores of students together, without taking into account gains by individual students. The growth model allows states to track the progress of individual students over a period of time, and requires states to have a system to track students’ scores and to protect their privacy.
North Carolina, Tennessee, Delaware, Arkansas, Florida, Iowa, Alaska, and Arizona are using the growth model, but the Department of Education will have to approve additional states that want to use it.
It’s that time of year again, when parents and students present school staff 
with holiday gifts as a “thank you” for the work you’ve done during the school year. Over the years, we’re sure you’ve received wonderful, unique, tasty, and even odd gifts, both homemade and store-bought, from your students—some that have become quite sentimental and others that you’re not quite sure what to do with.
What are some of your favorite gifts you received from your students? What’s the most amusing gift you’ve received? And what’s the one gift you’ll never forget—whether good or bad?
