SchoolMatters Blog

Darden/Curry Partnership for Leaders in Education

This week I am attending the Darden/Curry Partnership for Leaders in Education program with senior staff from Albemarle County Public Schools. We are having a very engaging first day live Tweeting the sessions.  I am very appreciative of the University of Virginia for supporting our work in this second year of the program.

Search Twitter for the tag #DCPLE for the all the insights, questions and comments being raised by the participants.

Brian Wheeler

Blogging Superintendents: The School Administrator's August 2009 cover story

I contributed a sidebar article about the positive contribution blogging can make to community engagement in the August 2009 issue of The School Administrator, published by the American Association of School Administrators.

Blogging by Board Members: Relationships and Sharing

If you are coming to this site after reading the collection of articles on blogging superintendents, welcome!  Please feel free to leave a comment or a question.

Brian Wheeler

$6 million Safer Schools Grant

We just received huge news about a $6 million federal grant related to improving school safety and student health.  Steele Howen on the Albemarle County Public Schools staff deserves a lot of the credit for working on this grant partnership with the Commission on Children and Families and the City of Charlottesville Schools.  I look forward to having the School Board briefed on this work in the upcoming school year.

Brian Wheeler

July 24, 2009 * Daily Progress [full story]

Safer, healthier students on way? $6 million grant to tackle concerns

Charlottesville and Albemarle County are jointly receiving nearly $6 million to help bolster programs targeting violence and substance-abuse prevention in schools and childhood development.

The Safe Schools/Healthy Students federal grant will be spread out over the next four years between the two divisions. The programs that both school systems will implement through the grant will address a range of issues that concern youth — such as violence and bullying prevention, early childhood social and emotional learning, access to counseling and family-support services and resistance to peer pressure on drugs and alcohol consumption.

The initiative is designed to work all the way from the preschool level through the 12th grade to head off social and emotional troubles that could hinder students’ learning. Combined, Charlottesville and Albemarle was the only grant recipient in Virginia, and received one of 29 grants administered nationwide.

Chapter of 100 Black Men working to eliminate achievement gap

Great article in the Daily Progress about the work of the new chapter of 100 Black Men and their personal work to eliminate the achievement gap in Albemarle and surrounding localities.  Our senior staff Dr. Luvelle Brown and Dr. Bernard Hairston and School Board Vice Chairman Ron Price deserve a lot of credit for their efforts.

Brian Wheeler

July 16, 2009 * Daily Progress [full story]

Closing the gap: Local chapter of 100 Black Men of America aims to do just that

Albemarle County is trying to close an academic achievement gap in which black male students are falling behind white classmates — and officials hope a new advocacy group can help.

A Central Virginia chapter of 100 Black Men of America was recently launched to provide educational and financial support for young black students. The local chapter, which has about 30 volunteers, mentors black male students, recognizes academic achievement and helps provide college scholarships.

“This is big,” said Luvelle Brown, the chief information officer for Albemarle’s school division and co-founder of the local chapter. “I’ve lived in this area a long time, and nothing like this has [ever] happened.”

The national nonprofit has more than 100 chapters throughout the country, many of which are decades old, and provides educational and economic support for young black males. The Central Virginia chapter serves youth in Charlottesville and the counties of Albemarle, Buckingham, Greene, Madison, Louisa, Nelson, Fluvanna and Orange.

cvillepedia - a community wiki inspired by educators

One of the greatest benefits of my school board service is exposure to really smart people, both inside and outside of our schools.  There have been countless ideas that I have borrowed from our school leadership, from classroom teachers, or from education conferences that I have been able to apply in my job running Charlottesville Tomorrow.  Ideas for management.  Ideas for education.  Ideas for community engagement. 

One recent example is being highlighted by The Daily Progress in a story today about my organization's launch of cvillepedia, a hyper-local community wiki that anyone can edit with content about Charlottesville and Albemarle County.  A lot of my confidence in launching this initiative with my colleague Sean Tubbs came from our amazing educators.

Last year I attended, with our Superintendent Dr. Pam Moran, the Virginia Association of School Superintendents (VASS) Conference.  There I saw Alan November speak to almost all the Superintendents of Virginia giving a presentation on "21st Century Learning."  While I am not a fan of that term, I am a big believer in using state-of-the-art technology and resources to engage learners, and the larger community. 

Three things really struck me about Alan's presentation:

• He was very smart about explaining the importance of the "grammar of the Internet."  How to use tools like Wikipedia and Google most effectively.  I think Internet literacy is as important today as media literacy.
• He was a firm believer in the educational benefits of Wikipedia and the ability to use wikis as tools to connect kids around the world to content.  He said, "We should teach kids to publish responsively in Wikipedia."
• The vast majority of Superintendents in the room seemed shocked, terrified, and/or incredulous.

Like Virginia's school superintendents, I have gotten similar reactions from close colleagues when they have heard about the cvillepedia project.  It makes me think back to 2005 when they were equally skeptical about my blogging about community issues and allowing people to comment on those posts. 

The Albemarle County School Board held a recent work sessions about the use of these tools in our classrooms.  I have seen our principals and teachers advocate for the ability to use blogs, Twitter, Facebook, and wikis.  They have convinced me.

Thus, I am putting my money on our community, which I think is going to pour a lot of talent, energy, and knowledge into this local wiki and make it a very powerful educational tool.  I also hope some local students will help lead the way. I am thankful their teachers put ME on the right path.

Brian Wheeler