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CV MONTHLY REVIEW - SEPTEMBER
August 18, 2022
Last blog I spoke about the Health and Safety Grants that will be distributed to schools for the 2022-2023 year. Cumberland Valley SD will receive $485,762.00. The total appropriation for each school includes one-half of its appropriation for school safety and security and one-half of its appropriation for school mental health.
What I learned since I wrote the last blog, was that there are specific requirements that schools must complete when spending the money they receive. These requirements are determined by PCCD (Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency). I knew the PCCD was the organization that originated the PAYS survey but did not realize the extent of their reach into funding in school programming with grants and advocacy in many areas regarding children. Some seem to be good and some seem to be integrated with other agencies that have agendas that may be outside the basic arena of proven child safety and academic advancement. I discuss the PAYS survey in my video so please go to the video to view for an overview and some commentary. I have provided the link to the full PAYS survey for your review. When you are reading through, please remember this is given to children as young as 10 or 11 years old. Ask yourself if you believe these are appropriate questions for children to be answering and if this should be taking up school time to complete. You can always opt out your child for any and all surveys and I attached a form that you can use for surveys or for other items. And again, more information on this opt out information in the video.
file:///C:/Users/kkcol/Downloads/2021%20PAYS%20Question%20Dictionary%20(1).pdf
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1qYYvVo5T8jDsxdtYgOYEdoa3s5I-HmHa/view
They have been using this survey since 1989 to supposedly reduce problematic behaviors in schools and provide programming to assist communities. As a critical thinker, I have one question that needs to be answered regarding surveys/questionnaires, taxpayer funded grants and school programming that is not based in proven academic methods. For all the money spent and data collected on our children and communities for the past 32 years, what significant positive impact have all previous programs shown to reduce disruptive school environments, improve school safety and academic performance??? In short, how much more successful and safer are public schools now than they were 32 years ago?
The following information is taken from the PCCD website: “Since 1989, the Commonwealth has conducted a survey of school students in the 6th, 8th, 10th and 12th grades to learn about their behavior, attitudes and knowledge concerning alcohol, tobacco, other drugs and violence. The ‘Pennsylvania Youth Survey,’ or PAYS, sponsored and conducted every two years by the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency. The data gathered in PAYS serve two primary needs. First, the results provide school administrators, state agency directors, legislators and others with critical information concerning the changes in patterns of the use and abuse of these harmful substances and behaviors. Second, the survey assesses risk factors that are related to these behaviors and the protective factors that help guard against them. This information allows community leaders to direct prevention resources to areas where they are likely to have the greatest impact.
PCCD's mission is to enhance the quality, coordination, and planning within the criminal and juvenile justice systems, to facilitate the delivery of services to victims of crime, and to increase the safety of our communities. Article XIII-B (School Safety and Security) of the Pennsylvania Public School Code of 1949 created the School Safety and Security Committee (SSSC) within PCCD. The SSSC was tasked with developing the criteria school entities are to use in performing school safety and security assessments, issuing a survey to school entities to measure school safety and security preparedness, and administering grants. Amendments Act 18 of 2019, Act 67 of 2019, and Act 30 of 2020 included the development of a model trauma-informed approach plan; model trainings for threat assessment teams; set training requirements for school resource officers (SROs), school police officers (SPOs) and school security guards; and created a grant program for school entities to address COVID-19.
On July 27, 2022, the School Safety Amendments of Act 55 of 2022 were presented to the School Safety and Security Committee. The changes to the law include funding for mental health initiatives and physical safety and security in schools, as well as the provision of trainings and other services.”
So you understand what the requirements are for the grants, I am attaching the website for both the safety and the mental health Tier 1-3 PCCD Guidelines. Please reach out to me with any questions as I know this is a lot of information to go through! Happy researching…
https://www.pccd.pa.gov/schoolsafety/Pages/New-for-Schools!-%E2%80%93-Baseline-Criteria.aspx
Final thought: As you go through, remember that this “grant” money that the government is giving the schools to use and use as the PCCD sets forth, is your TAXPAYER money. We should get more of say locally to determine how this money is used since it is ours to begin with. Maybe taxes should not be so high and we could use our money where we thought it was appropriate to help our children and address community safety concerns.
Our kids need less time on devices and more time moving in school and out of school if we really care about their mental health! If we are truly looking for ways to help our kids with stress, anxiety, and depression, we should look to proven techniques that show benefits. We should not be spending money and time on trendy, unproven SEL “programs” that have not been able to prove any benefit after decades of broad implementation in school settings. Please read the research that proves movement and exercise benefit children in a variety of ways. Please ask your school board and administration to show proof of what they are implementing is beneficial to our students academic achievement and wellbeing. Nothing trendy or experimental should waste time or resources for our children. They deserve better! Mental Health Benefits of Exercise in Children Jan 28, 2015 Karen Dineen Wagner, MD, PhD Psychiatric Times, Vol 32 No 1 The target for physical activity in adolescents is 60 or more minutes of daily aerobic activity. But it is unlikely that the majority of youths achieve this goal. There was a time when children would play outdoors and get exercise by running and riding bicycles. In recent years, concerns about children’s safety, the popularity of video games and computers, and increased academic demands have contributed to the decline in outdoor play for children. Unless children are involved in sports, gymnastics, dance, or similar activities, they have limited involvement in exercise-related activities. Benefits of physical activity There is increasing evidence for mental health benefits of exercise in children. Hillman and colleagues 1 examined the effects of physical activity on fitness, brain function, and cognitive function in 221 children aged 7 to 9 years. The children were randomly assigned to either a 9-month after school physical activity program or a wait-list control group. The physical activity intervention was 2 hours in duration and focused on improvement of aerobic fitness by engaging in physical activities. The children participated in at least 70 minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity, followed by a snack, rest period, and low organizational games such as tag. Pre and post-intervention measures included assessment of aerobic fitness and cognitive functioning. Aerobic fitness was assessed by a test of maximal oxygen consumption during a treadmill exercise. Cognitive functioning was evaluated through tasks that assessed attentional inhibition and cognitive flexibility. EEG recordings to deter-mine event-related brain potentials were obtained during the cognitive tasks. At the end of the 9-month intervention, the physical activity group showed greater aerobic fitness than did the wait-list control group. The physical activity group also demonstrated greater attentional inhibition and cognitive flexibility. On EEG assessments, only the physical activity group showed a larger P3 amplitude (indicative of greater attention) and a faster P3 latency (indicative of faster processing speed). Children who attended a greater number of the physical activity sessions had more changes in these brain activity measurements. ADHD and exercise Given these findings of improved attention for children who engage in a physical activity program, it would be important to know whether children with ADHD would show improved attention with exercise. Pontifex and colleagues 2 assessed the effect of a single bout of moderate-intensity aerobic exercise on children with ADHD. Twenty children aged 8 to 10 years with ADHD and a healthy matched control group participated in the study. In this within-participants design, children participated in a 20-minute session of either aerobic exercise or seated reading on a motor-driven treadmill. Measures of event-related brain potentials and cognitive tasks were assessed during both of these conditions. Both the children with ADHD and the control group showed greater response accuracy on attention control tasks following a single bout of exercise than following the seated reading session. EEGs indicated that children in both groups had larger P3 amplitude and shorter P3 latency after exercise than after seated reading. On measures of academic performance, children in both groups had greater improvement on tests of reading comprehension and arithmetic after exercise than after seated reading. The investigators suggest that single bouts of moderate-intensity aerobic exercise may be an additional treatment modality for children with ADHD. Moreover, short bouts of exercise during the school day may be a benefit to children in general. Depression and exercise The relationship between depression and exercise in children and adolescents has received recent attention. Kremer and colleagues 3 investigated the associations between physical activity, leisure-time screen use, and depressive symptoms. The data were obtained from the Healthy Neighbourhoods Study, a crosssectional survey of 8256 children and adolescents (mean age, 11.5 years) in Australia. The students completed an online self-report instrument. Students were asked a number of questions about their physical activity behavior, including number of days attending physical education classes; degree of activity during these classes; number of days of being very active after school and on the weekend; involvement in sports or other activities in school and outside of school; opportunities to be involved in sports, clubs, organizations, or other activities at school; and number of days in the past week that they were physically active for at least 60 minutes per day. The students also reported time spent watching television, using the computer, or playing video games on school days and weekend days. Depressive symptoms were assessed using the Mood and Feelings Questionnaire. Moderate to high depressive symptoms were reported by 33% of these youths. The odds of depressive symptoms were lower when there were greater opportunities for the youths to be involved in a sport or other activities at school outside of class, to be very active during physical education classes, and to play on sports teams both at school and outside of school. Youths who were physically active at least 60 minutes per day were also less likely to have depressive symptoms. Lower levels of leisure-time screen use (video game, computer, television) were also associated with lower depressive symptoms in adolescents. Can physical activity protect against depressive symptoms in adolescence? Toseeb and colleagues 4 examined the association between physical activity beginning at age 14 years and depressive symptoms at age 17 years. A community-based sample of 736 adolescents from the United Kingdom participated in this longitudinal study. Baseline levels of physical activity were evaluated using combined heart rate and movement sensing. Participants were requested to wear the monitor over a 5-day period including 2 weekend days. Participants completed the Mood and Feelings Questionnaire at baseline and at 3-year follow-up. A semistructured clinical interview to assess for current episodes of MDD was also administered at baseline and at follow-up. No association was found between physical activity at baseline and development of depressive symptoms at 3-year follow-up. The adolescents who were physically active at baseline did not have higher or lower depressive symptoms than the adolescents who were less physically active. Similarly, a diagnosis of MDD at 3-year follow-up was not predicted by physical activity at baseline. The investigators conclude that physical activity is not a protective factor in the development of depressive symptoms in adolescence. Conclusion Overall, studies provide support for the benefits of physical exercise in children and adolescents on executive function, brain activity, and depressive symptoms. According to Healthy People 2020, the target for physical activity in adolescents is 60 or more minutes of daily aerobic activity. 5 It is unlikely that the majority of youths achieve this target. The importance of physical activity should be promoted in the school setting as well as in after school activities. Parents should also encourage their children to be involved in physical activities. References : 1. Hillman CH, Pontifex MB, Castelli DM, et al. Effects of the FITKids randomized controlled trial on executive control and brain function. Pediatrics. 2014;134: e1063-e1071. 2. Pontifex MB, Saliba BJ, Raine LB, et al. Exercise improves behavioral, neurocognitive, and scholastic performance in children with ADHD. J Pediatr. 2013;162:543-551. 3. Kremer P, Elshaug C, Leslie E, et al. Physical activity, leisure-time screen use and depression among children and young adolescents. J Sci Med Sport. 2014;17:183-187. 4. Toseeb U, Brage S, Corder K, et al. Exercise and depressive symptoms in adolescents: a longitudinal cohort study. JAMA Pediatr. 2014;168:1093-1100. 5. US Department of Health and Human Services. Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion. 2008 Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans. http://www.health.gov/ paguidelines/guidelines. Accessed December 18, 2014.
For the 2023-2024 school year there will be 28 teachers writing curriculum for Studio Classrooms for Portrait of a Eagle for grades 6-12 and 3 teachers working on Digital Lit/Citizenship Framework for “full Year Course Maintenance” for K-12 at an additional cost of $28,620. I am not saying teachers doing extra work should not be compensated. I am suggesting that we utilize our smart, talented teachers and focus on academic learning. At a Curriculum Meeting in January, there were 2 presentations on the Studio Classrooms pilot program. One was given by the 7 th grade Spanish teacher. Studio Classroom seems to be used to administer the Portrait of an Eagle program, which is the District’s social-emotional learning program (SEL). The Spanish teacher admitted that the program “cuts down on content instruction.” This is what we have been saying all along about SEL watering down academic instruction time. SEL requires a lot of internal focus and will make students more narcissistic (constant focus on feelings) and less focused on facts and constructive action. James Lindsay defines SEL as the practice of psychology on groups of children in uncontrolled, non-therapeutic spaces by non-professionals. SEL will be used to shape students’ attitudes, values and beliefs to accept a particular (Marxist) worldview. This will be done through classroom discussion and written/online surveys and “assessments.” Students will have instruction on these “competencies” and assessed on them within the Studio Classroom curriculum. Students will be tracked on how they are scoring on these competencies and the data is being collected and used to move them through until they get the “correct” scores. Please educate yourself on what SEL really is and how educational agencies and consulting groups are appealing to emotion to sell billions of dollars of curriculum and programs to school districts, government and community agencies, and even churches. You can learn more about SEL on the New Discourses web site/podcasts: https://youtu.be/IKdJfJdcjgU The other pilot program teacher was Matt Billman, Human Anatomy and Physiology. Mr. Billman said the assessments are moving to “non-traditional” methods, such as group work. He stated the students were concerned how they were being assessed in these new subjective methods, as they should be! The students did not have quizzes or tests as usual. What did they actually learn? Everyone should ask how group work will affect their students’ learning and grades as they go through middle school and high school.
The information in this blog includes a summary of a curriculum meeting from a taxpayer that regularly attends the meetings and is very active in helping the candidates running for school board this year along with additions from my research on these issues. There were 2 presentations on the Studio Classrooms pilot programs. One was given by the 7 th grade Spanish teacher. Studio Classroom seems to be used to administer the Portrait of an Eagle program, which is the District’s social-emotional learning program (SEL). The Spanish teacher admitted that the program “cuts down on content instruction.” This is what we have been saying all along about SEL watering down academic instruction time. SEL requires a lot of internal focus and will make students more narcissistic (constant focus on feelings) and less focused on facts and constructive action. James Lindsay defines SEL as the practice of psychology on groups of children in uncontrolled, non-therapeutic spaces by non-professionals. SEL will be used to shape students’ attitudes, values and beliefs to accept a particular (Marxist) worldview. This will be done through classroom discussion and written/online surveys and “assessments.” Students will have instruction on these “competencies” and assessed on them within the Studio Classroom curriculum. Students will be tracked on how they are scoring on these competencies and the data is being collected and used to move them through until they get the “correct” scores. You can learn more about SEL on the New Discourses web site/podcasts, and also read this paper: https://pioneerinstitute.org/pioneer-research/academic-standards-pioneer-research/social-emotional-learning-k-12-education-as-new-age-nanny-state/ The other pilot program teacher was Matt Billman, Human Anatomy and Physiology. Mr. Billman said the assessments are moving to “non-traditional” methods, such as group work. He stated the students were concerned how they were being assessed in these new subjective methods, as they should be! Everyone should ask how group work will affect their students’ learning and grades. Again, is it all being watered-down? Use of Technology Update Tech Director Chris Smith gave a detailed technology update. Apparently, the teachers have access to 279 apps, web sites and programs that have not been technically approved for curriculum, but the teachers find through other sources. There has been no control or oversite of these supplemental resources. They discussed putting internal regulations in place to approve these supplemental sources before teachers can use them. For concerned parents there are options. Opt your child out of school Google account: https://www.cvschools.org/support_operations/technology/educational_technology/google_for_education/opt-out_information Pushing Failing Students into Certification Programs Dr. Christopher talked about pushing students who don’t pass the Keystone Exams, which are required for graduation, into one of several certification programs with local colleges. This aligns with the knowledge we have of how the Keystone test scores were cut to make sure a certain percentage of students failed. So it is a back-door way of practically forcing students into certain career paths? I’m not saying these certification programs are bad. But I don’t believe pigeon-holing students based on one exam is helpful or fair to a developing student that may change in ability and interest during the high school experience and young adult lives. Math update The Math department will be looking to testing a K-8 pilot program in the 2023-24 school year. They want to test multiple programs to see which they like best. Remember when they do these pilot programs, this is basically experimenting with your kids. Do parents really understand how different the structure and content of the class with be for their child? This needs to be more transparent. When asked if the math program will be like the new language arts curriculum, the answer was yes. That means that several studies will be incorporated into the math lesson. For example, with CVSD’s new language arts program, the students also have their science and social studies curriculum. How can students get the time needed to develop the specific skills required for math if they are now going to add other disciplines into the lessons??? Dr. Euker stated that the math “vocabulary” is now not consistent across the grades (I assume due to the implementation of Common Core) and this is creating problems. Who knew math “vocabulary” needed to change? Class Rank Dr. Christopher stated that some students have been asked about class ranking and the students want to “get rid of it.” Dr. Blanchard stated that the Board is ultimately responsible for the decision. How will the Board decide and when? Maybe there needs to be some adjustment, but will the administration and school board use this as an excuse to get rid of grades as the main source of assessing students. SEL programming is all for getting rid of grades and moving towards assessing competencies. I do not believe this will help our children as they move into adulthood and whatever competitive work environment that they choose after graduation. There are schools doing this to varying degrees and the outcomes are just as diverse. Here are some examples for reference: https://www.simplemost.com/schools-phase-out-valedictorians/ https://www.foxnews.com/us/virginia-accelerated-math-courses-equity https://www.nbcnews.com/news/education/gifted-programs-worsen-inequality-here-s-what-happens-when-schools-n1243147 Here are the next three school board meeting dates and they are held at the District Office Boardroom located at 6746 Carlisle Pike, Mechanicsburg, PA 17050: Tuesday, Jan. 21st at 7:00 p.m. Monday, March 6 th at 7:00pm Monday, March 20 th at 7:00pm If you cannot attend in person you can also livestream these full board meetings. The agenda and livestream link are posted three days prior to the meeting at the following site: https://go.boarddocs.com/pa/cmdvsd/Board.nsf/vpublic?open
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Our kids need less time on devices and more time moving in school and out of school if we really care about their mental health! If we are truly looking for ways to help our kids with stress, anxiety, and depression, we should look to proven techniques that show benefits. We should not be spending money and time on trendy, unproven SEL “programs” that have not been able to prove any benefit after decades of broad implementation in school settings. Please read the research that proves movement and exercise benefit children in a variety of ways. Please ask your school board and administration to show proof of what they are implementing is beneficial to our students academic achievement and wellbeing. Nothing trendy or experimental should waste time or resources for our children. They deserve better! Mental Health Benefits of Exercise in Children Jan 28, 2015 Karen Dineen Wagner, MD, PhD Psychiatric Times, Vol 32 No 1 The target for physical activity in adolescents is 60 or more minutes of daily aerobic activity. But it is unlikely that the majority of youths achieve this goal. There was a time when children would play outdoors and get exercise by running and riding bicycles. In recent years, concerns about children’s safety, the popularity of video games and computers, and increased academic demands have contributed to the decline in outdoor play for children. Unless children are involved in sports, gymnastics, dance, or similar activities, they have limited involvement in exercise-related activities. Benefits of physical activity There is increasing evidence for mental health benefits of exercise in children. Hillman and colleagues 1 examined the effects of physical activity on fitness, brain function, and cognitive function in 221 children aged 7 to 9 years. The children were randomly assigned to either a 9-month after school physical activity program or a wait-list control group. The physical activity intervention was 2 hours in duration and focused on improvement of aerobic fitness by engaging in physical activities. The children participated in at least 70 minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity, followed by a snack, rest period, and low organizational games such as tag. Pre and post-intervention measures included assessment of aerobic fitness and cognitive functioning. Aerobic fitness was assessed by a test of maximal oxygen consumption during a treadmill exercise. Cognitive functioning was evaluated through tasks that assessed attentional inhibition and cognitive flexibility. EEG recordings to deter-mine event-related brain potentials were obtained during the cognitive tasks. At the end of the 9-month intervention, the physical activity group showed greater aerobic fitness than did the wait-list control group. The physical activity group also demonstrated greater attentional inhibition and cognitive flexibility. On EEG assessments, only the physical activity group showed a larger P3 amplitude (indicative of greater attention) and a faster P3 latency (indicative of faster processing speed). Children who attended a greater number of the physical activity sessions had more changes in these brain activity measurements. ADHD and exercise Given these findings of improved attention for children who engage in a physical activity program, it would be important to know whether children with ADHD would show improved attention with exercise. Pontifex and colleagues 2 assessed the effect of a single bout of moderate-intensity aerobic exercise on children with ADHD. Twenty children aged 8 to 10 years with ADHD and a healthy matched control group participated in the study. In this within-participants design, children participated in a 20-minute session of either aerobic exercise or seated reading on a motor-driven treadmill. Measures of event-related brain potentials and cognitive tasks were assessed during both of these conditions. Both the children with ADHD and the control group showed greater response accuracy on attention control tasks following a single bout of exercise than following the seated reading session. EEGs indicated that children in both groups had larger P3 amplitude and shorter P3 latency after exercise than after seated reading. On measures of academic performance, children in both groups had greater improvement on tests of reading comprehension and arithmetic after exercise than after seated reading. The investigators suggest that single bouts of moderate-intensity aerobic exercise may be an additional treatment modality for children with ADHD. Moreover, short bouts of exercise during the school day may be a benefit to children in general. Depression and exercise The relationship between depression and exercise in children and adolescents has received recent attention. Kremer and colleagues 3 investigated the associations between physical activity, leisure-time screen use, and depressive symptoms. The data were obtained from the Healthy Neighbourhoods Study, a crosssectional survey of 8256 children and adolescents (mean age, 11.5 years) in Australia. The students completed an online self-report instrument. Students were asked a number of questions about their physical activity behavior, including number of days attending physical education classes; degree of activity during these classes; number of days of being very active after school and on the weekend; involvement in sports or other activities in school and outside of school; opportunities to be involved in sports, clubs, organizations, or other activities at school; and number of days in the past week that they were physically active for at least 60 minutes per day. The students also reported time spent watching television, using the computer, or playing video games on school days and weekend days. Depressive symptoms were assessed using the Mood and Feelings Questionnaire. Moderate to high depressive symptoms were reported by 33% of these youths. The odds of depressive symptoms were lower when there were greater opportunities for the youths to be involved in a sport or other activities at school outside of class, to be very active during physical education classes, and to play on sports teams both at school and outside of school. Youths who were physically active at least 60 minutes per day were also less likely to have depressive symptoms. Lower levels of leisure-time screen use (video game, computer, television) were also associated with lower depressive symptoms in adolescents. Can physical activity protect against depressive symptoms in adolescence? Toseeb and colleagues 4 examined the association between physical activity beginning at age 14 years and depressive symptoms at age 17 years. A community-based sample of 736 adolescents from the United Kingdom participated in this longitudinal study. Baseline levels of physical activity were evaluated using combined heart rate and movement sensing. Participants were requested to wear the monitor over a 5-day period including 2 weekend days. Participants completed the Mood and Feelings Questionnaire at baseline and at 3-year follow-up. A semistructured clinical interview to assess for current episodes of MDD was also administered at baseline and at follow-up. No association was found between physical activity at baseline and development of depressive symptoms at 3-year follow-up. The adolescents who were physically active at baseline did not have higher or lower depressive symptoms than the adolescents who were less physically active. Similarly, a diagnosis of MDD at 3-year follow-up was not predicted by physical activity at baseline. The investigators conclude that physical activity is not a protective factor in the development of depressive symptoms in adolescence. Conclusion Overall, studies provide support for the benefits of physical exercise in children and adolescents on executive function, brain activity, and depressive symptoms. According to Healthy People 2020, the target for physical activity in adolescents is 60 or more minutes of daily aerobic activity. 5 It is unlikely that the majority of youths achieve this target. The importance of physical activity should be promoted in the school setting as well as in after school activities. Parents should also encourage their children to be involved in physical activities. References : 1. Hillman CH, Pontifex MB, Castelli DM, et al. Effects of the FITKids randomized controlled trial on executive control and brain function. Pediatrics. 2014;134: e1063-e1071. 2. Pontifex MB, Saliba BJ, Raine LB, et al. Exercise improves behavioral, neurocognitive, and scholastic performance in children with ADHD. J Pediatr. 2013;162:543-551. 3. Kremer P, Elshaug C, Leslie E, et al. Physical activity, leisure-time screen use and depression among children and young adolescents. J Sci Med Sport. 2014;17:183-187. 4. Toseeb U, Brage S, Corder K, et al. Exercise and depressive symptoms in adolescents: a longitudinal cohort study. JAMA Pediatr. 2014;168:1093-1100. 5. US Department of Health and Human Services. Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion. 2008 Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans. http://www.health.gov/ paguidelines/guidelines. Accessed December 18, 2014.
For the 2023-2024 school year there will be 28 teachers writing curriculum for Studio Classrooms for Portrait of a Eagle for grades 6-12 and 3 teachers working on Digital Lit/Citizenship Framework for “full Year Course Maintenance” for K-12 at an additional cost of $28,620. I am not saying teachers doing extra work should not be compensated. I am suggesting that we utilize our smart, talented teachers and focus on academic learning. At a Curriculum Meeting in January, there were 2 presentations on the Studio Classrooms pilot program. One was given by the 7 th grade Spanish teacher. Studio Classroom seems to be used to administer the Portrait of an Eagle program, which is the District’s social-emotional learning program (SEL). The Spanish teacher admitted that the program “cuts down on content instruction.” This is what we have been saying all along about SEL watering down academic instruction time. SEL requires a lot of internal focus and will make students more narcissistic (constant focus on feelings) and less focused on facts and constructive action. James Lindsay defines SEL as the practice of psychology on groups of children in uncontrolled, non-therapeutic spaces by non-professionals. SEL will be used to shape students’ attitudes, values and beliefs to accept a particular (Marxist) worldview. This will be done through classroom discussion and written/online surveys and “assessments.” Students will have instruction on these “competencies” and assessed on them within the Studio Classroom curriculum. Students will be tracked on how they are scoring on these competencies and the data is being collected and used to move them through until they get the “correct” scores. Please educate yourself on what SEL really is and how educational agencies and consulting groups are appealing to emotion to sell billions of dollars of curriculum and programs to school districts, government and community agencies, and even churches. You can learn more about SEL on the New Discourses web site/podcasts: https://youtu.be/IKdJfJdcjgU The other pilot program teacher was Matt Billman, Human Anatomy and Physiology. Mr. Billman said the assessments are moving to “non-traditional” methods, such as group work. He stated the students were concerned how they were being assessed in these new subjective methods, as they should be! The students did not have quizzes or tests as usual. What did they actually learn? Everyone should ask how group work will affect their students’ learning and grades as they go through middle school and high school.