Wednesday, January 05, 2005

Notes From The Education Underground: The TeachWonk Diaries

Just Another Brick...
In order to comply with a new law, my principal was required to see that an Accountability Notice was posted in every single classroom. He did just that on Monday. (Since he did this himself in all 38 classrooms, it's a sure sign of CYA.) The Notice was printed in both English and Spanish. This is what it said verbatim:

ATTENTION PARENTS AND GUARDIANS
IMPORTANT INFORMATION ABOUT INSTRUCTIONAL
MATERIALS AND FACILITIES
WILLIAMS UNIFORM COMPLAINT PROCEDURES
State law requires the following:
  1. There should be sufficient textbooks and instructional materials. For there to be sufficient textbooks and instructional materials, each student, including English learners, must have a textbook or instructional material, or both, to use in class and to take home to complete required homework assignments.
  2. School facilities must be clean, safe, and maintained in good repair.
  3. If you do not think that these requirements are being met, complaint forms can be obtained at the Principal's Office, the Superintendent's Office, or can be downloaded from the California Department of Education website.

Education Code Section 35186

The principal didn't say a word to the staff, nor to the students, and no copy was sent home to the parents. Intrigued, I decided to do a little research.

My research indicated that this Notice was posted as the result of a lawsuit known as the "Williams Case." Every single public school classroom in the state of California is supposed to have this posted on the wall. (You can read more about the Williams Case here.)

Since this was posted on a back wall in my classroom, and because open house isn't until next year, I don't think that too many parents will see it.

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