Plagiarism

Lauren McCabe writes:

As I sat at the airport last weekend, grading my students’ summer reading essays and waiting to take off, I was angry. Not because of the tardiness of my flight, but because I was looking at 15 plagiarized essays from my seniors, seniors who knew better. They had all summer to read a book and write this five-paragraph essay on any topic they wanted. After I read over two essays and saw the exact same words, sentences and paragraphs, it wasn't hard to figure out that these papers had been copied.

After talking with some of my colleagues over the weekend, I learned that plagiarism wasn’t a new concept at my school, Environmental Charter High School, and that most of the students on my list had turned in plagiarized work in the past. I began to wonder why students plagiarize. Could it really be that they were just too lazy to write their own papers? And the essay they turned in and tried to pass as their own was of very low quality. Didn’t they have respect for themselves and their abilities?

While I was venting my frustration to an administrator at my school, he offered a bit of insight into the community I teach in and he grew up in. He explained that the major battle these students are fighting every day does not necessarily come from an external source, but from within. The inferiority complex is a constant war within our students. They “dumbed down” their essays to a level so far below their actual writing abilities because they thought it would be more believable to me that way. They ran away from this challenge because they didn’t believe they could achieve on their own.

This is not to say “poor babies” or to give excuses for blatant plagiarism, but I think it is important to understand the mindsets with which our students walk into the classroom every day and ways by which we can expand those views. Pure laziness is only one possibility of many for explaining why students plagiarize, as is the inferiority complex. But until we consider all of the possibilities and stop labeling students, we will never solve the issue. Malleable intelligence, the concept of intelligence not being fixed, will be the first topic of discussion that I start off with in my next class.

This is simply immaturity, laziness and seeing if they could get away with it....
Here is what I do...I don't make a big deal about it. I just put a 0 on their papers and write, " Same as Julie's paper; 0 same as David's paper" I don't moralize, I don't lecture, I don't call their parents. It takes me 10 seconds to write it on the paper. I usually never have a plagiarism issue again.

I'm sure you gave your students the option to contact you should they run into difficulty and provided an email or phone number, so there really are no excuses for the plagiarism.

Again, in high school ,students must pass a class to move on to the next grade level , not like in middle school, which is another reason they are turning in poor quality work.

One practical thing you can do and you may already be doing this for students who have trouble structuring an essay is to write out five to seven sample topic sentences for each essay: The background sentence, thesis sentence and 3 to 5 supporting topic sentences and a concluding sentences and have them "build" the essay. This way they have a template to begin using. Santa Monica High School has a website with a paper called the "Sweet Sixteens of Good Writing" It is a helpful handout with sixteen boxes that offer tips on good writing.

Another hint, don't leave the topic wide open but give them five or six options. They still have choice but also have something concrete about which to write. Did you connect the essay to the book they were reading? This way they have to read the book to write about it in the essay.

Great job giving a summer assigment as you are way ahead of the game in knowing a little about each student and their work ethic. It also gives you information that allows you to adjust and correct what you want in your upcoming reading and essay assignments which puts you way ahead of the game. Keep it up!

Posted by: evelyn

Posted by: Anonymous

This is not your fault. It is a break down in the system. This is learned behavior that has most likely happened in the past without consequence.

In any serious academic institution, plagiarism is a serious offense. I hear you saying that the administrator, in sentiment, excused the behavior. Why didn't the administrator offer to come to your class and deal with this problem so you can focus your mind and energy on curricular and instructional issues?

I don't want to be too cynical, but I can guess at the answer. First, the system emphasizes attendance and seat time. Any serious discipline must have the possibility of suspension as its ultimate consequence. Administrators hate suspensions because it takes away from attendance and makes the school's discipline statistics look bad.

I like the advice of evelyn. Don't moralize on the issue, but absolutely don't accept plagiarism. The students will figure it out for themselves. You can focus on being the best English teacher you can be, and model professionalism to the students. Too many teachers stray the academic path in an attempt to be life coaches.

Posted by: David

The pattern of plagiarism that I've heard about is that in this internet age, the kids often have really bad process for their writing. So, you'll see a lone plagiarized sentence in a single paragraph, or you'll find that the student's work is a strange hybrid of original and plagiarized work, even when hunting down the material to plagiarize and weaving it into a coherent text must actually have been more work. They need extremely explicit instruction in how to write and how to include citations. You might want to explain to them that using citations impresses the teacher, because it demonstrates that you've done a lot of research.

Posted by: Amy P

Teaching Secrets: Organizing Middle Schoolers

By Laurie Wasserman

Teacher Magazine

What characteristic is most common among brand-new middle school students? It's not a physical trait (they come in an amazing assortment of shapes and sizes) or an emotional state (adolescents are famous for their mood swings). What they most have in common is this: They are disorganized. And why wouldn't they be? In most cases, new 6th graders have spent their first five years of school with a single teacher for the majority of the day. They entered elementary school each morning, hung up their coats, and stowed away their lunch boxes. Their homework, pencils, lunch money, and personal gear were stuffed in a nearby book bag or in their desk. Their textbooks were neatly stacked in a single, familiar classroom. Now, suddenly, they're middle schoolers, and the world's turned upside down.

They are given a combination lock, a hallway locker, a homeroom, and a schedule that often has four or more subject-area teachers whom they will see on any given day. There's more work to do – and more teachers who expect them to do it. This is where the child with significant organizational challenges becomes both overwhelmed and frustrated.

As educators, what can we do to support these students who often come to our classrooms without their necessary materials and homework assignments? Here are some tips from my special education classroom that can help any student bring order to chaos.

Agenda Books – If a school can provide each child with an agenda or assignment book, this is a terrific, consistent strategy. There are companies that sell them for $5 or less. Teachers can begin their classes by asking students to take out their agenda notebooks, and then write the next homework assignment on the board as students jot it down. In my own classroom, I stroll around the room checking to make sure each of my students has copied the assignment down correctly and written it in the right place (middle schoolers will often write it in the wrong day – or month!). If funds aren't available to purchase agenda books, I’ve run off assignment checklists on the copy machine and distributed them each Monday in stapled sets of five. It’s not as ideal, but still quite feasible.

Schoolnotes.com – This is a free Internet tool that allows educators to post our assignments online. All a parent or student needs to do is go to the site (from home or a public library) and type in their zip code. Any teacher who uses the service will be listed in alphabetical order, under the name of the school, and by grade or subject. Teachers can also provide their school email address, in case a parent or student needs homework clarification at night or wants to send a document when there's no printer available. Many parents who have Internet access at their jobs welcome the opportunity to check their child’s next-day assignments before they leave work. Imagine the look on their child’s face the first time mom or dad asks them if they brought home their study guides for tomorrow’s science test!

Preparation Grade – As a strategy to promote organization, I count preparation as part of my students' overall subject grade. I allow them to go to their lockers, if they forget a book or a pencil. But each trip to the locker costs them 1 point from their preparation grade. It sounds harsh (and most of my students have ADD/ADHD), but I find if they know my policy ahead of time, and I’m consistent with it, they learn by trial and error. I also loan them pencils, but ask for a sneaker as collateral. Their missing sneaker helps them to remember to return the pencil as they leave the room.

The Absent-Student Crate – I print assignments out and place them in a 3-ring binder titled "Schoolnotes," which resides in the Absent-Student Crate. This gives the kids a running record of what assignments they have missed while they were out. I also keep a 3-ring binder for each subject I teach, with the various handouts I have distributed, so the students have an archive to reference. I keep track of who's absent by asking the student who is passing out papers to write the names of any absentee on the handout and place it in an accordion folder also kept in the crate. When the absent child returns, I remind him or her to check the crate for any handouts or incomplete assignments. Basically, I'm modeling good organization for my kids.

The I.O.U. Board – I have an I.O.U area on my board with the assignments students owe me (with their names listed below each assignment). If a child is absent during a test, or owes me a project, he or she can immediately see their debt. In my special ed classes, I also use this for students who owe work to their mainstream teachers.

The TEAM Homework Area – I keep a running list of all homework assigned by the teachers on my 6th grade teams. The students can refer to this board if they've forgotten to copy any assignments down in other classes. I also utilize this board for my regular-education homeroom students.

Pocket folders, a cheap way to help kids – An inexpensive way for students to keep track of various written assignments they need to complete is to take a 2-pocket folder, available at any office supply store, and label the left side with “To Do” and the right side with “Completed.” They are ONLY allowed to put works-in-progress in this pocket folder. Once the assignments have been completed, the work can be transferred to the appropriate binders or notebooks that the teacher may require.

A final thought: Kids will be kids. It’s hard sometimes to realize that students don’t deliberately misplace papers, forget pencils, or lose track of assignments. They just don't have our experience or habits of mind. It’s our job to teach them the tools and strategies for getting organized and feeling successful.

Laurie Wasserman is a 6th grade special educator in Medford, Massachusetts. A National Board Certified Teacher, she works with students who have learning disabilities, both in self-contained and mainstream classrooms.

Las Vegas Review-Journal

EDITORIAL: In the classroom

Compulsory attendance; administrators as teachers

The Clark County School Board last week moved to put in place a couple of changes approved by the Legislature earlier this year -- one that makes eminent sense, and one that doesn't.
First, the good news.

The board voted unanimously to implement a modest proposal to require that administrators actually spend some time in the classroom.

Under the plan, school district bureaucrats -- including Superintendent Walt Rulffes -- will teach or observe in a classroom for at least a half-day each school year.

No, a half-day isn't much, but it's a start toward recognizing complaints from teachers that administrators are out of touch with the day-to-day realities of the district's operations. And if administrators try to slide on this mandate -- for instance, by showing a video instead of actually trying to engage students -- let's hope teachers blow the whistle.

Predictably, Steve Augspurger of the Clark County Association of School Administrators union -- Question for another day: Why do bosses need a union? -- was whining about the requirement.

"If anybody should be observing classrooms, it should be the legislators who passed this law," he said. "We can't find enough qualified teachers. We can't find enough substitutes. So you exacerbate the problem by having administrators teach who may not have taught in a long time."

Forcing district desk jockeys to spend three hours a year in an actual classroom will cause problems? Boo hoo. Sell it to the rank and file.

Mr. Rulffes said he'd do his part, entering a classroom to teach algebra or maybe geometry. Perhaps he can concoct a formula to explain the relationship between school spending and student achievement.

Now, the bad news.

In approving the "administrators in the classroom" plan, the board also OK'd a provision raising the compulsory attendance age to 18 from 17. That means a student who hasn't yet completed his senior year in high school couldn't voluntarily leave until he turned 18.

Now, this isn't as bad as the plan floated earlier this year by the National Education Association to force kids to stay in school until the age of 21 -- really -- but it's certainly moving in that direction.

What exactly is the point? To lower the dropout rate? To encourage more students to attend college? Is there any evidence this will work? None that anybody offered to the board on Thursday evening.

And why do we want to clog up classrooms with 17-year-olds who obviously have no desire to be on campus? Is this good for the students who are truly trying to learn? How?
In fact, such students can cause disruptions that sidetrack teachers and distract other students.

Kids are already held in captivity by the public school system for 11 years. If the district hasn't succeeded by then in equipping a student with the basics he needs to survive in the real world, what good is another year going to do?

If this proposal is about easing the dropout rate or some other policy goal, it's doomed to failure. If it's a way for the district to secure funding by keeping more butts in the seats, it's shameful.

Help with test may lead to suspensions

Teachers would get five days for reading questions to students

By Emily Richmond

Las Vegas Sun

Apparently believing their students were being set up to fail, two Clark County special education teachers refused to follow testing regulations and instead read aloud the questions on a statewide reading exam.

The state education department has recommended the teachers each be suspended for five days, even though Keith Rheault, Nevada's superintendent of public instruction, originally wanted them suspended for 30 days.

The incident took place March 22 at Doris French Elementary School during a standardized test used to measure student progress, as required by the federal No Child Left Behind Act. Schools that score poorly face progressively harsher penalties.

The suspensions must be approved by the State Board of Education, which oversees teacher licensing issues. Darrin Purana, assistant director of employee-management relations for the Clark County School District, said he could not discuss the specifics of the incident at French. However, his office conducts its own investigation when this type of situation arise s , and teachers can face penalties at the district level as well, Purana said.

Rheault said he supported the scaled-back sanctions after taking a closer look at the circumstances. He said it's possible the teachers were trying to spare the students from what was perceived as an unreasonable demand for performance, rather than attempting to inflate test scores.

Although the U.S. Education Department has expanded the list of how students with special needs can be accommodated in testing, teachers say the questions are still beyond the grasp of many of their pupils. Students not fluent in English also struggle with the tests.

In cases similar to what happened at French, teachers' actions, although misguided, are often an "act of caring," said Sue Daellenbach, testing director for the Clark County School District.
"Taking these tests can be a stressful thing for students, particularly those who are severely disabled," Daellenbach said. "Teachers are by nature caring people, and it's a tough thing to have to watch your kids struggle. But even if you think you're helping your student, you still have to follow the law."

At French, "the teachers admitted they were aware it is not permissible to read a reading test aloud, but believed they were acting in the best interest of the students," according to a state report summarizing the incident.

In addition to the suspensions, the state recommended a letter of admonition be placed in each teacher's personnel file.

The names of the teachers involved were not released by the district. Three other Nevada teachers were charged with improperly helping students with tests during the 2006-07 school year. Two teachers received 30-day suspensions, and the remaining case is to be heard next week.

For cheaters, iPods are playing their song

Students use devices to save answers, data for exam day, state report says

By Emily Richmond

Las Vegas Sun

Move over, cell phones and calculators. There's a new device joining the list of banned items for Nevada's test-taking students - the iPod.

The usual suspects - cell phones, passed notes and the good ol' peek over the shoulder - still lead the list of cheating techniques.

But the state education department's annual report on testing improprieties for the first time includes incidents of students sneaking iPods into exams. In some cases teachers allowed the devices to be used, apparently unaware they could help student s cheat.

"Kids are getting clever, aren't they?" said Sue Daellenbach, testing director for the Clark County School District.

Keith Rheault, Nevada's superintendent of instruction, said iPods may not seem like an obvious choice for cheaters. But "you can put anything on those things," Rheault said, including audio recordings of class lectures, recitations of mathematical formulas or other content that could help a student answer questions on an exam.

The report itemizes all testing mishaps and cheating reported by schools on the high school proficiency exams and standardized tests given in grades three through eight. The tests are used in part to measure student progress under the federal No Child Left Behind Act. Students must pass the high school proficiency exam to graduate.

For the 2006-07 academic year, more than 300,000 students were tested at more than 600 locations. There were 130 reported irregularities, such as missing answer sheets, a 10 percent drop from the prior year.

The total includes 47 incidents of students cheating, a slight increase over the prior academic year but more than double the 23 incidents reported in 2004-05. Educators say the cheating figures for the past two years can be considered a trend, even though the raw numbers are low in the context of the number of tests taken.

Rheault said he wants schools to tackle the largest source s of problems - cheating with electronic devices, and teachers misunderstanding what kinds of extra help they are allowed to give students with special needs.

"We're still getting a lot of teachers who either didn't provide accommodations when they could have, or provided them when they shouldn't have," Rheault said.

Part of the problem is that Clark County, which accounts for about 70 percent of the state's K-12 students, has to train more than 2,000 new teachers annually in proper testing procedures and policy.

"There's a constant learning curve," Daellenbach said. "Even with the best training , there are going to be schools that have someone doing something for the first time, and there are going to be human errors."

Among the reported incidents:

• At an alternative high school in Carson City, a teacher's cell phone rang during the math proficiency test . He left the room to take the call. When later questioned, 15 students admitted either cheating or using their cell phones during his absence. The tests were invalidated.

• At Churchill County High School, two students turned in identical answer sheets on the math proficiency test after helping each other with the answers. They were also permitted to listen to their iPods during the exam.

• At the Clark County School District's Community College West High School, a student was observed using his cell phone during the 11th grade writing proficiency test. The student later admitted using the phone to look up a vocabulary word.

• Testing at four schools was interrupted by fire alarms. Three may have been caused by pranksters, but at Mt. Charleston Elementary School in Nye County, there actually was a fire.

Teachers Attacked

Reports of assaults against teachers seem to growing, particularly in big city schools. Sometimes they are verbal. Sometimes they are violent physical attacks. NPR’s Fresh Air host Terry Gross speaks with two veteran teachers, Ed Klein and Frank Burd, who were physically assaulted last year in their Philadelphia classrooms. Both Burd and Klein are white and taught at predominantly African American schools; however, neither perceived the incidents to be entirely racially motivated.

Music teacher Klein was relocated to a school one month into the school year when his former school dropped their music program. Entering a new school, with a class that was busy testing the limits and a staff that was overwhelmed, Klein struggled to get control of his classroom. Klein called parents frequently and, for the most part, they were responsive. He even saw changes in student behavior in a few cases. One day, however, a student told him he’d better stop calling home or he’d be sorry. Following that exchange, Klein was sprayed with a fire extinguisher on two consecutive days. On the third day, four students forced him to the floor where he suffered a broken jaw and a concussion.

For his part, after he approached a student to turn down his iPod during class, veteran math teacher Burd remembers little of his attack. Five broken bones and a brain injury later, Burd says, “I don’t feel betrayed by the students, I feel betrayed by the kid who did it.’

Will either teacher return to the classroom? Klein admits to good days and bad days, but is not sure if he will ever teach again. “I’m in a difficult position,” he told Gross. Said Burd, “I need to work. I like to work and I like teaching. I don’t know right now about the classroom. ...”

Posted by Elizabeth Rich

Criminalizing Student Threats

By The Associated Press
Nashua, New Hampshire

Dorothy Morin, a teacher at Nashua High School North, says that when students threaten her or other teachers, they don't face much in the way of consequences.

"I think it's gotten worse over the years. It's escalated because nothing has been done. There's no deterrent," Morin said. "Our lives are in danger every day as teachers."

Testimony by Morin and others persuaded members of a state Senate committee to recommend a bill that would add criminal threatening to the list of offenses covered by the state's Safe School Zones law, which increases penalties for certain crimes committed on school grounds, including the sale or possession of illegal drugs.

Rep. Maureen Mooney, R-Merrimack, is the prime sponsor of the bill, which would let school districts take more action against students who threaten violence against other students or staff. She said she was motivated by recent incidents of school violence.

"I just think it's of the utmost importance to do everything within our power to ensure that safe school zones are exactly that: safe school zones," she said. The House has already passed the bill.

Claire Ebel, director of the New Hampshire Civil Liberties Union, objected to the inclusion of threatening, however. She said that while the other offenses covered by the Safe School Zones law involve actual violence or wrongdoing, a threat could be simply an act of stupidity.

"This seems like a very broad sweep for the state to take," she said.

The bill, which originally would have required expulsion for criminal threatening, was amended to give school districts more leeway. Sarah Browning, of the state Education Department, said schools already have broad authority to suspend or expel students who threaten others.

"I don't think passing this bill changes that, except that it's now more explicit," she said. "I think it makes clear what authority school districts have."

Sunday, May 20, 2007

Associated Press

BOULDER, Colo. — Writing teachers are being tested themselves these days in trying to discern whether a student is another Stephen King, a Seung-Hui Cho, Eric Harris or Dylan Klebold.

"It's a subjective phenomenon, being able to identify the difference between art and pathology," Sidney Goldfarb, a University of Colorado professor told the Camera.

Goldfarb, who has taught creative writing for four decades, once assigned 21 students to write short stories. Two wrote of suicide; the other 19 murder.

Last month an Illinois high school student was arrested after writing an essay describing his dreams of shooting people and having sex with dead bodies.

Columbine gunmen Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris portrayed hit men in a video they made for a high school government and economics class. The English Department at Virginia Tech referred Cho to the school's counseling service because of his violent writing.

Jeffrey DeShell, chairman of the CU English department, said he couldn't recall a student in the creative-writing program ever being referred to counseling for homicidal writing or odd classroom behavior. Some students have been referred to mental-health professionals when their writing reveals that they could be suicidal.

"We live in a violent society," said Matt Burriesci, associate director of the Association of Writers and Writing Programs of Fairfax, Va., which represents creative programs at 400 colleges and universities.

"There is a very thin line between monitoring someone with psychological problems and someone who is just writing about violence. Pick up a Stephen King novel or a John Grisham novel."

King, in an essay posted on EW.com, said after all the school violence his own college writing would have raised red flags, "For most creative people, the imagination serves as an excretory channel for violence. We visualize what we never actually do."

He added, "On the whole, I don't think you can pick these guys out based on their work, unless you look for violence unenlivened by any real talent."

DeShell said murder is a common way for novice writers to kill off their fictional characters. In one of Shakespeare's earlier plays, Titus Andronicus, nearly everyone dies. Students also may be trying to shock professors.

"A lot of students are trying their imaginations out," he said. "We should be a place that is somewhat safe for that."

Lorna Dee Cervantes, a faculty member who teaches poetry workshops, said teachers should not encourage students to write about violence.

Cheat Sheet

Teacher Magazine

By Amanda Jones

Forget writing on hands or whispering answers. Many students have traded the cheating techniques of yesteryear for more sophisticated methods.

Below are a few of the more innovative ways students have tried to gain an unfair advantage. You have to wonder what these students would accomplish if they were to apply such creativity and determination to a more constructive endeavor—like studying.

Water bottles: Students write answers on the inside of a bottle’s label, then reattach it, so the writing is visible through the water during the test.

Cell phones: In addition to text-messaging answers to one another, students take pictures of the test, then beam the images to friends. Others photograph their notes ahead of time.

M&M’s: After assigning each candy color a multiple-choice letter, students line up M&M’s on their desks in the order of the answers.

MP3 players: Before the test, students record answers and then listen to them through earphones during exams.

Invisible-ink pens: Kids write notes or formulas on a sheet of paper in invisible ink, then use the pen’s ultraviolet flashlight during the test to reveal what they’ve written.

Personal digital assistants: Students send information to one another through their PDAs and use the devices to store formulas and notes.

Next crop could include middle and high schools

By ANTONIO PLANAS
REVIEW-JOURNAL
April 27, 2007

Principals and teachers of at least four more Clark County School District campuses will get to make more of the decisions regarding their schools in the fall, Superintendent Walt Rulffes said Thursday.

Rulffes is to meet today with regional superintendents and other district administrators to formulate a plan for choosing the school system's next empowerment schools.

Rulffes said that although there hasn't been any scientific evidence of school improvement, anecdotal evidence is strong that the schools will produce higher student achievement.

"We want to continue to expand empowerment schools," Rulffes said. "The early signs are very favorable and we want to at least double the schools."

You can read the entire article here.

Zina Wangila woke up Friday morning, pulled on a pair of her favorite jeans and headed off to class at Mojave High School. By 11 a.m. she was on her way back home, having violated the school's dress code. She had worn blue jeans.

Mojave is one of three high schools, 15 middle schools and 25 elementary schools in the Clark County School District that have adopted dress codes more strict than the district's basic wardrobe guidelines, which ban hats, bare midriffs and skimpy skirts.

Principals at an additional 18 campuses want to adopt the tougher guidelines and will find out this week whether the request has been approved by parents.

You can read the rest of the article here.

Massachusetts' recent decision to offer charterlike freedom to four of its lowest-performing schools has renewed debate about the role autonomy plays in school improvement: Should it be earned through good performance, or given as a vital tool for improvement? Is it risky to extend it to struggling schools?
Interest in the issue is keen. The New York City and Chicago school districts are engaged in high-profile experiments with giving schools autonomy. Both the governor of Nevada and a coalition of groups in Connecticut are proposing legislation to give principals more authority to decide the pathways to better student achievement.

You can read the complete article here.

Sens. Joyce Woodhouse, D-Henderson, and Dennis Nolan, R-Las Vegas, told a Senate committee Monday that slapping a fee on the parents of unruly students might help get them more involved in their children's education.

"Maybe we will get the parents' attention if by no other way than hitting them in the pocketbook," Nolan said.

The students assigned detention would be those who consistently disrupt the classroom and the learning of other students, Nolan said. The pay-for-detention concept would be the last resort before students are expelled, he said.

You can read the entire article here.

How I joined Teach for America
— and got sued for $20 million

Well, when push came to shove, I didn’t want to devote my life to helping the rich get richer or crunching numbers to see what views were most popular for the vice president to adopt. This wasn’t what my 17 years of education were for.

My doctor parents had drummed into me that education was the key to every door, the one thing they couldn’t take away from my ancestors during pogroms and persecutions. They had also filled me with a strong sense of social justice. I couldn’t help feeling guilty dismay when I thought of the millions of kids who’d never even tasted the great teaching—not to mention the supportive family—I’d enjoyed for my entire life.

I told the Al Gore guy, “Thanks, but no thanks.” Weird as he might have thought it, I had decided to teach in an inner-city school.

Luiere said the three-month trial run paid dividends, even though at one point, so few girls were involved she had to make the class exclusively for boys.

"Every student passed," she said. "Some of them by a narrow margin, but everyone passed."

Luiere is continuing her teaching strategy of separating the genders this school year. She is teaching one class to a group of 10 boys and another to a group of 11 girls.

"This year, the achievement by the kids is much higher," Luiere said, noting that the class grade average hovers around 75 percent.