Parents, teachers, education leaders and activists gathered last week at the State Capitol for an informational meeting that discussed the new Common Core state standards and the possibility of replacing AIMS testing.

We are pleased to see that Gov. Brewer has prioritized resources for the implementation of Arizona’s Common Core Standards in her fiscal year 2014 budget.

Advanced Placement (AP) courses can save you time and money. They can also give you an edge in the applicant pools of highly selective colleges and universities.

New Year's Resolutions are boring. Everyone does them. They last in our psyche until March at the latest, and then they're gone and forgotten.

The Phoenix Symphony Association names Kim Leavitt as director of education and community engagement.

In college it was "Nick's English Hut," the same place where my dad went 30 years before me. In seminary it was "Jimmy's Woodlawn Tap" on the corner of Woodlawn and 55th streets. Jimmy's had an odd mix of working people and students, and I recall one magical afternoon when the back room was crowded with folks listening while Studs Terkel held us spell bound with rich stories of Chicago's past.

An award-winning African American professor of English, I have taught African American literature and cultural studies for more than 25 years at predominantly white universities. Despite having earned degrees from reputable institutions and having mastered Shakespeare, Faulkner, Dickinson, Milton, Chaucer and the rest, I didn’t realize the power of literary studies until I read African American poet and playwright Ntozake Shange.

An award-winning African American professor of English, I have taught African American literature and cultural studies for more than 25 years at predominantly white universities. Despite having earned degrees from reputable institutions and having mastered Shakespeare, Faulkner, Dickinson, Milton, Chaucer and the rest, I didn’t realize the power of literary studies until I read African American poet and playwright Ntozake Shange.

Thanks for telling Fred's story

The Kyrene School District and the city of Phoenix have reached an agreement to preserve a popular, inexpensive after-school program at five schools through the end of the school year. Kyrene and Phoenix had been discussing how to save the Phoenix Afterschool Center, or PAC, from being withdrawn from the district over a disagreement in charges. "We have worked out an agreement," said Tim Valencia, spokesman for Phoenix's Parks and Recreation Department, which administers PAC. "PAC will continue until Dec. 21. After that additional agreements will have to be worked out. But it will be at all five schools." The compromise will make the program cost parents $105 for the fall semester, with $15 paid to the city of Phoenix and $90 paid to the Kyrene School District. Previously, the program cost Kyrene parents $85 for an entire school year. "They're going to work directly with families who participate in the program, so you'll pay one fee to the city and one fee to Kyrene," City Councilman Greg Stanton said Tuesday, talking to parents outside the Kyrene School Board meeting at which he announced the deal. After that, the city and school district will meet again to decide how to move forward. "We'll be talking to the district again in September to see if we can get the fee reduced," Valencia said. State law requires school districts to charge facility rental fees to outside organizations, and such fees can be waived only if the programs housed in district space "promote the educational function of the school district." Kyrene officials said PAC did not do that, and said that forced the district to charge. Rental fees were going to cost the city about $100,000, charges that got passed onto parents - parents in districts that don't charge the fee pay $15 for PAC enrollment for the school year. To get the fee reduced, Valencia and Stanton acknowledged that PAC would have to increase its educational relevancy to Kyrene students. "We're looking at ways to make it more supportive of academic activities during the day," Stanton said, explaining that more effort would be made to align PAC activities with lessons, themes and curricula students were working on. The dozen or so parents who attended Tuesday's board meeting to learn PAC's fate said they were pleased with the outcome. "This is great news for all of us," said Rick Bishop, a parent with a child in the Kyrene de la Esperanza PAC program. PAC had been offered through Lomas, Lagos, Monte Vista, Esperanza and Sierra elementary schools for years, but the city abruptly announced in June that it would not be offering the program to Kyrene families in the 2007-08 school year. The decision outraged many parents who had come to rely on the program's relatively inexpensive price tag - the closest alternative is the Kyrene Kids Club, which costs parents $209 per month for five-day enrollment. "You have no idea how upset people have been," said Lynn Butzko, a parent with a child in the Kyrene de los Lagos PAC program. "I'm here representing about 20 people. Everyone was extremely up-in-arms." Registration for PAC starts July 14, and the program runs the duration of the school year - Aug. 6 to Dec. 21. Last year, the program enrolled 533 students. Jason Ludwig can be reached at (480) 898-7916 or jludwig@aztrib.com.

There's a related alternative to letting your young video game enthusiasts play games this summer: enroll in classes where they learn how to make them. Through the end of July, a program being held at Arizona State University will help kids do just that. "What we do with video games, it's not really something you can learn in a book," said 3D game instructor Sam Deiter. "It's perfect for parents who have kids who don't want to do much else, but when you put a video game in front of them they just spark up. So parents love it." The program is run by iD Tech Camps, a company that develops, staffs and manages a series of technology-related summer camps. From 2D and 3D video game design courses to Web design and computer animation curricula, there's something for any tech-savvy teen. But it's the game animation camps that are the most popular draw. "Campers explore the world of technology, tap into their creative juices, create a final project by the end of the week, get exposed to a prestigious university, learn from vivacious instructors who act as positive mentors, and invest in their future," says iDTech's Web site. Deiter, who holds a degree in video game design, said that sounds about right. He's been subbing as the 2D design instructor, teaching kids as young as 7 how to fashion their own classic-style games. To start, he says conceptualization is the important launch pad. "I basically have them come up with an idea for some kind of 2D video game they wanted to do, an updated Space Invaders, for example," he explained. "There's such a different range of students and general knowledge of game design when they first come in." After gauging a student's familiarity with the software the class will use, Deiter says day two is spent gathering art resources, day three is spent scripting the game, and days four and five are spent designing them. In all, most time is spent in actual creation and game design. "We usually get in one-and-a-half, two-and-a-half hours of instruction time" per day of the eight-hour class time, he said. And if the child really invests himself or herself, Deiter said the results can be staggering. One of his wards in the 3D classes wanted to make a game in the vein of controversial Grand Theft Auto series. "He had never used the software before, but by the second day he had four levels, intro and credit screens and all kinds of rooms you could go into," Deiter said. "Toward the end of the course I would say he knew just as much about this program as I did." Tuition for the classes vary, depending on how much time a parent wants their child to be at ASU during the weeklong course, but the average appears to be about $850. Deiter said the program is well worth it, since it teaches a hard-to-reach subculture more than just how to design a game. "Kids have the ability to meet other kids who love to do what they do," he said. "It helps them open up and develop social skills, because they're around kids who totally understand where they're coming from. These are the kids who don't want to go outside and play sports. These are kids who want to sit in front of their computer and do something analytical." Deiter's familiar with such kids: he used to be one. In fact, he says he loves what he does so much he can't help but be a workaholic. "I was here until 10:30 last night," he laughed. "I work 14, 15 hours a day, because I'm getting to do what I want to do." For information on the program and to see where space is still available, visit www.internalDrive.com or call 1-888-709-TECH (8324). Jason Ludwig can be reached at (480) 898-7916 or jludwig@aztrib.com.

There's a related alternative to letting your young video game enthusiasts play games this summer: enroll in classes where they learn how to make them. Through the end of July, a program being held at Arizona State University will help kids do just that. "What we do with video games, it's not really something you can learn in a book," said 3D game instructor Sam Deiter. "It's perfect for parents who have kids who don't want to do much else, but when you put a video game in front of them they just spark up. So parents love it." The program is run by iD Tech Camps, a company that develops, staffs and manages a series of technology-related summer camps. From 2D and 3D video game design courses to Web design and computer animation curricula, there's something for any tech-savvy teen. But it's the game animation camps that are the most popular draw. "Campers explore the world of technology, tap into their creative juices, create a final project by the end of the week, get exposed to a prestigious university, learn from vivacious instructors who act as positive mentors, and invest in their future," says iDTech's Web site. Deiter, who holds a degree in video game design, said that sounds about right. He's been subbing as the 2D design instructor, teaching kids as young as 7 how to fashion their own classic-style games. To start, he says conceptualization is the important launch pad. "I basically have them come up with an idea for some kind of 2D video game they wanted to do, an updated Space Invaders, for example," he explained. "There's such a different range of students and general knowledge of game design when they first come in." After gauging a student's familiarity with the software the class will use, Deiter says day two is spent gathering art resources, day three is spent scripting the game, and days four and five are spent designing them. In all, most time is spent in actual creation and game design. "We usually get in one-and-a-half, two-and-a-half hours of instruction time" per day of the eight-hour class time, he said. And if the child really invests himself or herself, Deiter said the results can be staggering. One of his wards in the 3D classes wanted to make a game in the vein of controversial Grand Theft Auto series. "He had never used the software before, but by the second day he had four levels, intro and credit screens and all kinds of rooms you could go into," Deiter said. "Toward the end of the course I would say he knew just as much about this program as I did." Tuition for the classes vary, depending on how much time a parent wants their child to be at ASU during the weeklong course, but the average appears to be about $850. Deiter said the program is well worth it, since it teaches a hard-to-reach subculture more than just how to design a game. "Kids have the ability to meet other kids who love to do what they do," he said. "It helps them open up and develop social skills, because they're around kids who totally understand where they're coming from. These are the kids who don't want to go outside and play sports. These are kids who want to sit in front of their computer and do something analytical." Deiter's familiar with such kids: he used to be one. In fact, he says he loves what he does so much he can't help but be a workaholic. "I was here until 10:30 last night," he laughed. "I work 14, 15 hours a day, because I'm getting to do what I want to do." For information on the program and to see where space is still available, visit www.internalDrive.com or call 1-888-709-TECH (8324). Jason Ludwig can be reached at (480) 898-7916 or jludwig@aztrib.com.

The Kyrene School District has decided which of its prevention programs can be sustained after the expiration of the grant that used to pay for them, and officials are saying that most can be saved. "What we had to do was look at the prevention services we had in the district before the grant and see what we could have after," said Kelly Alexander, the district's director of supplemental education. "It may look a little different, but fundamentally (the programs) will still be the same." Cuts to the district's prevention programs were forced as the result of the end this year of the Safe Schools/Healthy Students Initiative. The initiative was a federal grant that provided the district with about $8 million over four years to help establish and maintain alcohol, drug and violence prevention programs, early childhood development programs and student mental health services. Alexander noted that Kyrene has been cognizant since the grant was first received that it was a finite source of funds, and much of the money over the last four years was put into implementing programs that would be self-sustaining. Project ALERT, the district's primary drug prevention program that replaced the DARE program two years ago, was one such program. Materials and curricula associated with Project ALERT, as well as staff training, are still in place and can continue. Many programs will remain but at lower funding levels. Second Step, the district's anti-bullying efforts, will continue, but in the form of assemblies and teacher presentations. The grant money had previously provided for prevention specialists to perform anti-bullying parent workshops around the district. The STAR Program and KASP - a summer academic program and the Kyrene Alternative to Suspension Program respectively - will pull supporting funds from site 301 money. "Site 301 dollars is just another funding source," Alexander said. "It's a fund principals use for dropout prevention programs and AIMS instruction. The majority of our site 301 dollars is in our salary schedule, but principals" keep an emergency fund for times like these. The biggest hit the grant's loss will cause is to prevention staff. Half of the district's truancy efforts, the district-wide crisis intervention effort and all six of the district's regional prevention supervisors are no longer funded, Alexander said. Kyrene's loss of the Safe Schools/Healthy Students Initiative was inevitable, said Karin Smith, the district's federal grant coordinator, when the grant was formally set for expiration in April. Smith noted there was no way the district could have again received the grant money. "We weren't eligible to reapply," Smith said. "Districts aren't allowed to receive it twice; it's very competitive. The year we got it only 13 districts in the nation got it too." Smith said the grant was first applied for and received in August 2003, and was initially intended to be a three-year grant. The district was able to use stretch grant funds to pay for a fourth year. --Jason Ludwig can be reached at (480) 898-7916 or jludwig@aztrib.com.