by Angela Cavallari Walker

You may have heard of longtime SBC Fulfillment client Hal Leonard-literally! For the past 60 years they have been putting sheet music and instructional books into the hands of eager students young and old alike.

Headquartered in Milwaukee, Wisconsin this company got it''s start in the late 1930s when brothers Harold "Hal" Edstrom, Everett Edstrom, and close friend Roger Busdicker formed a successful dance band. The Edstroms'' father was not thrilled about the prospect of his sons becoming traveling musicians, so Hal and Everett decided to merge their names and became known as the Hal Leonard band. The name not only stuck for the band, but for band leader Everett as well.

Eventually the Hal Leonard Band broke up, and then in 1947 after a successful run at directing high school bands Hal and Roger formed the Hal Leonard print and publishing company. It was their talent for orchestrating mainstream musical hits into school band arrangements that got the attention of other band directors throughout the United States.

Today, Hal Leonard''s printed books and music materials are sold in 65 countries and 7,500 stores and distributors throughout the United States and Canada. Since 1998 SBC Fulfillment has been the state depository and a distributor in Georgia for Hal Leonard.

Throughout the summer months, SBC Fulfillment warehouses, inventories, and ships these textbooks to classrooms in Georgia before the start of the school year. And for students that is music to their ears.

Tags: warehousing | georgia | Education | fulfillment

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SBC Fulfillment would love to be your Georgia Depository!

Southern Book Company differentiates itself from the other Textbook Depositories in the State of Georgia based on our Exceptional Level of Service. We pride ourselves not on being the biggest depository, but on being “The Easiest to do business with…”

Educational publishers interested in bidding textbooks, software, and other media in Georgia often find our many years of experience working with the Georgia Department of Education to be very helpful. By coaching publishers through the adoption process, we have achieved an excellent reputation in the Textbook Publishing Industry as a friend of Publishers and Education Administrators. Georgia’s bid specifications and regulations sometimes appear quite stringent and demanding. SBC Fulfillment helps publishers take the worry and headaches out of the textbook evaluation process.

Georgia law specifies that all publishers wishing to do business with the Georgia Department of Education must warehouse their textbooks and materials within the state or ship to Georgia schools free of charge. SBC Fulfillment acts as the exclusive textbook depository in Georgia for University of Georgia Carl Vinson Institute of Government, Alfred Publishers, Hal Leonard Corporation, Santillana USA, REI America Inc., Warner Bros. Publications, and William H. Sadlier.

SBC Fulfillment is the only “full service” depository in Georgia to retrieve non-adopted textbook samples at the district level. We are the only depository guaranteeing delivery of Georgia Textbook Evaluation Samples for our contracted publishers. No project is too big or too small for our Georgia distribution centers.

Here is the link to the list of depositories in the State of Georgia.

Tags: georgia | fulfillment | Education | warehousing

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The 2009 Georgia Textbook Submissions evaluation period is coming to an end. The dates set for retrievals from the Evaluation Sites are for the week of July 20^th – July 24^th. SBC Fulfillment will be offering retrieval services to all publishers. SBC would retrieve all materials remaining at each of the sites and coordinate the returns to each publisher.

SBC Fulfillment offers these services at the rate of $9 per box per site, with a minimum fee of $50 per site. If you wish to be added to the list, please contact Andy Whitaker at 678.370.0776 or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

for an estimate.

Tags: Education | outsourcing | georgia | operations | fulfillment

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President Obama''s staff made a lot of false promises of keeping transparency in the stimulus Program.  This has proven fatal as State and Federal agencies are sluggish and patchy in disclosing to the public the first allotments from the grant of $100 billion in education funding.

U.S Department of Education has issued funding to states and local school districts to the tune of  $145 million.  Still many State “recovery” websites do not have specific information on the capital that was allotted to their region, but only show general information on the stimulus program.

The federal government’s chief online portal Recovery.gov on the stimulus is lacking in providing any information on the cash that has been distributed to the states by the federal agencies and the majority of Education Department expenditure statistics are hidden deep in Excel spreadsheets.

Education Department representative Sandra Abrevaya was quoted in Education Week magazine as saying “There’s always a trade-off between immediacy and accuracy and we don’t want to put things up so early that we end up having to revise them.” People have really high hopes on transparency of information from President Barack Obama’s team on stimulus program. The transparency segment of recovery.gov has posted a statement that reads “The President has made it clear that every taxpayer dollar spent on our economic recovery must be subject to unprecedented levels of transparency and accountability”.

In a dialogue last month with Education Week, the U.S Secretary of Education Arne Duncan made a statement “There’s never been such transparency,” he said. “We’ll be tracking state by state and district by district how money is being spent.”

Initial Steps

The state and federal officials are still trying to comprehend the information on details of money being spent where and how. American Recovery and Reinvestment Act just being less than 3 months old, the federal officials have decided on reporting a detailed report on www.recovery.gov to trace funds. The Education Department is also strategizing to rise the information level on the website.

As per the Government supervisory body; the state, local government and school districts have lots of room for improvement in sequence to building a more comprehensive, user friendly, and detailed reports for tracking the federal money.

Marthena Cowart director of communications for the Washington-based Project on Government Oversight stated in Education Week “We’re cautiously optimistic, and we’ll have to wait and see but we don’t want to be a Pollyanna about this.” Its also heartening that the transparency in information is placed high.

The Education Department is certain that they will not be disclosing all the information related to the stimulus program, for instance officials have said that they will not open information to the public regarding the applications that states submit for their shares of the $48.5 billion in state stabilization funding offered this year, only the accepted applications will be made public, after any changes have been made.

The verdict has come in-spite of the department’s own ruling on the stabilization fund, which state : “From the date that a state first submits its application for funding, … the department will make information publicly available regarding a state’s implementation of the program.”

Even though other federal agencies have posted on their Websites links related to stimulus communications between lobbyists and departments-vital to President Obama March 20 directive still the education department has yet to place any such communication as of press time.

Undoubtedly it is the federal auditor’s duty is to make sure that there is a fair and transparent flow of information. Under the stimulus law, it is the Government Accountability Office and the investigative arm of Congress, which is required to report a bimonthly review on how the money is being spent by the particular states and localities. Further, it has also identified 16 states to follow over the next several years. On April 23^rd a report by GAO was published which raised an alarm on the capability of states and local districts to accurately audit stimulus funds and guarantee transparency in tight financial plans.

A $14 million grant was released for the Education Department’s office of inspector general in stimulus funding for training its staff and planning more audits and inspections. Catherine Grant , the department’s public-affairs liaison commented that a review is being planned by the office at the state and local level on issues like data quality, use of funds, and cash management.

As per the reporting needs and the load of transparency it is the states responsibility, which are charged with releasing quarterly reports on stimulus expenditure, beginning Oct 10. In view of the fact that federal guidelines only apply to the primary recipients of the funding which is generally the states and there a some extra reporting needs for school districts.

Rules of Simulus Reporting :

The agencies receiving or distributing shares less than or equal to $100 billion in support for education have to follow the guidelines laid down by the Federal American Recovery and Reinvestment Act

The must follow guidelines laid by the Federal agencies (including the U.S Department of Education)

· Have multiple of there own recovery.gov website for providing public information related to stimulus program.

· Account various media interaction such as press events.

· Place funding notifications when funds becomes accessible to states or local agencies.

· Weekly reports of the funds which are consumed and also the one which has been officially released but have not been spent.

· Weekly report on chief activities which are of importance to higher ranking government dignitaries, Congress and the public.

· Presenting and planning a map on how the department will improvise and administer stimulus fund and a more detailed oriented planning on program-specific funds, which in return has to be accepted by the Office of management and Budget by May 15.

States Guidelines :

· Quarterly reports to federal officials giving details on the funds spent including the project title and description and an evaluation of the program’s growth and an number of employment created.

· Annual reports on the spending of state fiscal-stabilization money, how much employment was generated or unemployment saved and much growth was stimulated in key education areas such as reducing teacher-quality inequities.

Guidelines for School and other local agencies:

· Maintaining records on the expenditures incurred which can be further required by the states; federal official prepare to spread out a reporting plan consisting of information about district stimulus expenditures and also about the contractors or subcontractors engaged.

· Per-pupil school wise details on education expenditures from state and local sources for Title I money.

· Complete all the reporting needs under Title I and unique education programs.

Sources: U.S. Office of Management and Budget; U.S.

Department of Education; American Recovery and

Reinvestment Act

Surfacing the Procedures

All the states have developed its own version of a recovery Web sites with most of them demonstrating only to basic stimulus information, like linking to the laws, estimating on the funding a state is suppose to get, and press releases on the benefits of the stimulus law. Many sites however point towards a more detailed oriented information in near future.

Some states like Maryland , Virginia , Oregon , and Washington state however share a rather detailed, county wide, stimulus spending information on their hosted Web sites by various eye catching and interactive simulations.

Connecticut State is an exception in providing online details o f stimulus-related contacts between lobbyists and executive-branch officials. There is so much of transparency in there records that they also show that on April 1^st & 2^nd a member of Connecticut Education Association sent an e-mail to the official of the state department of education’s legal division requesting that the funding should be first used for saving the jobs.

The Connecticut site also host stimulus project idea forwarded to the governor’s office, such as requiring $20,000 for walk-in refrigerators for the middle school in Bridgeport, as there is a provision for funding the food related service equipments.

One of the focus areas of the state departments of education is to share the information related to stimulus program among the various officials at the school district levels.

David Conarty-Marin director of communication for the Maine Department of Education quoted “Our primary goal has been early and frequent communication with the field, but we’re very cognizant we need to do the transparency piece as well. All the money that is spent is going to end up on a map on our Web site somehow.”

Jaci Holmes , the federal-state legislative liaison for the Maine department said “We don’t want to just hear about ‘professional development, we want to get below what’s the title to ... what are specific types of programs being funded, and what do they expect as measurable outcomes.”

Arkansas education departments are working towards improvising submission of real-time data on spending their stimulus money and on students’ progress reports. The next level would be to making the information public online said one of the official Julie Johnson Thompson, the department’s director of communications. All this is being planned to get executed with the help of technology expert-IBM.

“We’re so intent on making sure this money is spent well, and transparently,” she said.

District leaders in some states however look forward too little in the way of extra reporting as they are use to the federal reporting needs for programs such as special education.

The district superintendents of Illinois is not expecting any major results by receiving the additional money of $48.5 billion for school districts as they plan to use it for paying the staff member and utilizing to clear the bills said superintendent of the 12,700-student Township High School

District 214 in Arlington Heights, Ill, David Schuler.

For keeping track of the expenditures many districts will have to set up separate accounting codes

Mr.Schuler quoted “I wouldn’t say it’s a nightmare, but it’s a logistical challenge, We’re not really going to see any extra money, so it’s really just more paperwork.”

Tags: Education

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President Obama’s new education plan has much in its favour, but there are three significant points he and his aides have overlooked.

The new approach has all the hallmarks of the President’s emphasis on responsibility and accountability in regard to how students perform on achievement tests. One of the methods used is a pay-for-performance incentive. But similar programs in the past have not had optimum results, instead there have been some unfortunate side effects. Is what the President is giving us merely more of the same?

The answer is Yes, unless he takes the following points into account:

Widen the scope

One of the rather easy assumptions behind the No Child Left Behind law was that if attention was focused on a few crucial aspects of education, say math and reading, others would simply wait patiently for their turn. In fact, these “step-children” simply wither away for want of immediate attention, a want that cannot be remedied when we get around to them. The harm will already have been done. In other words, resources need to be widely distributed, a little help at the right time can save a whole entity, whether it is the performing arts or Phys Ed. It is not just in Education that we find this short-sightedness, of course, and it affects both the private and public sector.

Let the real scores stand

A startling point was underscored by the New York Times columnist David Brooks regarding low performance standards when he quoted U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan as saying: “States are lying to children. They are lying to parents. They’re ignoring failure.”
Yes, but there is another area of discrepancy, and that is in inflated scores.
Many schools have used test-based accountability to boost scores, leaving the actual gains out in the cold. This has not been deliberate, scores can be inflated through some forms of test preparation, but that doesn’t help the most disadvantaged students. Policymakers continue to hold up the banner of these unrealistic scores as proof of success.

What this does is to ultimately leave us with the illusion that all is well in our education system, but we must not forget that the most important ethic we teach our young people is honesty in ourselves and the systems that we follow. To correct the situation, we need to audit score gains systematically and ensure accountability tests are foolproof indicators of the learning curve. Audits in the past have been few and far between because neither federal nor state reform programs have recognised their value.

Another area that must be monitored is how well educators prepare students for the accountability tests. Perhaps what is needed is an entirely new approach to tests that counter inflation. The Obama administration gets full marks for wanting tests that embrace higher-order skills, but it must take into account the score inflation issue as well.

Assess and modify

Test-based accountability has always been designed with one glaring omission: Based on little evidence, even after implementation, there has been precious little evaluation regarding effectiveness. As already mentioned, the scores on the accountability tests cannot tell the full story. Sooner or later, less satisfactory data emerges where tests not vulnerable to score inflation do tell the real story, as with the National Assessment of Educational Progress and international comparative studies. Then, we declare a crisis situation, attempt a new accountability system, and are back where we started.

We need to tackle the hard issues with hard evidence and solve the problem with an attempt at re-evaluation even if this means midcourse corrections. The upcoming reauthorization of the No Child Left Behind law should implement standardised evaluation of the program’s effects. Reasoned and creative approaches to accountability should be combined with evaluations that answer tough questions with equally tough solutions whether it be a termination of policies that do not work, or replicating policies that do.

If not, what we will have are indeed children left behind.

Tags: Education

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According to the office of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, these are some of the highlights of the new economic stimulus legislation

EDUCATION AND CHILDHOOD DEVELOPMENT

• $53.6 billion for a State Fiscal Stabilization Fund—$40.6 billion to local school districts, which can be used for preventing cutbacks, preventing layoffs, school modernization, and other purposes; $5 billion as bonus grants for meeting key performance measures; and $8 billion for public safety and other services.

• Higher education tax credit increased to a maximum of $2,500, and makes it available to nearly 4 million low-income students by making it partially refundable

• Increases the maximum Pell Grant by $500, for a maximum of $5,350 in 2009 and $5,550 in 2010.

• $200 million added to the College Work-Study program.

• $1.1 billion for Early Head Start.

• $1 billion for Head Start.

• $2 billion for the Child Care Development Block Grant to provide child care services to an additional 300,000 children in low-income families while their parents go to work.

• $13 billion for Title I grants to help disadvantaged kids reach high academic standards.

Tags: Education

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Tags: Education

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President Obama’s Education Stimulus Package

By Brian Schoenbaechler

Our publishing clients are probably wondering how the Stimulus Package proposed by our new President is going to affect the Textbook Publishing industry. It appears that little of the money will go directly to the purchase of Textbooks, however if States governments can get some relief on their operating budgets, they may be able to continue with their scheduled Textbook adoption schedules.

President Barack Obama has proposed an ambitious plan to rebuild the nation''s crumbling schools as a part of his economic stimulus package, aiming to help budget-constrained school districts make much needed repairs. It appears very little of the money will go toward reforms designed to improve academic performance. Some are criticizing this decision as a wasted opportunity. The President is trying to balance two seemingly competing objectives; economic stimulus and improvement in academic performance. I believe the President would argue that his plan would accomplish both.

Here are some details of the proposal. So, you can decide for yourself.

• $41 billion to local school districts through Title I ($13 billion), IDEA ($13 billion), a new School Modernization and Repair Program ($14 billion), and the Education Technology program ($1 billion).

• $79 billion in state fiscal relief to prevent cutbacks to key services, including $39 billion to local school districts and public colleges and universities distributed through existing state and federal formulas, $15 billion to states as bonus grants as a reward for meeting key performance measures, and $25 billion to states for other high priority needs such as public safety and other critical services, which may include education.

The debate seems to be waged on whether money should be spent on: operational expenses, technology expenses, or building and repair expenses. States really need the money for operations, but putting the money here really does not create jobs or put people back to work. It simply prevents people from getting laid off. Technology expenses are really a luxury with teachers working in broken down schools and teachers getting laid off. Building an repair seems like a logistical place to spend money as this could put people to work and improve teaching environments, but the impact to improve performance of students is debatable.

Ultimately, it appears that President Obama is going to allocate $125 billion of the potential $900 billion towards education. None of which will probably directly affect the textbook publishing industry, however more money for operations could prevent delays in state textbook buying cycles. The greatest opportunity for increased textbook sales probably lies in the $41 billion to local school districts through Title I.

Please post your comments!

Tags: Education

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