Readers,
I posted a blog a few minutes ago called “Reformers vs. Democracy.”
It says that the current corporate reformers push their reforms through without listening to parents, educators or the public. They consider the democratic process to be a nuisance that slows them down. They like to say, “We can’t wait,” and “Children have only one chance so we must act right now.” Then they proceed to ram through whatever they want without public consultation. Vouchers. Charters. Evaluation of teachers by test scores. Ending collective bargaining. Removing any due process rights for teachers. And so on.
I invited readers to submit their own state’s experience. Right now, I have Idaho and South Dakota. Please send in your comments about your state and I will add them too. Be brief.
Diane
I have to add Florida — ALEC’s testing ground and home of the Jeb Bush and his shady foundations and think tanks.
Our governor, Rick Scott, in his first public address after the inauguration said he would gut funding for public education and end it as we know it. He later had to backtrack after maintaining an approval rating under 30% for most of his first 2 years in office.
We now have 50% of teacher evaluations tied to test score results, whether you ever actually taught the children or not, huge increase in vouchers, near-unlimited charter schools, corruption all over the place, and a majority republican legislature that are eager to prove themselves as the meanest and most draconian lawmakers in the country.
The state school board association and 10 district school boards have passed resolutions against the corrupt FCAT testing automaton that rules everything in education in the state. Scandal after scandal have barely dented FCAT but parents are starting to get angry and fed up and they are fighting back. Teachers are cowed, afraid, and unorganized as this is a “right-to-work” state.
From sunny California:
Of course you know all about the steroid reforminess happening in LAUSD. But I’m in Northern California, watching the tide creeping up the shoreline.
Yesterday, California submitted its official request for an NCLB waiver to the feds.
The press release states that “California’s request differs from those filed by other states which agree to several additional federally required policies in exchange for an ESEA waiver.” Judging by what Vermont went through, I’m not optimistic.
http://www.cde.ca.gov/nr/ne/yr12/yr12rel59.asp
You may have heard about the recent judgement finding compliance issues around the 40 year-old Stull Act, which has language requiring teacher/principal evaluation be tied to student achievement. Of course, this was from 1971, so who knows how that will be construed. We’ll see… I’m sure reformists are gleeful about it.
http://articles.latimes.com/2011/oct/31/local/la-me-teacher-evals-20111101
There’s also a lawsuit pending in Superior Court, Los Angeles (BC484642) which seeks to overturn 5 state-level job protection statutes, including tenure, seniority, and due process protections. It is mounted by an organization called Students Matter, funded by one David F. Welch, who by the sound of it, would like to be a member of the Billionaire Boys Club. The lawsuit is premised on the notion that the children being represented MIGHT be placed with a “bad teacher” due to these statutes.
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2012/05/teacher-job-protections-lawsuit.html
If you want to read the actual court documents, type the case number into the field found on this page:
http://www.lasuperiorcourt.org/civilcasesummary/index.asp
Just today I read about another bill introduced by state senator Alex Padilla, (SB1530). Sounds like a teacher-perversion prevention bill, in response to the recent abuse scandal at Miramontes Elementary School in LAUSD. Very akin to what Chancellor Walcott wrote about in the NY Times last week, making it easier to fire teachers over accusations that may or may not be true. Perdaily compared it to the shock doctrine:
http://www.perdaily.com/2012/06/ab-1530-by-alex-padilla.html
Talk about boilerplate… no kidding.
Rhode island let in Acheivement First, against strong push back by teachers and parents. Oh, and we have Deborah Gist–enough said!
In Rhode Island, all the teachers in Central Falls were fired, and a year later all the teachers in Providence were fired. Commish Gist’s PhD dissertation (defended about a month ago) was on this horrendous new evaluation plan. Principals from around the State were begging her to slow the process down because it was impossible for them, and for teachers, to get it done. In many cases, one principal was responsible for evaluating 123 teachers, complete with scripts, multiple classroom visits, and tons of paperwork on both sides. Many teachers and admins have retired because of this madness.
Last year, TN and our TfA commissioner of ed and Michelle Rhee’s ex, Kevin Huffman, rushed into use a similar teacher evaluation system purchased from the Milken Foundation (the same Michael Milken of securities fraud fame) that measures teacher competence on a 1 – 5 Likert scale, aptly named TEAM. 1-5 is the same crude metric I used to rate my hotel stay and my car dealership. Sensitive to the effects of nuanced teaching practices, it’s not. If scored according to the TEAM trainer, on 15% of all teachers will gain or keep tenure protection. 85% will be subject to firing.
Tied into the teacher’s average TEAM score is 40% VAM scores from the TCAP state assessments in reading in math. Teachers who do not teach reading and math were forced to use the VAMs of the school TCAP average or arbitrarily assigned either the school reading or math average score. Recommendations by an “independent” committee to improve the system suggested adding more tests to include all subject areas.
With the republicans well in control of all branches of government in TN, teachers here have lost their collective voices. In 2010, Ramsey with the help of ALEC ended tenure, collective bargaining, auto deductions for TEA dues, and kicked all teacher reps off of the state retirement board. Three of the largest school systems in the state have Broad trained superintendents. The day after Walker in WI survived his recall, TN’s Lt Gov Ron Ramsey announced he’d propose vouchers in the 2013 legislative session.
For profit, online teacher education is proliferating. Requirements for certification to teach are being dumbed down at the same time requirements to raise achievement are increased to levels nearly impossible. Further, state university teacher education programs are being evaluated according to their graduate’s VAM scores. Huffman posted the VAM scores on the TN website and guess which teacher ed program scored the best? Teach for America! The results were so skewed and improbable that several schools requested the raw data, only to be rebuffed, with great umbrage, by the state.
TN politicians in collusion with wealthy privatizers in both the Democratic and Republican parties are using the full force of state power to crush involvement of teachers and parents in decisions about our children’s schools. God help us all in TN.
Diane, Louisiana here. Since the tabula rasa that Katrina offered, New Orleans and now the entire state has been given reform in the way you mention—-more dictatorial than democratic. There seems to be a well organized symphony occurring across the U.S. with ALEC, TFA, DataCorp, PacificMetircs (two data companies with contracts totaling 120+ million dollars), New Teacher Project and Students First (Rhee’s two $ generating non-profits) all playing towards a crescendo where public education is a thing of the past. Additionally, our Gov. Bobby Jindal, has been mixing vindictive style politics into this whole mess by yanking any ‘nea’ votes on his ed reform legislation from committee chairmanships and vice chairmanships as recent as this week.
And don’t forget, Stand for Children has started to organize
Very true, Dawn. Stand for Children, SOS, the Coalition for Science ed., the Coalition for public ed, the list of grass roots efforts goes on and on to oppose Jindal lead reforms.
In Maryland we are in the midst of redesigning the “model for preparation, development, retention, and evaluation of teachers and principals”, due to RTTT. As well as building “a statewide technology infrastructure that links all data elements with analytic and instructional tools to monitor and promote student achievement”- this info is from the MSDE website. The new state superintendent, Dr. Lilian Lowery will be sworn in July 1st, her resume says she helped her state (Delaware) secure the first RTTT funds from DOE. She also mentions education reform as a necessary goal for success. ALSO, Ms. Kate Walsh, president of NCTQ is on the Maryland SBOE. I feel our state is poised to make some important decisions regarding our educational system- and I am watching, writing and talking about it.
I have just learned that Dr. Lowery our new Maryland state superintendent is a Broad alumni- http://www.broadcenter.org//network/profile/lillian-lowery
She graduated the Broad Academy in 2004. Maybe she forgot what they taught her. Maryland must hope so. Watch to see if she brings in lots of other Broadies. That would be a bad sign.
California. Michelle Rhee is first lady of Sacramento- need I say more? Schools are closing right and left while charter schools expand, criminal allegations show up like the recent case in Oakland, CA regarding Chavis [AIM], there are lobbyists on school boards while they represent entities like K-12 inc. Too many examples/conflicts to go into, but California must be on your list.
Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson is a “good guy”. He is trying to stem the tide of reform by asking for a waiver from the NCLB waiver. Was a longtime science teacher and track coach in Northern Cal. and I would consider a progressive. He declared a state of fiscal emergency in our public schools and would like to reduce reliance on test-based accountability. Gov. Brown also wants to reduce the crazy number of tests our children take and incorporate evaluations that consider things like “a passion for learning and love of learning.” BTW – luckily Tom beat Gloria Romero for the top ed job. She’s a big DFER fan and corporate sponsored reformer. Gov. Brown has vetoed 2 bills that he said did not go far enough in putting “quality” into the evaluation quotient.
CA. I”m not a CA resident but I read a great letter Gov. Brown wrote to correlate with his veto of an education reform bill that made it to his desk a while back. Any CA residents familiar with that? If so I’d like to hear your thoughts and if you can let us know if he is sticking to his guns or if he is caving like the rest…..well not vermont at least so far.
Dr. Ravitch,
This is the most depressing assignment I’ve ever been given. Reading these comments are equally depressing. . .
But here goes. . . In Douglas County Co, school board was bought with billionaires and ALEC. Right now, school board won’t budge in it’s negotiations with teachers on collective bargaining, etc. They are working hard to dismantle the union. Even though there is money for a pay raise, they instead are pushing a pay for performance plan. If teachers didn’t sign their contracts this Friday even though negotiations are still going, they will be fired. District won’t release a parent survey. . . said it’s invalid. . . hmmmm wonder what it says. Also, Douglas County is very affluent, but has become the capital of choice even trying to push vouchers when there is no problems in the public schools already.
HAWAII. (Pop. 1.4 million) Given Hawaii’s relatively small population compared to other states in the US and its small size geographically, one might assume that state income from tourism, development, and a large military presence (bases) would provide a good public school system. That is no longer the case. Recently, our newly elected governor, Neil Abercrombie (D), has admonished the state teachers’ union (HSTA) by not accepting a recent re-vote on a “best and final offer” he presented to the union.
Due to poor communication by HSTA to its members regarding what the vote was all about, a first vote was given a strong “No,” as teachers felt they would be giving their bargaining rights away. The union subsequently came back and told the teachers that a “No” vote would be a vote leading to re-negotiation or possible strike litigation.
A re-vote was done. The governor’s original offer (he also appoints BOE members) was accepted by a 66% margin this second time round. However, the total voting was only about 25% of those who participated in the first vote. Again, a sign of weak union communication and little solidarity or understanding on the part of the teachers.
The governor has declared the re-vote null, illegal and non-binding. And now with the ambiguity of solidarity expressed by the re-vote, he has the advantage of changing the original offer should he so choose.
Because Hawaii received a RTTT award, teachers and staff are now subject to increased evaluation, evaluation by student achievement, possible increases in high stakes testing. Also, poor performing schools (i.e., schools in lower / lowest economic status communities) have been placed in a “Zones of Innovation” status. This provides for an opening of these schools to outside scrutiny which can inevitably lead to what most all other states are facing: school closures, firing of staff, takeovers by private and / or taxpayer funded corporate charters, etc. And, statistics show that it is those schools in higher poverty communities that are prime targets by corporate take over.
Given Hawaii’s high density of well funded private and / or religious affiliated schools relative to its small population, the Obama / Duncan declared evaluation and accountability meritocracy delivered via NCLB and RTTT makes pubic schools in Hawaii ripe for privatization in the manner of other locations throughout the U.S.
As a parent with sons in public schools, I would love REAL education reform. However, ALEC, through the Jindal administration, rammed vouchers for private schools that teach children with DVD’s, lowered teacher qualification requirements – while maintaining “high expectations” of student performance, all while under the guise of parent choice though they never brought parents to the table to ask what choices they actually want.
An obvious set up for failure… what’s going to happen now to our children who already in one of the lowest performing states in the nation?
And to clarify, this is in reference to Louisiana.
Here in Ohio we have been under attack on a state and local level. We have a union busting governor who tried to take on the firefighters, police and teachers with his infamous SB5 which was put to a vote in 2011 and defeated by a large majority. Recently, the mayor of Cleveland (also in charge of schools because of legislation from a previous mayor), went on the assault of the bargaining rights of teachers and of course it was essential that his proposed legislation be pushed through in Columbus quickly for the sake of the children.
In my own smaller suburban school district, Brecksville-Broadview Heights, 3 recently voted in school board members won the election based on the premise they were going to give the voters a school district they can afford. We have earned an excellent with distinction report card with the state of Ohio 13 years! However, these school board members have been quoted(not publicly of course) that they were going to “break that union”, “that if you teach in Brecksville you should not be able to afford to live there”,”that the proposed 10percent pay cut would not affect that many families because most of the teachers are women and it is only a second income”. The school board’s proposed contract also would take away our insurance and replace it with a low level plan, decrease our prep/planning time by 50 percent and even has a clause whereby a teacher drinking an adult beverage at a restaurant, imbibes a little too much could be “reported” to the school board and be reprimanded.
Please check out link on our very public web page Brecksville-Broadview Heights schools an click on the link to “Negotiations” and read the half truths.
wow. — “that if you teach in Brecksville you should not be able to afford to live there”
and wow — ”that the proposed 10percent pay cut would not affect that many families because most of the teachers are women and it is only a second income”
Quite the elitist group aren’t they. In addition they are proposing cost cutting measures the dismantle our special ed program. Did I say that the members are 4 men and 1 woman.
http://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/20120613/NEWS/120619826
The above is an article about how a public school district
felt forced to change public schools into charter schools.
The board of trustees were not reformers nor were they following a democratic response.
They just felt cornered to follow the money. Seems wrong to me.
Arizona reporting in… AZ is a right to work state. Our Union is recognized at the table but holds no real authority. In the last three years, we have seen the status of “teacher” reduced to very nearly nothing in this state. As a transplanted New Yorker, it is a struggle to watch the politics of this state. Teachers here no longer have tenure. Our contract status is always in limbo now. Salary is being tied to test scores and evaluations which are also tied to test scores. Arizona was named a Race to the Top state in December. I was sad to see this, but not surprised. All these changes were made so that we could be serious contenders. It worked. I am a wonderful teacher. I am 50 years old and have taught for 29 years. I work with student teachers every year, and mentor beginning teachers in my district. My biggest issue is the Corporate push for privitizing public education. We absolutely need change. I am also a parent with kids in public school. Attaching a link which has good info on what has gone on in AZ. http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/2009/11/23/20091123edcontracts1123.html
It’s tough being a teacher in Louisiana. Public funds for education have been cut while private and charter schools are getting all the funding. Increased pressure on public schools via test scores continues while private schools receive vouchers with no way of knowing if they really provide a better education. Teachers are being evaluated using COMPASS and no one really knows how those scores are computed.
To top it all off, we have a Supt. of Education who has no concern for improving failing schools, offers no solutions except moving the students to other schools, and is a lap dog for a Governor who runs the state like a fascist dictator.
Dear Diane,
Since Michelle Rhee and ALEC came to Michigan with the purpose of influencing our legislators, the following legislation has been passed under the guise of ‘student choice’ and ‘keeping effective teachers in the classroom’: (1) no seniority, reduced tenure rights and removal of ‘just cause’ in the case of dismissal – teachers can be fired for any reason; (2) evaluation based on student achievement and a subjective number system that is demoralizing to teachers; (3) no retiree health benefits for new hires (THIS will attract the brightest and best to the profession?!) (4) cap lifted on charter schools with little accountability to the taxpayer; (5) increase in the number of cyber schools with no regard for quality and very few safeguards for students and taxpayers; (6) Emergency Managers can now swoop in and take over struggling communities and school districts, removing elected officials. Legislation in the works is the ALEC parent trigger act, reducing graduation requirements, reducing teacher pensions, and eliminating certain requirements for teacher certification (paving the way for the Teach For Awhiles). In addition, our legislature cut business taxes and took millions from the School Aid Fund – another attempt to choke off funds to our community schools so that they will be forced to close. All of this, and the majority of teachers and parents remain either ignorant or apathetic.
This is a pretty good list. Let me expand a bit: as with much of the country, we had a huge wave of victories by “tea party” backed candidates in the 2010 election cycle, where anti-government folks consolidated control in the state Senate and took back control of the state House. They started by embracing the new governor’s priority for a business tax cut, giving up to $1.7 billion in tax reductions to business but effectively raising taxes on lower income families and removing about $1 billion in funding from education at all levels. (School operating funding is centralized in Michigan, and is determined each year by the legislature.) Schools now face this dramatically reduced funding level as the “new normal,” and funding for next year does not even keep up with inflation.
Against this backdrop, what we have here is a strange alliance of so-called “reformers” with local reactionaries who campaigned on the promise to “downsize government” and in particular to “get government out of our schools.” Last summer, a package of bills that was designed to “reform” teacher tenure by eliminating seniority and making tenure nearly meaningless was rammed through the legislature with considerable help from Students First (which spent some $1 million in media buys to secure key Senate votes). Added to the bills at the last minute and never discussed in committee was a huge new teacher evaluation outline. While there is still discussion about what model will become the mandatory state evaluation “tool,” already in law are requirements that at least 50% of a teacher’s evaluation must be based on value added measures using “objective measures of student growth” (i.e. test scores). Other factors must be included, but there is no minimum weight for anything other than test scores.
Bills were introduced, and passed, that removed most caps from the number of charter schools in the state and effectively removed numerical and enrollment caps from fully online “cyber” charters. Most Michigan charters (70-80%) are managed by for-profit management companies, and amendments to require non-profit EMOs were uniformly defeated. Many of the for-profit charter managers here were formed with both ideological and religious motives, to layer on top of the financial interest.
Most recently, a “parent-trigger” bill came back to life after languishing in the Senate for several months, and a spate of bills have been introduced that would water-down the state graduation requirements because they are too “college-prep” in focus.
While ideas from ALEC and national lobbying groups have played a role and provided a lot of money, much of this legislation was a product of state politics and a huge ideological shift here. It remains to be seen what will happen in the next cycle.
Hi, Diane ~
Thank you for your great question!
I live in Washington State near Seattle, otherwise known as Gates’ Town USA. I teach in a high poverty Title I public school.
Voters have successfully defeated Gates’ AstroTurf and ALEC funded legislation to promote charter schools in 3 different elections. However, they continue to try to beat voters down and recently http://www.diffen.com/difference/Category:Politicsconvinced our State PTA to promote legislation that would allow charter schools here for the first time.
One of the reasons we have been so successful in fighting back charter schools is: Washington State has over 500 TRUE “innovative public schools” – no voucher programs and FAKE “public charters”, but REAL public charters without lotteries, selection, or culling of students by race, class, or ability like most charter schools across the country do.
Seattle’s Parents Across America and teachers won big when we got the Broad former Superintendent Maria Goodloe-Johnson fired. (Unfortunately, Broadie Goodloe-Johnson has moved on to do more edDeFormer work in Michigan.)
Seattle’s School District lost a battle in keeping Teach For America out of Seattle School District after Goodloe-Johnson’s replacement, Dr. Susan Enfield and others backing them let the camel’s nose of TFA under the tent.
Now something smells rotten in Renton after a week ago when the district sent out a press release saying they would NOT contract with TFA, but now this week a new press release stating the opposite on the DAY of the school board meeting, leaving Renton Education Association and parents with their hands tied.
Will teachers and Parents Across America learn to work together to fight back charter schools and Teach For America this time, before it’s too late?
We have a huge gubernatorial race in front of us that the whole nation will be watching, one that will have HUGE implications for education. GOP Rob McKenna is backed by Karl Rove, for one. Democrat Jay Inslee is running behind in his campaign funding.
Washington voters proved recently they could be bought by Costco’s big $22 million investment in liquor privatization. Will Washington unions organize in time or will we be the next Wisconsin?
And I also must mention the increase in the number of standardized tests our students are being subjected to…..in order to evaluate teachers. I was actually at a meeting where an administrator stated that ‘we need one more measure for our teacher evaluation tool’ (in addition to the three or four we already have in place). She didn’t even try to make it sound like it was ‘for the student’. Also, there was talk of not subjecting our students to the MEAP (Michigan’s standardized test) next year, but……Michigan is under contract to Measurement, Inc. to the tune of $68 million. But it’s all about the kids, right?
Wisconsin. No more collective bargaining. A line in WI Act 10 that specifically states “No local agency or school board shall enter into any collective bargaining agreement…” So much for local control. After that was passed, Gov Walker easily passed with bipartisan support sb461 which is now WI Act 166 titled “Read to Lead” which makes 50% of teacher evaluation based on test scores, mandates the PALS test out of U of VA to every Kindergarten student in the fall for a cost to the taxpayers here $780,000 with the intent of carrying it up through 3rd grade with an ongoing exploration of public private partnership funding options. If funds are available also PreK. Test will be minimum twice per year and mid year optional. In the bill $400,000 is allocated to Gov. Walker to award in grants as he sees fit with no oversight to (this is the best part) “any agency or organization other than a school board.” (this stuff is impossible to make up) This week the State of WI signed a contract with the people from VA licensed to subcontract the rights of the test to us here. I obtained a copy of the contract and in it the VA folks are given access to our kids’ “education records” and the VA group (defined as a government agency btw) is defined as a “School Official” under FERPA laws. Later in the contract the VA agency is required to do background checks in accordance with federal and state law but explicitly states that the VA agency will not provide those records to the state of WI. So, they have access to my kid’s records(without my permission) but I don’t get theirs. Sounds fair. Read to Lead also creates a Task Force chaired by none other than the Governor himself. On the task force is a member of the Value Added Research Center (VARC). According to VARC website major funding is provided by the U.S. Dept of Ed and the Joyce Foundation (BIG money special interest group). Finally, Wisconsin applied for flexibility to NCLB from King Arne Duncan but was told “not good enough. make changes.” I believe Vermont was given the same feedback. To my understanding Vermont told Arne to keep his waiver. Gov. Walker instructed State Supt. Tony Evers to make the necessary changes which we all know equals Race to the Top, which will cause teachers to Race from the Axe and my kid will suffer.
In addition to what was already mentioned about TN, the legislation changed the tenure law last summer. The new law requires teachers to work for five years and score a 4 or 5 the two years prior to being eligible for tenure to receive it. Teachers can lose tenure as well if they score low consecutive years.
The TEAM evaluation model is 50% observation and 50% quantitative. 35% of the quantitative is based on students’ EOC (end of course) tests. If you don’t teach a tested subject, your score is based on the school’s scores. The 15% dubbed “academic achievement” is the teacher’s choice. Of course, the choice is limited to things like graduation rate, ACT scores, TCAP writing scores, school-wide TVAAS, etc. So essentially 50% of teacher evaluations are tied to students’ test scores and grades.
So basically we start to lower our teaching expectations so students will have better grades, right? I choose my to be the passing rate of students passing English and Math and I told those teachers you better be passing these kids, whether they deserve it or not. I can’t have some lazy slacker kids messing up my scores.
And from the Show Me State-MO. ALEC and its minions tried to push through a wide range of “deformer” laws with Rhee’s group funding 5-6 lobbyists for the past legislative session. We beat back all but one of the proposals, that of allowing charters outside of KC and St. Lou to where they were formerly limited. We know we have to redouble if not requadruple our efforts during the next session to keep em at bay.
How do these people convince themselves that what they are doing is “for the children?’
http://progressillinois.com/posts/content/2012/06/14/national-education-group-aims-shape-chicago-teacher-contract-negotiations
I live in Oregon. Though our unemployment is high, probably every one of your readers in every state in the union is jealous of our relative peace on the culture and other kinds of warring on our public schools. The forces are not yet successful here in talking ourselves out of the great history of American education, and all the public schools did to win our civilization. The Pacific Northwest and the nation needs other states to hold the line on choices that lead to terrible education economics, relentless testing that leads nowhere, and other things that really do not get at the real crisis and the big paradigm shift we have all have been dreaming about for American education.
Two things have to happen to change our present situation. One is that we to remind our most intelligent leaders who want to help American education that maybe the greatest lesson about paradigm shifts they should all know too well: genuine paradigm shifts come from natural sources. There is usually a period of chaos before that natural emergence–as there has been for decades in education and public life. The natural shift in American education must come from the heart and soul of what makes a master student–a brain that comes to see itself through parents, teaches, and others as a collection of intense, fiery workshops that seek to master crafts needed by civilization. The decades of Industrial democracy from Horace Mann through John Dewy into our own time saw incredible advances in learning how to create master students. Our modernity would not exist without the public school. Now we live in a Digital Age. While we can rule out technology replacing master teachers, parents, and the powers that create master schools and students, there is one thing about technology we cannot rule out. We do not want to rule out technology developing new ways for parents, teachers, and others to help those brains truly become powerful workshops that love mastering crafts from physics to music. This being my life’s work, and have powerful concerns to attend to on these very matters, I cannot say more.
But my advice in the interim is good. (1) First, teachers must explain to America our citizens need a required reading list. My own, first nomination is Dr. Jean Bethke-Elshtain’s ‘Democracy on Trial.’ America must learn what Jean means by her term ‘democratic disposition.’ (2) I would have teachers button-hole everyone about what I call ‘democratic self-talk.’ Democratic self-talk and democratic dispositions do not run down institutions, people, liberals, conservatives, take away bargaining rights, demonize anybody, or anything else of that nature. Democratic self-talk and democratic dispositions look at culture warring as that sort of nonsense that leads to the horrors of Mathew Brady photographs of terrible carnage. (3) I would work on a national teacher’s slogan. Can I suggest something like: “It’s the magic of parents and teachers turning student brains into master workshops, stoopid!”
Jon Price, Tigard, Oregon.
IN NEW JERSEY TODAY (6/18), tenure reform bill S-1455 (the TEACHNJ Act) will be voted on in committee. But not by the Senate Education Committee which discussed this bill at length during its March meeting. No, on Thursday 6/14 this tenure reform bill was “transferred” to the Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee for a quickie vote to be held Monday 6/18. The main purpose of this tenure reform bill is to dismantle the right to due process by making it not only something a teacher can earn but also something a teacher can lose. If an administrator should give a teacher two summative performance ratings on the lower half of a 4-point scale (“ineffective” or “partially effective”), that teacher will then lose his/her previously earned right to due process and can be fired without the opportunity to appeal the decision to a third party. So in other words, in New Jersey a teacher will be able to EARN the right to due process but it will then be TAKEN AWAY precisely when the teacher might actually need to exercise that right.
Oklahoma is NOT OK…we’ve had the misfortune to elect a public-school-hating dentist as Superintendent of Public Instruction for the state…she’s in Jeb Bush’s back pocket, so all we have to do is look to Florida to see what’s coming at us. In less than two years she’s begun dismantling our schools.
She recently published the names, personal information, IEP status of students who appealed for graduation (they hadn’t passed the four required tests of seven) and lost…just the names of the students who lost! Their parents had to sign a FERPA waiver in order to appeal at all. We had been told they removed the information, but they only removed students’ names — initials and all disability info is still on the State Department of Ed’s website.
Vouchers, third-grade flunk law, teacher evaluations based on test scores, A-F school grades, weakened due-process for tenured teachers….we’re there. A dust-up at her first State School Board meeting resulted in her being able to hand-pick a Board of ‘yes’ men. We see the ALEC footprints and Mr. Bush’s.
How very sad that we’re all suffering like this, and the ‘reformers’ will ell you they’re doing this for our students. WE are the ones working for our students!
Ontario, Canada is under a massive reform, but the teachers’ unions have supported it without question because they got a raise. Most teachers know they are now actively re-formatting the system in ways that are counter educational, such as the “No Child Left Behind” agenda of high stakes testing,holding schools and teachers accountable for failure, and “competing” for PISA scores, but their union has supported such changes and kept them from realizing it’s the same agenda we see everywhere else.
I am a TX science teacher of 17 years. I am offended by Exxons ads ‘supporting’ or ‘condescending to’ (actually) teachers. Our national test scores are based on us teaching special ed, gifted/talented, and average students in the same classroom. We do not have a class of all G/T like they have in Europe and Asia. Their average and sp. ed. kids are in a trade school. The lessons in the science and math classes do not have to be watered down to fit the umbrella of the masses over there like they are in the USA. We are afraid of lawsuits for not keeping a 16 year old with a 2nd grade IQ in Chem class. I know. I ‘taught’ him. He couldn’t even color to the 50 ml line on a beaker coloring page. Why do I have to waste my time and my students time with this politically- correct ****??? Gracias.
I teach in South Dakota. Last year the governor originally purposed a 10% cut to education funding in the state. In the end the legislature purposed an 8.6% cut to funding education. This past year due to finding some extra money floating around, they gave an increase of $97 per student. The year before we received no change to the funding formula in part thanks to the Obama stimulus. This summer it has been reported that the state has an extra 47.8 million dollars. While several representatives are saying that more money should go back to education and medicare (which also saw a big cut), the governor doesn’t want to commit to anything.
Also passed this year by one vote in our heavily Republican controlled House is HB 1234. It is a bill to get rid of tenure. (South Dakota is a right to work state. Tenure only means that you can’t be fired without the administration giving cause, so it doesn’t mean much.) Establish an incentive program for math and science teachers of $3,500 just for teaching in the subject. (You simply need to be a .51 teacher in either math or science at the middle school or high school level, you don’t have to be a good teacher, just teach in the subject matter.) All teachers must be evaluated on a multi-level evaluation with 50% being based on tests (If a teacher does not teach in one of the areas tested by the state, math or reading, then all the weight is put on other measures like student surveys, parent surveys, and principal drop-ins). If you fall in the distinguished level, you will have the chance for a bonus. Only 20% of teachers in the district can get a bonus, but if 20% do not score in the distinguished, then the bonus only goes to those that are ranked “distinguished.” No money was allocated to the bill since the evaluation tool has not been crafted and no one is sure how to pay for it. The order of the law’s actions are as such: end tenure (right away), offer science and math incentives (2013-2014), new teacher evaluation and bonus (2014-2015). This was touted as look at how much the Republican governor loves education.
HB1234 has been referred to the ballot in November, but work groups have started meeting to discuss the evaluation tool the state will offer. The last few years have been tough in South Dakota (we have been the lowest or one of the lowest paying states for teacher salary since I can remember), and that is saying a lot. The saddest part is that I don’t know if I would encourage my students to go into teaching. South Dakota has never been kind to teachers, but things have gone down hill in the last few years.