Arne Duncan proposed new accountability standards for students with disabilities.
Claudio Sancez of NPR wrote:
“The Obama administration said Tuesday that the vast majority of the 6.5 million students with disabilities in U.S. schools today are not receiving a quality education, and that it will hold states accountable for demonstrating that those students are making progress.
“Education Secretary Arne Duncan announced what he calls “a major shift” in how the government evaluates the effectiveness of federally funded special education programs.”
He added:
“Under the new guidelines, Duncan says he’ll require proof that these kids aren’t just being served but are actually making academic progress.
“We know that when students with disabilities are held to high expectations and have access to a robust curriculum, they excel,” Duncan said.
States that don’t comply with the new guidelines might lose federal funding.
And now for a commentary on the new guidelines, written by BeverleyH. Johns, a national authority on special education. She is Illinois Special Education Coalition Chair for 32 years and was President of the Learning Disabilities Assn., President of the Council for Exceptional Children, and author of many books about students with disabilities.
In a widely circulated email Beverly Johns writes:
We know that when students with disabilities
are held to high expectations and have access
to the general curriculum in the regular classroom,
they excel.” Arne Duncan, June 24, 2014
Really? Where is the evidence that the general
curriculum in the regular classroom results
in such excellence for all students with disabilities?
It is just the kind broad general statement
that Arne Duncan is so fond of making.
The U.S. Department of Education today announced
new standards for judging States on special education.
The new system greatly reduces compliance enforcement
for IDEA, on the theory that States are in procedural
compliance with IDEA, in return for using NAEP test
results to judge educational outcomes for students in
special ed.
NAEP was NEVER designed or tested for any such purpose
(see below). NAEP is a test taken by a sample of
school districts from each State, every 2 years.
Below is my summary of the conference call hosted
by U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan today.
Conference call on new Special Ed requirements
for States, June 24, 2014.
USDOE plus two Commissioners of Education,
called Superintendents in some States –
Massachusetts (MA), Mitchell Chester, and
Tennessee (TN), Kevin Huffman.
TN: “States build up their little special education
units.” 40 percent of students with SLD can
achieve same test results as others – “not
students with significant cognitive disabilities.”
(last comment made several times by others)
MA: identifies 17 percent of students for SE.
Tom Hehir assisting them: double the number of
students in poverty identified for SE. More students
of color need to be in general ed classrooms.
USDOE: New system has fewer data reporting requirements,
no need for reporting on results of actions taken
on previous non-compliance, no need to have improvement
on previous indicators, etc.
Arne Duncan to the 2 Commissioners: “Other stuff we
should be looking at to eliminate?”
Reporter question: NAEP ever been used this way?
NAEP designed for high stakes testing?
NAEP designed for students with disabilities?
Duncan: “Only accurate measurement we have. Imperfect…”
“I would not call it high stakes.”
“NAEP given every 2 years.”
Reporter question: reinventing the wheel? If States
cannot meet requirements, then change the requirements
in 5 years?
USDOE: “We have to own these kids.”
MA: SE needs to be integrated into the mainstream.
Reporter question: What are the consequences?
Duncan: No real answer, withholding funds not his
first priority.
Reporter question: What outcomes? The same proficiency
for all students?
USDOE: Vast majority of students in SE must achieve to the
same high standard required by NAEP of all students.
“do not have cognitive disabilities”
Most students in SE now do not have access to content
standards or to the same assessment.
The tone of the call was set by having 2 non-experts in special ed, the 2 Commissioners.
Bev Johns
Diane Ravitch's blog 
A great use for the U.S. Department of Education would be to pick up the entire tab of the cost of complying with IDEA.
I’m very much opposed to using drones, but Duncan is starting to make me reconsider.
From the article:
“Duncan said. “We must have a system that will do more than just measure compliance.”
“Duncan says he is creating a $50 million technical-assistance center to help states comply with the new guidelines.”
There seems to be a HUGE disconnect here.
Yes, when you are the Gates automaton independent thinking is not essential. Wow, who knew kids with disabilities may perform below grade level? Put Arne in the corner with a Duncan cap. How embarrassing for our nation.
This latest piece of policy reflects Arnie’s expanded commitment to dismantling all of public education and harming all students regardless of educational needs. No doubt charter school will be exempt from Arnie’s latest dish of pedagogic pollution.
Way to go Arne, put more pressure on the very students that are crumbling under the pressure. It seems that education reform and policy is just push and pressure and making it harder. That’s it, that’s what they’ve got, oh and making the testing companies rich.
Duncan is intent on generating another flow of money to companies that will tutor students who qualify for special education. I suggest Duncan spend some time with the children he thinks of as capable of the performance standard he is suggesting.
Is there anyone else left that Duncan could dangle the purse strings at, set unattainable goals for and then punish for not achieving the stars? He’s running out of kids to harm from his bully pulpit. ELLs?
Duncan is correct–our special education students need more but not what he is proposing. When I retired in 2012, I left feeling helpless for some of my students, whom I knew needed help and weren’t getting it. They desperately needed to be evaluated for learning disabilities, and no one was listening to me. I had a boy that everyone knew was austistic. The principal even told me that he was, but since the mom didn’t get it, nothing was done for him. What needs to be done is some principals being held accountable for not allowing their teachers to assist their students. These administrators need to stop using these students with disabilities against teachers and using them as a way to get rid of teachers. Go ahead, get rid of me–but don’t use my most needy students against me. I now educate as many parents as I can to fight for their child who is struggling in school. Make the school do what they are supposed to be doing. I realize that a big part of this is less funding for Title I schools. Okay, Arne, do something about that. Give these schools more funding to help our students with disabilities.
Last night I was reading an older post about how NY scores would be going down because they were being aligned to NAEP, and now Duncan proposes using it to assess SE? Good call to ensure failure for all. SE students are already being tested. Too bad he can’t explain why this is a good idea.
We’re only 2 states included in this conference call? Why these 2? Why not the 2most populous? Or we’re they just the 2 on his speed dial.
I retired from CPS in 2012. My sped caseload was 25. Arne Duncan spouts the rhetoric of “quality programs”. In CPS we have huge caseloads and classes for children with disabilities being held on school stages and hallways. We have had a shortage of teachers within sped licenses for at least 20 years. Many of our students with disabiliities can do better academically BUT they are not given the supports and services they need in order to be successful. Some of our students could do better academically if they had paras in the gen ed program but instead they are dumped into gen ed with little or no support. At my higher level elementary school we used to make AYP but that was when we had caseloads which were half the size they were when I retired. Yes, children with disabilities should be doing better but they are not and until school districts focus on “quality programs” and not “how do we save money” this is all rhetoric.
Aside; After rereading this I want everyone to be aware that some school districts promote the misidentification of students with disabilities in order to save monies or appease parents who do not want their child labeled cognitively disabled. In my program I would say that at least half of my students were not students with learning disabilities but students with cognitive disabilities. Yes, their IQs were in the 70s (flat profiles) which excluded them from the cognitively disabled group but were they going to show the same growth as any of my students with with a 100+ IQ? The students with cognitive disabilities will show growth but not at the same rate nor will they be able to read, comprehend and analyze complex materials.
It is sort of amazing how much clout Kevin Huffman has.
I’m not even in education and I read the same names over and over and over.
There’s no real debate at all. It’s always the same 150 ed reformers setting national policy.
If there weren’t an “opposition” to this (which consists mostly of volunteers on blogs, as far as I can tell) we’d really be in a world of hurt.
Duncan is not a big fan of hearing an alternate view, apparently.
I’m not sure I find this person credible on how my 6th grader should approach “critical thinking” skills. Ge surrounds himself with people who agree with him.
Great ideas!
If we just expect the blind student to see and the physically disabled to walk, and then test them on it we will conquer those pesky SE issues.
Now, why didn’t we think of that years ago?
Soft bigotry of low expectations, I guess.
This is evil, pure and simple. King Arne knows no shame. What an easy way to crash the scores of traditional public schools! Who cares about what is humane, or moral, or ethical. Arne and his cronies need yet more money. If they step on our most vulnerable kids to get the next summer house, who cares? Teachers, get out your magic wands. King Arne has spoken.
“Teachers, get out your magic wands.”
Well, I would, but I am holding back the “great teaching” until we get merit pay.
For a few hundred extra bucks, I will have the blind seeing and the lame running, for sure.
Ang, you are today’s winner of the internets.
Just one week in a Special Education classroom, Arne and Kevin. Show us your magic with our students with severe autism, cognitive delays, and learning disabilities. If only I could raise my expectations of you and have you “excel!”
King Arne is a fool. He has never taught a day in a public school system. He has never taught at all. He is downright silly. It is so scary to have a such a fool in charge of important educational policies in our country.
A famous person once said, “He who knows he is a fool is not a great one.” Unfortunately, Duncan does not know he is a great fool!!!! I might add, a treacherous one at that!!!
Also, not to impolite, but I heard Duncan on the radio yesterday and I think the average persons take-away would be “they’re spending 50 million more on testing contractors”
I oppose that. I hope my state doesn’t comply. This is ridiculous. They’re like addicts with this testing. They can’t quit.
Dienne’s drone comment is too funny. Maybe a flyover could be arranged with a direct dump of green, slurpy, slimy GOO. It is, after all, green toxic to say something like, “We have to own these kids.” because it is not about deeply seeing these children, strengthening them at every turn or anchoring their achievement. Instead, it is a corporate reference to owning something, a thing, an object. Not a human and not a gift. Just another data/compliance point and just another dollar to be argued over and analyzed. He is a technocrat and he is treacherous.
Good catch on the word “own”. Why do I suspect Arne means that in the pre-1863 sense?
I don’t even know how to react to this news. How utterly out of touch is he and those working with him in USDOE. And how this policy will play out in schools, it is unkind and cruel to our most neediest students. He seems to be blind to the everyday reality of what dedicated general and special education teachers do to help this population of students. Who will he go after next ?
Place a bet that along with these new accountabilities and standards for students with disabilities, there will be plenty of punishment for public school teachers but no funding to support the teachers in carrying out the new standards. This will be one more nail in the coffin of public education while the feds and states do nothing to hold the private sector charter school taking over accountable for anything and fraud will run rampant with tax payer money.
The Obama administration may be one of—-if not the most—corrupt presidential administrations in the history of the United States.
Lloyd, You are so right about President Barack Obama. I think his presidency will go down as one of the most corrupt presidencies of all times. My husband and I had been Democrats our whole lives, and we switched to Republican after he got president. I can’t brag on President George W. Bush’s presidency either, but at least I think George W. truly loved this country. Barack Obama hates this country, and he has done everything he can do to destroy our country.
I see this new requirement for special education as just something else that they will make lots of money. Pearson will have to develop an extensive system for special education teachers to use. It all makes me sick. Thank you for your posts, Lloyd. I love reading your thoughts and opinions of things which make no sense anymore. Diane’s blog helps me cope with a profession that has gone bad. My children say, “Mom is on Diane’s blog right now…” Ha..ha..They truly understand what Mom goes through..Great kids I’m blessed with…
What a fool I was to vote for Obama twice. I should have voted for the Green candidate. In fact, I probably will in the next election unless the democrats run a candidate who clearly supports—-with decades of evidence; not just words—public education and teachers.
I don’t care anymore about “throwing away my vote” because voting for a Republican or Democrat is the same thing and worse.
Obama fooled a lot of people. Don’t feel badly. He always gave my husband and me the “heebs.” I think he is downright evil at times. I’ve always felt that way about him. My mom and dad do not understand why my husband and I switched to Republican, but I told them I just can’t be in Obama’s party. I don’t support the Republican ways either. But, like I said, I still think President Clinton and President Bush loved this country. Obama has done everything he can to destroy it. I truly thinks he wants to destroy the middle class – our public schools, our college educations for our kids, and our American dream of owning a home.
I am an Ohio teacher. Our governor is a Republican. His name is John Kasich. He is evil too. When my husband was a principal he was very blessed to meet Governor Strickland. Governor Strickland is horrified with what John Kasich has done to Ohio education.
Thanks again, Lloyd. I enjoy your comments so much.
I suggest you consider the Green Party instead of the GOP. I think voting for either major party today is throwing your vote away.
Is it more important to vote for someone who stands a chance of winning—so if they win you can say you voted for them—or vote for someone who stands for values/issues that count?
I can’t stand the Libertarian Party, so to me, they are not an option. There has never been a libertarian government anywhere on the earth because libertarian beliefs go against human nature just like communism does.
In fact, the GOP is so wrong on so many issues they are probably doing more damage to the U.S. than al Qaeda or the Taliban.
I don’t get it. If you supported Obama and have been Democrat your whole life, that is presumably because you believe in the policies and values that Obama and the Democrats have purported to champion – labor rights, diversity, public education and other public goods, anti-Wall Street, reduced military engagement, etc. Now I completely understand being disgusted and fed up with how Obama and the Democrats have actually handled all of those issues, but to jump ship for the Republicans who don’t even pretend to support any of those things??? All because you believe that Bush “truly loved this country”? He loved it so much he got us entangled in two unwinnable wars and collapsed the economy?
*Shakes head*
Totally agree with you, Dienne.
Sad teacher,
When voting consider party platform. If you support the policies and platform of the Dems, (labor rights, rights for women and minorities , etc.) switching to Republican is silly. Politicians at that level will not have a beer with you or be our friends or whatever,and who knows what any of them really love or care about. So worry less about personality and more about policy.
All that said, I and many here, are completely disgusted with the Obama administration. Look to primary races and third party candidates to push hard for better policy.
Thank you, Ang…Yes, I will definitely consider party platform. I can’t agree with how the Democrats or Republicans have handled our country. It’s all so sad. I have no idea how our children will live in this country as adults. They have destroyed everything.
Yes, I am disgusted with the Obama administration. As a lifetime Democrat and how badly he treated Hillary in the primaries, I never voted for him either time. I was definitely a Hillary Democrat. He never struck my husband and me as being smart, and he has definitely proven our opinions to be true.
Obama’s poor leadership affects me every day in my daily life – the price of gasoline, having to get new insurance for my husband due to his Obama Care, horrible inflation at the grocery store, horrible inflation with our utility bills, and not helping the middle class students with reasonable student loan options. I believe he has made our daily lives so painful. On top of all of that, Obama, along with the clown show of Arne Duncan, and the financial king of our world, Bill Gates, he has ruined our teaching profession and is making my students suffer next year with 10 hours per subject with online testing instead of 2.5 hours. My middle school students will now take 40 hours of online testing in a year (with all of the subjects) so that the online companies can be a parasite and capture huge profits in a country where everything else has gone to China. Our country needs prayer.
Thank you so much, Ang, for your comments. This blog really helps me to cope with a profession gone bad.
I agree with you Lloyd , about Obama and Duncan too. I am convinced that all Obamas bad policies, and his hatred of teachers is just a distraction to keep people from seeing and discussing his other bad policies. The corporate controlled piranhas, the reporters, now take everything Duncan and Obama say as truth. I would venture a step in the other direction and say the republicans are really bad too. All my life I was a democrat but for the first time I voted for a third party out of protest, knowing I was throwing my vote away. I just retired this year from special education and I know that SE children need so much more time to learn concepts, with different accommodations/modifications and now Arnie Duncan says most SE teachers are bad. All the regular education teachers and special education teachers in my school gave 100% to their students, working every day after school, without extra pay, because they really cared so much for their children. This is never reported by reporters. They take the corporate line. It makes me sick to know what Duncan and Obama are doing to break the back of public education. They need to sit down and talk to real special ed teachers and hear their ideas and great work ethic, but alas, they just want to hear their own agenda and be vitriolic, to deflect what this wonderful country really needs. They just want to make fatuous statements at the teachers expense. What a crime!
Rally the Special Ed parents! Many are activists and will be furious to hear that even more of their kids will be subjected to tests that stress them out and make them feel like failures.
It sounds like another instance of Duncan aiming to circumvent Congress, in order to make changes to IDEA, as he did with FERPA and NCLB waivers.
Whenever Duncan claims it’s for the kids, usually the opposite it true. Since his policies have reversed 60 years of integration under Brown v Board of Ed through privatization, maybe the end-game is to reverse inclusive placements of special ed kids and grow the charter industry by segregating them in separate charter schools.
I don’t support the Republican ways either. I guess I need to be registered as an Independent. That’s what I need to do. I am registered as a Republican, but I can’t stand our Republican governor, John Kasich. He is controlled by ALEC, and he truly wishes to privatize all education. I always vote for the best candidate – whether it be Democrat or Republican. I just cannot stand President Barack Obama and what he has done to our country. As long as Barack Obama is president, I cannot be a registered Democrat.
Diane, I don’t support the Iraq War either. President Bush did that to even the score for his dad. The Iraq War caused horrible consequences for our country. I totally agree. I just have always had the feeling that Barack Obama was against our country. My husband and I both feel that way. His policies have destroyed our country. He now has to make sure the public schools are destroyed.
If you care to understand what the Iraq was was really about, start here
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article6930.htm
An article by Naomi Klein, originally published in Harpers.
“Pillaging Iraq in pursuit of a neocon utopia”
When Norman Vincent Peale wrote The Power of Positive Thinking he was also realistic in his assertions. As he counseled, the miraculous occurs, but don’t count on it as your only hope. Didn’t this gang say all practice must be research based? I started an M.A. program in special ed a year ago, this crap from Arne goes against everything I have been taught about assessment and differentiated instruction. These people, we have a few like minded types in my district, can not tell me what the benefit is to forcing a fifth grader reading at a second or third grade level receive his “core instruction” in reading out of a fifth grade level book he or she can not comprehend or read. They do not understand that learning disabled children learn as a slower rate and need individualized attention they can not get in a regular classroom. IEP’s also spell out accommodations they are to receive in the regular classrooms. My school tried to do this last year, the result is that several of our special needs students now are seeing counselors, (not the paper shuffling ones at school), they hate school because they have been humiliated in class, and their families are now taking legal action against the district because their IEP’s were violated. Did Arne change the IDEA law by fiat too? These children need help, not humiliation. Will we fire all the special education teachers too? I think this is just a cheap educational eugenics that will relieve the federal government and their charter darlings of the burden of dealing with needy children. What will they do when the public schools are gone? It is said that a society can be judged by how it treats its most vulnerable citizens, we are truly a miserable bunch.This society that is emerging is not the one I wore a uniform to protect. This group in charge reminds me of the gangs, money and greed are the only rules.
Our district’s policy is to mainstream everyone they possibly can. Some of the “collaborative” classes have 40 students, 12 to 15 of whom have IEPs. Most of the IEPs call for small group settings! How can this be done with these huge classes? Also the SE teachers are generally in the room about twice a week, because they have so many kids to track. But I’m sure a new test will fix this.
Same way in Utah. I have as many as 1/3 of my class with special needs at times. Many of the students in special education only have an “applied skills” (read: homework) class, and that’s it. Everything else is mainstreamed, even if their IEP says they should be self-contained. I also love when their IEP says seating near teacher. If I have 10 students that all need seating by me, where am I supposed to seat all of them???? And NO special education teacher EVER comes into my classroom.
cx Bob Shepard editing, receive should be to receive. My school tried the notion of grade level core instruction and high expectations instead of resource room instruction at the child’s instructional level to build skills and make progress. The administration even stated that “there is no such thing as a learning disability, we just have had low expectations and have coddled these children to excuse our own laziness in the classroom.”
Immediately, I as a bilingual resource specialist would try to have a meeting with the administrator, the school psychologist and my special education program specialist to educate this administrative moron. If the administrator still refused to see the light, I would bring my union in on this egregious comment. Someone like your administrator could make many problems for the regular ed teacher and the special ed teacher. Maybe a good old grievance would educate him or her; however, I would first go to my special education program specialist. If you are in a right-to-work state, you probably don’t have a union with ant teeth.
His comment to the special ed teacher, 30 + years experience was if you don’t like it you can leave or retire. The assistant superintendent backed him up, our district policy is now full inclusion oriented. The parents are bringing in the lawyers, it could get interesting.
Special education students in NYS are already taking the Pearson CC tests and HS Regents tests as well. In 1995, Richard Mills set the minimum HS graduation requirement at five Regents courses/exams for ALL students, including all but the most severely disabled. Over the years the few academic safety nets that were in place for sped students have been removed by the heartless souls at NYSED.
Does this mean that NY is in compliance with Duncan’s new edict?
With Cuomo at the helm?? We already know the answer to this question. Oh. That was a rhetorical question.
So NAEP, which has been a reliable measure of educational outcomes *because* it is not attached to sanctions or rewards and because states and districts have no reason to try to distort or game the results… is now going to be attached to sanctions, as states will face the loss of federal funding if special education students don’t perform well on it. Thanks for wrecking the last useful standardized test in America, Arne Duncan.
I would like to know how many Special Education teachers were consulted before this was decided?
I think I can safely answer this, even though I have no real idea: NONE.
I read the press release and it looks like the 50 million is going to a new technical assistance center in DC, so contractors, rev up your engines! Plenty of federal money available to analyze and present suggestions!
How many consultants has Duncan employed? I can’t even imagine.
Can you imagine if they had taken the
hundreds of millions they’ve pushed
toward collecting data and put it to improving actual public school facilities?
They would have also employed some real life middle class people in the “skilled trades” they’re always yammering cluelessley about.
We’d have beautiful schools AND a boost to.local economies and a whole new group of apprentices in skilled trades!
I suppose you could push to have someone outside the “inner circle of ed reform” run the new 50 million “center”
Would that help? Or is this just completely a lost cause with no opportunity to salvage any value out of 50 million bucks?
Clark County, Nevada, used to have an apprentice carpentry program. Students helped build new district buildings. During the summers during the construction boom here student apprentices were earning $15.00 an hour or more. They were motivated to stay in school and graduate instead of joining the gangs. Crime was lower too, public works are cheaper to society than decay.
Except that there is no “society”, according to the neoliberals. And they’re working damn hard to ensure it.
Abolish the US Department of Corporate Education. Eliminating the corrupt department will put an end to “reform.”
This 50 million is borrowed money from China. It is not even their money to spend. What a bunch of fools. Boy, we couldn’t run our personal finances like that for one week.
One of these days our currency will have no value. The Department of Education will then just have to go home, including Arne. My husband said this silly department was created in 1979. They have done a lot of damage since 1979. That’s too bad that this department was created. They have no clue how a child learns.
This is crazy spending. Whoever thought up this idea needs to be sent to the dept. of ed rubber room, before they do any more damage to the federal budget.
back in Feb. Diane posted the appointment of James Comer; quoting Diane:
“Dr. Comer has devoted his career to helping children by focusing on their social and emotional development and their relationship to their family and community. He is not an admirer of the punitive stress of high-stakes testing, which harms children’s development. Dr. Comer understands that Race to the Top ignores what matters most in healthy child development. Here is hoping that the President and his advisors take the sage advice of Dr. Comer.”
Sounds like Arne Duncan doesn’t want any adivce from James Comer.
as a long-time teacher of children with moderate cognitive disabilities (IQs 40-55, for the uninitiated), i:
disliked him as my boss at CPS.
disliked him intensely after he fell up into Sec of Ed job.
am so effing happy i’m retiring this year.
A moron in power is still a moron.
Not quite.
A moron in power is much worse. Arne is a powerful moron. Obviuosly capable of making moronic demands on the rest of us.
Please keep us informed on this. How are other students losing education when a special education student, who may see the Special Educator for 1/4th of their day if “push in” is mandated. His/her regular educator becomes his special education teacher. We do not have specialized training. We do not have very small classes. Most class sizes are on the rise. 27 is the new norm even with buildings built for a maximum of 22 in each room. Many buildings with 2 and 3 floors with no elevators and some with no air conditioning. Students have many cognitive disabilities and some have medical problems that prevent learning, drains in their brain to prevent swelling, frequent infections and hospital visits. Thank you!!! Kathleen
I have students that see special education services for 1 period out of 10 every 2 days. I have students with severe behavioral issues, autism, and mental illness that only have special education classes 1/5 of the time. I have more special education students in some of my classes (regular education–30 or more total students per class, sometimes with as many as 10 or 12 kids with special needs) than the special education classes sometimes do. And I’m in a state that is “warned” about its sped services.
watch out ifyou live in these states; Arne will be sending the “Rigoritis squads” to find out how to punish the teachers and close the schools that service special needs students. The only policy he knows is the horrendous “turn around” in SIG.
(p.s. I found the state listing at Disability Scoop)
• Needs Assistance: Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Connecticut, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Mississippi, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah, Washington, West Virginia
• Needs Intervention: California, Delaware, District of Columbia, Texas
Thanks for this, Jean. Of course Illinois would go along–that’s Arne’s state, & we all know what a GREAT job he did at CPS!
I was pleased to see on FredKlonsky’s blog about special needs (Arne Duncan) that “Retiredbutmissthekids” has left a comment. I had the feeling that I was meeting up with a good friend when I saw this:
quote: “etiredbutmissthekids PERMALINK
June 26, 2014 2:05 am
Fred, {ArneDuncan] would know enough to know that he is not, in absolutely any circumstance, qualified for his job. Of course, being a know-nothing about education in general, he knows less than nothing about special education……Our future–our precious children, upon whom America will eventually depend–is being systematically destroyed by those who look upon our kids with eyes blinded by dollar $ign$, and only that. …And so I say, parents of America, in your suburbs, towns, cities and state-by-state, start your lawsuits. It was parents who brought about the creation of Public Law 94-142 (Special Education Law), and it is parents who will stop Duncan and his minions. “
More problematic is the gradual weakening of the IEP. The Council for Exceptional Children (CEC) the largest professional organization for Special Educators, children & families, asked for member comments on the Duncan/Huffman announcement. My response focuses on the damage to the legal protections & decision making guaranteed by the IEP team. Here’s my comment. I await a response from CEC:
‘I’m unclear how shifting a proportion of compliance from IEP’s to test-based scores will strengthen outcomes and guarantee full due process protections for students in SPED. In public schools all over the country, standardized test scores are being used to punish teachers, not to improve instruction. Children in SPED are becoming more segregated and excluded, rather than included, due to DoEd’s test score-based accountability. In TN, we have political leaders stating that they, I quote: “are not going to spend money on those [special education and at risk] kids.” [my words inserted are relevant to the context].
IDEA makes the IEP – not test scores- the decision point for placement, related services, testing, and due process. A child’s goals and objectives are the source for accountability. This new policy asserts that test scores are the primary determinant of progress, rather than individualized goals. Shifting the decision making power to test scores undermines the fundamental integrity of the IEP. CEC cannot participate in such a shift if we are to assure the school based IEP team maintains its contractual power.
NAEP scores are helpful in comparing large groups of similarly situated children in controlled studies. NAEP is not designed to measure individual progress, and as such, should not have the weight of overseeing schools compliance on IEP goals and objectives. Standardized test scores alone cannot inform curriculum, staffing, targeted instructional procedures, specialized equipment, or paraprofessionals. This is the role of the IEP. Yet, DoEd will usurp these decisions if test scores become the goals they choose to enforce.
This move by DoEd appears to be a backdoor for weakening IEP decision making powers by reducing the influence of the IEP team based decisions to test score-based decisions. I hope CEC resists any and all attempts to weaken IEP and due process for SPED students. We have come too far, for too long to permit this to happen.’
This is a lawsuit in the making.
Amazing! NJ is not on the list! My district has not been in compliance with the State for years.
quote: “The National Center on Education Statistics estimated how every state would have performed on the reading test if it had included those with learning disabilities and English language learners. For most states, the change would have resulted in a point or two difference in average scores on the test, which is graded on a point scale from zero to 500. If Maryland had included its learning-disabled and English learners, the state’s average score would have dropped approximately eight points — from 232.1 to 224.5 — for fourth-grade reading and about five points — from 273.8 to 269 points — for eighth-grade reading. That estimated change would drop Maryland from having the second-highest state score in fourth-grade reading to 11th place; Maryland would fall from sixth place in eighth-grade reading to 12th place.”
————————————————————-
special note regarding Maryland; some students with learning disability IEPS
have a “read aloud” option when taking tests so they were not included in test scores submitted to the feds at least this is my understanding
I am still looking for the metric that NCES uses … .
I’m confused. In California we include both of these groups, and I thought that was a National requirement from NCLB. Am I wrong?
Same here in NY. This announcement sure does conflict with what’s been happening here since before NCLB.
Let’s see… My SPED student son already barely sees his teacher because she has to spend so much time wrapped up in paperwork to justify her students being in SPED. Now Duncan wants to add more paperwork to justify that they are setting “high expectations”? He is quite literally insane… I hope he gets help.
The sad thing is that all teachers are mired in “accountability” paperwork, and SPED teachers even more so. They have to decide if they will sped time with the kids or with the paperwork, placing them in a damned if you do, damned if you don’t scenario. Which one they spend more time on largely depends on what type of administrators they have. If you’re in an RtI state, it’s even worse. Best wishes to you and your son.
NCES web site has “scenario” defined;
quoting NCES : “Full Population Estimates
Several statistical scenarios have been proposed, based on different assumptions about how excluded students might have performed. Combined with the actual performance of students who were assessed, these scenarios produce results for the full population (that is, one that includes estimates for excluded students) in each jurisdiction and each assessment year. These techniques provide an indication as to which statements about trend gains or losses might be changed if exclusion rates were zero in both assessment years (and if the assumptions about the performance of missing students are correct).
The results of one of these scenarios are presented here. However, the methods used to construct the scenario are still under development. The results of this special analysis should not be interpreted as official results.”
tables follow this quote
you can look up your home state here in the table
http://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/about/2013fpe4r.aspx
(that doesn’t mean we have to accept the computer model that made the
projections as to what “should be”)
another example of building the plane while flying….quoting NCES website
“The scenario was developed by Donald McLaughlin, formerly of American Institutes for Research, and predicts what the performance of excluded SD and/or ELL students might have been if these students had been tested. The basic assumption underlying this approach is that these students would have performed as well as included SD and/or ELL students with similar disabilities, level of English proficiency, and background characteristics. Analyses were performed for each participating state and jurisdiction for mathematics, reading, and science at grades 4 and 8. The results are presented in the following tables.
The first column of each table presents the reported score gain (or loss) for each jurisdiction based on the sample of included students. The second column shows the score gain (or loss) under the McLaughlin scenario. The third column reports the difference between the official gain and the gain under this scenario. Statistically significant score changes in columns one and two are marked with an asterisk. A footnote marks jurisdictions that show a trend that is statistically significant in the official results but not significant under the McLaughlin scenario, or vice versa. ”
Nevertheless, regardless of stating this is a “scenario”, Duncan will be out flailing the staff, beating the bureaucrats, hounding the teachers , closing the schools, causing further destruction to the state system for public education. And , he calls M. Chester for advice (the president of the consortium for PEARSON/PARCC; so I guess Gates has a cure on the way. I just wish Gates would stick to the cure for malaria and the doctors can tell him to go away.)
White House Comments: 202-456-1111 #FireArneDuncan
Thanks for this; I email the governor every day and I call the President. I just signed the petitition identified herew by NYTeacher.
It should not be surprising. “Who Cares if it is True?” – a lead article in the Columbia Journalism Review says it all. A study by two major universities shows that we are now an oligarchy – money rules, not people. Money supplants truth. Logic, scholarly research by experts does not count. We should know that by now – not only in education but throughout government.
thanks for this Gordon, plutocracy, oligarchy, it’s pretty bad for the teachers; they’ve doubled up on the standards and education funding is at a low ebb…. “do more with less’
This is a slum-dunk absurdity made by a man who needs to be Done and Canned(DoneCan, if shortened) for the best interest of us.
May I direct you to the words of Daniel Willingham who addressed this phenomenon in education where no evidences required for any magic elixir pitched to the folks who rule the roost (and the budgets) in school systems.
Click to access Willingham.pdf
This is why they can do it. Myown experience with this is in my essay based on Willingham’s piece.
http://www.opednews.com/articles/Magic-Elixir-No-Evidence-by-Susan-Lee-Schwartz-130312-433.html
it never changes because the public has no idea what learning looks like, so the conversation can be directed to utter nonsense.
This is the “Everything but the squeal.” model of profit extraction from public education. “Swift once bragged that his slaughterhouses had become so sophisticated that they used “everything but the squeal” There is no place in education and no student of any type that will not be exploited by the profiteers and corrupted by the ideologs. Here’s the wikipedia page on it. It will sound quite familiar to most all here. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gustavus_Franklin_Swift#.22Everything_but_the_squeal.22
Love it!
RE: Arne Duncan Proposes New Accountability for Special Education
Let me start by saying that I am an ESE teacher. I teach students with learning disabilities and language impairments. The students I have are in the unit they are in because they are at least two grade levels below their regular ed peers in reading.
Currently, in Florida, we already have to give these students access to the same standards that their on-grade level peers enjoy. That has been the case for years. We already know that Florida tests pretty much everyone, no matter their disability. Again, this has been the case for years. I can’t believe that in this education environment that there are many other states that are significantly different. And yet, Arne is going to say that these students aren’t getting a quality education? That they aren’t held to high expectations?
To me, it is pretty obvious that these students are held to much higher expectations than their regular ed peers. It would be like telling two mountain climbers that they have to reach the same peak, but one of them will do it with both hands tied behind his back. Sure, he can have some accommodations. Someone can hold his rope steady. Someone else can yell out supportive verbal encouragement. He can even take longer breaks, and we’ll take away any time requirement (as long as he finishes in the same day that he started).
The world of special ed was already insane. I’m not sure where this takes us. As I said, in my class, the students are all at least two years behind in reading. What I didn’t tell you is that I teach in an elementary school. What this means is that many of these 3-5th graders are non-readers. The few that can decode are either doing so at a kindergarten/first grade level or at a level approaching grade level but without any comprehension whatsoever of what they have just decoded. Despite this, they have the same designation on paper (or computer) that other LD kids have who are just slightly behind their regular ed peers.
In Florida, as I imagine is the case in other states, we already track academic progress. You might think it would be as easy as seeing what they are capable of doing at the beginning of the year and then comparing that with what they are capable of at the end of the year. Not so. Remember, they are working on the same standards as their regular ed peers. And, so, they are tested with the same tests that their regular ed peers take. This means that a fourth grader who cannot read anything above “see sam run” is being tested on those “rigorous” non-fiction passages that are on a fourth grade level (not the fourth grade level of yesteryear but the new, improved 6th grade, I mean 4th grade level of today). And then we track their progress on a graph. If you’re thinking that these graphs look like random peaks and valleys, you are correct. When you cannot read and you are given a test, you are just going to guess. Which is what these students do. Sadly, they have become so inured to this that they guess on the few items that they actually are capable of doing.
The federal government is already involved through NCLB, etc. These students count towards AYP. They count towards the school’s “grade.” The schools have every reason to give these students everything they’ve got, so why aren’t the slackers doing anything to give them a “quality education”? Well, they are. Florida is an RtI state. To get an ESE label, a student has to show that they are “resistant to interventions.” That is, they have to show that they require extensive interventions, that if they are weaned off of the interventions, they regress. Or, they have to show that despite intensive, research-based interventions, they are still showing no progress. In other words, before these students come to me, they have already received every intervention imaginable. In addition, even after they are found eligible for ESE services, they are usually started in a less restrictive environment. If none of this has worked, why should it work when they get to my class? Indeed, it had to be shown that it did not work in order for them to get into my class in the first place.
Alas, I’m afraid I do not have a magic wand or a bag of pixie dust with which to work miracles. So, what is an ESE teacher to do? Most of us actually work with the studennts where they are at. And we move them forward from there. There is no huge spurt of growth (very rarely anyway), but they do make academic gains. None of these gains will show up on the regular ed grade level assessments, but they are there nonetheless. We’ve often wondered why these students aren’t given meaningful assessments that will show growth and that will actually tell us where these students are still struggling (thanks, FCAT, I already knew they couldn’t read on grade level). Now we know why. It’s to show that these students aren’t getting a “quality education.”
I would tell you that these students, who are as bright as you or me, struggle immensely with academic subjects. That they are usually Language Impaired as well. That most of them are also ESOL students. That most of them come from low SES homes. That most of them come from single-parent households. That many of these parents come in to thank us because their child used to hate school and now they want to go. That their regular ed teachers in the past told us that they wouldn’t do anything in class, that they would shut down when anything was required of them, and now they are working in class. That through a lot of hard work and effort of both the teachers and students, the students get to a point where they stop saying, “I can’t do this, I’m stupid.” That non-writers become independent writers (legible despite the many spelling, grammar, and convention errors). That non-readers become readers (yes, still way behind their regular ed peers) and learn to enjoy reading. I would tell you these things, but it doesn’t matter because none of it shows up on the tests. The tests show that these students are not making any gains. And, as we all know, there are no excuses.
Thank you for bearing with me through this over-long post.
No, THANK-YOU for telling it as it is! it is teachers like you who write here that makes the story come clear. It is the VOICE OF THE TEACHER which has been silenced, so that snake-oli salesmen like Duncan can sell their poop as ‘reform.”
YOU MAKE THE DIFFERENCE IN THEIR LIVES. 16 years after I retired, students find me on Facebook and Linked-In, and tell me what that year with me meant to them.
YOU are the hero.
Excellent post. As you note, many students with disabilities can enjoy learning and make progress with effective supports. Some can achieve proficiency. But for Duncan to pretend that there is any evidence that disabled students as a population can perform similarly as general education students as a population on standardized assessments is irresponsible.
Perhaps if the Federal govt. would fully fund their special ed.mandates states would find it easier to comply.
Yes, fully fund the special ed mandates and remove the mandates that only profit education corporations.
Please read, sign and circulate this petition: Arne Duncan Must Go!
Here is the link to the people’s petition to rid the nation of this one man disaster:
http://www.petition2congress.com/15679/arne-duncan-must-go/
Please read, sign, and circulate the amended petition. For some reason the first one I posted was cut short. Thank you.
Here is the link to the people’s petition to rid the nation’s public school system from this one man disaster:
http://www.petition2congress.com/15685/dump-arne-duncan/
Thank you, my friend. I just signed the dump Duncan for Washington and sent this also to my politicians in California. It felt good! From another teacher who just retired , with my last day on Friday. In any event, we all must stick together in this war, and it is a war against teachers for corporate greed and the break down of public education for the profit driven charter schools.
thanks for this I signed; also copied it to my Governor’s office because he spends all his time on Pearson/PARCC flying to London
See my post to the everyone.
POSTED AT OPED.
Submitted on Thursday, Jun 26, 2014 at 12:34:29 PMMY COMMENT,taken from the post I wrote here:
There are real, and powerful forces disrupting the 15,880 school systems, and working in the legislatures of 52 states to end NOT just tenure, BUT public education! They NEED TO END PUBLIC EDUCATION FOR THE MASSES OF THIS COUNTRY; it would be preaching to the choir if I had to describe how CRUCIAL education is to OPPORTUNITY!
Duncan sweet-talked this nation about ‘reform’ when nothing was broken. The system needed an upgrade not a reformation; it needed an infusion of money for smaller classes and more schools, for example — because ‘class size matters’ — as Leonie made it crystal clear- and it was PROVEN! REAL EVIDENCE. I love Daniel Willingham’s description of the education products that snake-oil salesmen sell… “magic elixirs where NO EVIDENCE IS REQUIRED”. The media did it — sold Duncan’s rhetoric and opinion without evidence to back it up. The media today is a propaganda tool predicted by Marshall McLuhan and Vance Packard, way back when tv was new, and I was studying communication at Brooklyn College.
In the end, if Duncan and company win the day, ignorance of the past, of the values and we once held sacred –like integrity and honesty– will be the rule, the reason for three independent governmental offices will be forgotten, and then the war-mongers,the death merchants and the oil barons will put people on the throne in America who never could have reached such a place if the citizens had not been bamboozled by the snake oil salesman.
Insidious slanders and malicious ads inundate a population that is ignorant, and growing more so as the INSTITUTION OF EDUCTION is being dismantled.
INSTITUTION! Not schools! Word choice makes all the difference” the ‘madmen’ know that and they work for the politicians.
An institution is at the root of a society!
“School” is Duncan jargon, just as ‘teaching’ is the word he uses to replace the crucial ingredient” LEARNING! We cannot let our Secretary of Education twist the language and substitute “slogans” that sell magic elixirs” CHARTER SCHOOLS disguised as CHOICE. Orwell’s double-speak!
The art of subtle manipulation has been mastered by the madmen, and moved into the political arena.The legislature is packed with liars, beholden to the kings and barons who own EVERYTHING, and are making their global move AT THIS MOMENT IN HISTORY. They are selling us their version of THE INSTITUTION which is CRUCIAL to our democracy.
Make no mistake about this, there are insidious forces in motion, visible to anyone who is looking. But this nation is sleepwalking, ignorant beyond belief, and exhausted from the stress inflicted on them by unnecessary austerity. The media became the message as McLuhan predicted, and Fox news and its clones gave the pulpit to Duncan! We saw how PBS secretly gave the pulpit to Gates! Eli Broad and The Waltons and the Kochs pay for Rhee and clones to do the rest.
Duncan was the purveyor of THEIR Narrative. He had at his disposal, the greatest propaganda machine in history, the tv networks and the media of the country, AND he delivered a narrative about bad teachers and failing schools, and tests and technology that must replace the veteran professionals. Experience counts in our profession, yet the very opposite is the objective of the man who speaks for this nation about EDUCATION!
Duncan and company sang a song of testing and evaluation; and for the chorus, they sold charter schools, online education and iPads.
Susan, Beautifully said! Your article needs published. Our public educational system, as we all know it, is in deep trouble. I could not agree with you more. Again, your comments were superior! Thank you!
Thanks. I will be posting it on a few sites who have asked for it, and I will open my Speaking as a Teacher blog at WordPress with it. I will also post it at OPED News.
All this takes time, but at 72, what else do I have to do… except kayak, garden, work on my photography, play with my grandkids (and my hubby to whom I will be married 51 years in a few days).
Susan, We need veteran educators just like you who are so gifted in writing and speaking to let the public know, especially parents, the demise of public education, as we know it, is happening as we speak. I only have two (2) more years of teaching before I can get full retirement, but a lot of the younger teachers are like sheep being led to slaughter. They do not realize the full impact of what is going on here. I’ve heard many say that as long as they are “good teachers”, they have nothing to worry about, which you and I know is far from the truth. I honestly think that a lot of parents, stressed with working longer hours and a poor economy, do not realize the direction that public education is taking.
My 6th grade students will be taking 10 hours of PARCC online instruction next year, just for one subject! This replaces a 2.5 hour test per subject. They will be tested a full 40 hours online. Medical doctors and attorneys do not even have to do this to enter their professional schools, and we are dealing with children here! Our school system does not even have enough laptops. My students will be leaving the classroom at different times to get online. What a mess! We have to sacrifice our children in order for the rich billionaires to buy an extra summer house. The very sad thing is that the children of the rich do not have to suffer like this.
Thanks again for your beautiful commentary. I am so happy that it will be published. It is going to take gifted people like you to write and let parents know what is happening to their children. I believe it is going to take parents standing up and saying “No more.”
I appreciate your comments and I agree that this is what the public needs to hear, but I Have been writing about this for ten years, GOOGLE ME,.
It is impossible to break through. What it will take is teaches to strike across America, to draw attention. It would take a voice that people respect. like Diane to get up there and tell the press what is happening… but then, they would marginalize her, too.
I wrote this in 2004
http://www.speakingasateacher.com/SPEAKING_AS_A_TEACHER/No_Rules_or_Regulations.html
and this: http://www.speakingasateacher.com/SPEAKING_AS_A_TEACHER/No_Constitutional_Rights-_A_hidden_scandal_of_National_Proportion.html
These were picked up by other sites… notihng happened. Like here, lots of talk and interest by the choir,
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx I don’t think it’s worth our breath or emotion to counter Duncan’s irrational statement. When something doesn’t seem to make sense, it’s probably written in code. The politispeak code is pretty clear here. It says, “Now we’re coming after special ed, & here’s how we’re going to eliminate it.” We’ve been given fair warning. We must fight back, politically, & with the law.
quote: “We’ve been given fair warning. We must fight back, politically, & with the law.”
yes, and make those phone calls. I daily email the Governor and cc the Globe, the Fitchburg Sentinel, etc.
You can go to the National Organization of Women site , put in your zip code and get the addresses and phone numbers of the elected officials that represent you.
Ask for Congress to rescind or replace 20 US CODE 7861 http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/20/7861
from Huffington post quote: “The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, which was enacted in 1990, specifies that Congress pay states up to 40 percent of the average amount, beyond average public school expenditures, that the states spend on each student with disabilities. However, the closest Congress got to this funding level was in 2005, when it hit 18.5 percent of the average, and in 2009, when the one-time economic stimulus boosted payments. Sequestration worsened the situation”
They demand impossible goals, they’ve compounded the standards and consistently reduce the funding available.
Jean–Exactly (your last sentence) what they’ve done in all the cities where they’ve closed public schools. Indeed, THIS is the civil rights issue of our time. ACLU, set this to rights!
I wrote this to REPLY to NY Teacher, and then, because I was in the process of writing my own blog, I found I had something to say to everyone here.
Duncan has to go. You got it NY Teacher! Feel free to quote me… as I will soon be saying this OFTEN in my new diary series “Speaking As A Teacher’ at Oped, and my blog at WordPress, by that title. I am happy to say it here, first, at the teacher’s room which Diane has created, because WE cannot sleepwalk at this moment in history. Hidden forces move forward with plans that have unforeseen repercussions…like the END of democracy which DEPENDS on shared knowledge!
How many times have I linked to this:
Click to access hirsch.pdf
I will post NY Teacher’s info at Oped, and on my Facebook page. and I will write to Leonie Haimison and other NY bloggers and activists, and ask them to contact their contacts.
If you would like to email me, directly, go to my author’s page at Oped news,
http://www.opednews.com/author/author40790.html
and send a message that contains YOUR email address I will then, email you directly and talk about this, because THAT man HAS TO GO. If teachers do not tell him to shut the ‘heck’ up, then who will?
What you don’t know can kill you! Simple! Democracy is over with a citizenry ignorant of the truth that guided mankind through its infancy. SOCIETIES were created to benefit the survival of the PEOPLE, not just the strongest and richest. Critical analysis begins with Prior Knowledge…anyone who studied Bloom’s Taxonomy knows this. You cannot compare what you see and hear, if you are uninformed about the past. Look into a future where the people are so ignorant about history and the humanities, not merely science, that everything old is new again… things that we had abolished in this country once upon a time will be back with a vengeance… like guns and vigilante justice.
Does anyone think it is an accident that the arts and the humanities are taking a hit? Codes of behaviors, rules and regulations, and examination of beneficial and destructive behaviors are GONE when schools can pick and choose the things that children read books chosen from a library that is incomplete in its history of human behavior.
Duncan sweet-talked this nation about ‘reform’ when nothing was broken. The system needed an upgrade not a reformation; it needed an infusion of money for smaller classes and more schools, for example — because ‘class size matters’ — as Leonie made it crystal clear- and it was PROVEN! REAL EVIDENCE. I love Daniel Willingham’s description of the education products that snake-oil salesmen sell… “magic elixirs where NO EVIDENCE IS REQUIRED”.
The media did it, sold Duncan rhetoric and opinion without evidence to back it up. The media today is a propaganda tool predicted by Marshall McLuhan and Vance Packard, way back when tv was new, and I was studying communication at Brooklyn College.
http://www.thesocialcontract.com/artman2/publish/tsc1004/article_903.shtml
“In The Hidden Persuaders, Packard documents the introduction of professional psychologists’ motivational research into the advertising industry in the 1950s and its powerful effects. As a public we began to be sold products, not because of their intrinsic qualities, but because of their symbolic significance to our wishes, our fears and hopes – our subconscious. The depth probers searched for these symbols with word-association-polling to find which slogans worked effectively and which failed. These were the forerunners of the modern ‘focus groups’ which are used to develop campaign issues and productive slogans.”
It was the FORERUNNER of the most outrageous campaigns of lies ever to be seen in America –insidious slanders and malicious ads that inundate a population that is ignorant, and growing more so as the INSTITUTION OF EDUCTION is being dismantled.
INSTITUTION! Not schools! Word choice makes all the difference… the ‘madmen’ know that and they work for the politicians.
An institution is at the root of a society!
“School” is Duncan jargon, just as ‘teaching’ is the word he uses to replace the crucial ingredient… LEARNING! We cannot let our Secretary of Education twist the language and substitute “slogans” that sell magic elixirs… CHARTER SCHOOLS disguised as CHOICE. Orwell’s double-speak!
The art of subtle manipulation has been mastered by the madmen, and moved into the political arena.The legislature is packed with liars, beholden to the kings and barons who own EVERYTHING, and are making their global move AT THIS MOMENT IN HISTORY. They are selling us their version of THE INSTITUTION which is CRUCIAL to our democracy.
Make no mistake about this, there are real, insidious forces in motion, visible to anyone who is looking. But this nation is sleepwalking, ignorant beyond belief, and exhausted from the stress inflicted on them by unnecessary austerity. The media became the message as McLuhan predicted, and Fox news and its clones gave the pulpit to Duncan! We saw how PBS secretly gave the pulpit to Gates! Eli Broad and The Waltons and the Kochs pay for Rhee and clones to do the rest.
Duncan was the purveyor of THEIR Narrative. He had at his disposal, the greatest propaganda machine in history, the tv networks and the media of the country, AND he delivered a narrative about bad teachers and failing schools, and tests and technology that must replace the veteran professionals. Experience counts in our profession, yet the very opposite is the objective of the man who speaks for this nation about EDUCATION!
Duncan and company sang a song of testing and evaluation; and for the chorus, they sold charter schools, online education and iPads.
Years ago, Lenny Isenberg contacted me, desperate to find a way to break through the wall of silence that surrounded the first assault… the one where they took out the practitioners so the ‘patient’ would die! He and I had both faced the lawlessness, and we both knew Karen Horwitz who put up the NAPTA site,
http://www.endteacherabuse.org
She wrote “White Chalk Crime.” The hundreds of true stories there made it crystal clear — there was a national process to silence the voice of the real educators who would never replace best practice with test-prep! In NYC Betsy Combier and Norm Scott chronicled the corruption, and Grassroots produced the movie: ”The Inconvenient Truth Behind Waiting For Superman” (which EVERYONE SHOULD NOT MISS and few have seen.)
THIS IS THE LINK TO THE MOVIE ITSELF.
THE PROCESS FOR DISMANTLING THE INSTITUTION —THE REMOVAL OF THE EXPERIENCED PRACTITIONER— IS STILL UNKNOWN to the public!
Lenny Isenberg and I still talk about this wall of silence, a decade later, not because this is some ‘conspiracy theory’ but because observable reality is our measure, and the truth is before our eyes! Perhaps, it is because we are huge fans of future-history science fiction— which has as its premise; IF THIS GOES ON! Anyone who knows what our Congress is doing, anyone who sees the destruction of the executive office that John Boener is initiating at this very moment, knows that if this hidden assault goes on, the America envisioned by our founders and encoded in our Constitution is OVER!
And, it ends because a citizenry was not educated and informed enough to throw the bums out and elect genuine REPRESENTATIVES, who spoke FOR THEM, and closed the loopholes that gave away our national wealth to a few privileged people. Yes, the first objective of those whose planned the assault on public education, is to make a poop-load of money. Education — as an industry, a business — is worth trillions. But that was NOT the main objective for those who planned the OUTCOME! Ending the democratic processes was the objectives of these captains and kings.(Teacher talk — “objectives” and “outcomes”! Genuine LEARNING outcomes are missing entirely from the Core nonsense, replaced by Duncan-jargon about ‘standards’ and ‘evaluation’).
Yes, they ARE getting richer by selling technology instead of learning, but these puppet-masters at the top, the 1/10 0f 1% who Diane refers to as the Billionaire’s Club have a plan to ‘globalize’ this country, and to do that… the institution of public education MUST be dismantled… in full view of the nation, without them realizing what the heck was going on.
They are in fact trillionaires who own the wealth once reserved for nations! To them, we are easy to manipulate peasants, and we are expendable. This scenario is exactly what the founders tried to prevent… a place where wealth dictated the health of the nation, and determine who would succeed and who would be relegated to the dust-bin.
At this very moment, for those of you following the Vergara outcome, teacher tenure is under attack like never before… in the courts and legislatures. Until now, ending tenure was a dirty hidden game, and they got a way with it as Duncan railed on about teacher evaluation… I know as I was one of the hundred thousand teachers harassed out while the unions looked the other way and never took lawless administrators into the grievance process. They got away with slander and worse. We saw what lack of accountability did to the culture in the financial world… they got bolder and bolder until they bankrupted the country, robbing the people of their future.
My dear colleagues and peers at this wonderful place, there are real, and powerful forces disrupting the 15,880 school systems, and working in the legislatures of 52 states to end NOT just tenure, BUT public education! They NEED TO END PUBLIC EDUCATION FOR THE MASSES OF THIS COUNTRY; it would be preaching to the choir if I had to describe how CRUCIAL education is to OPPORTUNITY!
In the end, if Duncan and company win the day, ignorance of the past, of the values and we once held sacred —like integrity and honesty— will be the rule, the reason for three independent governmental offices will be forgotten, and then the war-mongers,the death merchants and the oil barons will put people on the throne in America who never could have reached such a place if the citizens had not been bamboozled by the snake oil salesman.
http://www.opednews.com/articles/BAMBOOZLE-THEM-where-tea-by-Susan-Lee-Schwartz-110524-511.html
Personally, I want Diane Ravitch to be Secretary of Education, she has the voice like no one else! But if it is not in the cards, then Lois Wiener, and if not her…well there are people who write HERE on this blog, who would fit the bill and who would ensure that schools enable and facilitate learning and support the classroom practice of pedagogy.
This blog is Diane’s creation, and thus we can speak here, but it was “Reign of Error” which established her as the ONE, and it would be a shame for her voice to be absent at this crucial moment… after all…she took on BUSH! She enables our voices!
Phew. Gotta go.
Having known and been corresponding with Susan Lee Schwartz for several years now–and gotten to know each other largely through our similar experiences in education, going from “Teacher of the Year” to “Teachers on Our Ears,” I can say with certainty that Susan tells it like it is. Listen and heed, if you give two hoots about the future of our country and, indeed, the world. Daniel Geery
“Disabilities” is a vague term. It includes people with physical disabilities (sight, hearing, mobility impaired), learning disabilities, and cognitive disabilities. They aren’t all the same. Requiring a paraplegic to play basketball makes no sense. Requiring a student with limited intelligence to pass calculus makes no sense.
However, it is true that many students with learning disabilities do not receive quality educations. In our insane rush to make children read at younger and younger ages (when many do not yet have the physiological development and coordination to undertake this highly complicated process), we are not only creating disabilities, we are leaving behind students who are quite capable of learning at grade level if they receive a proper solid foundation and, in many cases, appropriate ongoing suppport.
I’ve taught dyslexic adults to read who should have been properly taught in first or second grade. Instead, they spent years being told “it’s all right that you don’t do well in school, honey, you’ll be a great mommy,” and similar idiocies. I taught in one area where one of the voc-ed high schools was notorious for being a dumping ground for the students who were “unteachable.”
Many of our students with disabilities are not receiving a proper education. The reasons are numerous and complicated and many people here have addressed them thoughtfully. But yelling about how no students with disabilities should be held to standards is as thoughtless as yelling that they all have to be held to those standards.
(I’m an Orton-Gillingham certified reading specialist and English professor in a community college.)
I agree with you 100% Susan. We need a strong person(s) like Diane Ravitch or Lois Weiner representing us. Also, I sincerely hope that NEA and the AFT representatives read these comments and see how frustrated teachers have become under Duncan and Obama. I voted for Obama the first time, when he promised teachers he would “fix” NCLB. When he ran for a second term , and he did not modify it still, I saw two things occur that I observed. The teamsters union held back supporting him over labor issues. They wanted to see what he would really do for labor, before they supported him. I remember reporters saying the NEA were bragging that they were the first union to show support for Obama. I thought this was very bad strategy as he ran for his second term. We should have waited to see what he would constructively put on the table for us. Instead, we got Duncan again! My father was a journeyman soap maker and he was sent to unionize the soap company that he worked for by the ILWU. They did eventually unionize the company. I remember when Cesar Chavez was trying to unionize the workers in my state, we as a family boycotted eating grapes. I always loved grapes, but I never ate them. We never crossed over any picket lines. We teachers need to be strong too. In reading the comment section of the article by Diane Ravitch, I think we are beginning to get a great ground swell of teachers who will act against the egregious acts of Duncan, under the Obama administration. I voted for Obama only in his first term, not his second term. I was a Democrat all my life, but I voted for the Green Party in Obama’s second term. Our union, Or simply “an association” needs to start listening to us and not use bragging rights of being the first union to want any politicians vote. We need to get concrete promises on the table and not just accept a politician’s fix”. I hate to say it, because my parents and I were democrats our entire lives, but I think our only alternative now is a third party. No one, it seems, in the Democratic Party are listening to us. If anything positive comes out of this, maybe our teacher’s unions or associations will begin to listen to us on the national level, before they too our wiped out by the two main parties we have now, or like they are trying to do in my state of California. Teacher’s united can fix this mess, but we need to stay united and our association needs to listen to us like the nurse’ s union listens to the nurses. Either that or we need to organize for a new union and throw the bums out of office who don’t support us!!!
Ray Brown; you have captured my sentiments; I proudly voted for McGovern, … but I would certainly be looking for an alternative in the future (rather than just voting democratic) because you have described exactly what is happening.
Dear Jeanhaverhill,
I remember when, back in the 1970’s if a person asked me what I did for a living, and I said I was a teacher, all said, Oh, I admire you so much. You are in a wonderful profession”. You don’t here that anymore. There is just silence. (This has been my experience in California.) Why? I have often reflected on this… The Duncans, Bushes, and Obamas, and reporters have created this. Also the profit driven charter school cronies who want profit driven testing companies. I also think are teacher’s unions, or association, had a lot to do with it. When the actor governor, of California, Arnold, said he would “kick the nurse’s butts”, they fought back and won. Our union never had PR people defending us. they were like the ostriches, hiding in the sand. I think we should have had a defense. Without it, many parents don’t think about us as they did in the 1970’s. At least, this is my opinion for what is happening now….
I totally agree with you, Ray. I graduated in 1985 with my Bachelor’s degree in Education. It was highly respected to be a teacher back then. You were greeted with a warm handshake and a smile. Now, some people look at you like they want to run over you with a mack truck when you share that you are a teacher. Very sad, but very true. The tone has definitely gone to the dark side. You are right on the mark. It is not in your head. They need not worry. No one else from my family will ever be a teacher. I wouldn’t allow my children to take the abuse and disrespect. They are setting kids up to do everything online without any teacher support. The rich politicians don’t care. More money for them.
Dear Sad teacher, I used to love my teaching profession. I loved Sundays because I knew it was getting closer to Monday and I literally loved going to work every Monday. I lived for working with the children. On my mothers side, she had two teachers in her family. I guess I got my passion from them and my mother. I had a good friend, who worked in a box factory, who made boxes for a living. He was sent here, to Oakland, California to work, since in Ireland they have the journey man trade of designing different boxes and the owner of the factory liked his talent. He said they did not have sufficient journeyman here. (Years before he worked for the owner, and when my friend got a divorce, he wanted a change and asked if he could come back to the states. The owner jumped at the chance.) The reason I bring this up, is because my Irish buddy, hated his job. He complained every Sunday that I saw him. He made more money than I did, and I could not fathom why he hated his job. Now I sadly have to state, I now understand completely… I still love the fact of teaching, but the hatred of the politicians for our hard work, the reporters always saying we are lazy and incompetent, not seeing the glow in the eyes of parents, who ask you what you do, and then have no comment, these are things that wore me down and made me understand some what my Irish buddy stated. I just retired this school year, and I was one of the first at my school, and I did work overtime, without pay, but I got to the point, with low pay, and little respect from the press, that I loved my Sundays, and I found myself feeling that Mondays should never come. The state that teaching is at now, with so little respect for teachers can take its toll. At least, it took a toll on me…..My superintendent made more than all the superintendents in the Bay Area, and we teachers made less than all other teachers in the Bay Area. (When do you see a superintendent in the classrooms? What good are they?)
Dear Ray, Thank you so much for your kind comments. The toxic attitude of our Ohio governor, John Kasich, and the other toxic governors mentioned here on Diane’s blog, have demoralized and killed the spirits of thousands of teachers across the United States. I never thought in a million years that I would ever witness such a blatant disrespect for our profession. I honestly do not know what I would do if I had more than two more years to teach. Like you, I dearly love my students and I still love to teach. But, sadly, it just isn’t enough anymore. The exhaustion and the burnout consume your days and nights – and I just can’t work enough hours to fill out all of the endless paperwork. I am a value added teacher, along with having to also do SLO’s this past school year. My students would groan as they saw me taking out yet another pretest in which I would have to record pretest scores over and over again on a Google Doc that no one would look at, but you know you better have it there in case – Endless, meaningless paperwork to destroy the love of learning for teachers and students alike. The rich politicians have achieved their goal. My students and I are miserable.
I sit in workshops having to learn how to help my students through all of these silly PARCC assessments coming in the next school year. My 11 and 12 year old students will be doing 40 total hours of on-line assessment through the month of February and again in May. I don’t even know how to break that bad news to them. It’s hard to be a teacher and implement all of this – when you don’t agree with it at all. We all know it does not take 40 hours of assessment to see how to help a child. My 2.5 hour test in May was hard enough to get ready for.
I so worry about the younger teachers. Many of them do not realize that their profession is slipping away from them. I am so sick of hearing workshop presenters say that the younger teachers do not know any differently because all of this paperwork and endless testing is all they know. Well, they will burn out and get exhausted like all of us someday too. It’s no fun to do meaningless paperwork tasks on data over and over again for a paycheck which never includes overtime hours – along with the new threat of being fired every 3 years due to the new teacher evaluation system.
The questions I have are: Is this just a cycle in our teaching profession which we will all go through – and it will pass? Can our public schools survive the toxic takeover of the greedy politicians and testing companies? Only time will tell. Thanks again, Ray, for your kind comments. Nice people like you help me cope with a profession that has gone bad.
Dear Sad Teacher,
Your questions are million dollar questions. They are excellent and I have often thought about some of those very questions, including some other teachers I know. So you are not alone. I am not sure how far this trend will go to ridicule, and attempt to get rid of good teachers, with great experience. The other question you had was if public schools will be able to survive the toxic takeover of greedy politicians and testing companies.
I think that public schools will be able to overcome this and survive as long as we keep our unions, and there is a trend to get rid to them now by the by people like Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker and your governor as well. In fact, in The Washington Post, an opinion writer wrote four pages and his title was “What happens if America loses its unions”. (He did not have a question mark in the title.) On his last page he states that big labor is “on life support now”. It’s an interesting article, and certainly there are a lot of people that would be cheering for this, many wealthy people who put their children in private schools and want to destroy public education. In fact, there are conservative groups right now, in Las Vegas, who are putting on the T.V. a commentary that teachers can opt out of the Clark County Education Association. These groups wants to expand to 60 states. They will be on radio and TV shows and put articles in the newspapers and use web sites to spread their ideas. These conservative groups will tell people how and when they can opt out of their unions. (This could be dangerous for unions.)
You know, I have a lot of complaints about our teachers union, but I know that with a union we do not stand alone. The NEA or AFT, in my opinion, are not good like the Nurse’s Union, or certain other unions, but without what many of us have (accept the right-to-work states), we can dig our own graves if we are not permitted to have unions. We need unions! I admire the nurse’s union and I went on their blog today. The nurse’s tell things about their hospital CEO’s and what they are doing that is not good. I could not believe it, according to the nurse’s Blog, they even have a radio station. (I don’t know if it is in just one state), but that is something we teachers should have had. A radio station for teachers could be used for anyone that put us down. We could have invited the teacher haters to come on our show and discuss the true facts. Maybe if we had our own radio show, we could have shown we were not ostriches and could have defended our position, before the snake oil charmers could attempt to turn the parents against us. If someone was saying horrible things about us teachers, we could have had brilliant people like Diane Ravitch support us or bring in psychologists and special education teachers to give examples why Bush, Duncan and Obama do not speak for teachers who are in the trenches and why we are caring, for the little pay we get.
I see the devastation that we can’t afford to happen anymore with the snake oil charmers who want to eradicate or weaken our unions like Governor Scott Walker of Wisconsin. He crippled the unions and the union employees have dropped out of the unions by 60%, because the unions have no bite anymore.
It states, in The New York Times, that based on the law called “Act 10” , public employees cannot bargain collectively anymore and take home pay has fallen. The unions cannot bargain over pensions, sick leave or vacations. Tennessee and Idaho have undercut unions too! We need to stand together and vote the bums out! (I think that is our only chance…)
Ray, Your article was beautifully written. I have always been in our teachers’ union – 30 years. I did not need the assistance of our union until this year. Some younger teachers do not understand that you do not need your teachers’ union until you need it. They think that if you are an excellent teacher, you will never need your teachers’ union – which is totally false. I’ve always had OUTSTANDING bosses, until this year. The new person in charge was rude, aloof, and uncaring to staff. I had outstanding test scores, but the new evaluator was mean to the older teachers, severely marking us down for things like” too many teacher led activities.” The new teacher evaluation system is so vague in parts that the evaluator can write anything down, and the teacher can do very little about it. It’s downright scary.
My husband was an administrator for most of his career, 24 of his 31 years in Education. He always thought it was important for me to belong to the teachers’ union. He always said that if I had a good boss – I would be fine – but, teachers’ unions exist for the treatments that I received this year – from my new boss. Honestly, even with my good test scores, my years of excellent teaching in the district I even graduated from – he hated me . . .I don’t know why . . .I am a very kind, giving person….Without my continuing contract, I truly feel, if given the chance, he would eventually fire me. Parents, my students, and past principals loved me – but none of that matters anymore when you get an incompetent person in POWER over you. The new teacher evaluation system in the WRONG HANDS is a lethal weapon. I do not recommend my profession to anyone. With no job security, I would be scared to lose everything I have. Thanks again, Ray, for your wonderful comments. (: P.S. Ray, I couldn’t believe it…but my husband told me that Walker is a governor with no college education. He’s done a lot of damage, and he never graduated with a college degree…Unbelievable……)
I am replying again in agreement; the first 5 years I taught first and 2nd grade there were no unions. We worked under “merit pay” but the principal had the decision making power and he would say “the men have families so they deserve more”….. merit pay was eventually eased out; the union came in and I served on the Professional standards committee (but no one seems to acknowledge that we had standards; there was a major effort in standards in the 70s; the idea seems to have sprung form Gates forehead when it got called common core but they violated the democratic and decision making process in the top down approach with their so called standards meanwhile pushing out or pushing aside the work the social studies teachers did (in Massachusetts in particular) by saying “there are no funds to implement what the teachers say” and then miraculously finding fund$$$ to buy into Pearson/Parcc.) When they denigrate the whole profession with scorn, condescending attitudes I get really angry. A lot of the teachers cannot speak out for fear of being fired but , being retired, I try to state what I see as truthful.
Dear Sad Teacher,
Yes, even in California, I have heard teachers apologizing about having to give so many exams. This was the first year, my district did the SBAC testing with the Chrome Books. It is interesting that they so miraculously get so much money for these mini computers, but still can’t find the money to give us a decent pay raise. (Although our superintendent made more money than all the other superintendents in the Bay Area.) It would be hilarious, if it was not so sad, that they can get so much money for other things but can’t get enough money to give teachers a decent living. (I heard that they said the money was donated for the computers for the test, but I really wonder about that…)
This year, I was told to go into the classes, by my principal to assist the teachers when they had to give the CC tests on the chrome books. I heard teachers say they were sorry, to the children, but had to give the tests, so I know it must be all over the states now with the common core. It is interesting that last year on the IEP’s we had to write accommodations/modifications and what they were, but this year, there were no accommodations for these Obama/Duncan tests.
It is very encouraging to talk to you and Jean, and I also miss talking to some of the others who first started discussing their feelings only to hear silence. (Maybe they are using other blogs.) It is therapeutic for us to discuss this mess we are in, and to know how others feel. We are not alone…
Thank your husband for me about telling us about Scott Walker. I looked it up on the internet and it is so true. The guy never got his bachelor’s degree. He did not finish Marquette University. On another area, it said that he was talking in Mosinee, which is in Marathon County and he said: “It comes down to me packing my lunch. All the way back from college when I worked to get through school to even today as executive.” It said he was careful with the language not to make a complete lie. (I guess he meant completing elementary school?)
Wow, you get guys like Duncan who were never teachers and you get a guy like Scott Walker who never finished the university but cuts, and cuts education… It said that not only did Walker eliminate collective bargaining, but he cut 2.6 billion from public education and he cut another 250 million from the University and gave a 30% reduction from the Technical College System. What kind of guys are these that want to attack teachers and still don’t appreciate what we do. I don’t hear Duncan saying there will be an infusion of funds for special education. They just know how to attack!
I will write tomorrow too, as I want to discuss with you and Jean about her terrible experience with piece meal pay as I call it; The way to divide and conquer as districts have tried to do.
Thanks so much, Ray, for your kind response. Yes, Scott Walker does not have a college degree. When my husband told me that, I couldn’t believe it. How does a person get governor without a college degree? I have no clue, but he sure has done a lot of damage. It seems like he started it all, followed by Jeb Bush, and then by my mean governor, John Kasich. They are all rich men making such hurtful educational policies for students and teachers in order to make big profits for big business. I know they will have to answer someday for all of the hurt they have caused children. God will not let them off the hook. It is hard to view all of the damage they are causing. Next year I will have even less time to teach. I don’t even want to think about it. Thanks again, Ray. I enjoy your blogs. (:
Dear Jean and Sad Teacher,
Three years ago I got fed up with having to test children far beyond my 28. In California, quite a few years ago, CARS, or the California Association of Resource Specialists, worked very hard, for Resource Specialists, to have a state law that we would only have 28 students and no more. That became law; however, we still got more students beyond that number, every year. (That did not mean we could not test more students, only that we could not have more than 28 students to serve. (At one point, I had 36 students a number of years ago even after the law passed. Finally, I said enough!
Three years ago, at my school, I had a wonderful union representative who happened to be the Vice President of our union. I let the district know that I was fast approaching my twenty eighth child, and kept all the emails as my union representative told me to do. He said they can erase the district emails and you need to keep them, which I dutifully did. (Even with the law on the books, it depends on the resource specialist. I remember at a CC training this year, on using a new IEP program called SEIS, and I talked to an RS who has been in the district over 30 years. I asked him if he was over his 28 student on his caseload, and he said he was. I asked him why he did not file a grievance, and he did not answer so I did not pursue it.
As a bilingual resource specialist, if the CELDT scores are low, I have to legally test in Spanish and English if the child speaks Spanish at home. At times, I only have to do Spanish testing, if the child does not understand anything in English, but I at least try something in English to prove it on my report; however, for most student who have a suspected learning disability, I am able to test them in both languages. (I do not get paid anymore for doing the testing in both languages and I have a teaching credential in Spanish. They don’t even pay any more for my master’s degree, but our superintendent makes more than any superintendent in the Bay Area, while we make less than any teachers in the Bay Area.) What justice!
As you know, it takes away from the children we work with when we have to do English testing and Spanish testing too. We are told what tests to give. We can either give tests from the Woodcock Munoz, (Spanish testing), the Brigance Revised, the Woodcock Johnson or the Wide Range Achievement Test 3. We are supposed to give a certain amount of tests and the district has told us what to give in each test booklet. In English, I have to give the same kinds of subtests, in two different test books. While a resource specialist who does not speak Spanish, must give testing from two sets of books, I have to give testing from three books.
I have an Instructional Assistant, thank God, but each time I test a child I am taken away from my other students. We were told we could not write Prior Written Notices, to say that we are not going to test a child, and this leaves many children to test. Certain teachers tell parents how to write letters for testing, although they will not admit to it, and the process keeps rolling on. I did file a grievance three years ago, and immediately, I got the help that I asked for when I wrote to my program specialist and the head of special education programs and nothing originally occurred. With a grievance, things magically happen. This year, we had approximately 12 students to test before school ended. (They are going to send a team to do some of these tests during the summer.) Although I had finished all my 28 student’s IEP’s, their initials, annuals and tri’s, I was still working on testing students for initials, in the last 2 weeks of school, coordinating the meetings, etc. Three years ago, when we filed the grievance, my union representative said we can also file for you having to do initial IEP’s beyond your 28 students that you have to work with. He said this will be a test case for that all the administrators to see throughout the state. We did file 3 grievances, and the final one went to the superintendent, who naturally took the side of the special education coordinator. Then, we voted and got a new president in our union and nothing came out of my grievances, except, after me testing beyond my 28th, they would send someone to work with the child. I felt abandoned, on the Titanic. (I don’t blame the vice president of the union, he is wonderful and caring.) It’s just that when you get a new head honcho, like our new president, I guess she can do what she wants. Out of my grievance, I got also some help beyond the 11 IEP’s I had agreed to do, beyond my 28. (I had already done the testing on these children so I decided to do the reports.) What I did not get help for, was testing children beyond the 28 students that we need to do now.
In any event, I still support unions, 100%, although I felt I got the royal shaft. Can you imagine now, anyone filing grievances if Duncan gets his way and tenure/seniority are no more? People are going to be afraid to stand up for what is right. If I am wrong, at least, many will not file grievances anymore and certainly, a lot less for the RS who I talked to this year that had more than 28 students.
Honestly, Ray, I can’t even fathom teaching without the teachers’ union and the right to file grievances. As I’ve said before, you don’t need your teachers’ union until you need it. I’ve been blessed with wonderful principals (who cared about the teachers) up until this school year. My husband, who was in administration 24 of his 31 years, said that unions are in place to combat the evil I experienced this year. When power is placed in evil hands, the incompetent administrators are ruthless. They do unfair things to teachers because they can.
Without teachers’ unions and due process, we will not recognize our schools. No teacher will be able to reach retirement. The older teachers will be terminated at about the 14th or 15th year of teaching, if they can even make it that far. Schools will become a revolving door. Honestly, I think if teachers have to teach without a union and due process rights, you will see the career educator fade away. My husband reminds me to be grateful because he thinks I am in one of the last groups of teachers to make it to retirement.
The greed of the testing companies and charter schools that we are seeing is unbelievable. It shows that the rich politicians truly despise teachers in public schools. They are willing to give millions of dollars to so called schools who are under no regulations at all. The ed-tech industry is poised to make billions of dollars off of the Common core. In order to have a market, they have to test our poor kids to death and evaluate the teachers with overloads of paperwork. It is all painful to watch. It is very hard today to be a student and teacher in the public schools.
I honestly do not know if public schools and the profession of teaching can survive this war of greed and hatred. Only time will tell. Educators have to continue to “fight the fight” and stand up for what we believe is right. At the end of the day, we will know we did all we could do. Thank you, Ray, for all of your wonderful posts. Diane’s blog helps all of us cope with a profession which has gone bad.
Sad Teacher: “My husband was a wonderful principal, always supporting his teachers. He retired 4 years ago as a Director of Instruction over a very large school district. He cannot believe the toxic changes in education in just the past 4 years. He is grateful that he does not have to deal with the horrible changes, ”
Please thank your husband for all the students he helped ; my first principal survived the Battle of the Bulge and I always attribute to him the ability to sort out priorities. If it had not been for him I never would have stayed in classroom teaching for 10years. And, your husband is correct, I would hate to be entering the teaching field at this horrendous time.
Jean, You are so right…I wouldn’t want to be entering the profession of teaching right now either. I am so tired of hearing the workshop presenters say, “The young teachers do not know any differently. They are used to all of this paperwork and testing….”
We both know that these young teachers will get tired of all this silly paperwork and all of the endless testing too. They will also get tired of a small paycheck which never gets bigger – and they spent most of the weekend in their classrooms. We all know that Monday morning feeling when you were in your classroom late Sunday evening. These young teachers will also get tired of feeling the threat of firing every three years. We were all young once, and young people like nice things too. I honestly don’t think a lot of the young teachers will stay and put up with these poor working conditions. Thanks, Jean..(: Happy 4th! (:
Dear Sad Teacher: “My students would groan as they saw me taking out yet another pretest in which I would have to record pretest scores over and over again on a Google Doc”
the image that comes to my mind is Nurse Ratchet when she would come into view on the “Cuckoo’s Nest” and I see her with an enema bag in hand or a needle or strait jacket …. Are we living in a time of “the cuckoo’s nest”? I would hate to be entering the teaching field today. When we would approach a student with a WISC test or special education test the teacher was told to invite the student “we are going to play some games” if the student was special needs or very young….. I am questioning that now with the extremes that have been prompting me ; and I am trying to look at Nurse Ratchet as a way of moderating my anger at what is being done to the students and the teachers on a career path.
Jean, I LOVED your analogy. You are so right. I found myself apologizing over and over again to my kids this year as I administered those silly pretests over and over and over…and then I would have to give posttests over and over and over again. Our students are in misery, and we teachers love our kids – and it is so painful to watch. Our curriculum is the test, no matter what they say —-but, the PARCC assessments next year will be the straw that breaks the camel’s back.
I am very laid back, but I get FURIOUS when I think that these rich, evil men behind all of this – their children do not have to suffer taking tests over and over again. I am sure they have a rich curriculum all in place for them, so that they can succeed – – -and go on to a fully paid for college education. Oh my, I can’t get started. I get so MAD…..and I am a very calm, easy going person..It’s all so sad…..Thank you, Jean, for your post….(:
Sad Teacher: I fully understand what you are saying… the instructions said “tell the child we will be playing some games” and it was an IQ test that could be very high stakes for his future.
I loved one little 2nd boy who responded to a math achievement test : “But, Mrs O’connor you just said to do it you didn’t say to do it right.”
I still love his response. I have had students refuse the tests (one boy in 2nd grade; that is early for his response ). The Boston Children’s Hospital draws an inference that students in 5th grade are showing up with responses because they had the tests in 4th grade and didn’t do well either they (a) lost their courage/interest (b) or, the teachers knew the poor scores form 4th grade and that created another kind of difficulty for them or (c) other implications/inferences.
Jean, I LOVED your analogy. You are so right. I found myself apologizing over and over again to my kids this year as I administered those silly pretests over and over and over…and then I would have to give posttests over and over and over again.
jeanhaverhill@aol.com
Around 1998, I had three sisters from Mexico who just came to the United States and were in bilingual classes. The regular education teachers felt strongly that they had a learning disability and we tested them and all three of these wonderful, sweet sisters got into special education. One sister was in the second grade, the other in third grade and the final sister was in fifth grade. They tried so hard and they were never a problem. In fact, they really had a drive to learn. By the end of the year I was filling out the paper work to put two of them in a special education class. The younger one, I felt that I wanted to give her more time, before I made that decision and she was doing better. The fifth grader, had lots of problems with math. I had to start with subtraction of one digit minus one digit subtraction and then two digit minus one digit subtraction and then I also started with regrouping after she finally got this. I tried different methods to show her how to do this, with number lines, counting objects, and even games that I had. Finally, after a year of teaching spelling, writing, reading and math, she finally could do 3 digit minus 3 digit subtraction with and without regrouping. (I always spoke in her native language to help her with math concepts.) In fact, in almost the one year that I had the fifth grader, she got faster than all my other students at 3 digit minus 3 digit subtraction, and I was so proud of her! When the Easter vacation came, she came back and forgot how to do it all. I had to start all over again with her and then, just before school got out, they moved to another county.
We never give up on our special education children and it has been our destiny in helping children that need extra help. I just started all over again with this fifth grade student in math concepts that she struggled with.
I asked the three sisters why dad did not come down when I made an appointment to see him three times, and one of the sisters said that her dad said he was afraid of teachers because he got hit all the time by his teachers, in Mexico, and did not want to see me. (In Mexico, apparently hitting students was allowed, but it is no longer allowed, thank God!)
I then made an appointment to see the father and mother at their apartment.
The point I want to make, is that many children in special education, have parents that were or should have been in special education, and these wonderful children learn differently. These children are like precious diamonds that we need to take care of and help at their own speed and ability. We went into special education because we all see this and we all work to bring the children up to the level that they can and will attain.
Duncan and Obama want this “race to the top” where 100% of the children will attain equally just like all regular education children. Although some can, and certainly do, others cannot. Some struggle with learning our language and have to learn so many other concepts in English. Obama and Duncan want to put all the children in one box and this is not possible. All special education teachers want the best for our children and we work assiduously to obtain it; however, now we could lose our future, our positions that we love so much, if these children, these diamonds in the rough, that come to us do not pass these SBAC/ Common Core standards every year.
These children will lose more without experienced special education teachers to help them. All I can say is that Obama and Duncan are heartless in trying to break the backs of teachers and special needs children!
USDE has set aside 50 million for “intervention” with the states they deem “needing assistance.” This looks like additional funds; but if they use the same “TURN AROUND” as a change model, you can expect more of the same wrong-headed policies to be foisted on the states.
quote:
IES Announces New FY 2014 Education Research and Development Centers
The Institute of Education Sciences and the National Center for Education Research awarded two new grants under the Education Research and Development Centers competition (CFDA 84.305C). The Institute of Education Sciences invited applications in two topic areas: (1) Developmental Education Assessment and Instruction, and (2) Knowledge Utilization. Total spending for these awards over five years is approximately $15 million.”
also let these people know of your views
write letters; make phone calls
Office of Special Education and Rehab:
OSEP Organization Chart
Office of the Director
Melody Musgrove
Director
202-245-7459
Ruth Ryder
Deputy Director
202-245-7459
Dear Jean and Sad Teacher,
I think that Jean is a real trooper having at one point to taught without a union and having to get “merit pay”, which I call “piece meal pay” or as the “big shots” who want to implement it, “turn against each other pay”. I really admire you Jean that you worked in this crazy situation, until you got a union. (The teachers were unified to know the non-sense of this route. (See, if they push us enough, we get very unionized!)
There is an article on the internet now, from the NEA about merit pay. It starts out saying do you think you are a good teacher? It says how do you define success? It goes on to say are you experienced, or well-prepared or Board-certified? Then it goes on to say you must be an excellent teacher, or maybe.. At this point, a great teacher can be to the Duncan’s of this world a pay equation.
I feel this piece meal pay will become teaching only to the test and no wonderful music, art, or social studies. Already, many schools have eliminated, in California I understand, the wonderful things that inspire students and keep them going. Many schools have eliminated all but reading and math and now writing for the Common Core.
My district, a few years ago, gave “bonuses” to the teachers that were bringing the scores up on the NCLB. I think that it was five hundred dollars if I am correct. Guess who got it? Not the teachers that work with students who are second language learners but the children in the hill schools, the schools with the professional parents that look down on the flat lands and see beautiful skylight at night. ( I did not get it as I worked in the flat lands.) I am glad for the teachers that can get paid a “bonus” but this is disillusioning for the hard working teachers in the flat lands. This was not “merit pay”, but a “bonus” that sure felt, to me, like a one-time merit pay. There is no collaboration with merit pay. It dulls the curriculum and can divide the work force. We all know, as teachers, one year you can have really a great class that absorbs everything in regular education and the next year teachers can have a class that just needs more help. The later is always the case in the special education classes. So one year, a regular education teacher can be the star in the principal’s eye and the next year he or she can be bounced. (It is even more difficult for our special education students.) This can hurt the very students that the Obama’s of this world say they want to help. Teachers can decide they do not want to work in a school that has English learners. If you have to feed your family, a teacher who loves teaching the sweet children that need so much more help to learn English, may suffer so much. Merit pay is a horrible idea! And then there is what happened to Jean. Her principal said the men are the bread winners and the women did not need the pay. What an insult to the women! This just goes to show that merit pay is devious and can be used in many ways to get rid of teachers. Dear Sad Teacher’s husband, who was an administrator so long, was one of the good administrators like we used to have. I have had almost all great principals, but with the pressures that they have now, it might be hard to be a kind principal when they also have to feed their children at home. The next few years will be tough for teachers and administrators. Keep the faith! Teachers united can be a powerful force and I think they will come together on what Duncan and Obama wants to do to us. They want to destroy our unions but we can keep the pressure on them. If there is a march to our state capitols, I will be there to help the teachers even though I just retired! We are all brothers and sisters and if one teacher bleeds, we all bleed! We will help all students!
Ray, I enjoy your posts so much. Yes, we must always stick together and not give up! My husband was a wonderful principal, always supporting his teachers. He retired 4 years ago as a Director of Instruction over a very large school district. He cannot believe the toxic changes in education in just the past 4 years. He is grateful that he does not have to deal with the horrible changes, and he is shocked how Obama, Duncan, and Gates are trying to de-professionalize our career of teaching. In his career he was very proud to shake hands with President Clinton and our past Ohio governor, Governor Strickland.
I don’t think merit pay will work either. Honestly, I think the higher-ups would manipulate variables so that a given teacher would not get the bonuses. It would be so easy to manipulate class lists and give some teacher easier work loads. Also, I agree that merit pay would take away the benefit of teachers working together and sharing ideas. That is so sad that merit pay was withheld from you when you worked so hard. We give our souls to our professions. Even though my teaching years were not easy, I am so grateful that I got a lot of good years in before we were so micromanaged and controlled in every aspect. We are now told WHAT and HOW we will teach our students. They now want our kids and teachers to be robots, following a script like we have no sense of our own. It has all gotten crazy. I enjoy reading your posts, Ray…We are so blessed to have Diane’s blog. She has helped me cope with a career that has gone bad! Happy 4th to you! (:
yes, JCG. “My response focuses on the damage to the legal protections & decision making guaranteed by the IEP team.”
I called the OSEP today because in the handouts on the policy they used the statement: “disrupt the assumptions of the IEP teams” and that is
their plan…. more of the “slash and burn” and destroy what we have in place
and then activate the “Sig turnaround” to close schools and fire principals and teachers.
Same old routine. I think I will call it Sig Heil… (but I don’t want to exaggerate a lot, only a little???)
Office of the Director
Melody Musgrove
Director
202-245-7459
this is the one with the powerpoint “disrupt the assumtions of IEP teams” ….
this is the response you get from the politicians:
quote: “Secretary Duncan and Congressman George Miller, the highest ranking Democrat on the Committee, served a dose of reality noting that under the current budget austerity measures Congress has in place, increases for IDEA … would have to come from other programs, “robbing Peter to pay Paul…..Congressman Paul Ryan, Chairman of the House Budget Committee, has a proposal that would eliminate $5.1 Trillion over ten years in programs he deems as “wasteful and duplicative” [and] according to Secretary Duncan, this would mean a $1.7 billion cut to IDEA. ”
call your senators; call your reps
They compound the standards, take funds away, fire the teachers and principals…. who will be left to take care of students?