Readers,
I posted a blog a few minutes ago called “Reformers vs. Democracy.”
It says that the current corporate reformers push their reforms through without listening to parents, educators or the public. They consider the democratic process to be a nuisance that slows them down. They like to say, “We can’t wait,” and “Children have only one chance so we must act right now.” Then they proceed to ram through whatever they want without public consultation. Vouchers. Charters. Evaluation of teachers by test scores. Ending collective bargaining. Removing any due process rights for teachers. And so on.
I invited readers to submit their own state’s experience. Right now, I have Idaho and South Dakota. Please send in your comments about your state and I will add them too. Be brief.
Diane
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Here in California we have ‘Parent Revolution’ trying to ram their agenda. Parent Revolution dupes parents into signing petitions the ultimate result being parents are left out of the process and corporate charter organization strike it green.
Urban districts in Michigan are being corporatized (vouchers, parent trigger, charters, dissolving contracts, virtual, TFA….) under emergency managers appointed by Gov. Snyder. Flint, Muskegon, Detroit, Highland Park, Ecorse…
Your comments apply to Louisiana too, which has just had these “reforms” railroaded through our state legislature in record time. Our governor said the same things: “We must act now!”. And the legislature did exactly that.
In my state, Pennsylvania, we have a Governor who is deliberately underfunding true public education while actively seeking to privatize education using Charter managers and vouchers. In my district, Philadelphia, things are even worse: ten years of State Control through a ‘School Reform Commission’ have left with a horrible budget crisis and ‘solutions’ that only make the problem worse. They are cutting us to the bone marrow and then decrying our ‘failure’ with the poorest children in our city. They are closing or turning over neighborhood school that serve as refuges in the community to charter companies. Companies that exist to make money for CEOs and ‘counsel’ the neediest at every turn. Sixty million dollar district buildings are given free to millionaires (Kenny Gamble’s Universal Company), major charter operators (Mastery) are allowed to say educating Special Ed students is ‘too expensive’ and get monetary help from a broke district. All this is done without votes or transparency!
http://thenotebook.org/blog/124936/district-mastery-reach-agreement-serving-disabled-students-clymer-elementary
http://thenotebook.org/blog/124911/district-price-tag-audenried-and-vare-year-18-million
I live in Ohio. Our governor’s first action in office was to ram through legislation to take away my collective bargaining rights. He is trying to privatize education to put money into the pockets of his charter school pals. He thinks experience is not an asset and that teachers do not deserve pensions or insurance. It is the educational dark ages here.
New Jersey, Governor Chris Christie, Acting Education Commission Cerf, Pearson, need I say more?
You are absolutely correct. In addition we have charters which have been giving as “gifts” to political supporters; people coming for outside the state reviewing our charter applications; are now dealing with “tenure reform” issues and stealth changes in our charter legislation which could allow “for profits” and virtual charters to operate in this state.
Ohio. Vouchers, 99% of which go to religious schools, reduced oversight for charters, John Kasich and frank jackson and their Cleveland plan….it’s like they’re all working from the same boilerplate legislation…
Of course they are. It all comes from those wondeful people who gave us the stand your ground laws–The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) deserves all the credit for your legislation as well as that in Louisiana and elsewhere. A list of model legislation from which your capitalist education reform bills are draw can be found on line. Ganett papers in Louisiana (Monroe News Start, Shreveport Times, et al) published an analysis June 10.
Vermont dropped its pursuit of a waiver for NCLB when they learned that it did not release them from the strictures of the act. Silly us for thinking a waiver is a waiver!
Add Indiana to your list. In the past year, teachers have become the “bad guys” and the reformers are riding their white horses to rescue the children!! So sad that they want to turn education into a numbers game!
In North Carolina, the Republican dominated legislature lifted the cap on charter schools, provided a fast track approval process, and created a new certification board stocked with corporate cronies and charter school proponents. Now communities like mine, Chapel Hill, that love their neighborhood schools are having new charters, many of them run by for profit franchises, rammed down our throats with state approval and backing.
Virginia. A new teacher evaluation system goes into place in July in spite of the fact that few administrators have been properly trained as of yet or that even fewer teachers even understand the system by which they will be evaluated starting in August. 40% of their evaluation will be based on a student growth model that is abstract and convoluted and based on tests never intended to measure student growth…and let’s not forget that only 30% of our teachers give any kind of test that can even be used.( No one is sure what will be done about the remaining 70% of teachers just yet.) The timeline for implementation offered by the US DOE is being ignored for the sake of political expediency, and while the Virginia Education Association managed to effectively kill legislation that would eliminate due process and continuing contract status for any new teacher hired in Virginia starting next year, legislators and the Governor seem confident that they can ram the bill through in the next General Assembly session–ultimately destroying any incentive for a young, eager, intelligent teacher to want to come to Virginia to teach for the long haul. ALEC has spawned much of the legislation passed in recent years including a recent tax credit/voucher bill based on Florida’s model. For the first time since massive resistance in Virginia, public funds will go to private school tuition. And the list goes on….Kitty Boitnott, President, Virginia Education Association
Kitty, our wonderful Governor here in Wisconsin just purchased one year of the PALS test from your state to beat my kid over the head with along with all the other kindergarten kids this fall for a cool $800,000. Do you know anything about the PALS test since your state is its birthplace?
Here is Washington state, we have voted down charters three times and yet they are likely to be on the ballot in the fall. The initiative has every single thing you can think of – conversion schools with trigger (but ours is teachers OR parents), access to levy money, for-profit management/operations of schools, creation of a state charter commission, etc.
Not going to happen on our watch (Seattle Schools Community Forum blog). We also have minimal TFA in our region as we have a plethora of full-qualified/experienced but unemployed teachers who hey, our districts would rather hire than 5-weeks trained college grads.
We believe if we can stand our ground against ed reform as we have done so far, we will look like the smart state in a couple of years.
Also in Washington State. Towards the end of our most recent legislative session, a couple of education reform bills passed. One takes away the rights of teacher unions to bargain for their health care. Another bill changes the way Washington teachers will be evaluated. School districts must evaluate teachers using one of four different frameworks stipulated by the state. Also, I think student growth measures (i.e. test scores) must also now be part of a teacher’s evaluation. I believe teacher evaluations and student growth measures will play a part in layoffs, devaluing teacher seniority. All this legislation is at the stage in which the law is being transferred to policy language that must be followed so we will see how it all comes out soon. Out last legislative session was crazy, with bills being dropped at the last minute and legislators voting on bills they hadn’t even read and I don’t think we will really know what happened for a couple of months, but I fear it’s not good news for teachers and kids.
Billionaire Bruce Rauner invited Jonah Edelman and his PAC Stand for Children to Illinois once Emanuel announced his candidacy for mayor in fall 2010. SfC hired 11 lobbyists and a pr firm to keep IL SB7 out of the media. It worked; teachers and parents were in the dark. IL SB7 passed quickly with one nay vote, thanks to State Rep Monique D. Davis. It took away Chicago teachers’ seniority and tenure; made it very difficult to call a strike in an effort to gut collective bargaining rights; and cut the issues the CTU may negotiate with CPS down to wages and, perhaps, numbers of teachers. It’s all recorded on the Jonah Edelman, Jim Crowne Aspen Ideas video.
Btw, Marjorie Scaduto, CEO of Pearson, now leads the Board of Directors for Chicago’s MacArthur Foundation.
New York State is also cramming this craziness down our throats!
Massachusetts is considering an end to seniority rights, and the initiative is being lead to by Stand for Children. SFC claims putting an end to seniority and collective bargaining will guarantee a good teacher in every classroom. What it will do is allow urban districts such as Boston to get rid of more experienced teachers (who cost more to employ) when they are in a budget crisis, and replace them with cheaper teachers.
Hi, Andrew. We could defeat the ballot initiative, i think, but we won’t get that chance. Paul Toner, president of the Massachusetts Teachers Association, is also a Fellow of the Aspen Institute’s Teacher Leaders Program!
http://bellwethereducation.org/aspen-teacher-leader-fellows-2012/
He’s been meeting secretly with Edelman’s Stand for Children, and has reached an agreement with them to save us from the petition by preemptively caving in.
I live in VT but teach in Northfield MA. I had no knowledge of Toner’s standing. That’s deplorable!!!!!!
In Tennessee, our local Director of Schools was chosed by the Chamber of Commerce and the Board of Education pays him $240,000.00 per year. Michelle Rhee’s ex husband is our State Commissioner of Education. Collective bargaining is no longer allowed for teachers. It was replaced with “Collaborative Conferencing,” in which the Director of schools has the authority to do whatever he likes.
Jennifer are you familiar with Richard Allington from the University of Tenn? He’s a reading guru there.
Lets not leave out the new teacher evaluation system implemented here in Tennessee. It’s the biggest bunch of crap ever. It’s extremely subjective. It gives administrators to fire tenured teachers in just two year. It is not being followed consistently throughout the state, some districts want to look good so they give only 4’s and 5’s while others follow it very strictly and only give 2’s and occasionally 3’s. In addition to that Principals have been told they must shred the notes they took during the observation. It will widely subjective and not transparent at all. It’s very scary in my opinion. With teacher’s unions having less power and giving administration more power, we will have less people going into teaching and the quality of education is decline for sure.
I also have experience with New York State. Student test scores will now count as 40% of a teacher evaluation, and the remaining 60% will include others things such as classroom management etc., but if the students produce poor test results, then the teacher will rated ineffective even if he or she scores top points in other areas on the evaluation.
This method of evaluation is so mind-numbingly ridiculous that some of my colleagues refused to believe it was true when I tried to explain it to them. It defies logic!
Ohio is beginning the same idiotic system this coming school year, only 50 percent of our evaluation will be based on student test scores. I hope none of my students have an ear infection, are hungry,had their grammy put in the hospital or their dog run away because my future would be at risk. Does anyone see how absurd this is?
Diane asked us to be brief. I failed. Hawaii is right behind you in the testing and “effectiveness” VAM isssues. We’re at the start of it all as the governor is fighting w/ the teachers’ union so that the tracks are cleared for the same super-funded groups and privateers that are steaming through all the other states. I centered on this current fight even though I can see a good glimpse of the whole picture as the brave new world of educational austerity continues.
Add to that the fact that if you are rated ineffective TWICE, you are done – finished-kaput as a teacher in NY.
NY State also now demands testing of every child in every subject (well, core subjects) at least twice a year to figure out a Value Added (VAM) score for teachers who don’t have a State Test in their grade. For those who do (grades 4 – 8 in ELA and Math) the VAM is figured for the teacher by some unknown and apparently magical formula by SED.
In MAINE, we have a Governor, Paul LePage (yes, the one who ordered the removal of a “Labor Mural” from public viewing because it wasn’t “business-friendly” as well as telling President Obama to “go to hell”) who is anti-public school and anti- teachers. Both he and his Education Commissioner, Steve Bowen, are right-wing zealots who take their marching orders from the Maine Heritage Policy Center, an ultra right wing conservative think tank. Almost all of LePage’s policies within “education” are clearly designed to privatize public education.
Colorado generally, Denver Public Schools specifically.
Innovation Act to eliminate worker protections
Teacher Effectiveness Act for teacher evaluations, using standardized tests as 50% of evaluation
In Michigan and just this week, John Covington, Chancellor of Michigan’s Education Achievement Authority (EAA), a new statewide school system designed to dramatically redesign public education in Michigan’s lowest performing schools, is asking for flexibility in how they assess kids on the MEAP (state) test in the Detroit charters. He would like to test kids on their current instructional level, not on their current grade level. In other words, he would like 8th graders reading at a 4th grade level to take the 4th grade MEAP. He is seeking waivers from the state and feds to put this into practice.
Vermont is one of the only states in the country that refuses to get on the bandwagon for corporate ed. reform. The state has a law against charter schools and they refused Race to the top funds. Vermont did try to get a NCLB waiver, but was rejected by Sec. Duncan because their proposal did not include tying student test scores to teacher evaluations or charter schools. Their proposal did include focusing more on creativity, a rich curriculum, and less on testing, but I guess that was not good enough. I’m getting certification in both Mass. and NY, but I may consider going to teach in Vermont. Burlington is beginning to focus more on equity and creating a system similar to what they have in Finland. If it is successful, then maybe people will begin to pay more attention to what actually works.
Please sign this petition to get rid of Arne Duncan: http://dumpduncan.org/
Andrew thanks for confirming that. Wisconsin was in a similar situation but our tea party ultra conservative stand up to the special interest rock star Governor Scott Walker jumped when Arne said jump and told our state supt. to make the necessary changes to comply. He’s such a rebel that Walker is. This is the same tea party guy who implemented phase one of obamacare and accepted federal mortage bailout funds but used a sizable chunk of it to plug budget holes. Everyone is talking about Obama not having more of a presence in the recall election here. I ask, “why would he? Scott Walker is proving to be a nice ally to Obama in carrying out his policies.” Anyway I posted quite a bit more about his Education reform law in this string and I referneced your state. Thanks for the affirmation.
jim
Pennsylvania, and particularly Philadelphia are violating Sunshine laws and the Democratic process by handing school over to privatizers, giving sweet real estate deals to those privatizers and discounting real grass-roots protest with patronizing comments and treatment.
Georgia has recently changed the approval process for charter schools making it much easier and no longer requires local school council approval, tax deductions for private school tuition ‘scholarships’ that were supposed to be used for allowing ‘choice for public school students who left to go into private school.. This tax break is such a hit with private schools that they even create how to’s for the parents to remind them to register for public school, pull the kids out and enroll them in the private school so that they can claim the deduction. Teacher Value Added test score assessments are being introduced in school districts across the state as well as student surveys that were posted here already.ALEC has most of the powers that be wrapped up here as almost everyone with school aged children in a politically powerful position has their kids in private school. Gulen backed charter Fulton Science academy recently hit the NYTimes for defaulting on construction loans after financial misdirection of funds etc and Success charter is seemingly popping up with glowing ‘anecdotal’ responses in educational blogs in the surrounding area- seems the long hand of marketing since they are not currently here but are know to be looking to expand their market. Now that the legislators have said it is open season, I am sure the NYC shameful campaigning ( sigh for my old stomping grounds of Cobble Hill) will be an onslaught here.
Oh, did I mention, we have student surveys as part of teacher evaluation. It is enough to make you want bad test scores.
Also, after 10 years under Republican leadership, the public schools systems are being slowly starved to death. We have school districts cutting student days from 180 to 170 or less. There are very few districts in the state that have not furloughed teachers.
A charter school amendment will be on the Nov. ballot. After the GA Supreme Court struck down the state charter school board and reinforced the right of local BOE’s to approve charters, a legislator from Atlanta literally rammed through legislation to place the amendment on the Nov. ballot. Quite a few arms were forcibly twisted to ensure passage of the bill. The legislator happens to have strong ties to ALEC.
If the amendment is approved by the voters, charter schools stand to earn twice the amount of FTE funds as the local public school.
It will also open the door to for-profit charters.
GA is Rt3 state. New teacher evaluations are being developed and rushed to the participating districts. It should be noted that since GA is a right-to-work state, no one bothered to seek teacher input into the RT3 application. Former Gov. Perdue (R), sent a nebulous survey to several districts. Teachers who participated in the survey were never told their responses would be used to “support” teacher input for the grant. Initially, Rt3 was advertised as only affecting the districts that agreed to participate in the grant. Now we are being told the Rt3 districts are “piloting” the reforms before they are rolled out to the entire state.
As an aside, after comparing the costs of implementing the RT3 grant vs actual $’s making it to the classroom level, one school district has pulled out of RT3. Their superintendent did not feel the paperwork justified the amount of money his district would receive.
GA also received a NCLB waiver. We have become a laboratory for Duncan and other reformers to push their ideology into GA classrooms.
I use to think my small rural district was safe from the reforms. No longer am I naive enough to believe we can remain untouched.
In NY, Commissioner King and Gov. Cuomo, along with a collection of other education experts and reformers, have pushed an agenda more focused on crippling public schools and subjugating teacher unions through cumbersome (and often ppointless) data collection as a measure of worthiness-and the hoarding and misappropriation (not legally, but logically) of funds. King has long pressured districts to come to agreements to have teacher worthiness based on state test results, then had to admit that this years tests were not good. He of course should be forgiven because the system has not been fully fleshed out, and tech/data contract winners like Pearson will continue finding ways to pressure schools and fire teachers to divert more ed money to those who know little about the real art of education. Shouldn’t sound testing systems be finalized before agreements are demanded? They have revealed their agenda.
“Shouldn’t sound testing systems be finalized before agreements are demanded?” There are no such things as “sound testing systems”-which would mean standardized tests. As Noel Wilson has proven in his 1997 dissertation “Educational Standards and the Problem of Error”,* the concept of educational standards and the whole standardized testing process is so fraught with error that they are completely invalid.
*The study can be found at: http://epaa.asu.edu/ojs/article/view/577 . All teachers, administrators and anyone at all that deals with education should read and understand this study-completely logically and rationally destroys standards and standardized testing.
Oh, where to begin! Connecticut public education is under attack by a governor who claims that tenured teachers “just have to show up for four years,” and that “I’m okay with teaching to the test as long as the scores go up.” We also have an incestuous mix of plutocratic, carpetbagger “reformers” with ties to Achievement First and similar organizations, illegally appointed school boards in at least one large city, and various maladroit applications of ever-increasing standardized testing (which you have noted in a recent blog entry). Please read Jonathon Pelto’s blog for the grisly details of our situation:
http://jonathanpelto.com/
Yes, and our commissioner of education is a Yale lawyer who never taught one day in his life. He started a charter school and a charter management company. Pals with the carpet bagging reformer Vallas and NJ’s Booker…the state dept of Ed didn’t find this to be a conflict of interest. They didn’t get all they wanted in the Ed. Reform bill so now he is busy using his Yaley lawyerly skills to circumnavigate CT state law and give as much power as possible to the reformers who reformed Chicago, Philly, New Orleans and which evidently still need to be reformed.
Amistad and Achievement First were his babies….now he slowly takes over public schools, but here in CT he won’t get past the cities.
California Public Education is under attack from many sides. We send $1 to D.C. in federal tax and get 2 cents back for education. White flight, charters, homeschooling, etc. has hacked apart the system further. The referendum process wags the dog. High stakes testing and rote learning have increased the dropout rate. There are virtually no Counselors, kids are pregnant, suicidal, or attracted to gang membership. I know people in other states, I don’t want to be competitive in kvetching, but I think California is in the worst shape of all!
Ack! We now have Hanna Skandera running the educational show here in NM…need I say more?
Indiana – The state cut funding by $300 million for education. No more collective bargaining except for salary and few other things, but nothing that gives us leverage. No more discussion. Can’t take union dues out of paycheck anymore. At least 51% of evaluation needs to be data driven (ISTEP). Also in our evaluation, attendance counts – we can get docked in our evaluation for taking sick days that he have. We are using the growth model too to evaluate teachers and schools – that originated in Colorado. The model doesn’t really measure growth, and there are no baselines, so every year, 1/3 of students ranging from very low scores to very high scores on ISTEPs will be labeled low growth. Letter grades for schools. Took away our parent teacher conferences and PD days. In 2008, now all local taxes must first go through the state, and then the state can redistribute them (now our governor brags that education is the biggest expenditure of the state or the biggest education budget of any state even after they cut us, but in reality, it is only that way because in 2008 they took away our local control and now all school monies have to go through the state). REPA laws have changed – now you don’t need a teaching degree to teach. Our governor has referred to teachers as “the privileged elite.”
Victories our Union won through court cases and lobbying efforts – The DOE tried to change all our teaching contracts throughout the state so that hours could not be set – our principal could dictate when we needed to be at school, no contract hours, but a judge ruled that it was unconstitutional. Some schools used the DOE template anyway. The DOE tried to push through legislation that would make a referendum to fill the gap by state cuts illegal. That got overturned or pushed aside thanks to our union. There were other things our union fought for down state and it made a difference; these are just two examples that I could think of off the top of my head.
And what is up with that growth model a lot of states are using? Something else for Diane to look into.
Oh yes, Charter Schools and Vouchers too. What hasn’t Indiana done?
I know administrators and teachers are working together to battle the “reforms” because they do not help children!! We were successful in getting oversight committees for the state board of Ed and the IDOE…hopefully people will listen!! They are taking testimony all summer.
http://www.austinchronicle.com/blogs/news/2012-06-14/more-of-an-idea-about-idea/
Diane, you already know about all of the horrible things happening to public schools here in Texas. Click on the link above if you want to read about the new IDEA Allan charter school that is opening up here in Austin next fall. Read about how the new administration has gutted the library to make way for the new reading lab. Gross. Keep in mind that this new school will contain grades K-2 and 6. What a clever way to avoid “accountability” based on student test scores. No grades 3-5? No data. Real smart.
I have to add Florida — ALEC’s testing ground and home of the Jeb Bush and his shady foundations and think tanks.
Our governor, Rick Scott, in his first public address after the inauguration said he would gut funding for public education and end it as we know it. He later had to backtrack after maintaining an approval rating under 30% for most of his first 2 years in office.
We now have 50% of teacher evaluations tied to test score results, whether you ever actually taught the children or not, huge increase in vouchers, near-unlimited charter schools, corruption all over the place, and a majority republican legislature that are eager to prove themselves as the meanest and most draconian lawmakers in the country.
The state school board association and 10 district school boards have passed resolutions against the corrupt FCAT testing automaton that rules everything in education in the state. Scandal after scandal have barely dented FCAT but parents are starting to get angry and fed up and they are fighting back. Teachers are cowed, afraid, and unorganized as this is a “right-to-work” state.
From sunny California:
Of course you know all about the steroid reforminess happening in LAUSD. But I’m in Northern California, watching the tide creeping up the shoreline.
Yesterday, California submitted its official request for an NCLB waiver to the feds.
The press release states that “California’s request differs from those filed by other states which agree to several additional federally required policies in exchange for an ESEA waiver.” Judging by what Vermont went through, I’m not optimistic.
http://www.cde.ca.gov/nr/ne/yr12/yr12rel59.asp
You may have heard about the recent judgement finding compliance issues around the 40 year-old Stull Act, which has language requiring teacher/principal evaluation be tied to student achievement. Of course, this was from 1971, so who knows how that will be construed. We’ll see… I’m sure reformists are gleeful about it.
http://articles.latimes.com/2011/oct/31/local/la-me-teacher-evals-20111101
There’s also a lawsuit pending in Superior Court, Los Angeles (BC484642) which seeks to overturn 5 state-level job protection statutes, including tenure, seniority, and due process protections. It is mounted by an organization called Students Matter, funded by one David F. Welch, who by the sound of it, would like to be a member of the Billionaire Boys Club. The lawsuit is premised on the notion that the children being represented MIGHT be placed with a “bad teacher” due to these statutes.
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2012/05/teacher-job-protections-lawsuit.html
If you want to read the actual court documents, type the case number into the field found on this page:
http://www.lasuperiorcourt.org/civilcasesummary/index.asp
Just today I read about another bill introduced by state senator Alex Padilla, (SB1530). Sounds like a teacher-perversion prevention bill, in response to the recent abuse scandal at Miramontes Elementary School in LAUSD. Very akin to what Chancellor Walcott wrote about in the NY Times last week, making it easier to fire teachers over accusations that may or may not be true. Perdaily compared it to the shock doctrine:
http://www.perdaily.com/2012/06/ab-1530-by-alex-padilla.html
Talk about boilerplate… no kidding.
Rhode island let in Acheivement First, against strong push back by teachers and parents. Oh, and we have Deborah Gist–enough said!
In Rhode Island, all the teachers in Central Falls were fired, and a year later all the teachers in Providence were fired. Commish Gist’s PhD dissertation (defended about a month ago) was on this horrendous new evaluation plan. Principals from around the State were begging her to slow the process down because it was impossible for them, and for teachers, to get it done. In many cases, one principal was responsible for evaluating 123 teachers, complete with scripts, multiple classroom visits, and tons of paperwork on both sides. Many teachers and admins have retired because of this madness.
Last year, TN and our TfA commissioner of ed and Michelle Rhee’s ex, Kevin Huffman, rushed into use a similar teacher evaluation system purchased from the Milken Foundation (the same Michael Milken of securities fraud fame) that measures teacher competence on a 1 – 5 Likert scale, aptly named TEAM. 1-5 is the same crude metric I used to rate my hotel stay and my car dealership. Sensitive to the effects of nuanced teaching practices, it’s not. If scored according to the TEAM trainer, on 15% of all teachers will gain or keep tenure protection. 85% will be subject to firing.
Tied into the teacher’s average TEAM score is 40% VAM scores from the TCAP state assessments in reading in math. Teachers who do not teach reading and math were forced to use the VAMs of the school TCAP average or arbitrarily assigned either the school reading or math average score. Recommendations by an “independent” committee to improve the system suggested adding more tests to include all subject areas.
With the republicans well in control of all branches of government in TN, teachers here have lost their collective voices. In 2010, Ramsey with the help of ALEC ended tenure, collective bargaining, auto deductions for TEA dues, and kicked all teacher reps off of the state retirement board. Three of the largest school systems in the state have Broad trained superintendents. The day after Walker in WI survived his recall, TN’s Lt Gov Ron Ramsey announced he’d propose vouchers in the 2013 legislative session.
For profit, online teacher education is proliferating. Requirements for certification to teach are being dumbed down at the same time requirements to raise achievement are increased to levels nearly impossible. Further, state university teacher education programs are being evaluated according to their graduate’s VAM scores. Huffman posted the VAM scores on the TN website and guess which teacher ed program scored the best? Teach for America! The results were so skewed and improbable that several schools requested the raw data, only to be rebuffed, with great umbrage, by the state.
TN politicians in collusion with wealthy privatizers in both the Democratic and Republican parties are using the full force of state power to crush involvement of teachers and parents in decisions about our children’s schools. God help us all in TN.
Diane, Louisiana here. Since the tabula rasa that Katrina offered, New Orleans and now the entire state has been given reform in the way you mention—-more dictatorial than democratic. There seems to be a well organized symphony occurring across the U.S. with ALEC, TFA, DataCorp, PacificMetircs (two data companies with contracts totaling 120+ million dollars), New Teacher Project and Students First (Rhee’s two $ generating non-profits) all playing towards a crescendo where public education is a thing of the past. Additionally, our Gov. Bobby Jindal, has been mixing vindictive style politics into this whole mess by yanking any ‘nea’ votes on his ed reform legislation from committee chairmanships and vice chairmanships as recent as this week.
And don’t forget, Stand for Children has started to organize
Very true, Dawn. Stand for Children, SOS, the Coalition for Science ed., the Coalition for public ed, the list of grass roots efforts goes on and on to oppose Jindal lead reforms.
In Maryland we are in the midst of redesigning the “model for preparation, development, retention, and evaluation of teachers and principals”, due to RTTT. As well as building “a statewide technology infrastructure that links all data elements with analytic and instructional tools to monitor and promote student achievement”- this info is from the MSDE website. The new state superintendent, Dr. Lilian Lowery will be sworn in July 1st, her resume says she helped her state (Delaware) secure the first RTTT funds from DOE. She also mentions education reform as a necessary goal for success. ALSO, Ms. Kate Walsh, president of NCTQ is on the Maryland SBOE. I feel our state is poised to make some important decisions regarding our educational system- and I am watching, writing and talking about it.
I have just learned that Dr. Lowery our new Maryland state superintendent is a Broad alumni- http://www.broadcenter.org//network/profile/lillian-lowery
She graduated the Broad Academy in 2004. Maybe she forgot what they taught her. Maryland must hope so. Watch to see if she brings in lots of other Broadies. That would be a bad sign.
California. Michelle Rhee is first lady of Sacramento- need I say more? Schools are closing right and left while charter schools expand, criminal allegations show up like the recent case in Oakland, CA regarding Chavis [AIM], there are lobbyists on school boards while they represent entities like K-12 inc. Too many examples/conflicts to go into, but California must be on your list.
Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson is a “good guy”. He is trying to stem the tide of reform by asking for a waiver from the NCLB waiver. Was a longtime science teacher and track coach in Northern Cal. and I would consider a progressive. He declared a state of fiscal emergency in our public schools and would like to reduce reliance on test-based accountability. Gov. Brown also wants to reduce the crazy number of tests our children take and incorporate evaluations that consider things like “a passion for learning and love of learning.” BTW – luckily Tom beat Gloria Romero for the top ed job. She’s a big DFER fan and corporate sponsored reformer. Gov. Brown has vetoed 2 bills that he said did not go far enough in putting “quality” into the evaluation quotient.
CA. I”m not a CA resident but I read a great letter Gov. Brown wrote to correlate with his veto of an education reform bill that made it to his desk a while back. Any CA residents familiar with that? If so I’d like to hear your thoughts and if you can let us know if he is sticking to his guns or if he is caving like the rest…..well not vermont at least so far.
Dr. Ravitch,
This is the most depressing assignment I’ve ever been given. Reading these comments are equally depressing. . .
But here goes. . . In Douglas County Co, school board was bought with billionaires and ALEC. Right now, school board won’t budge in it’s negotiations with teachers on collective bargaining, etc. They are working hard to dismantle the union. Even though there is money for a pay raise, they instead are pushing a pay for performance plan. If teachers didn’t sign their contracts this Friday even though negotiations are still going, they will be fired. District won’t release a parent survey. . . said it’s invalid. . . hmmmm wonder what it says. Also, Douglas County is very affluent, but has become the capital of choice even trying to push vouchers when there is no problems in the public schools already.
HAWAII. (Pop. 1.4 million) Given Hawaii’s relatively small population compared to other states in the US and its small size geographically, one might assume that state income from tourism, development, and a large military presence (bases) would provide a good public school system. That is no longer the case. Recently, our newly elected governor, Neil Abercrombie (D), has admonished the state teachers’ union (HSTA) by not accepting a recent re-vote on a “best and final offer” he presented to the union.
Due to poor communication by HSTA to its members regarding what the vote was all about, a first vote was given a strong “No,” as teachers felt they would be giving their bargaining rights away. The union subsequently came back and told the teachers that a “No” vote would be a vote leading to re-negotiation or possible strike litigation.
A re-vote was done. The governor’s original offer (he also appoints BOE members) was accepted by a 66% margin this second time round. However, the total voting was only about 25% of those who participated in the first vote. Again, a sign of weak union communication and little solidarity or understanding on the part of the teachers.
The governor has declared the re-vote null, illegal and non-binding. And now with the ambiguity of solidarity expressed by the re-vote, he has the advantage of changing the original offer should he so choose.
Because Hawaii received a RTTT award, teachers and staff are now subject to increased evaluation, evaluation by student achievement, possible increases in high stakes testing. Also, poor performing schools (i.e., schools in lower / lowest economic status communities) have been placed in a “Zones of Innovation” status. This provides for an opening of these schools to outside scrutiny which can inevitably lead to what most all other states are facing: school closures, firing of staff, takeovers by private and / or taxpayer funded corporate charters, etc. And, statistics show that it is those schools in higher poverty communities that are prime targets by corporate take over.
Given Hawaii’s high density of well funded private and / or religious affiliated schools relative to its small population, the Obama / Duncan declared evaluation and accountability meritocracy delivered via NCLB and RTTT makes pubic schools in Hawaii ripe for privatization in the manner of other locations throughout the U.S.
As a parent with sons in public schools, I would love REAL education reform. However, ALEC, through the Jindal administration, rammed vouchers for private schools that teach children with DVD’s, lowered teacher qualification requirements – while maintaining “high expectations” of student performance, all while under the guise of parent choice though they never brought parents to the table to ask what choices they actually want.
An obvious set up for failure… what’s going to happen now to our children who already in one of the lowest performing states in the nation?
And to clarify, this is in reference to Louisiana.
Here in Ohio we have been under attack on a state and local level. We have a union busting governor who tried to take on the firefighters, police and teachers with his infamous SB5 which was put to a vote in 2011 and defeated by a large majority. Recently, the mayor of Cleveland (also in charge of schools because of legislation from a previous mayor), went on the assault of the bargaining rights of teachers and of course it was essential that his proposed legislation be pushed through in Columbus quickly for the sake of the children.
In my own smaller suburban school district, Brecksville-Broadview Heights, 3 recently voted in school board members won the election based on the premise they were going to give the voters a school district they can afford. We have earned an excellent with distinction report card with the state of Ohio 13 years! However, these school board members have been quoted(not publicly of course) that they were going to “break that union”, “that if you teach in Brecksville you should not be able to afford to live there”,”that the proposed 10percent pay cut would not affect that many families because most of the teachers are women and it is only a second income”. The school board’s proposed contract also would take away our insurance and replace it with a low level plan, decrease our prep/planning time by 50 percent and even has a clause whereby a teacher drinking an adult beverage at a restaurant, imbibes a little too much could be “reported” to the school board and be reprimanded.
Please check out link on our very public web page Brecksville-Broadview Heights schools an click on the link to “Negotiations” and read the half truths.
wow. — “that if you teach in Brecksville you should not be able to afford to live there”
and wow — ”that the proposed 10percent pay cut would not affect that many families because most of the teachers are women and it is only a second income”
Quite the elitist group aren’t they. In addition they are proposing cost cutting measures the dismantle our special ed program. Did I say that the members are 4 men and 1 woman.
http://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/20120613/NEWS/120619826
The above is an article about how a public school district
felt forced to change public schools into charter schools.
The board of trustees were not reformers nor were they following a democratic response.
They just felt cornered to follow the money. Seems wrong to me.
Arizona reporting in… AZ is a right to work state. Our Union is recognized at the table but holds no real authority. In the last three years, we have seen the status of “teacher” reduced to very nearly nothing in this state. As a transplanted New Yorker, it is a struggle to watch the politics of this state. Teachers here no longer have tenure. Our contract status is always in limbo now. Salary is being tied to test scores and evaluations which are also tied to test scores. Arizona was named a Race to the Top state in December. I was sad to see this, but not surprised. All these changes were made so that we could be serious contenders. It worked. I am a wonderful teacher. I am 50 years old and have taught for 29 years. I work with student teachers every year, and mentor beginning teachers in my district. My biggest issue is the Corporate push for privitizing public education. We absolutely need change. I am also a parent with kids in public school. Attaching a link which has good info on what has gone on in AZ. http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/2009/11/23/20091123edcontracts1123.html
It’s tough being a teacher in Louisiana. Public funds for education have been cut while private and charter schools are getting all the funding. Increased pressure on public schools via test scores continues while private schools receive vouchers with no way of knowing if they really provide a better education. Teachers are being evaluated using COMPASS and no one really knows how those scores are computed.
To top it all off, we have a Supt. of Education who has no concern for improving failing schools, offers no solutions except moving the students to other schools, and is a lap dog for a Governor who runs the state like a fascist dictator.
Dear Diane,
Since Michelle Rhee and ALEC came to Michigan with the purpose of influencing our legislators, the following legislation has been passed under the guise of ‘student choice’ and ‘keeping effective teachers in the classroom’: (1) no seniority, reduced tenure rights and removal of ‘just cause’ in the case of dismissal – teachers can be fired for any reason; (2) evaluation based on student achievement and a subjective number system that is demoralizing to teachers; (3) no retiree health benefits for new hires (THIS will attract the brightest and best to the profession?!) (4) cap lifted on charter schools with little accountability to the taxpayer; (5) increase in the number of cyber schools with no regard for quality and very few safeguards for students and taxpayers; (6) Emergency Managers can now swoop in and take over struggling communities and school districts, removing elected officials. Legislation in the works is the ALEC parent trigger act, reducing graduation requirements, reducing teacher pensions, and eliminating certain requirements for teacher certification (paving the way for the Teach For Awhiles). In addition, our legislature cut business taxes and took millions from the School Aid Fund – another attempt to choke off funds to our community schools so that they will be forced to close. All of this, and the majority of teachers and parents remain either ignorant or apathetic.
This is a pretty good list. Let me expand a bit: as with much of the country, we had a huge wave of victories by “tea party” backed candidates in the 2010 election cycle, where anti-government folks consolidated control in the state Senate and took back control of the state House. They started by embracing the new governor’s priority for a business tax cut, giving up to $1.7 billion in tax reductions to business but effectively raising taxes on lower income families and removing about $1 billion in funding from education at all levels. (School operating funding is centralized in Michigan, and is determined each year by the legislature.) Schools now face this dramatically reduced funding level as the “new normal,” and funding for next year does not even keep up with inflation.
Against this backdrop, what we have here is a strange alliance of so-called “reformers” with local reactionaries who campaigned on the promise to “downsize government” and in particular to “get government out of our schools.” Last summer, a package of bills that was designed to “reform” teacher tenure by eliminating seniority and making tenure nearly meaningless was rammed through the legislature with considerable help from Students First (which spent some $1 million in media buys to secure key Senate votes). Added to the bills at the last minute and never discussed in committee was a huge new teacher evaluation outline. While there is still discussion about what model will become the mandatory state evaluation “tool,” already in law are requirements that at least 50% of a teacher’s evaluation must be based on value added measures using “objective measures of student growth” (i.e. test scores). Other factors must be included, but there is no minimum weight for anything other than test scores.
Bills were introduced, and passed, that removed most caps from the number of charter schools in the state and effectively removed numerical and enrollment caps from fully online “cyber” charters. Most Michigan charters (70-80%) are managed by for-profit management companies, and amendments to require non-profit EMOs were uniformly defeated. Many of the for-profit charter managers here were formed with both ideological and religious motives, to layer on top of the financial interest.
Most recently, a “parent-trigger” bill came back to life after languishing in the Senate for several months, and a spate of bills have been introduced that would water-down the state graduation requirements because they are too “college-prep” in focus.
While ideas from ALEC and national lobbying groups have played a role and provided a lot of money, much of this legislation was a product of state politics and a huge ideological shift here. It remains to be seen what will happen in the next cycle.
Hi, Diane ~
Thank you for your great question!
I live in Washington State near Seattle, otherwise known as Gates’ Town USA. I teach in a high poverty Title I public school.
Voters have successfully defeated Gates’ AstroTurf and ALEC funded legislation to promote charter schools in 3 different elections. However, they continue to try to beat voters down and recently http://www.diffen.com/difference/Category:Politicsconvinced our State PTA to promote legislation that would allow charter schools here for the first time.
One of the reasons we have been so successful in fighting back charter schools is: Washington State has over 500 TRUE “innovative public schools” – no voucher programs and FAKE “public charters”, but REAL public charters without lotteries, selection, or culling of students by race, class, or ability like most charter schools across the country do.
Seattle’s Parents Across America and teachers won big when we got the Broad former Superintendent Maria Goodloe-Johnson fired. (Unfortunately, Broadie Goodloe-Johnson has moved on to do more edDeFormer work in Michigan.)
Seattle’s School District lost a battle in keeping Teach For America out of Seattle School District after Goodloe-Johnson’s replacement, Dr. Susan Enfield and others backing them let the camel’s nose of TFA under the tent.
Now something smells rotten in Renton after a week ago when the district sent out a press release saying they would NOT contract with TFA, but now this week a new press release stating the opposite on the DAY of the school board meeting, leaving Renton Education Association and parents with their hands tied.
Will teachers and Parents Across America learn to work together to fight back charter schools and Teach For America this time, before it’s too late?
We have a huge gubernatorial race in front of us that the whole nation will be watching, one that will have HUGE implications for education. GOP Rob McKenna is backed by Karl Rove, for one. Democrat Jay Inslee is running behind in his campaign funding.
Washington voters proved recently they could be bought by Costco’s big $22 million investment in liquor privatization. Will Washington unions organize in time or will we be the next Wisconsin?
And I also must mention the increase in the number of standardized tests our students are being subjected to…..in order to evaluate teachers. I was actually at a meeting where an administrator stated that ‘we need one more measure for our teacher evaluation tool’ (in addition to the three or four we already have in place). She didn’t even try to make it sound like it was ‘for the student’. Also, there was talk of not subjecting our students to the MEAP (Michigan’s standardized test) next year, but……Michigan is under contract to Measurement, Inc. to the tune of $68 million. But it’s all about the kids, right?
Wisconsin. No more collective bargaining. A line in WI Act 10 that specifically states “No local agency or school board shall enter into any collective bargaining agreement…” So much for local control. After that was passed, Gov Walker easily passed with bipartisan support sb461 which is now WI Act 166 titled “Read to Lead” which makes 50% of teacher evaluation based on test scores, mandates the PALS test out of U of VA to every Kindergarten student in the fall for a cost to the taxpayers here $780,000 with the intent of carrying it up through 3rd grade with an ongoing exploration of public private partnership funding options. If funds are available also PreK. Test will be minimum twice per year and mid year optional. In the bill $400,000 is allocated to Gov. Walker to award in grants as he sees fit with no oversight to (this is the best part) “any agency or organization other than a school board.” (this stuff is impossible to make up) This week the State of WI signed a contract with the people from VA licensed to subcontract the rights of the test to us here. I obtained a copy of the contract and in it the VA folks are given access to our kids’ “education records” and the VA group (defined as a government agency btw) is defined as a “School Official” under FERPA laws. Later in the contract the VA agency is required to do background checks in accordance with federal and state law but explicitly states that the VA agency will not provide those records to the state of WI. So, they have access to my kid’s records(without my permission) but I don’t get theirs. Sounds fair. Read to Lead also creates a Task Force chaired by none other than the Governor himself. On the task force is a member of the Value Added Research Center (VARC). According to VARC website major funding is provided by the U.S. Dept of Ed and the Joyce Foundation (BIG money special interest group). Finally, Wisconsin applied for flexibility to NCLB from King Arne Duncan but was told “not good enough. make changes.” I believe Vermont was given the same feedback. To my understanding Vermont told Arne to keep his waiver. Gov. Walker instructed State Supt. Tony Evers to make the necessary changes which we all know equals Race to the Top, which will cause teachers to Race from the Axe and my kid will suffer.
In addition to what was already mentioned about TN, the legislation changed the tenure law last summer. The new law requires teachers to work for five years and score a 4 or 5 the two years prior to being eligible for tenure to receive it. Teachers can lose tenure as well if they score low consecutive years.
The TEAM evaluation model is 50% observation and 50% quantitative. 35% of the quantitative is based on students’ EOC (end of course) tests. If you don’t teach a tested subject, your score is based on the school’s scores. The 15% dubbed “academic achievement” is the teacher’s choice. Of course, the choice is limited to things like graduation rate, ACT scores, TCAP writing scores, school-wide TVAAS, etc. So essentially 50% of teacher evaluations are tied to students’ test scores and grades.
So basically we start to lower our teaching expectations so students will have better grades, right? I choose my to be the passing rate of students passing English and Math and I told those teachers you better be passing these kids, whether they deserve it or not. I can’t have some lazy slacker kids messing up my scores.
And from the Show Me State-MO. ALEC and its minions tried to push through a wide range of “deformer” laws with Rhee’s group funding 5-6 lobbyists for the past legislative session. We beat back all but one of the proposals, that of allowing charters outside of KC and St. Lou to where they were formerly limited. We know we have to redouble if not requadruple our efforts during the next session to keep em at bay.
How do these people convince themselves that what they are doing is “for the children?’
http://progressillinois.com/posts/content/2012/06/14/national-education-group-aims-shape-chicago-teacher-contract-negotiations
I live in Oregon. Though our unemployment is high, probably every one of your readers in every state in the union is jealous of our relative peace on the culture and other kinds of warring on our public schools. The forces are not yet successful here in talking ourselves out of the great history of American education, and all the public schools did to win our civilization. The Pacific Northwest and the nation needs other states to hold the line on choices that lead to terrible education economics, relentless testing that leads nowhere, and other things that really do not get at the real crisis and the big paradigm shift we have all have been dreaming about for American education.
Two things have to happen to change our present situation. One is that we to remind our most intelligent leaders who want to help American education that maybe the greatest lesson about paradigm shifts they should all know too well: genuine paradigm shifts come from natural sources. There is usually a period of chaos before that natural emergence–as there has been for decades in education and public life. The natural shift in American education must come from the heart and soul of what makes a master student–a brain that comes to see itself through parents, teaches, and others as a collection of intense, fiery workshops that seek to master crafts needed by civilization. The decades of Industrial democracy from Horace Mann through John Dewy into our own time saw incredible advances in learning how to create master students. Our modernity would not exist without the public school. Now we live in a Digital Age. While we can rule out technology replacing master teachers, parents, and the powers that create master schools and students, there is one thing about technology we cannot rule out. We do not want to rule out technology developing new ways for parents, teachers, and others to help those brains truly become powerful workshops that love mastering crafts from physics to music. This being my life’s work, and have powerful concerns to attend to on these very matters, I cannot say more.
But my advice in the interim is good. (1) First, teachers must explain to America our citizens need a required reading list. My own, first nomination is Dr. Jean Bethke-Elshtain’s ‘Democracy on Trial.’ America must learn what Jean means by her term ‘democratic disposition.’ (2) I would have teachers button-hole everyone about what I call ‘democratic self-talk.’ Democratic self-talk and democratic dispositions do not run down institutions, people, liberals, conservatives, take away bargaining rights, demonize anybody, or anything else of that nature. Democratic self-talk and democratic dispositions look at culture warring as that sort of nonsense that leads to the horrors of Mathew Brady photographs of terrible carnage. (3) I would work on a national teacher’s slogan. Can I suggest something like: “It’s the magic of parents and teachers turning student brains into master workshops, stoopid!”
Jon Price, Tigard, Oregon.
IN NEW JERSEY TODAY (6/18), tenure reform bill S-1455 (the TEACHNJ Act) will be voted on in committee. But not by the Senate Education Committee which discussed this bill at length during its March meeting. No, on Thursday 6/14 this tenure reform bill was “transferred” to the Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee for a quickie vote to be held Monday 6/18. The main purpose of this tenure reform bill is to dismantle the right to due process by making it not only something a teacher can earn but also something a teacher can lose. If an administrator should give a teacher two summative performance ratings on the lower half of a 4-point scale (“ineffective” or “partially effective”), that teacher will then lose his/her previously earned right to due process and can be fired without the opportunity to appeal the decision to a third party. So in other words, in New Jersey a teacher will be able to EARN the right to due process but it will then be TAKEN AWAY precisely when the teacher might actually need to exercise that right.
Oklahoma is NOT OK…we’ve had the misfortune to elect a public-school-hating dentist as Superintendent of Public Instruction for the state…she’s in Jeb Bush’s back pocket, so all we have to do is look to Florida to see what’s coming at us. In less than two years she’s begun dismantling our schools.
She recently published the names, personal information, IEP status of students who appealed for graduation (they hadn’t passed the four required tests of seven) and lost…just the names of the students who lost! Their parents had to sign a FERPA waiver in order to appeal at all. We had been told they removed the information, but they only removed students’ names — initials and all disability info is still on the State Department of Ed’s website.
Vouchers, third-grade flunk law, teacher evaluations based on test scores, A-F school grades, weakened due-process for tenured teachers….we’re there. A dust-up at her first State School Board meeting resulted in her being able to hand-pick a Board of ‘yes’ men. We see the ALEC footprints and Mr. Bush’s.
How very sad that we’re all suffering like this, and the ‘reformers’ will ell you they’re doing this for our students. WE are the ones working for our students!
Ontario, Canada is under a massive reform, but the teachers’ unions have supported it without question because they got a raise. Most teachers know they are now actively re-formatting the system in ways that are counter educational, such as the “No Child Left Behind” agenda of high stakes testing,holding schools and teachers accountable for failure, and “competing” for PISA scores, but their union has supported such changes and kept them from realizing it’s the same agenda we see everywhere else.
I am a TX science teacher of 17 years. I am offended by Exxons ads ‘supporting’ or ‘condescending to’ (actually) teachers. Our national test scores are based on us teaching special ed, gifted/talented, and average students in the same classroom. We do not have a class of all G/T like they have in Europe and Asia. Their average and sp. ed. kids are in a trade school. The lessons in the science and math classes do not have to be watered down to fit the umbrella of the masses over there like they are in the USA. We are afraid of lawsuits for not keeping a 16 year old with a 2nd grade IQ in Chem class. I know. I ‘taught’ him. He couldn’t even color to the 50 ml line on a beaker coloring page. Why do I have to waste my time and my students time with this politically- correct ****??? Gracias.
I teach in South Dakota. Last year the governor originally purposed a 10% cut to education funding in the state. In the end the legislature purposed an 8.6% cut to funding education. This past year due to finding some extra money floating around, they gave an increase of $97 per student. The year before we received no change to the funding formula in part thanks to the Obama stimulus. This summer it has been reported that the state has an extra 47.8 million dollars. While several representatives are saying that more money should go back to education and medicare (which also saw a big cut), the governor doesn’t want to commit to anything.
Also passed this year by one vote in our heavily Republican controlled House is HB 1234. It is a bill to get rid of tenure. (South Dakota is a right to work state. Tenure only means that you can’t be fired without the administration giving cause, so it doesn’t mean much.) Establish an incentive program for math and science teachers of $3,500 just for teaching in the subject. (You simply need to be a .51 teacher in either math or science at the middle school or high school level, you don’t have to be a good teacher, just teach in the subject matter.) All teachers must be evaluated on a multi-level evaluation with 50% being based on tests (If a teacher does not teach in one of the areas tested by the state, math or reading, then all the weight is put on other measures like student surveys, parent surveys, and principal drop-ins). If you fall in the distinguished level, you will have the chance for a bonus. Only 20% of teachers in the district can get a bonus, but if 20% do not score in the distinguished, then the bonus only goes to those that are ranked “distinguished.” No money was allocated to the bill since the evaluation tool has not been crafted and no one is sure how to pay for it. The order of the law’s actions are as such: end tenure (right away), offer science and math incentives (2013-2014), new teacher evaluation and bonus (2014-2015). This was touted as look at how much the Republican governor loves education.
HB1234 has been referred to the ballot in November, but work groups have started meeting to discuss the evaluation tool the state will offer. The last few years have been tough in South Dakota (we have been the lowest or one of the lowest paying states for teacher salary since I can remember), and that is saying a lot. The saddest part is that I don’t know if I would encourage my students to go into teaching. South Dakota has never been kind to teachers, but things have gone down hill in the last few years.