A friend who is an artist sent a link to a website that describes a new Pearson art history book that has no pictures! No pictures of the art it describes. Students are instructed to look for the images in another textbook.
The pictureless art history book costs $180.
You have to open the link and look at a page in the book.
Is it time to laugh or cry?
This is what the art students said about the art history book without pictures.
This blog lists the websites and bloggers in Indiana who oppose state superintendent Tony Bennett. That’s easy. It includes every parent group in the state and everyone concerned about the future of education.
Which leaves the important question: Who supports Bennett? Well, big corporations. Advocates of privatization. People who hate unions. Groups that want to strip teachers of their profession and turn them into at-will employees like the greeters at Costco. The fake group called “Stand for Children,” also known as Stand on Children. Wall Street hedge fund managers. Online corporations hoping to make lots of money by recruiting students to homeschool while the corporation profits.
This election will be a referendum on whether Indiana wants to give away public education to private interests. It will happen unless the public wakes up and says no to privatization, yes to the common good.
Readers of this blog learned about the Great Hearts charter chain in Arizona as a result of its efforts to open a branch in Nashville. The Metro Nashville school board has rejected Great Hearts four times and was punished by TFA Commissioner of Education for refusing to approve this charter. Huffman has withheld $3.4 million from the district to retaliate for its unwillingness to open a charter in an affluent part of the city.
Back in Arizona, where Great Hearts is based, the “headmaster” of a Great Hearts school sent out a blast email urging staff and parents to vote against a ballot measure intended to raise $1 billion for the state’s dramatically underfunded public schools. The measure is intended to raise additional funding for both public schools and charter schools. But apparently, the headmaster thinks it best to starve the public schools into submission. After all, his own school asks for a “voluntary” gift of $1200-1500 from parents, so he doesn’t need the new money from the state.
The most important voice in state education policy today is the American Legislative Exchange Council, known as ALEC.
ALEC has 2,000 state legislators as members, and dozens of corporate sponsors, including the biggest names in business.
Here is an excellent summary of ALEC’s legislative priorities.
ALEC writes model legislation. Its members carry it home and introduce it as their own in their states.
ALEC promotes charters and vouchers.
ALEC likes the parent trigger.
ALEC likes it when the governor can create a commission to approve charters over the opposition of local school boards.
ALEC favors unregulated, for-profit online schooling.
ALEC wants to eliminate collective bargaining.
ALEC doesn’t think teachers need any certification or credential.
ALEC opposes teacher tenure.
ALEC likes evaluating teachers by test scores.
You should learn about ALEC. Read up on it. It is the most influential voice in the nation on education policy.
Carmen L. Lopez is a hero of public education.
She has stood up against the most powerful people in her state to defend the public schools and the basic principles of democracy.
She served as a judge of the Connecticut Superior Court from 1996 until her retirement in 2008. At that time, she was elected to the Bridgeport Board of Education.
She played a pivotal role in the legal strategy and lawsuit that stopped the State of Connecticut’s effort to take over the Bridgeport School System. Connecticut’s Supreme Court ruled that the state had failed to follow its laws and ordered that the democratically elected board of education be reconstituted and given back the authority to run the City’s schools. An election was held earlier this month and an elected board again controls the schools.
Judge Lopez is now opposing the Mayor’s effort to change the city charter and take control of the school system. The proposed change would eliminate a democratically elected board of education and replace it with one appointed by the Mayor and City Council.
Judge Lopez is an advocate for students in need of special education services. She has represented many students at due process hearings on a pro bono basis.
For her strong leadership on behalf of democratic control of public education, Judge Carmen Lopez joins the honor roll as a hero of public education.
I received an email from Stephen Earley, an elementary school principal in Vermont. He reminds us that the state of Vermont decided not to request an NCLB waiver. It wasn’t because Vermont likes NCLB but because the state education commissioner realized that Arne Duncan’s mandates are no better than those in NCLB.
Because the state of Vermont rejected the waiver and showed independence and critical thinking, Vermont is the first state to join our honor roll.
The honor roll is the place we recognize individuals, school boards, PTAs, districts and now a state because they support public education.
Here is Stephen Earley’s comment:
The state of Vermont withdrew its NCLB waiver request because the state refused to compromise its beliefs about what is best for children. This statement came from the Commissioner’s office at the time:
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“However as the Vermont Department of Education has continued to negotiate for the flexibility that was promised since we started in August, it has become clear that the USED is interested in simply replacing one punitive, prescriptive model of accountability with another.
The term “flexibility” is a misnomer. Two of the more heavy handed methods the USED is still insisting on are using a single test to determine accountability, and using that test to represent a majority of a teacher’s evaluation.
We cannot continue to expend energy requesting a detailed accountability system that looks less and less like what we want for Vermont. We do not have confidence that the requirements we are being asked to meet is the formula for success. We want to move forward towards a system that is better for our schools, our educators, and most importantly, our students.”
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The state consistently has some of the best scores on the NAEP exam, but over 70% of its schools are not meeting AYP standards now, in part because they never lowered the cutoff on the test as other states have. With such a high percentage of schools not making AYP, it might have made sense to some to jump through all of the Feds’ hoops and proceed with the waiver process. But the state board of education saw what was being demanded, and saw how harmful it would be, and ultimately (and unanimously) said no.
In addition, the state’s high-stakes test is given during the first week of October, which means that test prep and cramming are kept to a minimum, and what is emphasized is actual knowledge that can be retained over the summer.
Remember that the LA Times created a firestorm in 2010 when it created value added ratings for teachers in the Los Angeles Unified School District and released the names and ratings of thousands of teachers. Arne Duncan said it was a good idea, but many researchers warned that the ratings were volatile, inaccurate, and unstable. And others saw a violation of confidentiality as well as ethical issues. In the aftermath, a teacher named Roberto Riguelas committed suicide, and his family said he was depressed to see what he thought was an unfair rating of his work.
New York City released the teacher ratings earlier this year, and again there were many complaints about inaccuracy. This time, Bill Gates published an op-Ed opposing the practice on grounds that it makes it impossible for supervisors to counsel teachers when their ratings are published.
Be all that as it may, the Los Angeles Times is now suing LAUSD for access to teachers’ names so they can release their ratings again.
I am still trying to understand what the newspaper thinks it is accomplishing, what purpose is served other than selling papers.
http://ahuntingtonteacher.blogspot.com/2012/10/tony-bennett-selling-big-lie-about.html
Tony Bennett Selling the Big Lie about Need for Hoosier Teacher Accountability
In 2010,
Tony Bennett and the Indiana Department of Education (IDOE) introduced relaxed teacher qualifications known as REPA. A slideshow presented by Bennett stated the need for REPA was a grade of “D” for “policies affecting teaching quality”. This grade was given by the National Council for Teaching Quality (NCTQ).
The grade of “D” was endorsed by NCTQ’s technical panel. Tony Bennett sits on the technical panel of NCTQ.
The NCTQ’s report was described by the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education (AACTE) as “so fundamentally flawed it is not worthy of your engagement.” The AACTE went as far to call the report “unprofessional” in its obvious attempt to deteriorate traditional education.
Perhaps the NCTQ’s report and Indiana’s grade of “D” for teaching quality policies would have never gained much merit except for a strong endorsement that followed by a group known as Chiefs for Change.
The Chiefs for Change have only eleven members. Tony Bennett is one of them.
In sum, much of the turmoil surrounding the need for greater teacher accountability is because Bennett has said teachers need improvement and endorsed his own statement saying so.
Bennett has a history of disregarding public opinion, or even the law, for that matter, and forcing through his plan to dismantle public education. This also might explain language found here at the IDOE website:
Final RISE rubric ratings did not sufficiently differentiate teacher performance (61% Effective, 30% Highly Effective) or identify specific teacher strengths and weaknesses (67% of teachers received no rating lower than “effective” on all 19 RISE rubric competencies). When all the data is analyzed in the fall, these ratings are unlikely to accurately reflect actual teacher and student performance.
Bennett’s mind is stuck in a bell curve; a percentage of students must always be failing, a percentage of teachers must therefore also be failing. Bennett’s goal in Indiana is to continually fail a portion of students, teachers, and schools for the sake of privatization.
Teachers have not bought into the RISE evaluation system that creates:
· a detrimental “teach to the test” atmosphere.
· greater focus on only select students, especially “bubble” students.
· an environment of competition, not cooperation, among colleagues.
· teacher flight from schools most in need.
· less qualified teachers who do not stay in the profession.
The RISE evaluation has nothing to do with improving instruction. Bennett purposefully took away funding for advance degrees to create funds for merit pay. (Lest we forget, Bennett stood idly by while Daniels cut $300 million from Hoosier school budgets. This shortfall was felt most by teachers, who on average have taken huge pay cuts. In my district, teachers have taken between a 12% and 20% pay cut over the past three years.)
As one commenter said, (Bennett is) driving down teacher’s salaries and forcing them to fight over what spare money is left. Then he is telling the public he rewards the best teachers with merit pay.
Perhaps that is why Bennett also had to include this on the IDOE webpage:
Increased collaboration and conversation promotes overall satisfaction with the new evaluation system and belief that the new system raises student achievement.
This quote is reminiscent of one attributed to Joesph Goebbels, Hitler’s propaganda chief:
“If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it.”
Indiana, it is time for a change. How can Bennett think he is putting students first by continually putting teachers last? A teacher’s working conditions are the student’s learning conditions. Bennett’s denigration of the Hoosier teacher results in the denigration of all public education students.
It will take years to fix the damage Bennett has wreaked on Hoosier schools. Four more years of Tony Bennett’s policies and the damage may well be irreversible.
We need a new superintendent who will work with teachers, not against them. Glenda Ritz needs your support. She does not have the million plus dollar funding from huge corporations that will profit from Bennett’s privatization efforts. For Ritz to claim victory, it will take a grass roots effort from every citizen who cares about public education in Indiana. Get out the vote for Glenda Ritz.
As faithful readers of this blog know, this week has been a busy one for me.
It started last Sunday night when I arrived in Chicago after a six-hour flight delay caused by possible tornados near Chicago.
On Monday, I began the day speaking at the Chicago City Club, where I was introduced by Governor Pat Quinn. I then went to the headquarters of the Chicago Teachers Union, where I had a long talk with the amazing and dynamic Karen Lewis. The most memorable line of our talk was this one. I told her that national commentators scoffed at CTU’s insistence that schools need air-conditioning. Karen said she heard that, and she proposed that the air-conditioning at the Board’s headquarters be shut down to demonstrate that it doesn’t matter. And the Mayor’s offices too! Vintage Karen!
I flew to Columbus that afternoon, where I was met by the tireless Bill Phillis. Bill formerly served as a deputy in the Ohio Department of Education and has contacts in every district; he is passionate about equitable funding and public education. When I spoke to the Cleveland City Club earlier in the year, i told him that if he organized a group to fight for public education, I would come back. He did and I did. He brought together 400 people from across the state to plan their strategy on behalf of public education. The counter-revolution against privatization and greed now begins in Ohio.
I then headed for Lansing, Michigan, where I was hosted by the Tri-County Alliance of school superintendents, who represent 86 districts and nearly half the students in the state. I met a room full of dedicated public servants who are outraged and baffled by the persistent effort to destroy public education in Michigan. The reactionary elements in the state come up with one scheme after another to try to destroy any community attachment to public schools and to turn education in the state into a free market of choices. I was stunned to learn that every district spends about $100,000 on advertising to poach students from other districts, to bolster their budget. the superintendents know it is wrong but this is the system that the legislature has imposed on them in an effort to create “schools of choice.” The pressure for an education marketplace has been going on for a decade or more and is now accelerating, with bills proposed to eliminate district lines and to allow “selective enrollments,” in which schools could choose to accept only one race or one gender or only high-performing students. The raid on public funding by for-profit charters is nonstop, as are the attacks on public schools and those who work in them.
Last stop was Minnesota, where I thought I would have a quiet dinner alone, but to my surprise and delight, was contacted by Finnish educator Pasi Sahlberg, who happened to be in town for another event. So we met with other educators over a pleasant Japanese dinner.
Today, I addressed Education Minnesota, which represents the teachers of Minnesota. The state and its educators are fortunate in having Governor Mark Dayton, who prevents some of the usual efforts to attack teachers and public schools. Minnesota has its challenges but it is very fortunate compared to Ohio and Michigan, where the ALEC forces are in charge.
So I am in the Minneapolis airport now, waiting to go home. What a week.
I was able to blog and tweet while I traveled, and if you noticed more typos than usual, blame it on my iPad.
The letter-writing campaign came to a conclusion. In only two weeks, nearly 400 educators, parents, students and others wrote eloquent letters to President Obama. Thanks to Anthony Cody for coordinating the campaign and doing the heavy lifting of collating and assembling what amounts to a book. It is worth pointing out that every letter we received was included and not one of them expressed satisfaction with the current direction of federal education policy.
My week is done, but our struggle for better education has just begun.
Diane
The drive to diminish local control in Pennsylvania was halted when Republicans backed away from Governor Corbett’s charter “reform” legislation. The bill would have allowed the Governor and the State Education Department to override local school boards and open charters where the local board rejected them. This is a priority for Governor Tom Corbett and for ALEC, which values privatization over local control. Apparently, some Republicans had trouble following the attack on public schools and local school boards, which are important and traditional institutions in the communities they represent. The bill would have also allowed charter operators to escape accountability and transparency in their expenditure of public funds.
I received this note from an ally in Pennsylvania, with links:
Governor Corbett of Pennsylvania had a major setback in his attempt to follow an ALEC goal of taking management of charter schools out of local control and put it in the hands of the Pennsylvania Education Department. Wednesday night the Pa. House of Representatives failed to pass what Corbett said had been his major goal of this legislative session.
Details of what happened are still coming out, but key Republicans bailed on supporting the bill. There had been growing opposition as reflected in newspaper editorials around the state.
In my opinion it is an indication that people are beginning to pay attention to ALEC’s role in state legislatures and there is growing questioning about the growth of charters and the closures of public schools..
“School Shutdowns Trigger Growing Backlash”
from Education Week
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Pa. House pulls the plug on charter reform bill, killing the measure for this year
from the Harrisburg Patriot-News
“A historic charter school reform bill was all teed up for a House vote on Wednesday, but the vote never happened.
Enough House Republicans peeled away their support from the bill as the day wore on, making it apparent the measure did not have the 102 votes needed to pass. It would have been the first significant reforms to the 1997 charter law that created these independent public schools.
Concerns arose over a charter school funding study commission it would have created and other reforms it contained, said House Speaker Sam Smith, R-Jefferson.
The Senate had passed the bill on Tuesday by a 33-19 vote.”
http://tinyurl.com/9zu4zeo
Charter school bill falls apart in Pa. House
from the Pittsburg Post Gazette
“But House leaders worked into the night without calling the bill and, around 9:30 p.m., announced they would adjourn until after the election. After leaving the chamber, House Speaker Sam Smith, R-Jefferson, attributed the breakdown in part to dissatisfaction among some members with a provision establishing a commission to examine charter school funding. Some of those members wanted the Legislature to go ahead and change aspects of funding, such as that for cyber charter schools, he said.”
http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/news/education/charter-school-bill-falls-apart-in-pa-house-658047/#
House Speaker Smith: Too many “moving parts” derailed charters vote.
from Capitol Ideas at Allentown’s The Morning Call
“The top Republican in the state House said Wednesday that an inability to build consensus among both state lawmakers and interest groups derailed an expected vote on a charter school reform bill.
The state House broke for the year late Wednesday night without voting on the bill, which would have — among other things — allowed existing charter schools (with state oversight) to consolidate their operations. The bill would also have created a special state commission charged with studying special education funding issues.
The reform package, which cleared the state Senate on Tuesday night, was a top priority of Republican Gov. Tom Corbett.
Corbett’s spokesman, Kevin Harley, said the administration was “disappointed” by the House’s failure to vote on the reform bill and would begin work anew in January.”
http://blogs.mcall.com/capitol_ideas/2012/10/house-speaker-smith-too-many-moving-parts-derailed-charters-vote.html
Pennsylvania charter schools reform bill dies when House fails to take action
from the Delaware County Times
“Harrisburg — A closely watched proposal to rewrite the state’s charter schools law died Wednesday when the House wrapped up its two-year legislative session without putting it to a final vote.
The Senate approved the measure to toughen oversight of the publicly funded, privately run schools on Tuesday, but House Speaker Sam Smith, a Republican, said after adjournment there had not been enough time to deal with the complicated bill, and funding was a sticking point.
Neither chamber was scheduled to return to Harrisburg before the Nov. 6 election, nor do lawmakers plan to vote on any bills in the postelection period that ends Nov. 30. A new Legislature will be sworn in in January.”
http://www.delcotimes.com/articles/2012/10/18/news/doc507fc78b7c60b151104053.txt
Diane Ravitch's blog 