State commissioner of Education John White has outdone himself this time.
He puts forward one goofy plan after another, like sending children to schools that teach creationism and calling it “reform.”
But now he has an even nuttier idea: He wants to tie the funding for the state’s gifted high school students to their test scores. Really. No kidding.
It’s merit pay for kids.
What’s next: Tying funding for poor kids to their “performance?” Cutting their funding if they don’t get high enough test scores?
Currently the state has 10,000 students in gifted programs in high schools.
Under the present formula, they get 1.6 times the allotment as is available for those in general education.
The gifted students would take a cut to 1.3 times the regular students unless they hit the following goals:
Under the BESE-approved MFP plan students would qualify for the aid if:
“Eighth-graders score excellent on their Algebra I end of course test.
Ninth-graders score excellent on their geometry end-of-course test or 3 or higher on an Advanced Placement test, which can be used to qualify for college credit.
10th-graders score 3 or higher on an AP exam.
11th-graders score 3 or higher on an AP exam or 4 or higher on an International Bachelorette course, or IB.”
The savings would be small, but the message to students is that John White will cut their funding if they don’t get the scores he wants.
A few more big ideas like this and John White will turn Louisiana into an international laughing stock.
Unless he has already reached that goal.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Oh my! This is nuts. How do our young learn intrinsic motivation when we treat them like Pavlov’s dog?
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A new low in stupidity. Truly amazing. Don’t they require drug tests for public officials/employees in LA? If not, here’s an argument for.
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Wait…do you mean there’s no “middle man” (teacher) between scores and money? Plus, isn’t that discriminating against students not considered G/T? What about SpEd students who meet their IEP goals? Aren’t they improving?
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I am reminded of Kurt Vonnegut’s description of his military experience:
“The inept leading the unwilling to do the unnecessary.”
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Very dismaying! When I try to relay the information that I learn on your blog, people look at me like I have two heads. No one can believe this stuff is going in OUR country.
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Dr. R. I am a little surprised that you are surprised by this! This is America. Land of endless opportunities. Everything is based on merit ‘pay’ of some kind. Our education systems teach children this concept from KDG up. Why are we then surprised that the adults, as products of such merit based education system, would think differently?
I’d like to see less focus on these crazy issues as, by focusing on them, we give them credibility. Let’s focus on the classrooms, teachers, and students that are making a difference. These are the role models we need to follow.
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They’re just admitting out loud what they’ve thought all along. Only people with clearly proven brilliance (like them, they think) deserve to have resources spent on them. Spending on poor, minority, disabled, etc. students (or people in general) is just throwing money down the toilet. It’s modern-day Eugenics really.
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Dienne, I was with you till the last line. A bit too Godwin.
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So you agree that the powers that be are intentionally starving the poor, minorities and disabled of needed resources, yet you refuse to call it Eugenics? There are other ways of getting rid of the unwanted besides killing or sterilizing them.
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Does it sound extreme to use the word eugenics? It certainly crossed my mind after visiting our World War II museum and its special exhibit on eugenics. I immediately saw the connection, albeit in a very different application from the one promoted by Hitler, and I wrote this blog. How far does education (society) have to go before the connect is made, and will it be too late. This is why we study history and try to develop critical thinking skills in our students. http://www.geauxteacher.net/2012/11/the-eugenics-of-standardization.html
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This: “How far does education (society) have to go before the connect is made, and will it be too late. This is why we study history and try to develop critical thinking skills in our students.”
I’m so tired of Godwin being used to shut down any comparisons to notorious historical events. You’re right, how far do we have to go before people will wake up and see what’s happening?
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Hi Matt,
Read up on the history of testing.
http://iq-test.learninginfo.org/iq01.htm
http://www.apa.org/monitor/2009/01/assessment.aspx
I agree with Dienne. Our current obsession with testing seems pretty related to eugenics to me.
Godwin’s rule was about overuse or inappropriate use of the analogy.
Neither the case here IMOH.
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Huh, I’m just surprised that they fund all the gifted students with a 60% premium over a typical kid. How do they compare with other states in funding gifted programs?
I guess if you don’t make the cut, you get demoted from platinum gifted to premium economy gifted.
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My state spent 11 million on gifted student education in 2010-11. Large high schools may offer some AP courses, a few offer IB degrees (5 schools). The state has proposed a residential gifted high school, but the funding has not come through. The small size of high schools (the median high school in my state has fewer than 250 students) greatly limits gifted education.
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I understand that Louisiana has a premier and unique gifted and talented program among states. It’s one thing that we have done right. In other locations suffering under the influence of reform, gifted programs are being moved to magnet schools and, even more telling, other “high performing” – on tests – students are included in the gifted magnets. Serves two purposes. Segregates the student population both performance based and socio-economically and causes the schools of those students left behind to further drop their scores and become ripe for takeover. This is happening right now in Bridgeport, Conn., under the destructive leadership of Louisiana’s horrendous former Recovery School District pimp Paul Vallas. If magnet and special schools sounded good to you before all this, think again. Special Ed kids are being returned to what we used to call institutions, not schools. Low performers, behavioural problems and other low test scores are being provided with what we call accelerated schools in Louisiana. All have the same purposes, remove low scorers and expensive students out of charters so their scores go up and they look successful. Remove high performers from traditional district schools and leave the remainder to the charter vultures for takeover. Then pass parent trigger laws to accelerate the process. Our Supt. John White just advertised a new policy to award teachers and non-profits with training paid for with education tax dollars if they will turnaround a D or F school – a new Teacher Trigger. He didn’t wait for a law to be written.
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And White is Wendy’s finest.
What a disgrace to the citizens of Louisiana and to our nation. Is there any end to their stupidity?
Borrowing from another posting today:
“All you need is ignorance and confidence and the success is sure.” — Mark Twain
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It is actually worse than you think. He actually does the same thing to our special education kids. Their funding will now be tied to their performance of the Value Added Model. See page 5 of the funding formula. An intellectually disabled child’s funding will be tied to his or her standardized test score improvement. If this does not make the citizens of Louisiana wake up, nothing will!
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On a spiritual level, I believe the “gifted” did receive a gift and should give back to humanity. But that is up to them. It borders on fascism to dictate that because of your IQ, you must somehow serve the government by performing to a certain standard on a test. We aren’t far away from picking jobs for people based on their IQ scores.
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I suppose White, Kopp, Rhee, Gist, Huffman, etc all consider themselves gifted as well.
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i graduated from lsmsa, louisiana’s flagship gifted, residential high school. we are fighting jindal and have been fighting jindal for a few years now. he’s been trying to cut our funding…funding for our professors, funding for a new dorm because the old one has mold and falling plaster, and if it wasn’t for the fact that lsmsa failed its cafeteria inspection, funding for a new cafeteria. he’s tries to paint lsmsa as an elitist charter school yet he does not say the same for schools such as ben franklin and lusher in new orleans that try to compete with lsmsa but can’t. all this will do is create more inequality among students and schools. lsmsa has an sps of 120, all of the students there score 24 or higher on the act, and lsmsa has a 98% matriculation rate. jindal and white are doing it once again. they need to be stopped.
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Why are all gifted students expected to excel in Algebra? Are we defining gifts so very narrowly?
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the louisiana graduation requirements for math are algebra 1, geometry, and algebra 2. students who are in gifted and honor classes take algebra 1 in 8th grade, geometry in 9th, algebra 2 in tenth, and that can be the end of math requirements or students can continue to math courses. louisiana colleges require four units of math so students may take advanced math/trigonometry or precalculus to satisfy that requirement
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The fast track for math in my state has pre-calc in tenth.
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different states have different requirements and offer different courses at different times. being that i graduated from lsmsa (www.lsmsa.edu), i was able to bypass the mundaness of traditional public schools.
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Do you think you received a better education because you did not have to attend traditional public school? If so, what about your school was better for you?
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it’s not a matter of think i had a better education. i know i had a better education at lsmsa. lsmsa is for students who are gifted or academically advanced in the areas of math, science, performing arts, visual arts, or literary arts/humanities. everyone at my school was either an honor student or g/t at their home school. we came from all corners of louisiana. in my traditional public school, i wasn’t being challenged and my academic needs weren’t being met. i was the only gifted student in my class. i would often get put out of class for saying something disruptive or i would flunk tests on purpose because i wanted a challenge. lsmsa were and still are the best two years of my life. when i got to college, i was more than prepared. my first two years of undergrad were a virtual cakewalk. if you go to the link, you can do a virtual tour of lsmsa and find links to its sister schools.
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The practice of “creaming” or “skimming” has been controversial on this blog. Clearly you believe you have gained from being skimmed. Do you think those you left behind in traditional public schools were worse of because you left? Do you think that “skimming” or “creaming” should be prohibited when public funds are involved?
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let’s be clear, i wasn’t skimmed. lsmsa did not recruit me. i went to them. although i applied to attend lsmsa as a sophomore, i began planning to attend lsmsa when i was in the 8th grade when i first saw a commercial for the school. planning met luck and the opportunity presented itself when a recruiter came to my school to talk to all of the honors kids about lsmsa. lsmsa is a public, residential high school. it is open to any and all who apply. i have had visually impaired classmates, hearing impaired classmates, and even classmates with dual citizenship. i don’t believe i gained. i know i gained. despite my upper middle class background, i come from a rural, impoverished area. i could look out my english class window and see farmer joe on his tractor plowing his fields. my local high school did not meet my needs and i decided i wanted better. my teachers were great but they couldn’t do any more than what they were doing. i was actually becoming a behavior problem because of my boredom and lack of challenges. my only other options were to go to one of the local private schools or start taking college courses as a junior. now, speaking as a public school teacher and not as an lsmsa alumn, i do have a problem with skimming and creaming. that is what the current incarnation of charter schools in the new orleans area does. selective admissions schools such as ben franklin and lusher take the top 90-100% students from other school. then schools like warren easton take the next 80-90% students. mcmain takes the 70-80% students. those who rank below 70% are parcelled out to the other schools. honestly i do not see the need for the current rise in charter schools (new orleans has over 50 charter schools and 16 more waiting approval) or the privitization of public school in louisiana. this is money, time, energy, and talent that can be invested in the local public schools.
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The act of applying, in and of itself, is considered skimming here, even if admission is random. Having academic admission requirements in addition clearly constitutes skimming as the term is usually used here.
Do you think that your former schoolmates where worse off?
Would you deny current students the opportunity you had to attend a school that better fit your academic needs than the mundane traditional public school?
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no, my classmates were not worse off. my state test scores were reported as a part of my home school’s record of students who took the state so my advanced scores on the graduate exit exam benefitted them. my act score was reported to my home school so my 24 benefitted them. i ranked second in my home school’s graduating class of 50 people. the valedictorian and co-valedictorian are both lawyers. the basketball star from my home school is now a doctor. i have classmates who are teachers. i have classmates who are members of the military. they were sad that i left but they understood why i left. many of my classmates are people i went to school with from the age of 4 and from he ages of 4-15, they knew that i was academically better them. even when i missed a month of school because i had a severe case of chicken pox, i still finished the school year with a 4.0.
i promote lsmsa to my current students. i promote it every chance that i get. i have had a few students over my career as an educator to attend and graduate from lsmsa. i don’t deny any of my students the knowledge of lsmsa. i tell them of the rigor and creativity that is required to be a student there. would i deny anyone an education? no, not at all, however, if your right to an education infringes on my right to an education, then i’m going somewhere that will fit my needs and that sometimes means leaving. that’s the beauty of school choice when there are appropriate choices to be made. the current educational climate in louisiana isn’t creating more appropriate educational choices. it is creating a more deeply divided educational system in an already deeply racially and socioeconomically stratified state. this latest foolishness with jindal and white are adding to the divide of the haves, the have nots, and those in the middle.
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“that’s the beauty of school choice when there are appropriate choices to be made”
I certainly agree, but most here have argued giving students choices (unless their family can afford to pay for those choices), is inherently bad public policy.
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I agree that giving students a choice can make bad public policy but that’s because the way it is being implemented now. Choice isn’t a bad thing. Also, LSMSA is free. Now, you do need money for incidentals like if you want to go to a movie off campus or buy pizza. Even if you don’t have the money, the alumni set a fund for that. I graduated high school in 2001 before school choice was a buzz word.
The first thing i learned as an educator is that all students are entitled to a free and appropriate public school education. Now what’s appropriate for me might not be appropriate for the next kid. Case in point, there is a charter school near my hometown for students who are learning disabled or need accommodations. For nearly two decades, they’ve been working with students who are dyslexic or have ADHD or a wide range of learning abilities. They enroll students who are in grades three through eight. A part of their admissions policy is that the student must have an IEP, IAP, or a 504 plan. After eighth grade, these students return to traditional public school being better prepared to be students because they’ve been given the skills and tools needed to succeed. Now, I as a gifted student, could never go to that school. It’s not the appropriate learning environment for me. That’s the way I see school choice.
The way choice is being implemented in New Orleans is bad for public policy. Schools like Ben Franklin take the top ten percent of students but the school is being sued for discriminatory practices due to its lack of diversity. Thomas Jefferson, in Jefferson Parish, is being sued for the same thing. The district was even sued for having high achieving schools on the eastbank side of the parish but not the westbank side of the parish. KIPP counsels students who are behavior problems or who are low achievers to find another school. There is a big difference between choosing to go to a school that is appropriate for my development verses what’s going on now.
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We are in agreement on the value of choice, though a distinct minority of the posters here.
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This is actually quite brilliant on Baby Huff’s part. The easiest way to close achievement gaps is by bringing DOWN the scores of the highest achieving students.
Same strategy is being deployed against achievement in NJ.
Failure by design.
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The Louisiana math graduation requirements are the same as Michigan’s. Not everyone is up to Algebra I in 8th grade, but those who are should do so. The rest can take it in 9th or 10th and still graduate with Algebra II as seniors. Algebra I every citizen should know because solving for an unknown is the basic intellectual paradigm.
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Wow, I think this might actually be worse than no state funding, which is historically what we have in Alabama. More and more, gifted students are leaving public schools, largely because of what standardized testing and corporatization has done to them. I have heard of LEAs’ negative reactions and strongarming towards parents who stand up against this testing using what is sometimes the only power they have left – opting out. Now they have an extra tool in their arsenal-, thanks to another politician making decisions for educators and children.
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