NEA President Dennis Van Roekel strongly supported the legal action of the Colorado Education Association against SB 191, one of the worst bills of its kind in the nation. It was written in 2010 by State Senator Michael Johnston, ex-TFA. Fully 50% of teachers’ evaluations are tied to test scores.
I was in Denver the day the law passed in the Senate. Johnston and I were supposed to have a lunch debate before about 60 or so local leaders. He was late. We waited and waited. Finally, I gave my talk. As soon as I finished, young Master Michael Johnston walked in, safe from hearing anything I might say, and proceeded to give a speech praising his bill and saying it would produce great schools, great principals, and great teachers. He was very pleased with what he had done.
Here is Van Roekel’s statement:
NEA PRESIDENT COMMENTS ON SB 191 LAWSUIT IN COLORADO
WASHINGTON—The following is a statement from NEA President Dennis Van Roekel on SB 191 lawsuit in Colorado:
“The National Education Association supports the efforts of Colorado educators in their fight to keep quality teachers in the classroom and preserve the stability of our students’ learning environment. Legislation should be used to ensure that every public school student has a quality teacher in the classroom. It should not drive out great educators without the benefit of a rigorous evaluation system. The way SB 191 has been implemented by the Denver School District has resulted in the removal of more than a hundred teachers without a hearing or cause. The lawsuit brought by Denver Classroom Teachers Association and the Colorado Education Association challenges firing those teachers without cause. The notion that a veteran quality teacher can be removed from the classroom without due process not only subverts the essence of the law but hurts our students.”
Diane Ravitch's blog 
I worry though about his use of “rigorous evaluation”.
I doubt Peyton Manning would have done anything like that….delay of game would cost him a five yard penalty. But there is no penalty for this jerk’s rude, sexist behavior. He was too good to subject himself to a debate with a woman. Especially a well informed woman.
the guy state senator i spoke with today is mentioned in this article. he is an IDIOT. i no longer feel bad about what i wrote out teach for america. that is mentioned in here as TFA.
Ok. Big question.
What is it, really, that we are trying to work out amid reform.
Does TFA really want to be the source of all education hiring?
Is that really what they want?
Is the assault on teachers and teachers’ unions really part 1 of a big plan? If so, what is step 2? What is step 3? When is the mission complete? What is the long term business plan? I get the feeling there isn’t one.
After they turn the gun on everyone else, are they going to turn it on themselves or what? (Sorry the crass analogy—I know shootings are a very real issue in our society).
I don’t get it. I cannot figure out where we are headed.
What now?
Privatization was the goal all along. No public education. Only the wealthy get educated.
See, I think it’s less sinister than that—at least on the part of Wendy Kopp and her offspring.
I think Kopp wasn’t looking for “Mr. Right” with education—I think she was looking for “Mr. Right Now.” She needed a job. She had already written a senior thesis on a subject that, intellectually, is very compelling. But pragmatically (in a democracy, anyway) just really causes problems. But she needed that job and her efforts for the paper dovetailed nicely into the possibility of a real thing. And I think the religious right liked it. A ha! A way to crush the liberal public schools!! Here’s a check. And hey. . . free money!! And it just snowballed from there.
And the Rhees of the world just got a taste of money and fame and stayed in for that reason.
I really believe that most of what is proposed by reformers is simply a justification for getting paid now. Imagining a US without the possibility of public school has not really entered their minds.
The economy made sluts of even the most prudish (in an ideal democratic Public school venture).
There has to be option C.
A. (old school) B. reform (TFA charter voucher. C. ??? D. Old school with CCSS (physically impossible).
There has to be something else.
I know what my version is.
That’s what we should all be doing. Coming up with option C. We’re going to need it.
Wendy believed or pretended to believe that since no good teacher wanted to teach inner city schools or the one’s who did were obviously unsuccessful at curing poverty and those jobs would burn out any self-respecting teacher – these nice little rich kids would pitch in, save the day , get some real world experience before they go rule the world. Win-win. Playing teacher with some kids no one cares about anyhow- what harm could there be in that? The goal was to “help” by having low cost temp service for schools. NO tenure- no teacher education, no high costs, not teachers with opinions. How could this not be fabulous??? Her corporate friends were salivating.
So now they are ruling the world I guess.
Quel nightmare.
Joanna,
You made a fascinating and insightful mini-analysis. It’s easy to villainize these people, but it takes more time to see a more human, severely flawed side to all of this.
Still, for me, the road paved with good intentions must be burned down and rebuilt of those of us who, like you, are out to save public education and make it equitable for all children.
Thank you for giving readers a break from all the pitchforks and torches. Of coures, I admit when I finish with this much needed break, I am going back to get my pitchfork and torch . . . .
It’s the Fast Food Nationing of American education. Turn teaching jobs into low-qualification, low-skill jobs with high turnover, and you drastically cut the cost of running a school. Staff costs are a huge percentage of school operational costs. Cut those, and you can finally start to generate some serious ROI
On a related note, perhaps… New York will no longer confer an IEP diploma. It will be a certificate/ credential for those who are not “college and career ready.” So the Daily show skit about 2$ minimum wage to those (not like “normal” -ugh- people) is shocking, but maybe not far fetched. Privatization keeps the rich away from “those” people, of course.
Scary- A nation’s greatness is measured by how it treats its weakest members.”
~ Mahatma Ghandi
Don’t you know, everyone. You can’t solve the education problem by throwing money at it.
That only works for the defense department.
Janna. Didn’t you get the memo? You can’t solve the education problem by throwing money at it. That only works for the Department of Defense.
It IS that “sinister.” It’s because it is part of a neoliberal ideology that says there should be NO restraints on greed or corporate actions, and that ALL public institutions be privatized for private gain. The rich are better than everybody else and have a divine to rule and steal from the taxpaying masses in order to get more, according to this demented, sociopathic ideology.
Anybody who thinks it is more benign than that has NOT studied the political landscape of the past thirty-five years. Neoliberalism is a cancer on American politics and has infected BOTH political parties.
SusanNunes- Yes it is that sinister- but I also agree with Joanna and Robert that not all of the players are evil or have ill intent. In general both parties in the US are bought and paid for. But I also know of individual people in leadership who have not sold their souls and do want what is best for everyone- not just the elite few. I hold out hope that the sheer numbers of people negatively impacted by ALEC and Neoliberal policies will have a backlash. We have been going in the wrong direction and need a course correction.
I suppose the ultimate happy ending would be that we get rid of standardized tests, we go back to trusting our Universitites to train teachers (without or with few shortcuts), and that we adequately fund public schools.
What to do with the charters and other partial changes?
I cannot picture where we are headed.
Wait, let me think. Oh yeah, we tried that and ended up with a 72 percent illiteracy rate among African American fourth graders.
Really Bill F? Exactly when did we adequately fund public schools? The closest we came to well funded schools and desegregation small class sizes was the end of the 80’s when the achievement gap was at it’s smallest. May not be cause and effect but certainly was a correlation!
We are mainly headed where parents and voters lead the way. Fortunately, most see the light and oppose these reforms that punish their children, deprive their children of funding, and punish their children’s teachers and administrators. The evaluation systems that are guided by RttT and states are a sham and a veritable scandal.
One reform, Joanna, I’d like to see happen is the higher education requirements should be likened to providing an internship similar to doctors, and Japan’s and Finland’s education systems . . . . Too many colleges do not provide a robust education for future teachers and the standards for admitting and retaining students in education programs are too low. Certainly this is NOT true in all places of higher education, but too many organizations are diploma mills and relax standards to keep the tuition money flowing in. Also, all colleges should have a K-12 school so that real college students can have supervised experiences with real children in the primary and secondary grades.
Finally, I’d like to see our offshore tax havens and military campaigns, two of our nation’s most grotesquely expensive arrangements, come to some reasonable and substantial curtailment so that money can come back here and properly finance public schools.
If not, I see civil unrest in very objectionable imagery within the next 10 years . . .
The problem with the “not enough money” argument is that no matter how much money there is, there never will be enough money.
Between fiscal year (FY) 1950 and FY 2009, the number of K-12 public school students in the United States increased by 96 percent while the number of full-time equivalent (FTE) school employees grew 386 percent. Public schools grew staffing at a rate four times faster than the increase in students over that time period. Of those personnel, teachers’ numbers increased 252 percent while administrators and other staff experienced growth of 702 percent, more than seven times the increase in students.
BF: And during that time K-12 enrollment grew by 197 percent. Your point?
BF: I have no notion where you got that figure of a growth in the student population of a 96 percent increase in the student population. It’s just wrong.
Let’s all go back to the good old days of the 1950s, everyone.
In reply to Bill F. Teachers could have as many as 40 or more students in a class 50 yrs ago. People wanted smaller classes with greater teacher attention. Students have stayed in school longer. Wouldn’t that lead to a greater number of teachers in the classroom??? I find it hilarious that you think standardized tests and less funding will improve education for minority children. Oh, and don’t forget the massive turnover in staff caused by abusive bills in the legislature. Oh yeah,, that will solve everything. What bull.
Bill F,
And since that year, what was the rate of the increase in child poverty in the United States?
Oops. . . . You must have “forgotten” that statistic as well . . . Sorry, Bill, but does the “F” stand for “failure” to think critically?
And why is arrogance such a prevailing force anymore?
Biblically minded or not (it is, afterall, the mythology of our time) I do not understand having no regard for the likes of Matthew 23:12.
I had ot look it up. I hope you are right.
I had TO look it up. I still need an edit feature here.
The oligarchical elite will not be satisfied until they can make any decision they wish to make about the lives of others on their own whim. How dare people to question their authority? That’s what this is all about.
Forget your quaint notions about due process.
Forget your quaint notions about democracy.
We live in a country in which a small group of oligarchs can get together in a room and create new national standards and tests and overrule every teacher, every administrator, every curriculum coordinator, every curriculum developer, every scholar and researcher in the country, for example.
“If you want a vision of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face–forever.”
–George Orwell, 1984
So, George was off by a few years.
A slight detour from the comments on this posting, suggested by Diane’s description of her attempt to engage an “education reformer” in a public forum.
Let’s redefine “public education” for a moment as “educating the public” or “engaging publicly in a thoughtful and serious discussion and/or debate” about important issues.
The self-styled “education reformers” are perfectly represented by State Senator Michael Johnston. They are almost always late to that sort of “public education.” It’s another dimension of the term “Rhee Flee” [originated as a description of Michelle Rhee fearfully backing away from the now-cancelled Feb. 6 public debate at Lehigh University with Diane Ravitch].
When they do show up, it’s all about eduproduct launches and rebrandings and promotions.
They truly do not believe in the power of their own ideas. They can only exist in the hot house atmosphere of support from billionaires, powerful politicians, the education establishment, and celebrity enablers.
The owner of this blog, however, continues in the best of American traditions:
“Truth is powerful and it prevails.” [Sojourner Truth]
Ravitch over Johnston in straight sets, 6-0 6-0 6-0, belt and title to the winner.
😎
Diane: 50% of teacher evaluations in Michigan are tied to one standardized test also. Just ludicrous. Al Churchill
________________________________
One definition of insanity??? that is edudeformers’ malpractices???
When do the I.Q. tests start for Colorado legislators?
Spent the last year, taking stupid tests.
Couldn’t get much dumber.
Oh, how I would love to see mandatory IQ and SAT testing for all state and national legislators who have voted for mandatory high-stakes testing for students!!!! It would be amusing, indeed, to see THOSE results.
This is the end of teaching as we know it. No one will survive long under these circumstances. Teachers will be “purged” and it will be a temp job, which is what they wanted from the beginning. Wow! Dr. Ravitch is a thorn in their side, but she has no power. Voters (unless billionaires) have no power! Zero! The whole system of public education is being wrecked and dismantled. It’s a tragedy, but as I said before the idiot public probably deserves it. They were too busy stuffing their faces with double cheeseburgers and uploading “selfies” to Facebook. I saw this coming five years ago, and it is breathtaking how fast the collapse is. The plan is unfolding just as I predicted and nothing is slowing it down, nothing. All elements of power in this country are determined to wreck the public schools, the teachers, and the education of the masses. It’s crazy! It must be historic. I have never heard of a society deliberately wrecking its own school system. This must be a first in history. I wonder if the free press in Democratic Europe is even aware of this. There are places without a controlled press, aren’t there? I don’t think Europeans would believe this. This is big news. Do teachers have a right to claim asylum under international persecution laws? I would like to go to a Scandinavian country and forget about my family’s 100 years in this country like a bad dream!
I have never heard of a society deliberately wrecking its own school system. This must be a first in history.
Indeed.
Alas, the wrecking of the U.S. public school system is a bipartisan effort. No other information would be necessary in order for an impartial observer to see the extent to which BOTH PARTIES are simply wind-up toys for a small, oligarchical elite–two rival gangs enriching themselves.
Robert, you are right on! It’s sick.
Mike, I believe you are correct in your assessment and that makes me very, very sad. I have seen this coming since the passage of NCLB — it is the logical conclusion to that farcical law but I truly believed that the professional organizations and unions that I have been a member of and supported through my membership fees would be at the forefront of defending teachers and public schools. I am deeply saddened that they have all sold out to the Gates Foundation and are willing to sit by and watch teachers be thrown to the wolves and schools closed down in order to ensure what they think will be their survival.
Sadness is my prevailing emotion too, Chris. With bouts of motivation, energetic positivity and optimistic efforts.
We can only influence what is right in front of us, and I will continue trying to do that. But most days, I definitely feel sad.
Synergy must find a way. We have to find option C.
Mike. Don’t give up the ship just yet. History sometimes puts certain people in a position to fight back. As a teacher in my 36th year, I am not willing to allow public education to pass away without my giving every ounce of my energy to fight against what I know in my soul to be wrong, wrong, wrong. I, too, have seen this perverted progression of events approaching for years. But now I am finally sensing a “disturbance in the force” and parents in my state are finally waking up to what is being done to their children. Now is the moment to pull together and fight.
Thank goodness for the lawsuit. I live in Colorado. If it twitches, it’s tested. What a horrid way to spend $$$$$. Cui bono?
Not the kids, certainly, nor their teachers, nor their schools. But some people are making a great deal of money and will make a lot more from the creation of a single national market via the CC$$.
NEA’s President Dennis Van Roekel applauds the Colorado union lawsuit against SB191, as he should. But for those of us in Illinois it makes some of us go, “What?”. When the NEA affiliate, the IEA, and the AFT affiliate sat down with Stand for Children’s Jonah Edelman to craft our state’s SB7, the entire state and national union leadership called it a model of collaboration for the nation. Stand for Children, DFER and other corporate reformers paid for the Colorado law just as they dropped millions of dollars to get is passed in Illinois. Colorado came cheap, since it was a Xerox copy of the Illinois law. So, Dennis. Which is it. A model of collaboration or a law that drives quality teachers out of the profession?
Mr. Klonsky,
This is very interesting. Can you recommend some good sources of information for what happened in Illinois? I know here in Colorado, in 2010, SB191 was just about copied from the Race to the Top grant guidelines (and then Colorado didn’t even get the grant, putting all the financial burden on a state that refuses to tax itself!), but our state affiliate, CEA, fought the bill. I’d be interested in knowing more about what NEA would support two opposing state strategies.
I wrote extensively on the topic on my blog. Fredklonsky.com
Of all the low life reformers in the country, NONE are lower than this one:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/07/12/jonah-edelman-on-illinois_n_896512.html.
Total scum.
Where was the NEA when these devastating laws throughout our country were being considered in the first place? I’ve been a dues paying teacher for over 20 years and have been shaking my head in amazement since NCLB on the silence of my union leadership. The Teamsters would never have lat this happen to their membership. My brother, a UPS driver has been protected by his union. As a result he makes double what I do (I have my doctorate), much better benefits, healthcare, and retirement. All because his union did their job prorecting his rights…..unlike ours.
I received the following email today from A+ Denver. It came to my Denver Public School email address. As a supporter of the lawsuit and bills to help modify senate bill 10-191 I found this to email to be very upsetting. A colleague of mine is listed in the lawsuit. She is a veteran teacher of nearly 30 years. She is an excellent educator and considers herself lucky that she was able to find a teaching position at the last minute. She was hired during our first week back at school.
I’ve also asked for a copy of their analysis and data that supports their claims.
I wonder how many people received this email and will believe its claims?
KG
Email from A+ Denver:
2014 Legislation Alert: Mutual Consent,
Common Core, and Accountability
Dear Members and Friends,
Denver Public Schools has its faults, a fact we rarely fail to point out. However, it also deserves praise and support. Student achievement has increased at a historic rate, dropout rates have decreased, and more students are in top-rated schools than ever before. These gains are a result of Denver’s ability to enact some of the boldest and most effective reforms of any urban district in the country. Some of these reforms are now under attack because of the adult interests that seek to uphold the status quo– even at the expense of students. Now, a trifecta of bills and a lawsuit threaten Denver’s progress and that of the state as a whole. A+ is asking you to take action and reach out to your elected representatives on three key issues: mutual consent, common core, and accountability.
Below each section, you will find a template letter you can use to email your state legislators to urge them to stop the lawsuit and bills. If you don’t know who your state legislators are, click below to find out.
Step 1: Find your state legislators and their contact information
1. Mutual Consent. A lawsuit brought by the teachers union (CEA) seeks to reinstate forced placement. Simultaneously, Rep. Joe Salazar, D-Thornton, and Sen. Nancy Todd, D-Aurora, have co-sponsored a bill (HB14-1268) that would gut mutual consent from SB-191.
Four years ago, Colorado was the first state to pass landmark legislation to end a practice called forced placement. What began decades ago as an attempt to protect teachers’ job security against unfair firing had spiraled into a system wherein teachers, granted almost automatic tenure (non-probationary in Colorado) after three years, were effectively guaranteed teaching jobs for life – regardless of their preparation or effectiveness. Under the old system, any non-probationary teacher that had lost their position because of a drop in enrollment or school closure and could not secure a new position would be directly placed into another school, frequently against teacher and principal wishes. In Denver, at least 70% of these teachers were forcibly placed in high poverty, low-performing schools. SB-191 replaced forced placement with “mutual consent” wherein both the teacher and the school administration must agree to a teaching assignment. Mutual consent allows schools to take ownership of student achievement and increases the odds that a child will have an effective teacher.
Now, if there is a reduction in force, affected teachers are paid for 12 months and are afforded priority interviews through two hiring cycles. If a teacher is then not among the 750-800 teachers hired each year for two consecutive hiring cycles, that teacher is put on unpaid leave. Unpaid leave effectively guarantees that when that teacher does find another teaching job, their new salary and benefits build upon their former salary. Since the mutual consent provision was adopted in 2010, just 57 teachers have been put on unpaid leave and are unable to find jobs (fewer than 20 per year).
There is now a small group of teacher union leaders and disgruntled teachers that want to return to the days when teacher job security was guaranteed regardless of classroom effectiveness. The question at hand in the lawsuit is whether non-probationary status (tenure), which has been almost automatically granted to every teacher after three years, is a property right that guarantees a salary or pension for life.
A+ Denver does not believe that tenure was ever intended to keep ineffective teachers in classrooms. We are part of a coalition that includes education and business groups and Colorado Governors Hickenlooper, Ritter and Owens. The coalition has called on the CEA to drop their lawsuit, and on lawmakers backed by the union to drop the legislation that would unravel 191. Read this recent op-ed by Ritter and Owens.
Download Template Letter on Mutual Consent
2. Dissolving new state “Common Core”: SB14-136 would rollback the implementation of the Common Core and delay the switch from TCAP to PARCC assessments.
The “Common Core” is a set of national standards that would replace Colorado’s standards. There has long been a push to create a set of national norms so that when kids move from state to state, the expectations of learning remain the same, and so that the math kids are required to know in California is the same as Colorado is the same as New York. Within the past couple of years, a coalition of states developed standards that are more relevant to the real world, more rigorous, and stress critical thinking. Forty-five states and Guam have adopted Common Core – the first set of internationally benchmarked standards in the US. For Denver, Common Core is essential to reform because our students will need to compete not just with other Denver kids, but with kids from around the world for the best jobs. We owe it to them to set them up for success by having high education standards that link to those in other states and nations. Note that Common Core sets targets for what skills kids need in primary subjects. They aren’t curricula and leave lots of room for local or state standards to supplement them with local context.
This bill to reject Common Core is being sponsored by Senator Vicki Marble, a tea party activist who recently made a name for herself for bizarre comments on race. The bill would roll back implementation of the “Common Core” and the shift from TCAP (aligned to CO standards) to PARCC (aligned to Common Core), a move already well underway in hundreds of schools. PARCC tests are more inquiry-based than TCAP, addressing one major criticism of TCAP. Both the new standards and tests have support from educators and the leading education political leaders on both sides of the aisle. A change now would be a huge blow to Denver educators that have worked so hard to implement them, and would set us far behind other states and nations that are ratcheting up their public education systems.
Download Template Letter on Common Core
3. Districts opting out of accountability. HB14-1202, led by Douglas County, would allow school districts to opt out of state tests. It could effectively dismantle the new teacher evaluation system.
Many complain that tests are onerous and imperfect and should be improved. These critics have been heard, and as a result tests are improving. Imperfect or not, standard assessments are also the only and best tool for determining whether students are learning. Without them, we can’t close, restructure, or phase out the worst schools – perhaps Denver’s best strategy for improving student achievement. Furthermore, the new educator effectiveness system that was overwhelmingly supported and is just now starting to go into effect, could be crippled by the DougCo bill.
The waiver bill is being driven by the Douglas County school district because the district claims that the state’s testing regiment is too burdensome and is not rigorous enough for DougCo students. There is actually nothing preventing Douglas County from having even higher standards in the classroom. DougCo may want more rigorous standards, but many other districts will want less rigorous ones, and this bill could create a free-for-all.
This bill would not only destroy the current state accountability system for schools and districts but also gut the new teacher evaluation system, which is tied to assessment systems. The purpose of having state standards with an accompanying assessment system is to be able to make determinations about what is and is not working so that the public and policy makers can make adjustments to improve quality. This bill would undermine our ability to make comparisons and accordingly improve public education. It would also make it nearly impossible for parents to make informed decisions about the quality of school and which school would best meet the needs of their child because we wouldn’t be able to compare schools accurately.
Download Template Letter on Opting Out
These moves to undermine reform efforts have created an unholy alliance between the far right that wants no state or federal intrusion into local school districts and the extreme left who mindlessly support teacher unions rather than support great teachers. Each of these three bills could have a catastrophic long-term impact on student learning in Denver. We urge you to speak up on behalf of kids by letting your representative know you reject these bills and other legislation that undermines reform.
Thank you for your support.
A+ Denver