Students in Douglas County, Colorado, walked out and picketed to express their outrage at the high rates of teacher turnover in their school. Teacher turnover may be caused by the demoralizing policies enacted by the state and the district. Colorado teachers have suffered since 2010 under State Senator Michael Johnston’s legislation to tie teacher evaluations to student test scores. DougCo has had a conservative school board, which destabilized the schools.
A boisterous crowd of 100 or so students walked out of Ponderosa High School on Wednesday morning to highlight what they say is an excessive departure rate among teachers at the school and within the Douglas County School District.
They waved signs on school property that read “We love teachers” and “Keep DCSD Great,” while chanting “best teachers, best students.”
Several passing drivers honked their horns in support.
“We don’t find it fair that our teachers are leaving the district, and we want to know why,” said senior Lisa Culverhouse, who was skipping math, English and Spanish to rally with classmates. “We hope the district will realize it’s a problem — students want to be heard….”
Courtney Smith, president of the Douglas County Federation, said teacher morale has never been lower. She counts the teacher evaluation system — which she said was mostly about “uploading evidence” rather than true assessment of teaching skills — among the chief problems.
Good work, Senator Johnston. When does your promise of “great schools, great principals, great teachers” come to pass? How much longer shall we wait?
Diane Ravitch's blog 
The adjective GREAT comes from the Obama administration, along with various claims that its RESPECT program is “elevating” the profession of teaching.
The rhetoric is a cover for pay-for-performance with invalid/unreliable one-size-fits-all measures and ratings of teachers based on norms… meaning about half of teachers are condemned to never being top-drawer.
Pay-for-performance plans for teachers have tanked over and over again because they are started with grants from private foundations, and foundations are not in the game for long. States and districts cannot foot the bills. Add the churn of policy shifts from legislators, the churn of administrators, the churn of teachers, and the defenders of “no more taxes” least of all for teachers.
Eight recent studies funded by PEARSON and the National Network of State Teachers of the Year document the problems while trying to shore up pay-for-performance based on “career ladders.”
Natale, C., Gaddis, L., Bassett, K., & McKnight, K. (2016). Teacher Career Advancement Initiatives: Lessons Learned from Eight Case Studies, a joint publication of Pearson and the National Network of State Teachers of the Year.
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In Douglas County, salary bands are set up based on markets” for teachers. You can learn more about market-based pay here. There is a link to the salary bands based on subject and grade levels.The salary bands are subject to change, according to not very transparent notions of supply and demand for particular grades and subjects or jobs, such as special education. Milton Friedman and his followers smile.
https://www.dcsdk12.org/district/market-based-pay
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It made me smile. All schools should have salary bands.
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What people need to realize is that this decline in teacher quality — masses of top-notch teachers leaving the profession, the steep decline in college students choosing teaching as a career — is not an unfortunate, misguided “mistake”, or an unintended consequence of these corporate education “reforms”, but the actual goal itself of corporate education reform.
Once you realize this, everything that is happening now. Everything that corporate reformers are doing MAKES TOTAL AND PERFECT SENSE.
While the protestors in Douglas, Colorado and elsewhere are up in arms about this, the sinister forces pushing it are popping champagne corks, as everything is proceeding according to their plans.
The corporate reformers’ / school privatizers’ goal has always been, in party, to move teaching from …
… a profession on a par with doctors, lawyers, engineers — one requiring a demanding education, extensive training, an exacting apprenticeship … that results in better job conditions (low class size) a higher compensation, solid benefits, decades of service, and prestige in everyone’s eyes..
… then drag it down to
that of low-level service job on a part with fast food workers, office temps, and retail sales clerks — one requiring only a minimal education (high school diploma… if that), little or no training or apprenticeship … that will bring these services workers horrific job conditions (sky-high, unmanageable class sizes) lousy pay, lousy (or no) benefits, a short time on the job, (“2 or 3 years, before one moves on to a real career”, to quote John Deasy’s speech at Occidental College), and no prestige whatsoever.
This is being done so that — once the corporate takeover has been executed — those profiteers can maximize their profits. I mean, how can you get rich if you have to pay your workers a decent wage.
Despite corporate reform’s propaganda to the contrary, that’s the hideous reality of what’s behind the facades Vergara, Friedrichs, and all the rest of the union busting going on … not what’s best for the education of children of the middle and working classes
However, that’s just the story of the education of the middle and working classes. When it comes to the education of the 1%, those children will have teachers who are the former… repeating … a profession on a par with doctors, lawyers, engineers — one requiring a demanding education, extensive training, an exacting apprenticeship … that results in better job conditions (low class size) a higher compensation, solid benefits, decades of service, and prestige in everyone’s eyes.
Go the websites of the reformers’ kids, and that’s what you’ll see. There’s the education of the 1%, as opposed to what corporate reformers envision for that of “other people’s kids.”
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Thank you. I keep doing my best to expose the truth behind your frightening thesis: that experienced teachers leaving — or being forced out of — the teaching profession IS THE ACTUAL GOAL OF CORPORATE REFORM. I get so tired of hearing that teachers are “choosing” to leave teaching when, in fact, so many have been given no choice but to be viciously shown the door.
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“I keep doing my best to expose the truth behind your frightening thesis: that experienced teachers leaving — or being forced out of — the teaching profession IS THE ACTUAL GOAL OF CORPORATE REFORM.”
It is. It is. It is. It is…. to infinity.
The corporate reformers want poorly-paid, ill-prepared service workers (facilitators) supervising kids on computers all day … or they ever DO have to deliver instruction, they’ll be reading god-awful scripts, not any actual educating.
NONE OF THIS WOULD BE ALLOWED OR TOLERATED AT THE RICH KIDS’ PRIVATE SCHOOLS WHERE THE 1% — INCLUDING THE CORPORATE REFORMERS AND PROFITEERS’ — SEND THEIR OWN CHILDREN.
Look at the second picture at this link BELOW. This is the end game for corporate reformers. They call this “personalized learning” — when it is the exact opposite … totally impersonal, painfully isolating, and dehumanizing — and they think by making the computer carrels bright, primary, kiddie colors that makes it somehow more okay:
http://www.schoolsmatter.info/2016/03/that-was-now-this-is-then.html
By contrast, look at the website of the school where perhaps the most prominent corporate reformer Campbell Brown sends her kids (her husband is a prominent Wall Street hedge fund manager who profits from school privatization).
Here’s that school’s website, New York City’s elite private school Heschel: (compare what follows to that hideous picture of kids stuck in computer carrels all day)
http://www.heschel.org/
To understand Campbell Brown’s hypocrisy better, let’s just take the example of corporate reform’s new “Common Core Standards.”
Brown writes vicious attacks on Common Core opponents like the following:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/political-attacks-on-common-core-are-driven-by-pandering/2015/02/27/bfbf9f80-bad8-11e4-b274-e5209a3bc9a9_story.html?postshare=4201425094031685
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CAMPBELL BROWN:
“Let’s be clear about what Common Core is. It spells out what students should know at the end of each grade. The goal is to ensure that our students are sound in math and literacy and that our schools have some basic consistency nationwide. But the standards do not dictate a national curriculum, and teachers are not told how or what to teach.
“The unpopularity of the initiative with segments of the public has been caused by rough implementation in some states and the tests linked to the standards. That frustration is legitimate and can be addressed. But abandonment of the initiative for political reasons is craven…
“Education never quite gets the attention it deserves in presidential campaigns, but monster flip-flops surely do. So here’s some advice for people running for office: If you want to campaign against core standards, perhaps you should try having core standards of your own first.”
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Really Campbell? So what standards and testing do YOU have FOR YOUR OWN CHILDREN?
According the Mercedes Schneider, you send your kids to a private Jewish school with A CURRICULUM, STANDARDS, AND TESTING THAT IS DIAMETRICALLY OPPOSED TO COMMON CORE.. AND NO STANDARDIZED TESTING OF ANY KIND UNTIL HIGH SCHOOL
The Abraham Joshua Heschel School
http://www.heschel.org/
The Abraham Joshua Heschel School: Mission
from the link immediately above:
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HESCHEL:
“In an open and engaging academic setting, the school’s curriculum interweaves the best of both Jewish and general knowledge and culture throughout the school day.
“The school’s approach to education is governed by profound respect for students. It nurtures their curiosity, cultivates their imagination, encourages creative expression, values their initiative and engenders critical thinking skills. The school is committed to development of the whole child and supports each student’s intellectual, emotional, social, physical and spiritual growth. In addition, the school seeks to create an environment that encourages the professional and personal growth of teachers, administrators, and staff.
“Among the Central goals of the Abraham Joshua Heschel School are the following:
“Fostering a lifelong love of learning. The school seeks to develop the understanding that the discovery of personal meaning and the growth of individual identity can emerge from the rigors of study.
“Creating an environment of intellectual challenge and academic excellence.
“Creating an ethical learning community that inspires its students to become responsible, active, compassionate citizens and leaders in the Jewish and world communities.
“Cultivating the spiritual lives of its students and the nurturing of their commitment to Jewish values. The school helps students learn about and respect a range of Jewish practices and encourages them to embody these traditions in the way they live their lives; students learn the skills that enable them to participate fully in Jewish life.
“Building of bridges between different sectors of the Jewish community, and between the Jewish community and other communities, as expressions of our religious imperative to unite human beings through justice, shared humanity and mutual respect.
“Fostering in its students a deep commitment to and a lifelong relationship with the State of Israel and its language, culture and people, in recognition of the centrality of the State of Israel to Jewish identity and to the Jewish people.”
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Here’s more of what you can get at Heschel—a comprehensive Arts Curriculum—one that is impossible at public schools thanks to so much its funding going to Pearson and the other Common Core-related vendors:
http://www.heschel.org/page.cfm?p=1130
From the link above:
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The Arts at Heschel
“As students are exposed to a multitude of media in their daily lives, art courses can help them navigate the unfolding context of contemporary culture and technology in order to understand and find meaning in the possibilities through creating and analyzing.
“The Visual Arts department is rooted in the school’s vision that the discovery of personal meaning and the growth of individual identity can emerge from the rigors of study, of student centered inquiry and the development of a sensitive eye, a discerning mind and skillful hand.
“Music as non-verbal expression continues to say something universal, essential, and native to even the humblest of involved seekers. Music education, therefore, must stand alone as an important and necessary part of the total learning and growing process.”
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And here’s what happens at Heschel in Grades 1-5 (i.e. “Lower School”) :
The Abraham Joshua Heschel School: Lower School
http://www.heschel.org/page.cfm?p=16
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Lower School
“It is my pleasure to welcome you to the Heschel Lower School. We hope you will learn about our philosophy and curriculum. If you have additional questions after you have read through the website, please contact us.
“The Lower School comprises grades 1-5 and offers a rich and rigorous curriculum in both general and Judaic studies. Every part of the school day is planned to offer each student a challenging, well-supported, and nurturing environment. Our highly qualified and enthusiastic faculty brings the curriculum to life through analysis of text, thoughtful discussion, projects, and field trips.
“In all areas, the emphasis is on thinking and questioning. Jewish traditions form the basis for teaching ethical values and the imperative to treat others as we would like to be treated.
“As you walk through the Lower School, you will see children happily engaged. The classrooms and hallways are alive with students learning, studying, singing, praying, and playing with joy. You will learn a great deal about us from our website, and we hope you will schedule a visit to experience the spirit of our faculty and students.”
Dina Bray
Lower School Head
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Does that sound like David Coleman’s “no-one-cares-what-students-think” Common Core currriculum?
Campbell, in effect, you spend tens of thousands of dollars of money to make sure that your own children are, figuratively speaking, kept as far away from Common Core as your money can manage:
Check out these costs:
http://www.heschel.org/page.cfm?p=232
According to the above link, this is what Campbell pays
FOR EACH CHILD (she has 2 or 3… I forget):
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Tuition for the 2014-2015 school year is as follows:
N $26,125
PK $35,775
K $36,050
1 $37,425
2 $37,425
3 $38,150
4 $38,150
5 $38,150
6 $38,800
7 $38,800
8 $38,800
9 $39,650
10 $39,650
11 $39,650
12 $40,225
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Campbell, since you think Common Core is so great, I’m sure that you and/or your husband have stormed into the offices of the administrators of your Heschel, and demanded they implement Common Core standards, curriculum, and testing forthwith… with threats to remove your kids if this doesn’t occur?
Well, we all know that ain’t gonna happen.
So in short, the opinion of Obama, Rhee, Huffman, Duncan, John King, and Campbell Brown: “Common Core rules!!! Just keep it the-hell away from my own kids.”
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