Archives for the month of: March, 2018
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North Carolina: NPE Action Fund Endorses Wiley Nickel for State Senate

By dianeravitch
March 15, 2018 //
3

 

The Network for Public Education Action Fund endorses Wiley Nickel for State Senate in North Carolina, District 16. 

Wiley is a strong supporter of teachers and public schools.

The Network for Public Education has endorsed attorney Wiley Nickel for the District 16 seat in the North Carolina Senate. Wiley told us that he would “fight every day to fully fund the public school system, to raise teacher salaries to above the national average.”

He said he would support legislation to reduce class sizes, and also to pay for it. He sees the “class size chaos” that was created by the North Carolina legislature when they mandated reduced class sizes without providing additional funding for additional teachers.

Wiley also doesn’t agree that teacher pay should be capped the way it’s done in North Carolina, where the most senior teachers can never get a raise based on their seniority.

Wiley has taken a strong stand on both charter schools and vouchers, telling NPE Action that he opposes both. He supports a moratorium on charter schools, and “empowering local school boards with the ability to create charters and keep them under their governance.”

When is comes to vouchers, he called for “phasing out school vouchers for private schools, and ensuring that existing private schools receiving public voucher funds meet the same accountability and performance standards as public schools.” He also opposes tax credits and 529 accounts for K-12 private schools.

Please spread the word about Wiley’s May 8, 2018 primary election and help get people out to the polls to vote for a strong supporter of North Carolina’s teachers and public schools.

Categories Networkfor Public Education Action Fund, North Carolina

Michael Feuer: Advice to Secretary DeVos on How to Save Her Tenure in Office

By dianeravitch
March 15, 2018 //
30

 

Michael Feuer, dean of the graduate school of education at George Washington University, offers Betsy DeVos tips on how to make her time in office tolerable and perhaps useful. 

This is his first suggestion.

“The most important goal of the agency is to help improve public schools.

“Americans have voted with their feet: Even after 50 years of debate, advocacy, and research into mechanisms designed to privatize education, roughly 90 percent of our kids still attend traditional public schools. The secretary’s prior efforts notwithstanding, vouchers have not been taken up by large shares of the public, where they have been tried the results have been mixed at best and the American public and the high court remain uncomfortable with use of public funds to support religious education.

”Given her need to set priorities she should focus on bettering public schools — a central institution in all our communities.”

He has five other ideas for her.

Given her long history of advocacy for privatization, it doesn’t seem likely that she will take his advice.

 

 

Categories Accountability, Betsy DeVos, Education Industry, Privatization

Jamie Gass: How “Frankenstein” Lost to Common Core

By dianeravitch
March 15, 2018 //
20

Jamie Gass of the Pioneer Institute (a think-tank in Boston with which I disagree about charters) wrote a terrific piece about the history of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, why it is a classic, and why young people today should read it.

Gass writes:

Until recently, Massachusetts’ nation-leading K-12 English standards were animated by such classic British literature and poetry. Great fiction contributed to the commonwealth’s success on virtually every K-12 reading test known to the English-speaking world.

But in 2010, Massachusetts took $250 million in one-time federal grant money to replace its proven English standards with inferior nationalized ones known as Common Core. These national standards – an educational Frankenstein’s monster – largely decapitated timeless fiction and stitched on brainless so-called “informational texts…”

Frankenstein awakens us to a key lesson of modern learning – science is a powerful tool, but when uncoupled from moral and ethical grounding, it can easily become monstrous.

After pseudo-scientific 20th-century totalitarian regimes – which manufactured mass murder, the Holocaust, and gulags – Mary Shelley’s central message about the limits of human power and modern science is even more relevant today.

How sad for students and teachers.

Categories Common Core, Literature

Jay P. Greene: The Disconnect Between Changing Test Scores and Changing Life Outcomes

By dianeravitch
March 15, 2018 //
10

 

Since the passage of No Child Left Behind, test scores have been defined by federal law as the goal of education. Schools and teachers that “produce”higher scores are good, schools and teachers that don’t are “bad,” and likely to suffer termination. The assumption is that higher test scores produce better life outcomes, and that is that.

In late 2016, Jay P. Greene produced a short and brilliant paper that challenged that assumption. I have fallen into the habit of asking myself whether the young people who are super-stars in many non-academic fields had high scores and guessing they did not. Fortunately, it is only in schools where students get branded with numbers like Jean Val Jean of “Les Miserables.” Outside school, they can dazzle the world as athletes, musicians, inventors, or mechanics, without a brand.

Greene writes:

“If increasing test scores is a good indicator of improving later life outcomes, we should see roughly the same direction and magnitude in changes of scores and later outcomes in most rigorously identified studies. We do not. I’m not saying we never see a connection between changing test scores and changing later life outcomes (e.g. Chetty, et al); I’m just saying that we do not regularly see that relationship. For an indicator to be reliable, it should yield accurate predictions nearly all, or at least most, of the time.

“To illustrate the un-reliability of test score changes, I’m going to focus on rigorously identified research on school choice programs where we have later life outcomes. We could find plenty of examples of disconnect from other policy interventions, such as pre-school programs, but I am focusing on school choice because I know this literature best. The fact that we can find a disconnect between test score changes and later life outcomes in any literature, let alone in several, should undermine our confidence in test scores as a reliable indicator.

“I should also emphasize that by looking at rigorous research I am rigging things in favor of test scores. If we explored the most common use of test scores — examining the level of proficiency — there are no credible researchers who believe that is a reliable indicator of school or program quality. Even measures of growth in test scores or VAM are not rigorously identified indicators of school or program quality as they do not reveal what the growth would have been in the absence of that school or program. So, I think almost every credible researcher would agree that the vast majority of ways in which test scores are used by policymakers, regulators, portfolio managers, foundation officials, and other policy elites cannot be reliable indicators of the ability of schools or programs to improve later life outcomes.”

I would add that Chetty et al did not establish a causal relationship between teacher VAM and later life outcomes, only a correlation. The claim that my fourth grade teacher “caused” me not to become pregnant a decade later strains credulity. At least mine.

Greene’s essay includes an excellent reading list of studies showing high test scores but no change in high school graduation rate or college attendance.

The Milwaukee and D.C. voucher studies that show a gain in high school graduation rate should note the high attrition rate from these programs, which inflates the graduation rate.

Imagine saying to a governor, I have a policy intervention that will raise test scores but will have little or no effect on life outcomes. Would they jump at the offer? Based on the political activity of the past 15 years, the answer is yes.

Overall, however, a seminal essay from a prominent pro-choice scholar.

Categories Charter Schools, Research, School Choice, Vouchers

St. Joseph College in New York Has a Wonderful New President

By dianeravitch
March 14, 2018 //
6

 

I was offline most of today. I attended the formal installation of the eighth president of St. Joseph College, located in Brooklyn and Patchogue, New York. The College was founded 101 years ago by the Sisters of St. Joseph. I was there because my spouse is a graduate of the College and a member of the Board of Trustees. Over the years, I have come to know many other alums and many of the Sisters, including Sister Elizabeth Hill, who was President of the College for many years. She is a tiny woman with a huge brain and great wit, who was trained as a lawyer and has devoted her life to SJC.

The new president is a rare find. Dr. Donald Boomgaarden is a distinguished musicologist and a concert pianist, with many years of experience as an administrator in Catholic colleges. He was educated by the Jesuits. He embodies a genuine love of the arts, love of learning, a devotion to social justice, and a deep commitment to SJC’s historic tradition of integrity, intellectual and social values, and service to others.

Don Boomgaarden comes to SJC from the University of Scranton, and before that was dean of the college of music and fine arts at Loyola University in New Orleans. He received his BA from Texas State University and his MA and PhD from the Eastman School of Music at the University of Rochester. He spent a decade at the University of Salzburg in Austria, studying and performing in the shadow of the world’s greatest classical composers.

He is a performing artist, both as a pianist and a country fiddler. In addition, he is a historian of opera, music aesthetics, and harmonic theory.

What a pleasure to meet a college president who is passionate about liberal education and is a professional musician. In addition, he rides a motorcycle and is a certified yoga instructor!

Everyone is excited about the new president. His energy and enthusiasm for his new assignment are contagious.

SJC has a well-established history of preparing excellent teachers and administrators for the public schools of New York City and Long Island. It is a not-so-hidden gem among the excellent liberal arts colleges of the Northeast.

We are already planning to attend President Boomgaarden’s first concert on the Brooklyn campus, on May 1, when he will perform an all-Chopin program. Can’t wait until he has his first country fiddling concert.

 

Categories Education Reform

Ohio: Don’t Be Fooled by John Kasich Pretending to Be a Moderate

By dianeravitch
March 14, 2018 //
22

 

John Kasich was portrayed by the media in the 2016 as the last Republican Moderate. Critics in Ohio had a different idea. They called him John the Vindictive. They remember that his first effort in Ohio was to try to kill collective bargaining. It took a referendum to roll back his Senate Bill 5.

Stephen Dyer says that Vindictive John is back.

 

 

 

Categories Duncan, Arne

Oklahoma: Will Teachers Strike? John Thompson Explains.

By dianeravitch
March 14, 2018 //
3

 

John Thompson, teacher and historian in Oklahoma, writes here about the run-up to a possible teachers’ strike. Teachers’ salaries in Oklahoma are near the lowest in the nation. Coincidentally or not, supporters of school choice are massing this morning Choice advocates are rallying this morning at the State Capitol to demand more funding for charters and vouchers. The choice advocates don’t care about teachers’ salaries, teacher shortage, or the experience of those who teach their children.

 

John Thompson writes:

“Oklahoma gives $500 million a year in tax breaks to energy companies, but it is #1 in the nation in cutting state funding for education, reducing formula funding by 28%. We are either third from last or last in the nation in teacher pay. Teachers have not received a state pay increase for a decade; the starting salary is $31,600 for a first-year teacher. State employees have not received an across the board pay raise in 12 years.

“As the rest of the nation watches the grassroots rebellion of teachers that is likely to lead to an April 2 walkout of both teachers and state employees, outsiders should be aware that before the legislature could address our fiscal crisis, it has had to deal with more pressing priorities.

Another year goes by, and Oklahoma still leads the nation for cuts to education


http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2018/mar/07/good-jobs-first/are-oklahoma-teachers-lowest-paid-nearly/
http://newsok.com/oklahoma-teachers-continue-wait-for-pay-raise-a-decade-after-last-increase/article/5580331
http://newsok.com/article/5586584?slideout=1

“The first priority which had to be resolved before Oklahoma could address the budget was brought up by my legislator, Rep. Jason Dunnington (D-OKC). He wanted Imad Enchassi, senior imam of the Islamic Society of Greater Oklahoma City, to serve as the House Chaplain for a Day. Enchassi is one of the state’s most thoughtful, articulate, and witty leaders. However, the Republican leadership continued to block the iman’s application They changed their rules requiring clergy participating in the House Chaplain Program “be from the representative’s own place of worship.”

“After 250 Christians, Jews, and Muslims showed up in the Capitol rotunda to hear Enchassi lead an Islamic prayer, the Republican leadership had to change the guidelines once again. After all, they needed the rules necessary for keeping political issues out of their daily prayers …

“Sure enough, a second priority emerged when the Senate leadership had to defend a Baptist minister’s 15 minute prayer/serman to that legislative body. He blamed school shootings on gay marriage.

“The pastor said:

‘Feb. 14 (a young man) went into a school and killed 17 of our people, our kids. What is going on? What is going on? … Do we really believe that we can create immorality in our laws? Do we really believe that we can redefine marriage from the word of God to something in our own mind and there not be a response? Do we really believe we can tell God to get lost from our schools and our halls of legislation and there be no response? Do we really believe that?’

http://newsok.com/interfaith-leaders-say-legislatures-chaplain-program-excludes-non-christians/article/5583810
https://www.thelostogle.com/2018/03/02/angry-baptist-minister-makes-triumphant-return-to-oklahoma-capitol/

“The legislative load in the wake of recent school shootings was somewhat easier because Oklahoma had already authorized teachers to carry guns at schools, but the law required 74 hours of training. So surely teachers who care about their students should agree to put their pay on the back burner until the required training was reduced …

“Then the right to carry concealed guns into churches had to be reinforced, once again. Non-Oklahomans should understand why Sen. John Bennett (R-Sallisaw) felt compelled to protect churchgoers’ right to arm themselves against “knuckleheads” and “evil people.” His new priority was legislative action for implementing Matthew 26:52, which says “those who take up the sword die by the sword.”

”But Bennett, who has called Islam a “cancer” and who said that state employees seeking a pay raise are engaging in “terrorism,” didn’t include mosques. Consequently, another Republican had to file a bill protecting guns in all houses of worship.

https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/oklahoma/articles/2018-02-28/oklahoma-panel-oks-plan-to-ease-training-for-armed-teachers
http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/capitol_report/guns-in-churches-bill-passes-oklahoma-house-would-extend-stand/article_0209a184-5573-56b7-8adb-3395049f68f8.html
http://newsok.com/article/5570937

“Oklahoma’s refusal to accept Obamacare contributed to the enormous hole in the budget that created the education crisis. So, another priority was passing legislation and preparing Gov. Mary Fallin’s order that work requirements must be attached to Medicaid.

“As the April 2 strike deadline approaches, legislative leaders have suggested legislation allowing ad valorem taxes dedicated to capital expenditures be redirected towards salaries. That would free some rich communities to offer a raise. And the word is that equally eccentric funding ideas will be floated.

“It is tougher to raise revenue in Oklahoma than in West Virginia because a constitutional amendment requires a 75% majority to increase taxes. We should not forget, however, why that provision became law.

“In 1992, after a decade of economic collapse due to deindustrialization spurred by Reaganomics, the oil downturn, the banking and savings and loan collapse, AIDS, and the crack and gangs epidemic, HB1017 was passed. After a four-day strike, the tax was passed, saving our schools, but the backlash killed all but one tax increase since then.

“So, Oklahoma’s April tornado season is likely to be upstaged by a bottom-up teachers’ revolt. It is likely to produce a political battle royal which will be worthy of the attention of readers across the nation. Stay tuned.”

Categories Charter Schools, Oklahoma, School Choice, Teacher Pay, Teacher Shortage, Teachers, Vouchers

Steven Singer: Twenty-One Reasons Why People Hate DeVos

By dianeravitch
March 14, 2018 //
9

 

In the course of the infamous interview of Betsy DeVos on 60 Minutes, Lesley Stahl asked DeVos why she was the most hated member of the cabinet. DeVos said she didn’t know but assumed she was “misunderstood.”

Steven Singer asserts that DeVos is not misunderstood at all. She should wonder no more.

He offers twenty-one reasons why she is hated. 

 

Categories Accountability, Betsy DeVos, Education Industry, Privatization

NPE Action Warns: Stop This New Federal Voucher Program Now

By dianeravitch
March 14, 2018 //
9

There is a very large Federal program called Impact Aid, designed to provide money to districts affected by federal military facilities, which puts a strain on the budgets of those districts.

Some Republican Senators are proposing to convert Impact Aid into vouchers, removing funding from the “impacted” districts and schools.

NPE Action urges you to write your Senators and other members of Congress and urge them to stop this effort to create a new federal voucher program.

We need you to stand up for public schools. Right now there are two voucher bills, both referred to as the Military Education Savings Accounts Act (HR 5199/ S. 2517) in the House and the Senate. Both bills would siphon off the Impact Aid public school districts get in order to fund an Education Savings Account (ESA) program that would allow some students to use a voucher to attend a private school.

This bill will move quickly so send your email here today.

Here is the link https://actionnetwork.org/letters/stop-the-latest-federal-voucher-scheme-before-its-too-late

Then please call your Senators and your House Member and let them know you are opposed to HR 5199 and S. 2517.

What is Impact Aid and which schools get it?

Impact Aid helps fund school districts that lose tax revenue because their district includes federally tax-exempt land such as military bases, Native American reservations, national parks or federal housing. As of 2016, Impact Aid provided funding for about 1,300 school districts that in total educate more than 11 million students.

Reducing Impact Aid funding for public schools would strain districts with an already low level of local tax revenue–districts where the community already pays higher taxes because of untaxed federal land.

Would this program help most military families?

No.

Most military families are not wealthy enough to use it. The ESA they would get would be $2,500 although the average price of a year of private elementary school is $7,770, and the average annual cost of private high school is $13,030.

The National Military Family Association has already opposed this proposal to divert Impact Aid from schools that educate military-connected students and the Military Officers Association of America (MOAA) has expressed similar concerns.

The men and women who serve our country deserve excellent public schools for their children–not schools that are drained of funds by those wealthy enough to afford private school already.

STOP THIS DE VOS-SUPPORTED VOUCHER SCHEME.

Send your email by clicking here. (here is the link https://actionnetwork.org/letters/stop-the-latest-federal-voucher-scheme-before-its-too-late)

Categories Education Reform

Idaho: Vouchers Are Dead for This Year!

By dianeravitch
March 14, 2018 //
6

According to a personal message from Idaho teacher Levi Cavener, vouchers are dead in Idaho this year.

He wrote me: “The Senate Committee pulled the bill from the agenda, which means the bill is dead for this year’s session.”

This is great news. Educators across the state, including Don Coberly, the superintendent of Boise, objected that vouchers are divisive and have failed to improve achievement in other states. The State Board of Education unanimously opposed it, as did many Republicans. It narrowly passed in the House.

 

All citizens of Idaho should carefully read the explicit language of Article IX, Section 5, of the State Constitution. If voucher advocates want to change the Constitution, they should call for a referendum to do so and put it to the public.

 

CONSTITUTION OF THE STATE OF IDAHO
APPROVED JULY 3, 1890

ARTICLE IX
EDUCATION AND SCHOOL LANDS

SECTION 1. LEGISLATURE TO ESTABLISH SYSTEM OF FREE SCHOOLS. The stability of a republican form of government depending mainly upon the intelligence of the people, it shall be the duty of the legislature of Idaho, to establish and maintain a general, uniform and thorough system of public, free common schools.

SECTION 2. BOARD OF EDUCATION. The general supervision of the state educational institutions and public school system of the state of Idaho, shall be vested in a state board of education, the membership, powers and duties of which shall be prescribed by law. The state superintendent of public instruction shall be ex officio member of said board.

SECTION 3. PUBLIC SCHOOL PERMANENT ENDOWMENT FUND TO REMAIN INTACT. The public school permanent endowment fund of the state shall forever remain inviolate and intact; the earnings of the public school permanent endowment fund shall be deposited into the public school earnings reserve fund and distributed in the maintenance of the schools of the state, and among the counties and school districts of the state in such manner as may be prescribed by law. No part of the public school permanent endowment fund principal shall ever be transferred to any other fund, or used or appropriated except as herein provided. Funds shall not be appropriated by the legislature from the public school earnings reserve fund except as follows: the legislature may appropriate from the public school earnings reserve fund administrative costs incurred in managing the assets of the public school endowment including, but not limited to, real property and monetary assets. The state treasurer shall be the custodian of these funds, and the same shall be securely and profitably invested as may be by law directed. As defined and prescribed by law, the state shall supply losses to the public school permanent endowment fund, excepting losses on moneys allocated from the public school earnings reserve fund.

SECTION 4. PUBLIC SCHOOL PERMANENT ENDOWMENT FUND DEFINED. The public school permanent endowment fund of the state shall consist of the proceeds from the sale of such lands as have heretofore been granted, or may hereafter be granted, to the state by the general government, known as school lands, and those granted in lieu of such; lands acquired by gift or grant from any person or corporation under any law or grant of the general government; and of all other grants of land or money made to the state from the general government for general educational purposes, or where no other special purpose is indicated in such grant; all estates or distributive shares of estates that may escheat to the state; all unclaimed shares and dividends of any corporation incorporated under the laws of the state; and all other grants, gifts, devises, or bequests made to the state for general educational purposes; and amounts allocated from the public school earnings reserve fund. Provided however, that proceeds from the sale of school lands may be deposited into a land bank fund to be used to acquire other lands within the state for the benefit of endowment beneficiaries. If those proceeds are not used to acquire other lands within a time provided by the legislature, the proceeds shall be deposited into the public school permanent endowment fund along with any earnings on the proceeds.

SECTION 5. SECTARIAN APPROPRIATIONS PROHIBITED. Neither the legislature nor any county, city, town, township, school district, or other public corporation, shall ever make any appropriation, or pay from any public fund or moneys whatever, anything in aid of any church or sectarian or religious society, or for any sectarian or religious purpose, or to help support or sustain any school, academy, seminary, college, university or other literary or scientific institution, controlled by any church, sectarian or religious denomination whatsoever; nor shall any grant or donation of land, money or other personal property ever be made by the state, or any such public corporation, to any church or for any sectarian or religious purpose; provided, however, that a health facilities authority, as specifically authorized and empowered by law, may finance or refinance any private, not for profit, health facilities owned or operated by any church or sectarian religious society, through loans, leases, or other transactions.

SECTION 6. RELIGIOUS TEST AND TEACHING IN SCHOOL PROHIBITED. No religious test or qualification shall ever be required of any person as a condition of admission into any public educational institution of the state, either as teacher or student; and no teacher or student of any such institution shall ever be required to attend or participate in any religious service whatever. No sectarian or religious tenets or doctrines shall ever be taught in the public schools, nor shall any distinction or classification of pupils be made on account of race or color. No books, papers, tracts or documents of a political, sectarian or denominational character shall be used or introduced in any schools established under the provisions of this article, nor shall any teacher or any district receive any of the public school moneys in which the schools have not been taught in accordance with the provisions of this article.

SECTION 7. STATE BOARD OF LAND COMMISSIONERS. The governor, superintendent of public instruction, secretary of state, attorney general and state controller shall constitute the state board of land commissioners, who shall have the direction, control and disposition of the public lands of the state, under such regulations as may be prescribed by law.

SECTION 8. LOCATION AND DISPOSITION OF PUBLIC LANDS. It shall be the duty of the state board of land commissioners to provide for the location, protection, sale or rental of all the lands heretofore, or which may hereafter be granted to or acquired by the state by or from the general government, under such regulations as may be prescribed by law, and in such manner as will secure the maximum long term financial return to the institution to which granted or to the state if not specifically granted; provided, that no state lands shall be sold for less than the appraised price. No law shall ever be passed by the legislature granting any privileges to persons who may have settled upon any such public lands, subsequent to the survey thereof by the general government, by which the amount to be derived by the sale, or other disposition of such lands, shall be diminished, directly or indirectly. The legislature shall, at the earliest practicable period, provide by law that the general grants of land made by congress to the state shall be judiciously located and carefully preserved and held in trust, subject to disposal at public auction for the use and benefit of the respective object for which said grants of land were made, and the legislature shall provide for the sale of said lands from time to time and for the sale of timber on all state lands and for the faithful application of the proceeds thereof in accordance with the terms of said grants; provided, that not to exceed one hundred sections of state lands shall be sold in any one year, and to be sold in subdivisions of not to exceed three hundred and twenty acres of land to any one individual, company or corporation. The legislature shall have power to authorize the state board of land commissioners to exchange granted or acquired lands of the state on an equal value basis for other lands under agreement with the United States, local units of government, corporations, companies, individuals, or combinations thereof.

SECTION 9. COMPULSORY ATTENDANCE AT SCHOOLS. The legislature may require by law that every child shall attend the public schools of the state, throughout the period between the ages of six and eighteen years, unless educated by other means, as provided by law.

SECTION 10. STATE UNIVERSITY – LOCATION, REGENTS, TUTITION, FEES AND LANDS. The location of the University of Idaho, as established by existing laws, is hereby confirmed. All the rights, immunities, franchises, and endowments, heretofore granted thereto by the territory of Idaho are hereby perpetuated unto the said university. The regents shall have the general supervision of the university, and the control and direction of all the funds of, and appropriations to, the university, under such regulations as may be prescribed by law. The regents may impose rates of tuition and fees on all students enrolled in the university as authorized by law. No university lands shall be sold for less than ten dollars per acre, and in subdivisions not to exceed one hundred and sixty acres, to any one person, company or corporation.

SECTION 11. INVESTING PERMANENT ENDOWMENT FUNDS. The permanent endowment funds other than funds arising from the disposition of university lands belonging to the state, may be invested in United States, state, county, city, village, or school district bonds or state warrants or other investments in which a trustee is authorized to invest pursuant to state law.

 

Categories Justice
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