In the ongoing battle to secure dollars for CPS, one thing is a 'no brainer,' the education of the children doesn't really enter the equation. Want proof? The CPS brass is now talking about cutting the end of the school year by 13 days. That's in addition to 4 furlough days that have been set aside earlier in the school year. That means a net loss of education of 17 days or 3 1/2 weeks of school. So tell me what drives the bus!
The district is over $100 million in the red and is facing a $721 million teacher pension payment in June. These financial woes come on the heels of Governor Rauner vetoing a bill in December of 2016 which would have provided $215 million in relief for the pension shortfall.
All of the furlough days would not only result in a loss of pay for the teachers and other staff but, more importantly it means that the instruction the students richly deserve will go begging. Talk about putting the schools, the students, and their families in a bind!!!
Not only does this do a disservice to educating the kids it plays into the hands of those who would have us think that public education in America is in tatters.
Dick
Tuesday, February 28, 2017
Monday, February 27, 2017
Retreat
Did the resignation of 16 members of the CPS advisory committee for Latino students, who were protesting draconian cuts to largely Latino school students, have any impact on the system refunding monies to these schools? Well, it's hard to tell but, there likely would have been little movement to restore these funds without these resignations and the attendant alarm raised by many.
As I write this blog the CPS brass isn't sure where the restoration of $15 million - from the original freeze on budgets - will come from. One thing is a certainty, when voices of concern are rasied and heard change can take place. Let's hope, for the sake of the children, that the money is found.
Dick
As I write this blog the CPS brass isn't sure where the restoration of $15 million - from the original freeze on budgets - will come from. One thing is a certainty, when voices of concern are rasied and heard change can take place. Let's hope, for the sake of the children, that the money is found.
Dick
Friday, February 24, 2017
Well Worth the Read
Friends, I have a piece written by a teacher in Ohio that I believe is well worth the read in terms of what is or is not happening in the classroom, testing, poverty and much more. I think that you will find this letter, written by Kristina Taylor, to shed a good deal of light on the state of education in America.
Dear Secretary DeVos, Governor Kasich, and Superintendent DeMaria:
I write to each of you, in my position as a teacher in the Cincinnati Public Schools, to ask for your assistance. I include both federal and state politicians here, as in the past when I had the opportunity to address concerns to a member of the Federal Department of Education, I was told that these issues were under state control, but when, while working as part of a committee examining the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), I addressed the same concerns to members of the State Department of Education, I was told that these issues were under federal control.
As a result, I invite all of you to engage in the conversation together in hope that rather than finger pointing, we can begin to seek solutions.
As we implement new education legislation, I ask that teachers be treated as the experts we are. That we are not just included in the conversation, but that we are leading it. The data demands it, and our children deserve it.
An Artificial Crisis
Politicians and the media have had a field day “exposing,” and attempting to address, what has been described as an educational crisis in America. I, too, believe that we are facing a crisis; however, unlike many in the school reform movement, I do not think that teachers and schools are at the root of this crisis. Rather I think it is the very reform efforts themselves – known generally as the “school accountability movement” — that has caused this concern.
I do not blame the Common Core State Standards. Many people conflate the Common Core State Standards with school accountability measures, but, to be clear, while there are some overlaps between these issues, the CCSS are not to blame in isolation for the challenges we are facing in education today. As a teacher, my personal opinion is that the jury is still out on CCSD, and will remain so until we have experienced several cohorts of students whose education has occurred entirely under CCSD. There are some who believe that this set of standards is not developmentally appropriate for students. This may be, but to be clear, the Standards themselves are merely goals to aim for. I am happy to have a high bar set for both my students and myself, as long as I am given time, support, and resources to attempt to meet that bar, and with the understanding that since students all start at different places, success lies in moving them toward the goal.The standards are not the problem. The problem is the methodology being used to monitor them.
A Look at the Data
There is a body of information indicating that the supposed “crisis” in American Education has been misreported, and that this myth has been supported and sustained by a repeated skewing of the reported data.
The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) is a national database that has tracked student progress in reading and math since the early 1970s. It is given to students at ages 9, 13, and 17, and the tests have been carefully monitored for consistency over the course of nearly 40 years. The results of this data indicate that reading and math scores have remained fairly static from year to year, with both increasing somewhat over time. For example, the 2012 data indicated that for thirteen year olds, the average reading scores increased by 8 raw points and average math scores increased by 21 raw points, since the first data reported in 1978.[1]
This does not look like a crisis at all. The “educational crisis” hysteria has seemed to predominantly come from information comparing United States’ educational data with that from other countries.
Whenever we compare educational outcomes, we must be careful to monitor for external factors – for example, when comparing data internationally, we must take into account that the United States educates and assesses all students until the age of 18; whereas some other countries place students in various forms of tracked models and do not include all of these groups in their testing.
UNICEF’s table on childhood poverty rates in economically advanced countries
Additionally, the United States has a very high child poverty rate. The 2012 UNICEF report listed The United States’ child poverty rate as 34th out of 35 “economically advanced” countries, with only Romania scoring lower.[2]
We know that poverty impacts academic achievement, and this must be taken into account when comparing U.S. scores internationally. For example, when the oft-cited data from the Program for International Assessment (PISA) is disaggregated based on economic status, we can see a trend that clearly indicates that the problem is poverty, rather than instruction.
PISA rankings disaggregated by poverty levels
United States’ schools with fewer than 10% of students living in poverty score higher than any country in the world. Schools with student poverty rates that are less than 24.9% rank 3rd in the world, and schools with poverty rates ranging from 25% to 49.9% rank 10th in the world. However, schools with 50% to 74.9% poverty rates rank much lower – fifth from the bottom. Tragically, schools with 75% or higher poverty rates rank lower in reading scores than any country except Mexico.[3]
Couple this with the 2013 data that indicates that a majority (51%) of public school students live in poverty in this country, and we see the true depth of the actual crisis of poverty, and its impact on education.[4]
A Crisis of Poverty
Schools with the lowest rates of student achievement are typically those with the highest number of disadvantaged students and the fewest available resources. The problem runs deeper than just funding, however. Children living in poverty often have a specialized set of social-emotional and academic needs. Schools with high percentages of economically disadvantaged students cannot be treated in the same manner as more affluent schools.
Education is neither a business nor is it a factory. We do not start with identical raw materials, and act upon them in a systematic way to produce an identical product. In the same vein, we cannot judge instructional efficacy in a single manner, with a single measure, and expect to get a consistent result. Teaching is a service industry, and we work with human capital. There are myriad factors at play that influence what appropriate expectations are for any given student, but poverty is likely the most impactful of these factors.
Children living in poverty are more likely to be coping with what has been labeled “toxic stress”– caused by a high number of identified adverse childhood events. Factors such as death or incarceration of a parent, addiction, mental illness, and abuse, among other things, have been labeled as adverse childhood events. Poverty, itself, is considered to be a type of sustained adverse childhood experience, and it also is a correlate factor, since living in poverty increases the likelihood of experiencing other adverse childhood events.[5]
We know that these types of severe and chronic stress lead to long-term changes in children’s mental and physical development, and that this directly impacts their performance in school. “On an emotional level, toxic stress can make it difficult for children to moderate their responses to disappointments and provocations. A highly sensitive stress-response system constantly on the lookout for threats can produce patterns of behavior that are self-defeating in school: fighting, talking back, acting up, and, more subtly, going through each day perpetually wary of connection with peers or teachers. On a cognitive level, chronically elevated stress can disrupt the development of what are known as executive functions …, which include working memory, attentional control, and cognitive flexibility.”[6]
We know that children living in poverty face greater academic challenges than their middle and upper class counterparts, and yet, instead of helping this situation, the school accountability movement has chosen to vilify the wrong thing (teachers and schools), and has used standardized test scores as the weapon of choice to add insult to injury.
A Moving Target
In Ohio, there have been so many moving pieces at play that it is impossible to get a statistically valid measure. Over the course of the past three years, schools, teachers, and students have had their performance assessed using a different measurement tool each year. The 2013-2014 school year was the final year for assessment using the old Ohio State Standards and the Ohio Achievement Assessments. In the 2014-2015 school year, we switched to a combination of Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Career (PARCC) and American Institute of Research (AIR) assessments based on the Common Core State Standards. Due to the legislation passed which illegalized PARCC administration in the state of Ohio, in the 2015-2016 school year, we administered AIR tests for the full battery of testing. During those same years, Ohio increased the number of grades and subjects areas tested.
In addition to these changes, the identified percentage of correct responses for proficiency on each test has changed each year, and the percentage of students scoring proficient in order to schools to be considered successful in achieving Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) has also increased each year.
So, the standards have changed, the tests have changed, the acceptable percent of correct responses has changed, the required percentage of students achieving proficiency has changed.
Tell me again why we think this is an accurate and reliable system for measuring student achievement?
It is, therefore, not surprising that scores have remained anything but static. For the 2012-2013 school year, Cincinnati Public Schools was rated as being in “Continuous Improvement,” while the school where I teach was deemed “Excellent.” For the 2015-2016 school year, the Cincinnati Public Schools received four ratings of “F” and 2 ratings of “D,” while the school where I teach received 3 “F” ratings and 2 D ratings. (As a high school program, we are not rated in the area of K-3 Literacy.)
There are only two ways to interpret this. Either, over the course of three years, the quality of instruction has declined precipitously (across a district of nearly 3,000 teachers), or the data is invalid. The former assumption is nonsensical; the latter is terrifying based on the weight this data carries when making educational decisions.
Teacher performance evaluations are linked to test scores, School and district report cards are based almost exclusively on test scores, and, student graduation is based on test scores. But if the tools keep changing and the target keeps moving, how is it even remotely possible to measure improvement?
This concern is compounded by the subjectivity of the scores determined for proficiency – the cut scores are neither norm-referenced nor consistent from year to year.
For the 2015-2016 testing, in reading and math, across all grade levels, the percentage of students projected to score proficient or above ranged from 52-66%. This means that even on tests where students were “most likely to pass,” it was anticipated that only 66% of students would do so, and for other tests this was as low as 52%. For many tests, the reality was significantly worse. Only 21% of students taking Integrated Mathematics (Math 2) across the state were deemed proficient or above, and only 24% of students taking the Geometry test scored proficient or above. This is an awfully broad-scale problem to make the assumption that the issue of concern lies with students and teachers, rather than with the testing itself and with the structure of the system of accountability.[7]
And once again, we see that poverty plays a role in these outcomes. For the 2015-2016 school year, 94% of urban schools in Ohio received ratings of D or F. Because of school accountability, and the high-stakes nature of the tests, scores like these cause the testing pressure to ratchet up. Low scores necessarily result in greater time and resources being spent solely to improve these scores. Some call this “test preparation;” others call it “teaching to the test.” Testing and school accountability result in too much time spent on testing, and on teaching curriculum that loses much of the flexible, creative, engaging, and in-depth instruction that keeps students engaged in learning and educators engaged in teaching. As one former urban school principal, concerned about the state report card, said during a faculty meeting when a teacher dared question how testing was detracting from her carefully crafted curriculum, “The test IS the curriculum! What are you, STUPID?!?!”
An Unavoidable Outcome
In 2013, the American Federation of Teachers reported that in heavily tested grades, up to fifty hours a year was spent on testing and up to 110 hours a year devoted to test preparation. Schools with high percentages of disadvantaged students bear the greatest weight for this, as they tend to have the greatest required gains in testing outcomes. The Center for American Progress notes that students in urban high schools spend up to 266% more time taking standardized tests than students in suburban schools.[8]
And this is the fundamental problem with school accountability measures. They have caused the American public school system to become overly focused on a single measurement of success, and that measure is most punitive to populations that are already struggling.
Standardized test data is one measure of academic achievement, and as such it is valuable, but it is nothing more than a single data point. However, this data point has become so important that it is driving every other aspect of the educational train.
I want that data point – I want it for each of my students individually, and I want it for my class collectively – because it tells me something. But it doesn’t tell me everything, and we are treating it as if it does. How can the snapshot of a test score – given on a certain day, in a certain amount of time, with a specific type of questioning – tell me more than what I know as a result of working with my students hour after hour, day after day, for 40 weeks? It can’t, of course.
A Teacher’s Plea
Teachers are professionals, and we should be treated as such.
We are required to hold, at minimum, a Bachelor’s degree in teaching one or more subject areas; we also must complete significant amounts of additional training every year, and, at least in Ohio, to submit this to the state for re-licensure every five years. Most importantly, teachers are highly practiced in assessment and interpretation of results through our daily work with students and our careful observation of, and reflection on, student learning .
Education is complicated. Student growth is broad and deep, and sometimes happens in fits and starts and other times grows slowly and consistently. This complex process could never be adequately measured by a series of tests.
I know my students. I know when I am moving too quickly or too slowly, and I know when they are succeeding and when they are struggling. To assume that the state can determine this, and can make judgments on the effectiveness of my instruction based solely on a single measure is folly – especially when we know that students in poverty, the teachers who educate them, and the schools that serve them, will be judged most harshly by these measures. In fact, standardized test scores may tell us very little about a teachers’ impact or a students’ future success.
As Paul Tough writes, “A few years ago, a young economist at Northwestern University named C. Kirabo Jackson began investigating how to measure educators’ effectiveness. In many school systems these days, teachers are assessed based primarily on one data point: the standardized-test scores of their students. Jackson suspected that the true impact teachers had on their students was more complicated than a single test score could reveal… He created a proxy measure for students’ noncognitive ability. Jackson’s new index measured how engaged students were in school – Whether they showed up, whether they misbehaved, and how hard they worked in their classes. Jackson found that this was, remarkably, a better predictor than student’s test scores of whether the students would go on to attend college, a better predictor of adult wages, and a better predictor of future arrests.”[9]
School Accountability measures with their fundamental focus on testing reduces teachers’ ability to focus on nurturing students’ “noncognitive ability,” and this is damaging to students and teachers alike — perhaps irrevocably damaging.
The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) is moving us in the right direction by removing the requirement that teacher evaluations be linked to standardized test outcomes, but it doesn’t go far enough, and it leaves the window open for states to continue this practice.
As a nation, we must move away from our obsession with testing outcomes. The only group that is profiting from this is the testing industry. And with 1.7 billion dollars being spent by states annually on testing, they are, quite literally, profiting, and at the tax payers’ expense.[10]
The most critical solution to this is to untie student, teacher, and school accountability measures from testing outcomes, or to combine these scores with a variety of other measures of success. In addition, we need to dramatically reduce the time spent on testing by requiring tests in fewer grades, or not administering tests every year. No high-performing nation in the world tests all students annually.[11]
An Expert Opinion
We are not in an education crisis. We are in a crisis of poverty that is being exacerbated by the school accountability movement and the testing industry. At best, this movement has been misguided. At worst, it is an intentional set up to bring about the demise of the public education system – mandatory testing designed to produce poor results which leads to greater investment made in test preparation programs provided by the same companies who produce the tests, coupled with a related push for privatization of the educational system. All touted as a means to save us from this false crisis.
Politics, not education, got us into this mess, and it is politics that must get us out of it.
We must not go further down this rabbit hole. The future of our educational system, and the future of our children, is at stake. No one who has not worked in the sector of public education should be making decisions about our school system without careful consideration of the insights of those who will be directly impacted by those decisions.
As we move forward with a new federal administration, and as the state of Ohio makes decisions relative to implementation of ESSA, I beg you to not just include teachers and parents in the discussion, but to ensure that we are the loudest voices in the conversation.
I hope that you will consider the issues raised here, and most importantly, that you will listen to the voices of the teachers and parents who are trying so desperately to be heard.
Thank you for your time. I am happy to engage in the conversation further; feel free to contact me at taylorkrista70@gmail.com
Sincerely,
Kristina L. Taylor
Intervention Specialist; Team Leader
James N. Gamble Montessori High School
2015 Educator of the Year
Dear Secretary DeVos, Governor Kasich, and Superintendent DeMaria:
I write to each of you, in my position as a teacher in the Cincinnati Public Schools, to ask for your assistance. I include both federal and state politicians here, as in the past when I had the opportunity to address concerns to a member of the Federal Department of Education, I was told that these issues were under state control, but when, while working as part of a committee examining the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), I addressed the same concerns to members of the State Department of Education, I was told that these issues were under federal control.
As a result, I invite all of you to engage in the conversation together in hope that rather than finger pointing, we can begin to seek solutions.
As we implement new education legislation, I ask that teachers be treated as the experts we are. That we are not just included in the conversation, but that we are leading it. The data demands it, and our children deserve it.
An Artificial Crisis
Politicians and the media have had a field day “exposing,” and attempting to address, what has been described as an educational crisis in America. I, too, believe that we are facing a crisis; however, unlike many in the school reform movement, I do not think that teachers and schools are at the root of this crisis. Rather I think it is the very reform efforts themselves – known generally as the “school accountability movement” — that has caused this concern.
I do not blame the Common Core State Standards. Many people conflate the Common Core State Standards with school accountability measures, but, to be clear, while there are some overlaps between these issues, the CCSS are not to blame in isolation for the challenges we are facing in education today. As a teacher, my personal opinion is that the jury is still out on CCSD, and will remain so until we have experienced several cohorts of students whose education has occurred entirely under CCSD. There are some who believe that this set of standards is not developmentally appropriate for students. This may be, but to be clear, the Standards themselves are merely goals to aim for. I am happy to have a high bar set for both my students and myself, as long as I am given time, support, and resources to attempt to meet that bar, and with the understanding that since students all start at different places, success lies in moving them toward the goal.The standards are not the problem. The problem is the methodology being used to monitor them.
A Look at the Data
There is a body of information indicating that the supposed “crisis” in American Education has been misreported, and that this myth has been supported and sustained by a repeated skewing of the reported data.
The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) is a national database that has tracked student progress in reading and math since the early 1970s. It is given to students at ages 9, 13, and 17, and the tests have been carefully monitored for consistency over the course of nearly 40 years. The results of this data indicate that reading and math scores have remained fairly static from year to year, with both increasing somewhat over time. For example, the 2012 data indicated that for thirteen year olds, the average reading scores increased by 8 raw points and average math scores increased by 21 raw points, since the first data reported in 1978.[1]
This does not look like a crisis at all. The “educational crisis” hysteria has seemed to predominantly come from information comparing United States’ educational data with that from other countries.
Whenever we compare educational outcomes, we must be careful to monitor for external factors – for example, when comparing data internationally, we must take into account that the United States educates and assesses all students until the age of 18; whereas some other countries place students in various forms of tracked models and do not include all of these groups in their testing.
UNICEF’s table on childhood poverty rates in economically advanced countries
Additionally, the United States has a very high child poverty rate. The 2012 UNICEF report listed The United States’ child poverty rate as 34th out of 35 “economically advanced” countries, with only Romania scoring lower.[2]
We know that poverty impacts academic achievement, and this must be taken into account when comparing U.S. scores internationally. For example, when the oft-cited data from the Program for International Assessment (PISA) is disaggregated based on economic status, we can see a trend that clearly indicates that the problem is poverty, rather than instruction.
PISA rankings disaggregated by poverty levels
United States’ schools with fewer than 10% of students living in poverty score higher than any country in the world. Schools with student poverty rates that are less than 24.9% rank 3rd in the world, and schools with poverty rates ranging from 25% to 49.9% rank 10th in the world. However, schools with 50% to 74.9% poverty rates rank much lower – fifth from the bottom. Tragically, schools with 75% or higher poverty rates rank lower in reading scores than any country except Mexico.[3]
Couple this with the 2013 data that indicates that a majority (51%) of public school students live in poverty in this country, and we see the true depth of the actual crisis of poverty, and its impact on education.[4]
A Crisis of Poverty
Schools with the lowest rates of student achievement are typically those with the highest number of disadvantaged students and the fewest available resources. The problem runs deeper than just funding, however. Children living in poverty often have a specialized set of social-emotional and academic needs. Schools with high percentages of economically disadvantaged students cannot be treated in the same manner as more affluent schools.
Education is neither a business nor is it a factory. We do not start with identical raw materials, and act upon them in a systematic way to produce an identical product. In the same vein, we cannot judge instructional efficacy in a single manner, with a single measure, and expect to get a consistent result. Teaching is a service industry, and we work with human capital. There are myriad factors at play that influence what appropriate expectations are for any given student, but poverty is likely the most impactful of these factors.
Children living in poverty are more likely to be coping with what has been labeled “toxic stress”– caused by a high number of identified adverse childhood events. Factors such as death or incarceration of a parent, addiction, mental illness, and abuse, among other things, have been labeled as adverse childhood events. Poverty, itself, is considered to be a type of sustained adverse childhood experience, and it also is a correlate factor, since living in poverty increases the likelihood of experiencing other adverse childhood events.[5]
We know that these types of severe and chronic stress lead to long-term changes in children’s mental and physical development, and that this directly impacts their performance in school. “On an emotional level, toxic stress can make it difficult for children to moderate their responses to disappointments and provocations. A highly sensitive stress-response system constantly on the lookout for threats can produce patterns of behavior that are self-defeating in school: fighting, talking back, acting up, and, more subtly, going through each day perpetually wary of connection with peers or teachers. On a cognitive level, chronically elevated stress can disrupt the development of what are known as executive functions …, which include working memory, attentional control, and cognitive flexibility.”[6]
We know that children living in poverty face greater academic challenges than their middle and upper class counterparts, and yet, instead of helping this situation, the school accountability movement has chosen to vilify the wrong thing (teachers and schools), and has used standardized test scores as the weapon of choice to add insult to injury.
A Moving Target
In Ohio, there have been so many moving pieces at play that it is impossible to get a statistically valid measure. Over the course of the past three years, schools, teachers, and students have had their performance assessed using a different measurement tool each year. The 2013-2014 school year was the final year for assessment using the old Ohio State Standards and the Ohio Achievement Assessments. In the 2014-2015 school year, we switched to a combination of Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Career (PARCC) and American Institute of Research (AIR) assessments based on the Common Core State Standards. Due to the legislation passed which illegalized PARCC administration in the state of Ohio, in the 2015-2016 school year, we administered AIR tests for the full battery of testing. During those same years, Ohio increased the number of grades and subjects areas tested.
In addition to these changes, the identified percentage of correct responses for proficiency on each test has changed each year, and the percentage of students scoring proficient in order to schools to be considered successful in achieving Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) has also increased each year.
So, the standards have changed, the tests have changed, the acceptable percent of correct responses has changed, the required percentage of students achieving proficiency has changed.
Tell me again why we think this is an accurate and reliable system for measuring student achievement?
It is, therefore, not surprising that scores have remained anything but static. For the 2012-2013 school year, Cincinnati Public Schools was rated as being in “Continuous Improvement,” while the school where I teach was deemed “Excellent.” For the 2015-2016 school year, the Cincinnati Public Schools received four ratings of “F” and 2 ratings of “D,” while the school where I teach received 3 “F” ratings and 2 D ratings. (As a high school program, we are not rated in the area of K-3 Literacy.)
There are only two ways to interpret this. Either, over the course of three years, the quality of instruction has declined precipitously (across a district of nearly 3,000 teachers), or the data is invalid. The former assumption is nonsensical; the latter is terrifying based on the weight this data carries when making educational decisions.
Teacher performance evaluations are linked to test scores, School and district report cards are based almost exclusively on test scores, and, student graduation is based on test scores. But if the tools keep changing and the target keeps moving, how is it even remotely possible to measure improvement?
This concern is compounded by the subjectivity of the scores determined for proficiency – the cut scores are neither norm-referenced nor consistent from year to year.
For the 2015-2016 testing, in reading and math, across all grade levels, the percentage of students projected to score proficient or above ranged from 52-66%. This means that even on tests where students were “most likely to pass,” it was anticipated that only 66% of students would do so, and for other tests this was as low as 52%. For many tests, the reality was significantly worse. Only 21% of students taking Integrated Mathematics (Math 2) across the state were deemed proficient or above, and only 24% of students taking the Geometry test scored proficient or above. This is an awfully broad-scale problem to make the assumption that the issue of concern lies with students and teachers, rather than with the testing itself and with the structure of the system of accountability.[7]
And once again, we see that poverty plays a role in these outcomes. For the 2015-2016 school year, 94% of urban schools in Ohio received ratings of D or F. Because of school accountability, and the high-stakes nature of the tests, scores like these cause the testing pressure to ratchet up. Low scores necessarily result in greater time and resources being spent solely to improve these scores. Some call this “test preparation;” others call it “teaching to the test.” Testing and school accountability result in too much time spent on testing, and on teaching curriculum that loses much of the flexible, creative, engaging, and in-depth instruction that keeps students engaged in learning and educators engaged in teaching. As one former urban school principal, concerned about the state report card, said during a faculty meeting when a teacher dared question how testing was detracting from her carefully crafted curriculum, “The test IS the curriculum! What are you, STUPID?!?!”
An Unavoidable Outcome
In 2013, the American Federation of Teachers reported that in heavily tested grades, up to fifty hours a year was spent on testing and up to 110 hours a year devoted to test preparation. Schools with high percentages of disadvantaged students bear the greatest weight for this, as they tend to have the greatest required gains in testing outcomes. The Center for American Progress notes that students in urban high schools spend up to 266% more time taking standardized tests than students in suburban schools.[8]
And this is the fundamental problem with school accountability measures. They have caused the American public school system to become overly focused on a single measurement of success, and that measure is most punitive to populations that are already struggling.
Standardized test data is one measure of academic achievement, and as such it is valuable, but it is nothing more than a single data point. However, this data point has become so important that it is driving every other aspect of the educational train.
I want that data point – I want it for each of my students individually, and I want it for my class collectively – because it tells me something. But it doesn’t tell me everything, and we are treating it as if it does. How can the snapshot of a test score – given on a certain day, in a certain amount of time, with a specific type of questioning – tell me more than what I know as a result of working with my students hour after hour, day after day, for 40 weeks? It can’t, of course.
A Teacher’s Plea
Teachers are professionals, and we should be treated as such.
We are required to hold, at minimum, a Bachelor’s degree in teaching one or more subject areas; we also must complete significant amounts of additional training every year, and, at least in Ohio, to submit this to the state for re-licensure every five years. Most importantly, teachers are highly practiced in assessment and interpretation of results through our daily work with students and our careful observation of, and reflection on, student learning .
Education is complicated. Student growth is broad and deep, and sometimes happens in fits and starts and other times grows slowly and consistently. This complex process could never be adequately measured by a series of tests.
I know my students. I know when I am moving too quickly or too slowly, and I know when they are succeeding and when they are struggling. To assume that the state can determine this, and can make judgments on the effectiveness of my instruction based solely on a single measure is folly – especially when we know that students in poverty, the teachers who educate them, and the schools that serve them, will be judged most harshly by these measures. In fact, standardized test scores may tell us very little about a teachers’ impact or a students’ future success.
As Paul Tough writes, “A few years ago, a young economist at Northwestern University named C. Kirabo Jackson began investigating how to measure educators’ effectiveness. In many school systems these days, teachers are assessed based primarily on one data point: the standardized-test scores of their students. Jackson suspected that the true impact teachers had on their students was more complicated than a single test score could reveal… He created a proxy measure for students’ noncognitive ability. Jackson’s new index measured how engaged students were in school – Whether they showed up, whether they misbehaved, and how hard they worked in their classes. Jackson found that this was, remarkably, a better predictor than student’s test scores of whether the students would go on to attend college, a better predictor of adult wages, and a better predictor of future arrests.”[9]
School Accountability measures with their fundamental focus on testing reduces teachers’ ability to focus on nurturing students’ “noncognitive ability,” and this is damaging to students and teachers alike — perhaps irrevocably damaging.
The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) is moving us in the right direction by removing the requirement that teacher evaluations be linked to standardized test outcomes, but it doesn’t go far enough, and it leaves the window open for states to continue this practice.
As a nation, we must move away from our obsession with testing outcomes. The only group that is profiting from this is the testing industry. And with 1.7 billion dollars being spent by states annually on testing, they are, quite literally, profiting, and at the tax payers’ expense.[10]
The most critical solution to this is to untie student, teacher, and school accountability measures from testing outcomes, or to combine these scores with a variety of other measures of success. In addition, we need to dramatically reduce the time spent on testing by requiring tests in fewer grades, or not administering tests every year. No high-performing nation in the world tests all students annually.[11]
An Expert Opinion
We are not in an education crisis. We are in a crisis of poverty that is being exacerbated by the school accountability movement and the testing industry. At best, this movement has been misguided. At worst, it is an intentional set up to bring about the demise of the public education system – mandatory testing designed to produce poor results which leads to greater investment made in test preparation programs provided by the same companies who produce the tests, coupled with a related push for privatization of the educational system. All touted as a means to save us from this false crisis.
Politics, not education, got us into this mess, and it is politics that must get us out of it.
We must not go further down this rabbit hole. The future of our educational system, and the future of our children, is at stake. No one who has not worked in the sector of public education should be making decisions about our school system without careful consideration of the insights of those who will be directly impacted by those decisions.
As we move forward with a new federal administration, and as the state of Ohio makes decisions relative to implementation of ESSA, I beg you to not just include teachers and parents in the discussion, but to ensure that we are the loudest voices in the conversation.
I hope that you will consider the issues raised here, and most importantly, that you will listen to the voices of the teachers and parents who are trying so desperately to be heard.
Thank you for your time. I am happy to engage in the conversation further; feel free to contact me at taylorkrista70@gmail.com
Sincerely,
Kristina L. Taylor
Intervention Specialist; Team Leader
James N. Gamble Montessori High School
2015 Educator of the Year
Thursday, February 23, 2017
Let the Harm to Schools Begin
Representative Steven King of Iowa introduced a bill that would take Dept. of Education funds and provide them to states so that they can, in turn, use them for VOUCHERS. That's right...vouchers. Anyone that doesn't think that a good portion of this money will be diverted from the traditional neighborhood public schools is mistaken.
Take a look below and you'll see what I mean about money not ending up in the public schools.
To be eligible to receive a block grant, a state must (1) comply with the education voucher program requirments (I'll find out more on this and get back to you) and (2) make it lawful for parents of an eligible child to elect to enroll their child in ANY (I did the capitalization!) public or private elementary or secondary school in the state or to home-school their child.
Of course by ANY school, that includes normal public schools, charters and private schools along with home-schooling.
I don't know about you but, I'm no longer wondering what may happen to the Dept. of Education and our public schools.
Dick
Take a look below and you'll see what I mean about money not ending up in the public schools.
To be eligible to receive a block grant, a state must (1) comply with the education voucher program requirments (I'll find out more on this and get back to you) and (2) make it lawful for parents of an eligible child to elect to enroll their child in ANY (I did the capitalization!) public or private elementary or secondary school in the state or to home-school their child.
Of course by ANY school, that includes normal public schools, charters and private schools along with home-schooling.
I don't know about you but, I'm no longer wondering what may happen to the Dept. of Education and our public schools.
Dick
Wednesday, February 22, 2017
Spending on Schools Works!
Well, as the chart indicates, by increasing per pupil spending by 10% we find that graduation rates and income rates, after students leave high school, increase by 7% of ALL students when additional funding comes into schools. Graduation rates go up by 10% and incomes increase by 13% for those considered to come from low income homes. The results speak for themselves. Investing in our schools reaps rewards.
Dick
Tuesday, February 21, 2017
A CPS Freeze
The latest news regarding the funding of CPS schools is bleak to say the least. According to today's Chicago Sun-Times the cuts 'hurt majority Hispanic schools at twice the rate of schools serving mostly white children, and cut poor schools at twice the rate of wealthier ones.'
Those schools which are have at least 51% of their student population comprised of Hispanics saw total budget frozen at the rate 1.8% while those schools which are at least 51% white saw their total budgets cut by 0.9%. These are the facts. Further, the Sun-Times reports that 'schools where 3 out of 4 kids are poor lost 1.7% of their money; roughly double the 0.8% lost by schools where just 1 of 4 kids is poor.
This scene fits the narrative, in part, that I've been covering over the past couple of days relative to properly resourcing the neighborhood schools in Chicago. These cuts merely add to the staggering obstacles that schools, families and neighborhoods have to overcome in terms of fighting violence, poverty, blight and the loss of hope.
What a sad and painful commentary on our country.
Dick
Those schools which are have at least 51% of their student population comprised of Hispanics saw total budget frozen at the rate 1.8% while those schools which are at least 51% white saw their total budgets cut by 0.9%. These are the facts. Further, the Sun-Times reports that 'schools where 3 out of 4 kids are poor lost 1.7% of their money; roughly double the 0.8% lost by schools where just 1 of 4 kids is poor.
This scene fits the narrative, in part, that I've been covering over the past couple of days relative to properly resourcing the neighborhood schools in Chicago. These cuts merely add to the staggering obstacles that schools, families and neighborhoods have to overcome in terms of fighting violence, poverty, blight and the loss of hope.
What a sad and painful commentary on our country.
Dick
Friday, February 17, 2017
Chicago, Schools and More - Part II
Yesterday I called for taking action to get those who do the peddling of drugs and violence to find a useful place in society by selling cars rather than dope or work in a store rather than on a gang controlled lot or street corner. Yeah, that sounds good but it is 'pie in the sky' in a sense.
So, how to avoid 'pie in the sky' and make this a reality, to insure the safety of our children, our school students. It will take time, money, commitment and effort. Okay, we've heard this before but what does it mean in concrete terms?
To get the gangs and guns off the streets it will take risk takers, those willing to start a business, those willing to give people with a couple of strikes against them the opportunity for a real job. It will necessitate that local leaders; church personnel, community activists as well as civic and govt. institutions step forward to be the ones to find worthwhile jobs and activities for those who are doing harm.
It will take former and current offenders of the law to sit down with one another and all the stakeholders, and others, I mentioned in the previous paragraph to settle problems and disputes. Because, whether it is war between gangs or nation-states, in the end, a war is concluded by a peace treaty.
We have to work towards this end. There are too many children our charity sees almost everyday who, unknowingly, are at risk.
Dick
So, how to avoid 'pie in the sky' and make this a reality, to insure the safety of our children, our school students. It will take time, money, commitment and effort. Okay, we've heard this before but what does it mean in concrete terms?
To get the gangs and guns off the streets it will take risk takers, those willing to start a business, those willing to give people with a couple of strikes against them the opportunity for a real job. It will necessitate that local leaders; church personnel, community activists as well as civic and govt. institutions step forward to be the ones to find worthwhile jobs and activities for those who are doing harm.
It will take former and current offenders of the law to sit down with one another and all the stakeholders, and others, I mentioned in the previous paragraph to settle problems and disputes. Because, whether it is war between gangs or nation-states, in the end, a war is concluded by a peace treaty.
We have to work towards this end. There are too many children our charity sees almost everyday who, unknowingly, are at risk.
Dick
Thursday, February 16, 2017
First Steps
Our charity works with young people by assisting them in school. It's no mystery why we do it. A public education is fundamental to realizing ones worth, potential and the contributions they can make to their family and country. But ours is a mission that can't be the sole element of helping people, a neighborhood and nation.
This morning Mary Mitchell, in a Chicago Sun Times piece, pointed out the fact that the alleged person charged with the death of Takiya Holmes was 'protecting drug turf when he fired at drug dealers who were selling marijuana on his crew's spot.' This according to Cook County prosecutors.
Here's the point, WE, yes we, have to see to it that not only drugs are off the street but that jobs are put back on these city lots. Selling cars has to replace selling dope. Selling groceries has to replace peddling pot. Putting federal dollars into building factories is more vital than 'bringing in the feds.'
Get our young men off the streets and into a factory. Get them real jobs and help to make their lives meaningful. For the sake of these people, and all the innocent people killed, let's see to it that we do our part to stop this madness.
Dick
This morning Mary Mitchell, in a Chicago Sun Times piece, pointed out the fact that the alleged person charged with the death of Takiya Holmes was 'protecting drug turf when he fired at drug dealers who were selling marijuana on his crew's spot.' This according to Cook County prosecutors.
Here's the point, WE, yes we, have to see to it that not only drugs are off the street but that jobs are put back on these city lots. Selling cars has to replace selling dope. Selling groceries has to replace peddling pot. Putting federal dollars into building factories is more vital than 'bringing in the feds.'
Get our young men off the streets and into a factory. Get them real jobs and help to make their lives meaningful. For the sake of these people, and all the innocent people killed, let's see to it that we do our part to stop this madness.
Dick
Wednesday, February 15, 2017
Yes, It's Got Worse
Sadly, one of the two girls - an 11 year old - shot over the weekend, has lost her life. One would think it couldn't get more horrific but it did on Tuesday afternoon after a two year old was shot and killed. This senseless loss of life, as I've said before, robs everyone. I'm disgusted...disgusted.
As I am writing this blog, I have just learned that the 12 year old girl has also died.
Yes, we can help these fine citizens. There is a laundry list of what can be done to assist our fellow citizens. Let's clean up the neighborhoods, create meaningful jobs and businesses in the neighborhoods, help the schools, fix roads and houses, repair homes, resource community centers, see to it that laws are followed, provide adequate protection, see to it that appropriate counseling is provided to those in need. That's just a partial list!!
The time for talk is over!!! I can assure those we work with Schools Count Corp will do its part to help and I'll personally see to it that I do my best to enlist the assistance of others.
Dick
As I am writing this blog, I have just learned that the 12 year old girl has also died.
Yes, we can help these fine citizens. There is a laundry list of what can be done to assist our fellow citizens. Let's clean up the neighborhoods, create meaningful jobs and businesses in the neighborhoods, help the schools, fix roads and houses, repair homes, resource community centers, see to it that laws are followed, provide adequate protection, see to it that appropriate counseling is provided to those in need. That's just a partial list!!
The time for talk is over!!! I can assure those we work with Schools Count Corp will do its part to help and I'll personally see to it that I do my best to enlist the assistance of others.
Dick
Tuesday, February 14, 2017
Horror of Shootings
Everytime I think of the two girls who have been shot, one 11 years of age, the other 12, I am left staggered and bewildered by it all. At the same time, honestly, I'm furious to think that the situations faced by these and other children can be boiled down to a purely law enforcement/gang/violence epidemic. There are plenty of moving parts that lead up to what happened over the weekend.
For starters, I hope people come to the realization that these are two school children who are simply going about daily lives. It doesn't matter if they are black, white or of another complexion. They are the children of our city, state and nation. So we had better realize this right up front and demonstrate some empathy for the over 30,000 people who die each year from firearms.
By the way, I just noticed that U.S. House of Representatives - yesterday - passed a bill making it much easier for those who are mentally ill to get their hands on firearms. Okay, I digress. Well, may not.
And while it is true law enforcement and gang violence has to be dealt with by law enforcement agencies, it's also true that it has to be addressed at another level...the level of prevention. And these preventive measures have everything to do with mitigating against the needless shooting of two innocent school students.
I'll take a deeper dive into these measures in the coming days.
Dick
For starters, I hope people come to the realization that these are two school children who are simply going about daily lives. It doesn't matter if they are black, white or of another complexion. They are the children of our city, state and nation. So we had better realize this right up front and demonstrate some empathy for the over 30,000 people who die each year from firearms.
By the way, I just noticed that U.S. House of Representatives - yesterday - passed a bill making it much easier for those who are mentally ill to get their hands on firearms. Okay, I digress. Well, may not.
And while it is true law enforcement and gang violence has to be dealt with by law enforcement agencies, it's also true that it has to be addressed at another level...the level of prevention. And these preventive measures have everything to do with mitigating against the needless shooting of two innocent school students.
I'll take a deeper dive into these measures in the coming days.
Dick
Monday, February 13, 2017
Schools, Shootings and More
A mere 25 minutes apart two young girls, ages 11 and 12, were shot by random bullets. No the bullets weren't intended for the girls but NOW it matters. It matters because two girls, who are in critical condition, are likely to have the best years taken from them. It matters because they are human beings just like the rest of us. And it matters because they simply would want to live out their lives as best as possible.
And it matters because our charity is working in the inner city of Chicago and we are trying to do our part so that children, like these two girls, have the opportunity to not only escape the violence and poverty they are born into but they can live decent lives and perhaps do something about the blight that they had NO PART in creating.
You've heard this before, from various people, but it needs repeating. Shooting one person is like shooting all of us.
And yes, it's true. Robbing the family of an innocent child is robbing the entire American Family.
And, yes, I'll have more to say about the American Family tomorrow.
Dick
And it matters because our charity is working in the inner city of Chicago and we are trying to do our part so that children, like these two girls, have the opportunity to not only escape the violence and poverty they are born into but they can live decent lives and perhaps do something about the blight that they had NO PART in creating.
You've heard this before, from various people, but it needs repeating. Shooting one person is like shooting all of us.
And yes, it's true. Robbing the family of an innocent child is robbing the entire American Family.
And, yes, I'll have more to say about the American Family tomorrow.
Dick
Friday, February 10, 2017
Curious to Know
With a new Administration, it has occurred to me that many of the various events that may, on the surface at least, seem like they have little to do with public education may very well play out in our schools. What I am referring to are the potential actions within the State Department with regard to immigration and they Department of Education with regard to funding and follow the mandates with regard to various title programs.
What are young people, whose parents may be here legally or illegally, thinking with regard to their future? How are the 'dreamers' responding to the potential ban put in place by the President? What will happen to funding for such critical programs as Title I, Title II, Title III and Title IX? How will school respond to these questions and potential actions? These and other obvious questions are the crux of what could affect young school children.
Sadly, I see a potential for the State Dept. and the Dept of Education to deal a double blow to school children who live in the shadows.
Dick
What are young people, whose parents may be here legally or illegally, thinking with regard to their future? How are the 'dreamers' responding to the potential ban put in place by the President? What will happen to funding for such critical programs as Title I, Title II, Title III and Title IX? How will school respond to these questions and potential actions? These and other obvious questions are the crux of what could affect young school children.
Sadly, I see a potential for the State Dept. and the Dept of Education to deal a double blow to school children who live in the shadows.
Dick
Thursday, February 9, 2017
My Take - Dept of Education
Seeing to it that every American has an excellent education, no matter ones station in life, is paramount. I've said that on other occasions and nothing has made me change my mind. In fact, as time passes, it is my hope that we can all agree that achieving such an end is worthy and helps everyone.
This means that if a person, for any reason, suffers from the plague of poverty then we see to it that the education they receive is just as good as that of an individual who hasn't had to fight to overcome the obstacles that come without having money. Poverty is just one of the fronts that has to be taken on to help children.
Certainly physical ailments, ones mental condition, where they live, their age and any other individual or environmental factors should stop us from seeing to it that students should receive a top flight public education. If some don't want a public education that is their choice but, we can't afford to leave anyone behind.
That's just what I intend to do...to keep an eye on various institutions to see to it that no one misses the bus.
Dick
This means that if a person, for any reason, suffers from the plague of poverty then we see to it that the education they receive is just as good as that of an individual who hasn't had to fight to overcome the obstacles that come without having money. Poverty is just one of the fronts that has to be taken on to help children.
Certainly physical ailments, ones mental condition, where they live, their age and any other individual or environmental factors should stop us from seeing to it that students should receive a top flight public education. If some don't want a public education that is their choice but, we can't afford to leave anyone behind.
That's just what I intend to do...to keep an eye on various institutions to see to it that no one misses the bus.
Dick
Wednesday, February 8, 2017
Watchdog Dept. of Education
You can be sure that I will track many of the events and actions that are bound to take place with the Department of Education now that Ms. DeVos is the head of the agency. I will be sure to keep a close eye on a number of things particularly when it comes to discretionary spending. These are funds that can be shifted around or altered more easily than the mandatory dollars for various programs.
I will want to keep close tabs on the $69.4 billion that is discretionary spending this year for Title I. These are the monies provided for children impacted by poverty. I also want to watch for what happens to the $1.7 billion that is mandatory funding for pre-school children for the current year. These kids are the group who are 4 years old.
Cuts to these and other education programs must not be tolerated and those responsible, if cuts are made, need to be called out.
Dick
I will want to keep close tabs on the $69.4 billion that is discretionary spending this year for Title I. These are the monies provided for children impacted by poverty. I also want to watch for what happens to the $1.7 billion that is mandatory funding for pre-school children for the current year. These kids are the group who are 4 years old.
Cuts to these and other education programs must not be tolerated and those responsible, if cuts are made, need to be called out.
Dick
Tuesday, February 7, 2017
Hold On Look Out!!
As many of you realize, today Ms. Betsy DeVos became the Secretary of Education. Perhaps it is no coincidence that some members of the U. S. House of Representative signed a letter to terminate the Department of Education on December 31, 2018. No, I'm not kidding. The person who got this going was Rep. Massie of Kentucky. In addition to Massie the other representatives to sign the letter include; Rep. Chaffetz of Utah, Rep. Amash of Michigan, Rep. Biggs of Arizona, Rep. Gaetz of Florida, Rep. Hice of Georgia, Rep. Jones of North Carolina, and Rep. Labrador of Idaho.
Yes, it's true!! Go figure!!
Dick
Yes, it's true!! Go figure!!
Dick
Bam and Ouch!!
No sooner than mentioning the financial crisis facing the CPS system, as I did yesterday, and along comes another hit to the tune of $69 million. The cash strapped district is proposing additional cuts to the classrooms in light of trying to close a multi-million dollar budget gap.
CPS is calling this a 'freeze.' Well, here's what the freeze looks like. $46 million will be cut (my words) in discretionary spending which includes money for textbooks, field trips, technology and hourly workers who staff recess and after-school programs. Another $5 million will be 'frozen' for teacher training and the remaining $18 million will be saved if CPS scales back funding to the charter schools it helps if the state takes no action before the charters' fourth quarter payment is due.
All in all, it hits the classroom hard. Reducing spending on critical after-school programs, technology and textbooks is a hard pill to swallow for the kids, teachers and individual schools. I've heard of the expression of 'bare bones' and this freeze sure looks and feels like the type of Chicago freeze we get hit with each winter.
Dick
CPS is calling this a 'freeze.' Well, here's what the freeze looks like. $46 million will be cut (my words) in discretionary spending which includes money for textbooks, field trips, technology and hourly workers who staff recess and after-school programs. Another $5 million will be 'frozen' for teacher training and the remaining $18 million will be saved if CPS scales back funding to the charter schools it helps if the state takes no action before the charters' fourth quarter payment is due.
All in all, it hits the classroom hard. Reducing spending on critical after-school programs, technology and textbooks is a hard pill to swallow for the kids, teachers and individual schools. I've heard of the expression of 'bare bones' and this freeze sure looks and feels like the type of Chicago freeze we get hit with each winter.
Dick
Monday, February 6, 2017
CPS Money Woes Continue
The outlook on finances at CPS is still in critical mode - as if we needed reminding - according to the Sunday edition of the Chicago Tribune. CPS ended the past fiscal year $487 million short in its operating fund and at least $100 million remains as a shortfall for last year.
The alternatives seem to be few. Over the past couple of years, CPS headquarter staff have been trimmed, individual school budgets have been reduced on a number of occasions, school staffing has been cut, and CPS has implemented furlough days to further trim expenses.
So we are down to further cuts and/or/with an infusion of money (from where?). So, one thing remains clear...the work of our charity and others will be even more urgent than ever. Please consider a donation, either online at www.schoolscountcorp.org or by mailing a check payable to Schools Count Corp. and mailing it to Dick Flesher, 14004 John Humphrey Dr., Orland Park, IL 60462. Thank You!
Dick
The alternatives seem to be few. Over the past couple of years, CPS headquarter staff have been trimmed, individual school budgets have been reduced on a number of occasions, school staffing has been cut, and CPS has implemented furlough days to further trim expenses.
So we are down to further cuts and/or/with an infusion of money (from where?). So, one thing remains clear...the work of our charity and others will be even more urgent than ever. Please consider a donation, either online at www.schoolscountcorp.org or by mailing a check payable to Schools Count Corp. and mailing it to Dick Flesher, 14004 John Humphrey Dr., Orland Park, IL 60462. Thank You!
Dick
Friday, February 3, 2017
In A Nutshell
Yesterday I noted that the commission studying school funding said that the areas in the state with the highest rates of poverty (not just CPS) need additional dollars to get the job done. Perhaps the chairperson, Beth Purvis, and Secretary of Education here in Illinois said it best..."What's at stake for Illinois, if we don't fix the formula, is our ability to provide a high quality education for every child in the state." She went of to say, "We'll lose that opportunity."
The education component is but one piece of a 'grand bargain' but it is a piece that surely necessitates both sides of the aisle to roll up their sleeves and get the job done. To do otherwise is, in my view, more than a travesty, it's an injustice.
Dick
The education component is but one piece of a 'grand bargain' but it is a piece that surely necessitates both sides of the aisle to roll up their sleeves and get the job done. To do otherwise is, in my view, more than a travesty, it's an injustice.
Dick
Thursday, February 2, 2017
Funding Far From Adequate
It's not often you can get Governor Rauner, CEO Forrest Claypool and members of both political parties on the same page but that is exactly what happened in the last 24 hours with regard to a report on state school funding. Here's the essence of the report in just one sentence. "The commission members agree that low-income children and those who live in areas of concentrated poverty require additional resources and attention to reach their academic potential."
What will be done to advance this core principle? Who will take the bold action to see to it that the most impoverished among our state's school children have their needs met?
One of the other elements in the report stated that it will cost $3.5 billion over a 10 year period to bring every school district to the desired level.
This won't be easy for lots of reasons. There is a budget crisis in the state and we have members of the legislature at odds with one another and the Governor. These education needs are but one of many that has to be addressed within the larger framework of an entire state budget. There are plenty of other potential roadblocks to getting this done.
Like I said, can we get people to work together to address these concerns? Time will tell.
Dick
What will be done to advance this core principle? Who will take the bold action to see to it that the most impoverished among our state's school children have their needs met?
One of the other elements in the report stated that it will cost $3.5 billion over a 10 year period to bring every school district to the desired level.
This won't be easy for lots of reasons. There is a budget crisis in the state and we have members of the legislature at odds with one another and the Governor. These education needs are but one of many that has to be addressed within the larger framework of an entire state budget. There are plenty of other potential roadblocks to getting this done.
Like I said, can we get people to work together to address these concerns? Time will tell.
Dick
Wednesday, February 1, 2017
Betsy DeVos - Part 2
Many of you may already know this, but Betsy DeVos, the nominee to be the next Secretary of the Department of Education, made it through the first hurdle. On a party line vote Ms. DeVos cleared the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions by a 12-11 vote.
She will now be scheduled for a full Senate vote in the coming days.
I did watch the entire hearing and can tell you that I was struck by a number of things. Ms. DeVos typically responded to a question by thanking members for their questions and often, in reply to a question or point made by a Senator (form either side of the aisle) would say that she looks forward to working with them on said question or proposition.
This may sound fine, on one level, but as an educator I was left with the impression that she was merely glossing over or moving on so to speak. More pointedly, I was left with the impression she knew little about public education in general and little about the department she would be running.
It will be interesting, and telling I might add, to see where the full Senate comes down on her nomination.
Dick
She will now be scheduled for a full Senate vote in the coming days.
I did watch the entire hearing and can tell you that I was struck by a number of things. Ms. DeVos typically responded to a question by thanking members for their questions and often, in reply to a question or point made by a Senator (form either side of the aisle) would say that she looks forward to working with them on said question or proposition.
This may sound fine, on one level, but as an educator I was left with the impression that she was merely glossing over or moving on so to speak. More pointedly, I was left with the impression she knew little about public education in general and little about the department she would be running.
It will be interesting, and telling I might add, to see where the full Senate comes down on her nomination.
Dick
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