Play is More Important Than Tests

Sometimes I feel like everything I put on this blog could be titled, "Coming Soon to a Public School Near You." Once again people who don't "get it" are making decisions about children and education...based solely on test scores. This time it's folks who ought to know better...

Elementary schools phasing out recess

"If you have a 15-minute recess scheduled you spend five minutes getting (students) to the playground, another five getting back and then five more minutes getting them calmed down and ready to learn back in the classroom," said Agustin Orci, deputy superintendent of instruction for the district. "You end up blowing 30 minutes of potential instructional time to gain the limited benefits of having recess. It's become a luxury we can't afford."

Recess is equivalent to "...blowing 30 minutes of...instructional time?" Since when is children's play a "luxury?" Oh, right...since the "test and punish culture" made school all about test scores.

I remember when the "abuse of testing craze" started a couple of decades ago...that was when we were required to use "research-based instruction." A group of us got together and found a research basis for everything we did. Every teacher in our school system needed to be ready to justify what they did based on research.

Later, (2002) the US Department of Education started the What Works Clearinghouse so teachers could find teaching techniques and methods which were (supposedly) supported by research.

But now the truth has come out...when research goes against what the "reformers" want it's ignored...or denied.

The overuse and misuse of testing has resulted in children being denied time to play even though research shows that play is vitally important to a child's social, emotional, physical and yes, even academic growth.

Here's a video from the UK that addresses the value of play (listen carefully...some strong Scottish dialect in this video!).

Let the Children Play, It's Good for Them!

...pretend play is not only important for kids; it’s a crucial part of what makes all humans so smart.

More about the positive value of play...

• Old-Fashioned Play Builds Serious Skills
• Play and Children's Learning
• The Importance of Play in Early Childhood Development
• Why is Play Important? Social and Emotional Development, Physical Development, Creative Development
• The Importance of Play in Promoting Healthy Child Development and Maintaining Strong Parent-Child Bonds

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Sign An Education Declaration to Rebuild America

All who envision a more just, progressive and fair society cannot ignore the battle for our nation’s educational future. Principals fighting for better schools, teachers fighting for better classrooms, students fighting for greater opportunities, parents fighting for a future worthy of their child’s promise: their fight is our fight. We must all join in.

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Stop the Testing Insanity!

Sign the National Resolution on High Stakes Testing!

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Sore Losers Punish Winner

What do you do when your candidate for state education chief loses an election? If you're on the Indiana State Board of Education, or sitting in the Indiana Governor's chair, you do everything you can to make his opponent's job more difficult and you do it while acting as rude and unpleasant as you can.

Glenda Ritz, who garnered 1.3 million votes in the last election on her way to soundly defeating former state superintendent, Tony Bennett (also formerly Florida's state school chief) is being treated in exactly that way by Indiana's governor, Mike Pence and members of the Indiana State Board of Education.

Last Month Governor Mike Pence...

...established the Center for Education and Career Innovation (CECI), a new state agency that among other duties will give the State Board of Education funding and staff separate from the Indiana Department of Education.

At this month's State Board of Education meeting, Daniel Elsener proposed a strategic planning process chaired by him, of course.

Under the plan, Ritz will be permitted to participate in strategic planning discussions, but the process of setting the state's future education goals will be directed by Elsener and the board.

How generous of the appointed members of the State Board of Education to allow the only elected member (and the chair of the Board) permission to participate in the discussions. It's interesting that the only elected official with any teaching experience in state government has effectively been stripped of her power over the public schools in Indiana.

That's not all, though. The Indiana State Teachers Association notes

The first resolution offered by member Dan Elsener called for him to chair a new committee that is tasked with setting the goals for Indiana's education system-something that has always been within the purview of the State Superintendent's office-who also happens to be the lawful chairperson for the State Board of Education. The publicly-funded "Elsener Committee" will contract out with outside consultants, spending additional taxpayer dollars along the way to do the Department of Education's work. Elsener did not give Glenda Ritz, as chairperson, the courtesy of prior notice of his resolution and then called for action on the resolution even though it was not part of the meeting's agenda. Ritz suggested Open Door Law issues with this and then abstained from voting.

Neither Pence nor Elsener had the courage to inform Superintendent Ritz before any of these "plans" were introduced. They sprang their power-grabbing plans on her without warning in a cowardly attempt to silence 1.3 million Indiana voters.

The Indiana Coalition for Public Education--Monroe County and South Central Indiana posted a summary of yesterday's State BOE meeting from one of their members today. In a post titled Does Democracy Not Count When Your Candidate Loses? Jenny Robinson wrote,

The arrogance and contempt that the appointed members of the State Board of Education are showing toward the elected state superintendent are well on their way to becoming a political liability. In the meeting on September 4, board of education member Dan Elsener sprang a proposal on Ritz in the board comment period--a proposal to give a committee headed by himself the power to do strategic planning for the Department of Education. He presented it in an aristocratic mumble, without making eye contact, as if he couldn't be bother to enunciate clearly. He nested it inside generic accolades for Indiana's academic achievements and couched it in terms of giving the state superintendent the support she deserves. Right. That's support like a dagger in the back. Should we give Elsener some credit for not pretending too hard, or was the thinly veiled insolence part of his strategy? He brushed away Ritz's objection that the rushed motion violated protocol. Board members promptly passed it.

...How did he get the authority to set the agenda for public K-12 education in the state of Indiana, instead of the superintendent of public instruction elected by 1.3 million Hoosiers? He's committed to all the reforms that Ritz ran against--the A-F system, IREAD3, the sanctity of ISTEP and testing regimens in general. Republicans need to think about how to explain this to their constituents, because it doesn't look good. What it looks like, frankly, is spitting in voter's faces.

Be sure to read the whole post...

Why are Pence and Elsener so anxious to deny Superintendent Ritz the power to do her job? She won the job fair and square from Bennett. She is a National Board Certified teacher with decades of actual experience in education.

Maybe it's because Pence, Elsener and their friends are sore losers and want to do as much damage to Ritz as they can out of spite. She beat their boy, Tony and now she's gonna pay...

Maybe it's because they are selfish, spiteful men who aren't interested in the education of children at all, only in the privatization and profit-ization of public education in Indiana.

Pence needs to be voted out of office at the earliest possible opportunity. Elsener should be fired.

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Sign An Education Declaration to Rebuild America

All who envision a more just, progressive and fair society cannot ignore the battle for our nation’s educational future. Principals fighting for better schools, teachers fighting for better classrooms, students fighting for greater opportunities, parents fighting for a future worthy of their child’s promise: their fight is our fight. We must all join in.

~~~

Stop the Testing Insanity!

Sign the National Resolution on High Stakes Testing!

~~~

2013 Medley #19

Charters, Teachers Unions, Privatization
"Reformers", Read-Aloud, Poverty

CHARTERS

Bennett is gone, but charter school problem persists

"An $80 million gift to charter school sponsors." This looks like payback for political services rendered. Why isn't the apparent favoritism in this situation obvious to everyone?

So, with Dr. Bennett gone, is the special treatment for charter schools over? Hardly. Not known to most Hoosiers is the fact that the 2013 Indiana Legislature, with the governor’s signature, enacted into law the HB 1001 budget bill, including a provision added in the Senate that forgave all Common School Fund debts owed by charter schools in Indiana.

Based upon a printout dated Jan. 2, 2013, that provision forgave charter schools $81,828,253.30. Some reports have placed the value at $93 million. With the passage of this legislation, the forgiven debt and the assets purchased by the borrowed funds became the assets of the individuals and/or corporations that sponsor the charter schools -- an $80 million gift to charter school sponsors.

Public school districts with low assessed valuation borrow from the Common Schools Fund, which assists them by providing low-interest loans for capital expenditures, such as facilities and equipment. A report on Jan. 2, 2013, shows $85,508,760.18 is owed by Indiana public school districts. Their debt was not forgiven.

Indiana forgives charter school loans

State Senator Luke Kenley (R-Noblesville) said,

traditional public schools just want more money.

Well...yes! Isn't that what we pay taxes for? Why are privately owned public schools treated differently than traditional (publicly owned) public schools?

Many local educators and politicians are calling outrageous a recent law forgiving $91.2 million in loans to charter schools, in light of tight finances faced by public schools across the region and districts that have had to raise taxes to maintain programs and quality teachers. Moreover, they say, they must pay back any loans provided by the state's Common School Fund.

Indiana's General Assembly approved a provision in last session's budget bill calling for the state to forgive the Common School Fund loans made to charter schools, erasing nearly $92 million of their debt to the state.

UNIONS

Evidence Says That Students Do Better In Schools With Strong Teachers’ Unions

Union bashing is a tried and true political tool. Especially now, when unemployment and a low minimum wage are making it harder and harder for the average person to keep up with expenses. Rich politicians will blame unions for negotiating a livable wage and benefits package for their members. In Illinois, for example, politicians are currently blaming the public employee pension funds instead of the hedge fund managers, millionaires/billionaires and their corporate cronies, friends, and investors -- many of whom don't pay their fair share of taxes.

The fact is that unions are not the cause of poor school achievement. Poverty and its accompanying out of school factors are the main problem facing America's public school students. More than one fifth of our children live in poverty. Shouldn't shame and embarrassment be the appropriate response to that particular statistic instead of blaming their teachers?

Unions such as the National Education Association (NEA) and American Federation of Teachers (AFT) have been blamed by politicians, think tanks, and the public for everything from low student achievement to blocking proposed education reforms.

However, despite claims from some quarters that unions are a large part of the problem with American public education, there is ample evidence that teachers’ unions are a vital piece of the education puzzle, and that students benefit from their existence.

"nea hearts arne" or "WTF? are you crazy!!!"

The NEA has sold out for a "seat at the table." NEA now supports the Common Core...and has refused to publicly denounce the damage that the Democrats in Washington are doing to public education. Could this be because they want to keep the Gates Foundation money flowing? (Full Disclosure: I'm an NEA Life Member, and have been a member since August, 1976)

If Dennis Van Roekel and the NEA leadership had any courage they would be organizing a nation-wide strike against No Child Left Behind, Race to the Top, the misuse and overuse of testing, closing traditional neighborhood schools and opening charters, vouchers (by any name), the use of untrained novices in classrooms needing the most experienced teachers, and the general privatization of public education. Instead they're writing blogs supporting the Common Core.

New Business Item 36 called for the removal of Arne Duncan as Secretary of Education. Despite several well-informed speeches in support of this NBI, it was defeated. It is a mystery to me how a room full of educators, all of us victims of Duncan's horrific education policies, could continue to support Arne Duncan. His policies are harming our nation's non-elite children and the majority vote seems to send a message that that's OK with the majority of teachers. WTF? Either there's not much critical thinking going on among the delegation, or people are just plain stupid.

PRIVATIZATION

Privatization Watch tracks the selling of America's public sector...

August 27, 2013

OH: New state report card proves Ohio’s charter school experiment has failed. After 15 years of charter school expansion, the new Ohio school report cards provide the strongest evidence yet that this method of using charter schools to supposedly reform education in our state is a complete failure. The latest results from the state make it clear that the large urban districts are not dramatically improving and the charter schools that are supposed to be transforming educational practices while being given every advantage (including a greater amount of state funding) are doing no better. Plunderbund

August 30, 2013

PA: Charter operator owed its schools millions, but no one’s checking its books. The Philadelphia School District will spend a projected $729 million on charter schools in the coming fiscal year. But, if the past year at one charter operator is any indication, not all of those funds will actually go toward serving students. Philadelphia City Paper

"REFORMER" POLITICS

"Education Summits" Without Teachers

Would anyone ever hold a medical conference without inviting medical professionals to attend? Who would hold a Hardware convention without having hardware manufacturers, jobbers and retailers in attendance? Would the Southern Baptist Convention hold it's annual meeting and not include any ministers?

Yet, time after time we read about conferences on education which are held in the absence of any practicing public school educators.

Words and phrases like "insulting," "slap in the face," and "disrespectful" aren't adequate any longer. This is insane.

...When Barack Obama held an education summit several years ago, no teachers were invited so it is not surprising that Florida Governor Rick Scott is taking the same approach in his state by organizing his summit during school hours. The result is the nightmare we are all living with- K-12 testing and teacher evaluation based on those tests, with added pressures imposed by the full court press for the imposition of Common Core Standards...

In Our Shoes

Those politicians, policy makers, and "reformers" who hold those conferences spoken of above are afraid to invite real teachers. They might hear this...

Come walk in our shoes. See what you’ve left us with, and let’s see if YOU can ensure that every third grader can read, that every student graduates high school college and career ready. Because we can’t. And we aren’t a group people that often admit there’s something we can’t do. We can cause light bulbs to turn on inside little minds. We can inspire a love of historical facts. We can make any math concept relevant to real life. We can love a child who doesn’t know what that feels like, and we can show them that they can learn. But to do all of this without sufficient funds, sufficient staff, and, most of all, sufficient appreciation and respect, is simply becoming too tall of an order. So you give it a try. Then let’s talk.

READ ALOUD

Babies Learn to Recognize Words in the Womb

Read aloud to your baby in utero...

Be careful what you say around a pregnant woman. As a fetus grows inside a mother's belly, it can hear sounds from the outside world—and can understand them well enough to retain memories of them after birth, according to new research.

POVERTY

How Poverty Taxes the Brain

"Reformers" claim that even mentioning poverty is making excuses. That's because they, and the politicians they have purchased, don't care to do anything about it. Poverty may not matter to millionaires like Rahm Emanuel, billionaires like Bill Gates, Michael Bloomberg or Eli Broad, "reformers" like Arne Duncan and Michelle Rhee, Politicians like George W. Bush and Barack Obama...but it matters to the child who comes to school hungry.

Researchers publishing some groundbreaking findings today in the journal Science have concluded that poverty imposes such a massive cognitive load on the poor that they have little bandwidth left over to do many of the things that might lift them out of poverty – like go to night school, or search for a new job, or even remember to pay bills on time...

...“When your bandwidth is loaded, in the case of the poor,” Shafir says, “you’re just more likely to not notice things, you’re more likely to not resist things you ought to resist, you’re more likely to forget things, you’re going to have less patience, less attention to devote to your children when they come back from school.”

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Sign An Education Declaration to Rebuild America

All who envision a more just, progressive and fair society cannot ignore the battle for our nation’s educational future. Principals fighting for better schools, teachers fighting for better classrooms, students fighting for greater opportunities, parents fighting for a future worthy of their child’s promise: their fight is our fight. We must all join in.

~~~

Stop the Testing Insanity!

Sign the National Resolution on High Stakes Testing!

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Share the Responsibility

Read this article...then come back and take the quiz.

Charter schools’ failed promise

QUIZ

1. The Ohio charter school law was established by

A. district superintendents
B. educators
C. legislators
D. students

2. The article didn't list, but implied who the responsible parties are for improving the "Big 8" urban school districts performance. They are:

A. legislators
B. students
C. educators
D. parents
E. all of the above

3. On the whole, how are the charter schools in this article performing?

A. Better than public schools.
B. Worse than public schools.
C. Approximately the same as public schools.

If you answered C to all three questions give yourself a perfect score for comprehension.

It's simple, really. Legislators, most or all of whom haven't worked in a public school since they were students (assuming they actually went to and worked at public schools), decided that charter schools were the answer to the low achievement of the "Big 8" Ohio urban districts. Educators were given sole responsibility for improving schools. This is the status quo pattern in American public education today: The "reformers" -- legislators, millionaires and billionaires, edupreneurs, and their underlings and mouthpieces -- are responsible for making the rules about public education. Educators are responsible for student performance based on those rules.

Fed up with persistently poor student results in Ohio’s eight largest urban school districts, Republican state legislators enacted a law in 1997 allowing charter schools to locate exclusively within the boundaries of the “Big 8” systems.

Sixteen years later, charters statewide performed almost exactly the same on most measures of student achievement as the urban schools they were meant to reform, results released under a revamped Ohio report-card system show. And when it comes to graduating seniors after four years of high school, the Big 8 performed better.

...But what started as an experiment in fixing urban education through free-market innovation is now a large part of the problem. Almost 84,000 Ohio students — 87 percent of the state’s charter-school students — attend a charter ranking D or F in meeting state performance standards.

I'm going to take a chance and make a wild assumption that those schools which performed the lowest also had the highest levels of poverty among their students, which means that schools are, once again, charged with the responsibility of single-handedly raising test scores and overcoming the effects of poverty on students and their families.

Has the entire country swallowed a vat-full of stupid? This series of events has been repeated across the country over and over again and no one seems to notice that it doesn't work.

Let me spell it out for you, America...

1. Charter schools (or other privately run schools) won't solve all the problems facing public education.
2. Holding educators solely responsible for student achievement is, at this point, insane. School districts, schools and educators can't do it alone. Public policy must reflect a commitment to ending poverty, unemployment, and lack of health care.
3. The private sector is not always better than the public sector. Privatization, while beneficial in some instances, is not the answer to everything.

I want to say that one again...louder.

3. The private sector is not always better than the public sector. Privatization, while beneficial in some instances, is not the answer to everything.

You can't make children learn just by raising or changing "standards," increasing test cut scores, belittling and de-professionalizing teachers, while at the same time ignoring out-of-school factors. Spending millions on test-prep, test administration, and test result analysis is not investing in education. No amount of testing, and union bashing is going to help students who come to school hungry, sick, cold, terrified, and/or homeless.

Here are some ideas for legislators -- Ohio and elsewhere...

1. Spend as much time on solving the issues surrounding poverty (homelessness, mental health problems, health care, unemployment, etc.) as you do campaigning or listening to lobbyists.
2. Make sure that every child in your state has adequate food, health care, housing and safety.
3. Fully fund classrooms, and not just your state's test and punish program.
4. Let teachers teach.

And here's another idea to guarantee that no child would be left behind...

Legislators, other politicians, and policy makers who are responsible for public education policy must send their children to the lowest performing traditional public school in their home district.

If they did that, I would bet my retirement that America's public school system would become the envy of the world.

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Sign An Education Declaration to Rebuild America

All who envision a more just, progressive and fair society cannot ignore the battle for our nation’s educational future. Principals fighting for better schools, teachers fighting for better classrooms, students fighting for greater opportunities, parents fighting for a future worthy of their child’s promise: their fight is our fight. We must all join in.

~~~

Stop the Testing Insanity!

Sign the National Resolution on High Stakes Testing!

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