Mad as Hell...

The current legislative session in Indiana has cut teachers collective bargaining rights, begun a merit pay scheme based on student test scores, taken money from public schools to pay for school vouchers and increased the number of charter schools which will eventually open in the state.

Voucher programs have not been shown to increase student achievement. Merit pay and basing teacher evaluations on student test scores is inaccurate. Charter schools have not done better than regular public schools, and collective bargaining is not the cause of the shortfall in Indiana's budget.

The purpose for all these new laws in Indiana is, plain and simple, to break the Indiana State Teachers Association and push Indiana's schools one step closer to corporatization and privatization. The same thing is happening all over the country...in places like Wisconsin, Florida, Ohio, and New Jersey.

Teachers are angry...and Angela Beeley, an English teacher at Alta Loma (California) High School has written to explain why.

In the Education Week article titled, This Teacher is Mad as Hell, Ms. Beeley wrote,

I am a public school teacher and a member of a union. Contrary to popular political rhetoric at play in Wisconsin and elsewhere, I am not, however, a leech on society, nor am I a lazy incompetent who shows up to collect a paycheck, not caring whether my students learn.

Cutting teachers salaries won't balance the budgets of the states. Taking away our collective bargaining rights won't reduce the deficits, especially when at the same time, states are granting huge tax breaks to the wealthy and corporations.

The outcry against unions and collective bargaining is a complete red herring. The unspoken message is: Let’s make the average American forget that Wall Street crooks set up our economy for a meltdown and that, not only are they not in jail, they made money on the deal. Let’s make them forget that the richest 400 people in the United States make more than the entire bottom half of all earners. Let’s hide the fact that CEOs today make several hundred times what their employees make, rather than the 20 to 30 times more they used to earn. Let’s snicker as the workers rip each other’s throats out, scrabbling for the privilege of going to the doctor when they’re sick.

Where are new teachers going to come from?

I love my students, but who on earth does the public—which is accepting these political shenanigans— think will choose to become a teacher now? No one in his or her right mind would go into this profession. After seeing teachers beaten up in the media for our society’s failings and being portrayed by our elected officials as lazy fat cats when we are working our butts off to having to “teach” to a test, no student with two brain cells to rub together is going to want to become a teacher. I would challenge anyone—including Wisconsin’s governor—who thinks that teaching requires little effort, no summer break, or no decent salary to spend a year in the classroom. Get in there, Governor Walker. You wouldn’t last a week.

Read more about it...

Charters

Multiple Choice: Charter School Performance in 16 States

Charter School Study Shows No Significant Overall Impacts on Achievement

Obama's Charter Policy Built on "Sketchy Evidence"

Merit Pay

Thoughts on the Failure of Merit Pay

Teacher performance pay alone does not raise student test scores - New Vanderbilt study finds

Teacher bonuses not linked to better student performance, study finds

Vouchers

Updated: Vouchers Are a Failure, But That’s Not the Point

Senate Should Reject Calls To Revive Failed D.C. School Voucher Program, Says Americans United

Failed D.C. School Voucher Program Should Be Abandoned

Milwaukee’s school voucher scam

Vouchers Make a Comeback, But Why?

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SAVE OUR SCHOOLS MARCH AND NATIONAL CALL TO ACTION

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Make sure they're not terrorists...

I usually avoid political issues which don't have anything to do with education, but sometimes there are things which (in my opinion) transcend politics.

Last December The Daily Show with Jon Stewart had a panel discussion of 9-11 first responders discussing why it is taking the US Congress so long to pass a bill which would provide medical care to first responders of the 9-11 attacks who developed illnesses because of their exposure to toxins.

You can see the original panel discussion HERE. It is about 9 minutes long and it's important to give you a background into this issue.

Last night, again on the daily show, Stewart discussed an amendment to the House version of the bill which requires that first responders prove they are not terrorists before they can get any money for their health care. It's in two parts...both below.

It's worth the 10 minutes it will take you to watch this. Be aware that The Daily Show is adult fare...and some language may be offensive. In my opinion, though, Jon Stewart's language is not as offensive as the language in the amendment....

The Daily Show - Friends Without Benefits
Tags: Daily Show Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,The Daily Show on Facebook

The Daily Show - Friends Without Benefits - 9/11 Responders
Tags: Daily Show Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,The Daily Show on Facebook

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SAVE OUR SCHOOLS MARCH AND NATIONAL CALL TO ACTION

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The 18th of April...

What comes to mind when you hear the phrase, "On the 18th of April..."

I knew immediately where it came from...maybe it's because I'm 62 and went to school during a time when the teachers weren't constantly making sure that we knew what was going to be on "the test."

Or maybe it's because my mother was a fan of the author...and I used to sit for hours looking at her book of poetry from which it came, wondering how on Earth anyone could write poems that long...

Whatever the reason, I knew it was Longfellow...and that it was about the "midnight ride of Paul Revere."

Nancy Flanagan knew as well and showed off that knowledge in one of her graduate classes. The point she makes is that there is more than one way to teach. We can teach with dry facts and lists. We can drill and kill for the test...or we can make school come alive with people like Longfellow helping to teach history.

She said...

Why aren't we using poetry to teach history?

Well, two roads diverged in a yellow wood...

And we chose easily measured standardized test questions.

When the so-called reformers -- the Gates's, the Broads, the Duncans -- rail against the status quo they're referring to nothing that exists today. The real status quo is a killing curriculum based on mindless bubbles on a test. That's today's status quo...and that's no way to educate children.

So, sound the alarm...tell the people...it's time to overthrow the Red Coats of the Educational Status Quo...

And so through the night went his cry of alarm
To every Middlesex village and farm,---
A cry of defiance, and not of fear,
A voice in the darkness, a knock at the door,
And a word that shall echo for evermore!

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SAVE OUR SCHOOLS MARCH AND NATIONAL CALL TO ACTION

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2011 Medley #2: Lawmakers, Detroit, Florida, and more.

I did this before...on April 9, 2011. I had too much to write about so I just put links to articles and blogs and wrote a bit about each. For lack of something better to call it, and in deference to my musical past, I've labeled it a Medley. Since April 9 was the first, this is Medley #2.

Stop labeling teachers, label the lawmakers

by John Kuhn

John Kuhn, the Superintendent of Perrin Texas public schools has emerged as a national voice for real education reform. He writes and speaks about Texas, but his words ring true in other places as well.

...where is the label for the lawmaker whose policies fail to clean up the poorest neighborhoods? Why do we not demand that our leaders make “Adequate Yearly Progress”? We have data about poverty, health care, crime, and drug abuse in every legislative district. We know that those factors directly impact our ability to teach kids. Why have we not established annual targets for our legislators to meet? Why do they not join us beneath these vinyl banners that read “exemplary” in the suburbs and “unacceptable” in the slums?

Michigan Emergency Manager Robert Bobb Issues Layoff Notice to All Detroit Public School Teachers

Yes. You read that right -- ALL teachers.

This is nothing short of a coordinated effort between the billionaire foundations pushing school reform and Tea Party conservatives intent on slashing benefits and ending collective bargaining rights. Public schools are under assault by the forces of privatization, and public school teachers face benefit and salary cuts while the very rich are promised tax cuts.

Why Become a Teacher Today?

If someone asked me if they should pursue a career in public education, and they hadn't already made up their mind, I would hand them this article.

By Walt Gardner

There was a time when teachers were respected, even though teaching was never a career for those who sought power, fame or wealth. What teachers had was pride. But rarely a day goes by when teachers are not subjected to another round of bashing. It's little wonder that their morale is at an all-time low. I wrote an op-ed about this subject that was published in The Christian Science Monitor on Apr. 6 ("The beatings will continue until teacher morale improves").

I'm not saying that no one will want to become a teacher in the years ahead. But teaching should not be a default choice. Instead, it should be the No. 1 choice for the most talented and inspirational in this country.

Resistance to test-based school reform is growing

Hope? This blog post has links to local groups fighting for public education.

By Valerie Strauss 

...judging teachers by student test scores is bad assessment and bad policy. It’s disturbing that the people who most need to understand this — the folks in Washington and state capitals who are making the laws, Republicans and Democrats alike — don’t.

Florida’s Testing Success: An Inflated Reputation?

Why doesn't it surprise me that politicians and business people, who know nothing about education yet insist on tinkering with it, would falsify and twist facts to fit their agenda? The bottom line in corporate America is money. That's what they're interested in...that's what they care about.

What was going on? In 2006, Haney found that Florida had suddenly started flunking large numbers of third graders. Because of the new retention policy, low-achieving third graders were still in third grade when the NAEP 2005 fourth grade math test was given. With only the higher-achieving students taking the test, the scores jumped.

What’s more, the state flunked a much higher proportion of Black than White students—no wonder the achievement gap shrank.

In Public School Efforts, a Common Background: Private Education

Do you know where people like John A. Boehner, President Obama, Michelle A. Rhee, Bill Gates, and Arne Duncan went to school? Would it surprise you to learn that they didn't go to public schools? Why do we assume that people who never attended or taught in public schools know how to "fix" them?

Does a private school background give them a much-needed distance and fresh perspective to better critique and remake traditional public schools? Does it make them distrust public schools — or even worse — poison their perception of them?

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SAVE OUR SCHOOLS MARCH AND NATIONAL CALL TO ACTION

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