Random Quotes - February 2015

POVERTY MATTERS

A New Majority Research Bulletin: Low Income Students Now a Majority in the Nation's Public Schools

The U.S. has closed its eyes to our high level of child poverty for too long, choosing to blame the victims -- the poor -- and schools for economic and academic stagnation. High poverty is an embarrassment to us as a nation. Why aren't we ashamed of it...

[Southern Education Foundation] Vice President Steve Suitts wrote: “No longer can we consider the problems and needs of low income students simply a matter of fairness… Their success or failure in the public schools will determine the entire body of human capital and educational potential that the nation will possess in the future. Without improving the educational support that the nation provides its low income students – students with the largest needs and usually with the least support -- the trends of the last decade will be prologue for a nation not at risk, but a nation in decline…"

Wait! I'm a Radical Educator?

James Boutin is a national board certified teacher of language arts and social studies...and has been a strong voice for children. Here he reminds us that there's more to life than Math and Reading.

In low-income communities, schools should serve as centers for civic dialogue, healing, and humanity. While learning the basics like math and language should certainly constitute some of what goes on in schools, our primary effort should not be to stress everyone out trying to bring underprivileged students' math and language skills up to par with their counterparts in affluent communities. Because, the truth is, those skills are not the only skills in life that matter. And so they shouldn't be the only skills that determine whether you receive a high school diploma. [emphasis added]

CTU, A VOICE FOR THE NATION'S TEACHERS

A Just Chicago: New Report from CTU

In 2012 the Chicago Teachers Union published The Schools Chicago's Students Deserve, a study which argued in favor of proven educational reforms to improve the education of Chicago's children. Needless to say, it was ignored by the Mayor and school board.

This year, the Union has issued a report...more like a wish list...connecting health, housing, jobs, segregation and funding to education.

It's the quote below which caught my attention. It could easily have read, ""Do your job, legislators, executives and policy makers, so we [teachers]  can do ours."

TEACHERS

Teachers Need to Step Up and Speak Out

Teachers are so worried about their livelihoods that they have trouble speaking out. Retribution from administrators or state bureaucrats is a real possibility, but things won't change until we get loud.

"I will refuse to administer a test that reduces my students to a single metric. … Teachers, students and parents find themselves in a position of whether or not to push back or leave." -- Jia Lee, NY Special Education Teacher

Indiana education dean: Teacher measures aren’t fair

The attack on public education, public school teachers, and public school teachers unions continues unabated. As the U.S. Congress debates changes to NCLB, the Governor, Legislature and State Board of Education in Indiana are working hard to marginalize the Indiana State Teachers Union, and by doing so they are marginalizing the profession of teaching. [That's not all the damage they're doing to public schools and public school children, but that's what relates to the quote below. Read some of the Statehouse Notes from the Indiana Coalition for Public Education.]

“I think that in this country, we have taken too much for granted about teachers,” he said. “I think there are people who believe that if you just know your subject … that you can stand up in front of a classroom and teach it. We know that simply isn’t true.”

CHOICE

School "choice" is a scam

School "choice" is a scam. Parents shouldn't have to "choose" a good school for their children to attend any more than they should need to "choose" clean water, clean air or safe food for their families. -- Mitchell Robinson

READING

23 Inspirational Maurice Sendak Quotes To Get You Through The Day

Maurice Sendak understands that reading is more than the words...

TESTING

Against the Common Core Standards and Tests (Occupy US Dept of Education, April, 2013)

Once more Stephen Krashen debunks the basis for education "reform."

The movement for national standards and tests is based on these claims:
(1) Our educational system is broken, as revealed by US students' scores on international tests;
(2) We must improve education to improve the economy;
(3) The way to improve education is to have national standards and national tests that enforce the standards.

Each of these claims is false.

More than a test...

The title of this article is a wonderful quote.

What If Education Was Measured By More Than A Test? by Janaye Ingram is the Acting National Executive Director of National Action Network (NAN)

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Support Teachers of Conscience

The narrow pursuit of test results has sidelined education issues of enduring importance such as poverty, equity in school funding, school segregation, health and physical education, science, the arts, access to early childhood education, class size, and curriculum development. We have witnessed the erosion of teachers’ professional autonomy, a narrowing of curriculum, and classrooms saturated with “test score-raising” instructional practices that betray our understandings of child development and our commitment to educating for artistry and critical thinking. And so now we are faced with “a crisis of pedagogy”–teaching in a system that no longer resembles the democratic ideals or tolerates the critical thinking and critical decision-making that we hope to impart on the students we teach.

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Stop the Testing Insanity!

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Vermont State Board of Education: Statement and Resolution on Assessment and Accountability, Adopted August 19, 2014

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Teachers Need to Step Up and Speak Out.

Teachers need to step up and speak out. That is what will change things

I will refuse to administer...

Special Education Teacher, Jia Lee from the Earth School in NYC was invited to give testimony before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, to discuss the re-authorization of No Child Left Behind.

Watch her testimony in the video below and read more about the hearings in...Teachers Rally Against Standardized Testing At No Child Left Behind Hearing

Jia Lee, a New York special education teacher, said the tests "can only measure right or wrong," not complex questions. "I will refuse to administer a test that reduces my students to a single metric. … Teachers, students and parents find themselves in a position of whether or not to push back or leave."

Jia Lee - Senate Hearings Reauthorization of NCLB Jan 2015 from nLightn Media on Vimeo.


HB 1609 Explainer

by Claire McInerny

The Indiana legislature is considering a bill that remove the state superintendent as chair of the State Board of Education. StateImpact Indiana explains how this would change the legislative process for education policy.

Indiana voters, contact your legislators today and ask them to defeat this bill.




Standardized Testing is not Teaching

How much instructional time do your children lose to standardized testing?

Chinese expert Yong Zhao warns standardized testing 'destroys schools'
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/chinese-expert-yong-zhao-warns-standardized-testing-destroys-schools-1.2937625

"My extreme advice, we should do away with all of (standardized testing)," Zhao said in an interview after addressing the forum that convened more than 150 educators and interested business and community leaders.

"It's a waste of money, very little value, destroys parents, destroys schools too, and puts students and teachers in a bind for high-stakes testing."

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Support Teachers of Conscience

The narrow pursuit of test results has sidelined education issues of enduring importance such as poverty, equity in school funding, school segregation, health and physical education, science, the arts, access to early childhood education, class size, and curriculum development. We have witnessed the erosion of teachers’ professional autonomy, a narrowing of curriculum, and classrooms saturated with “test score-raising” instructional practices that betray our understandings of child development and our commitment to educating for artistry and critical thinking. And so now we are faced with “a crisis of pedagogy”–teaching in a system that no longer resembles the democratic ideals or tolerates the critical thinking and critical decision-making that we hope to impart on the students we teach.

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Stop the Testing Insanity!

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Vermont State Board of Education: Statement and Resolution on Assessment and Accountability, Adopted August 19, 2014

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An Open Letter to Indiana's Public School Teachers

Dear Teachers,

Over the last several years...

• You have lost many of your collective bargaining rights.

• You have lost the right to due process when it comes to your job. You can now be fired for teaching hard to educate, and hard to accelerate students because...

• You have lost the right to use your professional judgment with your students, instead being forced to rely on inadequate and massive amounts of testing -- testing which robs you and your students of valuable instructional time. Those same tests are now the basis of your evaluation no matter what happens to your students outside of school. You have no control over their family income, their neighborhood safety issues, their emotional health, or the ability of their parents to get them adequate mental, physical, and dental health care. All of those issues have a bearing on your students' achievement, yet you alone are held responsible for their academic success or failure.

• You have lost the right to use your school's communications to discuss "certain" topics, even while former public officials did the same thing.

• Your schools have lost millions of dollars of tax money being transferred to private schools and charter schools with the ability to choose their clientele, while your schools must accept every child who enters its doors.

• Your schools have been forced to spend millions of their scarce dollars on those same inadequate and massive testing programs.

This year, there are bills before the state legislature which will...

• Allow the State Board of Education to usurp the authority of the State Superintendent of Public Instruction and the Indiana Department of Education.

• Allow charter and non-public schools to administer different tests than the ones your students are required to take.

• Allow for a hostile takeover of your bargaining agent.

• Provide for more forced testing at a younger age...and for that testing to be a larger part of your evaluation. 

• Eliminate your right to any collective bargaining.

This year the Governor's plan would...

• Allow private, parochial, and charter schools to circumvent restrictions which your school must follow.

• Allow even more tax money to be spent on vouchers and charter schools resulting in fewer resources and larger classes in your public school.

• Increase the interference of so-called "Merit Pay" plans, which deny adequate financial remuneration to teachers who teach hard to educate and hard to accelerate students.

Public schools are starved of resources...public school teachers are forced to teach in ways which are not conducive to real learning...and then public schools and public school teachers are blamed for low achievement.

The Governor, State Board of Education, and legislature are still trying to negate the State Superintendent of Public Instruction election of 2012. They are still trying to privatize public education. They are still trying to destroy the state's teachers unions.

Isn't it time for you to speak up? Your students deserve a fully funded public education system. You deserve a profession of which you can be proud, focused on best practices and professional growth not interference by uneducated and inexperienced politicians.

Learn about what the legislature is doing this year. Their actions will have an impact on you and your ability to teach your students. Stay informed with...

• the Northeast Indiana Friends of Public Education (on FaceBook, or Blog)

• the Indiana Coalition for Public Education (on FaceBook, or Website)

• the Parent Community Network of Monroe County (on FaceBook)

• the Indiana State Teachers Association (on FaceBook or Website)

• the American Federation of Teachers - Indiana (Website).

At the very least contact your legislators and urge them to end the battle against public education and public school educators.

• Click HERE to contact Indiana House Members.

• Click HERE to contact Indiana Senate Members.

• Click HERE to contact members of the Legislative Education Committees.

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Support Teachers of Conscience

The narrow pursuit of test results has sidelined education issues of enduring importance such as poverty, equity in school funding, school segregation, health and physical education, science, the arts, access to early childhood education, class size, and curriculum development. We have witnessed the erosion of teachers’ professional autonomy, a narrowing of curriculum, and classrooms saturated with “test score-raising” instructional practices that betray our understandings of child development and our commitment to educating for artistry and critical thinking. And so now we are faced with “a crisis of pedagogy”–teaching in a system that no longer resembles the democratic ideals or tolerates the critical thinking and critical decision-making that we hope to impart on the students we teach.

~~~

Stop the Testing Insanity!

~~~

Vermont State Board of Education: Statement and Resolution on Assessment and Accountability, Adopted August 19, 2014

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Don't Defend Public Education With Tests

DON'T DEFEND YOUR SCHOOL WITH INDEFENSIBLE TESTS

No! No! No! No!

Look, I understand why Rod Gardin, the superintendent of East Porter County School Corporation in northwest Indiana, wrote the op-ed on NWI.com titled Public schools outperform charter schools. Studies across the nation have shown that charters don't perform any better than regular public schools given the same students.

I understand why Superintendent Gardin is defensive about his local public schools. Charter schools are taking students away from public schools. Vouchers are taking students away from public schools. The legislature continues to provide more support for privatization and less support for public schools. The Governor's new plan for education is simply more transference of public money from public schools to voucher accepting schools and charter schools. Public schools are consistently and wrongly bashed as "failures."

I get it...professional educators are tired of being insulted and slandered by politicians and pundits and want to strike back with the truth. So Superintendent Gardin compared the letter grades assigned to schools by the Indiana Department of Education, based mostly on student test scores, and discovered that a higher percentage of public schools got A's than charter schools and a higher percentage of charter schools got F's than public schools...and so on for B's, C's and D's.

Public schools outperform charter schools

According to the A-F grades assigned by the Indiana Department of Education, public schools outperform charter schools across all grade categories. Forty-eight percent of public schools received an A while only 25.4 percent of charter schools received the same grade. Twenty-two percent of public schools received a B. Only 1.7 percent of charter schools received that grade. 18.5 percent of public schools received a C. Charter schools once again underperformed, with 17 percent receiving the same grade.

What is most startling is the number of charter schools that received a D or an F. Twenty-seven percent of charter schools received a D as compared to 10 percent of public schools. Worse yet, 29 percent of charter schools received an F while only 4.8 percent of public schools did. Overall, 56 percent of the charter schools performed in the two lowest categories (D and F). That is almost four times greater than the percent of public schools that received a D or an F (14.8 percent). Public schools vastly outperformed charter schools in the two highest categories (A and B), with 66.6 percent of public schools earning those grades as compared to 27.1 percent of the charter schools.

BUT IT CUTS BOTH WAYS

Based on those tests charter schools score lower than public schools...and Superintendent Gardin, in his attempt to defend and support his public schools -- for which I commend him -- wants everyone to know it!

But what happens when someone from the state decides to close a public school based on those same test scores...or those same letter grades given by the state DOE? What happens when low-scoring public schools are bashed and labeled "failures" because they received an "F" from the state? What happens when teachers in those schools are labeled "ineffective" simply because their students scored low on the state tests?

Do we wait till then to stand up and claim that Indiana's A-F School Accountability grading system is worthless because "there's more to school than test scores"? Do wait till then to remind everyone that standardized test scores have more to do with a family's income than a student's teachers?

Poverty, not "bad teachers," is the main cause of low achievement in America's public schools and anyone involved in public schools knows it [even Arne Duncan and other "reformers." They know it, too, but saying "We need to reduce poverty" doesn't get the campaign donations that yelling "Teachers unions are destroying America!" does].

Giving a school an A based on student test scores doesn't tell you anything about that school. It doesn't tell you about the atmosphere in the school. It doesn't tell you about the quality of the teachers, staff members, administrators and volunteers. It doesn't tell you about the parents -- other than perhaps their income. We're still overusing, and finding new ways to misuse, standardized tests.

Instead, we need to say, right now, that Indiana's A-F School Accountability grading system is flawed. It doesn't give a real-life picture of what goes on in a school. We need to say, right now, that grading school systems, schools, and teachers with students' scores on standardized tests is a misuse of data. We shouldn't join in the misuse of standardized tests just when it suits us.

DEFEND YOUR SCHOOL WITH TRUTH

Instead of defending our schools by using test scores to compare them to private and charter schools we need to defend our public schools by informing people of the advantages of public education.

Peter Greene, in his blog Curmudgucation, had a great post about public education. In it he listed some of the positives about public education...

What Is Public Education, Really?

• The public education system takes all students.
• The public education system is publicly funded.
• The public education system is run by local taxpayers.
• The public school system is run transparently.
• The public school system is not run for profit.
• The public school is stably staffed with the best professionals the available money can buy.
• The public school is a long term commitment.

Instead of defending our schools by comparing them to private and charter schools we need to defend our public schools by repeating the truth that public education in the U. S. is successful, not failing. Public school teachers are not failing. Students are not failing.

Public education is a public good...like public libraries, public parks, municipal water systems and roads. Our states and communities should support public education, not because public schools are better than private or charter schools (though they might be), but because they belong to all of us and are good for our communities.

Defend public education with truth not test scores!

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Support Teachers of Conscience

The narrow pursuit of test results has sidelined education issues of enduring importance such as poverty, equity in school funding, school segregation, health and physical education, science, the arts, access to early childhood education, class size, and curriculum development. We have witnessed the erosion of teachers’ professional autonomy, a narrowing of curriculum, and classrooms saturated with “test score-raising” instructional practices that betray our understandings of child development and our commitment to educating for artistry and critical thinking. And so now we are faced with “a crisis of pedagogy”–teaching in a system that no longer resembles the democratic ideals or tolerates the critical thinking and critical decision-making that we hope to impart on the students we teach.

~~~

Stop the Testing Insanity!

~~~

Vermont State Board of Education: Statement and Resolution on Assessment and Accountability, Adopted August 19, 2014

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