EAGnews Buys into the "Bad Teacher" Argument

There are many factors in a failing school.  Why just blame "ineffective" teachers...and just how are there "ineffective" teachers measured?

This morning we posted how the Missouri Riverview Gardens school district scores were not better even as the state took over the district's educational delivery for the last two years.  We questioned if Missouri DESE's Chris Nicastro should be fired as an "ineffective"  administrator.  According to a letter to the editor and a former Riverview Gardens teacher who was fired, the reasons a school fails could possibly be for additional reasons, not just that "ineffective" teachers cause low student achievement.

EAGnews.org had this article on its site today:

Augsut 23, 2012

Pennsylvania teachers told no more raises until they demonstrate their value

School board should be commended for demanding higher standards

From staff reports

EAGnews.org

     BROWNSVILLE, Pa. – The truth hurts.
     That’s a lesson teachers at the Brownsville Area School District learned this week when school board members explained their reasoning for rejecting a proposed contract with the local teachers union.
     In a public meeting, school board Director Nena Kaminsky said she couldn’t vote in favor of the contract because “we have the highest paid teachers in Fayette County and we have the worst test scores in the state,” the Herald Standard reports.
     In other words, the community isn’t getting its money’s worth and the board will not settle for that.

     The comments sent the teachers union into a tizzy.

     The Brownsville Education Association held rallies at two local elementary schools where dozens of teachers held signs reading, “We deserve respect.” The rallies, union officials said, were prompted by Kaminsky’s comments, not the rejected contract.

     “Yes, we do have some schools that are struggling, but we are working toward trying to improve the test scores,” union president Barbara Gera told the newspaper. “We don’t have the worst test scores in the state. We are very upset with the school board’s perception of teachers.”

     “We are not outraged or disappointed; we are just hurt,” said high school teacher Brian Nicholson, a union negotiator.

     Sometimes the truth hurts. Whether the district’s student test scores are technically the worst in the state, or close to it, is beside the point. It’s clear that students aren’t learning as well as they could and the school board should be commended for demanding higher standards.

     Too often, school boards adopt a go-along-to-get-along mentality that does nothing to improve student instruction. In Brownsville, school officials made it clear that classroom performance matters.

     The BEA would be wise to take the criticism to heart, work with the district to improve teaching techniques, and implement new methods to help students achieve their potential. Then, with student test scores on the rise, they’ll be in a much better position to negotiate for the amount of money they believe they’re worth. But first, they will have to demonstrate their value.

     That’s the way it should be in every school district in the nation.

I'm stunned by this myopic vision of what makes a school an "effective" school and what makes an "effective" teacher.  Kids may not test well:

• If the standards and assessments are faulty or unproven/untested (common core standards)
• If students are not able to learn the material
• If students don't make the effort to learn
• If parents don't/can't/won't support their child's learning
• If the material is not appropriate for a child's' individual learning style 

EAGnews should be ashamed.  The Riverview Gardens experiment with Teach for America and firing "ineffective teachers" is just one example of how teachers are just one part of the equation in successful or non-successful schools.  EAG is blaming teachers for all the woes of education.

Why are they wrong?  Here's a tweet I received after the first article appeared this morning:

Hmm, what's worse, teaching what shouldn't be taught('what color is math', 'we are a Democracy')ineffectively or effectively?

What is most important?  An "effective" teacher or "effective" standards, assessments and curriculum?  Oh, that's right.  That idea of  standards, assessments and curriculum upon which "effectiveness" is based is now decided by the CCSSO, the NGA, and other private special interests unaccountable to taxpayers.  How this "effectiveness" is measured is mandated by the DOEd, not local districts.   Should we be celebrating that we can now measure teachers based on national standards that may or may not be appropriate in content, learning style and the fact that local communities have no voice in their crafting? 

Does EAGnews realize or care that teachers must "demonstrate their value" by teaching unproven, untested and unfunded mandates?  NCLB was a failure and common core is already raising much concern on its effectiveness.   Does this organization really believe "That’s the way it should be in every school district in the nation"?

 

Dick Morris and School Choice Week Presentation in St. Louis. Beam Me Up, Scotty

Americans For Prosperity hosted a panel discussion on School Choice last night at Loyola Academy, a private Jesuit school for inner city young men. School Choice is blitzing the nation with the message "shining a spotlight on effective education options for every child."  The St. Louis panel touched on those options.

The panel consisted of Dick Morris (political strategist and commentator), Dana Loesch (Radio host and CNN commentator), Mike Podgursky (Professor of Economics University of Missouri) and Robbyn Wahby (Executive Assistant to STL Mayor Francis Slay).  The panel discussed educational topics such as:

• charter schools
• vouchers to private/parochial schools
• the effect of teacher unions on public education
• the rising cost of funding to schools with negligible rise in test scores
• the reasons schools are failing
• data to determine failing schools
• the falling population in the city residential areas and how it affects the STL city public schools 

Podursky nailed it when he gave some of the reasons public schools are failing:

• there is a lot of regulatory crust
• no innovations and no free market
• different kids have different needs and one specific school cannot meet all the needs of all the kids
• schools are tied too heavily to standardized testing

As he was talking, I thought, "How is sending students to charter schools (schools supported by taxpayers dollars and under the same government mandates) freeing them from the regulations, lack of innovation, teaching to a student's need vs the system, and reducing the testing?"

THAT question was NEVER answered.  This is the problem with the School Choice movement in general and in Missouri with the funding of charter schools.  It never addresses the underlying fact that the government is still providing the blueprint and the rules and regulations for what the children are learning.  The money is being transferred to "free markets" (which conservatives love) but the system is still controlled by the government.  That's not really free market, is it?  That's not really an authentic choice for parents, is it?

Dick Morris stated, "Choice is where you send your child to school and the money follows the child." He outlined why this is a revolution in education and gave his reasons why this choice movement is needed:

• In the 1960's and 70's the "Rankings of the States" was released by the NEA.  The states began to fund education more heavily: test scores did not change
• In the 1980's, states were pushed to upgrade the curriculum and standards and demand better testing: results did not change
• In the 1990's, NCLB was instituted focusing on which schools were failing and concentrating efforts to increase testing scores: no uptake occurred

Based on this dismal track record, Morris believes we need to be creative and provide options for education: school choice.

This really was an alternate universe I found myself in last night in St. Louis.  Morris stated, and apparently believes, education needs to be creative and innovative and released from NCLB type mandates. Amazingly, the subject of Race to the Top mandates (and those "mandates formerly known as RTTT" implemented in states which didn't receive RTTT money) and Common Core standards was never mentioned by Morris.  What the school choice advocates are advocating just doesn't make sense.  State educational providers are operating under NCLB on steroids and Morris is stating that you can choose your publicly funded school and it's a true choice in education?  How are more federal governmental mandates allowing more local control?  Is it that these folks just don't get it, or is it they just don't care?  Is the idea of "we have to do SOMETHING overrides a thoughtful approach to educational problems?"

Morris may have answered my last question.  He said, "We will never have the political will to close the failing schools.  We're just going to close the empty ones".  There it is.  Through choice, most parents will take their kids out of traditional public schools. The remaining public  schools are going to be populated with the kids who aren't motivated or who have undiagnosed disabilities, whose parents are disengaged from the education process and for whom an alternative school has not yet been opened.  Morris believes, in a free market, some group will step forward and bring those kids into their alternative school, and the now empty public school will be closed.

Morris may be correct, that we are seeing an education revolution, but it is on the delivery of education, not the education itself.  What kind of choice is this being foisted on and paid for by taxpayers?  Free Market or more of the same governmental control?  

What IS the magic bullet and allure of charter schools that allegedly makes them so much better in terms of education in the eyes of School Choice advocates?  Is it the delivery and school expectations from the charters that apparently doesn't exist in the traditional public schools? If it is, why aren't we pushing for those things from our public schools now?  It's not true free market competition since standards and assessments are still controlled by government regulations.  So what is it?

A 12-Step Program for Successful Schools...and the Way to End the Addiction to Federal Money and Mandates.

Some legislators and educators believe the present school choice reform and open enrollment options will ensure great education for public education students. These reforms offered by school choice advocates seem to focus primarily on children trapped in inner city failing schools. Others believe these are mandates that take away local control of school districts and do not solve the underlying problems of educational failure. What are sensible solutions for failing schools?

Apparently the current thought by many state legislators and pro school choice lobbyists is the failing schools cannot be saved. Here are some of the solutions offered by the school choice reform lobby:

• The teachers, administrators must be fired and new ones hired
  
• Charter schools opened and traditional public schools closed
• Inner city children have the option of open enrollment into a successful school district, usually in the suburbs.

What is so different about inner city schools and suburban schools? Is it all teacher and administrator difference? Standards are the same and it's not for lack of federal funding to the inner city schools. So what do you think the difference is and how do you think failing schools can succeed?

One belief I have is parents and taxpayers are so far removed from the school process, they just don't care anymore. Their voices don't matter; they have no say so in curriculum. If they have ideas or concerns, they might as well as be shouting into the wind. Chances are no one is listening on the administrator level. If they ARE listening, there might be a good chance nothing can be done due to policies that are dictated from a federal level. Another scenario is some parents turn their children over to the public school and ask no questions or come to meetings to see how their children are progressing. Those are the apathetic parents who may not even attend to the child's basic needs.

So what do you do with parents who can't/won't care and children who can't/won't learn for various reasons? Do you think open enrollment will fix those problems? It might help those kids who have terrible teachers, but again, is that the main problem?

Here's a blog from the Troy Record that addresses the failing school question. The writer has some interesting thoughts. Unlike most of the school reforms offered by the legislators and the DOE, this author believes that federal and state legislation will never, never improve schools. He gives a common sense 12 step plan that doesn't involve RTTT mandates, common core standards and other federal intrusions:

Pulse of The People: How to fix education

Published: Monday, July 25, 2011

Since the launch of Sputnik in October of 1957, America has been trying to “fix” its public school system. Educators, politicians, even U.S. presidents have committed a great deal of time and effort to improving public schools, and it has all been for naught. As a matter of fact, every attempt to improve the schools ended in abject failure. Among these failures are: The National Defense Education Act in the 1950s, A Nation At Risk in the 1980s, America 2000 in the 1990s, and No Child Left Behind in the 2000s. None of these federal laws nor the billions of dollars attached to them did much to improve public schools. Further, the new plan from President Barack Obama, Race to the Top, will amount to nothing more than The Race to Mediocrity. It must be understood that federal and state legislation will never, never improve schools. Legislating school improvement is tantamount to legislating morality. It would be nice if it worked, but it will not. (emphasis added)

First of all, we should not be trying to improve schools, we should be trying to improve student performance. Student performance is linked to three essential elements: student attendance and effort; family support and school program. School personnel can have some impact on the first two elements, but at the end of the day, the students and the families have the most control in those arenas, so I will leave those areas for another day.

The recipe for school improvement is a relatively simple one. However, like all recipes, this one must be followed step by step and in proper order. Steps cannot be skipped, and until the previous step is accomplished the next step cannot even be considered, or like the cake that flops, the school improvement effort will fail. Just as cakes are baked one at a time, schools must be improved one at a time. Federal, state, even district improvement efforts will continue to fail. If you don’t believe me just look in the media any day and see how we are doing.

Follow this simple recipe, step-by-step and schools and ultimately student performance will improve or we can keep doing what didn’t work yesterday and expect it to work today. Your choice.

- A safe and orderly environment — without this, we have nothing. Students must feel save in their schools at all times both physically and intellectually.

- A functional and well-maintained physical plant — it does not have to be a brand new building, but there is no excuse for a poorly maintained building. The condition of the building shows the kids if we care about them or not. Additionally, the students should help with upkeep of the building. It is “their school.”

- Adequate instructional equipment like computers, books, libraries, etc — we need to invest in the tools of education. This is not a huge cost but a necessary expense.

- Good attendance by both students and staff (95 percent or higher) — you have to be in it to win it is the old expression. If attendance drops below 95 percent, achievement suffers.

- Atmosphere of high expectations of students and staff — no one ever lived up to low expectations!

- Engagement of student families — school is not just about students. It needs to be a team effort including students, their family members and their teachers.

Mentoring and support system for students — everyone needs someone to look up to and to show them the way. Ideally this comes from home, however, any adult can be a mentor.

- Insistence upon the recruiting, hiring and retaining of the best staff in all areas — every hire should be the best possible candidate period. Look far and wide and find the best.

- Ongoing, job embedded staff development — hiring good staff is the first step, keeping them up on current educational practices is mandatory. Would you go to a doctor who has not been to a medical conference in over 20 years?

- Up to date, rich curriculum — now we can get to the important parts of instruction. The curriculum must be reviewed and updated on a regular basis. Most schools hardly ever to this.

- Implementation of best practices in instruction — teachers need to be on the cutting edge of their craft just like all other professionals.

- High student achievement — when steps one through 11 are in place number 12 is a snap. It is even easier than baking that cake we were talking about earlier.

Dr. John Metallo

Retired principal of Albany High School and adjunct faculty member at the University at Albany and SUNY Plattsburgh

Wheeling and Dealing in Jefferson City Does Not Bode Well for Educational Sovereignty. Call Your Senators NOW.

What's going on in Jefferson City today in education? Just this ominous bit of information
(adapted from an email):

The Republican led legislature is pushing a Charter School initiative that
may allow foreign sponsorships of Charter Schools companies outside of Missouri).  
What this means to Missourians is that your tax dollars would go to out of state
management  companies to sponsor and LOCAL CONTROL OF SCHOOLS WOULD BE LOST !!!!! 

This would open doors for companies like La Raza to control Missouri Charter schools.
These companies have been very anti-American in their curriculum in the past:

http://wizbangblog.com/content/2006/05/31/la-razas-public-charter-school.php

Call your senators and tell them you do not want any legislation to pass this session
that would take local control of schools out of the hands of the citizens. Sovereignty in
educational choice is at stake.

http://www.senate.mo.gov/11info/senalpha.htm

We've already lost our ability to deal with failing schools on the state level.  We received a
$9,000,000 Federal grant that MANDATES how Missouri will "turnaround" schools.

Did you know the four turnaround models come straight from Race to the Top?

And here we all thought Race to the Top was dead in Missouri!  No, it's been
resurrected with a different name.

Is this what we want for education in Missouri?  Call your senators NOW and
tell them we do NOT want foreign corporations running Missouri schools.

"It's terrible what they are doing to these schools."

Who will charter schools help? We are being told by legislatures in many states this is a valid choice for students caught in failing systems. Missouri has Educated Citizenry 2020 which touts parental choice and charters are a large part of the plan.

This is from the Washington Post and one parent's experience with a Washington DC charter school:

Something wasn't right at the high school that Darwin Bridgers' son attends, so he sat in on the class to see for himself. All morning long, the instructor at the Washington, D.C., charter school pointed to a list of ground rules, a detailed list of rewards and punishments posted on a wall near the front of the class filled with black and Latino students.

Then the students filled out worksheets. That's how it went: rewards and punishments, then worksheets. No instruction, just worksheets. At the end of the class, Bridgers, who works as an exterminator, pulled aside the teacher, a young white male and recent graduate.

"I wanted to know when he was going to do some, you know, teaching," Bridgers explained to me recently. "You know, like, how we used to have in school? She would stand in front of the class..."

But in the name of reform, it's as if somehow the goalpost has been moved without our realizing it. Now education -- for those "failing" urban kids, anyway -- is about learning the rules and following directions. Not critical thinking. Not creativity. It's about how to correctly eliminate three out of four bubbles. The whole messy, thrilling, challenging work of shaping young minds has been reduced to a one or a zero. Pass or fail.

Is this what the version of charters will look like under the new plans called Race to the Top or Educated Citizenry 2020? Maybe so. They will operate under the same mandates and assessments as public schools. The same tests, the same curriculum. The same mandates from the Federal Government to show how well students do on standardized testing. It's about how to correctly eliminate three out of four bubbles. The whole messy, thrilling, challenging work of shaping young minds has been reduced to a one or a zero. Pass or fail.


This is what has happened to the Washington DC parents:

...they are required to navigate the education marketplace, choosing between neighborhood schools that have been creamed of their best students and the new experimental start-ups that on average perform worse than traditional public schools. "This strategy plays a shell game with low-performing students, moving them out and dispersing them, pretending they don't exist," Ravitch wrote.

Did you catch that phrase in the above paragraph? "Experimental start-ups that on average perform worse than traditional public schools". Why should Missouri start-up schools fare any differently than those in Washington, DC? Is this really a valid choice for Missouri parents? Is this an educational plan taxpayers believe will really help children?

As Darwin Bridgers said about his son's charter school:

A week after Bridgers visited the school, his son told him that the young teacher had left and never come back. So Bridgers sent his son to live with his mother in Pennsylvania. "I coach football Little League," he told me. "This is what we talk about on the sidelines. It's terrible what they are doing to these schools."

The charter experiment is failing children in DC. Will it work here? Will hedge fund investors and venture captitalists who have no experience in education be able to find the answer to reach failing children?

Parents are "Inconsequential Conduits" that Channel Money away from Public Schools

My intense interest in the deficiencies of public education began when my son was placed in a special education program for hearing impaired children. He began attending school when he was 3 years old and we filed due process when he was just turning 6 years old. It became apparent he preferred to talk rather than sign, and this choice was not welcomed by the district. This went against its "preferred educational method". Even though we paid the taxes for the district and the district was servicing our child, it was inconsequential what our preferred educational method would be for our child.

The IEP (Individualized Educational Program) we had for our son was in reality just a "fill in the blank" for hearing impaired students. It didn't matter what the individual needs of a child were; if those needs didn't fit into the system offered, the system could not accommodate that child's needs. We requested the district pay for private school tuition as there was no program in the district that could teach him to talk. No district teacher had specific training in oral education to teach our son that skill.

During our administrative law hearing, the teachers testified that if he made some progress during the year, the district had provided some educational benefit. According to IDEA, they were legally correct. When pressed by our attorney, these teachers stated if he learned his ABCs in one year, they would be satisfied, and had met the district's obligation to our son. The level of low expectations the district had for our child was absolutely stunning.

Our son was 6 years old and hearing impaired. He has no learning disabilities such as processing issues. His ability to learn was certainly higher than taking one year to learn the alphabet. I used to think this low expectation was because he was deaf. Apparently not:

http://biggovernment.com/bewing/2010/08/24/public-school-fail-video-clip-that-will-shock-sadden-you/#more-160033

Read the comments from the Institute for Justice after you watch the video. This particular paragraph regarding school choice caught my attention: "The powerful teacher unions and their allies had filed suit against the program (school choice). At one point they argued that parents are "inconsequential conduits" channeling money away from public schools".

The Institute of Justice took this lawsuit to the Supreme Court...and won. She was lucky. We lost our case on appeal. But in other ways, we won. I'll explain that in just a bit.

I have a few thoughts I would like to share with you.

• This nanny state educational attitude has been pervasive for many, many years in public education. Perhaps this began in earnest when the Federal Department of Education was created in 1970 and local control became diluted to the point where it is now practically nonexistent.
• We still are considered "inconsequential conduits"...just read the proposal by the Federal government for RTTT and the MO proposal for funding. Parents truly are considered for two reasons only: to provide the children and the taxes to perpetuate the system. From testimony I listened to in our lawsuit, I learned a valuable lesson: school systems do not exist to protect children; the system exists to protect the system.
• Unions protect the teachers. The unions do not have the interest of the children in mind. That was apparent in our lawsuit and the one highlighted by biggovernment.

I hope the young girl from 10 years ago is doing well in school. I mentioned previously that we won, even though we lost our case. When we realized what low expectations these teachers had for our son, we were able to move from that district with no qualms. We never looked back. We didn't know what was ahead of us, but we sure knew what we were leaving behind...a system that did not allow children to succeed to their highest potential.

We moved to a city with oral deaf schools, and our son received intensive private instruction for 5 years. He then mainstreamed...and is now completing his second year of college. He considers spoken language his primary language. Financially and emotionally it was difficult, but in the long run, it was the best move for our son and our family.

My story and this young girl's story is not unusual or unique. Biggovernment has the title correct in its article: Public School FAIL. I am just heartsick for those children who cannot escape failing systems...or those who have their vouchers pulled from them, such as the students in Washington, DC.

To be stuck in systems that believe learning your ABCs in one year is adequate progress is the epitome of failure and disgrace. Parents MUST have a choice to escape systems that are failing their children. Parents MUST have that choice because the public education system and teacher unions really do believe parents are "inconsequential conduits".

This girl's father and I know it. We've lived through it.

(ht to a watchdog for the biggovernment link)

See Jane run. Run Jane run. Far away from today's teaching methods.

Look Sally look.

Here is a post from a teacher in the trenches:

http://comments.americanthinker.com/read/42323/652621.html

This is a story I am hearing over and over again from today's teachers in the public school systems. Read the comments from the readers. It paints a bleak picture of current students and school systems.

I leave you with these questions: Do any of you seriously think students will achieve better results with more federal mandates and new theories? Why are we paying for failing schools? Do we work for the government or does the government work for us...and our children?

"Carpetbaggers" and "Charlatans" just might be better than the Current Public School Administrators

There is a sentence in this NY Times article that contained the descriptive words of people/institutions trying to fix education: "carpetbaggers" and "charlatans". Who deserves those titles? Those pesky charter schools and other individuals who are diverting from the time tested (and failed) union teachers and the Department of Education over that last 40 years:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/10/education/10schools.html

Imagine that. The New York Times doesn't want to spend Race to the Top money on trying new school structures and instructive techniques. I do not want to support charter schools who have not done the job they contracted out to do; however, it does no good for the taxpayers to acquiesce state control of education and throw more money at public education for the same failing results they've seen over the last four decades.

As I understand it, parents don't have to send a child to a charter school. The parents choose the school over a public school. If a charter school is shown to be under performing or failing, the charter is revoked and the school is closed. Why can't this be applied to failing public schools as well?

Now that would be reform worth supporting.

The Department of Education magic tricks...that don't work

This is a current article from American Thinker. The author talks about putting different names on the same failing schools, which somehow turns them into "high-performing" schools. Does that language sound familiar? That "high-performing" label applies to everything from teachers, to schools, and to administrators in Race to the Top language. RT3 suggests this will be accomplished by taking the highest performing teachers and administrators, assigning them to the "low-performing" schools, and it's magic, ladies and gentlemen! Low performing schools will turn around, teachers and administrators will become superheroes because of their dedication and record of performance, and all will be right in the educational world.

Read this piece below and then let's talk about the real issues with failing schools and why the Federal government's ideas of more spending and shifting of personnel is not the answer:

http://www.americanthinker.com/2010/07/magical_education_and_the_slid.html

I want to draw attention to a couple of the author's paragraphs:

"Instigating Detroit's third-world slide is its schoolchildren's woeful academic performance. A mere 2% of its high school graduates are prepared for college-level math; just 11% are ready for college-level reading. In 2008-2009, its graduation rate was 58% compared to the national average of 89%. In 2009, Detroit public-school students posted the worst math scores in the forty-year history of the National Assessment of Educational Progress test. Students are fleeing at jailbreak speed -- between 1997 enrollment dropped from 175,168 students to 84,000 and continues to fall, and those remaining are probably the worst of the worst.

The statistics are hardly unusual; noteworthy is Detroit's intended solution, and it is here that the third-world virus may escape the laboratory and infect America more generally. The chief culprit is something called the Excellent Schools Detroit initiative, a solution backed by state officials, the Michigan Chamber of Commerce, and two wealthy private foundations. Its aim is to increase the high school graduation rate from 58% to 80% and then insure that 90% of these graduates enter college. Critically, to achieve this aim, low-performing schools will be closed and replaced with, according to officials, seventy high-performing schools".

I highlighted the last few sentences. This is the same position the Missouri State Board of Education has taken in its push to secure federal funding for unfunded programs such as Race to the Top. The Missouri Chamber of Commerce and other businesses initially supported this program, and in fact, the Ewing Kauffman Foundation of Kansas City underwrote $100,000 of the first proposal the State Board drafted in 2009. Does this sound familiar to the backing Detroit schools received?

Look on the Missouri DESE website regarding graduation rates and the several articles addressing this problem:

http://dese.mo.gov/dropoutprevention/index.html

It is a laudable goal to increase high school graduation rates. It is unrealistic to prepare all students for college. The stated goal of this administration is exactly that, to prepare every student for college. Are we setting up students in Missouri for the same trap in which the Detroit students find themselves? I fear the third world virus WILL escape the laboratory and infect Missouri.