What To Do About the Bullies

The problem of bullying is age old.  I believe the realists would say it is endemic to the human condition. So long as we are not conditioned to rein in our jealousy of others, there will be those who lash out over perceived slights, inequities or the desire to make others feel small so that they can feel bigger.  Bullying often stems from fear and the belief that, if I get you first, then I will be safe. Bullying goes beyond the school yard scuffles or name calling.  It is the systematic and relentless targeting of a particular child for abuse (physical or verbal). Schools will forever deal with the problem of bullies because the ability to control those drives comes with maturity which children, almost by definition, do not have. The question for the adults is: What can/should a school do about bullies?  What would a realistic policy regarding bullies look like/contain?

We are developing a tool kit for school board candidates and one of the issues we want to address is the idea of anti-bullying policies. Certainly there are plenty of examples of bad policies (New Jersey comes to mind) but, what would a good one look like?  We'd like to hear from our readers what you would want a school board candidate to know about bullying.  Should it be a zero tolerance policy? (probably not) Should everyone involved in a fight receive some punishment (i.e. does everyone share some responsibility for the fight)? Should the school recognize the right of every student to defend themselves if attacked? (some don't) What tools can a school use to administer consequences for bullying?

We'd like to hear from our readers in the comment section, even if it's just to relate what your school does that doesn't work.

Arne Duncan Surrounded by Conspiracy Theorists. Oh, the Horror! **UPDATED with Resolution and Amendments.

Utah lawmakers are reconsidering the implementation of Common Core standards by the State Board of Education.  South Carolina is looking to possibly rescind its Common Core implementation and Arne Duncan did not take kindly to that state debating whether to reclaim its constitutional right to educate its own citizens.

Duncan called such a notion from South Carolina lawmakers "a conspiracy theory in search of a conspiracy".
 
We'll have to see if Duncan calls out more legislators as they study the ramifications of an educational reform  full of Federal mandates that bypassed state legislatures and were implemented without public vote.  The Utah lawmakers are the latest legislators determining if these unproven and untested standards are unwise, unfunded and unconstitutional.  

From the Salt Lake Tribune:

Lawmakers plan to discuss Wednesday formally asking state education leaders to reconsider their adoption of Common Core academic standards.




**UPDATED 02.29.12:

SB 287 - CORE CURRICULUM STANDARDS AMENDMENTS

http://le.utah.gov/~2012/bills/sbillint/sb0287.htm

This bill: provides that the state may exit any agreement, contract, memorandum of understanding, or consortium that cedes control of Utah's core curriculum to any other entity for any reason

SCR 13 - CONCURRENT RESOLUTION ON COMMON CORE

http://le.utah.gov/~2012/bills/sbillint/scr013.htm

This concurrent resolution of the Legislature and the Governor urges the State Board of Education to reconsider the board's decision to adopt the Common Core standards.

  

Excellence vs Equity in the Classroom. Inflammatory Classroom Techniques?

"Heresy!  I say, "Heresy"!  Focusing on "excellence" rather than "equity" in math education?"

A fellow traveler in education circles sent and remarked (above) on an article from Educational Leadership praising the long discarded teaching technique of ability grouping in the classroom:

 

A school in Arizona was able to curb the exodus of its top students to nearby charter schools by clustering students in the classroom. In cluster grouping models, all students in a grade level are grouped according to their ability and achievement levels. A cluster of either gifted or high-achieving students -- one or the other -- is in every classroom, along with only two or three other clusters. The method allows teachers to spend more time with individual students and gives gifted students a better chance to excel, according to Dina Brulles, director of gifted education services at Paradise Valley Unified School District in Phoenix, and Susan Winebrenner, founder and president of Education Consulting Service. 

 

Common Core Standards. The Death of Exceptionalism and the Individual. Welcome to the Religion of Arne Duncan. Universalism.

This is a most biting and wonderful article on what Common Core standards represent from Canada Free Press...think fascism, entitlement mentality, anarchy, equal outcome, and waste of taxpayer dollars:


Searching deeper into the Core Standards, the true intent is clear, “all children can and should learn to high achievement standards.“Policymakers must “endorse, fund, and recognize assessment regimes that accomplish this goal,”Universal Design and Universal Design for Learning. Really? All children can learn to high achievement standards? Our minds, IQs, learning styles, and God-given talents are so equal now that everything is possible by government fiat?

Apparently, standardized tests “fail to produce a valid and reliable measurement of what significant minorities of students actually know, especially students with disabilities, English language learners or those from varied cultural backgrounds. Without accurate measurement, accountability systems are not only ineffective, they are unethical.”(Core Standards)

It will be a fascistic world in which every person will be forced into a government-dictated and enforced, dumbed-down mold, where everybody is equally intelligent, equally capable, equally trained, equally able, and equally educated with a diploma on the wall that is not worth the paper with the fancy intaglio printing. 

Forget Arne Duncan's spin of Common Core standards that they are state led, will enable students to become more competitive, teachers will be able to be more creative, all students will be equal in opportunity to go to college and schools will operate and make decisions on a local level.  He promises equality and liberty for all students so everyone can attend college, even though some students have no proclivity or intellectual abilities to go to college.  What can we deduce from Duncan's spin?
  
 Goethe, a classical liberal, warned us that democracy is incompatible with liberty. 

“Legislators and revolutionaries who promise equality and liberty at the same time are psychopaths.“Political centralization would lead to the destruction of culture. (Hans Hermann Hoppe, Ludwig von Mises Institute) 

Is this the purpose of Common Core standards?  To make us all common and destroy our individual spirit?   

DESE Circumventing the Legislature Again. DESE Wants to Implement an Early Childhood Program Costing...$1.6 BILLION...Just for Missouri.

Nightmare in Jefferson City Part II

The first nightmare for taxpayers was in 2010 when DESE applied to Race to the Top funding twice.  It was estimated to cost $400 Million to implement everything Arne Duncan and the Department of Education mandated, but alas, the $250 Million grant to accomplish the $400 Million plan was never received.

DESE failed to convince the Department of Education to give it money to accomplish unconstitutional educational mandates so it did the next best thing.  It went ahead and signed onto to institute the mandates without ANY Race to the Top funding.

How smart is that?  Commissioner Chris Nicastro signed onto common core standards, estimated to cost at least $350 Million according to the Pioneer Institute.  That's just for one of the components of Race to the Top.  To make it even more surreal, DESE estimated it would be at least $900 Million in the red this year.


DESE loves to apply for money from a Federal Government that is now $16 Trillion in debt.  Again, how smart is that?  DESE applied late last year for a $60 Million preschool grant for children ages 3-6.  Missouri once again didn't get the grant.  Hit the replay button.  DESE doesn't care.  DESE will still go full steam ahead and start implementing programs assessing 3 year olds.  Do you know what assessing 3  year olds mean?  It means fitting them in a box, in a system, labeling them as failures or successes at 3 years of age.

Why is the Missouri Legislature allowing DESE to create more debt for taxpayers and the state?  Check out the budget spreadsheet.  It's much, much worse than $60,000,000 we didn't receive.  The total needed to establish education for 3-6 year olds in Missouri is $1.6 BILLION involving not only DESE, but also the Departments of Social Services and Mental Health.  This is a nightmare.  We're already in debt, can't pay for common core and now DESE wants to implement programming costing over a billion dollars.

Even more egregious than that, why is DESE allowing 3 year old children to be tracked and a baseline established for them so they can be trained for the workforce? 

Where is the Legislature putting the brakes on this runaway train of incompetence and saddling taxpayers with more debt?  Why are taxpayers being held hostage by appointed officials who are unaccountable to the taxpayers paying their salaries and for their poor decisions?  But don't blame it ALL on DESE.  Governor Jay Nixon's signature is on this application as well.

Will the Legislature please step in and curtail this abuse of spending taxpayer money that doesn't exist for programs that are unconstitutional?

 From the DESE website:

News and Updates

Early Childhood Assessment Pilot
The Department's Office of Early and Extended Learning will soon be conducting a pilot project to identify an assessment model for use in preschool programs and kindergarten classes (children ages 3-6). The model would include both formative and summative assessments, including measuring status at kindergarten entry. A steering committee will guide the project. There will be a meeting of individuals from public schools and community-based early childhood programs March 30 in Jefferson City. Registration for this meeting is full. Individuals unable to attend this meeting will have an opportunity to learn about the pilot during the Early Childhood Assessment Webinar scheduled for April 13. Information on this webinar will be available soon on the Department’s webinar page at dese.mo.gov/webinar/. The application to participate as one of the possible pilot sites will be available shortly after the webinar. Information regarding the Early Childhood Assessment Pilot will be posted on the Office of Early and Extended Learning Website at dese.mo.gov/eel/.

---

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State's youngest learners will still gain from early childhood education efforts
The Department of Elementary and Secondary Education received word in December from the U.S. Departments of Education and Health that it did not receive a $60 million grant to develop a coordinated, statewide early learning system over the next four years.  Although it may take longer without the grant funding, Missouri's work to enhance early childhood programs will continue.  The comprehensive plan developed collaboratively through a partnership of six key agencies is outlined in the grant application below.

• Grant Application
• Appendices
• Assurances
• Budget Summary
• Budget Spreadsheet
• News release:  State submits plan to strengthen early learning (10/19/2011)

 

The National Governor's Association Wants to Bypass Congress...Again

 From the Hill:

President Obama met with a group of Democratic governors on Friday and discussed plans to work around Congress toward policy goals.


This has been done before when the National Governor's Association crafted Common Core state standards and circumvented Congressional process.  Just ask Arne Duncan how to get an agenda through without Congressional approval.

Why the outcry now?  Why wasn't there concern when education started on the path toward nationalized standards and curriculum?

The Best Reason Ever to Home School

Have school officials, Family and Children's Services and Canadian police lost their mind?  From HotAir:

Father is arrested for child's drawing of a gun in school. Father is detained, strip searched and his toy gun that shoots foam darts is confiscated.

The Sunday Education Weekly Reader 02.26.12

Welcome to the Sunday Education Weekly Reader for o2.26.12.  The visual soundbites from Twitter:

• One of THE BEST articles explaining how common core will empty out taxpayers' pockets via higher property taxes.  Why aren't you hearing how these underfunded mandates will be paid for by state legislators?  Obama Education scheme will hit local property taxes. http://p.ost.im/p/exEF7u

• Following up on the last tweet, governors are delusional about Federal control of education and the expense.  And snarky, too.  Catch the comment from the Connecticut governor.  The taxpayer is paying for it financially and constitutionally for this misguided way of thinking. Blog: Governors Talk Funding, Federal Role in Education http://bit.ly/Aszmxx  

• Add the United States to the list. Is this the method to hook us into an international curriculum?....It's not just the UK that is having a crisis in maths education. Japan is too. http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/T120225003501.htm

• If you're a teacher, just be sure you teach the gifted kids....Teachers divided over validity of scorecards: “If you're saying that my students are successful, that's good eno... http://bit.ly/xirkMJ 

 *************************************************************************

Today's "educational thought for the week" concerns tragedy and the human spirit.  Do you wonder how the human spirit will be measured on a data set?  Maybe US schools aren't concerned about wisdom, it's "just the facts", ma'am.

Trauma sometimes opens way to growth / Scientists examine traditional idea that wisdom can come from hardship and loss

Are Missouri Legislators Paying Attention to What South Carolina Legislators Figured Out?

Arne Duncan is a bit testy with South Carolina's push back against the nationalized standards Duncan contends really aren't national.  He called the SC Legislature attempting to rescind common core standards “a conspiracy theory in search of a conspiracy.” 

Peter Wood details the history of the takeover of education from the Federal level since 1965 when ESEA was created and federal money began funding state and local budgets.  When funding is expected from the Federal government, states and local districts became subject to federal mandates.  If states and districts did not agree to implement the Federal mandates, that flow of money could get cut off, so the Federal government's policies became paramount in school operations.

States and districts are now are the strangulation point.  They are broke and don't have the money for these underfunded mandates from Arne Duncan.  In the midst of the "worst recession of our time", if states did not adopt common core, Title I funding was in danger of disappearing.  The dangling of money was too good to pass up, even though it required the destruction of states being able to set their own educational standards.  What governor wants to explain to his/her constituents no more money would be "granted" to the states for education?  You know what happens:  "But....but....but....it's for the KIDS!"

Is it really?  Why is it for every state dollar sent to the Department of Education, Missouri receives back 80 cents?  And why is it those 80 cents come with strings and mandates?  Doesn't a district know where money needs to be spent in their schools?  It doesn't matter.  The schools and states are told where and how to spend the money.

That's common core standards aka nationalized standards implementation history in a nutshell. The government in the past could tell states how to spend it on programs but could not control WHAT the states taught.  With common core standards, however, the Federal government is attempting to make public schools FEDERAL schools....schools controlled by private industries funded by the federal government, not your local community.  How has this illegal activity occurred?  From Innovation:

The Obama administration, facing the same legal obstacles as all its predecessors, chose a novel tactic. It orchestrated a program under the auspices of National Governors Association Center for Best Practices (NGA Center) and the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) which proposed standards that the states would be free to adopt. But “free” came with some sweeteners. The Race to the Top dangled hundreds of millions of dollars among those states that chose to adopt the Common Core. As for those states that chose not to…they face some interesting consequences too. I wrote about this last year in “The Core Between the States.”

Eitel and Talbert’s nineteen-page analysis of the legal standing of the Common Core State Standards mounts a powerful case that the Obama administration has overstepped itself. The Road to a National Curriculum does its most devastating work by quoting from Department of Education documents that lay out in plain language the effort to use federal resources to achieve results prohibited by statute. One such document, for example, explains, “The goal of common K-12 standard is to replace the existing patchwork of State standards that results in unequal expectations based on geography.”

One of the most important issues in this excellent article is the call to other state legislators to follow SC's lead in pushing back against this illegal federal intrusion into state's rights and refusing to acquiesce to the thuggery of Arne Duncan.

But setting that aside, the Pioneer Institute in releasing the Road to a National Curriculum has fanned the flames of growing resistance. The immediate case, which provoked Secretary Duncan’s reflections on conspiracy theories, is legislation (S 604) pending in South Carolina that would block further implementation of the Common Core State Standards. Duncan presumably wants to scotch this idea before other states start to think that “voluntary” actually means voluntary.

The South Carolina legislators seem a bit upset that the Race to the Top adoption process bypassed them, even though they are expected to pay 90 percent of the costs of the Common Core State Standards. Hearings in other states could stumble over the same stone. It isn’t as if South Carolina is trying to protect an especially slothful approach to public education against the imposition of a more demanding federal regimen. As in Massachusetts, the opposite seems true. The Fordham Institute (generally pro-Common Core) last year ranked South Carolina’s history standards as best in the country. If South Carolina could elevate its state standards for U.S. history, it could, as Texas has done, also craft English language arts and math standards that are much higher than Common Core’s.
 
If Commissioner Chris Nicastro was concerned about Missouri's standards, then she should have boarded a plane to a state with excellent test results, met with their educational state experts, reviewed that state's standards, then adopted and adapted what would work for Missouri.  She should have done her job, instead of becoming a cog in the bureaucratic machine, waiting for orders from the NGA or CCSSI or the Federal government on how to run a state commission for education.

Battles in South Carolina have been known to start larger conflicts. This could just be the Fort Sumter of the Core Between the States.

It's time for the state legislators to join the battle against the nationalization of education.  It IS illegal, you know, regardless of what Arne Duncan says.  State legislators need to follow the law instead of promises of money for unfunded, unproven, untested and unconstitutional mandates.  

Senator Cunningham Joining the Ranks of the Dispossessed

In an ironic twist, the Missouri Senator at the center of fixing the schooless children in KC and STL, finds herself without a home district.  Senator Cunningham's seventh district has been moved across the state in the latest (and probably last) redistricting map leaving her with the same unhappy choice the students in the St. Louis school district have: transfer (run in) an adjacent district (which pits her against either Brian Nieves or Eric Schmitt), or apply (move) somewhere else (like a charter school) and hope she gets in (gets elected).  That's the (senate) district choice plan. Probably doesn't feel as good to her as she imagined the school choice plan would feel to St. Louis residents.

In examining the parallels even more closely it could be said that her culpability in this outcome is the same as the parents responsibility for the failure of their district. Those parents were busy leading their lives, not paying much attention to the school or their children's academic performance.  They were making the decisions they had to make to keep a roof over their heads and food on the table. Meanwhile their children's test scores were slipping while the school was dropping their standards and giving the impression that everything was fine. Finally an appointed board came from the outside and told them their schools were no longer accredited and they might have to look for some place else to send their kids for an education. When they had control they didn't exercise it and now they have lost control and are faced with choice, that isn't really choice.

Senator Cunningham was busy leading her life, being a senator, making decisions, but maybe not considering the full ramifications of those decisions. The reason the redistricting was even necessary was because St. Louis City and County had seen a significant loss in population.  This was due in great part to the loss of businesses who fled the state because of our economic policies which Senator Cunningham had a large hand in creating while in the state legislature for so many years.  When you're focused on slicing up the pie for the special interest groups at the table, you may not remember to look around at all the other businesses that would like to come to the party but haven't been invited. They eventually take their appetite elsewhere which was clear in the census which showed the states surrounding Missouri all picking up population and business.

In the end some board from the outside came in and told Senator Cunningham she would have to find some other district to run in if she wanted to stay in Missouri politics. A short term problem, no doubt, for Jane. Some have hinted she has aspirations for higher office than senate in the state. But perhaps she will now have even greater empathy for those who will be affected by the school choice bill she is currently working on (SB451).